Jax (Breaking the Declan Brothers #1)(19)

CHAPTER NINE





“Jax.” I feel a hand on my shoulder. “Hey, Jax, get up,” Zeke says, smacking me hard.

“What the fuck!” I grit between my teeth. “Hit me again, and I’m gonna knock you out, fucker.” I blink a few times, trying to adjust to the darkness as I push up on an elbow and reach for my cell on the nightstand to check the time. “What the hell, Zeke. It’s four in the morning.” I toss my phone on the bed and drop back onto the pillow, not in the mood for any of Zeke’s shit tonight. Something fucked up always seems to happen whenever he closes the bar. “What do you want?”

“It’s Slate. I went to check on him and somethin’ ain’t right. I jabbed him a few times, but he ain’t budgin’.”

“Fuck.” I swing my legs around to sit up on the bed and scrub a hand over my face. Fucking Slate. I pick my jeans up from the floor and slip them on. “Did you talk to him today?”

“No. He stumbled into the bar around two. But I didn’t get in the apartment until three. I had something to eat, and he wasn’t around. Figured he’d gone to bed. He didn’t look too good though when I saw him in the bar so thought I’d check on him before I crashed. Usually when I give him a poke, he swings at me, tells me to fuck off or something, but he ain’t movin’.”

“Son-of-a-bitch.” I zip up my jeans, and with Zeke following close behind, I head to Slate’s room. I flick on his bedroom light. He’s fully clothed sprawled out on his belly in the bed. “Hey, dickhead.” I smack my hand on the doorframe. “Hey!” When I get no response, I walk over, grab his shoulder, and roll him over. Mouth open, eyelids down to a slit, body lithe, his arm does a slow nose-dive off the side of the bed. Shit! Even with his eyes partially open, I get the impression he’s not seeing me. I slap his cheek. “Slate.” I grip his shoulders, lift him up from the mattress, and give him a hard shake. “Slate!”

“I’ll go start the shower,” Zeke says.

“Fuck.” I lower my little bro’s limp body back on the bed only to turn and find Zeke midway out the door. “We can’t keep doing this shit.”

“No.” He shakes his head and hands, coming back in. “We’re not calling 911. We’ll try the shower first.”

“Zeke.” I glare up at him, he always fights me on this.

“Jax, you didn’t see him the last time. It didn’t help. It made him worse.”

“Worse? Look at him. He’s fucked!”

“Just help me pick him up and get him in the shower. If he doesn’t come around, we’ll take him to the hospital.” He walks over to the bed and reaches down for Slate’s legs. “If he does snap out of it then I’ll stay with him. I’ll see him through this. Come on, Jax,” he nudges, “you know it’ll kill him if he has to go back there.”

“Fuck, I’m afraid it’s gonna kill him if he doesn’t.” Against my better judgment, my knee sinks into the bed. I slip my arms under Slate’s back bring them around his chest and bear hug him.

“But he was doing good,” Zeke says as we lift Slate’s dead weight. “Ya think it’s ‘cause Rayna’s back? Think that set him off?”

“Could be.” I nudge for him to watch out for the door as he moves backward. “He was pissed at me for not telling him she was in town.”

Zeke’s eyes widen. “He saw her?”

“Yeah, she came over the other night with Emmie Rue.”

“Emmie Rue,” he glances behind him, as we carry Slate into the bathroom, “ya hittin’ that sweet ass yet, buttercup?”

“Shut up, fucker,” I grunt, lowering Slate into the tub.

“Damn, he’s heavy.” Zeke leans forward, grips the faucet handle, and rests his forehead on his tatted arm. He looks up at me. “Does Rayna know about him?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Maybe you should. He loved her hard, dude.”

“That was years ago.” I shake my head. “He’s not her problem. He’s ours.”

“I guess.” He picks his head up. “You ready?”

I bend down. “Yeah, you?”

He nods, turns the water on, and then grabs Slate’s shoulders. The cold water blasts out of the showerhead. Damn, that shit’s cold. It takes a second or two, but when it hits Slate, like every other time, he comes up arms swinging. And the little dickhead is strong. Whenever he gets like this, it takes both Zeke and me to control his ass. I grab his legs and Zeke manages his upper body so he doesn’t hurt himself as he comes to.