Page 31

CHAPTER 31

JAYDEN

“She’s alive!” I shouted at him.

AJ froze mid-punch, blood dripping from his fist that hung in the air, ready to deliver another crushing blow to Kordell on the ground. He twisted his body to look at me, his eyes narrowing at me in disbelief. Then, they traveled to Rosalie. Her chest rose and fell, but it was barely visible. He dropped Kordell to the ground and pushed himself to his feet. He ran over, falling to his knees on the other side of her.

Rosalie’s breathing was shallow. I forced the haze out of my mind.

Fuck, we need to get her to a hospital as soon as possible.

“Rosalie…” AJ’s voice was a hoarse whisper as he reached for her.

I placed her in his arms, and he rocked her gently against him, placing his ear by her mouth to hear her breathing. Then, he slid his other arm under her knees and stood up.

“Hurry. We gotta get her in the car. I need to get her outta here.” His voice was filled with desperation, but I was two steps ahead of him.

Pulling out my phone, I called 911 as we jogged around the warehouse.

“Nine-one-one. What’s your emergency?” The operator’s voice was too fucking cheerful.

Didn’t she know people only called with fucking serious shit?

“My sister’s been shot, and she’s lost a lot of blood. Where is the nearest hospital?” I said.

“Sir, it’s going to be okay. Take a deep breath for me. It’s probably best to not move her. We can have an ambulance en route right now. What is your location?”

I yanked the passenger door open to my car as exasperation ransacked my mind.

“Your ambulance isn’t faster than my car. She’s going to be en route in two seconds, so tell me where THE FUCK TO DRIVE HER!”

AJ slipped her inside the car. Kissing her forehead before closing the door and running around to the driver’s side. There was a slight pause before the operator sighed.

“The nearest hospital with a trauma center equipped to handle a gunshot wound is Los Robles Regional Medical Center. I’ll notify them to expect you. What vehicle will you be driving?”

“Los Robles Hospital? Got it. And it won’t be me. It’ll be her boyfriend with her. Black Bugatti Divo,” I said as I tossed him my keys.

He nodded and caught them with ease as I stepped away from the car, watching Rosalie’s pale body in the passenger seat.

“All right, they have been notified. Do you need me to stay on the line?”

Again, this bitch was too fucking cheerful-sounding.

I hung up the phone as I watched AJ reverse and then take off down the road.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a blunt and a lighter. Placing it to my lips, I took a long drag as I lit it. The smell of weed filled my nostrils, and my nerves calmed down. I leaned against the rusty metal wall of the building, my mind replaying everything that had just gone down.

If I’d been faster, maybe Rosalie wouldn’t have gotten shot. Maybe I wouldn’t be about to… no, it’s not the same.

Rosalie is going to be fine. She will live. She was born a Wells. Dad has been in way worse shit and lived. Rosalie will get through this too. I’m sure of it.

Keep telling yourself that. But what if she isn’t? You can’t handle that shit. Look at you, sitting here, smoking a blunt, still trying to cover up your emotions so you don’t have to deal with them. Poor little Jayden.

I rubbed my eyes. Damn, I needed another fix soon. But I only had weed on me. It would be enough to take care of what needed to be done. I pushed off the wall and threw the butt into the dirt as I walked back down around the building.

Kordell was surprisingly still conscious and had rolled over onto his stomach. I watched him continue to crawl toward the couch in the area as I came to a stop by my gun in the dirt. My sister’s blood had soaked into the dry soil, and it had turned a dark red. I reached down and grabbed my pistol from the damp dirt.

Fuck, she’d better make it.

“Ughhh… fucking… shit…”

I stood back up and turned my attention back to Kordell. He was mumbling under his breath, probably trying to figure out how the hell he was going to get out of this one. But that was what was funny. He wasn’t. I marched over to him and placed my shoe on his side and pushed him over onto his back. He was so weak that I didn't even need to put any effort into it. He lay there, his face a battered mess and covered in blood and dirt. His left eye had completely swollen shut, and his right eye was almost the same.

“Fuck off,” he groaned out as he tried to roll back over.

My eye twitched, and I stared at him with a blank expression on my face before I slammed my foot into the middle of his chest, making him cry out in anguish.

“You are such a piece of dog shit, Kordell. You were never good for Rosalie. I should have stepped in a long time ago, before any of the shit you put her through happened. But it’s all good. I’m going to make up for it now. Know why?”

His hands gripped my custom low-top Air Force 1s as I looked down at him. How fucking pathetic.

This is the man who almost killed my sister? Fuck no, there’s no way Rosalie would die because of him.

He struggled, but I barely felt him push against my leg. I dug my heel deeper into his chest, and he screamed in pain again. I wanted him to suffer so much for what he did to Rosalie. But at the end of the day, he just needed to die. And I needed to get to the hospital.

