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“No. It’s just going to take a while to get all the pictures we need. Do you think you can lie on the little table really still for me?”
She nodded, but the anxiety didn’t leave her face.
“Raider’s outside,” Flick said, taking the diaper bag from me. “I’ll have him take me and this little monster home. Jet can go with you to the hospital.”
My own anxiety skyrocketed at the idea of Max leaving my side, but I nodded. I guess I had to have Flick take him back, after all. He didn’t need to be exposed to the germs of the hospital if he didn’t need to. Hell, I didn’t want to expose Lexa, but there was no getting around it.
Jet held his arms out to Lexa, and she let him pick her up, laying her head on his shoulder as we all walked outside together. Raider was waiting beside Quinn’s car, but it didn’t have a car seat yet, so Jet gave him the keys to my SUV while I grabbed Lexa’s booster from the back seat.
Ten minutes later, we were in the radiology waiting room. It wasn’t busy considering it was a Saturday, but that also meant less staff. Jet sat down with Lexa on his lap, her head once again cradled on his shoulder, while he rubbed her back.
I stood there watching them as I waited for the receptionist to appear so I could hand over the MRI order. Jet was so good with kids. I wanted him and Flick to be able to have babies of their own, but even if they couldn’t, I knew he would be okay. They could adopt, and he would love them just the same.
As soon as the tech appeared, she took the order and waved us back. “You can’t be in there with her during the procedure,” the woman said. “But you can go in and help her get comfortable before the MRI starts. It will help calm her to know you’re with her at first.”
Lexa had to
put on a hospital gown, which she didn’t like, but the tech gave her a teddy bear to hold on to with her good arm while I helped her lie down on the narrow table and wrapped her in a blanket.
“I’m scared,” Lexa whispered when she saw where she was going to be during the test.
I bent over her, kissing her brow. “Let’s pretend you’re in a cave with your teddy,” I suggested. “Close your eyes and imagine you’re on an adventure, but hold really, really still, okay? The less you move, the quicker it will be over.”
The tech pushed the button to move the table back into the machine, and at first, Lexa whimpered in fright, but she quickly calmed down when I reminded her to close her eyes. Reluctantly, I followed the tech out when she directed me to.
“It shouldn’t be too long,” the woman said with a kind smile. “I’ll bring her out as soon as we’re done.”
“Can’t I wait here?”
She shook her head. “Kids tend to perform better when their parents aren’t around. Just relax. I’ll take good care of your little one.”
My feeling of unease returned, but I walked through the door, back into the waiting room with Jet. For the first ten minutes, I tried to sit still, but it was agony. For the next ten, I paced the length of the waiting room, glancing at the door every thirty seconds. When another ten minutes passed, I was starting to feel sick.
“It’s taking too long,” I told my brother. “They should be done by now.”
“Maybe she was moving around a lot. Just give it a little longer.”
Ten, then fifteen minutes passed, and as each of those minutes ticked my, my stomach filled with dread.
“I can’t take this anymore,” I snapped and pushed open the door that led back to the MRI room.
The sound of Jet’s booted feet echoed behind me, and I didn’t understand why they were so loud. The machine was in a soundproof room, and the only way to speak to the person inside the MRI was through a microphone from the control room. But it still felt alien to me that there was zero sound coming from back there.
Then I rounded the corner and fought back a scream. Not because the tech was slumped over the control panel where she’d been sitting, a bullet between her lifeless eyes.
But because Lexa was gone.
The teddy bear was lying on the floor, and Lexa’s clothes weren’t where I’d folded them after helping her into the hospital gown.
“Motherfuck!” Jet roared as my knees gave out and I began to fall.
Chapter 23
Bash
One minute I was sitting with Trigger in Gracie’s office, the next, my entire world seemed to be crashing down.
I still held the phone to my ear, could hear Raven’s sobs in the background, each of them full of tortured rage that made my heart rate spike. Jet repeated himself again. “Lexa was taken during her MRI. The tech is dead. We have to figure this out. Now.”
