Skirt Steak (Grade-A Beefcakes 5)

And they could be bossy.

“I have baggage,” I admitted. “You heard what my brother did.”

They nodded. Yeah, just as I thought. The whole town must know.

“My father drove drunk and almost killed Mr. and Mrs. Duke. Talk about baggage,” Kaitlyn admitted. “I’m not my father and you’re not Tommy.”

That was a good point. What her father did… god, it had been horrible and he’d gone to jail. I didn’t blame Kaitlyn for it. I got her point. Tommy’s mess was just that, Tommy’s mess.

I sighed, thought of Porter and Liam. My heart stuttered, but I smiled. “I love them.”

All three women cheered as if a group of people suddenly rushed over with a bunch of balloons and a huge Publisher’s Clearing House check. I couldn’t help but grin as Ava showed us her ring and we moved on to talking about possible summer wedding dates. Since I had to be at the hospital first thing in the morning, we made it an early night. We texted our men letting them know we were all done. I decided to go to the ladies’ room before we left. In the back hallway, there was a man leaning against the wall. He stepped into my path and I stopped, suddenly nervous. He wasn’t as big as Liam, but he was solid. He wore a baseball cap low over his face, a big black jacket and dark jeans. It was his eyes though. No warmth in their depths that had me taking a step back.

I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and realized another man had come up behind me. He was short, but built like a barrel. His nose had been broken a few times and never fixed. He grinned and not in a kind way.

“Easy, Jill Murphy,” the guy in front of me said. I spun back to stare at him, wide-eyed and petrified. “We’re not going to hurt you. We just want to talk about Tommy.”

My stomach jumped into my throat. Oh god. Who were these men? What had they done with Tommy?

I turned so my back was to the wall instead of one of the men. The bathrooms were to the right, the main restaurant area to the left, but the men blocked both. While I could hear the music from the jukebox and knew people were out there, no one was nearby.

“What do you want?” I said. I could scream, but I wasn’t sure what they’d do. Did they have guns tucked away in their coats? Knives? As long as they didn’t drag me out the back door, I was safe. Safe-ish.

“Your brother owes us some money.” The guy’s lips were chapped and he hadn’t shaved in a few days. Strange, the things you noticed when you were freaking out.

“I don’t have any money,” I replied. “My car’s over fifteen years old. I work two jobs.”

“That’s right,” he replied. “Two jobs. Two places to get drugs to pay off his debt.”

“You mean the hospital?” I asked. I shook my head. “Drugs are kept in these big machines with codes and scanners.”

“A little at a time from your patients. You’ve got pockets.”

“I work in recovery!” I countered. “Everyone’s just come from surgery with IVs. There aren’t any pills.”

“Morphine works. I’m sure you can find some Oxy.”

I shook my head. “I can’t. It’s impossible. Maybe a pill here and there, but that’s it.”

They grinned and nodded. “You can. Your brother went into hiding and hasn’t been able to pay, so you will.” They stepped closer. Loomed. I swallowed down my fear. “If not the hospital, then go back to your doctor.”

It seemed the one guy was the leader, the other just backup because he hadn’t said a word. “Get on her computer and send prescriptions to the pharmacy for fake patients for us to pick up.”

“That’s illegal.”

Duh. God, that was a dumb thing to say. Of course it was illegal. These were bad men who didn’t give a shit about the law.

“For you.” Oh god, I was the one who was going to get caught, not them. They weren’t getting their hands dirty at all. “But you’re fucking the sheriff and the DA, right? They won’t arrest you if they’re getting pussy. Do this or your brother’s going to be found piece by piece across the county. Tell them about our little chat and you’ll both be found by the wolves.”

I gulped. No wonder Tommy had been so frantic to get into Dr. Metzger’s office.

“This is our little secret, right? Tell your men and we kill your brother, then you.” He patted my shoulder and they walked off together. “We’ll be in touch.”

14

JILL