by KB Winters
“Oh no,” Kat added with a laugh. “Please, take your sweet ass time. In fact, I’ll give you a thousand bucks if you take your time.”
“I’ll add another thousand,” Virgil offered around a big bite of corn on the cob. “If you just go for a walk through the hospital. Clear your head.”
“I’ll get in on that action,” Terry offered, barely able to contain his laughter. “Sorry, bro.”
“Fuck you Terry.” He let out a loud, booming laugh. “Go on,” I growled at my youngest brother. “Before I change my mind.”
Cal made a quick exit out of the room instead of using the small bathroom inside the goddamn room. I shrugged, realizing I’d been had.
“Want some chicken, Ava? I hear it’s good for the skin.”
She flapped her arms and giggled, reaching for the small piece I held out to her. She took it in both hands and sucked on it. “Mmm,” she cooed, and I shit you not, I think my heart might have melted a little.
“Yeah, it’s not so bad,” I said proudly to my siblings, sitting up a little taller as Ava sat on my lap, content with her chicken.
“Good preparation,” Virgil offered with a laugh, drawing stares from both Kat and Maisie.
I pretended not to get what he meant and shifted my gaze to Sadie, who somehow managed to stay wherever the fuck she was in her head, even through all the noise and the chaos.
I thought—stupidly—that dinner with our boisterous family might be enough to wake her, or at the very least, pull back from where she clearly preferred to be.
“Guys,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper as shock and hope warred inside me. “Shut the fuck up and look!” I pointed to the bed where Sadie lay, completely still except for the fluttering lashes.
The room fell silent as one set of eyes after another turned to the bed. To Sadie.
“Shit, she’s waking up!” Kat’s whispered words echoed what we were all thinking, at least what I was thinking. “Do you think she’s been awake before?”
I shook my head. “The doctor would have told us. Or Thomas.”
Maisie frowned and turned to me. “Where is Thomas?”
I shrugged. “Someone has to be at Lucky Lopez. Don’t worry, Provo and Evan are with him.” I knew they all thought I was a prick for not inviting him, but Thomas understood. He spent every free moment here with Sadie and wanted us to have some time with her too. Just in case. He didn’t say that, but he didn’t have to.
“Seriously, Jas? I thought we were past this shit.”
I sighed, my eyes never leaving Sadie’s face. “Unlike the rest of you, Thomas understands. He’s always here with her if he’s not sleeping or at the club. He volunteered to stay behind, so we could have this dinner with her.”
“In case it’s our last,” Kat added with a grunt.
Sadie’s eyes opened, and I was on my feet, at her side with Ava Rose babbling softly in my arms. She looked around the room slowly before her eyes landed on mine. A moment of fear flashed in her eyes, and I reached out to touch her. “It’s all right, Ma. You’re all right.”
She blinked and looked around the room again. “Huh? Where am I?”
“The hospital. Don’t talk. Let me get the doctor.”
“Where’s Mo?”
I blinked. “Mo? It’s me, Jasper.”
Sadie’s eyes slammed shut, and fear speared through me. What if she didn’t understand me? What if her brain was all fucked up?
“Mo,” she said again. “Where is Mo?”
“Mo isn’t here.” Why in the hell was she so concerned with Mo? Her eyes closed again, and my heart stopped. She wasn’t waking up.
“I’ll go find the doctor,” Virgil grunted, giving Sadie’s hand a quick squeeze before he beat a hasty exit.
Sadie’s eyes drifted open again, trying to take in all the details, probably wondering why we were all so worried about her. ““Thirsty.”
“Okay. The doctor will come check you out first.”
“Thirsty,” she groaned and pointed her finger towards the cup of half-melted ice on the table. I hoisted Ava on my hip and managed to grab the spoon and fish out some crushed ice, spilling some on the tray table. How did women do shit with babies in their arms? Then I carefully put the spoon to Sadie’s barely open mouth. Luckily, Ava didn’t start bouncing on my hip until I put the spoon back in the cup.
