The Edge of Heaven (Broken Wings Duet Book 2)

by Gia Riley

  That was too easy. So easy that I hesitate, like I’m about to be hauled away by security for lying. If I was able to make something up on the fly, imagine what a little planning could do. Anyone could be sitting in that room with Winnie right now, pretending to be her father.

  Stay cool, Jasper.

  Another couple of steps, and I hear a man’s voice. He’s sitting on the edge of her bed, holding her hand and stroking her cheek with the back of his finger. The words become whispers, and I think he might be crying.

  If I didn’t want to see Winnie so badly, I’d probably turn around and disappear. But I’ve waited too long, and she means too much to me to give up now.

  He doesn’t notice me at first, and when I have the courage, I clear my throat and say, “Trey.”

  Without turning around, he keeps ahold of Winnie’s hand and says, “It took you long enough.”

  For a couple of minutes, Winnie’s heartbeat is the only sound in the room. It’s the most amazing sound I’ve ever heard. Each beep is a reminder of how close she came to death. How close she still might be to leaving me.

  But, for now, I still have her. And I won’t let go, even with Trey a foot away from me, claiming her as his own.

  Five

  Trey

  I knew Jasper would show up. I’ve been watching the two of them for weeks, wondering if what Winnie feels for him is stronger than her feelings for me. I’ve seen little nudges and comfortable laughs that seemed to be lifting her carefully constructed walls. She doesn’t let anyone in, but if he keeps it up, it will only be a matter of time until Winnie falls for Jasper. I’ll lose her, and that realization stings almost as bad as seeing her in this hospital bed.

  I’ve always known Winnie is special. Night after night, I doubt that I can ever be good enough for her. Each time I came close to telling her how I felt, I would tell myself to do the right thing and let her go. But the thought of being with anyone else makes me want to kick holes in the wall.

  Right or wrong, acceptable or damning, Winnie already belongs to me. She knows it. I know it, and soon, the rest of the world will know it, too. Once I say the words, Jasper will be removed from the equation because she’d never jump into his arms the way she leaps into mine. They don’t share a history as deep as ours.

  Jasper wouldn’t take a bullet for her. He wouldn’t spend his nights following her around and go without sleep to make sure every person who came in and out of her trailer left her alone. He’s never even been on the other side of the front door. But I know where she’s slept, how little she eats, what she does at school, and how she’s cried herself to sleep at night. Winnie thinks she is all alone. She feels like nobody cares. But I would give my life for hers.

  Winnie’s soul captured me long before her looks. The years separating us mean nothing to me. Because, when I lock eyes with this beautiful girl, all I see is passion, fire, and fury. What we have isn’t toxic. I’m not some grown-ass man preying on someone half his age. I’m in love. I care. Maybe I care too much. But I won’t apologize for it.

  “You can relax,” I tell Jasper. “She’s gonna be fine.”

  Jasper swallows and then wipes his forehead with the back of his hand. “I thought she was dead. There was so much blood, and I couldn’t get close to her.”

  I was with her, but I didn’t stick around to watch the pool of blood grow. For that reason alone, Jasper’s a better man at seventeen than I’ll ever be. But my life is complicated, and Winnie understands that I have reasons for everything I do. When she wakes up, she’ll take another blow. But it won’t be forever.

  “Can I…can I talk to her for a minute?” he asks in a voice that’s a couple of octaves higher than it was a minute ago.

  He’s intimidated by me, as he should be, but he loves Winnie, and that’s one thing I really can’t fault him for. She’s easy to love.

  “Go ahead,” I tell him. “Say what you need to say.” I’m not leaving. Not yet.

  Jasper takes a step closer to Winnie’s bed and then another. He clears his throat. I wait for him to speak.

  He’s staring at Winnie when I ask, “What’d you tell them?”

  He glances at me and then back to Winnie. “The nurses?” he asks.

  “Yeah.” I need to know what he said in case they stop me when I leave. If our stories don’t match, they’ll know one of us is lying.

