Chapter Nine
Iwoke to the sound of my phone ringing. I’d been having a strangely lucid dream about paddling around a swimming pool filled with Grand Marnier with my childhood best friend while Mr. Rogers read us a Stephen King novel.
The dream unraveled as I glanced at my bedside clock.
It was nine in the morning. At least I’d gotten a few good hours of sleep.
I didn’t recognize the number on my phone, but it was local, and knowing Dr. Perez might be calling today, I answered. “Hello?”
“Krista? This is Dr. Perez.”
I clutched the phone to my ear and scooted up in bed. “Hi. Yeah, it’s me.”
“I got your grandmother’s results back. You were right. Someone’s been tampering with her medication.”
Shit.
Part of me had been holding out hope that this was all some big misunderstanding, but with those words, my last hope went up in flames.
This would get ugly, whether Magnolia launched an internal investigation or the Kings caught the person.
Hopefully Magnolia sniffed them out, because at least they’d deal with it legally.
If the bikers got there first, God help the poor soul.
I had a feeling they’d want to make a memorable example out of anyone who disobeyed their orders.
“Krista?” Dr. Perez asked.
“I’m still here. Sorry. Just processing.”
“I understand,” she said. “I, um, did want to talk to you about something else.”
I sighed. “There was pot in her bloodwork, wasn’t there?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll talk to Gran about it,” I told her. With all the meds Gran was on, she couldn’t just be tossing THC into the mixture. It was a drug, and like all drugs, it had side effects and the potential to interact with her legitimate prescriptions in a bad way.
“Thank you,” Dr. Perez said. “Are you coming in to see her today?”
“I plan to, yes.”
“Can you bring Jakob with you again? I want to talk to management about this, and it would be good if you two were there to explain where your suspicions came from.”
“I’ll call him and see if he’s available.”
“Thank you. I’d really appreciate having you two there.”
She sounded nervous. My thoughts circled back around to what Jakob had said about her potential involvement.
I didn’t think she was in on it. From the slight tremor in her voice, she might have been afraid, which made me think that I was right about her having suspicions that something was going on at Magnolia.
“Are you okay, Dr. Perez?” I asked.
The sound of a harsh exhale came over the line. “I’m all right, thank you. Just a little shaken up.”
“You’ve known something was wrong, haven’t you?” I asked.
“I can’t discuss that right now,” she said, voice low like she was worried about being overheard. “Please call me back on this number after you speak to Jakob, and we can set up a time to meet.”
“I will.”
We said goodbye and hung up. I immediately dialed Jakob.
He picked up after the third ring, voice rough like he’d just woken up. “Hello?”
“It’s Krista,” I said. “Dr. Perez called. You were right. Someone’s been stealing meds.”
Three hours later, I sat in my idling car in the parking lot of Magnolia Hills. I was going to visit with Gran at noon like we’d planned, and then Jakob and I had a meeting with Dr. Perez at one.
The familiar bellow of a motorcycle reached my ears, distant at first, like a storm brewing over the horizon, but then it roared closer, so loud that I wanted to plug my ears.
I’d been waiting for Jakob, expecting his single, matte-black bike to roll into the parking lot.
Instead, ten motorcycles barreled through the entrance, one after the other.
I sank low in my seat, hoping this was just a coincidence and they were driving by the nursing home for some other reason, but then I caught sight of Jakob, dead center in the pack, and I knew that this was his doing.
The bikes circled my car and parked around me, forming a perimeter.
My teeth rattled in my skull. The sound of so many idling engines must be shaking the windows of the nearby building.
No doubt the residents were getting up from their seats to come look at what all the fuss was about, and they were about to get an eyeful of the hardened criminals surrounding my car.
They might wonder why the Kings were here, but the message the bikers sent with this little stunt wasn’t for them.
It was for the drug dealer in their midst, who would look out those windows and understand that I was now considered King property, and if they fucked with me, they fucked with the Kings.
Unsure of how I felt about that, I turned my car off and climbed out.
Jakob kicked down the stand of his bike and swung off it, coming to meet me.
He stopped a few feet away, head turning a little, gaze going past me.
His shoulders stiffened a fraction, just enough for my trained eyes to take note of the movement, and he heaved in a breath.