“Where’s the fucking doctor? Kat, call Thomas. I think she’s finally awake!”
Terry laughed and clapped his big hands loudly. He winked and raised a glass of Velvet Fire. “To Sadie, finally awake, soon to be raising hell. Again.”
Just then, Cal returned, and Ava Rose reached out for him to take her back. I have to admit, I felt a pang of jealousy, but then a round of cheers went up all around the room.
The whiskey flowed, but I couldn’t move from my spot beside the bed. Couldn’t take my eyes off Sadie. Couldn’t believe she was finally awake.
Finally.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jasper
It was a fluke. A fucking fluke. Sadie woke up, smiled, and talked some shit about Mo doing her makeup before she started asking questions about why she was in the hospital, how long she’d been there. Then, while Virgil was out of the room looking for Dr. Purcell, she closed her eyes again and hadn’t woken up since.
It didn’t make any fucking sense. “What the fuck, Doc?”
Purcell let out a frustrated sigh. I could see the man reaching deep into his well of patience before he looked across the bed at me, Sadie unconscious between us. He shoved his hands into his lab coat. “She woke up, Jasper, and that’s a good sign.”
“Yeah, well, she hasn’t opened her eyes since.”
“It takes time, Jasper. She’s been out of it for months, and now that she’s starting to wake up again, her body needs time to acclimate. Everything will feel new to her for some time. Walking and talking and eating, not to mention her memory. She’s not going to just wake up and become the woman she was the moment before the shooting.”
The sympathy in his voice was the only reason I didn’t lay the fucker out.
I nodded, too fucking exasperated to say or do anything else. It wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but I knew Purcell was doing all he could to help Sadie.
“So you’re saying she could stay asleep for another few months, or she could wake up any minute now?”
“Pretty much. I know it’s not what you want to hear, but we can’t rush head trauma. The most important thing is that she wakes up in her own time, when she’s ready, to minimize any further trauma.”
“Yeah, I got it, Doc. Thanks.” I’d been at the hospital since last night because I couldn’t bring myself to leave after she woke up. I had a childlike hope that she would wake up again in the night and everything would just go back to normal. Ashby normal, anyway.
Doctors and nurses were in and out of the room for hours, checking vital signs and looking at her body under the sheets. I only left her side a few times, to smoke and check in with Terry and Virgil. Eventually, the sun lowered in the sky, sending the last rays into the room, so at odds with how I felt about the fact that she wouldn’t wake the fuck up.
Sadie, always the drama queen, woke up slowly just as the sun made the final push below the horizon. It wasn’t quick like it was last night. No, this was a painful hour or two of her eyes working hard to flip open her lids, mouth twitching as if she was trying to speak but couldn’t. Her fingers moved slowly, one at a time and never all at once. She seemed to be taking stock of her abilities, what she could and couldn’t do yet.
I sat close to her ear and took her hand in mine. “Wake up, Sadie,” I urged as if all she needed was encouragement. I knew she’d wake up if she could. I could see her trying like hell.
“Come on, Ma. You’re almost there.”
Finally, a fucking eternity later, familiar green eyes stared up at me, giving me a blank look. She didn’t seem to recognize me, but she’d opened her eyes, and they stayed open. I couldn’t look away, too af
raid she might slip back into unconsciousness. She smacked her lips, the dry sound pushing me to my feet and toward the call button because there was no fucking way I’d leave her alone again.
A nurse popped her head in, a question in her eyes. “Everything all right in here?”
“No. Get Dr. Purcell in here. Now. Tell him Sadie Ashby is awake and to hurry the fuck up.”
Fear flashed in her eyes before she nodded and slipped out quietly.
In the next few minutes, the room swarmed with medical personnel, doctors and nurses, residents and specialists alike. They poked and prodded her, took her blood pressure, checked her heart at least twelve times, putting her through a series of cognitive tests that put a smile on my face because those memory tests showed me that Sadie was still in there.
“What the fuck is a goddamn elephant, telephone, and book going to tell you about my head?” Her grumbled words had the doctors smiling too.
