My VP patted my shoulder. “We’re all here, Prez. Ain’t going nowhere.”
“Texas and Marshall are running things at the compound,” Fort said.
“Where’s Hook?”
“Guarding Jo’s room.”
I nodded, wiping my eyes with the heel of my palm. “Thank you, brothers.”
“Go see your wife. We’ll handle Rex.”
I went to Jo’s room, but only Hook was inside. “Where is she?”
“They took her to X-ray,” he said.
“Why?”
“She said she was having some pain in her pelvis. The doctor came and ordered some X-ray scans. They took her there a few minutes ago.”
“What the fuck? Why didn’t you tell me?” I headed out of the room. “And why didn’t you go with them?”
He walked with me. “I did, but they said I couldn’t go in with her so I came back to find you. Fort told me you were with Rex. I reckoned I’d better wait for you in her room. I could hear y’all fighting from here.”
“Where’s the fucking scan room?”
He pointed to the elevator. “Third floor.”
When we went up, something was off. People were walking faster than normal, their faces blanching as they met mine. I stopped the first nurse I hit. “Where’s my wife? Jo Lazzarini. She came up for X-ray.”
“She…she asked to go to the bathroom before the scan. But…”
“But what?”
“When she took too long, I went in to see if she needed any help,” she swallowed, “but she wasn’t there.”
“What do you mean she wasn’t there? Where the fuck did she go?”
She shrugged, shrinking in fear. “We looked for her everywhere on this floor with no luck. I called security to look for her on the other floors.”
“The fuck!” I scurried with Hook, searching for her, while I called Molar to check with the security. Did someone take her from right under my nose? The Lanzas? The fucking Larvins?
We combed the hospital inside and out, but she was nowhere to be found. No one saw her leaving or saw anyone taking her.
“Joooo!” I screamed my lungs out in the middle of the street. Where the fuck did she go? All her belongings were still in the hospital. Someone must have taken her.
“We’ll find her, Prez,” Hook said. “She couldn’t have gone far.”
“Stay with Rex,” Molar said as he mounted his bike. “We’ll find Jo.”
“No. I’ll go. Y’all stay with him.” I straddled mine. “If it’s the Lanzas or the Larvins who took Jo, they might snatch Rex, too.”
Unless…
Know this when you call the shots, Prez. I will never side with Michele’s enemies. I’d rather give myself to the Larvins than see that day.
No. No, no, NO! “Fuck!”