by Jayne Rylon
“Can’t it wait until Tuesday, when I’m back on tour?” He winced as he tried not to meet Jordan and Wren’s hungry gazes.
“No. It has to be tonight. Get up here. I’ve got a photographer and a stylist on the way too. Take a few pictures and you can take off again.”
“I don’t know, Rick. Isn’t there anyone around Middletown? Hell, pay the photographer a huge bonus out of my half and have him come to me.”
“Kason. We’re talking about twenty million dollars here. What’s the damn problem?”
It was right about that time that Jordan and Wren began to roughhouse in the background to amuse themselves and work out some of the energy that had been building between them. Wren half-lifted, half-shoved Jordan onto the bed, where he bounced and reached for her, tugging her down beside him.
“I’ve got company,” Kason admitted, grinning at their antics. He couldn’t wait to cannonball between them and take up where they’d left off. Fuck Rick and fuck more money he didn’t need.
Wren played dirty. She reached around and twisted Jordan’s nipple. He roared and flipped her over, smothering her body with his.
“That doesn’t sound like Van.” Rick got quiet. “What’s going on, Kason?”
“None of your business.”
“You’re my business,” he corrected with acid in his tone. “You know I checked out those motorcycle and car freaks you’ve been hanging out with. They’re not good for your image. You’d better get back here as soon as possible.”
“You know what?” Kason decided he needed to have a discussion with Rick, face to face. The guy had to understand their boundaries and what Kason hoped the future might look like. If his manager wasn’t onboard, maybe he wasn’t a good fit for Kason anymore. “You’re right. I’m coming.”
“That’s better.” Rick sounded so smug Kason clamped his hands around the phone as if he was strangling it. He hung up before Rick could piss him off further.
He took a long, deep breath. Then another before turning to face the couple now making out in his secret sanctuary. When he approached, Wren looked up then pushed Jordan away. “Everything okay?”
“I’m sorry, guys.” Kason hoped they knew he truly was. “I’ll have to do this in person after all. I’ll make it as fast as I can. Hang out here. Enjoy the pool or anything else you want in the house. My motorcycle collection is down the hall from here. Take any of them for a ride if you like. Make yourselves at home. As far as I’m concerned…you are.”
Wren smiled as she boosted herself up onto straight-locked arms even as he leaned in so she could kiss him. Then she flashed him a wolfish smile. “We’ll wait for you. So hurry back.”
“Drive safe,” Jordan added before clapping Kason on the back. It was as if he understood that if they kissed, Kason wouldn’t be able to leave no matter how important it was that he did.
“I’ll do both,” he promised before he stormed from the pool room. He’d gotten dressed and was jogging down the stairs to the garage in ten minutes flat. When he looked at the hundred or so motorcycles inside, there was no doubt which one he wanted to ride.
He took the Ducati the Hot Rides team had customized especially for him. At least he’d have Wren’s work with him as he rode.
Pissed and—okay, fine—scared too, Kason headed north.
If he exceeded the speed limit by a healthy margin, so fucking what? He had to have some outlet and besides, the sooner he fulfilled his obligations and made it clear he was done for the rest of the break, the sooner he could get back to Wren and Jordan.
He felt like shit. Torn between responsibility and the need to unwind and to explore parts of himself he’d been denying for far too long.
When it started to rain, he figured it suited his mood.
Kason slowed and let the cool water dissipate some of his sour attitude. Unfortunately it also reminded him of the pool and how he’d walked out on the two people who mattered most to him when they’d been about to give him something he’d been craving for…pretty much forever.
Maybe he was too lost in thought.
Maybe he was still going too fast for the conditions.
Maybe his luck was shit.
Either way, when an enormous buck bolted out of the woods right in front of him, he didn’t have a lot of time to think. All he could do was react. He swerved, narrowly missing smashing into several hundred pounds of muscle and bone at fifty or sixty miles an hour.
