Chapter 17: Alexis
1020 Words
The day I’m discharged from the hospital, the sun is too bright.
Jayden helps me into the wheelchair, and the warmth of the afternoon hits my skin like something foreign. The hospital doors close behind us with a hiss, and I feel the weight of five weeks hit me like a freight train.
I’m going home.
Home.
The word feels distant and unfamiliar, like I’m supposed to recognize it, but it’s changed in my absence.
My body is still broken—healing, yes, but not whole. My heart… well, that’s another story entirely. There’s a hole in it, the shape of someone I never got to meet. The baby I didn’t even know I had until it was already gone. I haven’t been able to speak about it. Not yet. Not even to Jayden.
Jayden helps me into the car, careful and gentle, always watching my face like I might break again. He doesn’t push. He just holds my hand the whole ride home while the twins chatter in the backseat, blissfully unaware of the quiet storm still brewing behind my ribs.
When we pull into the driveway, the house looks the same. A toy bike leans against the porch. Wind chimes sway gently in the breeze. My favorite blanket is draped over the back of the porch swing, faded from the sun.
But I’m not the same.
Jayden lifts me carefully into the wheelchair again, and I brace myself. I expected to cry, but all I feel is tired. Bone-deep tired. He pushes me through the front door, and I’m hit by the scent of home—lavender and cinnamon and the faintest trace of antiseptic Jayden must have used while cleaning.
The twins race ahead, announcing my arrival to every room like tiny heralds.
I laugh softly. It hurts my ribs, but I don’t care. Their joy is medicine.
Jayden helps me settle onto the couch, wrapping me in a blanket before kissing my forehead. “I’ll get your pain meds and some water.”
I nod, eyes fluttering shut.
A few minutes later, I hear the deep rumble of a motorcycle approaching.
And just like that, I know.
Jax.
My oldest brother. The one who never sugarcoated anything. The one who taught me how to throw a punch, who used to scare off boys just by existing. The one who hasn’t seen me since before the accident.
I hear the bike cut off and the heavy sound of his boots on the porch. The front door opens without a knock—because of course it does—and then he’s there.
“Hey, little sis.”
I look up, and my chest tightens. He looks rough—dark circles under his eyes, jaw tight, fists clenched like he’s holding something back.
“Hey, Jax,” I manage, voice softer than I’d like. “You look like hell.”
He huffs a small laugh and walks over, kneeling beside the couch. He doesn’t touch me right away, just studies me with those hard, steel-gray eyes that always saw too much.
“You look like you’ve been through worse,” he says. “But you’re here. That’s what matters.”
Jayden steps out from the kitchen, pausing when he sees Jax. “You told her yet?”
Told me what?
My stomach twists.
Jax turns to me, jaw working. “I didn’t want to drop this on you your first day home. But I also can’t keep it from you.”
He glances at Jayden, who gives a tight nod, then looks back at me.
“You remember anything about the driver? The guy who hit you and Jessa?”
I shake my head slowly. “No. Just… darkness. Screeching. Then nothing.”
Jax takes a deep breath, and I feel my pulse start to pick up.
“We got eyes on the wreck. One of the club’s guys checked traffic cam footage, dug deeper than the cops did. Turns out… the driver wasn’t drunk like they said.”
“What?” I whisper.
“He was paid,” Jax says, eyes dark and cold. “It wasn’t an accident, Lex. Someone paid that bastard to ram into your car.”
The world narrows. I blink at him, not sure I’ve heard correctly.
“What… what do you mean paid? Like—”
“It was a hit,” Jax says flatly. “Someone wanted you off the road. Dead.”
My breath catches, and I instinctively curl in on myself, like I’ve just been sucker-punched. The pain that shoots through my ribs doesn’t compare to the panic that floods my chest.
“Do you know who?” I ask, barely above a whisper.
Jax shakes his head. “Not yet. The money was moved through three shell accounts. All clean. Someone knew what they were doing. But I’ve got the whole crew on it now. Every hacker, every tracker. We’ll find the trail. Whoever they are, they didn’t cover their tracks well enough.”
I feel sick.
Someone tried to kill me.
Tried to leave my kids without a mother.
Tried to rob me of my family. Of the baby I didn’t even know I was carrying.
“Why me?” I whisper. “Why not Jessa? Why not anyone else?”
Jayden comes to sit beside me, arm wrapping around my shoulders protectively. “We don’t know yet. But we’ll find out.”
Jax leans in, voice low and dangerous. “I swear to you, Lex. When we find out who did this… they won’t get a second chance.”
I look at him, really look, and I see it—the fury in his eyes. The promise of violence. The vow of vengeance.
But beneath it, I see something else.
Fear.
He almost lost me. And now he’s terrified it could happen again.
I nodded, my voice trembling. “Okay. Find them.”
Jax stands slowly, his jaw tight again. “I will.” And I believe him.
Because Jax has never broken a promise to me and this time, he has blood in his eyes.
- Writer
