Jet: A Marked Men Novel

by Jay Crownover

  Cora’s two-toned eyes were huge and Shaw had a hand over her mouth to hold her laughter in. I was just staring at her because in typical Cora fashion she was explaining to us how she never could understand how the three of us could be friends, considering she had up-close and personal knowledge of our boys’ junk. I lifted an eyebrow at her.

  “All of them?”

  She licked her lips and tilted her head to the side. “What do you mean?”

  “Have you seen all of them?”

  Shaw gasped on a laugh and pushed my shoulder. “Don’t ask her that.”

  “Why not?”

  “There has to be some kind of privilege.”

  I rolled my eyes. “She’s a body piercer, not a doctor, and I’m curious.”

  Cora gave me a naughty grin, and while I had to admit I was super happy she was the one who had put that ring in Jet and not some strange skank, it was still weird to imagine her with her hands anywhere near that part of him.

  She ordered us another round and motioned for us to lean in close. Shaw might have protested on principle, but I knew that gleam in her green gaze and she was just as curious as I was.

  “All of them. Well, all of them except the big brother. I’ve only met him once, and I could tell he was way too uptight and totally not into that kind of thing. Rule has the most hardware, Rowdy has the second most, and Jet and Nash have the same amount. And let me tell you, it is no easy feat to shove a metal needle through the privates of dudes you consider your best friends. I thought Rowdy was going to faint, and Nash took a swing at me.”

  I had to fan myself a little with a cocktail napkin. Not too long ago, the idea of being with someone who had tattoos all over and jewelry in their privates would have made me laugh. Now I knew how hot it was, knew that no one would ever be able to do what Jet could do. There was no going back to boring and plain, and I saw by the dreamy look on Shaw’s face that it was the same for her.

  I tossed back the Patrón and lifted the tiny glass in a salute to Cora. “Well, on behalf of the female population of Denver, I salute you and offer you our undying gratitude. Good work, Cora.”

  That made them laugh, but Shaw nodded her agreement. “Yep, thanks.”

  “You ladies are very welcome. You know, I had to do something to help those idiots out. It’s not like they would ever find good chicks with their personalities alone. They’re awful.”

  Shaw snorted because it was no secret that Rule could be a real ass when he put his mind to it, but I just shook my head.

  “Jet doesn’t need it. His personality is fine. He’s wonderful.”

  That had both their heads swiveling in my direction and had I been sober I would have never opened that door for them. Shaw turned her bright eyes in my direction.

  “So, what’s the deal with all that anyway?”

  I wish I knew. “No deal. We’re friends, we like to hang out, and I care about him, a lot. We’re just being together, nothing more, nothing less.”

  Only that was a big fat lie. There was entirely more. Jet had been moodier and more withdrawn since his trip to lockup. I knew part of it was his struggle to come to terms with his mom, but something else was going on that had him acting secretive and shady. Every time I walked in the room and he was on the phone, he hung up. He was spending a ton of time at the studio, and it seemed like the band was demanding way more of his time than it had since I met him. From what I could piece together, it sounded like he was planning on going back on the road and I couldn’t figure out why he didn’t just tell me that. It wasn’t like I had any place to weigh in on it, but still, it would be nice to know how long he was planning on being gone. As much as I hated to admit it, the idea of sleeping alone while he was on the road made me feel sick to my stomach.

  He also hadn’t mentioned a thing about court. He had hired a lawyer and they had pushed the court date back a couple of weeks. I knew he was worried about how the judge’s ruling would affect his time, but he didn’t seem too concerned about the actual sentencing. I guess he figured he would get a slap on the wrist and some community service, but it concerned me that he never brought it up, or that he didn’t once mention his mom and dad in the scenario. I knew he was grappling with some pretty heavy stuff and I wanted to be there for him, but he didn’t seem inclined to let me.

  “Did he talk to you about why he got arrested?”

  I nodded. I knew Rule had the ins and outs of the real reason, but Jet was telling most people he got into a fight, so I didn’t feel like it was my place to explain his family dynamics to her.

