Colorado 03 Lady Luck (46 page)

* * * * *

Ten hours later…

I’d run the gamut, convincing myself my
voice would be the miracle healing elixir that would wake Ty up the
minute I whispered in his ear in his hospital bed and set him to
healing to knowing by the time my plane touched down at Denver
International Airport that he’d be dead by the time I arrived.

I struggled through the stupid, insane,
trying process of hauling my ass down a concourse and into a
fucking
subway
to get to
the terminal (who ever heard of such ridiculousness, you had to get
somewhere, you got there, you didn’t need then to get on a
fucking
train
in the
fucking
ground
, hours in
the air then you’re underground? Insane!) then that fucking train
expelled me and what had to be seven thousand other people, I
jockeyed for position with them to get to the fucking escalators, I
finally got to the terminal and there was Julius and a very
beautiful, slim, elegant but highly accessorized (and all of her
accessories were pure gold) black woman.

He enfolded me in a hug and informed me
gently that Ty was holding on. Then she (her name was Anana)
enfolded me in a hug then we waited what felt like a year for my
big bag, the only one I had so the one I had to use, to come out at
baggage claim and then they led me out to Ty’s Cruiser.

I nearly lost it the minute I saw Ty’s
car, a car we bought together, a car that, upon seeing,
irrationally I had the thought I could not set my ass in because it
wasn’t his, somehow it was
ours
and I couldn’t deal with a reminder of what used to be the
beauty of
us
, an us I
threw away. I had to get away from it, run, find a way to go back
in time and make the right decision, turn in Ty’s arms on the
beach, put mine around him and accept back into my life the us he
came all the way to Florida to give back to me.

But both of them saw me losing it and took
control, getting me in, getting me buckled and getting us on our
way.

Shortly after, I hit a fog then shortly
after that, I hit understanding – pure and undiluted.

What the fuck was I doing?

If Ty lived for me to see him die, he was
still going to fucking die.

My tall, beautiful Ty with his amazing
curly, thick lashed, light brown eyes and his fantastic tattoos and
his defined muscles and his deep voice calling me “baby” and “mama”
was going to die.

What did it matter if I saw him breathe
again before he did it?

What did anything matter?

God, why couldn’t I have done it even when
I tried? Why couldn’t I have found my way to nothing mattering
before Lady Luck, the stupid fucking
bitch,
took my fucking Ty?

So I shut down because it didn’t matter.
Nothing mattered.

Not anymore.

Except I’d be there for the funeral.

So, shut down, I didn’t notice it until
Julius had already hit the garage door opener to the condo, the
door was up and he was pulling in.

Seeing the Snake hit my eyes as we slid in
beside her, a new slice traced though the ragged edges of raw
leaving agony in its wake and my head, resting on the window, came
up.

And I was so out of it, my mind so saturated
with sorrow nothing penetrated, it didn’t occur to me that there
was the Viper, right there, shining, in one piece, without even a
scratch.

“What are we doing here?” I asked.

“Need to get somethin’,” Julius mumbled.

I looked around, confused.

All this rush, me flying three quarters of a
continent to get to Ty’s bedside in order to perform my wifely
death vigil and we were making a pit stop at Ty’s house?

“Julius, I don’t mean to sound…” I paused,
“but… I…” I hesitated then pulled it together when he turned and
looked through the seats at me. “I’d really like to get to Ty,” I
finished on a whisper.

His eyes went out the side window and he
looked at something. Then he looked at Anana. Then he looked at
me.

Then, “I won’t be a second,” was his
totally fucking
unhinged
reply.

I gawked at him.

He threw open his door and folded out of the
car.

Anana spoke, “Honey, why don’t you go on up
with Julius? You gotta use the bathroom?”

Actually, I did.

