Nicole Edwards - Zane

“Let’s give it a shot,” Travis concluded, pushing to his feet. “I think this woman might just be the one who can keep that anger in check.”

V wasn’t sure about all of that, but she couldn’t get over the fact that Travis had just given them the green light. Both of them. She wanted to jump to her feet and throw her arms around his neck, but she knew better than to do that. Travis wasn’t big on being touched. Not that she knew the reason, but she was smart enough to know not to push him.

“Thank you,” she said, sounding much more confident than she felt. “I promise, I won’t let you down.”

“I never had any doubts about that,” Travis tipped his hat and then walked out of the office. Moments later V heard his truck start up, and she turned to look at Zane. He wasn’t smiling.

“What’s wrong?” V turned to face Zane directly, curious as to what he could possibly be thinking.

“If I didn’t think one of my brothers would show up, I’d strip you naked and fuck you right here on Travis’ desk,” he said, that smoldering look in his smoky blue eyes reinforcing his statement.

V needed to get away from him. At least for a little while. If she didn’t, she feared she might just do something stupid.

Like take him up on his offer.

♂♀

After dropping V off at Zoey’s per her request, Zane called Beau. He needed to find a way to burn off the excess energy he’d stored up thanks to the anger he continued to rein in and he couldn’t think of a better way to do it than to go to the gym. Now he was on his way to meet him, and, hopefully, work on a plan to get his body back in top form.

He still felt weak, sometimes more than he thought he should. The physical therapist’s words still rang loud and clear in his brain, but Zane doubted that taking it slow was going to get him where he needed to be. Three months were plenty of time for his body to recover from the dreadful punishment it had been dealt, and now it was time he proved it.

Walking into the small gym, Zane nodded his head in greeting at the few people he recognized, not stopping to talk to anyone though. He found Beau warming up on one of the treadmills and Zane jumped on the empty one beside him.

“You think you can handle that bad boy?” Beau joked as he increased the speed until he was jogging at a slow pace, making Zane laugh.

“I think I’ll manage.” Zane walked for a couple of minutes, not wanting to overdo it in the first few minutes, but he was soon setting a reasonable six miles per hour pace. Not nearly what he’d been capable of before the attack, but he had told his mother he’d take baby steps.

Half an hour later, Zane felt better than he had in a long time. He slowed his pace until he was once again walking, as he waited for Beau to finish up. When he did, they moved to the back near the free weights.

“How’s it feel to be out?” Beau asked, dropping onto one of the benches, wiping the sweat from his neck with a towel.

“I can’t even begin to describe it,” Zane replied, grabbing a couple of the weights from the rack and turning to face the mirror. The amount of weight the PT had allowed him to lift was child's play, but since he hadn’t picked up anything relative in recent months, he was beginning to wonder how much pain he was going to put himself in.

“You see V lately?” Beau moved to his side, grabbing a set of weights that was significantly more than Zane had picked up.

“Yeah.” Zane thought about V and how she looked just that morning in his shower. He’d definitely seen her all right. Every single inch of her. “Why didn’t you tell me that bastard was texting her?” he asked his friend when the vision disappeared.

Beau’s head snapped over so he was looking directly at Zane, a confused look on his face. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Zane spared his friend a glance in the mirror, but he didn’t stop his repetitions. “Jake,” he answered, figuring Beau would drop the act if he realized Zane already knew what was going on.

Beau set the weights back in the rack and turned to face Zane. “Jake’s been texting her?”

Zane knew Beau well enough that he recognized his friend wasn’t bullshitting him. Zane had known Beau Bennett his entire life. They’d grown up together, and they knew every last secret each other had. It was clear Beau had no idea what he was talking about. Zane dropped the weights back into the rack and grabbed the water bottle he’d brought with him. Taking a swig, he kept his eyes on Beau. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he sighed. “The fucker’s been texting and calling her. Don’t think he was all too happy to hear from me last night though.”

“You talked to him?” Beau asked incredulously.

“Not much, but yeah. I dialed the number he was texting her from. He answered, and I told him to leave her the fuck alone.”

