Page 15 of The Kings of Kearny

I rolled onto my back and pressed the heels of my hands to my eyes. “God-fucking-damn it. Do you know how much research I did before choosing Magnolia Hills? They had the best reputation for Alzheimer’s treatment in the state.”

“This is a recent development,” Jakob said. “And we haven’t been able to prove it yet. It’s just a suspicion.”

I pulled my hands away and looked at him. “Why haven’t you been able to prove it? Haven’t you talked to their management?”

He shook his head. “They wouldn’t listen even if we tried. The Kings aren’t welcome at Magnolia Hills.”

“I thought all the local businesses here worshipped you guys.”

The Kings had a habit of helping out struggling mom-and-pop shops, frequenting them when business was slow or giving them low APR loans out of the club’s funds when banks denied them financial assistance. It was part of why so many people put up with all their other garbage, aside from the whole ex-military thing. For all their faults, the Kings cared about this town, and they did more to keep its citizens safe and happy than our elected officials did.

Did that make a gang full of gunrunners the good guys? No. But my time in the military had taught me that not everything was as black and white as some people would have you believe.

“A few club members have parents or grandparents there,” Jakob said. “So do some guys from the Jokers. Their paths crossed during visiting hours once.”

He didn’t have to say anything else. The Jokers were a motorcycle club with territory to the west of Kearny and were the Kings’ biggest rivals. No doubt a brawl had broken out. Hopefully none of the residents were hurt during it.

“What can I do?” I asked. I couldn’t move Gran again. She’d just gotten settled in, and she really seemed to like Magnolia Hills.

“Do you have power of attorney over her?” Jakob asked.

“Yeah.”

“For medical shit too?”

I nodded.

“Ask to have her drug tested,” he said.

“Won’t her doctor be pissed if I do that?” Magnolia Hills had several on staff. Gran’s was a middle-aged Latina woman named Dr. Perez, and she’d been excellent so far. I didn’t want her to think that I questioned her care of my grandmother.

“Tell her doctor why you want it,” he said. “That you heard someone there might be shady. Management might not want to listen to the Kings, but when family members of their patients start complaining, that’s different.”

“I can do that,” I said. “What else? Want me to take sneaky pictures of staff members?”

He sent me an amused look. “It’d be better if you take me with you next time you go. Say I’m your boyfriend and you want to introduce me to your grandmother. They’ll have to let me in then, and I’ll get a chance to look around for myself.”

I stared at him. “Only if you promise not to do anything to get me banned.”

He somehow managed to shrug while lying down. “I promise.”

“I wanted to go see her today.”

His gaze slid past me to the alarm clock. “Then we need to shut up and go to sleep.”

~*~

THE THING ABOUT ONE-night stands is that they’re only supposed to lastonenight. If you got carried away and stayed over, the next morning could be awkward as hell. Did you have sex again? Making it a one-night/morning stand? Offer to cook breakfast as some sort of weird thank-you for the orgasm? Or did you try to slip out of there before your hookup woke up, making you look like a complete douchebag?

I preferred to avoid those conflicts altogether. In the past, I’d gotten my rocks off and gone home with a smile on my face. That wasn’t possible when someone ordered you to stay with them and then barred their apartment door.

Jakob and I had been on opposite sides of the bed when we fell asleep, with a wide gap between us, but when I woke up several hours later, a heavy arm pinned my waist to the mattress. My left leg was draped over one of Jakob’s. He’d nuzzled his head into the crook of my neck sometime during the wee hours, and now we lay there, sharing a pillow, his breath heating my shoulder as the sun peeked around the edges of his curtains, brightening the room with its midday glow. His clock read 11:06. So much for getting to the nursing home right when they opened.

I nudged him with my shoulder. “Jakob.”

He jerked awake, rearing above me like a snake ready to strike.

I threw my hands up between us. “Whoa!”

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