Star-Crossed (43 page)
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Come on, darlin’. Eat just a little,” Melody coaxed as she sat in a chair next to Jules’s hospital bed. “Babies need something besides that clear IV stuff they keep pumping in ya.”
Jules swallowed past the nausea, and even though she knew she should be eating, she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. “I’ll eat it later.”
“You said that twenty minutes ago,” Clay growled from his seat in the corner.
“You’re white as a damn sheet. Eat the food, Jules.” Jules looked from Melody to the plate. She tried to will up the strength to fight past the pain. They’d put her left arm in a sling when she’d discovered that moving it was too much agony to bear, but that didn’t help with the rest of her problems. It’d be easier if she was willing to take something besides ibuprofen, but she wasn’t. The image of those little babies on the grainy ultrasound screen flashed in her mind. She picked up her fork even if it went against the very core of her being. Food was truly repulsive at the moment.
“I think that ibuprofen made me queasy.” She closed her eyes against the wave of sickness. “And it didn’t do a lick of good. I still feel like hell. Just my luck to get shot the one time I can’t have anything good for it.”
“I know,” Melody whispered. “But you’re strong, Jules. I know you can do it.”
“I don’t feel strong,” she whispered miserably, thinking of Romeo. She’d been up awhile now, and no one could give her a straight answer. “Is he dead, and y’all are just scared to tell me?”
“No.” Melody shook her head quickly. “We’d have told ya.” Jules dropped her fork and wiped at the tears rolling down her face. “I can’t do it.”
349
“Christ.” Clay huffed and stood, reaching for the big TV hanging on the wall. He pushed a button, and it flickered on, casting a strange glow in the darkened room. “It’s been nonstop Romeo and Juliet since last night. If he dies, they’ll be the first to know. I learned more shit ’bout you than I have in almost thirty years of knowing ya.”
“
We’re here with Sara Jensen, who actually married the couple two days ago. Sara, what
was your reaction when you first saw their names on the forms they filled out?
”
“
It was romantic. Everyone came to watch. We’re all torn up over what happened ’cause
they were a nice couple. You could tell they were really in love.
”
“Oh!” Jules gasped at the picture that flashed on the TV. It was Romeo kissing her under the magnolia tree. “I didn’t think I’d ever get to see those pictures.”
“There they are.” Clay gestured to the set. “They got tons of ’em. Those folks you put on a show for at the courthouse came to the media right away with the photos.” Fresh tears filled her eyes, and Jules took a bite of food to fight against it as she watched the news and saw different pictures of her wedding day. It was bizarre to see them for the first time on the national news, but she couldn’t look away.
Wyatt walked into the room and growled, “Y’all are letting her watch this crap?”
“She’s eating now, ain’t she?” Clay countered. “Those pills and the concussion are making her sick. She needed a distraction.”
“This is the distraction you chose?”
“Shhh!” Jules waved her fork at Wyatt when the media coverage changed to a man standing outside an emergency room. “They’re at the hospital now. They’re gonna tell us what’s going on.”
“
It’s suspected that Juliet Wellings will make a full recovery, but we’re waiting for word
on Romeo Wellings, who is still listed in critical condition. We know he had emergency surgery
shortly after he was airlifted to St. Francis, but have very few details on his situation. His family
has been very private in regards to his injuries.
” 350
“What?” Jules barked at the television before she turned to Wyatt, feeling the sadness and fear well into a surge of injustice. “I wanna know what he had surgery for!
He’s my husband. That means—”
“You were in a shoot out. He got shot, Jules.” Wyatt sounded as if he was letting out poison, and it spilled out of him quickly. “He had surgery to remove two bullets.
One was in his chest. The other got him in the back.” Jules sucked in a sharp gasp, terrified of the answers she’d been asking for. “Is he gonna be okay?”
“Yes.” Wyatt breathed a sigh of relief as if only now believing it himself. “I just walked over and saw him. He’s still sleeping, but they say he’s gonna be fine.” Jules took another shuddering breath. “Really?”
“Yeah, really.” Wyatt rested against the side of Jules’s bed and gave her a wan smile. “I didn’t wanna say anything till I was sure.”
“You promise?” Jules asked, her bottom lip quivering. “He’s not gonna leave me?”
“When have I ever lied to you? You told me not to pacify you, and I’m not.” Wyatt brushed at the fine wisps of hair on her forehead. “It ain’t gonna be a walk in the park.
He lost a kidney. I’m sure his recovery will be challenging, but he’s tough. I think he’ll be fine.”
Jules dropped her fork and reached out to him. She hugged Wyatt tightly. Her entire body shook as great racking sobs of relief burst out of her. She let all the fear, pain, and stress that had been building since she’d woken up flow out of her, and she didn’t care when the nurses came in, because Wyatt kept them away. He knew she needed the emotional cleansing. She could rise out of the ashes once it was over. Now she had hope Romeo would fight past the ruins with her, two phoenixes that had overcome the tragic ending written a long time ago, proving that history doesn’t always repeat itself.
351
It took her a long time to calm down. Her face felt swollen, and her headache throbbed worse than ever. It was mentally healing, but her body didn’t necessarily agree.
Her food forgotten, she fell back against the pillow. She turned her head to the side to ease the pain in her neck. She noticed they were alone in the room. Clay and Melody had left at some point, and it occurred to Jules that she had cried for a
really
long time.
“I wanna see him,” she finally whispered. “I’m his wife. I should be able to see him.”
“He’s sleeping, Ju Ju.” Wyatt grasped Jules’s good hand, being careful of the IV.
“But as soon as he wakes up, we’ll get you in there. Come hell or high water, I promise, you’ll get to see him.”