“Does Travis know where he’s at yet?”

Zane and Beau spent hours talking about what happened while Zane was in the hospital. Beau had been at Anderson Croft’s that day and he saw the whole thing play out, but according to him, he hadn’t known about the assault for a couple of days after it happened. At some point, Zane’s mother had called him.

“If he does, he’s not telling me.” Zane had no idea whether Travis knew where Jake was. It wasn’t likely that he did because Zane knew his brother. Travis wasn’t keen on forgiving and forgetting and as far as Zane was concerned, Jake had likely signed his own death warrant for what he’d done. At least as far as Travis was concerned. Of all his brothers, Travis and Zane were the ones with the explosive tempers. Somewhere along the way, Travis had learned to keep his under wraps, but Zane was still working on it.

“Why the hell didn’t she tell me?” Zane knew Beau’s question was rhetorical.

While he’d been confined to the hospital, Beau had taken to watching out for V. Considering what had transpired between the three of them – twice – just a week before Zane was attacked, he’d initially wondered whether that was a good idea or not. But, other than his brothers and his parents, there wasn’t another person Zane trusted more than Beau.

Based on what Beau had told him, V wasn’t happy about him hanging around, but she’d gotten used to it. Especially after Beau refused to go away.

“Did you know she was having panic attacks?” Zane figured he’d go for broke. This time Beau looked away, breaking eye contact, which was a telling sign.

“I didn’t know exactly what it was. I followed her home one night from Moonshiners. I noticed she sat in her car for an unusually long time, so I got out and checked on her. She was shaking, pale, and gripping the steering wheel for all she was worth. It took me a while to coax her into the house, but once I did, she seemed to calm down. You know V, she wouldn’t talk to me about it.”

Having known wouldn’t have made a difference, Zane knew, but he still hated that she’d been going through this alone. Everyone had been so focused on his recovery, and it pained him to know that V had been left behind. She’d endured just as much that day. Maybe not the broken bones, or the cracked ribs, or the head trauma, but the emotional effect was just as devastating. If not more so.

Looking at his best friend now, Zane wished like hell the man had been around the day he’d been attacked. Zane was a big man and before the attack he’d been even bigger, but Beau Bennett almost made him look small in comparison. At six-foot-six-inches, Beau had been their claim to fame in high school. He’d been the star quarterback, and up until their senior year, everyone thought Beau would be in the NFL one day.

An unfortunate car accident ended that dream after Beau’s throwing arm was crushed. The doctors managed to repair it, using metal plates and screws, but Beau had never been able to throw the same after that.

“Mother fucker.”

Zane smiled. Beau was just as temperamental as Zane, but it was almost comical to hear him curse. He was a good ol’ boy in every sense of the word. The girls referred to him as an oversized teddy bear, but Zane never understood that one. There wasn’t a damn thing soft or cuddly about Beau.

Zane dropped to the bench and laid back while Beau instinctively moved over to spot him. “Why don’t you stop by my house tonight?” he asked his friend as he lifted the weight from the rack and down onto his chest.

Focusing on his set, Zane didn’t expect Beau to answer until he was finished, and that didn’t take long. Damn his body. He knew it was going to take some time to get back to his former strength, but shit, he hated how weak he was.

Rather than making it worse, Zane waved Beau off rather than starting another set. He stood up, grabbed his water bottle and his towel before turning back to Beau. “What do you say?”

“Sure.” Beau smiled. “I’ll stop by.”

Zane knew Beau didn’t need further clarification. Ever since the last time, he knew Beau had been looking forward to the next invite, and although he didn’t say that V would be there, it was clear.

“I’ll see you later then.” There was no way he’d be able to do much more and Beau probably had another hour or two on the weights.

“See ya.”

Zane almost laughed at the broad grin that split Beau’s face. The man was something else. But hell, Zane couldn’t blame him. Thinking about V put that same smile on his own face. Every damn time.

Zane decided to stop by to see his mother before he went home. He’d texted V, and he learned that she and Zoey headed into Austin for the day, taking advantage of having the day off. He didn’t question her. He simply told her to let him know when she was back.