  “He did. It wasn’t his fault.”

  She shook her head and her white-blond hair cascaded around her, drawing the attention of the guys at the table across the bar. They had been casting questioning looks our way the entire night. I normally wasn’t above using a well-placed smile to score a free round or two, but now, with a certain rocker in the picture, that just didn’t seem right.

  “It’s never their fault, believe me. I’ve heard Rule say that over and over again.”

  Cora rolled her expressive eyes and leaned back in her chair. “That’s because those boys scream sex and sin and a whole lot of fun, and no one ever holds them responsible for being a bunch of jackasses most of the time.”

  “This time the jackassary really wasn’t Jet’s fault. He was a victim of circumstance.”

  She turned to look at me and I tried really hard not to squirm.

  “I can hear him sing to you at night, you know.”

  I felt heat flood into my face. I really wanted to change the subject, but I knew that probably wasn’t going to be an option. I tried to shrug nonchalantly.

  “He has a beautiful voice.”

  “Yes, he does, but he never used it like that before you started sleeping in his room.”

  I rested a hand on my throat and refused to meet her gaze. “You know, one of these days you’re going to stumble into a guy who’s going to knock you sideways, and it’s going to be our turn to be all up in your face with the annoying and obvious.”

  Shaw lifted both her eyebrows and nodded. “Oh boy, I so can’t wait for that.”

  Cora fluttered one of her small hands in the air in front of her. “You won’t have to point anything out to me because I’m holding out for perfection.”

  Shaw and I shared a look and then both of us gaped at her. Shaw was the one who sputtered, “You have to be kidding me.”

  Cora shook her head. “No, I’m not.”

  “There is no such thing as perfect, Cora. Look at Adam. Good-looking, sweet as could be, amazing future all lined up in front of him, not to mention we had tons in common and I actually really enjoyed his company. None of that matters, because he didn’t do a goddamn thing for me, and all Jet has to do is look at me, grin a little tiny bit, and I’m ready to jump him and combust on impact.”

  Shaw nodded vigorously. “My version of perfect tried to beat me within an inch of my life and rape me. There is no such thing, girl. You’re only going to be disappointed.”

  She waved us off and reached for her beer. “Jimmy broke my heart, smashed it into a hundred million little pieces. I never knew anything could hurt that bad until I found him with that girl. I’m never going through that again. I’m holding out for the guy who is perfect—no issues, no drama, and no history of emotional unavailability or instability. There has to be someone out there who just fits the bill.”

  She pointed a finger at me. “And Adam wore sweater vests, so clearly he wasn’t right for you.” She aimed the same finger at Shaw. “And you were in love with Rule forever, so even if everyone else thought crazy-pants was perfect, you always knew deep down inside that Rule was really the only one for you.”

  That made both of us lapse into silence, so I just sighed. “Cora, we love you, and yes, you are annoyingly right most of the time, but I just think in this case you are setting the standard too high.”

  She muttered something I didn’t hear and tried to lighten the conversation by
pointing out, “It’s not like most guys are going to pass muster with the Terrible Trio anyway. They’re a hundred times worse than a dad with a shotgun.”

  We all burst into raucous laughter that had Shaw wiping tears out her eyes. “Aaw. The big bad tattoo artists just love their little pixie.”

  Cora scowled and threw a damp cocktail napkin at her, which had Shaw in turn flick her straw wrapper at her. Since we were morphing into kindergartners, I decided it was time to take a trip to the restroom. We had opted for the dive bar, so I had on my cowboy boots and a denim skirt with a tight black T-shirt that had the Jack Daniel’s logo on it on. It was cute, but low-key, and I was glad I wasn’t trying to navigate between tables and chairs in heels, considering I was wobbly at best.

