Jack of Hearts (Aces & Eights Book 1)

by Sandra Owens

  “Is that what he told you?” Nate said.

  “Not in so many words, but . . .” She sighed. What good would it do to let them know how much he’d hurt her?

  “Talk to him, Madison. He’ll hear you.”

  She didn’t know what to say to Alex. That she’d fallen in love with him? That no man had ever hurt her the way he had? Even though he had wounded her down to her soul, she didn’t want to see him like this.

  “Alex, your brothers seem to think that you’ll hear me. I don’t know why they believe that, but please open your eyes.” Nothing. She shook her head. “I don’t think—”

  “Just keep talking,” Court said. “He’ll hear you.” He moved back to the far wall, leaned against it, tucked his chin against his chest, and closed his eyes. Nate moved over next to him, gave her an encouraging nod, then closed his eyes, too.

  She talked to Alex for hours. She told him about her father, about her favorite books, and funny stories about Hemingway. She told him she loved him even though he probably didn’t want to hear it. When her voice grew hoarse, one of the brothers handed her a glass of water.

  As she talked to Alex, she kept her hands wrapped around his. Her back hurt, and she was getting a headache, but she kept talking, not even noticing that the sun was coming up until a bright beam shining through the window fell across Alex’s face. She sucked in a breath, fearing it was a sign that God was taking him away.

  “Please, Alex, stay with us. Your brothers need you.” She gave a hysterical laugh. “Hell, the world needs you in it.” I need you. She squeezed his hand, and she almost fell out of the chair when he squeezed it back. “Alex?”

  “Grasshopper?” He opened his eyes, looked at her, and smiled. And just as fast, closed them, his hand going slack again.

  Nate and Court were next to her in an instant. Nate put his hand on her shoulder. “What did he say?”

  “Grasshopper.” She tried squeezing his hand again, getting no response.

  “Why would he say that?” Court said.

  “That was what he called me, you know, from Kung Fu.”

  Nate chuckled. “He loves that show. I’m going to find a doctor.”

  A few minutes later, he returned, a doctor and nurse in tow. Madison stepped out of the way, watching as Alex was examined.

  “His heartbeat’s stronger, and he’s responding to light,” the doctor said, shining a penlight into his eyes. “That combined with him waking up and speaking are very good signs.”

  “Thank God,” Nate and Court said in unison, giving each other a hug.

  No longer needed, Madison said her own prayer of thanks before slipping out of the room. “Good-bye, Alex,” she whispered as she walked out.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  “Did you see her? Did she ask about me?” Alex paced his living room like a caged animal, which he was. His brothers, damn them both, had practically sat on him to keep him in his bed or on the couch ever since he’d come home from the hospital. They had tied up the loose ends of his case, rounding up Trina and all the others. Granted, the first few days he’d not wanted to do more than sleep, but he was recovered and had things to do. Namely he needed to figure out how to win back Madison.

  Court rolled his eyes. “Can I get in the door before you grill me? Yes, I saw her.”

  “And?”

  “She said she was happy to hear you were home and doing well.” He dropped two books onto the table. “Happy reading.”

  That was it? “Nothing else?” Damn, he hated how pathetic he sounded. Did he even have a chance with her again? It didn’t sound like she was even thinking of him.

  “Nope. Her roommate was there, so maybe she didn’t want to say much in front of Lauren. I don’t think she likes me.”

  “Madison?”

  “No, dumbass. Lauren. Next time you want someone to check on your girlfriend, send Nate.”

  “What’s the deal between you and her, anyway? You’re like two hissing cats, ready to tear the fur off each other.”

  “Beats me.” Court went to the fridge and grabbed a beer. “Want one?”

  “No thanks.” He sat on the sofa. What he needed was a plan. When he’d sent Court to get some books, just so he could talk to Madison, get the lay of the land, he should have told his brother to find a book on how to seduce a woman.

  Court plopped down in a chair. “Lopez is out on bail.”

