“Why is she so still?”
“She is in a coma, Mr. Michaels.” Dr. Silstein stuffed a hand in his lab coat and smiled in what Jax presumed was meant to be a reassuring manner. “It’s the body’s way of healing itself. It’s her best shot.”
“Dr. Silstein.” Jax made himself stare the doctor in the eye. “Give it to me straight. How likely is it that she’s going to make a full recovery?”
The doctor hesitated. His moustache, a thick caterpillar, quivered as he exhaled. “Slim to none, Mr. Michaels. But we’re doing all we can.”
Jax’s jaw hardened. His throat was burning, but he managed a nod to the doctor. “Thanks.”
“If you don’t mind waiting outside, we still have a few more tests.”
Jax flicked a look at the man and nodded. He walked forward and grasped Charlie’s limp hand from where it rested on the white hospital sheets. He pressed it to his mouth, shuddering at how cold she felt. The faint scent of vanilla floated to him.
He could almost hear Charlie telling him to get off, to stop behaving like such a sap. The burn in his throat increased.
Without looking at the doctor, he let go of Charlie’s hand and spun to walk out. As soon as he exited, the door shut behind him.
He thrust two hands through his hair, feeling the strands he was trying to hold together unravel. How could this be happening? She was so alive with energy. How could that still, deathlike figure in that bed be his Charlie?
His nails cut into his palms from where he balled his fists. He pressed them against the wall and leaned in, touching his forehead to the hard surface. Fierce rage with no target roared like a wave inside him, cresting at his heart.
A cart nearby rocketed off down the hall to crash into a wall. It fell to its side in a noisy clatter.
Jax smashed a fist against the wall, pain ripping through his knuckles as they split open. He hit the wall over and over and over again, aching, fighting to let the pain out, to let the senseless rage and fear soak out of him, but it only bred more until plaster coated the ground like fallen snow.
“Jax.” Kate’s trembling voice reached through to him.
He stopped, chest heaving, and turned.
With one step, he had his arms around Kate. She didn’t say a word, only shook against him as she sobbed once against his chest. His knuckles dripped blood as she pulled back.
“What do the doctors say?” Her eyes were brimming with tears, her hair pulled back in a rough ponytail. She wore a long coat over cupcake pajamas and pink galoshes. She was past blushing now.
“It’s bad, Kate.” His voice was strained, every word an effort to push past the lump in his throat.
Her lips pressed together and she swallowed another sob. “Is she . . . ?”
All around them life went on as normal. How could life be happening when Charlie was dying in that very room?
Jax spun and kicked the wall again. Sparks of magic flew, cutting into the wall with laser-like viciousness. A yell rose from his throat, like a scream, as he tore into the plaster.
“Jax. Jax.” Kate’s hand pressed into his arm. “This isn’t helping.”
He flattened his hands on the wall, uncaring of people’s whispers and stares. “I can’t do anything,” he rasped. “She’s dying, and I can’t do anything.”
“You’re a Genie.” Kate stepped to the side, her eyes wide and pleading. “Can’t you do some sort of magic?”
His eyes closed against a wave of despair. “There’s a clause in my contract that forbids that kind of power. Even if I was strong enough.”
“What about that man? Luka. Isn’t he powerful?” Kate let out a breath that came close to a wail. “He was supposed to be watching out for her.”
Jax just shook his head. No Genie had the power over life and death with mortals. There had to be a line somewhere.
There was no hope for Charlie. Unless mortal medicine could save her, she would . . .
But he couldn’t think the word.
A commotion brought his eyes to the entrance of the ward, and a woman in a lime-green bobble hat and a contrasting orange trench coat rushed in.
Without a word, Mabel launched into his arms. “Oh, Jackson. I’m so sorry. I just heard.”
He buried his face in her neck as his shoulders shook once.
Her hands smoothed his back as she held him tight to her. “What did the doctors say?”
“She’s . . .” Jax shook his head and pulled away. He closed his eyes and then said, “She’s dying, May.”
“No.” Mabel folded her arms. “There’s always a way.”
