Page 5 of Lane (East Dremest Mafia #5)

ALTON

“I assure you it’s a normal part of aging.”

“I wasn't certain because—” Mrs. Johnson kept talking, but I raised my hand.

“You’re okay. Trust me.” Not only did we already go over this, but we were in the hallway of the practice where anyone could overhear us.

She smiled kindly. “Thank you. You’ve always been my favorite here.”

“It’s my pleasure.” I walked her to the door so she could exit to the waiting room and check out at the reception desk.

There was a break in my schedule. I returned to my desk and started going through messages patients had sent me. My nurse fielded them first and flagged the ones I had to respond to personally.

One by one, I answered them, sent in prescriptions, and asked for more details on others. When that was done, I lifted my phone and glanced at my text messages. I shouldn’t. This only led me down a road that would upset me.

I scrolled until I got to the last message Raiden had sent me. It was under a number he used on a burner phone. I had his and all my patients’ numbers in my computer system, but I wouldn’t use them without their consent to message them.

Raiden wasn’t just another patient. He never would be.

Unknown: Thank you.

That was all it said. Two words that could be thought of as cold or sincere. I liked to think they were the latter, though it didn’t ease anything inside me. One incident changed our relationship, as tenuous as it was.

Raiden had wanted to kiss me. I couldn’t let it happen, given his state at the time.

He interpreted it differently than I meant.

It wasn’t me rejecting him. It was me not wanting our first kiss to be when he wasn’t well.

If he regretted it once he felt better, I’d be gutted.

So, I didn’t let it happen and had lived with his absence in my heart since.

I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with a patient. The situation would have been different if he was no longer under my care. He was though. All of Jordan's men were.

I didn’t understand why my morals showed up for that but not when I removed bullets from them.

How many times had I gone to Jordan’s building, his safe house, or wherever he needed me to patch people up?

To mend wounds they didn’t want to go to the hospital for?

I understood why they didn’t. Questions would be raised, but me doing that in non-sterile environments invited infection.

Raiden had been different from the start.

My feelings for him grew with every encounter.

Then, one day, he was in front of me, bleeding from a bullet.

I went into autopilot, doing what I could to stop the bleeding, remove the bullet, and get his wound closed.

After I had him taken care of, the fever set in.

I’d like to think I would have been as worried over any patient, but the truth was, it was him.

In my heart, I knew he was going to be okay that day, but I couldn’t stop the terror that lived within me at the thought of losing him.

That was also when I realized working for a mafia boss didn’t come without consequences for my heart.

I was already aware my license could be revoked.

Where I’d have to give up what I’d worked for and built because I helped him and his guards out.

Although, the damage to my heart was the one I feared most.

I remembered the next day when I called Jordan and was about to quit. I was in over my head, not only with Raiden but with everything. I’d gotten too attached.

“Alton, weren’t you here yesterday?” Jordan asked when he answered.

“I was, but I wanted to talk to you. I don’t think I can do this anymore.”

He sighed, but his tone told me he wasn’t surprised. “Do you remember the night we met?”

“How could I forget?”

It was late when I received a call from my sister. I was still awake, trying to wind down from a busy day, but my brain wouldn't shut off.

“El, what’s wrong?” My sister knew the hours I worked and how long my days were. She didn’t call me this late unless it was urgent.

“He’s going to kill me,” she rushed to say, her breath coming in pants.

Her boyfriend had been in the news, along with the East Dremest Police Department. I’d trusted her when she said he was doing better. He wasn’t in trouble anymore. Eleanor had a good head on her shoulders. She wouldn’t have gotten involved with a dangerous man.

My first reaction was, “Call the police.” Then I thought about what I’d said and why it wouldn’t be a good idea.

“He said he’d tell them I started it and beat him.

I hit and scratched him to get away, but I didn’t start it.

” The police would have believed him. He was an ex-cop who had done time but still had acquaintances on the force who would cover for him thanks to him having information on them that would land them in a hell of a lot of trouble.

“I’ll be right there.”

She tried to beg me not to come; all the while, she cried in fear. She wanted to be free of him but didn’t want me to get hurt. She sobbed over the phone and was torn about what to do.

I didn’t care about me, only her. We hung up so she could hide.

I grabbed my gun from the safe. I didn’t live in a city like East Dremest and not protect myself.

After my home was broken into a while back, I vowed never to feel helpless again.

The cops took far too long to respond. I’d be prepared going forward.

The drive to my sister’s house was quick. She lived in half of a duplex. The other side was empty, the tenants having recently moved out. Just as I was about to climb the steps to the front door, a car came screeching to a halt by the curb.

The last person I expected to get out was Jordan Altair Sr. Of course, I knew who he was; everyone who lived in the city did.