He was looking at my car door, and I knew, I knew he was thinking about our kiss last night. Because I was thinking about it too.
I shook my head to clear it and nodded toward the motorcycles behind him. “Subtle.”
He had his shades on, but from the way his brows drew together, I knew he was scowling. “What?”
I raised my voice over the roar. “Subtle!”
He turned a little and made a slashing gesture, and the engines around us cut off one after another. As they died, he faced me. “I’m not trying to be subtle.”
No shit, Sherlock. I eyed the other bikers. “They can’t come in.”
“I know,” he said. “But they’re going to sit their happy asses out here and look mean while we talk with management.”
“Fine,” I said. “Are you ready?”
“One sec.”
He strolled over to a large Black man wearing a sleeveless leather vest. The man flipped up the visor of his helmet, and I recognized Rob, the same man who’d given Jakob his still-healing shiner from the other night.
The two of them exchanged words for a few minutes.
There didn’t seem to be any lingering resentment between them as they talked.
Rob nodded one last time, and Jakob came prowling back to me, his long legs eating up the pavement.
“Let’s get this over with,” he said.
“Try not to insult anyone,” I told him as we made our way inside.
He let out a low grunt. “You’re one to talk.”
Ugh. Had I really been ready to throw myself at him last night?
Like yesterday, the bullshit started the second we stepped inside.
Today it wasn’t Hank who barred our way but a younger, more heavily muscled white man I’d never seen before.
If he were ever cast as a movie extra, the character name that scrolled through the credits would read “Blond meathead.” He looked like a man with more muscles than brains.
“He can’t come in here,” he said, jerking his chin toward Jakob.
“I think there’s been a miscommunication.” I took a step toward him but froze when his hand dropped to his gun. What the hell? “Dr. Perez should have called down to have him cleared ahead of time.”
“Stay right there,” he ordered, lifting a two-way radio from his belt. The radio crackled to life, and he spoke into it. “There’s a young woman here with a King. Says he’s been cleared.”
Static sparked over the line, but the response came through crystal clear, an immediate “Negative.”
How’d they even have time to check?
The guard put the radio back in place and stared at me. “He’s not getting in here.”
“Let me just call Dr. Perez,” I said.
He seemed trigger-happy, so I gestured to my purse. He nodded, and I reached in slowly and pulled my phone out.
The line rang for several moments before going to voicemail.
I left a message. “Hi. It’s Krista Evans.
The guard downstairs won’t let Jakob in, and it seems like he was never cleared.
” I hung up and turned toward the guard again.
“She wanted him to come in and speak to management with me about my grandmother.”
The guard crossed his arms over his chest. At least his hand wasn’t on his gun anymore. “Until she calls down here and tells me that herself, he’s not getting in.”
Jakob tugged on my arm and pulled me back outside. “Do you know that guy?”
I shook my head. “I’ve never seen him before.”
He stared past my shoulder through the front door. No doubt the guard was just on the other side, glaring right back at him. “I don’t like this.”
“Me neither,” I said.
“Where the fuck is the good doctor?”
“I don’t know. Let me call her again.”
Just like the first time, it went to voicemail. I didn’t bother leaving another message.
I dropped my phone back in my handbag and faced Jakob, knowing he wasn’t going to like what I was about to say. “Stay out here, and let me see if I can find anything out.”
“You’re not going in there alone,” he said.
I bristled. “Reminder: you’re not the boss of me.”
His jaw flexed, and his nostrils flared like he was pissed, but he seemed to realize he couldn’t bully me and dropped the tone of command from his voice. “I don’t think it’s smart for you to go in there alone right now. This is sketchy as fuck.”
“I’m not going to argue with you about that, but my grandmother is in there, and if something sketchy is going on, she’s more vulnerable than anyone. For all we know, she’s completely forgotten our discussion from yesterday and doesn’t even know she needs to be careful.”
“Fine,” he bit out. “But you call me the second something feels like it’s off.”
I let out an exasperated breath. “What are you going to do, storm the gates?”
His eyes darkened ominously. “Yes.”
“Someone could get hurt, Jakob.”
He stepped closer. “Then you better pray that nothing happens to you inside.”
I didn’t know whether I should be pissed or touched by this level of concern for my welfare. As it stood, I was too worried about Gran to decide.
Without another word, I turned on my heel and went back in.