“Bastard, I’ll kill you. J-just like I killed your whore of a sis?—”

Some people use their last words to right their wrongs. Some use them to say goodbye to loved ones. But how good are your last words if you never get to say them?

That question passed through my mind as I raised my pistol, aiming at his chest. My hand trembled for just a moment, but I couldn’t let him live after what he had done. I squeezed the trigger and fired two rounds into his chest. And a final one in his forehead. The gunshots echoed through the night. The bullet hit him right where I’d intended it to, and his body jerked before going still. His mouth hung open in a frozen scream.

As the smoke from my barrel cleared, I took a deep breath and stepped off his body.

Kordell was dead.

And I’d murdered him.

I felt sick to my stomach but knew I couldn’t throw up. Had to hold it in.

Damn, you pulled the trigger—no turning back now. Pull yourself together and handle it.

I rubbed my eyes hard. Blinking rapidly, I looked at Kordell’s body again. There was no questioning it. He was dead. I needed to get out of here. Shit. I needed to get AJ’s and my sister’s cars out of here. And I couldn’t leave his body here because Rosalie’s blood was everywhere and that would link her to his death…

Fuck, fuck, FUCK! What the hell do I do?

Mommy is always there. She’s bailed you out how many times? What’s one more?

Goddamn, the voice in my head was annoying as shit tonight. But he had a point. Mom was always there for me, no matter what. And I knew because of her past, she had the connections to get something like this handled, and no one would ever know Rosalie or I was involved. It was a simple answer. Call her. I walked up to Rosalie’s car and set the gun on it before pulling out my phone.

“Jayden? Where are you, baby? Where’s your sister?” Mom’s worried voice answered the call.

I took a deep breath, but my voice sounded hoarse when I spoke. “Mom, I need your help bad. I… I killed him. I don’t know what the hell to do with his body. And Rosalie is… Mom, she’s…” I stopped speaking because I could feel my emotions trying to take over, just thinking about my sister.

“You killed who, Jayden? Rosalie is what? Jayden, focus! Talk to me.”

I took another deep breath. Fuck, I needed another blunt.

“Mom, Rosalie got shot. I gave AJ my car to take her to a hospital. She’s… I don’t know if… Fuck, Mom, there was a lot of blood. And I… I couldn’t let Kordell get away with it. I had to make sure he wouldn’t get away with hurting her. I don’t know what to do.” My voice cracked, the desperation leaking through.

I was hoping Mom would know what to do, who to call, and how to handle this. I knew some people, but I didn’t trust them the way I trusted Mom.

“What hospital, Jayden? And where are you right now? Are you with her?”

“What’s wrong, Rose?” Dad’s voice was faint in the background as Mom spoke to me.

Shit, that’s all I need—yet another mark on the ways I let my father down.

I reached into my pocket and grabbed another blunt, lighting it as I paced back and forth by Rosalie’s car.

“Jayden? Jayden! Answer me. Now.” My mom was stern in her demand.

“I’ll drop you a pin on where I am—well, where his body is. But I’m going to take her car and go to the hospital. It’s the major one in Thousand Oaks.”

I opened my Maps app and sent the location to her.

“Okay, your father and I will head that way. Don’t worry about his body. Jayden, listen to me. How did you do it?”

I looked at the gun on the back of Rosalie’s car.

“I shot him,” I said plainly.

“Okay. I need you to leave the gun there. Understand?”

“Mmhmm. Anywhere in particular?” I asked.

“By his body. Don’t worry about your fingerprints. But, Jayden, I need you to get in the car and leave as fast as you can. This is going to be so much harder to deal with if someone sees you.”

She whispered something to Dad before I heard their car doors shut in the background of the call.

“I’ll leave as soon as I toss the gun by him.” I took another drag.

Shit, I should slow down so I could still drive. I grabbed my gun and turned back around, seeing AJ’s yellow car in the distance.

“Oh shit, almost forgot. AJ’s car is here too. I can’t drive both.”

“We figured. Your father is already handling that. One of his friends is going to get it and drive it back to the shop.”

“All right. I gotta go. Bye, Mom.”

I could hear her protest as the phone moved away from my ear, but I still hung up. I dropped my phone into my pocket and walked down the hill to Kordell’s body. Tossing my gun onto his chest, I stared for a few minutes at his face.

Damn, guess you’ve really earned those dropped charges, now, huh? Finally not a poser no more. Now, maybe your music will actually mean something.

“Fuck, just shut up already,” I grumbled as I kicked some dirt at his body before turning and walking up the dark road to Rosalie’s car.

