Page 66 of Bad Decisions & Back Roads
“Now,” Mark said, his voice dropping, “bad news.She may’ve won that round, but Jimmy ended Misty’s health insurance.Gia’s going to be beat to hell over it.And Misty…” He exhaled hard.“Misty’s not doing good, man.Jimmy thought hurting her sister would make Gia fold.”
“But she didn’t.”
“No,” Mark said, sounding equal parts horrified and impressed.
A dangerous swell of pride hit me right alongside rage.
“Anything else?”I asked, already reaching for my keys.
“Jackie said he’s close, which in his terms means he found something big.”
“Then we can end this thing soon and get you out.You okay?”
“No.Not okay,” Mark said.“I need three beers, a therapist I can fuck, and about a hundred miles between me and that evil son of a bitch before I catch a murder charge.”
“You sound close.”
A humorless laugh crackled through the phone.“Buddy, I’m way past close.”
Then he hung up.
I headed for my truck, one thought pounding in my skull.Find Gia.
I’d make sure she was okay.Then I’d make sure Jimmy McClary never got within breathing distance of her again.
My phone rang when I was within five minutes of the vet hospital.Figured I’d start looking for her there and then get her schedule from Marty.
Josh.
My grip on the phone tightened.
Josh usually texted.He rarely called unless something was on fire, bleeding, or dead.Sometimes all three.
A cold knot formed low in my gut.I hoped the baby and Erika were okay.“Hey.”
On the other end, Josh sounded sick.“I didn’t know,” he blurted.“I swear to God, I didn’t know.I screwed up.”
I swallowed hard.“What did you do?”
“He’s here.”
Every muscle in my body went tight.“Who’s here?”
“At the equine conference.At the clinic.We’ve got two hundred vets crawling all over our center between sponsors, speakers, and exhibitors.I’m not in charge of this event.That’s Dr.Tori who runs the equine center.If I had?—”
“Josh.”My voice came out sharp enough to get his attention.“Who?”
A beat of silence.Then?—
“Gia’s ex.JustinStevens.”
Dread slid straight down my spine.
Josh kept talking, words tumbling over each other now.“He brought some woman with him—girlfriend, fiancée, hell if I know—and he’s strutting around like he owns the place.Then Dr.Tori wanted me to give him a tour since he’s apparently some well-known, boarded equine surgeon with at least one, maybe two new procedures named for him that she wants to hire, but that’s not the problem.”
My hand clenched so hard on the steering wheel the leather groaned.“What’s the problem?”
“He confronted Gia, which wasn’t pretty.The things she claims he did at their last practice to make her life miserable… It was bad.How could anyone do that to someone as kind and hard working as her unless they were an insecure asshole?”