So, since we were making this fucking
ridiculous stop to do whatever the fuck Julius had to do while my
husband was dying somewhere close, I’d use this time to visit the
bathroom. And during that time, I’d convince myself, after I
watched my husband die, the husband I let go, the husband who
tracked me down in order to try to win me back, the husband I told
to go away, the husband who, the last thing he heard from me was me
calling us a nightmare, after I watched
that
husband die, while I was taking a bathroom break
before that happened, I’d convince myself I wouldn’t fucking kill
Julius.

“Yeah, be back,” I muttered, threw open the
door, got out and hustled to the door to the utility room, hoping
to all that was holy Julius was hustling his tall, massive ass
too.

Through the door to the stairs and up
them, I saw Julius was standing a few feet from the opening at the
top of the stairs and my eyes narrowed on his back as I alighted
the stairs and they did this because he was
not
hustling.

And I heard him say, “Later, you’ll get this
was the only play I had to make.”

I hit the top of the stairs, took three
steps in, my eyes unnarrowed and my body froze solid when my eyes
hit Ty standing five feet in front of Julius.

Vaguely, I noticed he was frozen solid too;
his eyes on me like my eyes were on him.

Well, maybe not the same because I was
sure my eyes communicated total, complete, body-rocking,
earth-shattering shock that he was standing, breathing, in one
piece, wearing faded jeans, a skintight white tee, looking as
gorgeous as always and very, very,
very
healthy.

Healthy.

Alive.

Standing.

Gorgeous.

In one piece.

Breathing.

Ty.

“And baby doll,” I heard Julius say but
didn’t tear my eyes from Ty, “you give it time, beautiful, you’ll
get it too that this was the only play I had to make.”

I watched, stunned, motionless, as Ty’s eyes
sliced from me to Julius.

“What fuckin’ play?” his voice rumbled, so
deep, so low, it reverberated against my chest.

Healthy.

Alive.

Standing.

Gorgeous.

In one piece.

Breathing.

Talking
(or rumbling).

Ty.

“I told Lexie you got in a car wreck and
were dyin’ and she needed to come home and say good-bye. She
dropped everything, Walk, and here she is. I may be fucked in the
head but, to me, that fuckin’ says it all.” Pause while I continued
to stare at my husband then, “Oh yeah, brother, I see you’re pissed
but it was the only play you two gave me.”

I didn’t move, didn’t speak, just kept
staring at Ty even after his angry eyes cut to me and changed from
angry to something else altogether.

“Lexie?” he called but I didn’t move, didn’t
speak, just kept staring. “Lex,” he said.

I stared at Ty and counted them down.

Eleven.

Eleven hours.

Eleven hours I thought the man standing in
front of me, the man I loved was as good as dead and then… then… he
just
would
be.

Dead.

But he wasn’t.

He started moving toward me and I came
unstuck, backing up and he stopped and growled, “Julius, she’s
headin’ toward the stairs.”

I stopped.

I stared.

Healthy.

Alive.

Standing.

Gorgeous.

In one piece.

Breathing.

Ty.

I crumbled to the floor at the same time I
dissolved into tears.

“Fuck,” I heard Ty clip then I was up,
strong arms around me and I heard as well as felt the rumble of the
words, “Get outta my fuckin’ house.”

“Brother –”

“
Now!
”

That was barked.

Then I was going down, ass in his lap, his
arms around me, I shoved my face in his neck, my arms went tight
around his shoulders, so tight, holding on, I was never, not ever,
not fucking
ever
going to
let go and I sobbed into his skin.

His mouth at my ear, he whispered, “Baby,
calm down.”

I didn’t calm down.

Eleven hours I lived with the knowledge of
his loss.

It was too much.

I couldn’t calm down.

One of his arms got tight and the other hand
stroked my back.

“Lexie, baby,” he murmured, lips still at my
ear, “calm down.”

“Ee… ee… eleven hours,” I gulped into his
neck.

“Come again?”

“Thought you were lost for eleven
hours.”

His hand stopped stroking and both arms
closed tight around me.

