Blood & Rust (Lock & Key #4) (58 page)

“
YOU LOOK BETTER,
Uncle B. Much better,” Wes said. He and Alicia stood next to me in my hospital room.

Boner and Dready stood on the other side of my bed.

“You’re okay, Wes? You’re not—” I moved to sit up, and my muscles pulled from somewhere deep inside.

“Relax, man,” said Boner, a hand on my shoulder.

“I’m good,” said Wes. “It was like I could hear you in my head, and I knew what I needed to do. We had each other’s backs. That’s what we do, right?”

“That’s what we do,” I said, my voice hoarse. “You’ve got good instincts, Wes. Your dad taught you well.”

Wes’s dark blue eyes were clear. He had a few scrapes and scratches on his face, but he was standing. He was good.

A small smile broke on his lips.

“Come here,” I said hoarsely.

Wes leaned down, and I took him in my arms. “Love you, Wes.”

“Love you, too,” he mumbled into my neck.

I released him. “Like I said, once I get out of here, you and me.”

“Yep.” Wes nodded, his lips pressed together.

Alicia touched my shoulder. “Thank you for keeping my son safe, for everything. It means the world to me.”

“You don’t have to thank me,” I replied.

“Oh, yes, I do.” Alicia’s voice snapped. “We all do. And thank God that Broken Blade showed up when he did.”

“What Blade?” My mind drew a blank.

“Pick, Lindy’s dad,” said Wes. “He killed that Flame. Otherwise—”

“You know his daughter?” Alicia turned to her son.

“Yeah, Ma,” replied Wes, his eyes sliding to me. “She’s a friend.”

“It’s all good,” Boner said. Pick was real cooperative. Everything’s sweet and clean.”

“Good to hear,” I said.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Tania stood in the doorway and took a step back out of the room, her face flushing.

Alicia turned around. “Come in, honey. We’re just going. Butler, we’ll see you when you get home.”

She went to Tania, and they chatted just outside the doorway.

“Oh, hey,” said Wes, turning to me. “I forgot to ask you. Before you blacked out, you kept calling me Stephan.”

“I did?”

“Yeah.”

My hand swept down my chest. “Stephan was my brother. He died when he was about your age.”

“Oh, sorry,” said Wes, his voice low. He gripped my forearm.

I covered his hand with mine. “You get some rest.”

“I will. See you, B.” Wes left the room, glancing back at me as he passed through the doorway.

I spoke with Boner and Dready for a few moments more, we said our goodbyes, and then they left. Tania stepped in and clicked the door shut.

My eyes held her full ones. Full of sadness, spilling with emotion.

“Hey you.”

“Hey.” She tightly clutched the handles of her handbag. She stepped closer to the bed, to me. “You look like shit, but from what the doctor said, it’s not deadly, if you take care of yourself.”

I let out a laugh. “You know how to make a man feel better, don’t you?”

She bit down on her wobbling lip, water filling her big dark eyes.

My insides dropped. “Tania, don’t, baby. Don’t cry.”

“Shut up, and let me feel what I’m feeling.”

I held out my hand to her. She took it, and I pulled her closer.

She planted a kiss on my forehead, a hand sweeping through my hair. “I can’t lose you. Not now. Not now.”

“I’m right here, Scarlett. Not going anywhere.” I held her as she cried, hiccuping little breaths. “Get up here, baby. I want to hold you, I need to hold you.”

She climbed into the hospital bed and wedged in next to me, sighing. I took in her perfume, the silk of her dark hair against my lips, and I finally breathed easier.

“Why didn’t you tell me about your arrhythmia? You must have had a physical wherever you went for rehab, right? Is that when you found out you had it?”

“I never went to a real rehab.”

“What?”

“I went to one rehab, but I didn’t last too long. Then, I didn’t have the money for a real rehab, and what money I did have, I needed to survive on. I did NA. Narcotics Anonymous. I made that commitment to myself and stuck with the program. Went to meetings. Still go.”

“You’re a strong man.”

“Look at me. This is strong? I have a heart condition on top of the addiction issues. Tania, I can make you a hundred promises, sweep you off your feet, but when it counts—when it really counts—will I be able to step up? I’m an addict, and now this. One day, I might fail you. One day, you’ll fall, and I might not be able to catch you.”

“Stop right there.”