Temper flashed through him. “Fucking drop the Mary Sunshine act,” he snapped. “Thinking positive isn’t going to mend bones and fix her brain.”
“You’re a Genie,” she insisted. “You must know someone who can fix this.”
Jax opened his mouth to answer when a whole lot of alarms suddenly blared from inside Charlie’s room. The bottom fell out of his stomach as nurses and doctors rushed in, all talking in medical-ese and all with tight, pinched looks on their faces.
He pushed past Mabel, grabbing one of them. “What’s going on?”
“Sir, you’re going to have to wait outside.”
“Get the paddles—she’s coding.”
Jax’s heart seized as the flatline sounded. Breath choked in his throat.
Mabel slipped her hand into his. “Easy,” she murmured. “She’s a fighter, Jax.”
He held on to that as the alarms continued to blare and the chatter garbled until it all blurred together.
Fifteen minutes later, they all trooped out of Charlie’s room.
Jax didn’t even look at Dr. Silstein, terrified at what he would see on the doctor’s face. “Is she . . . ?”
“She’s still alive. For now.” A sigh dropped from the doctor. He rubbed the back of his neck. “Honestly, though? I think you’d better go in and say your good-byes. Her heart stopped for five minutes. A minute longer and we’d be looking at brain damage. If it stops again, we might not get it started.”
The burning in his throat spread through his head, blurring his thoughts until all he could hear was his own heartbeat. He managed a nod at the doctor and pulled his hands down his face.
“Jax. You want to go in with me?” Kate was crying, silent tears tracking down her face.
He couldn’t. He couldn’t say good-bye.
Fury erupted into a mindless monster, intent on lashing out at someone. “He’s going to fucking do something.”
“Who?” Mabel frowned. Her hand reached out as if to stop him. “Jackson, don’t do anything stupid.”
His stomach churned with acid-drenched flames. He turned his face away and flashed out of the ward.
23.
Jax went for Luka like a racehorse out of the gate, arms locking around his waist as he drove him down onto the Director’s carpet. He got in one satisfying punch before he was blasted backward into the wall. When he hit, his breath whooshed out of him.
Wiping away a bead of blood that dripped from a cut near his eye, Luka eyed Jax with a pained expression. “She’s dead?”
Pain at his heart, gripping his heart, his lungs, everything in a vise. “You were supposed to be watching her.” He threw out his hand and let loose the fireball he’d hidden in his palm.
Before Luka could do a thing, the fire iced into a frozen ball. It thunked to the carpet. Jax was launched into the air by an invisible force, slamming into the wall, suspended against it. His feet kicked without hope of getting free. He glared at the Director.
Clare returned her hand to her side. Her face was the perfect blank mask as she said, “Explain.”
Luka shoved his hands into his jacket pockets, ignoring her. “I was watching her,” he bit out. “But I’m not your lapdog and it’s obvious your gang member wasn’t coming after her—especially since WFY relinquished her claim to a wish.”
No, he needed someone to blame, needed a target. Like Charlie, if he couldn’t fight so
mething, what was there left to do?
He couldn’t say good-bye.
“Any reason why she was in Massachusetts, Jax?” Clare stared at him.
“What the hell does it matter?” Jax slashed out with his feet, knocking his head back against the wall. “She’s dying.”
“Dying?” Luka’s head shot up like a dog that had just scented something. “She isn’t dead yet?”
Bleakness washed over Jax’s soul as he finally gave in. “She might as well be.”
Clare glanced away, and the invisible hands holding him dropped. Jax slid to the floor, thumping to the ground. He didn’t move.
“She thinks Genies, their wishes, are corrupt.” He stared at the carpet. “She was on her way back from seeing a woman whose life was destroyed by a Genie. Jared.”
“Jared.” Clare’s voice was arctic. Jax glanced up just as she angled her head toward Luka. “I thought we’d heard from the last of his victims ten years ago.”
“What?” Jax was slowly becoming encased by numbing cotton wool, losing the will to care.
