JARED (Lane Brothers Book 4) (4 page)

“Bro, Miah still has Case looking for Grimes. He’s not going to be very happy—”

“I don’t care. Grimes, if he isn’t already dead, is the least of our worries right now. The Hayeses are involved in this and I don’t want them running around, free to do whatever they want. They were here, and if I saw what I think I saw in Tanya’s eyes, they’ll try to make a play for my girl.”

“Shit. Okay, yeah, I’ll call Case and maybe Bronx, too, just to be safe,” he mutters and I wince at the suggestion.

Nate “Bronx” Chapman is one of the meanest assholes I’ve ever met or served with, and having him here to break a few heads is like pouring gas on a campfire, but he gets the job done, as messy as it is sometimes, so I’ll take what I can get.

“Make the call and ask Miah to come on back here. I want some protection when the ambulance gets here.”

No way will I transport my girl without more eyes on the scene.

“Sure. I’ll come, too. Say, how’s our sis doing?” he asks and I hear a rustle as Trace bounces to him and snatches the phone after a scuffle and some male groaning.

“Is she okay? Jace wouldn’t let me come to the hospital and I am so worried and I feel crappy because Ellie got to see her first and—”

“She’s okay, Trace,” I cut in, grinning when I hear another gasp and Jace’s soft curses. “She woke up and she’s doing just fine. She looks like hell but that’s nothing some rest and a few of those military-grade drugs Miah has stashed at home won’t fix.”

The stuff in question is high grade and will get Cupcake healed in no time, and thanks to the nurse and my money, things should be on track by tonight, at the latest.

I need Paulie healed quickly, because I fully intend to marry that woman before the week is out.

“Oh! I’ll get a room ready right next to mine and we can have slumber parties—”

I end the call with a wince, knowing I’ll catch a mouthful for it when she gets to me, but not caring one wit. If another person tries to take my girl from me, I won’t be responsible for the things I say.

Paulette

The feel of air hitting my face and the gentle sway beneath me wake me just as I’m being pulled out of what looks to be an ambulance. I hear voices as my eye closes again and feel gentle lips kiss my cheek as I struggle and fail to stay awake.

I’m in that weird place between sleep and wakefulness and I feel nothing but peace and calm as the hushed voices get louder and a jumble of hands touch my own.

If this is some kind of dream, I never want to wake up, I think as I enjoy the gentle caresses and softy spoken welcomes.

“Back up, guys.”

I hear Jared snarling and the soft chuckles of his brothers as the swaying gets worse and my head starts spinning.

“She looks horrible!”

“Christ, would you keep your voice down, Trace? She doesn’t need this right now.”

I hear it all and almost laugh when a male voice reaches me and I hear what must be Jace muttering threats that sound like they’re directed at Jared.

It all feels wonderful, something I’m
trying
to feel guilty about when I hear a door open and feel arms under my body before I’m lifted slowly and deposited on a bed so cool and soft, I manage a blissful moan past my cracked lips.

“Shh, Cupcake.”

The hospital was great, don’t get me wrong, but wherever I am is air conditioned, peaceful, and perfect as far as I’m concerned. It feels like I’m on a freaking cloud, the mattress is so soft, and the feel of expensive sheets just adds to the luxury.

And then I get the scent and I know exactly where I am. Jared’s bed. A place I’ve longed to be for so long; I swear it feels like I was born wanting Jared Lane.

The smell is so strong and perfect that I feel my nipples bead beneath my gown as my tummy dips with arousal.

It shouldn’t even be possible to feel anything like this with the injuries I have, and yet when I feel him lean over me and place a tender kiss to my unresponsive lips, all I want at that moment is the ability to wake and pull him closer.

If he’s being nice out of pity or whatever the heck it is he feels, I’ll take it and live with the shame another day. I want him, just once before he realizes that I’m not good enough and leaves me to the Patriots.

Just long enough to know what love feels like before I have to do what needs doing, no matter how great the danger.

When he pulls away I groan inwardly and curse whatever drugs are keeping me under.

“The nurse is here and I want her to give Paulie some of that stuff you smuggled off base.”

Stuff? What stuff
, I think, panicking a little before I realize he’d never do anything to hurt me no matter how angry he is at me right now.

“Yeah, okay, man, just let me go get it.”

That’s Miah, I know it is, and I want to smile at the soft way he squeezes my hand before I feel Jared’s hand envelop mine and the slow drag of his soft lips over the back of my fingers.