“Babe, you can’t fly a kite when it’s attached to a stone. Kite’s got to roll with the wind, move through the sky. You’re up there, flying. I don’t want your string to break, baby.”

“You helped me fly.”

“Did I?” I asked.

“Yes.”

I let out a breath. “There I was, with this clear idea of what I was doing, what I could handle, where I was heading, and in a diner outside of Sioux Falls all that changed for me. Everything changed.”

“For me, too.” Her eyes searched mine. “Other than losing you, I only have one fear.”

“Tell me. I want you to give all of those to me.”

“I feel like I’ve just come up for air after being locked away in a musty basement. I like the fresh air out here, a lot, and I’m craving it in all sorts of new ways. There’s no place in my life for disapproval, skepticism, or hollow criticism anymore. I need to be trusted for who I am, which includes every little inch of my crazy—moods, ideas, my work. All of it. I realize it’s asking a lot from you, maybe too much, but I have to ask it of you. I won’t allow myself to be crushed or to willingly submit to that ever again. That is a special kind of torture—silent, insidious, soul-destroying.”

“I don’t want you destroyed, Scarlett. You’re soul is too beautiful, too fiery to be crushed.”

She blinked at me. This was new for her, hearing that belief in who she was, that admiration. It felt damn good to say it, to see that light in her eyes, that hope blooming where there had once been a deep ache.

I believed it with every fiber of my worn-out heart.

She squeezed my hand, and my eyes went to our entwined fingers. I was one lucky son of a bitch.

“Do you give enough of a damn, Rhett?” Tania wiped at her eyes, a grin pushing up her lips.

“I give way more than a damn, baby.” I held her watery gaze. “I want us to know every inch of each other, inside and out, clean and filthy, the pretty and the plain fucking ugly. The sweet and the sour. My cracked corroded parts and all your fragile tiny bones.” My fingers tightened over her delicate wrist. “I’m rusty and full of scars inside, and that’s as clean as I’m going to get. If that’s good enough for you, take it. Take it all.”

She brushed her hand down my chest. “You might think you have nothing but rust inside your veins, clogging your heart. But you know what? You and me together, what we have—it creates fresh blood. And that blood will scour the rust in both our hearts, wash it away, bit by clinging hard bit.”

She planted a kiss on my lips. “Although, you do realize, rust is a sign of history, experience. It has it’s own strange beauty. Some of us appreciate it.” A hand swept through my hair.

“That feels good,” I murmured.

“You go to sleep, you need rest. I’ll keep playing with your hair, Blondie. Don’t mind me.”

“Hmm.” My eyelids sank.

“I can’t sing you to sleep though. Sorry.” She giggled.

And, on the softness of that sweet laugh, I drifted.

“You didn’t have to do it!” Stephan puts his truck in gear, and we zoom down the mountain pass road.

“Yeah, I did,” I reply, wiping away the sweat from my hot face.

“I told you not to go near him! Racing on the bluffs? And you’ve been drinking?”

“Did you see it, Stephan? Did you see me finish?”

“How do you do this shit? How are you going to explain your dented bike to Dad now?”

I shrug, clicking my seat belt in place. “I’ll think of something.”

“You always do.”

“Dude, did you see me cross the finish line and wipe his ass with it?”

“Yeah, I did, Markus. You were amazing. You blew him away.” He squeezes my leg. “And I’m so relieved you’re in one piece.”

I grin. “And, on top of Austen’s humiliation, we got plenty of cash.” I show him the wad of bills I won.

“Holy shit.”

“It’s ours.”

Stephan only shakes his head at me. Such a worrywart.

“Ah, man, the look on his face,” I say. “Pouting on an epic scale. What a dick. I’m so glad you were there. I knew, if I’d told you beforehand, you would’ve stopped me.”

“I knew something was up when you were a no-show at the party tonight. Your band was up there, playing without you. You’ve never given up a night of playing. Especially a paying gig. They are pissed as hell at you, by the way.”

“I had an opportunity. I had to take it. They’ll get over it. It’ll be fine.”

“Well I got out here as fast as I could.” He glances at me, his lips pressed together, his wavy brown hair in his eyes. “You didn’t have to challenge him. You didn’t have to do this for me.”

