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“I thought you were beaten up at a bar?” Her voice was icy and shrill. Jen carried on with her usual routine, but her hands were shaking.
Frank spoke up. “I got jumped at a bar. Why would I lie about that?”
Saying he was jumped at a bar was not exactly accurate. Frank waltzed into a bar and walked up to the biggest and loudest guy in the place and slapped him like he was trying to start a duel. After a few seconds of stunned silence, the entire bar broke out into a brawl.
“I didn’t know you were bikers. That’s something that you should have told me. Bikers have a way of getting into violent situations. With two daughters, I need to stay as far away from drama as I possibly can.”
I needed to fix this. “We’re not violent. Our bike shop is our livelihood and our way of life. Fighting happens, especially amongst drunk guys. There isn’t anything nefarious going on. We usually lay low.”
Hoping my face didn’t betray the truth, I held my breath. Our lives were complicated, but I didn’t see what we did as dangerous. She didn’t know it, but we had an unseen advantage against any biker gang around. We were shapeshifters. It was much more dangerous for human bikers than it was for us. I wanted to tell her the truth, but I knew we couldn’t. At least, not yet anyway. I scanned her face for a reaction. Her face was blank, but pale. If she was anyone else, Jen might appear tired or bored. For Jen, a blank face was borderline suicidal. Most of her day, she was smiling. This was not good.
“I’m going to go tell the doctor that you’re ready. There’s some paperwork for you to complete, but you’ll be able to leave in less than an hour. Take care of yourself. I wish you all well.”
She started to head towards the door. Was she going to leave, just like that? As if the last few weeks of her caring for my brother meant nothing to her. Did she view us as another day on the job?
“Whoa. What’s the matter? What do you have against bikers?” Jared raised his hands like he was addressing the United Nations or something. Self-important ass, my brother.
Jen whirled around, poised as if she was expecting our response. “In my experience, bikers love trouble. If you were jumped, you probably had it coming. I’ve spent enough time in that environment to know.” She spat the words out like they tasted bad. Her torso was tilted away from us. Was she afraid?
“Well, that’s a little close-minded of you, don’t you think? You know us, darling. Wouldn’t you agree that we’re kind-hearted, upstanding gentlemen that deserve the benefit of the doubt?” Leave it to Jared to lay it on thick. She wasn’t wrong. We weren’t exactly kind-hearted. Or upstanding. I love how easily he lies. It’s like he truly believes it. But in this case I could kiss him. We couldn’t let her walk away.
“I made a promise to myself. I’m going to honor it. There isn’t anything you can say that would change my mind. And I feel like if you were engaging in that lifestyle, you should have let me know earlier, before…before…at some point.” She looked down at her hands and fiddled with her thumbs. Her face crumpled. It wasn’t going to be long before tears began to flow based on the way her face was twisted into pain. This was not the expression of a nurse that discovered her patients were bikers and that they deserved the ass-kicking that put them in the hospital. This was the face a heart-broken woman. This couldn’t be only about us, could it? It had to be about Tim. That rat bastard. What had he done to her? Frank said that he was a loser that left her for another woman. Why did that wound her deep enough for her to swear off bikers?
Jen quickly shuffled off, leaving the three of us staring at each other.
“Don’t worry. I got this.” Jared hit a few buttons on his phone and held it up to his ear.
“Tim. Where are you right now? I need you to do something for me. But I think it’s going to benefit you greatly. But, right now I need you to listen carefully. Do you have a piece of paper? I’m going to give you an address.”
I don’t know what’s on Jared’s mind, but his schemes were never pretty. Greedy beyond imagination or logic, he never did anything without knowing there was a payoff in it for him somewhere. What could he possibly have in store that would fix the situation with Jen? And what the hell did it all have to do with her ex-husband Tim? Jared had him on speed dial. Where had they crossed paths? Jared was never one to hash over plans before he executed them, but why did it feel like Frank and I were being left in the dark? Whatever it was, I wasn’t going to stay and find out. Jared was not going to take well to my questions about his grand plans. If I was a better man, I could warn her that trouble was about to find her. But, crossing Jared wasn’t something I could do without risking both of our lives. The only thing I could do was to go home and hope that whatever he was doing would bring her back to us.
