The Healing (The Things We Can't Change Book 3) by Kassandra Kush

mean it. Day or night. Call me. If I come back Monday and you did something and didn’t call me, I’ll…” He pauses, at a loss for a good threat, and finally finishes with a loaded, “I won’t be happy.”
    “You’ll be working most of the time, so what could you do?” I point out the obvious, even though a part of me wants to be touched by the gesture.
    “Just call me. Say you will. Say it.”
    “Fine,” I mutter, looking at the ground. Another part of me wants to rebel at his commanding tone, because to be oppressed and ordered around touches a nerve that is still raw and tender; it all reminds me of Tony, of the constant rules and dictates I lived under with him for three whole years.
    “Good.” Zeke has a moment where he looks relieved, and then he quickly replaces it with a mask devoid of emotion and bids me goodbye. And then he’s gone.
    I’m still for a long moment, and then I run over to my phone, wanting to check and see if he really left his number in there, that it wasn’t some crazy weird moment that I hallucinated. But when I unlock the screen, I see that I already have a text message conversation started with Zeke Quain—he sent himself a message that just says, Evie’s number , so he would have mine as well.
    It gives me comfort, seeing his name there, feeling like he’s with me even though he’s gone, even though I already know that I’ll never call him. I can’t let him in too much. I just want him here but not inside, close enough for comfort, but far enough away that I don’t feel threatened.
    I won’t call him. But it’s nice to know I could.
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

 
     
     
     
    Ezekiel
    52
     
     
     
    Work at the club is boring, just like always, but I suffer through it, and at least Koby is still here with me even if Dominic is away at his grandma’s. He and I look at each other from across the room, share an eye roll, and in a practiced gesture, both head for the kitchen doors at the same time. We’re only waiting on the dining room, working with several other servers, but it’s still a drag and the members are still rude. They always will be.
    Tessa is here too but I carefully avoid eye contact with her and try not to stare, even though she blatantly does to me. I need to be careful to keep everything drama free, or Uncle Alex will have my ass.
    “How much longer?” Koby groans once we get past the doors and are safely in the kitchen where no guests can hear us.
    I check my phone. “Four hours, because we pretty much just got here. Quit complaining, it’ll make time go by even slower.”
    “Yeah, but-”
    He’s interrupted by the sound of my phone ringing, and I almost drop it in surprise, since I’m still holding it in my hand. Then I thank God that it didn’t ring out on the dining room floor since I apparently forgot to silence it, and finally check the caller ID. Evie Parker. A chill goes through me because there can be no mistaking what this means.
    “Hang on a sec,” I say to Koby. “I really have to take this. Cover for me, I might be a second.”
    He gives me an exasperated look, which I return with a hard one of my own.
    “It’s important. Really important, okay?” I say, and then step away, mentally preparing myself as I hit the answer button. Good thing I shot myself a text from Evie’s phone yesterday so I had her number, or I might have ignored a call from a strange one. “Hello?”
    “Zeke?” Her voice is quiet, a little strangled, a little panicked. “Zeke, I need your help.”
    I take a deep breath, force myself to speak calmly and with just a bit of cheer in my voice so it’s not flat and panicked. Upbeat, I tell myself. “I’m right here. What’s up? Are you okay?”
    “I don’t know.” Her voice catches on a sob and it’s like a knife to my middle. “I don’t ever know if I’m okay.”
    “All right,” I say, blinking rapidly, taking calming breaths because I’m worried and I don’t