SWNOVELS Chapter 11
"Jesus Christ, AJ!" I guide her out of the cold, trembling with fear and rage. I disliked John when they started dating, loathed him a year into their marriage, and now I finally get to kill him.
We move toward the loveseat, and my sexy, irritating, home remodelers all gather round. I'm too focused on AJ's wound to consider the scene she finds herself walking into.
"Sweet Lord have mercy," AJ mutters under her breath, her head on a swivel as she looks between my gorgeous guests. "Shit, Bernie, did you win the lottery?"
AJ's the best. The bullet wound could be in her head and she'd still crack wise. I get her seated and, before I can make the request, Zev is there with a towel and some unmarked glass bottles. Those weren't here a day ago, so I guess he found an apothecary while he was piano shopping.
"Hi..." AJ manages to say as she falls into the wilderness that lives in Zev's green eyes.
"Good morning," Zev replies in his gruff but soothing voice. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."
"I'm Anna Jane," she says softly, with an obvious subtext of "please ravage me."
Hearing AJ use her full name throws me. She hates her name, even more than I hate Bernadette. Clearly, she's overwhelmed by the magnitude of hotness in my apartment. Hell, she hasn't even noticed the million-dollar renovation yet--or my freaking baby!
Rune walks over with a glass of water for her. The manners on these intruders consistently surprise me. As he hands her the glass, he pours a single drop of something from another unmarked bottle. "Here, this will help with the pain."
I stifle a laugh. Since walking in and laying eyes on Darius, Zev, and Rune, I don't think AJ's felt a thing.
"Thank you, I--oh my."
Her reaction to Zev ripping the sleeve off her undershirt is ridiculously muted. Oh my? This girl normally swears like a sailor, and now she's trying to pull off the demure act while my Sexies tend to her gunshot wound? I catch myself getting possessive and try to dial it back. These uber-hot creeps are here to steal your baby, Bernie. Don't forget that.
"It's a deep cut, but the instrument passed through surface tissue and didn't hit the bone," Zev explains, his words entirely lost on AJ as she studies his woodland god-like face.
"AJ," I say firmly, kneeling down and putting my hands on her knees. God, it feels good to kneel again. That's something you take for granted until you're eight months pregnant and trying to put on a shoe. "AJ, what happened? And where is that son of a bitch?" She finally turns away from Zev and looks at me, a sadness settling in behind her big brown eyes.
"He was drunk and mad, because, you know, that's just his natural state of being," she starts, and I can see there's more anger than sadness in her look. It's a hard shift to notice, but after a few thousand heart-to-hearts with this girl, I pick up on her mood pretty fast.
"Then the power went out and he started getting drunker, and that made him madder. We yelled at each other a little last night and then he passed out, so I thought that was the end of it. But the bastard started drinking first thing this morning. I called him a deadbeat loser and may have said a thing or two about his mother, then I got shot."
She's a little too casual in her storytelling for my taste, but I know she's trying to keep her rage at bay. John started making life more difficult the day he and AJ met when he transferred to our high school senior year, but she always thought she could fix him. I wonder if this will be her breaking point.
"I'm so sorry. Of course you can stay--"
I'm interrupted by a cry from the bedroom, which serves as a great reminder that I have a baby. It also alerts AJ to a few of the changes.
"Holy shit! Bern! You're not pregnant!"
That was the obvious one. I'll give her time to catch up on the other tweaks as the day goes on.
She bursts to her feet and pulls me into a strong embrace, thwarting Zev's efforts to clean her wound.
"Where is she?" AJ asks, happy tears in her eyes. "I have to meet her."
"Stay right here, I'll bring her in," I say, giving AJ a gentle squeeze on her un-shot arm as I go.
Just as I disappear into the bedroom, I hear my friend sounding a bit more like herself and not an overwhelmed schoolgirl as she addresses the unexpected guests.
"So, in the name of all that is good and holy, who the hell are you three?"
When I get to Rain, I can tell it's time for a diaper change and a feeding. I feel a little uncomfortable leaving AJ alone with the sexy stranger brigade, but she can stand up for herself as well as anyone, and I know they don't want any extra trouble.
I move Rain to her changing table and try to listen to the conversation in the front room in between the sobs. I can't hear much, just the occasional mention of countries as AJ tries to guess where everyone is from.
"Like, Paraguay? No, Portugal. Which one's in Europe? No, never mind, your hair's too light."
I love this girl so much. Her knowledge of the world outside of Massachusetts has, let's say, some gaps. That doesn't stop her from talking like she knows shit.
Their conversation makes me wonder--what do I tell AJ? Do I bring her into the loop? Will she believe me if I try? And what will these guys do, to me or her, if someone else knows what's going on? It might not be worth the risk.
I haven't quite decided on a plan of action as I head back out with Rain. AJ stands with the men in a circle around her, and I'm quite sure she orchestrated this positioning. Don't get me wrong, she's never been unfaithful, but she recognizes a thing--or three things--of beauty when she sees it. Plus, with John being the world's biggest piece of shit, I hope she takes all the time she wants to enjoy the view.
Still, she knows what's important and abandons the Sexies when she sees her goddaughter coming her way.
"She still needs to eat, so don't be offended if she screams the whole time you hold her," I say, like I'm a total expert on babies as I gently hand Rain to her.
"She can cry all she wants and I'll still love her forever," AJ says, and I know it's true. "My God, Bern, she's gorgeous. What's her name?"
"Rain," I answer, knowing full well--
"You and your weird hippie shit."
For being best friends since we were kids, AJ and I don't have a lot in common. It's why I left Rowley and she never did, nor did she ever plan to. Our differences have helped strengthen our bond over time, forcing us to appreciate and overlook traits we might not have had patience for if it weren't for the depth of our friendship.
I love seeing her hold Rain, and look forward to years of them spending time together, but she's still bleeding from a small hole on her upper arm.
"AJ, you need more time with my medics," I say, reaching for Rain. "You can play with the baby after you're stitched up."
She looks down at her arm, remembering the reason she came here.
"Right..." her voice trails off as she looks over her shoulder at the flawless men, quietly observing our every move. "Bernie, what's happening? When was she born? Who are these guys? Why... I don't know, why everything?"
Before I can start to respond, Zev comes over and gently guides AJ back to the loveseat. The moment he touches her, she's lost again in a sexy fog.
"I'm going to numb your arm then suture the wound," Zev explains as he sits AJ down, her eyes never leaving his face. "My thread will help you to heal."
AJ offers a slight nod to Zev, then looks at me questioningly.
"Wait, Bernie, for real, who are these guys? I appreciate the medical attention and all, but this is too weird to ignore."
Well. Shit. Now I've got half a second to decide how to play this. I don't know what to do, what's going to happen, or how much danger any of us are in, but my gut tells me to keep up the ruse. If nothing else, that might give me more time to figure something out. "Um, where do I start? This is Zev, Rune, and Darius." All male eyes are glued to me, also interested in how my introduction will go. "They showed up at my bar last night, on their way to... Montreal. Got stuck here when the power went out, and that's pretty much why Rain and I are alive." AJ's eyes go wide. "Are you serious?"
I nod, and it dawns on me that I mostly told the truth. A little fib about where they're headed, but I don't know what would have happened if these men didn't have some insane prophecy guiding them to my doorstep. As for that final part, I'll fill AJ in after I figure out how we're going to survive.