Luka pierced him with a look. “WFY knows about Jared. He did his ‘deals’ for years before his assistant finally came forward. Didn’t you ever wonder why he suddenly resigned? Why he was pensioned off without ceremony?”
“We compensated all of his victims, wiped the files, but there’s obviously been a leak if Ms. Donahue found out.” Clare walked around her desk and made a note on her pad of paper. “I’ll have Gregor see to it.”
Jax kept the fact that he’d stolen files to himself. “So it was all for nothing. She pushed herself to prove to me that Genies aren’t completely good, and killed herself trying.”
“Nobody’s completely good, Jax.” Luka ran a hand across his face. His stubble washed away like dirt under a shimmer of magic. “Why do you think we have an internal investigations department? When you have power, you have to know where to draw the line.”
Jax stared dully at his Handler. He didn’t really care. “Why did you send me away from her?”
“Your feelings for her were affecting your job. We had to do something to calm you down.”
“I don’t . . .” He inhaled. “I don’t even care anymore.”
“Jax, listen to me.” Luka stepped forward, one hand half-raised. “Charlie isn’t dead yet?”
“Why do you keep asking?” Jax’s blood simmered again, thirsty for a fight. “Do you enjoy rubbing salt into the wound? Not everything’s a joke, Luc.”
“I’m not . . . Never mind.” Luka shook his head. His eyes gleamed silver. “If she’s not dead, there’s hope.”
“I need a miracle.” Jax pressed his lips together. He didn’t know what to do, what to be. He just wanted to wake from this nightmare. His heart punctured, oozing blood as the image of Charlie in the hospital bed floated across his mind in slow, detailed motion.
“It’s a shame you already used your own wish from the Partners.” When Jax glared at him, Luka lifted a shoulder. He perched on the arm of the white couch, hands resting between his legs. “I’m just saying, their magic is the strongest in the world. And a pure wish, a selfless wish, could have tremendous power.”
Jax blinked at him. An idea rose in his mind, sharp in its ability to drag hope across his heart. His stomach twisted. If this didn’t work . . .
It wasn’t as though Charlie would be worse off if it didn’t.
Jax pulled his eyes away from the floor and stared back at Luka. His voice was tense with pain as he said, “If she dies, I quit.”
He flashed out.
* * *
“Damn it.” Luka swore. His gut remained in knots from Jax’s torn-open expression. He’d never seen somebody look so devastated. “Just when I think there’s nobody left, another damn victim pops up like a weasel.”
“Luka.”
“I mean, how far did the guy get? His victims are still cropping up—you’d think he wouldn’t be able to get to that many people. Corrupting that many wishes.”
“Luka.”
“That man died, Clare. After he got his dream car. And Jared enjoyed it.” Luka bared his teeth, manifesting a glass of whiskey. He tossed it back. “The jewelry heist? Pure luck she didn’t get shot. The Genie was a sadist, and we let him have his pick of prey. Thank God we’ve never had one like him over here. That we know of,” he added darkly.
“Handler Luka.” Clare’s tone was warning.
“You know Jax stole the files, right? I’ll have him put them back before the Partners find out and reprimand him.” He rubbed his jaw. “Can’t believe he stole files for her. Must be love.”
Clare rapped her knuckles on the desk. “Luc.”
“Blondie?” His eyebrows rose in question.
“I know what you’re doing.”
Luka sighed and combed a hand through his hair. He rubbed his eyebrow. “It’s his only chance, Clare.”
“They won’t thank you for it.”
“Let me handle them.” Luka folded his arms across his chest. “Jax deserves to be happy.”
She descended into her chair and folded her hands together. “You sound like a sloppy fool.”
“It’s just good business. A happy employee is a productive employee.”
Her eyebrows rose, but she kept her thoughts on the matter to herself. With one caveat. “What were you saying about Jared’s corrupted wishes, Handler?”
His smile was bland. “Nothing, Director. We know nothing.”
* * *
Jax ended the call to Kate as Lisette hurried over to him in her heels. The click-clack pounded in his head as he looked at her in question. “Well?”