Raising my gun, I didn’t point it at him but showed him I could if I wanted to. I wasn’t helpless. His driver walked toward me and said, with his own gun aimed at my face, “If you put your finger on the trigger, I’ll put a hole in your head you won’t walk away from.”

“My sister is in there," I replied, instead of saying I wasn’t about to shoot Jordan. “I have to help her.”

A scream suddenly sliced through the air. Jordan moved swiftly up the stairs and rammed his shoulder against the door to get inside. The driver left me on the sidewalk as he ran after Jordan. I followed, not sure what was going on. I had to help my sister though.

“You motherfucker,” I heard Jordan growl when I was inside. “I let you live far too long.” Rounding the corner, I saw he had Eleanor’s boyfriend by the hair with his head wrenched back. “I gave you too many chances. Now you’re abusing a woman.”

“She stole from me! I was preparing to move what I’d bought from you, and she found it and took it.”

That was when my eyes landed on my sister huddled in the corner of the room. She was naked with her legs pressed up to her chest. Bruises were already forming on her face and arms. Blood trickled from her nose and cut lip.

I rushed forward, taking off my shirt to drape it over her. I settled beside her, with my arm around her shoulders. My eyes met Jordan’s.

“Did you take from him?” Jordan asked her.

I was about to answer when she rushed to say, “No. I didn’t even know what I found.” Her voice shook, but she wasn’t intimidated by him. I was proud of the fight still in her.

I’d seen many people on drugs in my line of work. My sister wasn’t using. If that was what they were referring to anyway.

Jordan assessed her before focusing on the scum on his knees again. “I told you to not be reckless with the product. And you leave it where anyone can find it. Were you going to sell it on my streets?”

“No!” he cried. “I wouldn’t.”

“I don’t believe you. I had a call about you dealing. That’s not how this works,” Jordan growled.

“Please. I didn’t.”

Jordan put his gun to my sister’s boyfriend’s temple and pulled the trigger. It was violent and bloody, but I couldn’t turn away.

My sister screamed, and I moved to cover her in case Jordan turned the gun on her.

“Find my drugs,” he barked at his driver.

Jordan crossed the room toward us. “I’m not going to kill you,” he said. “You’ve been given a second chance.” He then focused on me. “Your sister was in bed with the wrong man. The three of us are going to make a deal.”

Jordan would let Eleanor go, as long as she said she was the one who killed her boyfriend. I had to be the witness to see it happen. Jordan wouldn’t be involved in any of it.

My world felt like it was spinning out of control, but I went along with the lie, willing to do anything for my sister. She didn’t deserve this life.

Once she was cleared and Jordan paid off the cops, who agreed it was self-defense in their report, I wasn’t sure what to do with all I’d witnessed.

A week later, Jordan appeared on my doorstep with an offer to work for him. I immediately declined, but he was persistent, especially when he called me in the middle of the night and asked for my help saving a life.

While I did everything I could to keep his guard out of the hospital and stitch him up, he told me about what he was trying to do for the city. How he donated money, held fundraisers, and wanted to see the city cleaned up.

Jordan still committed crimes, but there was a part of him I understood.

I had worked part time in one of the clinics and saw firsthand how much still had to be done in East Dremest. I knew how the cops were and how they picked and chose who they helped.

Not all were that way, but the ones I’d witnessed were.

Everything in my head screamed at me to tell him no, but yes slid past my lips. Jordan agreed then and there to always watch out for my sister. My helping him had him protecting Eleanor.

The guard he put on Eleanor kept her alive when one of her deceased ex’s friends sought retribution and came to kill her. Her guard killed him instead.

A year later, my sister married him. Now, I had a niece or nephew on the way. Eleanor was due in two months.

My sister had found her happily ever after. I’d worked for Jordan after what he did for her. Sure, he was selfish when he showed up that day. It had nothing to do with Eleanor. Without him there, could I have taken down the man hurting her? Could I have saved her? Doubtful.

It wasn’t the best way to meet someone, but the end result was worth it.

“Your three o’clock is here.” I heard from my doorway.

“Thank you.” I left my phone on my desk and returned to my work as the memory of that day stayed fresh in my mind.

I couldn’t push it out for good. Every now and then, it would pop up, a ghost of what had happened the night my sister called and I met the notorious mafia boss who ran East Dremest.

Everything that happened put me on the path I was currently on. It put me in front of Raiden and made me feel things for him I hadn’t ever felt for another.

My life was lonely before I met Jordan, but I’d accepted it. I had my practice and patients. He brought me into a world where I met a man no one compared to.

My lonely existence was still present because Raiden was, as he always had been, a patient and nothing more.