Page 36 of Forever Mine

I rubbed the back of my neck and eyed the little round chocolate balls. How could someone have gotten in here? No one knew the code for my lock, not even Jay or my family. It made no sense.

“You have to report that. Maybe they caught someone coming in on the camera in the hallway or something.”

I nodded, the fear receding as numbness sank in. Though, she was right. I had to report this. I picked up the note but couldn’t bring myself to touch the chocolate.

I was slightly terrified to look in my locker again, but thankfully there were no other surprises, just my phone and wallet, jacket, and a change of clothes. I grabbed my phone only to see thirteen missed calls and fifty-two unread messages.

“What the fuck?” Thirteen missed calls, ten from Jay and two from my mom. Fifty-two unread messages; thirty from Jay, twelve in the group chat with Jay, Beck, and Riley, and the rest from…Finn? What the fuck?

I didn’t bother to listen to any of the voicemails or read the texts, and went to dial Jay, not wanting to waste any time. Before I hit call, there was a commotion from outside the locker room.

“Sir! You cannot go in there! I’ll be forced to call authorities.”

“Like I give a fuck?” Jay’s voice rang out, “No one will tell me where the fuck my boyfriend is. I’ll find out myself.”

“Shit.” I sprinted out of the locker room faster than I’d ever run in my life. Thank God it wasn’t that big, because running and I didn’t get along. I was vaguely aware of the other nurse following me, but I didn’t care enough to say anything.

I burst through the doors. “Jay!” I called out before I even saw him. I could only imagine the situation, but if he thought I was in danger I wouldn’t put it past him to body some poor nurseor security guard to get past them, and I’d rather not have to deal with that situation.

I rounded the corner to see Jay toe to toe with a security guard, and behind him was my brother, Declan? What the fuck?

Jay’s head whipped in my direction. He immediately backed off the guard and stalked toward me, his expression intense. If I didn’t know deep in my soul that Jay would never hurt me, I’d have been terrified to see that expression aimed in my direction. He always told me not to worry about him when he had to go into some of the bad neighborhoods, and this was the first time I could see why. It wasn’t like I wasn’t aware that Jay could be dangerous. But, it’s not the same as seeing it firsthand.

By the time he reached me, his expression switched from murderous rage to deep concern.

“Jay—” I barely finished his name before I was swept into his arms in a tight hug, my feet leaving the ground.

“Fuck, Dakota.” He buried his face in my neck, inhaling deeply before putting me on the ground and at arm’s length, scanning my body. The rage came back when he looked at my scrubs.

I followed his stare and…fuck…I never got to change and was still in my bloody scrubs. “It’s not mine.” I quickly said, hoping to prevent a rampage. “A patient…there was an arterial spray. I’m fine, Jay.” His eyes were still a little glazed over like he wasn’t hearing me. I cupped his face. “I’m fine, love.” At least physically. But one step at a time.

“You’re not hurt?” He didn’t sound like he believed me.

“No. I just—I lost a patient and I didn’t get to check my phone.” That’s when I remembered Declan hovering behind Jay, a strange look on his face.

“Dec, why are you here?”

Jay’s face turned bright red. “I, um, might’ve panicked and called your ma.”

Declan snorted. “That’s an understatement. Since I’m the closest to the hospital, I was recruited to come and make sure you were still alive.”

Which brought us back to why they were here and blowing up my phone in the first place. “Why wouldn’t I be?” I thought of the chocolates in the locker, but there was no way they knew about that yet. “You all know sometimes I get stuck later if there’s an emergency.” No one ever had freaked out like this before.

Jay ran his fingers through his hair, suddenly hesitant, like now that his initial fears were gone, he didn’t wantto mention what brought him to that point in the first place. Which, yeah, wasn’t happening.

“What’s going on?” I demanded, hand on my hip.

We had attracted a crowd. I swear every fuckin’ nurse, PA, orderly—hell, even a doctor or two that was on duty in this hall—had gathered around and was watching us. I held up my hand before Jay could speak.

“Wait. Give me five minutes to get changed and we’ll go somewhere with more privacy.” I glared at my coworkers. Some had the decency to pretend they were busy, while others had no fucking shame at all.

I shook my head and quickly darted back into the locker room before Jay or Declan had a chance to protest.

I’d never changed so fast in my life. I threw on my street clothes, really wishing I could shower, and disposed of the scrubs in the special waste bin we had just for this kind of instance. I was just grabbing my other belongings when I saw the spilled chocolates on the floor and I froze.

For a second, I forgot how to breathe. With all the commotion, I didn’t forget about it exactly, but it had been pushed to the back of my mind. Now it was a stark reminder of how violated I felt. I scanned the locker room, but I still sawnothing. I quickly shoved the spilled chocolates into the box and picked up the note that was now crumpled on the bench.

I was so fucking tempted to toss all of it in the trash and pretend like it didn’t happen. Jay was already on edge for whatever reason, I didn’t want to add to it.

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