I walk off before she can say anything else.
Shit to worry about now.
I take a breath, force myself to calm down. Can’t let Lexi see me like this.
When I get back to the waiting room, she’s sitting exactly where I left her. She looks frail. Devastated. Like one more bad thing might shatter her completely.
I can’t leave her here.
“Didn’t have what I wanted,” I mutter, sitting down beside her.
She doesn’t ask what I mean. Just nods.
An hour passes. I sit and stew in the chair, running through scenarios in my head. How to contain this. How to keep Axel’s name from spreading.
Finally, a nurse calls Lexi’s name.
She stands, and I watch her walk toward the double doors.
She glances back at me.
“I’ll be here.”
She nods and disappears.
I step outside for air.
The night is cold, sharp. I light a cigarette, lean against the brick wall by the ER entrance.
A security guard walks past, nods at me. “Evening.”
“Evening.”
He knows me. Most of them do. Always here, always calm, always slipping nurses cash to look the other way.
A runner in scrubs—one of my guys who works in the pharmacy—walks by and gives me a knowing nod.
The system eats the same people it claims to save.
My phone rings. Unknown number.
I stare at the screen for a moment, then answer. “Yeah?”
Static on the other end. Then a voice. Low. Menacing.
“I know where you are.”
My hand tightens around the phone.
“You think you can check people into hospitals and stay untouchable?” The voice laughs. “I’m running out of patience, Koa.”
The line goes dead.
I pull the phone away from my ear, stare at it.
What the fuck—
I dial Oxy. It rings three times before he picks up.