  “I told them I was her brother. I-I didn’t know what else to do. They weren’t going to let me in.” He sits next to Winnie and inches his hand closer to hers.

  He lied, same as I did. Maybe I haven’t given Jasper enough credit.

  “I get it,” I tell him.

  And then I turn and look out the window. Because seeing him sitting next to Winnie, holding her hand the same way I was, eats me alive.

  “Winnie,” he whispers, “I’m sorry. I should have followed you. If you’d just waited for me, we could have gone to The Whip together. It would be me in this bed. Not you.”

  I’m not sure how much Winnie can hear or if she can hear us at all, but I watch the monitors, waiting for her numbers to spike. They stay even, but when I glance at their joined hands, one of her fingers moves the slightest bit. Winnie knows Jasper’s here, and it hurts like hell that I didn’t get a reaction like that while I was holding her.

  Jasper notices the movement, too, and leans forward to kiss her forehead. “I’m here, Winnie. I won’t leave this hospital until you’re walking out beside me.”

  His words tighten my chest. So does the reality that she might be in love with Jasper.

  I can’t make the kind of promises he’s making. Winnie’s recovery will take time—weeks, maybe even months—and I’ll be lucky to stay another hour. I’ve already been here too long. If the boss tracks me, I’ll never see Winnie again. He doesn’t like distractions and always takes the important things first. That’s why, if I’m going to keep Winnie safe, I’ll need Jasper’s help.

  “Jasper, come here a minute.”

  He’s reluctant to let go of Winnie’s hand, but he gently lays it flat on her stomach and stands. “I’m not leaving yet, Trey. I want to be here when she wakes up.”

  “I’m not asking you to leave. Just listen to me for a minute,” I tell him.

  “I’m listening,” he says.

  God, he reminds me a lot of myself when I was his age—persistent as hell and determined. That’s exactly who I need him to be right now.

  “We need to strike a deal, Jasper.”

  “What do you mean?” he asks. “I told you, I’m not leaving Winnie.”

  He stands a little taller, and his fists clench at his sides. I get it. Even though I don’t want to accept the fact that he gives a shit about Winnie, I understand the fight inside him. I’ve been feeling the same thing for months.

  “Keep your voice down,” I tell him. “If you get thrown out, this won’t work.”

  “What won’t work?”

  “I want you to stay in this hospital, and I don’t want you to leave for anyone or anything. No matter who tries to force you out, you say whatever you need to say to stay.”

  His eyes narrow, and he crosses his arms over his chest. I almost laugh.

  “What’s your angle, Trey?”

  “No angle.”

  I always have an agenda, but today, I can’t be bothered with schemes and ploys. Because, once I walk out of here, Jasper’s my only remaining link to Winnie. After I’m gone, I’ll need Jasper to trust me enough to feed me information.

  “Then, what do you want from me? Besides staying.”

  “Give me your phone.”

  He digs it out of his back pocket and hands it to me. I swipe across the screen and roll my eyes when I see it’s password protected.

  “Password?”

  He blinks, and his face turns bright red.

  “Winnie?” I ask.

  “Yeah,” he says and then quickly shifts his eyes to the floor.

  I type her name in, smirking the whole time. “That’s a
little bit pathetic. You know that, right?”

  “I didn’t ask for your opinion, Trey.”

  Once my name and number are in his Contacts, I call myself so that I have his. Before I hand it back, I give him the only warning he’ll get. “When I call, you’ll answer. And, when I text, you’ll respond immediately. Those are my conditions.”

  “Conditions for what?”

  “For letting you stay with her. I need someone I can rely on. Right now, that’s you.”

  “And if I don’t do it?”

  My knuckles ache, and my joints burn. Jasper could use a warning about what’d happen if he tried to cross me, but punching him would only get us both kicked out. Instead, I take a deep breath and remind myself to stay cool for Winnie.

  “You’ll do it because it’s what’s best for Winnie. You want her safe, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” he whispers.

  “Good.”