“It’s a go. The producer thinks it’ll bring in a huge crowd.”
“It had better. It’s my only shot.”
Lisette’s face crumpled in sympathy, and she ran a hand down Jax’s arm. He was still in the suit he’d worn to the interview however many hours ago. His system was screwed up from travel, his mouth was dry, his heart was on the brink of bursting, and sickness churned in his stomach from hope.
“How is she?” Lisette tilted her head, looking as though she actually gave a damn.
“Alive.” Jax looked around as the audience began to pour in. His throat burned. “How long till showtime?”
“Twenty minutes.” At his look, she pressed her lips together. “It’s the shortest time we can get rolling in.” And considering the network was doing him a favor by throwing a special show together at the last minute, a damn miracle.
Jax ignored the curious glances of the audience and ran a shaking hand down his face. “Fine.” He dropped onto the couch, waving away the clucking makeup artist. Jax knew he must look like a bum. His eyes when he’d last checked were red with exhaustion and fear, his face gaunt, his lips chapped, and his hair was standing on end from the amount of times he’d shoved a hand through it. He didn’t give a shit. All he wanted was to get this plan rolling.
His leg jiggled as he pressed a hand to his burning eyes.
Kate had said Charlie was holding on. She’d said she thought Charlie was holding on to say good-bye to him. Tears had crowded her voice.
Never, Jax vowed. He would never stop fighting. And he prayed neither would Charlie.
Twenty minutes later, he swallowed as Lisette faced the camera. Her hair was perfectly coiled into a bun, her makeup as subdued as her expression as she began to talk. “Good evening. It’s a sad topic we open this special broadcast with tonight. You may have heard that Charlie Donahue, Jax Michaels’s girlfriend, crashed her car on the way back from visiting friends this morning. As we speak, she’s holding on to life with the thinnest of threads.” Lisette paused. For once, the atmosphere in the studio was grim, rippling with undertones of death. Jax stared at everybody in the audience, his hands gripping together so tightly his knuckles split again. Blood smeared his skin.
“Jax is here with us tonight.” She turned to him. “Jax?”
“Thank you, Lisette.” His voice was rough and quiet as he stood
and walked with grim determination to the exact center of the stage. Lights beamed down on him as he shoved his hands in his pockets. Silence thrummed with tension as he wet his lips.
“I know none of you know Charlie. I know that everybody at any given time has lost or is losing somebody that they love. I know that.” Jax let his eyes sweep over every face that he could see before he settled on the camera’s steady light. “I love Charlie more than my own life. She’s the finer half of my soul, the confidante, the lover. My lover.” He swallowed. “I have always felt something missing from my life, but never knew what until Charlie turned me down. Without her . . .” His throat closed until he almost couldn’t breathe. “Without her, life is a meaningless watercolor faded to gray.”
The audience murmured, someone quietly crying in the back.
“I’ve come to ask, to plead, to beg the Partners of WFY to grant her her life back.” Jax scrubbed his hands over his face. “It’s against the rules of the contract, against anything they’ve ever done before. But I am begging: please. Take from me, restore the balance however you can. But I beg you.” He stared through the camera at the Partners, wherever they might be. “I wish for Charlie to have her life back.”
There was no sound as he spun and walked off the stage.
24.
A slow, steady beep entered her consciousness first. She thought it was her alarm, and she tried to reach out to knock it off.
Pain ripped her side as she moved, a shocked gasp falling from her lips.
Something rustled, a presence by her bed. Warm, rough hands cupped hers. “Charlie?”
Jax.
Her eyelids fluttered, sticky and gritty. “Jax?” His name came out slurred.
“Don’t move.” Desperation rasped as his hands left hers. “I’m getting the doctor.”
She lapsed back into the black before he returned.
* * *
The next time she woke, she could open her eyes. They swept the room, touching on the generic, uncomfortable furniture, the metal bed with the white sheets she lay in, the TV in the corner playing old game shows.
Her Wish--A Playboy Genie Romance Page 28