"How's Jo?"
My friends still didn't know about the baby, so they had no idea the scare we just went through.
"She's fine. A little shaken up but overall fine, but that's not why I called."
"Okay. What's up?"
"Jo mentioned her brakes stopped working. I need you to have Tim over at the Service Station look it over preferably as soon as possible."
Nolen cursed. "That's no problem. It's where the fire department had it towed to anyway. I'll make sure he gets on it today."
"Thanks, man. I owe you."
"I'll remember that." Nolen laughed before he hung up the phone.
I walked back into the hospital room and found Jo with both hands on her stomach as she stared down at them.
"Hey." I walked straight over to her and placed my palm over hers. "Is everything okay?"
"It just dawned on me how real this is. I mean I took the tests and got the bloodwork that said I was definitely pregnant, but it wasn't until I heard the heartbeat that it finally felt real." Jo looked up at me through her wet lashes. "We're going to have a baby."
I wiped the tears from her cheeks. "Yes, we are, and we're going to be fantastic parents."
Jo sniffled. "You really think so?"
"I think you can do whatever you put your mind to, and that includes being a great mother. Don't sell yourself short."
"What happens now? I thought you were just overreacting when you said someone was after me."
I gave her a sad smile. "A small part of me always hoped I was just overreacting but not anymore. I'm still moving in. I know you like your independence, but now isn't the time for it. We know who's behind the blackmailing, and now that he's made an attempt on your life, I plan to confront him."
It was going to be tricky because he was a lawyer, but I wasn't about to let that stop me. He put my baby's life in danger. I refused to tolerate that.
"Who is it?"
"Alejandro's cousin, Santino."
Jo scrunched up her nose. "The gang leader who died in prison? That Alejandro?"
I nodded my head.
"What the hell does he care who I am? I write for a small newspaper in an even smaller town."
"That's what we're trying to figure out. Nothing makes sense. He's a high-profile attorney who represented the gang, but otherwise he has no ties to them."
"Unless he does."
I could see Jo's mind turning things over. I was fascinated by how her brain worked now that I knew she was B. Feather.
"What do you mean?"
"What if he's the Oz behind the curtain?"
Now she lost me. I considered myself a smart man, but at the moment, I was feeling pretty dumb. "Huh?"
"You know the movie." Jo looked at me expectedly. "The one where the all-powerful Oz hides behind the curtain so no one realizes he's just an ordinary man."
"Okay …" I still wasn't following.