  I walk back to the bed and stroke my finger down the side of Winnie’s cheek. Her skin is still so pale, and when I reach for her hand, I watch her fingers. They don’t move like they did when Jasper was holding her. The heart monitor stays at an even seventy-eight beats per minute, and her chest rises and falls in the same steady rhythm.

  “I’ll see you when you get out of here, Winn. Wherever you end up, I promise I’ll find you.” Without another glance at Jasper, I leave the room, hating that I’m stuck working in a job that could get me killed before I see her again. Hating that I can’t sit next to her bed until she wakes up. Hating myself. Hating Jasper. Hating my life.

  And then I do something I’ve never done before. I pray. I pray that, while I’m gone, Winnie doesn’t hate me for leaving.

  Six

  Jasper

  It’s been a long night, and I had to leave for a little while this morning when they took Winnie’s breathing tube out. I thought, when I saw her again, she’d be awake, but she hasn’t woken up yet.

  I’ve checked my phone a hundred times in the last hour, waiting for one of Trey’s texts. But there’s been no communication since he left last night. He’s probably sleeping while I stayed awake, afraid that, if I missed a message, he’d come back here and take me away from Winnie. Maybe that’s what he wanted—to scare me enough to keep me here. He didn’t need to do that though. I made him a promise, and breaking it would only hurt Winnie.

  So far, the nurses have been nice, and I think they feel sorry for me because they keep asking if I’m hungry or if I want to lie down and rest. When I say I’m fine, they make little comments, ones about me being a good brother and how Winnie’s so lucky to have me. At first, I felt guilty, but after I got caught holding Winnie’s hand and kissing her forehead, I realized they probably knew I was lying. But, if they have figured me out, at least they haven’t asked me to leave yet.

  Little whimpers almost knock me out of my chair, and I look up from my phone just in time to see Winnie’s eyes open. She blinks a couple of times, and I grab her hand.

  “Good morning, beautiful.”

  She swallows, wincing as she tries to lick her lips.

  “Don’t move. I have to get the nurse,” I tell her with a half-smile on my face. I’m afraid she’ll fall back asleep if I stop looking at her.

  “My throat hurts,” she whispers.

  “You had a tube in it. But you’re okay now.”

  She closes her eyes and then opens them again. “How long have I been asleep?” She looks around the room and then back at me.

  “Almost two days. Do you remember what happened?”

  “I-I remember the burn. Nothing after that.”

  I bury my face in my hands, hating that she knows what it feels like to be shot. The last time she sounded this scared, she was on my bedroom floor, curled into a ball. When she climbed into my bed that night, I swore, that was as bad as it would ever get for her. But I was wrong. This is so much worse.

  “Is Tess here?” she asks.

  This time, I’m the one struggling to swallow. She doesn’t remember anything after getting shot, so she doesn’t know that Tess and Jax were taken away in handcuffs.

  “Winnie, Tess is in jail. She’s the one who did this to you.”

  “No, it wasn’t her, Jasper. She was holding the gun, but it wasn’t hers. Jax took it from her, and then he shot me. Tess didn’t do it. I remember everything.”

  The monitor beside the bed starts making the most obnoxious noises, and a nurse is by her bedside before I can get up to find someone. She presses some buttons, checks her IV, and then holds her stethoscope up to Winnie’s chest. She moves it around a couple of times and says nothing.

  When the silence is practically deafening, another woman dressed in a business suit, carrying a clipboard, enters the room. Winnie takes her eyes off the nurse, and without a single spoken word, she knows what’s coming.

  “Tess didn’t do it,” she says again. “She’ll be here soon to take me home. Right, Jasper?”

  “I’m not an officer,” the woman tells her. “I’m a social worker. I didn’t realize you were awake. I was just dropping some papers off with your nurse.”

  Winnie’s not ready for this. She’s been awake for five minutes, and already, tears are leaking from the corners of her eyes.

  “It’s okay, Winnie. Just breathe,” the nurse tells her. “I’ll get you something to help calm you down.”

  “I don’t want drugs,” she says. “Tell her, Jasper. Tell her it was Jax.”

