Page 32 of The Kings of Kearny

“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 have a look at what all the fuss was about, and they were all 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, Iknewhe was thinking about our kiss last night. Because I was thinking about it too.

---