Her mind spun. She felt like she had a duty to tell Damian his wife was alive and in town—or at least close to town—but she couldn’t. She was Stella’s doctor now. Confidentiality wasn’t optional. Why wouldn’t Stella just call Damian? Something about the situation felt off. Hopefully Stella would come back if she needed help.
The front door jangled again.
May closed her eyes briefly. “Please let that be a flu patient,” she muttered.
“Where the hell is she?” a man bellowed.
Brock was already on his feet. “Damian?”
Damian stormed into the room, his shoulders tight and coiled. “Where’s Stella?”
May’s jaw dropped. “How’d you know she was here?”
Ophelia whirled around. “What do you mean she was here?”
May winced. That hadn’t come out right.
“I know she was here,” Damian said flatly. “I’ve got scouts everywhere. Someone saw her come in. Where is she?”
May held her ground. “She left.”
“Was she hurt?” His voice dropped lower, tighter.
May pressed her lips together. She couldn’t say a word. In fact, she’d probably just screwed up.
Damian’s jaw locked hard enough she was sure he’d give himself a headache. He exhaled through his nose. “Is she okay now?”
“Yes,” May said carefully. “She’s okay.” That much she could give him. “What do you mean you have scouts all over town?”
Damian ignored that. “Did she say where she’s been?”
“She didn’t tell me anything,” May said honestly.
“Damn it.” He turned and braced his hand against the doorframe, head dropping for a few seconds. The room went quiet except for the faint hum of the overhead lights. Ophelia shot Brock a look. Brock just shrugged.
Finally, Damian straightened.
“Did your scouts see where she went?” Ophelia asked.
“Obviously not.” Damian shifted his attention to Brock. “What’s going on with Ace? I heard he was arrested.”
“Yeah,” Brock said. “We’re waiting to see if he gets bail tonight.”
Damian lowered his chin. “Then we better figure out who’s killing people.”
May saw it then. The Osprey brothers in full force. How she wanted to belong to that group. To have a group. “It isn’t Ace.”
“We know,” Ophelia said quietly. “But if we don’t find the actual killer, Ace is going down for this. It doesn’t look good.”
Silence settled over the room again. May tried to keep her composure. There were two women dead, an Osprey in jail, and Stella moving through town in secret. The flu was hitting her community, and somewhere out there, someone was watching all of them.
She needed Ace out before the ground shifted again. She wasn’t trained for combat and she’d never worn a uniform, but her instincts had kept people alive for years, and every one of them was telling her this wasn’t the peak.
It was the beginning.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
After hours, Ace walked into May’s clinic, his entire body feeling like he’d played dodgeball for a solid week and lost. Every muscle ached. His shoulders were tight from sitting on a thin jail mattress, and his jaw sore from clenching it for hours. The air inside the clinic smelled clean and fresh, and somehow like freedom. Even if it didn’t last.