“The la… la… last thing I told you wa… was
that we were a nightmare.”

“Mama, breathe,” he whispered.

I sucked in breath and it hitched so many
times, the sound was as painful as the hitches actually were, my
body bucking violently with each and Ty growled in my ear.

Then he snarled, “I’m gonna fuckin’
kill
Julius.”

My body bucked again as my breath snagged
audibly and I pressed closer.

Ty fell to the side and I was holding so
tight, I went with him. Then I was on my back on the couch and I
felt Ty’s long body stretch out beside mine, his heavy leg tangling
with mine the instant I straightened them and when I felt his torso
press deep to my side and partially over mine, I loosened my arms
enough for him to pull back. Then I let my head fall to the couch
and I looked at him through watery eyes.

Then my breath hitched and my body bucked
again.

“Fuck,” he bit off, his hand coming to my
face, pulling hair away, wet hair that was sticking to my wet
cheeks. “Lexie, baby, you got played. I’m right here.”

I nodded. “I know.”

Hair gone from both sides of my face, his
big, warm hand cupped the right side, his thumb moving over my
cheek, sweeping through the wetness as his face got close and I
looked into his eyes, still the most beautiful feature I’d seen on
any face in my life.

“So,” he whispered, “get a handle on
it.”

And I did.

Two handles actually. Both hands went right
to his head and pulled it down to me.

Then I was kissing him.

Then he was kissing me.

Oh yes. That was better.

Then I was pulling off his tee. Then he was
tugging off mine.

Then I was yanking at his belt. Then his
hips knifed away but only so he could undo and haul off my jeans
and my flip-flops went flying as he did. Then went my panties.

Then he rolled over me, I opened my legs,
his hips slid between, his hand was working between us to finish
the job I started while his mouth was working mine, his tongue
inside, I was tasting him again, God,
God,
brilliant,
beautiful.

Mine.

Then his hips moved back then surged forward
and he was inside me.

My mouth tore from his as my neck
arched.

God,
God.
Brilliant.
Beautiful.

Mine.

He rode me fast, hard and I welcomed him,
circling his hips with my legs, my hands hungry, roaming, my mouth
hungrier, latched to his, drinking then I couldn’t drink anymore
and our lips brushed close as our heavy breath mingled and there it
was, there it always was, so close, so huge, then he rolled his
hips and hit the spot and all four of my limbs clutched him to me
as I cried out when I came.

It took Ty two minutes longer, one minute I
was in no state to watch, the next one I did with avid, devoted
concentration.

After, his head dropped forward and his face
disappeared in my neck.

His cock was buried deep. My limbs were
still holding him tight.

Healthy.

Alive.

Gorgeous.

Breathing.

In one piece.

Deep in me.

Ty.

I closed my eyes and sighed.

“One way to get you to calm the fuck down
and stop crying,” he said against the skin of my neck and my body
went still. His head came up; he looked down at me and grinned.
“Divorce papers are on the counter, mama. You want me to get up and
go get ‘em so you can sign ‘em?”

I decided I’d get pissed later at the
belated but highly inappropriate show that he had a very good sense
of humor.

Instead I declared, “You get up and go
anywhere, I’m tackling you.”

His body shook as his grin spread to a
smile. Then he asked, “You honestly think you can tackle me?”

“I didn’t say it would be a successful
tackle.”

And then my husband burst out laughing.

And I watched.

He didn’t give this to me often but I always
watched. This time it was way better because he was doing it while
still inside me.

Then his laughter died to a chuckle, he
dropped his forehead to mine and his hand came up and curled around
the side of my neck.

And when he did the last, the laughter died,
his eyes held mine and he whispered, “Is my mama home?”

I swallowed but I still knew my eyes got
bright and my voice was husky when I whispered back, “Yes.”

He closed his eyes, shifted the lower half
of his face and touched his mouth to mine. Then he lifted his head
away, opened his eyes and I felt his thumb stroke my jaw.