I lean back against the headrest. “Of course I did. That shithead doesn’t get to go scot-free after accusing you of cheating just ’cause he got caught. Then, he comes on to your girlfriend? Fuck no.”

“I told you to stay away from him, Markus.”

“Have you ever known me to back down?”

“No. That’s why I told you—”

“Admit it. You’re glad I did it.”

A grin blooms on his face. “I’m fucking ecstatic.”

We high-five, clutching each other’s hands for a brief moment. “Priceless!” we declare together, laughing loudly. Our chant since junior high.

We both grin like fools. Deep satisfaction.

“That smile on your face right there just made it all worth it. Even the dent on my bike,” I say.

“You’re nuts.”

“Austen thought he was the shit with that flashy new Yamaha his daddy bought him,” I continue. “You gotta know how to ride before you can glide, my friend!”

I howl out the open window, and Stephan only laughs harder.

He squeezes my arm. “You’re my kid brother. I should be looking out for you.”

“Shut up. It’s not such a big deal.”

“Yeah, it is, Markus. It is to me. You’ve got a big heart, tough guy. You don’t know how much it means to me that you’ve always got my back.”

“Shut up.”

“It’s true.”

“It wasn’t fair, what he tried to do to you. I wanted justice, and I knew how to get it.”

“You got it, all right. I just don’t want you getting in trouble again. With school, with Mom and Dad.”

“Don’t worry about me.”

“I do worry. Look, you’ve got to lay low the rest of the season, no matter what Austen and his crew throw at you at school, all right?” Stephan says. “We need you in the game next Friday, and Coach is going to have your ass if you eat another detention.”

I tap out a beat on my thighs. I am so ready for that game. So ready. Stephan and I make a great duo on the football field. He makes the plays, and I help make them happen.

“We’re in the state semifinals, man!” Stephan hoots loudly. “The semis! You get that?”

“Oh, I get that, and I’m totally psyched. And, by the way, tonight, Joanna Pelton let me know just how psyched she is about it, too.”

“What?
The
Joanna Pelton?” Stephan glances at me. “You’re too much.”

“I am,” I reply, pounding out the beat on my chest. “And she swallowed it all. Every last drop.”

“Unbelievable.”

“Believe it.” I rub my hands down my face and stretch out my lower back. “Shit, I can’t keep my eyes open. I’m exhausted.”

“Take a snoozer. I’ll wake you up right before we get home, so you can get your shit together before you walk through the door. Otherwise, there’s going to be hell to pay. Yet again. And I, for one, am not in the mood for Dad’s hard line tonight.”

Stephan flips on the radio, and I close my eyes. He sings along with Van Halen.

I groan. “I hate this song. Change it.”

“Tough.” He goes back to singing. Van Halen segues into Bon Jovi.

The truck jostles over the rocky dirt road. Nausea rolls through my stomach, and bile rises up my throat. Too many beers, too much vodka, too much adrenaline. My brain swirls and twists in my skull while my stomach does a strange dance. I undo my seat belt and lower my window, leaning my head out, gulping in the cold air. The wet prickles of rain cool my skin.

I swallow hard, a hand sliding down my chest. “Shit, slow down, would you? You’re taking these curves way too fast, and there aren’t any lights here. So fucking dark.”

“You think you’re the only Mario Andretti in the family?”

“I’m not kidding, Stephan. I’m gonna be sick.”

“Don’t you dare puke in my truck.”

“Then, slow the fuck down! You bang up my bike that you probably didn’t secure properly back there, I’m gonna have your ass!”

“We’ve got fifteen minutes. You know how Dad is about our curfew. We’ve already crossed the line a couple of times this month. One more isn’t going to fly. I sure as hell don’t want to get grounded again, especially on account of you.”

“I love how it’s always my fault. Usually, it’s because you can’t tear yourself away from sucking on your girlfriend, and I’m the one covering for you.”

“I hate leaving her at the end of the night. You have no idea what that’s like.”

“Whatever. Oh”—I smack his shoulder—“speaking of which, Jocelyn’s mom is under the illusion that her little princess is still a virgin. The other day, I overheard her tell Ma how happy she was that you two were dating, that you’re so gentlemanly and respectful, blah, blah, blah. Once again, you made our mother proud in ways I never will. But it’s all based on a lie anyway.”

“Jesus.”

I chuckle, my eyelids sinking shut. “He can’t help you now.”