Jet (Marked Men, #2)(29)

Rowdy chuckled and lifted an eyebrow. “I saved your sorry ass and you know it.”

I didn’t know what they were talking about and I didn’t have the time to get into it, so I gave Rowdy a quick kiss good-bye with a mumbled “thank you,” grabbed Jet by the elbow, and towed him out of the apartment. We were both pretty quiet in the car on the way back to the house. I wanted to ask if he had gone home alone last night, but figured if he hadn’t, there was no way Cora would have told him where I was. I barely let him pull into the driveway before dashing inside to scoop up all my stuff. He hovered uneasily at my bedroom doorway, watching me run around like a madwoman. I looked at him over my shoulder as I shoved my uniform in my bag and frantically ran a brush through my hair.

“What’s wrong?”

He shrugged a shoulder and propped himself up in the doorway. “I just don’t know what we do now.”

I wasn’t entirely certain how to answer that, either, so I stopped in front of him and kissed him long and hard on a surprised mouth. “Me, either, but we have time to figure it out later. How about right at this minute we just work on the lots and lots of sex part, and go from there? I think we both agree that that part is going to be a no-brainer for us, and like you said, moment to moment works just fine for me.”

When I brushed past him, I didn’t miss the anticipation gleaming in his midnight gaze. He didn’t say anything else, which I was grateful for because I was feeling like I had jumped off a very high cliff without any knowledge of what was waiting for me below, and that was terrifying. There were no guarantees that he was going to stick around once he had the entire picture laid out in front of him, but I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. In reality, I wanted to give him a whole lot more than that, which was enough to make me break out in nervous hives. I held on tenuously to my control, to the protection it offered my life here, and I had a sinking feeling he could make me give it all up.

When I got to work, a familiar truck was parked at the curb and I could see one very blond head and one darker one with hot pink spikes, turned toward each other. The windows were up, so I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Shaw looked mad and Rule was frowning, hard. When she caught sight of me walking by, she waved and started to scoot across the seat to the passenger door. I laughed to myself when Rule promptly pulled her back and planted a steamy kiss on her open mouth before letting her go. She was flushed and breathing hard when she walked around the front of the vehicle to stand by me. I gave her a look and she rolled her eyes at me. The driver’s window rolled down and Rule stuck his head out. No boy should be that good-looking, especially when half his face had holes and jewelry in it, but there was just something about him that commanded attention and refused to be ignored.

I had to grin at him when he asked, “Do you need me to go stomp on Jet’s head for you? That was a total dick move he pulled last night and I will gladly do it.”

I shook my head and let Shaw lace her arm through mine. “Naw, we kind of made up.”

He lifted the eyebrow with the rings in it and gave me a lascivious grin. “Does that mean you finally got naked together?”

Shaw gasped and snapped, “Rule!” but I just laughed until tears came out of the corners of my eyes. “No, not yet, but I’m working on it.”

He smacked the side of the truck with the flat of his hand. “Atta girl.” He pointed a finger at Shaw. “You think about what I said this morning, Casper.”

Shaw made a face next to me, but hollered, “I love you, jackass!” at him when he started to roll up the window. He blew her a kiss, which made her flip him off, and started to tug me toward the bar. I tried to get her to slow her frantic pace but she was clearly worked up and in no mood to be soothed.

“What’s going on with you two?”

She cut me a sideways glance and pulled open the heavy back door. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that? You tore out of there like the place was on fire last night, and I never heard a word. I know you had to have been pissed at Jet, so what happened?”

I threw my bag on the bench and started digging around. “You go first. You talk and I’ll get dressed, and I’ll tell you what happened with us after.” I was feeling like I needed a little oomph today after yesterday’s debacle, so I went with the football uniform. I liked the white-hot pants with the blue piping and laces, and in all actuality they covered more than either the referee uniform or the cheerleader uniform did. Plus, I could wear tennis shoes with it and still look hot enough to get good tips. I heard Shaw sigh and watched as she twisted her long, two-toned hair into a braid.

“Rome is coming home in a few months. Like home, home. He’ll be out of the army for good.” Rome was Rule’s older brother and they were super close, but due to a recent, startling family secret being brought to light, he was furious with his parents. I guess he was not even getting along all that well with Rule at the moment, but he supposedly had forgiven Shaw for her part in keeping the secret for years and years.

I slimed some junk in my hands and ran it through my hair to get it to lie flat, and then tugged the front up into a little poof. I shoved a blue-and-orange silk flower behind my ear and worked on doing some basic maintenance to my face.

“Well, that’s good, right?”

She groaned and let her head fall against the closed locker she was leaning against. “Rule has it in his head that when Rome gets back, he won’t go to his parents’ home at all, and is going to need a place to stay. He wants to buy a house for us and let Rome take over the lease on the apartment with Nash.”