  I can’t lie. I won’t lie. But I promised Trey I’d keep Winnie safe. Winnie’s pleading eyes win me over, and I try—for her.

  “Jax was there. He was with Tess.” It’s as close as I can get to giving her what she wants without lying.

  But it’s not good enough.

  Winnie’s tears fall harder, and she clutches the blankets like they’re about to be ripped away from her.

  “Tell them, Jasper,” she begs. “I want to go home.”

  Winnie hates home. Her begging for it means she’s scared. And I have no idea what to say to make her feel better. I thought she’d wake up, and we’d have time to talk. I was even going to tell her that Trey was here. But, now, the nurse is guiding me toward the hallway, and all I can do is go where I’m being told to go.

  “I’m not leaving,” I tell the nurse.

  “You don’t have to go home, but the social worker needs some time with Winnie. They have a lot to discuss,” she says. “You can sit at my station with me and go back in as soon as they’re finished talking.”

  Just as I sit down, my phone lights up with a text from Trey. I stare at it for a few seconds and then open it. He’s not going to like what I’m about to say.

  Seven

  Winnie

  The door closes, and I’m left all alone with this woman. She hasn’t even introduced herself yet, and I hate her. The way she eyes me like she cares even though she’s about to rip what’s left of my heart out makes me want to run. But I can’t get out of bed because I’m attached to a bunch of wires and machines.

  I glance at my body, wondering how hard it would be to move. Can I move? I don’t even know if I can walk, so I wiggle my toes, and when they move, I breathe a sigh of relief. The rest of me though just aches. But, when I lift my arm and get a good look at the needle going in my vein, my stomach rolls, and I gag.

  She grabs the pink plastic bucket sitting on the tray table next to me and shoves it underneath my chin. I heave into it, and it’s like being shot all over again. This time, I can’t escape the pain though. I feel it through every nerve ending, and though it’s intense, I don’t pass out like I did in the parking lot. All I can do is close my eyes and try to breathe. When I do, images of my dad hunched over against the wall with a needle sticking out of his arm flash beneath my lids.

  The woman’s voice gets carried further and further away until it disappears entirely. The machines stop beeping, and the lights from the hallway darken. Either I’m dying or having a panic attack. Sometimes, I can’t tell the diff
erence, so I rest my head against my pillow and let my mind control my body. It’s easier than fighting.

  Smoke from the ashtray weaved its way toward the ceiling. I followed the ghostly path until it vanished. Each sizzle of the white paper covering the tobacco sent more smoke into the air. If it burned long enough, it would eventually go out, but another would take its place. They didn’t smoke the cigarettes once they got high. They just lit them and watched them burn. I didn’t know what was so fascinating about wasting a ton of money, but they did it like it was some kind of ritual.

  “She’s watching us, Mick,” a deep voice says.

  I had never seen him before. Usually, it was always the same couple of people coming in and out of the house. Nobody ever cared where I was at or what I was doing. Not as long as I was out of the way. But the window in my bedroom was leaking again, and I needed something to catch the water. I tried to make it from the bedroom to the kitchen without being seen, but that was almost impossible since the kitchen was attached to the living room.

  Dad turned his head and smiled as I hurried by. “She’s going back to bed. Aren’t you, Winnie?”

  I nodded and grabbed the biggest bowl I could reach out of the cabinet. It wasn’t much more than a cereal bowl, and I’d have to stay awake to empty it before it got too full, but that was okay. I was used to staying up when the parties lasted until early morning.

  Once I was back in my room, I closed the door behind me and placed the bowl on the radiator under the leak. The drops fell slowly at first, and then as the rain picked up, I watched them hit the plastic faster. With only a thin nightgown to keep me warm, I climbed under the covers and watched from there.

  I guessed I had done a bad job of staying awake because, when I opened my eyes, the bowl was nearly full, and there was someone standing next to my bed, watching me sleep. I couldn’t tell if he had seen me move or not, so I made sure to stay as still as I could.

  “You awake, beautiful girl?” he whispered.

  His whisper was more like a grunt, and it made me feel icky.