Chapter 123 - I WANT THE TRUTH

I don't know the exact details of what happened, but EZ had been hurt. I was told that he had been mugged on his way home, but I wasn't buying that. EZ didn't walk home so that meant that he couldn't be mugged as easily. I mean it's not impossible, but it's less likely.

Not to mention all five of the men around me were now on edge: EZ, Bastian, Laremy, Lucian, and Kyle. Whatever happened, they all knew about it. What could have happened that would warrant all of them knowing about it? And what could it have been that all five of them were keeping it from me. I had an inkling, but I wasn't bringing it up just yet.

No, I wanted to see what sort of story they were going to spin for me. I wondered just what it was that they all thought was too much to tell me. I mean, I was already murderously angry. I wanted to track down the son of a bitch that touched my EZ and rip him to shreds. No one, and I do mean NO ONE, was allowed to lay a finger on him without permission. And they damn well were not allowed to hurt him like they did.

"Where are you going?" Kyle asked me as I went to leave the house.

"I want to go see EZ. I want to check on him." Lucian had just left the house with a supposed update on what had happened the night before. I had spoken to Bastian and Laremy as well. They wouldn't be going into work for a few days at least, and they said it was best to just close up shop until after the wedding anyway. I had reluctantly agreed because I could tell that Kyle was sitting next to me silently begging me to say yes to their idea.

"I'll come with you. I want to check on him as well. I'm worried about him." He was in the middle of a work day that he had just decided to do from home. Whatever it was that happened had spooked the hell out of him.

"Uh huh, sure you are." I glared at him as he grabbed his keys from the shelf near the door.

"I am; he's important to you so he's important to me as well." That part I believed, but I was pretty sure that he knew whatever condition EZ was in was most likely stable. He knew more about what was going on than me.

I didn't say anything nor did I stop him from coming with me. When I confronted him and the others about what happened, it would be best to have them all together for the show. The only one that might not be there was Lucian since he was still at work.

And of course Kyle knew what was going on more than me because he didn't drive to my old condo that EZ has been sharing with his mates. Instead ,he drove to the new place, the large house just outside the city in the suburbs. That was not where they were staying yesterday. Why had they started staying here so soon? I thought it was still being finished.

When we pulled up outside the large powder blue house I could already feel a sense of dread settling over me. I didn't know how my best friend and pseudo brother looked, I didn't even know how badly he had been hurt. And I was so overly worried about him right now that It was making me nervous.

I didn't wait for someone to answer the door. I already had a key to this house, as EZ had a key to my new place with Kyle. I just unlocked the front door and walked right on in. We entered into the fuschia entryway that was fully decorated to EZ's style. I took my shoes off and walked through into the large, open, EZ decorated living room. There were bright colors everywhere to go with the very wild furniture choices. 

Sitting in the middle of a hot pink couch in nothing but a pair of pajama bottoms was EZ. He had his feet propped up and pillows all around him. He looked comfortable and happy. The happy look was most likely due to the fact that Bastian and Laremy were standing around him wearing only speedos.

"Well, now I wish we would have called ahead." Kyle joked. "I definitely didn't need to see this." He put a hand over his eyes and turned around.

"EZ, are you OK?" I ran to his side, ignoring my one mate and his two.

"I'm fine. It's almost better, I'm just milking it for all it's worth." He winked at me then looked at the two nearly naked men.

"What the hell happened to you? Who did this to you?"

"I was on my way to my car when some closet case jumped me. I grabbed my phone as soon as it happened though, and Bastian came running." He smiled at his mate with love filled eyes.

"Uh huh. Right, you were walking to your car alone last night after Bastian and Laremy walked me home. Do you guys think that I am fucking stupid or something?!" I glared at EZ and then at the other three men in the room. "Honestly, how fucking clueless do you all think that I am!?"

I stood up then and moved to where I could see all four of them. Kyle even turned around and looked right at me. He was looking at me with worry; or was that fear? I could feel my anger reaching its fever pitch as they all looked at me with their innocent eyes. They had all been lying to me and hiding things from me. I didn't like that at all.

"I may not know what's been going on, but I know that you've all been hiding things from me for weeks. I have been letting it slide since it looked like you have all just been paranoid and not wanting me to go places on my own since I felt like I was being followed. I don't know for certain if that was truly the case or not, but I do know that you all have been acting under the assumption that it is."

I took a deep breath to try and settle myself a little so I didn't start to scream at them, and so I didn't hit one of them. Preferably the damn panther that had the audacity to look at me like I was hurting his damned feelings. Oooh, I needed to calm down a little.

I shook my hands and walked in a small circle a few times while taking deep breaths.

"OK, listen up. I have had this feeling before. You all know this by now. Was I being followed back then? Probably not. Am I being followed now? Probably yes. But that doesn't fucking matter right now. What matters is that I should be the first fucking one that knows what is happening in my life. ESPECIALLY if that shit has boiled over to start affecting the people that I love. Now I want you to tell me exactly what the fuck happened last night. RIGHT! FUCKING! NOW!"

I was screaming by the time that I was done with my ranting. I wasn't going to let them push this off and tell me that it was nothing. I know that whatever was going on in my life had affected EZ. And that was going to fucking kill me.

Finally EZ sighed and looked at me with sad eyes.

"No one wanted to worry you, Jacy baby. We wanted to make this time on you as easy as possible. We didn't want to cause you stress while you're pregnant." There was pain in his voice but it was pain for me.

"Like it's not causing me pain seeing that you were hurt? Or like it doesn't hurt me when you guys are all acting like I am some fucking damsel that can't even walk home alone any more. I have literally been put under guard duty, Ezekiel, with your damn mates as my fucking keepers." I was panting with the effort to hold myself back, my shoulders heaving up and down.

"They were walking with you because I was worried about you." EZ lowered his head in shame. "I love you, Jacy. And I just wanted to make sure that you were safe. You're the type that would get up from the damn delivery table to kick someone's ass if you needed to. I was trying to protect you from yourself."

That broke my heart. But, to be fair, he was probably right. I wasn't the type to stand aside if I could fight on my own. Though I had also made a vow to protect my child, my child that conveniently chose that exact moment to flutter inside of me.

With a hand over my belly, I sunk onto the couch next to the person who was the closest thing I had to a real family.

"EZ, I am glad that you want to care so much about me. And you're right, the old me would have done that, but not anymore. I want to protect this baby, and I want to protect you. I love you and I love my baby. I love Kyle, and by extension of you, I love Bastian and Laremy because they're your mates and you love them. I have people in my life now that I want to protect and that want to protect me. I wish you would all just talk to me and let me know what was happening. And please, stop lying about what happened to you."

"You're right." It wasn't EZ that answered this time, it was Kyle. "We shouldn't have hidden anything from you, and I am sorry. I just love you so much Jacy that I don't want to see you worry or stress over anything. I'm so sorry." He dropped to his knees in front of me and took my hands. "We won't hide anything from you anymore. We will tell you everything."

And they did. Between the four of them they told me the truth about the attack on EZ, as well as what had been happening over the last few weeks. By the time that they were done, I was even angrier than I had been in the beginning, but I was able to control it. Knowing in this case was definitely better. 

Now I knew what was going on, and I could make sure that EZ was safe as well as my baby. I would keep him by my side, and I would make sure that no one would ever hurt him again.