Page 166 of Strays
Jo watches it happen, a soft smile on her face. “I keep making you rush to hospitals because of me, Al,” she tells Alice.
Alice makes a sound, half-cry, half-laugh.
They leave just before lunch. Not long after, Fontes and Sônia arrive. She brings flowers, and Fontes shakes our hands.
“Proud of you guys,” he says. “You did the right thing.”
He pulls something from his pocket and sets it on Jo’s bedside table: her truck keys. He turns to her. “I recovered your purse from the courthouse last night. It’s in the truck now. I parked it in the hospital lot. Figured you might need it.”
Then they’re gone.
The room is still crowded with two packs — us and Jo’s uncles — but no one wants to leave and lose sight of her. We lean against the walls since there’s no room for six chairs.
Jo talks with her uncles through the afternoon, telling them how we met at another hospital. It feels like another life. Like everything before bonding with her was just a prelude. A waiting room. Now is real.
She’s discharged by evening.
This time, I drive the Bielke’s Bronco. Jo rides in the passenger seat, wrapped in Shane’s hoodie her uncles brought to us. Jay and Shane take the back, and her uncles follow in her truck.
We make it home just after dark. It’s hard to believe we left just yesterday morning, dressed for trial, not knowing we were about to live through hell.
We curl up in the nest with her. I’ve always been grateful for Jo. Always loved her with everything I had. But now it’s different. After being so close to losing her, every breath she takes feels like a miracle.
The next morning, we wake before her. We let her sleep. She needs it.
The house is silent, her uncles still sleeping too. The three of us sit together at the dining table, and Shane is the first to speak.
“When they come for us,” he says, voice quiet but tense, “are we going to play by the rules and let them arrest us? Knowing that someone else like Aranya could come for her when we’re not there?”
I stare at the ceiling. Jay’s quiet too.
Yesterday, I didn’t think about consequences, just getting her back. But the truth is, we invaded Aranya’s home. Killed his guards. I don’t even know how many. We threatened his wife. Tortured him. Killed the two men who had Jo.
I regret nothing. But the fallout is coming.
Even though I know her uncles would fight to protect her, they’re not her mates. There are extremes only we will go to for her.
“No,” I say. “We take her, and we run.”
Jay sighs, then he nods. “I agree. If they come to take us, running away with her is the only option.”
The news comes in, day by day. First, Josh Solomon calls. He says they recovered a massive amount of evidence in the warehouse, and there’s already an inter-agency task force in motion.
Aranya’s at University Hospital in Newark, cuffed to the bed, with a guard posted outside his door twenty-four seven. Once he’s stable enough for transport, he’ll be moved to a federal medical detention center.
“Command put you all on extended leave,” Josh says. “The Eneas pack is filing paperwork that retroactively gives the mission federal clearance. They’re calling it ‘rogue pack operation.’”
He laughs. “I thought the name fit. They’re arguing that since a Prime nyra was trafficked, the response falls under the Special Ops protective mandate. If that sticks, no local DA can touch you. The Eneas are bending over backwards to bury this. They’re burning political capital like hell, but they’re not letting you go down.”
The next day, we’re surprised by a visit from the Harris pack. They don’t stay long, less than five minutes. Just enough time to shake our hands and take back the Bronco the Bielke pack had loaned us.
But before leaving, Will passes us a thick folder stamped with the FBI seal. Inside is a complete report detailing the follow-up operation triggered by the warehouse findings. Stuck to the front is a handwritten note:
That building wasn’t on anyone’s radar. We would never have found it without what you did. You didn’t just save your nyra, you saved three hundred women.
Then he’s gone.
I read the report in pieces. Couldn’t take it all in at once. Jay and Shane do the same.