  “That’s good.” Should he send Madison flowers? Maybe write her a letter, explaining everything? That seemed too ordinary. He needed to think of something special.

  “No, it isn’t. He’s sticking to his story that he was just curious about how well the bookstore was doing since he was thinking of hitting Lauren up for a loan. With Ramon dead, we haven’t been able to prove otherwise. The damn charges against him will end up being dropped. Lauren will probably welcome him back with open arms.”

  “It’s her life.” What if he bought Madison something expensive and wrote a letter, sending them to her together? Nah. She wouldn’t care about a costly bracelet or necklace. There had to be a way to get her to listen to him.

  “Maybe I should talk to her.”

  “I would if I thought it would work. I just can’t help thinking I need to do something special.”

  “I meant Lauren.” Court pushed himself up. “You’re not even listening to me. Do you need help changing your bandage?”

  “No, I’ll do it when I take a shower.”

  “I’m off then.” He leaned down, put his hands on Alex’s knees, and stared him in the eyes. “Do not leave here. Capisce?”

  Alex stuck out his tongue.

  “I mean it, baby brother. One of us will stop by later, and your ass had better be here.”

  “The two of you are worse than having a nursemaid.”

  “We almost lost you.” He squeezed Alex’s knee. “We’re still traumatized. Deal with it.”

  If it had been one of them almost dying, he’d be traumatized, too, but he might need resuscitating again just from pure boredom. After Court left, Alex roamed the confines of his condo, looking for something to do. He’d cleaned everything twice already. His clothes were washed, dried, and put away. The bills were paid. He’d even bleached the grout on the bathroom floor.

  He’d give his brothers one more night of peace, and then it would be time to put his plan to win Madison back into motion. Deciding to shower and call it an early night so tomorrow would get here faster, he went into the bathroom. As he stood in front of the mirror, he gritted his teeth when he tore off the bandage covering the wound that bastard Ramon had put in his chest. He stared at it, trying to remember anything from the time he’d been shot and when he’d woken in the hospital, asking for Madison.

  He’d opened his eyes to the sound of her voice, but she hadn’t been there. He’d been too afraid of the answer to ask his brothers if she’d even visited once.

  Coming that close to death, he should have experienced some kind of epiphany, or at the very least, a conversation with an angel who would have told him the meaning of life. But other than the bullet hole in his chest, nothing felt different. There had been no tunnel with a brilliant white light at the end.

  Nothing had changed. He still wanted to be an FBI agent, putting bad guys away. He still loved his brothers, the same as he always had. And he still loved Madison. The only thing almost dying had done for him was make him more determined than ever to use this second chance to win her back. Although he was still under “house arrest,” he could make his first move.

  He studied the photos a jeweler friend had sent, decided on the one he liked, and then texted his friend, telling her to have the item delivered tomorrow.

  She immediately responded.

  Any note with it?

  He considered, then texted back.

  No

  After taking a shower, he put on a new bandage, pleased with how well the tissue was healing around the wound. Tomorrow the stitches would be removed, which he was looking forward
to because the damn things itched. For dinner, he reheated the leftover pizza Nate had brought over. Finished eating, he turned on a ball game and fell asleep on the sofa while waiting for one of his “jailers” to stop by and do a bed check.

  “Is Madison Parker here?” a messenger asked.

  “She’s Madison,” Lauren said, pointing at her.

  He thrust a padded envelope into Madison’s hands. “This is for you.”

  “What is it?” Only her name and the bookstore’s address were on the front.

  Lauren grabbed it and shook it next to her ear. “Well, it’s not a bomb. You might try opening it. That’d be one way to find out.”

  “Smarty pants. Give me it.” She opened the flap and peeked inside. “Nope, not a bomb.” It was a white velvet jewelry box, and when she opened it, she stared at it for a moment, wondering who would send her a bracelet. Then she saw the grasshopper charm on the delicate silver chain and sucked in a breath.