That was the good news. The bad news was that the rear tire lost its grip on the slick pavement and he started to spin. Time really did slow when you were having a near-death experience, he realized. It was almost like an out-of-body experience, watching himself as he prepared for impact, laid the motorcycle down, then tumbled free of the heavy metal as he skidded down the road, praying that every bit of protective gear he was wearing held up.
Kason couldn’t tell if it was shock keeping him from experiencing too much pain, or if he was doing okay, until he hit a bump in the road and began to tumble. Oh yeah, that hurt.
Especially when his boot got stuck on who-knew-what and his leg turned in a direction it was definitely not intended to go. He heard the snap of his bone a moment before white-hot lightning shot up his leg.
As he came to a stop, the deer looked at him as if he couldn’t believe that had happened either before it bounded into the woods on the other side of the road. Headlights approached, terrifying Kason even more. He tried to scramble off to the shoulder, but it was tough when he couldn’t put any weight on his left leg.
Fortunately, his poor wrecked motorcycle made a pretty decent speed bump. The approaching vehicle had to slow for it. And when the driver spotted Kason, they veered onto the side of the road and put on their hazards.
“Oh my God, dude! Are you okay?” A guy about twenty years old rushed over to help Kason make it the rest of the way to the grass.
“I think so. Mostly,” he said, surprised by how hard it was to push air out of his lungs.
The passerby might have had an easier time believing Kason if he hadn’t collapsed in the dirt. The world spun around him. “Could you…call help? Just in case.”
Every word took as much effort as it had to walk away from Jordan and Wren.
“Yeah. Yeah. I’m on it.” The guy had his cell in his hand already, dialing 911.
“Thanks,” Kason said. Then nothing else would come out. He tried to suck in a shaky breath then another, but it wasn’t enough.
“You sure you’re okay?” the guy asked, crouching down as the dispatcher began asking a lot of questions.
Kason nodded, but even that was too much. Agony radiated from his leg now and his vision started to get fuzzy around the edges. The last thought he had was: At least I got to make love to them once.
Then he was out cold.
26
Wren clung to Jordan’s hand so hard she was probably in danger of ripping it off.
“Sorry,” she muttered, and tried to let go.
He wouldn’t let her. “It’s okay, Wren. We’re almost there. Then we can see for ourselves that he’s mostly in one piece.”
“I think I might be sick.” She groaned and wrapped her free hand around her middle.
“Need me to pull over?” Van asked. “We’re almost there. GPS says three minutes.”
“Don’t stop,” she begged, and Jordan tucked her against his side and rubbed circles on her back with his open palm.
They’d raced to the middle of nowhere, halfway between Middletown and whatever city Kason had been planning to meet Rick and the tour bus in. Van’s systems told him the tour bus was parked in the hospital lot, so Rick must have come as soon as he’d heard too.
Fortunately Van had thought to collect them from Kason’s pool, given them time to find their clothes despite his obvious panic, then driven them straight to the hospital with him.
Wren’s frantic phone call to Devra meant most of their friends were probably not far behind them either. Van had reached out to Rick f
or status updates, but for some reason Kason’s manager wasn’t responding.
What did that mean? Had the accident been worse than they’d first thought?
Could Kason be dead? Was Rick avoiding talking to them on phone? She knew from experience people preferred to deliver that sort of news in person.
Her stomach roiled. No! She refused to believe fate could be so cruel as to take away not one but two of her soul mates before she’d gotten a chance to tell either one that she was in love with them. There, she’d admitted it, even if only to herself.
Kason was so confident on stage and with her that his sweet sincerity and uncertainty around Jordan completely undid her. She would make sure she told him so next time she had the opportunity. Hopefully it wouldn’t shock him too bad, because she planned to fight for the potential she saw between the three of them.
As she should have done in the past. She knew too well what was at stake if she failed.
Though not right now. Not while he was hurt and… “Please, let him be okay.”