“You’re safe now, Cupcake. I swear, nothing will touch you ever again,” he whispers, bringing tears to my eyes.

He’s so sweet and gentle, nothing like the man I saw at the hospital upon first awakening, that I feel a tear slip free and course into my hair. His lips move and I feel him kiss it away a moment later before the door opens again and I hear an irritated female voice.

“It’s okay, Cupcake. It will all be okay. You just rest, baby, and get better so we can talk properly. I won’t be angry this time. I promise.”

“That was not prescribed by Dr. Stevens.”

“You’re being paid very well, lady, double of what the going rate is. You’ll give her what you’re told to give her, or you can get your ass out of my house,” Jared says and I hear the nurse huff a minute before a cold hand touches mine, fiddling with the IV line in my left hand.

“This is not ethical.”

“I don’t give a shit, lady. This stuff is some of the best the US government has to offer its soldiers, and you’ll give it to her because it will speed up her recovery by weeks.”

Weeks?

What the hell is the government giving to its soldiers to speed up recovery?

I feel another, stronger languor settle over me minutes later. Whatever it is, this stuff is good, because no sooner do I feel the peaceful slide of a sedative than every ache deep in my bones disappears.

Nothing hurts anymore. Not one bruise, rib, or cut on me twinges in pain as the drugs start taking effect, and I fall asleep again with a smile I wish would reach my lips.

***

Jared

“She’s out.”

I turn to Nurse Betty and give her the chin, letting her know I want her out without saying a word as I continue to sit beside the bed, holding my baby’s hand.

The idiot leaves with a few muttered expletives beneath her breath and I make a mental note to have Ma talk to her before I let Trace ring her neck.

I’m about to turn to Miah and hash things out again when the door bursts open and my favourite little person comes barrelling towards me like hell on two stubby little legs. I’m barely able to turn properly before he’s launching himself at me and falling into my arms with a whoop! and a cheeky grin.

“You’s was ‘posed to wead me a stowy lass nights Unca Jawed.” Josh complains loudly.

Oh hell. This kid is the apple of my eye and smart enough to remember every promise made so I feel like all kinds of guilty when he widens his little eyes at me, waiting on an explanation.

“I’m so sorry little man. I was ganna but I had to go to the hospital because your Aunt Paulie was there.” I murmur, ruffling his hair before hugging him close and taking in the sweet baby scent that still lingers on his skin.

Pretty soon he’s going to be all grown up and too big for his boots to let me do this, but for just this minute I inhale his innocence and take comfort in the little arms that wrap around me and give me a semblance of peace.

“Whats happen to hew?” he asks in a whisper, pushing away to look at Paulie with big eyes and an expression of awe.

Josh is a typical little boy and he’s fascinated with injuries for some reason so I fully understand the look on his face when he gets a load of Paulie’s face and his mouth rounds in a big oh.

“She felled down and gots huwted?”

Miah’s scowling and shaking his head at me like a lunatic as Josh scrambles down from my arms and creeps closer to the bed, his chubby little hand poking at one of her fingers the way you’d hesitantly poke at a dead bug.

“Yeah little man, she uh, fell down and hurt herself and she had to go to the doctor to make it better.” I answer softly, going down on my knees beside him as he gently wraps his little fingers around one of her hands and inspects the bruise caused by the IV line.

Miah meanwhile is looking on in fascination as Josh picks up Paulie’s hand inspects it seriously, his little brow furrowed in concentration, and kisses it with a wet, slobbery smack before turning to grin at me.

“Dare! Ganny says kisses makes it aw bettew. I make Pawie aw bettew Unca Jawed.”

His innocent glee and the smile her throws me before abandoning me for Miah is all boyish charm and the knowledge that he just did something super nice. Even if it is for a
girl,
who isn’t his beloved grandma
.

It makes my chest ache and I find myself wiping at my eyes before rising and giving him a smile of gratitude.

“Thanks little man, I’m sure that kiss is gonna make her all better.”

“Uhuh! And I have Spun Bob ban’aids too! That wow makes her bettew fastest Unca Jawed! Can we go gettem? Pwease?” he asks Miah, clapping his hands in glee at the thought of playing doctor with a real live patient as opposed to his old grandpa who moves around about as much as the kid does.

“Sure little guy. Why don’t you go see grandma and tell her that your Aunt Paulie needs your super healing Sponge Bob band aids. She’ll know just where they are.” Miah grins, stealing a kiss before the kid can wiggle free and start running for the door.

“Oh boyoboy! I awso tow ganny Pawie need a cookie to make hew aw bettew. Be wight back!”