  The bathroom was gross, so I took care of business as fast as I could and scrubbed my hands like I was getting ready for surgery. I was slicking on a layer of lip gloss and trying to ascertain just how drunk I was by touching the tip of my nose with my index finger, when the door to the small room rattled. I jumped away from the mirror, and hollered that I would be out in a minute, but that didn’t deter whoever was trying to get in. Had I been sober, I probably would have been way more freaked out. As it was, when the shabby knob finally gave up the fight and the figure crowded into the room with me, it was all I could do to muster up some startled surprise.

  I most definitely hadn’t been expecting the lurking stranger that I had seen around my neighborhood, the man who I was sure had tried to manhandle Cora, to appear in this gross bathroom and be instantly up in my face. He grabbed my shoulders and shoved me against the sink. Now that only a fraction of space separated us, I no longer had a hard time placing him.

  “Silas.”

  I said it like people said the word cancer, which is really what he was. Silas Anderson was all the bad things to all the bad people, and if he was who my brother was running from, then whatever Asa had told me was only half the story. The reason I hadn’t recognized him earlier was that life clearly had not been kind to him since I left Woodward. He was a year older than Asa but looked like he was fifty. His skin was gross and taunt, his eyes wild and sunken, and his once decent hair hung stringy and oily around an ugly face. It was hard to believe that at one point, this guy had been considered a catch. It was equally hard to believe that at one point, I hadn’t considered sleeping with him to be all that bad of a chore, if it kept him off my brother’s back. Now, the idea made my stomach lurch and my head spin.

  “Where’s the book, Ayd? I know Asa is here. I knew that pussy couldn’t resist running to you to fix his shit, like always. I need that book back now.”

  I tried to shake him off, but the space was too small and he was fueled by desperation and panic.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” My teeth clicked together hard when he started to shake me.

  “I don’t know what your idiot brother told you, but this isn’t small-time stuff he stumbled into. If he doesn’t give the book back, these people won’t just kill him, they’ll take out their anger on your ma and then they’ll come after you.”

  I got a hand on his chest and shoved him back enough so that I could wiggle toward the door.

  “What are you talking about? Asa told me he owes someone twenty grand for something he took.”

  Silas barked a laugh that made my skin crawl. “No way. That moron jacked the little black book from one of the local MCs. It has the totals due and money owed from anyone and everyone over most of the fucking south. I don’t know what he thought he was going to do with it, but now he has everyone and their goddamn mother on his ass to get it back. You know he’ll sell you out faster than a greased pig to get out of this mess, Ayd. Just tell me where it is.”

  “Did you try to break into my house?”

  He looked around the room and his eyes were buggy and wild. “Little bitch almost Tasered me in the nuts.”

  “You’re lucky she didn’t shoot you. She’s from Brooklyn, and she doesn’t mess around.”

  “Stop avoiding the question. I know he’s here. I followed you around for days waiting for him to ask you to make it all better. Just like he always did.”

  I tried not to convulse in disgust when his eyes raked over me from head to toe.

  “I don’t do that for him anymore, any of it. This is his mess to clean up.” I made sure my point was clear. “I don’t know where he is and I don’t know anything about a book.”

  Silas swore and I jumped when his meaty fist smashed into the dingy mirror over the sink, shattering it into a shower of glass bits.

  “This isn’t a game, Ayd. This is a bunch of pissed-off bikers who run drugs and guns, and they have no problem putting your entire family in the ground in the backwoods if it suits them. Asa screwed the pooch and I’m just trying to minimize the damage.”

  “By following me? By scaring the crap out of my roommate and trying to break into my house? This isn’t Woodward. None of that is going to fly here.”

  I pulled the door open and glared at him over my shoulder. “I’ll talk to Asa. If I can get him to hand that book over, you better make sure nothing happens to my mama. But chances are he already did something stupid with it and he lied about needing the twenty grand so he could disappear. This is Asa, you know what he’s capable of.”

  Silas’s gummy eyes skirted over me from the top of my head to the worn toes of my boots. “So do you, Ayd, and if you think for one hot second that piece of shit would be above selling your fine ass to an MC, if it meant keeping his own skin safe, than you’re dead wrong and that fancy college didn’t teach you shit.”

