The Marked Men Series Books 1–6: Rule, Jet, Rome, Nash, Rowdy, Asa. Jay Crownover
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be able to get him to see past himself, but she did, and they are just so perfect together. I thought guys like him—guys like you—were hopeless. Now I’m wondering if I’m the one who is hopeless. I mean, you’re amazing, Ayden is amazing. So, whatever you guys work up is bound to be amazing and I just feel like I’m missing something.”
We were friends and I cared a lot about her. There were plenty of mirrors in the house, so I knew that she knew she was hot enough to make men stupid. I didn’t really understand it, but all I could figure out was that she was alone because she wanted to be alone.
“Cora, come on now. You can find a guy in, like, a second flat. Half the guys in the band have you on their laminated list.”
She rolled her expressive eyes at me. “I want something real, Jet. Something that is life changing and dramatic, something that makes me forget anyone else ever existed. I just can’t see that happening and it makes me sad.”
“I think you’re maybe reaching for something that doesn’t exist.”
“You see Rule and Shaw. It exists.”
I couldn’t really argue that point with her, but I didn’t know what else to say. I believed in love. I just didn’t trust it and what the end result could be if two people weren’t ultimately right for each other. Every great song was sung from a place of love. I knew love was strong enough to change people. My mom held on to her love for my dad, like it was a raft in the center of the ocean of horror that was her life. It was just my experience that love never changed anyone for the better, with Rule being the exception to the norm. He always did his own thing anyway, so it wasn’t like he was going to even love someone within the conventions of how it normally worked.
“Well, if some guy does come along, that’s an awful lot of pressure to be putting on him.”
“I know, so I’m destined to be alone and grumpy for the rest of my life. Not to mention sexually frustrated.”
“Stop being ridiculous and shake this crap off. Go put on some shoes and come bowling with us. It’ll be fun.”
She grumbled until I eventually got tired of it, and just picked her up and hauled her to her room. She argued the entire way, but after I pointed out that I was wearing pants that were bound to make it impossible to throw a heavy ball down the lane without ripping in half, she begrudgingly put on some Chucks and followed me out the door. I refused to ride in her little circus car, so we hopped in the Challenger and roared down to the sprawling blocks of the Sixteenth Street mall where every tourist and degenerate in town hung out. I normally avoided this part of the city. It brought back too many memories of skipping school and sneaking booze from Phil with Rule and Nash. However, after a spectacularly nasty day, I didn’t mind the noise and hustle as much.
The bowling alley was lit in blue and had velour couches scattered all over the place. Personally, I thought it looked more like a strip club than a bowling alley. The guys had beer and it looked like they were having a great time giving each other shit as they rotated turns. The pink bowling ball looked like a tiny toy in Rowdy’s beefy hands, and when he tossed it down the alley it bounced hard enough that it went right into the gutter. Cora laughed and gave him a high five, while Rule and Nash offered up a round of ridiculous-looking golf claps.
There was a group of teenage girls a few lanes down openly gawking, and I thought they were going to need the paramedics called when Nash winked at them when he got up to take his turn. I sat next to Cora on one of the benches and ducked just in time to avoid getting knocked upside the head by the flat of Rule’s palm. I scowled at him, but his glacial gaze made it clear he wasn’t playing around.
“You ever pull a stunt like you did last night again and I will use your intestines to string your Les Paul.”
I swallowed, because from most people that was an idle threat, but not coming from him. I nodded.
“I know, dude, I know. I tried to make it right. We’re good, she doesn’t hate me.”
Those cold eyes regarded me seriously and he must have decided whatever he saw was sincere, because some of the tension left his body.
“Good, because if she hates you, then Shaw has to hate you, and by default that means I have to kick your ass all over town and I would hate to have to do that.”
I snorted and took a pint of beer that Rowdy handed me. “You wouldn’t hate that at all.”
He shrugged and nodded at Cora who was having some kind of argument with Nash over exchanging her Chucks for bowling shoes.
“What’s up with her?”
I felt my mouth pull down at the corners and my eyes sharpen just a fraction. Rowdy sat down on the low lounge table and all three of us bent our heads together so that they could hear me when I lowered my voice.
“Bad stuff going down at the homestead, guys. When I got there, she was chasing some guy out the door. She said he shoved his way in and was demanding to know where ‘it’ was. She has no clue what he was looking for, but she was pretty shaken up. He took off on some souped-up bike way too fast for me to do anything about it. After everything that went down with Shaw, I don’t like it one bit.”
Rowdy whistled and Rule growled like a wild animal. “Did you call the cops?”
I sat back and laced my fingers behind my head. “Cora wouldn’t let me. You know her, she thinks this is the Wild West still and things like that just don’t happen here like they do in Brooklyn. She seems to think it’s a onetime event and that the guy was just a meth head or something looking for money. That bike was cherry and there was no way he just picked out our house at random. We’re way too far away from downtown for a junkie just looking to score some cash.”
“This isn’t cool.” Rule sounded a little unhinged and I couldn’t blame him. He had gone a little off the rails when Shaw had been attacked and we were all now just starting to settle down from it all.
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