23. Zoe

The faint smellof cleaning products filled my nose as I stared up at the ceiling of my hotel room, the bed stiff and hard beneath me. At least the room was clean, but the bleach made my stomach churn even more than it was already doing.

I’d left Rockview without saying goodbye. I had turned my back on the crew and had given up on my mom and all her hard work.

A runner. A coward.

That was who I was, and I hated myself for it.

I didn’t even say goodbye to my dad!

Tears burned my eyes as I shook my head at myself. Everything about this was so impossible. I wanted to finish this case so badly, but when I read those threatening words and remembered how my mom was so easily taken away from me, I couldn’t bear the thought of the same thing happening to the crew.

But I also wanted justice. My mom and everyone who had been negatively affected by the fires and the cartel deserved justice. I had a chance at getting all of them that, but I’d failed.

I kept getting dragged back and forth, guilt and disappointment swallowing me whole. Had I made the right decision?

Before I could go around and around again, I heard a knock on my door. My eyes snapped to the door as I sat up on my elbows. I could only guess that it was housekeeping, but… it was nighttime. Since when did they clean hotel rooms at night?

Maybe someone was knocking on the wrong door.

I planned on ignoring it, but there was another knock. A more insistent one. With a sigh, I swung my legs out of bed and crossed over to the door, lifting up on my toes to look through the peephole.

A gasp broke from me as I stared at a slightly distorted version of Gabe, Garrett, Matty, Kieran, and Kit standing out in the hallway. I unlocked the door and flung it open, seeing relief wash over their faces.

“What are you doing here? How the hell did you find me?” I demanded.

“Your chatty boss,” Matty replied, making me groan.

“You guys can’t be here,” I told them as I shook my head.

Matty stepped even closer to the point where I could smell his cologne.

“Tell us to leave then,” he insisted, his eyes locking with mine.

The sound of my rapid heartbeat thumped wildly in my head, blocking out any other sounds as me and the guys stared at each other. I was petrified about them being anywhere near me, but I didn’t want them to leave.

Now more than ever, I needed them. I just didn’t want them killed as a result.

Swallowing hard, I turned away from them and retreated back into the hotel room to sit on the bed. As much as I wanted to spill the truth, my throat kept locking up. Telling them anything would put them in even more danger.

“What made you run off like that?” Kit questioned as they followed me inside and shut the door behind them.

“I… just needed to leave,” I murmured as I kept my eyes on the ground, able to sense them getting closer to me.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Kieran insisted. “You wouldn’t just ditch us without saying goodbye. Right?”

His words felt like a shard of ice in my chest, pain radiating through me as I frowned. “I care about you… so much. I had to leave. It was the only way to keep you all safe.”

“What are you talking about, Zoe?” Matty asked before crouching down in front of me and taking my face in his hands. He gave me a pleading, desperate look that I never thought I’d see on his face. “Please.”

I was hurting them by not being honest. What if the cartel still tried to hurt them after I left?

“The cartel told me if I didn’t stop investigating and leave town that they’d kill all of you like they killed my mom,” I blurted out.

Silence greeted me as the guys looked stunned. That was how I felt too when I read those words, coupled with a nauseating wave of grief. It wasn’t fair that people like those in the cartel could get away with threatening and hurting people. Killing people.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Garrett stated with narrowed eyes. “They don’t scare us, Zoe.”

“You know what did scare us?” Kieran added. “When we couldn’t find you.”

“We thought something terrible had happened to you,” Kit said, sharing a brief look with the others before turning back to me. “We’re used to danger. It’s our job. What we’re not used to is having someone we care about being threatened by a dangerous cartel.”

Their words warmed me all the way to my heart and soul. As they gazed at me with care in their eyes, I knew that I couldn’t send them away or keep them in the dark. It wasn’t fair, and we were in this together.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized as I shifted toward the middle of the bed as they sat around me on the sides.

“If we hadn’t found you… what were you planning to do? Were you planning on not talking to us ever again?” Gabe asked.

My chest ached as I heard the hurt in his voice. That scenario had crossed my mind, but I didn’t think that I could ever bring myself to do that forever.

“I’m not exactly sure,” I admitted. I didn’t have a plan. I just ran. “I was going to give up the story and try to go back to my normal life with the hope that the cartel would leave you alone.”

“We would’ve continued fighting to take the cartel down,” Kit replied from my left. “This is something we have to finish.”

“It’s something you have to finish too,” Matty spoke up as he gave me a firm look. “Remember all the times you got discouraged and wanted to quit? Who encouraged you to keep going?”

“My mom,” I replied without hesitance.

“She’s not here to tell you to keep going right now, but you know that she would,” Matty pointed out.

“And you’re so much like her,” Kieran added with a gleam of admiration in his eyes. “You have that same determined spirit that helped her accomplish everything she set out to do.”

“If anyone can finish what she started, it’s you. It should be you,” Garrett said from my right, earning a nod from his brother.

My eyes threatened to water as I listened to their encouraging words, my determination and concern getting all twisted up. I was terrified of something going wrong, but I was also scared of letting everyone down.

“All of you, the whole crew, mean so much to me. I don’t want anything happening to you if I decide to come back and continue.” I fretted as I pulled my knees up to my chest, doing my best to keep my tears at bay.

Kit scooted closer to me, his hand brushing my upper arm.

“We have your back, and you have ours, right?” he asked me as our eyes locked.

I swallowed hard and nodded. Like I knew they would for me, I would put my life on the line for them.

“Then, there’s nothing to worry about,” Kit assured me. “But you need to come back with us. We have to do this.”

“The cartel won’t stop if we don’t take them down,” Garrett added. “They’ll hurt more people. Kill more people.”

I drew in a sharp breath through my nose as the car accident flashed through my mind, my gut wrenching as the sound of glass smashing filled my ears.

“They’ve already taken enough from me,” I gritted out, my face growing hot as my heart pounded heavily.

The guys didn’t immediately respond as the tension in the room doubled, the air thickening and heating up as pure anger flowed through my veins.

“I can’t believe they killed her… just for an investigation. Just to silence her! Only people who are purely evil would strip a mother away from her family.” I bit out, anger and sadness lacing my words.

“They knew she would expose them,” Gabe pointed out. “If they didn’t stop her, they wouldn’t make one more buck. Sell one more drug. It would’ve been their end.”

She was so close too! Finding all of that proof in my room of all places almost felt like a sign. It was down to me to take us across the finish line.

To give her closure.

“She would want me to finish this,” I murmured before lifting my narrowed eyes.

“Let’s do it for her,” Kieran said with a determined nod, prompting the others to follow suit.

My eyes swept around the room, taking in every single defiant look and letting them fuel my motivation. I couldn’t let my fears get in the way right now. I couldn’t run away and expect my problems to disappear.

If they were willing to face the cartel head on, so was I.

I hopped off the bed and spun around to face them, all eyes turning to me.

“Let’s go back home.”