  I walked out the door shaking from the inside out. I had tried so hard to keep the past from interfering with my new life, tried so hard to forget about the things I’d done and the way I had lived, but it seemed like fate was bound and determined to keep right on cramming it down my throat. At that moment, I could say in all honesty that I hated my brother, hated everything he represented, and yet I was still going to have to try to figure out a way to keep him breathing. It grated that I couldn’t just let him hang from the noose of his own stupidity and greed.

  When I got back to the table, I wasn’t at all surprised to see that we had visitors. Shaw was sitting on Rule’s lap while he finished her beer, and Jet had taken up post in the seat I had recently vacated. They were all laughing at something Cora was saying, and I felt my heart sink. This was the family I had always wanted. These were the people who I could count on, who would love me through the good and the bad and not ask a thing of me in return, and all I had done was fool them into thinking I was worth more than I actually ever was.

  Jet’s dark gaze found mine and I tried to force a smile. There were so many questions shining out of those dark depths. I wished so badly that I could just answer a single one of them. I stopped at his side and smiled for real when his hand curled around my hip.

  “What’s going on?”

  “We were hanging out at Rule’s when Shaw called in an SOS. I figured since I was close by I could just scoop you two knuckleheads up and take you home, so you didn’t have to wait for a cab.”

  It was sweet; he was sweet, and so ridiculously hot. Man, oh man, was he hot. His black hair was standing all over the place like it tended to do and he had on a tight, black long-sleeved T-shirt with a pentagram and cow skull on it. I’m sure it was some band logo that I had never heard of, but it looked good on him, almost as good as those painted-on black jeans he liked to wear, which were tucked into the top of his unlaced combat boots. I liked everything about him, from the silver rings on every finger to the devil spikes at the top of each ear. He looked like a rock star and I knew firsthand that those skills extended way beyond the stage. I licked my lips and felt his fingers press even harder into the soft skin on my hip.

  “Well, that was awfully nice of you.”

  I didn’t want to think about Asa, or Silas, or my mom. All I wanted to do was get somewhere alone with him and let him make me forget ever
ything. I could fall asleep with him singing in my ear, and pretend that everything would be all right.

  Rule laughed and lifted one of his dark eyebrows. The barbells made him looked wicked and sinister, and I had no trouble seeing why Shaw had been his for the taking for so long.

  “You don’t have to thank us. It’s totally to our benefit that you’re all liquored up and ready to get down to business. I told Jet on the way over, girls’ night out is one of my favorite nights of the week. Shaw always comes back ready to play.”

  She gasped in outrage and smacked him on the forearm. The guys shared a laugh and I couldn’t help but grin when she turned hot pink under the scrutiny. Playing with Jet, drunk or sober, sounded like a whole lot more fun than hanging out in the bar, so I tried to catch his eye and indicate anytime he was ready, so was I. Cora ordered one more round of shots and by the time we finished them it was way past time to go. She was draped over Jet and me, and he had to fold her small frame into the back of the Challenger. He gave us both a level look and warned that if we puked in his baby, we were cleaning it up, wasted or not. Cora found that hilarious and laughed and laughed, until I heard her gasping for air.

  Jet let out a low whistle, and honked the horn when we drove past Rule’s massive truck. I saw Rule flip him the bird, but it in no way deterred him from whatever he was doing to Shaw. He had her pressed up against the driver’s door with her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.

  I tried not to wince when the music came blasting out of the speakers. It was so loud and so violent sounding, and I hated that it was what he related to. He turned it down with a shrug.

  “Wolves in the Throne Room.”

  “What kind of name is that for a band?”

  He shot me a look out of the corner of his eye. “An awesome one.”

  I snorted and settled back into the seat. We were never going to see eye to eye on musical preferences, just like I was never going to ask him to go line dancing. Plus, if he ever tried to drag me into a mosh pit, I was going to strangle him. It was a good thing we connected on so many other levels.