“I will.” He paused. “I’ll sell it, Jonah. Don’t worry. We love you. Just know that.”
I was loved. I felt it every day from my siblings. I’d never thought otherwise.
It was a blessing.
My throat swelled. “I love you, too.”
Chapter Eight
JONAH
Six months later
I was finishing dictating my notes when my phone lit up.
Crowler: Hey! We’re heading your way. You don’t get a say. We know people, know you’re not on call this weekend. We need group time together. Badly.
I’d had the phone on silent while I was working, and now that I saw this text, I could see more behind it, including one from my brother.
Tanner: In town. Want to meet up.
I thumbed a response.
Me: Finishing my notes. Where are you?
Crowler calling.
I picked up, leaning back. “Hey, man.”
“Bennett! You texted back.”
I just laughed, because this was Crowler. He was nicknamed Crowler for a reason. It was a long story, but it had to do with a night of howling and crawling.
There might’ve been drinking involved, too.
And Hawaiian shirts.
He and some others had been in my core unit from the first year of med school. It was rare, but sometimes we got an overlapping weekend off.
Seemed like this was one of them.
Beep beep.
I put the phone on speaker, but checked the incoming text.
Tanner: Not an option. Tell me where you are.
Fuck’s sakes. My family probably had an app on my phone to show when I was using it.
“What are you guys thinking for tonight? Who’s all in town?”
“Well, Bubs. Carlster. Babs. Yours truly, and uh, oh, Samsonite.”
Those nicknames were used only by our group, and only when we were together.
Bubs and Babs were a couple, like Melissa and I had been. Unlike Missy, Babs was still breathing. Pain sliced through me, but I swallowed, pushing it down.
After Melissa died, her family wanted nothing to do with me. I tried calling her parents a few times, and Oliver more than a few times, but her dad told me to leave them alone.
I did. I left everyone else alone, too, my family included.
They still hadn’t found Melissa’s killer, and until they did, I wanted nothing to do with any of them. Might not make sense, but it was the only thing that pushed the burn down inside of me. Maybe I was punishing my family—I was punishing myself for sure—but the need to hurt had only grown in the last nine months. Doing medicine was the only thing keeping me going.
But I could stop, would stop, when Kai brought me Melissa’s killer.
After that, well… I didn’t care. I just wanted her killer.
Kai had said he’d do it, but it’d been nine fucking months.
Tanner reaching out was for Tanner. If they had the guy, Kai would be in touch. That’s how Kai was.
“Hey,” Crowler broke into my thoughts. “Samsonite wants me to ask if you’re up for a trip this weekend.”
I frowned, coming back to our phone conversation. “I thought you said you’re coming to town?”
“We are, but Samsonite just got off the phone with someone, and she got tickets for a Mustangs game in Kansas City. Want to go?”
“How many tickets?”
I heard him echoing the question to her, and heard her response, “Eight.”
He came back. “Eight, so all of us and if we wanted to bring a couple friends.”
“How’d she get eight tickets to a professional hockey game?”
“Not sure…”
She said something to him on his end, and he came back. “Her sister is banging one of the players. I guess he hooked her up. You in?”
My phone buzzed again.
Tanner: Time’s up.
I growled internally as I stood, grabbing my things. “I’m coming, but we gotta leave now.”
“Sure thing, but—”
“Text me the details. I’m on the move now.”
“Okay, Budderoni. Bring on the puck bunnies.”
I snorted because he had no idea what that actually meant.
I left the clinic, went to the apartment I was using, and packed a bag. When I’d finished, I checked outside. Kai had a guard on me, as he had all year. Ezekiel. I’d let him stay, trying to do things the safe way, until today. He was parked in the back corner of the lot, and I could see him on the phone. Maybe he was talking to Tanner, maybe not, but this weekend, I didn’t want anyone tailing me.
When I was working, he stayed a reasonable distance away. That had been my only stipulation. Maybe I should give up medicine, but I hadn’t gotten to that yet. And until I did, I didn’t want my coworkers, colleagues, classmates, and patients to know who I was.
The reason Melissa was dead.
Chapter Nine
JONAH
I ditched Ezekiel in the parking lot outside my building and met my friends at the airport. They’d been heading my way when Samsonite got the tickets, and because the Minneapolis airport was the biggest one in the area, I met them there. By the time I checked in and got through security, the plane was starting to board as I got to the gate.