Asa (Marked Men #6)(46)

RJ was too little to know any better, but I wasn’t about to tell Wheeler that. I shifted the little girl to the other side so he and I could shake on the price and looked at Rome as he suddenly appeared at my side. The baby instantly stuck her hands out and started chanting, “Da-Da-Da-Da,” as the large man relieved me of my fluffy bundle.

“You make a deal?” I nodded and so did Wheeler. Rome grunted his approval and turned to look at me. “I need to make a stop before we head back to the Bar. Is that all right?”

I couldn’t really argue. I hadn’t been sure if I was going to buy a car today or not, so it wasn’t like I was ready to take the Nova home this minute and I needed a ride back downtown. Wheeler and I exchanged information and I told him I would be in touch in the next couple of days. I really wanted to have a set of wheels locked down before Ayden showed up the following week for spring break.

I climbed up into Rome’s massive truck while he locked RJ down in her car seat, and asked him where we were going. He had been even more brooding and withdrawn than normal ever since we had watched the video of Avett taking the money out of the cash register behind the bar. I don’t know what she had said to the new bartender to make him think it was okay, but it was there in irrefutable proof that she had stolen the missing money right from under our noses. Rome had had a long talk with Brite about the situation, but Avett hadn’t shown back up at the Bar, so both of us had been spared the awkwardness of having to actually fire her. According to Rome, Brite was all for him filing charges against Avett, but Rome just couldn’t do it.

“Where are we headed?” I felt like it was a fair question to ask since he was glowering out the windshield and not saying much as he pulled out into the city traffic and headed toward Capitol Hill.

“We need to swing by Rule’s.” He cut me a sideways look and the edge of his mouth quirked up in a grin. “Shaw left him alone with the baby while she went to the college to try and figure out when she can go back, and he’s freaking out.”

That startled a laugh out of me. “Oh yeah?”

Rome chuckled. “Yeah. It’s the first time he’s been alone with him and he says Ry won’t stop crying. He doesn’t want to call Shaw and worry her, so he called me.”

“Big brother to the rescue.” I might be teasing him a little but really I admired him. In a different world I would have been a better man and been there to save my sister instead of the other way around. I didn’t regret much, just accepted that I was born to be a loser and f*ckup, but that was something that burned deep in my gut every time I thought about it. That was something that I would change if I ever got the opportunity to do over again.

“Rule hasn’t ever been really big on asking for help, so when he does I know he really needs it.”

“He’s lucky he knows he can always count on you.” I could hear it in my voice. Under the soft little twang was the regret that ran bone-deep about the things I had let Ayden do, the way I had allowed us both to suffer and to sacrifice in order to barely get by.

Rome cut me a look and then glanced in the rearview mirror when Remy called to him. An unwitting grin tugged at his otherwise stern face as his daughter talked to him from the back of the crew cab.

“Are you gonna try and tell me that if Ayden called you right this minute and told you that she needed you that you wouldn’t have your ass on a plane headed to Texas before she could hang up?”

I shifted uneasily in the seat and turned my head to look out the window as we rolled up into the area of Capitol Hill where Rule and Shaw lived.

“Now I would; before …” I trailed off because it was almost impossible to put words to how truly heartless and callous I had been toward my little sister. It made places deep down inside of me fester and burn with something ugly and dark. “Before, I really had myself convinced she could take care of herself. I knew better. I knew she was doing dangerous things, risking her neck to keep me out of trouble, doing things she didn’t want to do because people wanted her more than they wanted to punish me. I let it happen because that’s what served me best.”

Now it was his turn to shift uncomfortably. Ayden was a strong, brilliant young woman with a quick tongue and a rock-hard exterior. Rome knew her well enough now to be aware that all her iron armor hid a very soft and delicate center. To hear in no uncertain terms about some of the more unsavory parts of her past had to be unpleasant for him. It made me feel like a monster every day when I woke up, living with the knowledge of what Ayden had risked and suffered through for me.

“That was then. Now you would give up anything to make her happy. I know you were sad when she moved with Jet, but you kept your trap shut because you want her to have a good life and the only way she can do that is with him. If you had asked her to stay, she would’ve, for you, just like she always did. What you do now for her matters just as much as what you didn’t do for her then.”

I didn’t need to respond because we pulled up in front of the Craftsman Rule had bought for Shaw a few years ago, and as soon as we got out of the car, the sound of a very upset baby could be heard from the inside of the house. RJ wrinkled her fair eyebrows in concern as Rome hefted her out of the truck and settled her on his hip.

“Let’s go see what has your cousin so upset.” She nodded her head like she understood what he was saying to her and I followed them inside since Rome didn’t bother knocking.