Page 62 of Tandem

The doctor outlined the action plan, assuring them they had the best medical team in the city caring for Rosalie. As he spoke, I slowly eased back into my chair, suddenly tired, the adrenaline finally wearing off from the fight and the anger. Rosalie would be okay. She would need a month or two to heal fully, but she would be okay. Just as the doctor opened the doors, Jayden’s girl came in. She walked over to him, and he pulled her in, telling her the news about Rosalie. Then she pulled him close to my side, away from his parents, and spoke in a hushed undertone to him.

“We got him. The boys made sure he felt everything until the end, Jay. He won’t ever hurt her again.” Jayden yanked her in for a hard kiss and she kissed him back. Then they sat down, and I stood up, walking over to Rose and Kayden.

“I know you both probably hate me right now. But I need to get out of these clothes. Can you text me when she’s out and I can see her?” I asked them, but Kayden didn’t answer. He only stared at me like he wished I would disappear and never come back. But Rose nodded.

“Give me your number, AJ.” She held out her phone and I punched it in. “I’ll text you,” she told me. I waited for her toshoot me a message before I walked out of the hospital doors and over to my car.

I drove to my motel where I found T sitting against his lowrider. His two girls were making out in the back seat with each other as he watched over his gold shades. He walked over and handed me a sack of my money. I trusted T, but I still counted my cash each time. It was all there—all 100K of it. I nodded at him, and he asked if my girl was good.

“She will be,” I replied, my voice heavy with exhaustion from the day.

He nodded. “That’s good, man, real good. Hey, so after the fight, you left, and shortly after, a bunch of bikers showed up, grabbed Jabari, and took off. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you? I don’t like other crews fucking with my business, AJ, you know that.”

As much as I wanted to be happy about hearing that, at this point, all I felt was the exhaustion from the match and the rest of the night weighing on my body. I shook my head no.

“Nah, but whatever he got was coming to him, you know that.” We talked for another few minutes, and he ended it by hopping into his lowrider, with his two girls giggling behind him.

“See you next fight season, AJ. Be ready. I’mma find new fighters even better than Jabari to face you. Gotta keep the crowd going, you know?” I flipped him off as he drove away, which got a loud laugh out of him. I climbed the stairs to room 10, opened the door, and locked it behind me. I walked through the room, tucked my money into the wall in which I hid things, and dragged myself through a cold shower before crashing into bed.

CHAPTER 36

AJ

The next day,I woke up to my phone buzzing with a message from her mom.

Rose

Hey, she’s awake but she can’t have visitors yet. Doctor’s orders.

Like I gave a fuck what some doctor said. I rolled to the edge of the bed, sitting up and running my hand through my hair. Today, I could feel the hits Jabari got me with. I could feel my head pounding from the adrenaline drain and I needed some fucking food. I needed to see my girl. I got up and tugged on some clean clothes, grabbed half the cash from the winnings and my car keys, and made my way to my lowrider. Sliding in, I turned the key and listened to her purr. Backing out of my spot, I made my way to a small garage close to Pop’s place.

Opening the padlocks, I glanced at the car covered inside. I gripped the edges of the cover and threw it halfway over the roof, revealing the passenger door. Gripping the handle, I opened it, stepped into the passenger seat, and opened the glove box and shoved the 50K inside. There was already some cash in there, I had been saving to get this donk redone for a couple of years.

Rosalie had already sprayed the base coat on it, but the interior and exterior needed to be finished. This win should push me over the amount I needed to finish the process at the custom car shop. Though the last part might be ruined now that I got the owner's daughter beaten to shit just by being with me.

I locked everything back up and got breakfast on my way to the hospital. It went down like a rock, yet I kept eating until it was gone. I knew the food would help regardless of whether I had an appetite. I went to the hospital and parked in their parking garage. I couldn’t help but notice all of the fancy cars around. Doctors always made bank, and apparently, they put it into their cars, something I’d have to remember for the future.

I walked into the door and looked around.Fuck, where do I go?I checked my phone and realized she never mentioned a room number. Dammit. I walked over to the nurses’ station and saw a pretty little blonde sitting there. I flashed a smirk at her, making her blush.

“H-how can I help you, sir?” she asked, giving me some serious doe eyes. I scanned her up and down, appreciating what she had to work with.

“I need to know what room Rosalie Wells is in. Can you help me with that?” I asked her. She glimpsed down at her computer and typed a few things.

“Oh, it says she’s family only for visitation. Are you family? If so, I’ll need to see an ID to make sure you’re on the visitor list.” I pretended to touch my pocket, looking for my wallet.

“Oh shit… I must have left it at home. I should be on the list. I’m her brother, Jayden.” I smiled at her again. If he wasn’t here when I was here then I should be able to get away with this. Of course, her fucking parents put her on a family-only visitation, the fuckers. That wouldn’t stop me. If I got turned away, I would fight my way to her if I had to.

She peered up at me and bit her lip. “Well, you are on the list, but… I could get in trouble for not checking your ID…” I glanced at her and gave her the eyes that always made women cave for me.

“Please, I just found out she was awake. I need to check on my sis. You get it, right? Just let it slide this once? I’ll bring my ID tomorrow, and you can check it then.” I threw in a wink for good measure and she blushed and nodded.

“Okay, sure, that’ll work. I hope your sister is feeling better. She’s in room 2A. Take the elevators to the recovery ward, floor 3.” I made my way to the elevator and punched in the number to the third floor. Leaning against the back wall, I tucked my hands in the pockets of my joggers. The elevator stopped on the next floor, and to my surprise, Rose Wells stood before me.

She stiffened when she saw me and walked in quickly, pushing the button to close the doors. “AJ. What are you doing here?” she asked me in a level tone, even as her blue eyes, the same blue as my girl’s, kept you locked on her as she spoke.

“Seeing my girl. Kinda bitchy you put her on a family-only visitation,” I rumbled out as she walked in front of me.

“AJ, if Kayden sees you here, he's going to flip. She had a minor complication last night during the surgery to stop some of the bleeding, so it was touch and go for a minute. I can’t let you and him see each other if it will cause him more stress. This is my family.” I stood there. If she thought I would leave and not see Rosalie at all, she was kidding herself.

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