“No, he’s home with me. He said no to going to the hospital. They’d ask too many questions. It’s just that he looks so pale, and there’s so much blood.”
I beat down my own frantic reaction to her words. Lexie was pregnant and clearly terrified. She needed me to be as calm as possible to help her through this.
“I’m five minutes away,” I told her as I broke pretty much every speeding law that La Playa had. “Is he awake?”
“Yes. He wants to see you.”
“What kind of wound does he have?”
“He says he…” her breath hitched, and I suspected that she was suppressing a sob. “He says he was shot.”
“Fuck.”
“I can’t do this anymore, Kat,” she said. “I can’t deal with this Las Bala shit anymore.”
Uh-oh.
I pulled up in front of their apartment building. “I’m here. Buzz me in.”
I hung up the phone as she did. Their apartment was on the second floor, so I hit the stairs, not wanting to wait for the elevator.
When I knocked on the apartment door, it was pulled open immediately.
“Kat,” Lexie threw her thin body into mine, giving me a fierce hug. I patted her back and made soothing noises.
“Where is he?”
“Our bedroom,” she sniffled.
Disengaging from Lexie, I stepped inside and headed to the hallway off the kitchen, where there were two bedrooms. I saw bloody rags in the sink and forced myself to look away.
“Jason?” I called out as I knocked on the cracked door.
“Come in,” he said.
I found him lying on top of the blankets, shirtless. I could see streaks of dark red where blood had been wiped away. There was a clean bandage on his shoulder, with just a hint of red in the center, where blood was starting to bleed through.
“What the fuck happened?” I asked, trying not to sound like I was accusing him of anything.
“It’s a long story,” he sighed and gestured to the empty spot on the bed next to him. I sat down.
“I’ve got time.”
He sighed. “I think that the first thing you should know is that Blade probably saved my life tonight.”
“Blade,” I echoed, trying to make sure I heard him correctly.
“Yeah. There was a big fight tonight between Las Balas and Outlaw Souls. Actually, it technically started a couple of days ago.”
“When Ryder was shot?”
“How did you know that?”
“A friend of a friend,” I said vaguely. “It doesn’t matter. Just tell me what happened.”
He did, beginning with Las Balas taking the crate of weapons that the Outlaw Souls dug up. Jason wasn’t there, but he knew what happened. The entire club was abuzz with the news that Mad Dog had tried to kill Ryder. Then, he filled me in on everything that happened tonight, the way that Blade had stood up to his Outlaw Souls brothers and gotten Jason out of there.
I beat back tears that threatened to fill my eyes. Blade had done this for me. I was sure of it. He saved my brother because Jason was so important to me. I couldn’t stand to lose him after my mother’s passing, and Blade knew that. After losing his own brother, he probably understood it more than most.
