Twenty-One | Jo
Twenty-One
Jo
The day was longer than I expected, with a few scheduled patients who came in to see Dr. Foster and a handful of walk-ins we treated.
Seeing Macie come in covered in bruises from her brother had shattered my heart because no child should ever experience pain at the hands of their sibling.
Macie was only fourteen, so she wasn’t legally able to emancipate herself from his care.
I hated that there wasn’t more we could do for Macie, aside from killing her brother. But even then, what would that do? She was still too young to be off on her own and needed the support of someone willing and able to take care of her.
I finished inputting my notes and turned off the computer so I could call it a day when my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and answered it, holding the phone between my shoulder and ear as I took Axel’s call.
“Hey,” I said. “What’s up?”
“Where are you?”
“I’m at the clinic. Why?”
Something in his voice made me tense immediately, and a sense of danger washed over me.
“Fuck,” he growled. “Is Dr. Foster still there with you?”
“Yes. Why? What is going on, Axel? Are Charlie and Molly okay?”
“Some fucking asshole just showed up at the bar looking for you.”
A gasp escaped my lips as my heart sank.
“What are you talking about?”
“I was there to get stuff ready for tomorrow when he showed up. I told him we were closed, and he said he was looking for someone. There’s a fucking bounty on you, Jo. You need to get the fuck out of town now.”
I grabbed my purse and walked into the waiting room, where Dom was talking with Dr. Foster. They both stopped, their expressions changing from happy to serious when they looked at me. Dom immediately stood up and came to my side.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Dr. Foster stood up as well. I put the call on speaker phone and held my hand in front of me so everyone could hear.
“Axel said someone just showed up at the bar looking for me. Apparently, there’s a bounty—”
The words stopped in my throat as a wave of emotion rushed over me. I shook my head and swallowed hard, trying to force it away.
“Jo needs to get out of there now. I don’t know where they went. I can’t see anyone on my cameras. But their car is still in the parking lot. It doesn’t look like anyone is in it, though.”
“Fuck,” Dom replied angrily.
“My guess is that they’re not getting far by asking around town for her,” Axel continued. “We’re pretty good about protecting our own. But that doesn’t mean she’s safe. I would feel much better if we got her out of town for a few days until this passes.”
“How am I supposed to get out of town?” I asked. “That storm shut everything down. The road is still closed until they can plow it.”
“I have a cabin you can stay in,” Dr. Foster answered, catching me by surprise. “It’s up in the mountains. No one will find you there.”
“Thank you, but I don’t want to put you out. I can figure something out. Worst case scenario, I sit at home with my shotgun and wait for them to come to me.”
“I don’t fucking think so,” Dom growled.
“It’s not putting me out,” Dr. Foster said. “The cabin was my father’s. I don’t use it often, so it’s there if you want it.”
“How far away is it?” Dom asked.
“About an hour. The drive up might be a little rough, but your truck looks like it can handle it.”
“I don’t want to do any of this,” I grumbled, hating that this was even happening.
“I’ll go back to your house and grab clothes and stuff for us,” Dom said, lifting my chin with his finger so I would have to look at him. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
I didn’t bother fighting him because I knew it was pointless.
“Want me to go with you?” Axel offered.
“No, but thank you. If I encounter anyone there, I can always pretend that I’m looking for Jo as well. It’ll be more believable since everyone looking for her will know I was part of Tray’s organization and that I might be after the bounty as well.”
“Sounds good. Call if you need anything,” Axel said before hanging up.
I stood there, staring at Dom as he stared back at me. Something shifted between us, and all of the anger I had been holding onto quickly disappeared as I realized there wasn’t a single thing he wouldn’t do to protect me.