Page 67 of The Kings of Kearny

“She doesn’t,” I said, wanting to keep Gran out here. We’d barely had five minutes together.

“Yes, well,” Gran said, looking back and forth between Jakob and me, “I think I’ll just go on in anyhow.”

She patted Jakob’s arm as they passed each other, wearing a small, amused smile. “You be good to my baby now.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said.

She leaned in and stage whispered, “She can be stubborn as a mule sometimes. She needs a nice strong man like you to stand up to her.”

Jakob’s grin was a wicked thing as he turned to me, and I had a flashback to this same conversation from a few days ago.

I narrowed my eyes at him.Don’t you fucking dare, Jakob.

“Oh, I know all about how stubborn she can be,” he drawled.

I was going to murder him. It was bad enough that I had to hear this conversation twice. Gran at least had an excuse for repeating the words, but Jakob didn’t have to look so damn smug while he listened to them.

Gran laughed and went inside.

I shook my head at Jakob as he came over to me, but beneath my irritation, part of me was almost—thankfulwasn’t really the right word—that Gran was meeting him like this and didn’t remember their earlier, more contentious introduction where Jakob and I were both shitty to each other.

Yeah, thankfuldefinitelywasn’t the right word now that I thought about it because how could I be thankful for a disease that had stolen those memories from her? Maybe I’d already spent so long looking for silver linings with Alzheimer’s that my reactions to how it affected her were starting to skew as badly as my moral compass.

Before I could analyzethattroubling thought, Jakob stepped in front of me. I lifted a hand to shield my eyes and look up at him.

“You’re cute when you’re irritated,” he said.

“Patronize me again. Go ahead,” I told him, dropping my gaze to his waist. His crotch was in striking distance, and I might not actually hit him in the dick, but if I faked a punch and he flinched, I would lord it over him forever.

As if he could read my thoughts, he dropped down into a crouch in front of me. He met my eyes, and the amusement faded from his face. “You were right,” he said, tone grim. “Dr. Perez isn’t in on it.”

Despite the heat of the day, goose bumps erupted over my skin. “What happened?”

“Dad just got a call from a friend. The cops in Mayville found her this morning.”

Mayville was the next town over, a little more upscale than Kearny, where someone with Dr. Perez’s income might live.

I gripped the arms of my chair. “Is she...?” Oh God, I couldn’t say it.

“She’s alive,” Jakob told me.

I let out a heavy breath and folded forward in my seat.

His big hand landed on the back of my neck, massaging it a little as if trying to ease some of my anxiety. “She’s in critical condition in the hospital over there. We have a contact on staff, and they said they’ll call when she wakes up.”

“Is she in a coma?” I asked, staring down at his boots.

“A medically induced one. Someone beat her up pretty bad, and she had some swelling in her brain.”

My lingering guilt vanished. I’d done the right thing bringing Gran here. Between my wrecked apartment and now Dr. Perez, I couldn’t regret any of my decisions. Gran was at Jakob’s parents, and yeah, she was having a bad day, but she was safe, goddamn it, and that was all that mattered anymore.

Jakob gave the back of my neck one last squeeze and then moved his hand to my chin, tipping my head up so he could look at me. “I need to head down to Kearny. You still want in on this?”

I stared at him for a minute before answering. How did he manage to look dangerous even while crouching? Maybe it was his preference for dark clothing or it had something to do with the way his muscles bunched like he was a heartbeat away from springing into action. Whatever it was, I was thankful for the reminder that the man I was sleeping with could be both unforgiving and violent. It made me feel less fucked up about the fact that what he’d just told me hadn’t scared me away in the least. In fact, it made me want to go shoot something. Or more like several someones.

“I still want in on this,” I told him.

His eyes flashed with approval, and he leaned in and pressed a quick, hard kiss to my lips. He pulled away just as swiftly and opened his mouth to say something more, but his gaze slipped past me, and I heard another whisk of air as the door opened behind us. I turned in my seat just as Liam stepped onto the patio. Behind him, Gran and Jennifer stood at the kitchen island, chatting. Liam glanced at them and then shut the door, his expression troubled as he headed over to us. Jakob rose from his crouch as he approached, and the two men towered over me.

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