Jet: A Marked Men Novel (27 page)

“Shouldn’t I be giving one of those to you and singing you ballads?”

If he didn’t just answer me, I was going to kick him in the nuts.

“Jet, you already picked me. This is me doing the same thing now. Can you stop being difficult and just answer the damn question?”

He took the ring from me and put it back on his finger where it normally lived.

“Yes, Ayden Cross, I will gladly marry you. Supersmart chemistry major or barefoot country girl, it doesn’t matter to me, either. I just want me and you.”

I jumped into his arms and let him swing me around. This time when he kissed me it was full of promises and all kinds of good things to come.

“Now, as much as I want to put you in bed right now for a different reason, you really do look like you’re about to keel over, and I don’t even want to tell you how long I was on an airplane over the last few days. Let’s grab a few winks and get you back to your brother. You can share the good news with him.”

I nodded against his chest and let him lead me to the bed. I threw the ugly comforter on the floor and was glad to see the sheets were clean and at least visibly free of stains. I toed off my cowboy boots and flopped down, face first, and groaned as my head hit the flat pillow. As happy as I was to see him, as glad as I was that things between us were straight and there were no more secrets to hide, there was no way I could keep my eyes open any longer. I had to take a nap and get back to Asa. Jet climbed in beside me and pulled me on top of him so that I was using him as a pillow. I put my cheek on his heart, resting it on top of the death angel tattooed there, and closed my eyes. He stroked a hand from the top of my head to the base of my spine.

“Are we really gonna get married?”

I laughed a little. “Sure. Why not?”

“What if I want to do it sooner rather than later?”

I tapped the ball on his nipple ring through the fabric of his shirt with the tip of my fingernail.

“Whenever you want, Jet. I told you I’m not going anywhere.”

“I feel like I need to put a big-ass rock on your finger before I get back on that plane.”

I sighed and wrapped my hands around his waist.

“You can do whatever you want as long as I get a nap first.”

He snorted and said something I didn’t hear, because I couldn’t fight the pull of sleep anymore. With him here, I finally had a sense that everything had a chance of working out fine.

I slept like a log for two hours. The alarm on my phone went off after only one hour, but apparently I had been so out of it that Jet had turned it off and let me sleep for another full hour. When I woke up, I was rushing around, trying to take a quick shower and change into clean clothes, while he texted everyone back in Denver to update them on what was going on. He didn’t look any more rested than I felt, but he never complained, and when I told him I was probably going to have to stay overnight at the hospital again, he just shrugged and told me he would hang out until they made him leave.

When we walked into the intensive care unit, I noticed the way the nurses looked at us—well, looked at Jet, and not just because we were in the South and his style stood out. There was something about his wild hair and general swagger that just drew attention, primarily female attention, but I was okay with it. He was hot, he wore pants that were tight enough to leave little to the imagination, and he had eyes that were enough to break your heart between each blink. He was just something special and he was mine, so I was going to enjoy it. He put his arm around my shoulders and tucked me into his side when we walked into the room.

Asa didn’t look any better. He was still all bandaged up and he was still unconscious, but his chest was rising and falling in a steady rhythm so he wasn’t dead and at this point I was considering that a win. Jet sat in the chair that had been my home for the last few days and I reached over the side of the bed to pat the cast that encased Asa’s hand.

“Hey, big brother, I brought someone to meet you. You should wake up and say hi.”

I was a little choked up. It was hard to see him like this, and it was awful to think he might not wake up and that if he did, he wouldn’t be the same ornery son of a bitch he had always been.

Jet pulled me down on his lap and we sat like that for a long time. We talked about the tour and how he was tired of being on the road, but that seeing Europe was amazing. He told me about how he was considering starting a record label, which sounded like the perfect career for him, and how that meant he was going to have to do more traveling between Colorado, L.A., New York, and Austin. He sounded excited, and that meant I was excited for him. I told him about growing up in Woodward and how Asa was the best liar, the slickest con artist that had ever lived. I told him that he was nearly impossible to not love, but somehow when it mattered, he came through and acted like a big brother should. I told him about Silas and how he was the one who tried to break into the house. At that point, I thought he was going to stage a full-blown lynching party, and I offered to go scrounge up some coffee and snacks to calm him down.

