Jet (Marked Men, #2)(94)

“I’ll be thinking about you all the time.”

“Don’t. Just go have fun and be a rock star. You being here was everything I needed.”

“Call me if you need me.”

“I’ll always need you. I’ll just call you because.”

“Fair enough.” I pressed my mouth to hers with enough intensity to let her know she would be missed. When I pulled back there was moisture in her eyes and I was ready to rip up my plane ticket on the spot until she gave me a half smile.

“I really do love you.”

“Good thing I’m going to marry you, then.” I winked at her as she smacked me on the arm.

We said another good-bye and this time she kissed me. Saying good-bye sucked, but it was bearable because unlike the last time I had left her behind, this time I knew she would be there when I got back. She had on my ring, and she gave me her heart and her trust. I was her future and she was my entirety. Damn, I might be in the first metal band that sang love songs after all.





Epilogue

Jet, A Few Months Later, The Fourth  of July

I can’t believe you have a yard with grass, sprinklers, and a barbeque. That is some serious adultlike shit.” I handed Rule a cold beer good-naturedly even though he glared at me.

“I’m not the one rocking a wedding ring.”

I absently looked down at the wide titanium ring on my left hand. The same topaz that sat on Ayden’s finger rested on mine. I had told her we could wait until she was done with school, that I could wait until I had the new business up and running, to actually get hitched, but after being gone and apart for two months that wasn’t something either of us wanted or had the patience to wait for. As soon as I got back to the States, I packed her up and hauled her to Vegas for a long weekend. It had turned from a simple ceremony between the two of us into an epic party weekend, when all of our friends had decided to crash the event. I knew she wanted something more formal, more traditional, but every time I brought up doing a reception or some kind of ceremony here for everyone, she would roll her eyes at me and tell me that she had to pay Shaw back and that Asa’s hospital bills weren’t going anywhere. I was going to let her get away with that excuse for a little while, and then I was just going to plan one for her anyway.

“I didn’t say it was a bad thing. The house is awesome and this yard is badass. I just never pictured you manning a grill and being all domesticated.”

Those pale eyes of his were still as sharp as ice shards and he still mixed it up with his hair; today it was his natural dark brown and a startling lime green that was spiked up in a hundred directions. Now, though, there was just something inherently more settled about him. I wondered if Ayden did that for me, wondered if it was so obvious to other people that with her, I had found my place and had been able to put out most of the bonfire that used to burn me alive.

He tilted his head to where the girls were sitting on the deck that jutted out from the back of the house. Shaw was cracking up at some story Ayden’s brother was telling and Ayden was leaning back watching me talk to Rule. I lifted an eyebrow at her and she just shrugged. Asa could charm the pants off a nun, but ever since he had gotten mobile again he had been on his best behavior. His recovery had been long and tenuous. He had had not one but two major setbacks, and Ayden had just decided to repeat the semester at DU until he was out of the hospital because she had missed so much school taking care of him and being in Kentucky. As soon as she was able, she had packed him up and brought him to Denver with her, so not only did I have Cora’s big mouth to contend with, but also Asa’s slicker-than-slick charm.

Asa and I weren’t exactly friends. I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him, but he seemed to be operating on the up and up. I think he had a healthy fear of what I would do to him if he messed with Ayden in the slightest, and his brush with death had seemed to give him some brief bit of clarity. As much as it bugged me because I now knew exactly how complicated their dynamic was, I could see he really did love her. I know Ayden was hoping for a total transformation, but the guy was just too smooth, too good at reading people and playing games, for me to believe that was going to be the case. I really felt like he wanted to go straight for his sister, so for that alone I was willing to give him a chance. Since I was on the road at least once or twice a week with the new label, I liked having him at the house with the girls, even if he still had a cast on one arm and a walking boot on his foot.

“He’s almost as pretty as she is, isn’t he?”

Rule’s question snapped me out of my reverie and I gave Ayden a wink before turning back to him.

“He’s a pain in the ass.”

Rule snorted and turned over the burgers he was watching.

“Shaw likes him, which surprises me after everything he put Ayden through, and Cora thinks he’s a riot.’

“That’s because they’re chicks and that dude has more game in his pinkie finger than we have combined. It’s unreal.”

Rule squinted his eyes a little, in the direction where the rest of the group was sitting in a circle lounging on lawn chairs on the grassy lawn. Rowdy and Nash were messing around with a whole pile of fireworks that looked illegal as hell. I assumed they probably came from across the state border in Wyoming. Cora was sitting next to Rule’s older brother Rome and neither one of them looked too happy with the situation or the company.