  “What? You know who it’s from?” Lauren fingered the charm. “It’s so cute.”

  “Alex.” Tears stung her eyes. She had missed him every day, had felt the ache in her heart from the moment she woke up each morning, and had fallen asleep each night thinking of him.

  “Oh, sweetie.” Lauren took the bracelet from her and put it on her wrist. “Let’s take a break.” She pulled Madison to the coffee bar. “Angelina, would you mind covering the front for a few minutes? Madison and I are going to treat ourselves to a latte.”

  Madison smiled at her mother, hiding the ache in her heart. Angelina gave her a hug before going to cover the front. Although still sad with the turn of events involving her brother, she had bounced back faster than Madison had expected. Maybe she’d been wrong to think Angelina had been too fragile to deal with Ramon’s creepy behavior.

  Latte in hand, she followed Lauren to their office. They had a sofa in the office, and as soon as they were seated, Lauren said, “Start talking. What happened between you and Alex? I thought there was something really special going on there.”

  So had she. Was the bracelet an apology for using her to get information on her cousin? She lifted the grasshopper charm with her finger. It was an exquisite piece. The eyes of the grasshopper were small emeralds, and the charm had obviously been handmade.

  “I thought so, too. Maybe things were just moving too fast for him.”

  She thought about the moment with Nate, when he’d pulled her aside while they were keeping vigil at Alex’s bedside. “I’m sorry you got caught in the middle, Madison,” he’d said.

  “It wasn’t your cousin who threatened to kill you, so nothing to be sorry for.” She’d almost given him the thumb drive then, but she’d been so mixed up. Ramon was dead, and apparently they had all the evidence they needed to send her uncle to prison for a long time, if not forever. It would break her mother’s heart all over again to learn that Jose and Ramon might have been the ones responsible for her father’s death. So the thumb drive had stayed in her pocket and was now hidden in a box in her closet.

  “When he gets well”—Nate had looked over at Alex, lying deathly still in the hospital bed, his eyes locking back on hers with a fierce determination—“because he will, the two of you need to have a long talk. Until then, I’m going to ask you to keep who we are to yourself. The rest of it, the arrest of your uncle and the death of your cousin, will be front-page news, but we’ve managed to keep your name out of it. As far as anyone knows, you were never there.”

  “Thank you for that,” she’d whispered, grateful that reporters hadn’t shown up at her or her mother’s door.

  “Give him a chance to explain, Madison.”

  Not knowing if she ever wanted to talk to Alex again, she had said, “I’ll promise to keep the secret of who you guys are if you’ll promise not to tell him I was here.”

  The man who looked so much like Alex, except for the long hair pulled back in a ponytail, had pressed his lips together, his eyes glittering with displeasure. She didn’t care, didn’t want to hear Alex try to explain why he’d thought it was okay to use her. There was nothing he could say to justify making her fall in love with him when it had only been a job to him.

  “You never said what happened.”

  Lauren’s voice brought her back to the present, and she met her friend’s gaze. “Honestly, I don’t really know. He made love to me, and I thought . . .” Embarrassment burned her cheeks. “Stupid me, I thought I saw love in his eyes, and the words just blurted out of my mouth . . . that I loved him. Guess he didn’t like that. The next morning he said things were moving too fast for him. End of story.”

  “Oh, Maddie, I’m so sorry.”

  “Speaking of men, when are you going to tell me how you met Court?”

  Her friend shook her head. “That story’s buried too deep to dig up.”

  “If you ever decide you need to talk about it, you know I’m here for you.”

  “I know. What do you say we swear off the creatures?”

  Madison laughed. “For how long?” She couldn’t see Lauren lasting more than a week.

  “For today.” Lauren’s lips quivered with mirth as she shrugged. “You know me. One day’s about my limit.”

  They dissolved into belly-aching laughter, and Madison was able to forget about a black-eyed bad boy for a few minutes.