Miah and I are both grinning like idiots by the time I hear ma giggling outside the door and the excited chatter of a little boy who knows he just conned his grandma into a free cookie before lunch.

“God I love that kid.” Miah laughs, shaking his head as we both turn to look down at Paulie and the hand with a big wet patch glistening on the smooth skin.

“Me too. I wish she was awake while he did that. She’s get a real kick out of having a kid nursing her back to health.”

Miah sighs and gives me a mock scowl.

“You need to make your own kids and leave that boy to me.”

“Jealous?” I tease, chuckling when he slaps my head and gives me a shove.

“Hell yes. If he’s not follow ma or pop around he’s searching for his Great and Mighty Unca Jared. If I didn’t know better I’d swear you bribe him with those cookies he loves so much.” He gripes.

It’s hog wash and he knows it. Josh and I have had a special bond since the first time I laid eyes on the little hellion and no matter what Miah or the other saps do, I am his number one Uncle.

Spending time with that kid is about the only thing in the world that’s kept me sane while I struggled wth my feelings for Paulie and I love him like his my own. That will never change no matter how many kids I have in the future.

“Okay, down to business. This stuff should have her back on her feet in three days or so. Just keep an eye on her incision for infection,” Miah says, coming over to sit in the chair beside me with his elbows at his knees.

I know what he wants to say, and while I’m not feeling it right now, I just push my annoyance aside and stay as I am, waiting for the big bad leader to have his say.

“I’m glad you don’t hate her, man. She was wrong and we all know it, but I can’t shake the feeling that for whatever reason, she had no choice. Paulie is not a bad person, Jared. She wouldn’t have done any of this just for the hell of it.”

I know and that’s worse in a way, because part of me does not want to know it all. If they have something on her…

“I agree. And I’ll know soon, I will, just not yet, man. She needs time to heal and I need…”

I stop and swallow when he claps a hand to my shoulder and squeezes firmly.

“I know. I know what it is to love a woman, bro.”

“I don’t—”

“You do, you just don’t want to is all, but I’ll tell you that means absolutely nothing in the end. You love who you love and that’s the end of it, so you better find a way to forgive her. That’s what it’s going to take for you to get past this.”

Yeah. And what should I do about the gnawing fear in my gut every time I think of Roman? I believe Trace when she says it was Roman who took those shots at Jace. I had that very same thought before she voiced it, and I know enough about Roman’s technique to see his name written all over those “careless” shots.

But if Roman is involved and he let those bastards hurt Paulie, then brother or not, I’m kicking his ass. And then I’ll find out what’s going on with him and maybe sort it all out.

If he is involved, more than we suspect, I’ll forgive him and move on. Somehow. But for Cupcake, Roman better hope he wasn’t anywhere near when she was hurt.

“I forgive her,” I say, swiping my thumb over her hand in delicate sweeps as she breathes evenly.

The wet patch where Josh kissed her has dried and I fancy that his love has penetrated her skin and is even now healing her.

“No, you don’t. Not yet, anyway, but you will. When we love we can’t help but forgive. I just hope you do it before you lose her is all.”

“I won’t. I won’t ever let her go.”

I don’t give a shit if she hates me and turns out to be Cleo’s best pal. She’s mine and she’s staying where I can keep her little ass protected and safe.

“Having a woman and
having
a woman are two different things, bro. Paulie has lived most of her life caged and with her wings clipped. Do you really want to do to her what her family did for years?” he asks, meeting my angry gaze head-on.

I’m so pissed to even be thinking all this right now. Miah just raises a brow, not even a little afraid of me when I’m in this mood, and I curse at him, irritated by his nosiness.

He’s my twin, someone I love and trust with my life, but this is none of his Goddamned business and I tell him so.

“You think I give a shit, bro? You’re my brother. We shared a womb together and I would walk through fire for you anytime, anywhere, and you know it, but I will never bullshit you. You’re too hard and unforgiving, and Paulie, no matter what she’s done, is soft and fragile, Jared. She needs love, not you keeping her locked away to teach her a lesson.”

“You think I don’t know that, Miah? I fucking love…shit. I love her, okay? I have for a long time and it eats at me that she doesn’t love me back,” I say, dropping her hand to wipe at my face as it all comes tumbling out.

I do. I love her so much that I feel like a piece of me is dead, like it died when I realized what she did. The pain in my chest is a gaping hole that aches with every breath just thinking about the possibility that she could be another trap sent to us to infiltrate the ranks.