When I walked past the nurses’ station, the two young nurses had their heads bent together and were talking about Jet’s very memorable backside. They both gave me a startled look and all I could do was shrug and agree. “I know. Believe me, I know.”

The line at the little café took a lot longer than I thought, and I wasn’t really hungry for anything, but I didn’t know when Jet had eaten last, so I grabbed a whole bunch of different stuff hoping something would tide him over. When I got back to the room, the door was open a crack so I could slip in, but I stopped because Jet was on his feet next to the bed talking to Asa’s prone form. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but he sounded intense and I didn’t want to interrupt.

“I’m going to marry your sister.”

The idea that I was going to be with Jet forever still gave me the shivers.

“That means I’m going to protect her. That means I’m going to keep her safe and make sure nothing ever hurts her again. I’m going to give her everything she ever wanted and anything she ever needs. When you wake up”—he paused and I could almost feel how hard he was trying to impress upon Asa what he was saying even though he was unconscious—“if you try to be anything to her but an awesome brother, a supportive, loving part of our family, I swear on everything you believe in, that what those bikers did to you will look like a picnic when I’m done with you. I love her and I will not let anyone use her, or manipulate her again. I hope nearly dying gives you the wake-up call you so clearly needed, because you have an amazing sister who loves you and is willing to put up with a lot of shit. We can have this chat again when you can respond, but I thought it was best to just get it out of the way now.”

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to laugh or cry at that, so instead I just cleared my throat so he knew I was coming, and made my way the rest of the way into the room. I handed him the coffee and the snacks and put my hand on his lower back and kissed him on the cheek.

“The nurses outside think you have a nice butt, even if it is encased in some girly-ass purple pants.”

He lifted and eyebrow.

“I like my pants.”

“Me, too. I like what’s in them even more.”

He groaned and opened one of the sandwiches I handed him.

“Don’t go there, Ayd. It’s been a while.”

I looked at him over my shoulder and stroked one of Asa’s finger with mine. It was about the only visible skin on his body that didn’t have a tube coming out of it or gauze wrapped around it.

“There was no pretty French girl or sexy Spanish chick to keep you company?” I didn’t really want the answer to that question, but I figured I should ask. It wouldn’t change things, but I felt like I needed to know.

“No. What about you? Sweater Vest was blowing up your phone when I left.”

I shook my head in the negative.

“Adam is a really nice guy, but he isn’t you. That was the problem with him all along.”

I felt him run his hand up the back of my bare thigh and I had to suppress the shivers that trailed in their wake.

“When do you have to leave?”

“I have four days and then I need to hook back up with the guys in Amsterdam. If you need me to stay, I will.”

I looked back at him and gave him a sad, lopsided smile. “No. I don’t know what his condition is going to look like over the next few days. If I need to, I’ll call the girls.”

“You should let them come anyway. They’re both worried sick over you.”

I sighed and went over to prop myself up in the arm of the chair. He put a hand on my knee and I covered it with my own.

“It was just me and Asa growing up. Mama was always off doing her own thing. Granted, he wasn’t always the best caretaker. Frankly, he was a piece of crap most of the time and he used me in ways I don’t really want to think about right now, but we’re family no matter how dysfunctional it is. I kind of feel like it should be that way now. If he takes a turn for the worse, it needs to be me and him, ya know?”

“I’m sorry you have to deal with this, Ayd, and I’m sorry for whatever you felt you had to do in the past.”

“Me, too.”

We fell into a kind of pattern the next two days. I didn’t want Jet to have to be at the hospital the entire time, so I sent him back to the hotel to sleep when visiting hours were over, and I stayed with Asa. I would go back in the morning for a shower and we would grab breakfast and then spend the bulk of the day keeping vigil over my brother. There was no change in his condition, which everyone tried to convince me was a good thing, but I wasn’t sure I bought it. He was still unconscious, still needed a ventilator to breathe, and there was no miraculous recovery showing on any of the scans of his brain.

