“I’ll never forgive him for as long as I live,” he says, and I hear the emotion in his voice. “We trusted him, and he turned us in like it was nothing. I’ll never trust anyone again because of that.”

There are hairs to split in this conversation that I repeatedly choose not to. Like the fact that Rafe betrayed Ezra...not me. How Ezra wasn’t exactly innocent, but somehow it’s still Rafe who’s expected to pay. I’m not defending Rafe. What he did was pretty awful, and I do still harbor all the hate in the world toward him for it, but Ezra is no angel.

“This is a new start for us, Ezra. Your business is going well, and we’re happy here. Who cares if he lives next door? I never have to see him or talk to him if I don’t want to. We can overcome this.”

It’s like my words don’t even register in his ears because now he’s looking at me like he’s thinking hard about something, chewing the inside of his lip, contemplating.

It has me nervous as hell.

“I could move on if I knew we had closure. If I knew we served him what he deserves.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Whatever he’s into...whatever this is that brings him home at three in the morning as banged up as he was...if we had a way of figuring it out...we could turn him in for it. The ultimate retribution, Shelby.”

“Ezra…”

He crosses the room and kneels next to me. “I’m not asking you to do anything you’re not comfortable with. But it would be easy for you...to figure it out. Talk to him a little. Let him think the bad blood is behind us. Imagine how that would feel...to get back at him and know that we were not outsmarted.”

Honestly...I couldn’t care less about revenge or righting past wrongs. I don’t care about Rafe one bit anymore, and serving him justice wouldn’t help me sleep any better than I already do.

But Ezra. He’s been living in the past. He’s never moved on from his best friend breaking his heart and sending him to prison.

“I’ll think about it, okay?” I touch his hand and see the moisture pooling in his eyes. My brother has always been intense, but it breaks my heart to see him struggling. “Until then, focus on work. Get out of this apartment. Go meet someone.”

I pat his cheek and move to stand. “I need to get back to work.”

“Thanks for coming over,” he says, standing up and looking at me like he’s disappointed.

“I promise I’ll think about it.”

Finally, he relaxes and smiles at me. “Of course,” he says and wraps his arms around me for a hug.

When I leave Ezra’s, I can’t stop thinking about our conversation as I drive to my next appointment. I hate the way Rafe treated me last night. So rude, like I was imposing, helping to keep him alive. And he still has that arrogant attitude like nothing he does has consequences. I hated him after what happened before, but now. Now, I really hate him.