“Okay.” Jules squeezed Wyatt’s hand back, believing him. She fought the heaviness of sleep that called simply because staying awake was too painful. She studied her brother’s face, seeing how tired he looked. He still hadn’t shaved. His eyes were more bloodshot than ever, with shadowy circles under them that kept getting darker. “You need sleep.”
“Probably,” Wyatt agreed.
“I’ll take a power nap. You take one too.” Jules closed her eyes. “Find a bed. Come back bright-eyed and bushy-tailed later.”
Jules fell asleep before Wyatt could agree, but something in her dreams still felt him leave, and it was more than just physically stepping out of the room. For the first time since she was born, Jules felt an emotional separation too. They were finally doing what twins were supposed to do when they grew up and moved past the instinctive need to walk the same path simply because of the nine months spent together in the womb.
Jules started living her own life.
352
* * * *
In the early morning on the first day of her new life, Jules woke to the low whispering of Italian, and she instinctively fought to open her eyes. She hurt worse than before she’d gone to sleep. The ibuprofen had long since worn off, but she ignored it.
The rhythm and flow of those beautiful, foreign words were attached to the warm feeling of coming home, and Jules needed it desperately.
Thinking she’d see Romeo, she found herself frowning at Nova instead.
He hadn’t noticed she was awake. He was resting against her bed, having a hushed, private conversation, and she wasn’t sure she should interrupt. Then he leaned his head against the railing, looking broken, and something made her reach out to him.
Nova jerked up when she touched his hair. His eyes were bloodshot and watery, and he rubbed them, blinking rapidly. “I’m sorry.”
“Why?” she asked, her voice still raw from crying the night before.
“I didn’t mean to wake you up.” He looked away, clearly embarrassed. “I know I’m the last person you wanna wake up and see.”
“Nova.” Jules grabbed his hand when he tried to pull away and leave. She knew so much more about him than she had before. There was a side of her that wanted to soothe away the haunted look in his dark eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” He nodded, looking thrown off by her concern but not pushing it away like she expected him to. “I was just, you know, introducing myself.” He pointed to her stomach and swallowed hard before lowering his gaze. “Even if they never meet me, I wanted them to know they matter to me.”
“They’ll meet you.” Jules stroked his hair once more, like she would have done for Wyatt if he were this obviously distressed. “You could move to Garnet. Get away from all of it.”
“God, no.” Nova shook his head in horror. “Things are too fucked-up right now.
Running wouldn’t fix the war. It’d just follow me.”
353
“Are you in danger?” Jules asked, feeling her heart rate pick up as her entire body pulsed with pain, reminding her how ruthless the mafia could be. “Do you think they’re gonna—”
“No.” He shook his head, but the grimness in his tone was less than convincing.
“I’ll survive. I always survive, but I dunno how much time I can spend with my brothers.”
Jules couldn’t argue when she understood what he was saying. Nova was making sure Romeo and Tino were safe by cutting ties with them. She wanted Romeo away from the old life he hated so much, even if that meant losing Nova.
“I can’t believe there’s no way out,” Jules argued, wishing there was a way to save Nova too. “There has to be a solution. Maybe if we all sat down and thought about it.”
“I’ve thought about it,” Nova assured her with the grim assurance of someone who was a very competent thinker. “Things are
tense
back home. I did some things others don’t approve of. You do not want me in Garnet.”
“Are you sure they ain’t coming after you?”
Nova grew more confident as he stood, as if slowly building his walls back up.
“Things may be a little challenging right now, but it’s not anything I can’t overcome.”
“How do you know that?”
Nova leaned down and gave her a cocky grin as he admitted in a hushed voice,
“’Cause I’m smarter than them.”
Jules just gaped when he turned to leave. The vulnerability that had been so potent and raw when she woke up evaporated like a misty dream, making her question if she’d really witnessed it to begin with.
“Nova!” she called when he got to the door. “Can I see Romeo?”
“Hell yes, you can,” Nova surprised her by saying. “It’s because of you both my brothers are finally getting out. You ever need a favor, Jules, I’m your guy.”
“The only favor I need is to see my husband.”
354
“I already said that was done.” Nova tilted his head and contemplated Jules. “And as soon as you get better, we’re gonna have to talk about all those shitty mutual funds you’re investing in.”
Jules frowned at the off-topic statement. “How’d you know what I invest in?”
“Lucky guess. I know you and your brother are cut from the same cloth, but we gotta start being more aggressive about your financial future.”
“We?” Jules laughed. “I hadn’t realized it was a team effort.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Nova waved his hand dismissively as if the decision was already made. “I’ll just pull money out of Romeo’s account and start working on it.” Jules wanted to snap at him for his audacity, but a memory about Nova nagged at the back of her mind. Romeo’s story of a young, eleven-year-old boy muscling into card games just to win enough money to help his dying mother. Money was a powerful form of expression for Nova. It was his way of trying to fix things, and she saw the olive branch for what it was.
“Thank you.” She grinned, knowing Romeo had so much money it wouldn’t make a difference where Nova got the starting capital. All that mattered was Jules giving him a way to take care of his new family. Even if he couldn’t see them, he could still love and care for them. “I’d really appreciate that, Nova.” He gave her a beaming smile. Unlike his usual dark, cynical smile, this one reached his eyes, making him look more like Tino than she’d noticed before now. It had to be their mother’s smile because it was the same one Romeo had, and it was beautiful.
Nova pointed across the hall. “I’m gonna go back.”
“Make sure he knows I love him.” Jules sighed, wishing she could be there but knowing she was still bedbound. “Are you gonna tell him ’bout the babies?”
“I don’t think there is any way to muzzle Tino about that.” Nova laughed. “That’s gonna be the first thing outta his mouth. Sorry.”
355
“It’s okay.” Jules knew it wasn’t worth getting upset over when she took in the whole picture. “I suppose we got the rest of our lives to be excited together about it.”