Jet was a champ. He took it all in stride and never once complained or griped that he had come all this way to sleep alone in a sketchy hotel and drink awful hospital coffee by the gallons. If I hadn’t already loved him, this would have sealed the deal. He was just rock solid, and the only entertainment we had during the day was watching the nurses, all of them from the sixty-year-old ladies to the younger techs, try to get his attention. He was quickly becoming the star of the intensive care unit. At one point, he decided to sing me every old Southern folk song he could think of—“Little Birdie,” “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow,” “Amazing Grace”—it was like a private little concert, and by the time he was done, every single female who worked in the intensive care unit was as in love with him as I was.

It was the day before he had to leave and we were both tired and starting to think things with Asa were at a standstill. I could tell Jet felt bad that he had to go, that he was worried about me, and the idea of leaving me alone made him nervous. I had to promise to call if Asa turned a corner either way, and he insisted that if I was going to be there for another week, I should bring in reinforcements. It was bittersweet. He was so wonderful for putting his life on hold for me, and made it so clear that he was in this for the long haul, that I wished he was going back on tour knowing I would be fine. I wished that Asa would wake up and things would just go back to normal. Since none of that looked like it was going to happen, I just tried to reassure him that everything would be fine either way, and that I would still be here when the tour was over.

I was talking to Asa in a low voice, telling him all about the crew back in D-town, about Rule and Shaw and their crazy love story. I told him all about Cora and how wild she was, how fun and unpredictable she was. I told him about Nash and Rowdy, and explained that my guy had the best friends that anyone could ask for, but mostly I told him all about Jet. I told him about how talented he was, how kind he was, how I had loved him from the first minute I saw him onstage. I told him all about the rocky road I had traveled to finally reach him, and how I never really thought someone like Jet was going to be my end game. I talked and talked and somewhere in the middle of my telling him how happy I really was and how great my life was, even if he had stumbled in and messed it all, up his fingers started to twitch.

At first I thought I was just imagining things. I thought it was just wishful thinking, but then they did it again and I looked up, and eyes that matched my own were looking back at me.

I freaked out and had every nurse on the floor rushing in to poke and prod at him. I was systematically shoved out of the way while people moved around him and took his vitals and nudged at all his tubes and wires. They were droopy and unfocused, but those whiskey-colored eyes stayed locked on mine and I knew, just knew, that he was going to be okay. When Jet showed up, I was an incoherent mess. All I could really explain was that Asa had opened his eyes and that his fingers had moved, and that all the medical staff seemed optimistic, which was a good sign. It was such a good sign, in fact, that the staff insisted I finally go to the hotel for the night since this was a huge hurdle cleared. I initially didn’t want to go, in case he woke up again and was aware, but it was Jet’s last night and he was going to be gone for a solid two months. Sexy text messages and phone sex only went so far.

Jet got me into the rental car and when he left the hospital parking lot, I didn’t even notice when he went the opposite direction of the hotel. I was lost in thought, and so elated that Asa had at least opened his eyes, that I paid zero attention until he pulled up in front of the Brown Hotel. He was taking us to the nicest, most elegant and expensive hotel in town. My shorts and boots, and his combat boots and Lacuna Coil T-shirt were not appropriate wear for this old and expensive place, but he didn’t seem to care.

“What are we doing here?”

“It’s my last night in town. It’s the only night I get to spend with you for the next two months, so I’m doing it in style.”

I didn’t argue and he clearly already had a reservation. We checked in with the guy behind the counter sneering at us the entire time. That seemed to amuse Jet to no end, so I just kept my mouth shut and let him haul our stuff up to the fancy room. I had to admit the idea of sleeping in a real bed with sheets that I knew for a fact were clean turned me on almost as much as the idea of getting him naked on top of them.