“Very good, Sadie.” Purcell nodded and tapped some things on his tablet. “Your short-term memory is fine.” He nodded my way. “Do you know who that is?”
She smiled. “My firstborn son, Jasper.”
Purcell nodded, clearly satisfied with her responses as he made more notes and cleared the room. “You too, Jasper.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but I wanted her to get better more than I wanted to keep my eyes on her.
“Stay,” she said, voice thick and dry. “Please.”
I kept my distance near the door while the doctor spoke in gentle tones about what to expect during her recovery. “You’ll have some memory lapses, but they should be confined to the days, maybe the weeks, leading up to the shooting.”
Sadie listened carefully, nodding as annoyance slipped into her questions. “So I can go home? Recover there?”
Purcell shook his head. “It would be easier to monitor your progress here.”
“Easier,” she stammered slowly, “but home is not impossible?”
“No,” he sighed. “It’s not impossible, but it isn’t advisable either.”
The thing I respected about Purcell was that he knew when he was beaten and didn’t keep fighting a losing battle. “We need to make careful arrangements and no bullying to get out scheduled appointments. His gaze slid to me and then back to Sadie.
“All I care about is that she’s healthy and doesn’t suffer any long-term effects,” I assured Purcell.
“All right, then. I’ll put a plan together.”
Sadie gave a grateful nod, and her green eyes met mine. “Get Thomas.”
“Ma. I am so fucking sorry that this happened to you.” Cal stood in front of Sadie, tears swimming in his eyes as she stood in the foyer with her weight resting on Thomas.
Her smile took some effort but eventually, the corners of her mouth curled up. “Calvin, my baby boy.” She cupped his face, looked at him with such love that I knew I’d done the right thing by forcing Rizz to take the fall for shooting Sadie.
He was my brother, and I loved him, but these days I couldn’t stand the sight of him other than to issue orders. But it was my job to protect him, to keep him away from dirty old priests and coaches. I was the one who steered him toward computers instead of sports.
“I wish this didn’t happen to you, Ma.” Cal leaped forward like the little boy he used to be, wrapping his arms around her small form and squeezing tight. “I’m sorry about everything. I forgive you for Bonnie, and I’m sorry I was such a fucking idiot about it. I promise you, Sadie, that from here on out, I’m going to be the man that Ava Rose needs. That this family needs.”
Sadie pulled back and studied Cal with a skeptical look that quickly transformed into a smile. “I must look worse than I thought.”
“You could use some sun, but you look great, Ma.” He kissed her cheek and stepped to her side, helping Sadie to the sofa while Thomas set a few pillows behind her.
“Stop fussing over me. I got shot in the head, and it barely grazed me. I’m no f-f-fucking charity…” She paused like she was looking for the word.
“Case ma? Charity case?” he asked her.
“Yes! Charity case.” Her words came out a little stilted as Purcell said they would as her memory returned.
“Ma, you haven’t walked or sat up on your own for months. Let us help you until you get your strength back.” Cal didn’t stop fluffing pillows and fussing even as he spoke.
“Fine. Someone get me a drink.”
“Now, Sadie. You know it’s too early in the day for that.” Maisie stepped forward and wrapped Sadie in a long, warm hug. “Damn, it’s so good to hear your voice again.”
Sadie patted Maisie’s back and sighed, tears forming in her eyes. “Glad to be heard.”
Maisie laughed against her and pulled back. “You missed a lot while you were in the hospital. I’m so happy you’re home.”
Sadie leaned against the pillows with a relieved sigh. “It’s good to see you too, Maisie. You look beautiful,” she said and examined her carefully. “You’re practically glowing.”
“Like I said, you missed a lot. Maddie had her baby boy, Jameson Bailey, and he’s absolutely friggin’ adorable. And in about six months, Virgil and I will be adding to the family as well.” Her hand went instinctively to her still flat belly with a smile.
That news was a shock to me as well as everyone else in the room.
