Chapter 30
FINLEY
It’s been almost an hour since Jayden and I arrived at the hospital. The last time we saw Elijah he was barely conscious and the EMTs had him tied to a stretcher as we were told to make our own way here.
I had to watch them take my heart away, and even though it went against every fiber of my being to do it, I had no choice.
We had no choice.
Now, we’re pacing the waiting room with no update on what’s happening with Elijah.
My chest hurts so bad. An echoing, endless ache that throbs and throbs and throbs.
“Stop,” Jayden says, his arm coiling around my waist, bringing me to a standstill when I almost trip over my feet. Bringing his mouth to my temple, he murmurs again, “Stop, Lucky.”
“You’re doing it too.” I sink into his chest allowing him to wrap his thick arms around me.
He makes me feel safe and grounded in a place that’s different to all others I’ve ever been touched. Not in my chest or in my head. Someplace else deep in the marrow of my bones, the darkest pit of my stomach.
I don’t know.
It’s so encompassing that I can’t help melting all the way into him in spite of the other men around us. Their coach, Elijah’s agent, Dylan, and Matheo.
“You boys should head on home. I’ll keep you updated,” Bobby tells them while Elijah’s agent keeps busy on his phone.
Aside from asking Jayden and I what happened, Lex has remained quiet and detached from everyone in the room.
So when he turns his attention on Matheo and Dylan, all their arguments stop.
“Leave out of the private entrance. You don’t stop to talk to the press. You say nothing to nobody. I’ve got my team silencing rumors and dealing with the media.”
“What rumors?” I ask, turning in Jayden’s hold to face Lex.
Dylan and Matheo look down at the floor while Bobby lets out a grumbled curse. Meanwhile, Lex focuses on me, like he’s trying to get some kind of measure of me before he zeroes in on Jayden.
“I know your agent’s told you what’s being said out there.”
Jayden stiffens. “It’s bullshit.”
“All of it?” Lex’s gaze drops to my waist and Jayden’s arm coiled tight around it.
My throat swells with the cock of Lex’s brow. Like he’s goading Jayden to implicate himself somehow for something I don’t know.
“What’s happening? What is being said?”
“Nothing, Fin,” Jayden replies quickly. “It’s nothing. Just the usual bullshit of the media trying to stir shit.”
Lex scoffs, focusing back on his phone as he turns and paces back to the other end of the room.
“Hey!” Jayden calls at him, releasing me with a gentle squeeze to my side before he stomps after Lex. “You don’t get to say shit like that and walk away. I don’t give a fuck who you are, you don’t look at her like she’s the trash you take out.”
His hulking frame looms over Lex.
The tightness in my throat clenches around my windpipe, making it impossible to tell him it’s fine.
Whatever Elijah’s agent thinks of me is the least of my concerns right now.
Except there’s a needling in my chest that keeps going back to the way his stare bore into Jayden’s arm when he was holding me.
“You know it’s all lies.”
Lex glances up at Jayden, leveling him with an impassive stare. “I know what I see.”
“Then maybe you’re not as smart as Eli thinks you are.” Before Jayden says any more, Bobby tugs him away, towards Dylan and Matheo.
I don’t know what they’re arguing about or what is being said, but the way Jayden’s looking at me—apologetically—has my thoughts spinning out.
My feet carry me to Lex. He doesn’t look up or acknowledge. Simply keeps typing on his phone… until I snatch it from him.
“I’m right here,” I snap when his dark stare flashes to mine. His nostrils flare with the hard clench of his teeth. “People have looked at me like I’m beneath them all my life, if you think your judgment is any different… you’re wrong. It doesn’t faze me.”
“It should,” he replies. “I’m the one putting out the fires you sparked.”
“You’re not doing it for me. It’s for Elijah and his image. For your reputation…” I swallow when his hand grips his phone, still in my grasp.
I don’t know many things about this world, but I know a man who is used to manipulating it to his will when I see one. My brother is one of those men, along with my father and his father. No scruples. No boundaries.
“My only care right now is Elijah. He’s the only thing that matters to me.
That man is the only person I have left who has always been good to me.
All my memories worth reminiscing on are of him.
Of us.” Lex’s frown deepens when I refuse to let go of his phone when it goes crazy in my grasp.
“I know that means nothing to you. But it means everything to me.”
My whole body tightens when he takes a step forward. With a hard yank, he snatches his phone from my hand as Jayden comes up behind me.
He doesn’t need to touch me for me to feel his presence, his strength and safety as I hold steady. Refusing to let Lex’s demeanor intimidate me.
“What are the rumors?”
“Fin,” Jayden murmurs, his voice catching in the back of his throat.
“I want to know.”
Lex opens his mouth, but before he says anything, Jayden turns me to face him. Uncertainty flutters in his eyes when he takes my hand and guides me out of the room. The hallway lights are muted with the late hour, the private wing so quiet as he guides me to a secluded corner.
“Jayden…”
“It’s all stupid speculation. These people make shit up when… when…”
“Just tell me.”
“There are photos of me and you at the mall and—” He swallows. “—they’re saying you and me… that we’re messing around.”
Messing around. “Like… like…”
“Like you and me being together behind Eli’s back.”
“But that’s not true.”
“I know.”
“We’re not doing anything behind Elijah’s back… and if we were, we wouldn’t be flaunting it so flagrantly…”
“It’s ridiculous, I know.”
A long, exhausted sigh soaks over my face before he spins me to face away from him. My back is to his front when his hand smooths over my unruly hair. Long, deft fingers combing through my knotted lengths gently.
The way that I’ve been taking my anxiety out on it, it’s a frizzy mess. Every strand he touches aches all the way down to the root. It feels so good that I can’t resist my body’s instinct to melt into him again.
“It’s all bullshit, Fin.” His fingers weave through the coarse strands while he continues telling me, “Eli would never hurt himself.”
“Are they saying that? Because of the photos of us?” When I attempt to turn back to him, one hand grips my shoulder, holding me in place.
Jayden strokes a hand all the way from the top of my head, down to my nape before he places my neatly braided hair over my shoulder. “I told you; it’s all speculative lies.”
“Why? That’s awful.”
Jayden’s large hand strokes down my braid. “It is, and that’s why I didn’t want you thinking about it.” He turns me back to him. “Eli asked me to take you out. He told you to go with me so he could rest. We did nothing wrong…”
There’s an unspoken Did we? that I can only shrug to.
All these feelings that have been sprouting in my chest flash through my head as his stare flits to my ears. The new piercings throb when he smiles.
“We’re friends.”
“Yeah,” I whisper back even if our closeness says otherwise. Even if his hands on my waist feel otherwise. “Friends.”
Friends.