our payroll?” I ask as discreetly as I can. This shouldn’t seem weird since I am one of them now. Mag meets my gaze in the rearview mirror. I can’t decipher his look, but I push on anyway. “In the police, I mean. You have people turning a blind eye to illegal activities. Magnum shot someone and didn’t get in trouble for it. Like, who is it? It must be someone big.”
Mag clears his throat. “Technically, I got out of that because their phony witness disappeared.”
Oh, right. I forgot about that.
Johnny stops moving his thumb over my hand. “That’s one of the most closely guarded secrets my father has.”
“So, you don’t even know?” I peek at him, finding that hard to believe. I thought Johnny was involved in everything the Crew did.
“I have my suspicions, but no, I don’t know.”
The finality of his words makes me pause. It doesn’t really have any effect as to why I’m here. I’m here to kill Big Daddy K and get the fuck out. With my guys. I don’t care what happens to the Crew after that. My beef was never with the whole Crew, just the fucker who took my parents from me. I do think it’s crazy that they can get away with so much stuff though.
Mag pulls up to the PT office. I stare at a building filled with windows. They’re not see-through though. They’re the kind that just reflect back whatever is in front of them. So, right now, our car’s profile is mirrored back to me. “I hope this place is better than the last.”
Johnny turns toward me, brows pulling together. “What?”
“Those guys hated me,” I say, actually dreading walking into this new place. I don’t want another repeat of that PT asshole. “Dicks.”
“Who was it?” Johnny grinds out.
I turn to him and pat him on the leg. “It doesn’t matter. It’s over now. Plus, I can’t really blame him. He thinks I killed a little girl.” Even though the “evidence” against me was shotty at best. Reynolds just wanted to peg me for something, and whoever put my prints on the gun, handed me to him on a silver platter.
“I’m going in with you,” Johnny says.
Johnny throws the door open, and I get out after him. I give Mag a small smile as he frowns. As soon as we close the car door behind us though, Mag whips the car into a parking spot and joins us.
Johnny’s whole body locks up, and he squeezes my hand tighter.
Though I walk hand-in-hand with Johnny into the PT place, I’m with both of them, which makes me that much happier. No one will treat me like shit with both guys by my side.
A nurse waits for us as soon as we get inside. She’s all smiles, which immediately puts me at ease. She, however, looks at Mag and Johnny with wide eyes like she’s impressed I have such a brood of men surrounding me.
First, she takes me into a separate room where I get some x-rays, and then I’m escorted out in their hideous gown to a private PT room where Johnny and Mag are already sitting. Johnny has my shirt and bra in his hands, and I bite my lip to keep from thinking how domestic this all looks. It’s like I’m here with my husband or boyfriend, except that there are two boyfriends and not just one. Oh, and my other two boyfriends are sitting at home with probably zero idea Johnny knows what’s going on. Unless Mag has told them.
I sit on the table, and we don’t wait long. A doctor in his mid-forties strides in. His silver-streaked gray hair is handsome, silhouetting a boyish face. He shakes hands with me first, without the added extra grip strength of showy masculinity that I appreciate. Then, he shakes hands with Johnny and Magnum. Johnny introduces himself as my boyfriend, leaving Magnum to say friend with a scowl. He wants to say he’s my boyfriend, too, but what we’re doing is all so different from how others walk around. We don’t need to be drawing added attention to ourselves.
“Let’s see what we got here,” the PT guy says. He opens my gown in the back and peers at my spine. He thinks for a moment. The mirror in front of me shows the furrow of his brows. “You know what, let me have you sit in a chair for a second.”
Magnum immediately jumps out of his stool and rolls it