Sadie gasped. “Another grandbaby? Now that’s good news to wake up to.” She pulled Maisie into another hug and squeezed tight.
“Congratulations.”
“Thanks.” Maisie smiled back at Virgil. “You woke up just in time. We were going to tell everyone next Sunday.”
Sadie nodded and looked around the room at all the people who gave a damn about her and beamed.
“The gang’s all here,” she said, smiling at Terry and Kat, Ava Rose in my arms, me, Cal and Thomas.
Emmett and Vanessa were there, along with Hulu, Evan, Provo, and Mace. “It’s good to see all of you. I hope there’s enough food to feed everyone.”
Thomas smiled and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “I’ll go make sure,” he whispered in her ear and slipped out of the living room.
“So, what else did I miss?”
“Beck is no longer a problem for us.”
Sadie smiled. “Is she in the desert?”
“No, Ma. She’s not in the desert. She’s leaving Nevada as we speak, a whole lot richer and looking forward to a family reunion.”
The whole family didn’t know about Jack Beck, but I hoped her memory was well enough to understand my vague words.
“Now, that is excellent news.” Sadie patted the seat Thomas had vacated, and when I joined her, she put one small hand on top of mine.
“Thank you, Jasper, for everything.” She smiled up at me, looking just like the woman I remembered. “I’m…I’m proud of you.”
I shrugged off the compliment. “Well, there’s only one of me, and Thomas was eager to keep Lucky Lopez running smoothly until you were on your feet again, so I let him. The help was much appreciated.”
“It’s nice to have a man who has your back.”
“Amen,” Maisie, Kat and Vanessa answered in unison before a fit of laughter erupted around the room.
“And the person who shot me? Did you find him?”
The air in the room went still. Virgil’s smile darkened into a scowl. Cal froze with fear burning up his eyes. Everyone else just wanted an update.
“Yeah. Three of them are rotting in the ground, and the last one turned himself in before we got to him.”
Another smile lit up her face, and she brushed a finger across my cheek, an uncharacteristic move on her part. “Thank you, Jas. I knew you would make this right.”
I nodded. “That’s my job. To protect this family, this organization, and all the people in it.”
That was my purpose in life, and I was fine with it. Kat was happy and safe with Terry; they would probably expand the Ashby family soon. Maisie and Virgil were bringing another Ashb
y into the world, and Cal, well, his pardon had given him a renewed purpose in life and in this family. Eventually, Calvin would find another woman to help him raise Ava Rose, and I would still keep them all safe and protected.
Just like Sadie taught me. But even with all the people here, there was one person missing. One person who needed my protection, my understanding, and my comfort. And I’d failed her.
Badly.
Looking around the room, my siblings all had a purpose outside of the family, separate from the Ashby Organization. For me, it was all I had.
And suddenly, I was asking myself, was it enough?
No. The answer came swiftly from somewhere deep, and like one of those dumb fuck moments of epiphany people were always talking about, I knew what I had to do.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Mo
I spent the evening curled up on the sofa in silk pajamas, scarfing down buttery popcorn and lemonade while I binge-watched my third straight romance movie. The streaming service originals were my favorite not-so-guilty pleasure to watch on my days off, and today I planned to get my fill of them.
This particular movie was the ultimate fantasy. A relatively plain girl who was nice and sweet with all the qualities girls like Molly possessed in spades falls for a rich and gorgeous prince.
She was unassuming, completely unaware of her charms, which, of course, utterly charms the good prince. Best of all, she did absolutely nothing to draw his interest other than be herself.
It was the ultimate fantasy. It was also bullshit.
It was so unlikely to come true outside the magic of Hollywood.
To live in a big castle filled with servants, so you never had to lift a finger to do any basic chores. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. Did those people wipe their own asses?
I’d love to go for days at the spa, lunch with the girls—if I had any girls to lunch with.
Then again, I didn’t need the bullshit. I’d be happy with my life that came with more money than I could ever possibly spend, thanks to Jasper Ashby, and my child in my arms.
