Rome (Marked Men, #3)(58)

“What? Why?” Rome wrapped his hand around the back of my neck and dropped a kiss on the top of my head.

“I think he knows who was behind it.” Rome switched his attention to Ayden. “Lay off on your brother, girly. People change, sometimes not always for the better, but they do change. You’re never going to be able to move forward if you’re always thinking the worst of each other.”

He flicked his gaze down to me.

“Give me a couple minutes to talk to Brite and we can head out. Rule dropped me off.”

I chuckled a little. “You’re going to ride in the Cooper?”

He groaned and walked away without another word. I’m not going to lie: I watched his ass the entire way until Ayden’s voice broke through my reverie.

“Asa.” Her tone was half conciliatory and half resigned.

Asa held up a hand and shook his head. I thought he looked sad, or maybe reconciled to the fact that Ayden was only ever going to see him one way.

“Just don’t. I appreciate all you have done for me, that you could have just left me in that hospital, that I will never, ever be able to repay you, Ayd. But I’m not always going to be the bad guy. I like it here. I like this bar, and believe it or not, I respect the hell out of Rome. He is a good guy. I wouldn’t want to do anything to screw him over. I know you think I’m only capable of looking out for myself, but almost dying gave me a slightly new outlook on life. Having your little sister save your ass endlessly gets old.”

Ayden seemed stunned into silence, so Jet tried. “Asa, man, come on. You guys can work this out later.”

The blond head shook in the negative.

“No. Obviously there is nothing left to work out.”

He turned those liquid-gold eyes on me and I could practically feel the sincerity shining out of them.

“I’ll be out by the end of next week.”

I sighed. “You don’t have to do that.”

“Yes, I do. Besides, you’re going to need room for that baby at some point.”

Well, crap. Why hadn’t I thought of that? Rome and I hadn’t talked about that part of our future. It still seemed so far off; besides bigger boobs, mood swings, and the barest little rounding in my belly, I didn’t look or feel that different, so I guess it was easy to forget I had a baby I needed to be preparing for. We switched back and forth between his place and mine, but neither was really an ideal environment for a newborn. I mean my house was great and had the room, if it wasn’t currently all occupied.

“I’m sorry.” Ayden’s voice was strained and sounded tiny. Jet just held her closer and muttered soft words into her dark hair.

Asa gave her a sad smile. “I’m sure you are and I am, too, but I can’t be around you if you always think I’m going to be up to something.”

She gave a broken little laugh. “You always are.”

“I always was.”

With that, he turned around and walked over to where some of the grizzled regulars were still gathered. I watched as they all shook his hand and clapped him on the back. Clearly, just like they had done for Rome, they had welcomed Asa’s lost soul into their fold.

“You okay?” Jet’s voice was light as he kissed Ayden lightly on the mouth. She put her arms around his waist and rested her forehead on the center of his chest. They just looked like the perfect matched set.

“I don’t know.”

“He’ll get over it.”

“But he’s right. I do always think he’s up to something. I thought he robbed your studio, I could totally see him being behind the robbery of this place. There isn’t much I don’t think he’s capable of doing if he thinks it benefits him. I love him but I just don’t trust him.”

“You’ll work it out.” I looked down at my phone as it beeped an incoming text message.

It was from Shaw and all it said was:

I’m in.

I breathed a sigh of relief and put the phone away.

“We are all family, Ayd. Good, bad, and ugly, we figure it out.”

“With our history, I don’t think it’s that easy, Cora.”

I was reminded of Rome and how everyone had such an easy time caring for him before he came back lost within himself. Everyone still loved him, they just had to find a new way to do it to get around the what-was. Asa was the same way.

“You can love him, Ayden. You just need to find a way to love the new him that’s different from the love you had for the old him.”

She didn’t answer me, but Rome came up behind me and asked if I was ready to go. I nodded and Jet bundled Ayden into his Challenger and peeled out of the parking lot.

“What was that all about?”

“She’s having a hard time aligning Denver Asa with Kentucky Asa, which is silly since she had to do the exact same thing with herself not too long ago.”

He didn’t say anything but made a face when we got to the Cooper. It made me grin.

“Hey.” He looked at me over the top of the car and lifted that dark eyebrow that arched under the scar on his forehead. It made him look sexy and slightly sinister at the same time.

“We need to talk about what we’re going to do when this kid is here.”

He frowned and folded his massive frame into the tiny front seat. I had to admit he looked ridiculous. So I snapped a picture on my cell in case I needed it in the future. He swore at me and scooted around until he found a comfortable position in the limited space.