“Wren, this probably isn’t the time, but… I want you to know that seeing you this way has made up my mind.” Jordan’s jaw was set.
“About what?” She looked up at him, grateful for the distraction.
“I’m quitting my job. I’m never going to put you in this position again. Accidents happen, sure, but there’s no reason for me to keep risking my life for something I don’t even support any more. I’ll hand in my resignation letter first thing Monday.” He rested his forehead on hers. “I could never bear to scare you like this. It’s going to be okay, Wren. Whatever happens when we go in there, we’ll get through it together.”
She took the first full breath she’d managed in over an hour. “Thank you.”
They might have discussed it some more except they turned into a parking lot and whizzed past Kason’s fancy bus out on the perimeter.
Van skidded to a stop under the emergency room portico, tires chirping as he slammed his car into park. They filed from the car at the same time and ran for the hospital.
They were met at the door by someone who recognized Van and immediately began to give him a status update. Probably another member of Kason’s security team, or maybe the bus driver. He walked as he talked, leading them to Kason.
Wren couldn’t hear a single word the man said as her worries buzzed around her brain. She needed to see him, to hug him, to make sure for herself that he would be okay.
Jordan still held her hand. When she stuttered in the doorway to Kason’s room, it nearly yanked Jordan’s arm out of the socket. He turned to face her and she wondered if he could tell she was completely losing her mind seeing Kason in a hospital bed. It took a moment before she realized he wasn’t hooked to any of the machines on the periphery of the space, and that he looked aggravated, not weak or broken.
His left leg was propped up on a stack of pillows, encased in a cast from the knee down.
“Come on, Wren. He’s all right. See for yourself.” Jordan nudged her along. Then she couldn’t stop herself. She crossed the distance between her and Kason and crushed him in a hug that probably didn’t feel as good to him as it did to her, given his tumble across the blacktop.
Then she pulled back and scanned him from his head to his toes, which stuck out of the black cast. Other than a few scrapes on his forearms and a patch of abrasion and a bruise on one cheek, he seemed okay.
Before she could stop herself she asked, “Did you break a leg?”
Kason’s gaze whipped up and met hers. He smiled slow and wide, then laughed before wincing. “Yeah. I guess this time I did. My tibia, to be exact.”
Wren kissed the shit out of him, only stopping when someone cleared their throat. Loudly.
She peeked over her shoulder, but it hadn’t been Jordan who’d made the noise in the hopes of taking his turn.
Wren followed his hostile stare to the object of his ire. A man in a suit with slicked-back hair was watching them intently from the corner. Immediately, she knew who it was.
“This is my manager, Rick.” Kason rolled his eyes as if he too wished they could have their reunion in private. It didn’t seem like the guy was going to take the hint, though. “Rick, this is Wren and Jordan.”
“So I see.” Rick crossed his arms. “Kason has had a rough day. He could probably use time alone to recover. He’s got shows to perform this week, and reconfiguring everything to accommodate his broken leg is going to be a pain in the ass.”
Kason winced at that. “We’ll make it work. Maybe I can get one of those fancy scooter things and the Hot Rides and Hot Rods guys can spiff it up for me.”
“Absolutely not,” Rick barked at the same time Wren said, “That’s a great idea. And of course they would.”
Rick glowered. His disposition didn’t improve any when a ruckus echoed along the hallway. It sounded like half of Middletown was out there, overwhelming Van, who’d waited outside so Wren and Jordan could have an almost-private moment to themselves.
“Did I hear someone say Hot Rides?” Quinn poked his head around the edge of the doorway. “Was it because you made a hell of a lot more work for me and the rest of the team fixing up your poor bike?”
Kason winced. “It’s going to need some love and attention.”
“We’ve got you covered,” Trevon said from beside Quinn. Devra was there too, her lip wobbling as she took in not only Kason, but Wren and Jordan fussing over him.
