Page 193 of Lone Star

“Yep. Awake and everything. He’ll be pulling his weight in their littleShiningbit in no time.”

Jinx nodded. “I’m just taking Tylenol, though.”

Candy walked deeper into the room. “If you need some more morphine–”

“Nah. I’m sick of that stuff.”

A chair stood in the corner, a pair of jeans tossed over it. Candy moved them to the dresser and then dragged the chair over closer to the bed and sat. “You fucked yourself up, brother,” he said. “It’s okay to need a little help out of a bottle while you’re getting back on your feet.”

Jinx looked down at his hands, linked together in his lap, on top of the blankets. His fingers looked delicate, somehow, without his usual assortment of rings. “No. Morphine and that other stuff – it’s hard to think straight when you’re taking that.”

“You’ve got a big crack in your pelvis,” Candy said, gently. “I don’t think anybody expects you to be thinking straight. The important thing is to get better.”

Jinx took a deep breath. When he lifted his head, his expression seemed resigned. “The important thing woulda been to do my job, and not give you a buncha shit. Not get myself all shot up.” To Candy’s surprise, color rose along his cheekbones, a dusting of pink – a flush of unmistakable shame. “I was wrong,” he said. “And I’m sorry. I let the club down – I let you down, brother.”

Candy sat still a moment, shocked. His friendship with Jinx had always been built on a mutual – but largely unspoken – understanding. They usually thought the same, followed logic along the same lines. They rarely disagreed, and never like they had this time. They’d never distrusted one another.

And that wasn’t all on Jinx.

He leaned forward, and placed a hand on Jinx’s blanket-covered knee. “I’m sorry. I was wrong, too.”

“No, you–”

“No, I was.”

Jinx swallowed. “You’re my president.” His jaw set. Shame, but determination, too. A manful willingness to swallow pride – to acknowledge that, within this club, they held different ranks.

They did, but it wasn’t something they ever pointed out to each other, and it broke Candy’s heart a little to have it happen now.

“No,” he said again, even more gently, his voice soft. Not a president’s voice; a friend’s. “You had misgivings going in. I know what happened with Cade” – Jinx flinched, slightly, just a lowering of his lashes – “made you hate Pacer. And it was easy for me to think that was the reason you didn’t want to help the Road Runners in general, and Pacer in particular. But the whole thing with Melanie, the way she was involved with the cartel…if I’d listened to you from the start, maybe I would have realized sooner that something was really wrong with the whole situation. Maybe Chelle wouldn’t have…” His breath caught. He swallowed and pushed on. “I didn’t trust my sergeant, is what I’m getting at. I should have. And I’m damn sorry I didn’t. It won’t happen again.”

They regarded one another a long moment. Then Jinx stuck out his hand. “We both fucked up and we won’t do it again?” he asked, another smile plucking at his mouth.

Candy took his hand gladly, with a sense that another piece of his universe was righting itself. “Amen.”

~*~

Jenny was helping Darla with breakfast clean-up when someone cleared his throat behind her in a not-at-all-subtle way. She turned to find Maddox standing on the other side of the island, tense and awkward.

“I was wondering if I could have a word,” he said, oddly formal.

She traded a look with Darla, who lifted her brows.

“Sure,” Jenny said, reaching to dry her wet hands.Please don’t let him be asking me out. God. “You wanna go outside?”

“Please.”

He held the door for her, and when they were standing in the bright, cold morning sunshine, he folded his arms right across his middle and seemed to shrink down into himself.

“Gotta say I’m curious,” she prompted.

He let out a deep breath and stared out across the parking lot. “I haven’t told my superiors yet, but I’m quitting the Bureau.”

“Okay.”

He glanced over, frowning. “Okay?”

“I can act like I’m surprise if you want me to, but I’m really not.”

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