Changing Affection

Chapter Forty-One

His ears were ringing. He was having trouble hearing out of his left ear. But he was still alive. Ezra slowly opened his eyes to see Joseph standing in front of him. He had pushed Jearon's arm out of the way, so the bullet went by his head instead of through it.

Jearon's eyes were wide with surprise. "What the hell are you doing?" he gaped.

Joseph glared at Jearon. He snaked his other arm around and handed Ezra a gun. He quickly grabbed it and stood up cautiously.

"You're done, Jearon," Joseph growled at him. Joseph was a head taller than Jearon, making him look down at his boss.

Jearon's eyes snapped over to Ezra and back at Joseph. "You're really protecting this traitor?"

Joseph nodded. "Yes." He took a deep breath. "You're not in your right mind, Jearon. Ezra wasn't being traitorous. He saw that you were behaving differently, so he protected his woman."

Jearon tried to rip his wrist out of Joseph's grasp but couldn't. "She's my woman," he hissed.

"She's not yours," Ezra sneered at him. He stepped out from behind Joseph and looked around at the other men. No one looked like they were going to stop either of them. He still remained on his toes in case they attacked. His hand gripped the gun tightly.

Jearon laughed manically. He shook his head and looked around the room at the other men. "Who else here thinks that I'm not in my right mind?"

Ezra watched the faces of the men fight with themselves. The men slowly started to raise their hands to agree with Joseph. Only three refused to raise their hands.

Still afraid, he thought to himself.

"What the hell?" Jearon yelled. His eyes were wide and full of anger. He turned his attention over to Ezra. "This is all your fault."

Ezra shook his head and stepped closer to him. Joseph knocked Jearon's gun out of his hand and trapped his hands behind his back, holding him in place. "This is your own doing, Jearon," Ezra spoke slowly. He locked a bullet into the barrel of the gun and readied it. "You are the one that stopped trying once you got to power. You could have been a great man. You could have been a great boss, but you stopped."

"You're wrong," Jearon spit.

Ezra shook his head. "You are weak, Jearon. The only time that you did any kind of dirty work yourself is when you killed Aubrey's father." He switched the gun into his left hand and punched him hard across the face with his right. He grabbed Jearon's hair and pulled it, so he was looking at him. "You're a coward, Jearon. The only reason the men ever followed you was because of me."

The men around him murmured in agreement.

"You're wrong," Jearon's voice was barely a whisper. His face held fear all over it.

"You threatened the life of my woman," Ezra sneered at him. "No more. My family will be safe." He dropped his head and pointed the gun at Jearon's head. "I thought that maybe there would be a way to protect Aubrey without having to kill you, but I was wrong. You won't stop until you get her and kill me."

"You were turning men against me, Ezra!" Jearon yelled at him. Blood from his split lip splattered against the gun and Ezra's hand. "What else was I supposed to do?"

Ezra rolled his eyes. He was getting tired of repeating himself. "You did that yourself, Jearon. I've already told you what you should have done to make sure that no one would turn on you. I even tried to tell you before all of this started, but you wouldn't listen to me. Instead, you remained lazy and let everyone else do your dirty work for you."

Jearon shook his head frantically. "No."

Ezra looked up at Joseph and saw the annoyance in his eyes. "I'm done talking, Jearon. I want to protect my family and damnit I'm going to." He placed the gun against Jearon's forehead. "Goodbye, old friend." Ezra watched as Jearon closed his eyes as he pulled the trigger.

----

Aubrey sat in bed waiting for Ezra to come back. It was pitch black outside and this was her third night sleeping alone. She missed him. She hated not knowing what was going on with him. She needed to know whether or not he was safe or dead.

Aubrey had annoyed Asher with her asking him every hour if he had heard of anything, but every answer was no.

She tried to concentrate on the pages in front of her. She couldn't focus on the book that she had borrowed from Asher, but she wasn't too. She needed to be able to disassociate herself from the situation to get her mind off of him.

After a couple of hours of trying to read and sleep, she finally fell asleep. She was sleeping peacefully when she was jolted awake by a knock on her door. She sat up quickly and clutched her hand to her chest, breathing hard. Her heart was pumping widely.

The knock came again and the voice that was on the other side brought tears to her eyes.

"Princess, open the door," Ezra's soothing voice came from the other side.

Aubrey quickly got out from underneath the blankets and ran to the door. She unlocked it and swung it open. Her mouth was open as she looked at him. Healing bruises lined his cheek and above his eye. Other than the bruises, he looked healthy. He looked safe. He was alive.

She grabbed his dirty shirt and drug him into the room, locking the door behind them. She yelped as he scooped her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist and pressed her lips against his. Tears were falling down her face.

She pulled back and breathed out against him, "You came back."

"I promised you," Ezra kissed her cheeks, forehead, nose, and jaw as he walked them over to the bed. He gently laid her down on it and crawled over her.

"Is he-?" Aubrey asked quietly.

Ezra nodded as he was placing kisses down her neck. "Yes, he is."

Aubrey closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck. She was safe. Her baby was safe. They were finally safe.