I jumped in her car, relieved to see her car key still in the ignition. I turned it on and backed away from the warehouse. I gave one fleeting glance in my rearview mirror as the building fell back into the distance. And, man, everything was so bright tonight. The other car headlights, the streetlamps. Everything moved slower too. It felt like it took hours to get to the hospital, but it was only a matter of minutes. I pulled in next to my car and walked through the ER doors. I had nurses rush over to me and place their hands on my jacket.

“Sir! Please, stop moving. You’re bleeding!” One of them tried to get in front of me, and I brushed past them.

“Not my blood. Where is my sister?” I asked, looking around the ER hallway.

That was when I spotted AJ pacing back and forth outside a room with muffled voices coming from it. I walked over and grabbed his arm, stopping his movement. For a moment, I thought he might punch me, but his nostrils flared as he let out a long exhale.

“Fuck, I didn’t even notice you walk in,” he said as he brushed my hand off his arm.

“Where’s my sister?” I asked.

AJ jerked his head to two large closed doors.

“Surgery. They took her right back. Wouldn’t let me follow, and when I tried to, I was told I’d be arrested if I didn’t wait here.”

He cracked his knuckles, and I knew he’d probably come close to knocking out the person who’d told him that.

“How long do we have to wait?” I asked as I looked through the windows of the doors.

“They said if I don’t hear anything mid-surgery, it's good news.”

Fucking doctors, never giving anything straight to people.

“My parents are on their way,” I said more in general than to just him.

He leaned against the wall by the doors and looked through the other window. “What about him?” His voice turned angry at the mention of Kordell.

“Dead.”

AJ’s face snapped toward mine, and I shrugged, not looking at him.

“Had to do it. Don’t worry about it.”

AJ kept staring at me for a moment, then turned to face the doors. Then, he reached over and clapped my shoulder once, giving it a squeeze before letting go and crossing his arms in front of him. After that, we just stood in silence, staring through the doorway, waiting to hear anything about Rosalie.

Time moved slowly. Each ticking sound from the clock on the wall nearby sounded loud, like it echoed in the hallway. I was about to go up after what seemed like hours and demand an update when we saw one of the rooms open and Rosalie was wheeled down the hall in the opposite direction. She was hooked up to a bunch of shit, but they wouldn’t hook up a dead body to an IV bag. AJ pounded on the doors, yelling and demanding the doctors attention, and they all jumped and looked over. Then, one of the doctors who had exited turned and walked our way. He came through the door, and AJ scared the guy half to death when he rounded on him.

“How is she?!” he growled out.

The doctor looked nervous, but held out his hands. “She’s alive, but she’s not out of the woods yet,” the doctor said, his words slow and measured.

“What’s that mean? You think this is a joke?!” AJ raised his voice and stepped up to the doctor.

The doctor shrank back before shaking his head.

“N-no. I mean to say, I don’t know how to explain it. She shouldn’t be alive right now. But the bullet barely missed her left pulmonary artery, and instead, it wedged itself against a rib bone. She is very lucky to be alive right now. The next forty-eight hours are going to be crucial.”

I felt my chest tighten, another wave of nausea hitting me. My mouth was dry as sandpaper, and I walked over to the water station and grabbed a cup of water, downing it. AJ’s knuckles were white, his fists clenched so hard that I thought he might break his own bones. We stood there next to each other, neither of us speaking. What was there to say?

I glared back over at the doctor, hoping for something—anything—that would tell me she was going to pull out of this and be fine. But all I got was a strained smile as he nodded awkwardly at each of us. That damn fake reassurance they gave when they didn’t know if someone was gonna make it.

“Can we see her?” AJ got out through a clenched jaw.

The doctor nodded. “She’s being moved into the ICU, but please, don’t disturb her as much as possible. She needs complete rest for her body to heal. You can get to the ICU by taking the elevator. Its floor is marked on the panel.”

AJ shoved past the doctor and strode over to the elevator. He jabbed the button over and over with the side of his fist until it finally opened in front of him. I followed him inside. We stood in opposite corners, not speaking as the elevator ascended, floor after floor until it stopped and the doors opened with a chime. I walked out first, and AJ walked right behind me to the nurses’ station.

“Can I help you?” the nurse asked us as she set a cup of coffee down.

“Rosalie Wells?”

She typed on her computer and then waved another nurse over before pointing at the screen. “Is she all settled and ready for visitors?”

The other nurse nodded.

“Yes, we just got her all settled. No talking, no loud noises. Please keep the lights low. Room 2.”

We followed the direction the nurse pointed to. The glass sliding door was closed with the curtains drawn on the inside. I carefully opened it, and we stepped into a mostly dark room.

Lying in a hospital bed, barely propped up, was my sister. AJ and I walked over to separate sides of the bed, and I gripped the side railing. Her chest rose and fell lightly, but her skin wasn’t as pale as it was the last time I had seen her.

She might not be conscious, but she is alive. My sister is going to make it.

And it was at that moment that I felt tears finally fall down my face.