  The next day Madison received a telegram. Was it even possible to still send such a thing? She eyed the piece of paper, delivered to the bookstore from iTelegram. Obviously, it was. She opened it.

  Did you know grasshoppers’ ears are located in their bellies? I miss you something terrible, Mad.

  She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. No, she didn’t know that grasshoppers’ ears were in their bellies, and she missed him something terrible, too. But she still couldn’t bring herself to forgive him. The man she’d thought she’d fallen in love with didn’t even exist.

  “What’s that?” Lauren said, walking up and snatching the telegram out of her hand. “Wow,” she said after reading it. “He’s funny and sexy all at the same time. You don’t want him, I’ll take him.”

  “Hands off, girlfriend.” Madison took the telegram back. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “Maybe listen to what he has to say?”

  She probably should, but she couldn’t imagine anything he could say to make her trust him again. “I don’t know.” Why was he sending her these things? She was trying to forget him, but he was making that damn hard to do.

  The next day, a bouquet of wildflowers was delivered. Attached to one of the stems was a beautifully painted ceramic grasshopper. He was killing her. For a week, little gifts arrived. Nothing too expensive—except for the bracelet, which she wore every day—but clever little things like a Kung Fu CD; Are You a Grasshopper?, an illustrated children’s book about a day in the life of a grasshopper; and a small oil painting of a grasshopper in a garden of daisies.

  He was wearing her down, but she didn’t respond. She didn’t know what to say.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Alex didn’t know what to do next. Madison hadn’t responded to anything he’d tried, not even a thank-you text. Not that he blamed her after what he’d put her through.

  “Why don’t you just go over there and talk to her?” Nate said as he held up the remote, clicking between ball games.

  “Because I’m afraid she’ll slam the door in my face.”

  “You’re such a dumbass, baby brother. That girl’s in love with you.”

  “Not. She didn’t even come by the hospital to check on me. I don’t think she cares if I live or die.” He sounded like a pouty kid.

  Nate scrubbed at his face. “About that.”

  “What?” He didn’t like that guilty look in his brother’s eyes.

  “She was at the hospital. Sat by your bedside, holding your hand, and talked to you until her voice was hoarse.”

  “The hell, Nate? You didn’t think that was something you should tell me? Why wasn’t she there when I
came to?”

  “She asked us not to tell you, and after what she’d gone through, she had the right to ask almost anything of us.”

  If that was what she’d wanted, he had to respect that, but it changed everything.

  “Where you going?”

  He glanced over his shoulder as he headed for the door. “To climb a fire escape.”

  He’d tapped his signal twice now on her window, and she either wasn’t in her room or she was out. Was she on a date? That didn’t bear considering. A third possibility was that she was ignoring him. So be it. He’d come back the next night, and the next one, and the next one until she opened her damn window.

  Although he could walk into her bookshop during the daylight hours and see her, he didn’t want to. This was how they’d started—with her opening her window to him, inviting him in. That was how he wanted it to be again.

  He was halfway down the stairs when he heard the creak of her window opening, and he stilled.

  “Alex.”

  That soft, sleepy voice saying his name flowed through him, bringing a sigh to his lips. He walked back up to the landing. “Hello, Mad.” Her hair was a messy riot of curls around her face and down her back. He wanted to smile, wanted to tell her how sexy she looked, sitting there in her window, wearing a white tank top and red boxer underwear, her long legs sleek and pale in the moonlight. Her eyes were wary, though, so he didn’t tell her any of that.

  “Why are you here?”

  Because he was miserable without her, but he didn’t tell her that either. She put her hand on her knee, and the silver bracelet slid a few inches down her arm, catching his attention. His racing heart eased a little. If she hated him, she wouldn’t be wearing it.

  “You’re beautiful, Madison,” he said, the speech he’d prepared forgotten.

  Her gaze shifted away, looking back into her dark room, as if she were considering a retreat. He was screwing this up. Desperation drove him, words he hadn’t meant to say yet pouring out of his mouth.