I hung up and shuffled back on the bed until I was leaning against the wall. Placing my hand on her forehead, I asked, “Can you open your eyes?”

She struggled, but she managed to do it. And it was in that split second, when I saw the honey brown of her eyes, that I finally let myself breathe. “You’re okay,” I assured her, my dry lips finding her warm temple. I tasted her sweat on my lips and kissed her again.

“Nate,” she whispered, her head lolling back as she attempted to look at me. Her eyes opened fully just long enough so she could see me watching her. “Thank you.”

*

Tiny and Polizi showed up in under ten minutes. Tiny let them both in with his key and deactivated the alarm at the front door. He called out my name. I kept my eyes on her when I told him where to find us.

“What happened?” Polizi asked as he walked into the room, dropping his bag and rushing toward us.

I shook my head, wishing to hell I fucking knew. “I don’t know. I found her like this.”

“Where did you find her?”

“In the hallway… she was trying to get to me. I didn’t know and—”

“Nate,” Tiny cut in. “This isn’t your fault.”

“What’s her name?” Polizi asked.

“Bailey.”

He sat on the edge of the bed and checked her pulse on her wrist.

“Bailey,” I whispered in her ear. She reacted by opening her eyes, just slightly. “This is Doctor Polizi. He’s here to check on you, okay?”

She nodded slowly and attempted to sit up a little, her arm curling tighter around my neck.

Polizi’s eyes moved to mine for a second, and I could see the confusion, the list of questions he wanted to ask. But he wouldn’t. Not yet. Polizi was The Family’s doctor. He kept our secrets and in return, he got paid more than any doctor in the entire state. Gunshots, stab wounds, overdoses, anything we needed from him, he was there. Like the rest of us, he kept this side of him private, away from his home, and away from his wife and kids. I’d known him my entire life, and I trusted him with it, so it surprised me that I was questioning whether I trusted him with hers. “I’m going to need you to try to speak to me, okay, Bailey?” he said.

Bailey nodded and tried to form a “Yes,” but her voice cracked and she looked down at her lap. “Water,” she whispered.

“I got it,” Tiny said, already halfway out of the room. A few seconds later he returned with a glass of water. She almost inhaled the drink, the sounds of her swallows filling the room.

Polizi gave his standard doctor smile when she was done and took the glass from her hands, setting it on the nightstand. She curled back into herself, her head on my shoulder again. “Can you tell me how you’re feeling?” Polizi asked.

“Weak,” she said. “And my vision’s blurry. I’m hot. And I’m cold. I don’t know…”

The doc continued to ask her questions, and she answered each one as best as she could. “Are you allergic to any foods?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Not that I know of.”

“Have you had anything to eat today that you don’t normally?”

“Cake,” she said. “It was my birthday.” She removed her arm from around my neck and shoved it under Polizi’s nose, twisting her wrist a little to shift the bracelet in its place. “Nate got me this.” She sounded so young, so innocent.

Polizi smiled. “It’s beautiful.”

“I know,” she responded.

Polizi moved toward his medicine bag. “I’m going to have to run some tests so we can find out what happened to you tonight. Have you felt like this before?”

She looked up at me as if questioning how much she should tell him.

“Be honest, Bailey. You can trust Doctor Polizi. Tell him the truth.”

She nodded and moved her gaze back to him. “When I’d go days without food, I’d feel like this. But never this bad. The last few days—”

“Days?” I interrupted. “Why didn’t you say something?”

Her gaze dropped again. “I didn’t know I was allowed to.”

My heart sank. “You felt like you couldn’t tell me you felt sick?”

Before she could respond, Doctor Polizi spoke. “I’ll need to get a blood and urine sample and get it sent off to a lab.”

Bailey’s eyes widened. “Do I need to go anywhere? Can you do it all here?” Swear to God, there was more fear in her eyes in that moment than the night I found her.

Polizi pinned me with his gaze. “Can I talk to you?”

I nodded.

“I’ll be back,” I told Bailey, kissing her temple again.

I saw Tiny’s eyebrows lift from the corner of my eye, but I didn’t care. In that moment, I only cared for Bailey.

*

“I need full disclosure, Nate. I can’t give her the best treatment if I don’t know what’s going on,” Polizi said, arms crossed.

I sighed and leaned against the wall in the hallway. I hadn’t thought things through properly when I’d asked Tiny to bring him here.

“She’s here under my protection. Just mine,” I said, making sure he understood that no one else was to know about it, not even Benny or The Family. I added, “She witnessed something, and I’m hiding her out here until it’s safe. That’s all.” That was far from all, and he knew it.

He pulled a small notepad and pen from his pocket. “So when you say she’s hiding out… does she get any sunlight? Fresh air?”

I shook my head as I stared down at the floor. “Nothing.”

“Food?”

“Of course I feed her. I’m not—”

“What kind of meals is she having?”

I shrugged. “Takeout… leftover takeout.” And even as the words left my mouth I knew it wasn’t good enough. I should’ve been taking better care of her.

“Are you… I mean is she… are you… sexually active?”

“What? No.”

“So you’re not having relations?”

“No.”

“Is there a chance she could be pregnant?”

I opened my mouth, the word no on the tip of my tongue. But then I realized… I had no clue what she was doing before I found her, or how far Pauly went. “I don’t think so. She’s had her period, and we haven’t done anything.”

Polizi scribbled a few notes and replaced the notepad and pen back in his pocket. “It’s not always a sign of a negative pregnancy result. I guess that’s something we should rule out.”

I nodded, though the thought of her being with someone like that had bile rising to my throat. I didn’t even want to think about the wrath of what would happen if Pauly or PJ had anything to do with it. I’d kill PJ. Daylight. Cold blood. Bare hands. I wouldn’t give a fuck.

I walked in after the doc and resumed my position on the bed, my shoulders tense and my fists balled. “Nate?” she whispered, but I couldn’t look at her.

If this was her fate then fuck it all to hell.

“I’ll be able to do the blood and urine tests here. The results may take longer than usual due to your circumstance,” Polizi told her. “But I think it’s best we rule out one possibility while I’m here. Bailey, is there any way you could be pregnant?”