Ollie showed up next, creating a gap so Kyra could slip past him into the room. Had she been spending her time off with the Hot Rides to give Kason some alone time with Wren and Jordan at the cabin? As soon as she thought about it, Wren knew Kyra had. Kason had told them the rest of the band usually stayed up at the mountain retreat with him unless they took trips to decompress or visited family. Kyra and Van seemed to be Kason’s family. They would have been there if it wasn’t for whatever had been going on earlier. The network of friends and support Wren had now was so different from how things had been when it was only her, Jordan, and Johnny against the world. It kept growing bigger, too.
This time, if something terrible did happen, there would be people to help her through it.
Something inside her settled. Life was unpredictable, but she was stronger now and prepared to deal with whatever might come their way. As long as Jordan and Kason felt the same, she knew nothing could break the bonds forming between them.
“For once your hard head came in handy,” Kyra said with a rueful smile as she took in Kason’s bum leg.
Kason snorted, “Yup. Don’t worry, we’re already planning how the show can go on this week. We’re not going to miss any dates.”
Kyra jerked back so hard she crashed into Van, who was suddenly there to steady her. “You think I give a shit about that? You know what? You guys are so dense, I’m over it.” She scowled first at Kason, then Van, and even Ollie. Then she looked up at Wren. “I hope you have better luck getting through to him than me.”
Kyra shook her head and wove through Ollie and Van, heading straight for Devra, who was standing with Sally. “How the hell do you put up with two of them? Ugh!”
Van shook his head. “She cares about you, Kason. We all do.”
Wren watched as his gaze traveled from her and Jordan, to Rick, to Van, Ollie, Quinn, Trevon, Devra, and the rest of the Hot Rods and Hot Rides packing the hallway beyond them.
Ms. Brown was standing beside Tom. She blew him a kiss.
Kason put his hands over his face then and rubbed them up and down. When he pulled them away, his eyes were brighter and he had to clear his throat before responding. “Thank you, everyone, for coming to check on me. I’m fine, or at least I will be in no time. It could have been so much worse.”
He scanned across them, then swallowed. “I’m so lucky.”
Wren knew it was difficult for him to see that people he worked with cared about more than what he could do for him, but it was impossible to deny that others—not part of his band—had come si
mply because they were concerned. Not about his money, or even his music, but for the man behind those things. Quinn’s brother, Roman, and Gavyn especially. The guys had been asking her about Kason enough that she’d figured out he must have reached out to them to talk about…something…related to addiction.
Whether or not things became permanent between her, Kason, and Jordan—and god, she hoped it did—Kason had already been claimed as one of theirs. He was becoming part of their family-by-choice, same as she and Jordan had.
Nothing could have made her more satisfied, or prouder.
“Yes, you are.” Rick spoke up then, shattering the moment as he scrolled through his phone. “I just got a text from the CEO of the outerwear company. They understand there’s been a delay and are fine with waiting a few more hours for us to send them the proofs. You ready to get back to work?”
“What?” Wren put her hand on Kason’s and tugged it toward her as if she could shelter him from Rick and the demands of his career, which she was starting to realize weighed awfully heavily on him.
“No. He’s not,” Jordan added, edging closer.
Even Van shot Kason an incredulous look. “You’re not really going to go through with that, are you?”
The flicker of resentment in Kason’s gaze might have been unnoticeable if Wren hadn’t been standing right next to him. Still, he shrugged. “Everyone’s here now. I guess we might as well take a couple shots as long as we can take them from my good side.”
He gestured toward the cheek that wasn’t worse for wear.
“Perfect. I’ll let the nurse know we’re not going to do those extra tests they ordered. You’re fine. Buck up.” Rick smacked Kason’s shoulder, then shoved through the crowd. If he noticed the unkind looks he got from one of the friendliest group of people Wren had ever met, he didn’t seem to give a shit.
He had brass balls, Wren would give him that.
If that’s what it took to be successful in his field, she was glad she was a simple welder and not a star-wrangler.
