J Speaks (L & J 2) by Emily Eck Read Free Book Online

“I’m coming back.” I got into the elevator and pushed the button to close the doors before she could answer.
    ******
    I went back to the hospital a few days later. The nurse I paid off called to tell me Elle was waking up. I didn’t know what I expected her to say to me. I didn’t have a plan as to what I was going to say to her. Any piece of light I was holding onto crashed when she looked at me. I knew it was over before she said a word. Her eyes told me everything I needed to know before Chris opened her mouth to kick me out again.
    I walked out of her room empty, despondent. I was prepared to die. The phone call I’d made when Chris was in the restroom, just after Elle came out of surgery, could lead to just that—death.
    I gripped my shoulder, and as I shuffled through the hospital, making my way outside, an older nurse stopped me and said, “Don’t give up.” I blinked a few times, unsure who she was or why she was talking to me.
    She said those words and continued walking. I turned around to ask her what she meant, but she was gone. I gripped my shoulder tighter. It felt like the eagle talons tattooed on my skin were digging deep enough to draw blood.
     
     
     
     
     
     

 
    Foresight
     
    Despite Chris, I tried to see Elle various times while she was in the hospital. Each time, the same thing happened—security kicked me out. The crazy chick screaming at me? Nope, she stayed. They sent the 6’5” monster away. Chris had every reason to be pissed and then some. I knew what I’d done, but it still stung having her shove it in my face. I made sure Elle was taken care of. I only was able to see her once in the hospital, and it hadn’t gone well. I wanted to punch Chris in the face, and shove her skinny ass out of the room. I wanted to hold Elle, and I could beg for her forgiveness. Yeah, that didn’t happen. I wasn’t giving up though. I refused to give up. Instead, I stayed planted in reality. I had a plan and a mission. I just had to get my head right to make it happen.
    I was sitting at a table in a shed that served as a garage, waiting for Dig, Ratchet’s nephew, to arrive. I was early, which was a stupid move, because it just gave me time to stew over everything. Everything that happened, and everything that I was about to set in motion. Bill offered me a bowl of jambalaya he had cooking in the bar, but I couldn’t think about food. I’d been nursing the same beer for the last twenty minutes. The label lay shredded in front of me.
    “She’ll be back. ”
    I looked from the table at Bill. Although he and Dig were blood brothers, Bill was never part of MM. He knew my plight though. He was around for Burns takeover. It’s why I bought him this bar. When Dig tried to leave MM a few years after the coup, Burns had used Bill as leverage to keep Dig in the folds of his clandestine empire. At that time, we were only in St. Lois. I bought Bill this bar to get him away from Burns. I wanted him to go farther, like to California or Maine, but he refused to leave Missouri, the place he’s grow up in. KC was as far as I could get him to move. We’d managed to keep the bar under the radar. Burns didn’t know where we had Bill tucked away. He probably thought we sent him to California or Maine. And he’s probably forgot my now.
    I shook my head at him. I wasn’t feeling so confident.
    “Trust an old man. I saw how she looked at you when you brought her here.”
    I laughed bitterly. “She knew the man, not the monster.”
    “You’d be surprised at how these things can work out. Trust an old man.”
    I didn’t have a response. I wanted to believe him, but the broken part of me kept me in my black hole, unable to see the light of hope.
    I heard the roar of Dig’s engine. It had been two weeks since I’d called him from the hospital. Bill and I moved to open the door of the shed so he could drive in. The shed held a kitchen table from before I was born, some tools, and space for Dig and I to