Beat of the Heart (Runaway Train, #2)(65)

“I’ll go get the key,” Jake said. While he went into the bedroom, I let my head bang back against the tile.

Brayden cleared his throat. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

Raising my head, I peered at him. “Thanks.”

He held out a fuzzy towel, and I took it from him to start drying my face and what parts of my body I could reach with one arm.

“Man, what happened? You and Mia seemed so happy,” Rhys said.

“Kylie showed up, used the hide-a-key, and ran into Mia downstairs.”

Rhys winced as Brayden let out a low whistle. Jake, who had returned with the key, shook his head. “Damn, dude, that f*cking blows.”

“No shit,” I replied as I toweled my hair a little more furiously. As Jake worked at getting me free, I turned to Brayden. “Did you know Kylie was coming?”

“She called Lily last night, and I guess Lily mentioned we were here.” At my scowl, he held up his hands. “We sure as hell didn’t invite her. Besides, I thought whatever was between you two was in the past.”

The handcuffs snapped open, and I was no longer a shower prisoner. As I rubbed my aching wrist, I replied, “It was—it is. But for some reason, Kylie still seems to think I’m interested in a booty call.”

Brayden grimaced. “She’s a wonderful baby-sitter and loves the hell out of my kids. But honestly, she makes the worst choices in life.”

“Thanks a f*cking lot, man,” I grumbled.

“Nothing good ever comes from being a guy’s booty call or f*ck buddy, AJ,” Jake argued. “I mean, hell, look at what happened to Abby because of Bree.”

Rolling his eyes, Bray replied, “Yeah, well, Kylie is far from that level of psychotic.”

Rhys exhaled noisily before pinning me with a hard stare. “True, but I told you back in Oklahoma City not to start that shit up again. Looks like you were all invested the first time, and now it’s her this time.”

Tilting my head, I gave him a ‘what the f*ck’ look. “Seriously? So Kylie showing up is all my fault?”

“Well obviously you didn’t shoot her down hard enough last night if she thought it was okay to come waltzing in here.”

“What exactly did you say to her last night?” Brayden questioned.

I grimaced. “I just told her I had to go, and that I’d talk to her later.”

“Dumbass,” Rhys muttered.

I threw up my hands. “I didn’t have a whole lot of time to stop and have a meaningful f*cking conversation when I could see Mia freaking out and bailing.”

“Regardless of how it happened, you really screwed up, dude. You should go after Mia,” Brayden said.

I snapped the towel away from my face. “Are you shitting me? She handcuffed me to the shower!”

“You love her,” Bray countered.

“I do not,” I lied.

When I glanced over at Jake to see if he was buying my line, he gave me a sad smile. “Don’t look to me for advice. I f*cked up way too many times to count. Abby’s a freakin’ saint to love me, least of all forgive me.”

While I was crumbling on the inside, I tried with everything I had to keep up my tough guy exterior. “Jesus guys, I still have my pride, and it’s screaming at me not to chase after a woman who won’t be reasoned with.”

Jake crossed his arms over his chest. “This from the same guy who told me I had to do something epic to win Abby back.”

“That was different,” I mumbled.

“Because it was me? Because it wasn’t your heart on the line?”

“I don’t know.” Pinching my eyes shut, I rubbed my forehead. “The bottom line is Mia isn’t Abby—she has some real dark shit in her past.”

“So what, you don’t feel you’re man enough to deal with all that?” Jake countered.

I snapped my eyes open to glare at him. “No, *. That’s not it at all.”

“Abby still has to deal with my shit—the women and my grief—, but she does it because she loves me.” He smacked me hard on the back. “Maybe you should try to deal with Mia’s shit because you love her.”

When I glanced at Rhys and Brayden, they both nodded their heads. “Come on so we can eat some chili before it gets cold,” Brayden suggested. With a wink, he added, “You’re going to need your strength when it comes to getting Mia back.”

“Fine. Lead the way,” I replied. As I followed them to the ladder, I thought it was going to take a lot more than a little food fortification to give my body what it needed to prepare to battle Mia. Although after what she did, part of me was saying good riddance to her. But somehow I knew she was worth fighting for—that she was different than any other woman I’d ever been with. More than anything, I wanted to prove to her, that in spite of her past, some men would fight for what they wanted, and I was just that kind of man.





Perched on the side of a hospital bed at Scottish Rite’s Children’s Healthcare, I drummed out a hard-core rhythm on the Guitar Hero drum-set. With his IV shackled hands, the teenage leukemia patient I was visiting kept right up with me during the more difficult parts. His name was Manuel, aka Manny, and when he’d heard a member of Runaway Train was visiting the oncology floor, he’d asked to meet me. So after I’d made some quick rounds, I went to his room so I could spend the most time with him. I was stoked as hell to see him sitting there in a Runaway Train T-shirt. He had been the drummer in a band until cancer had sidelined him. Even on the shitty Guitar Hero set, I could tell he had talent. But of course, I had to ride his ass a little.