Chapter 13
Jennifer
How could I be so stupid? I’ve risked my job and reputation to flirt with my patient. And on top of that, I didn’t know him at all. A freakin’ biker. Was I that predictable? Did I have a biker magnet hidden somewhere in my body? No wonder they felt familiar. I’ve already dated them one hundred times over. And if they weren’t lifestyle bikers, they wouldn’t have hidden the bike shop from me. I know what happens in bike shops. Tim frequented our city’s enough. They were fronts for money-making of all kinds and it was never legal and always dangerous. Shop owners were the ring leaders. It figures that I would cozy up to the most dangerous guys around. On top of that, this entire time I have felt sorry for them. Frank for being beaten. Wes for being too shy and self-conscious to realize what a hunk he is. And Jared for being incredibly arrogant on the outside and intensely insecure deep down. I felt a real connection. And I was simply oblivious to the truth. To think that I was going to ask Frank out today for a celebratory drink. Of course, I would have to plan for ages in the future and be home by ten, but a girl can dream, can’t she? For the last few weeks, I have enjoyed coming to work. Each visit to Frank’s room was like a tonic. Flirting, fun, feeling a part of a group again. And now, Frank was well and going home. Back to his real life. The life that I can’t be a part of now. Because if I continue the relationship, I’m involving myself in a world that nearly killed me the first time. I can’t do it. It’s not worth it. After splashing some water on my face, I headed back out into the hallway. I was not going to spend any longer worrying about those three men. Our time is up. I spent the morning busy with taking care of other patients. After lunch, I placed myself near the patient relations coordinator so I could get a good look at Frank’s room. After a half an hour Jared and Wes exited the room, Frank in tow. They chatted excitedly. Their smiles hit me like daggers. For a brief while, my life was better. And now, everything was going to go back to the way it was before. Lonely. Boring. Me.
I cleared my throat. Jared looked up and waved as they wheeled Frank into the elevator. I lifted my hand in the compulsory caregiver sendoff, but I turned away after a couple seconds. They vanished into the elevator like apparitions. The hospital was like that. It swallows memories and replaces them with new ones. Patients and staff come and go. Babies are born, people die, and the hospital keeps going. That’s my life, I guess. The life I chose. Despite my sadness and frustration, I made it through the rest of the day without any drama. Until, fifteen minutes before my shift was over.
The head of hospital security found me charting and pulled me aside. “Hey Jen. I need to speak with you.”
Thomas was a retired cop that supervised the hospital’s security staff. His ego was as large as his pot belly, but he was always friendly to the nurses, especially the pretty ones. The serious look on his face caused a knot to form in the pit of my stomach. In my time at the hospital, I only saw him up here once. There was an incident with a patient. He injured one of the nurses and a report needed to be filed with witnesses and the whole shebang. Thomas never left his desk unless it was absolutely necessary.
“The police are here to see you. Someone reported a car on fire in the parking lot. It’s yours.”
I dropped the papers that I was holding and gasped. Crouching down to collect the papers, I asked Thomas, “How the hell could my car have set on fire? What’s wrong with it?”
He paused. It looked like he was trying to figure out how to organize his words.
“It was definitely intentional. Whoever set your car on fire also scratched it up and slashed your tires. Do you have any idea who would do something like that?”
His questions faded into the background. There was only one person in the world who held that much anger and hatred towards me. And I knew that he was not only in town, but he knew where I lived. It was only a matter of time before he figured out where I was working. Had he followed me? “Tim.”
“Tim?” Thomas bent over to pick up the last few papers that I had neglected to pick back up.
“My ex-husband. He’s definitely the one that did this.”
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