Of course, it wasn’t entirely his fault. The protestors had been at it again today, in greater numbers than before. This time they had been chanting that he should be locked up and waving around grainy images of the incident with Andy last month. It severely tried his patience, but fortunately Marcus had shown up and formed a perimeter around the clinic. Eneko had managed to get through the day more or less, although he had called up all his patients to warn them about the crowd.
One thing was certain, he wasn’t going to get another partner working at the clinic while this kept up.
Now, though, with dusk falling and the streets beyond his windows darkening, he couldn’t help but wonder if it would be better to just close for a few days. Maybe a couple weeks. Though he knew that it would fuel the protestor’s cries of wasted resources, it would at least help this frenzy die down. If there was nobody to harass they’d soon give up… at least, he hoped so.
A sudden pounding on the door made him jump. His bear rose, growling, and Eneko held it close to the surface in case he needed a defense. Was it more of those insane protestors? The pounding cut off. The windows rattled and then there was silence.
Eneko turned to his computer and pulled up the video feed from the cameras. There was something slumped on the front steps of the clinic. He cursed under his breath as he leaned in closer. Was that a person?
He turned on his heel and started for the door, then stopped. What if it was a trap? Jana or her boyfriend trying to lure him out so they could… what? Beat him up? He didn’t think that even Jana would go so far as to try to murder him. Perhaps one of the other protestors… But why would they escalate so quickly? He hadn’t even been receiving any threats lately. Well, other than ones he was already getting.
One thing was clear. There was a person out there that probably needed his help. And he wasn’t the kind of guy to let his fears overtake him.
As he got closer to the door. he could smell the cheap brand of perfume that Jana had always worn, even after he had asked her to stop due to people’s sensitivities. (“People are too sensitive then,” she had scoffed, completely missing the point). He’d have fired her for that if he had had someone to replace her…
He yanked open the door, tense in case it was a trap. The body on his doorstep groaned. Her head lolled back on the mat. Her face was covered in blood, the coppery scent hitting him hard. Even more intense than her perfume now that he was so close. Jana Adler, looking as though someone had put her through a stampede.
Eneko’s heart jumped to his throat and he dropped to one knee beside her. He checked for a pulse while listening intently. The beat was slow and irregular, her breathing shallow. Her lids fluttered. He grabbed his cellphone and called 911.
“I have a female, mid-thirties, unresponsive. It looks like she was beaten. Get here quickly.”
He rattled off the clinic’s address. The clinic wasn’t equipped to handle this sort of injury. He’d performed surgery on Marcus just a few weeks ago but the other man was a shifter, a bear like him. If he hadn’t been, the surgery would have killed him. Trying to do anything for Jana…
Well, there was something he could do. Eneko jumped back into the clinic and gathered some blankets and a neck brace. Returning to Jana, he covered her up before putting the neck brace in place, to stop her spine from receiving more damage than it might already have done. He didn’t dare move her, though.
Ten minutes passed. Then twenty. Her stomach started to swell and her heartbeat grew weaker. Internal bleeding. Eneko called the ambulance again, but only received the same information he’d gotten before. His bear snarled as he ran down the possibilities of what to do here on his own.
The shallow breaths stopped. Eneko gripped her wrist. No pulse. Trying to do chest compressions could cause further internal damage. Her heart was stopped. He jumped to his feet and ran for the emergency defibrillator, cursing that he hadn’t already brought it out. Careful not to jostle her more than was necessary, Eneko laid the woman flat on her back and ripped open her shirt.
After five attempts with the defibrillator, Eneko threw caution to the wind and began chest compressions. Nothing. Jana’s face was white, pale as a corpse, and her skin was getting cold. She was gone.
Eneko sat beside her and wept.
The loss of life, any life, mattered. If he had moved quicker, been smarter… But there was no telling what might have been. All he knew was that she was dead. She had needed him and he hadn’t been able to save her.
The ambulance didn’t arrive until half an hour later. Eneko stared at the two paramedics as they walked over, jostling each other and laughing. Neither of them smelled of shifter.
One of them, a tall blond, looked at Eneko with a glance that could only be defined as a sneer. “Where’s the shifter that needs to go to the hospital?”
Shifter? Of course. Eneko’s bear roared and his hands clenched. That was why they had taken so long to arrive. Because they thought it was a shifter who was laying unresponsive here. A shifter called from a shifter clinic about someone needing help–these guys thought it was probably a shifter looking to ‘steal’ resources from non-shifters who apparently deserved it more.
Eneko got to his feet from where he had been sitting outside the clinic door. “She wasn’t a shifter,” he said blankly. Fury burned in his gut but none of it made it into his voice. “If you had come on time, she might have been able to be saved.”
The paramedics glanced at each other with horror in their eyes and Eneko had to fight down the desire to punch the wall. That was right. A non-shifter had died and now they were going to catch hell. But if Jana had been a shifter?
He pushed past them, standing in the light snowfall, trying not to think about anything at all.
***
The police arrived much, much quicker than the paramedics had. They took pictures and statements before allowing Jana’s body to be taken away. The detectives all were hostile towards him, and he wondered how many of them saw Jana’s video about him ‘attacking’ Andy and how many just hated shifters. They even made him come to the station and rehash, over and over, what had happened. It wasn’t until Eneko demanded a lawyer that they even let him phone Jasmine and explain to her why he wasn’t home yet. The interrogation lasted hours, even after one of the matriarch’s lawyers arrived to give him legal aid.
Eventually, they released him. Exhaustion dragged at his limbs and he was in such a state that he wasn’t certain if he could drive home by himself. In the end, though, he had no choice. His mind whirled over the events of the night as he drove, and when he made it to his house, he sat in the car for a few minutes, gathering himself.
The clinic. He pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes, breathing deeply. The clinic will be closed until the police open it up again.
Which was not going to help his case against the protestors… But then, neither was Jana’s death. Things were going to reach a frenzy, that was clear. So, he needed to figure out what he was going to do with his patients and his children, to protect them from the fallout that was certain to come raging towards him.
Would Jasmine want to stay working for him with all this happening? She had stuck it out with Adela when a drug lord was after her, but in this case… well, Jasmine deserved to have some peace, right? And, so did Maite and Luken.
He needed someone to take care of them in case the police called him down to the station again. He’d ask Jasmine. Maybe even see if she could move in with him for the time being… no, that was too much.
Eneko stopped the car just outside his house. He’d ask Jasmine to stay working for him, but that was it. He wasn’t going to make any overtures that might be taken as romantic.
Decided, Eneko stepped from his car. Only to have to jump back as another car came careening down the street. It stopped haphazardly in the center of the road and a familiar figure tumbled out of the driver’s seat. Andy stumbled towards him. Even at this distance Eneko could smell the alcohol and see his bloodshot eyes
. The man stumbled and weaved as he came at the bear, fists in the air.
“You… you animal!” Andy’s voice carried and Eneko glanced around. This late at night it was doubtful that many, if any at all, of his neighbors were awake. He hoped this wouldn’t wake them up. “You killed her. You killed the love of my life. I’ll destroy you for this. I loved her. I loved her!”
“I didn’t touch her,” Eneko said, his voice low, trying to be soothing. “You’re clearly drunk. I’m going to call you a cab and—"
“You killed her!” Andy stumbled at him swinging. It was quite pathetic, and he nearly fell to the ground when Eneko sidestepped. “You have had it out for her since she refused to sleep with you. Don’t think I don’t know! She told me how you harassed her and threatened her and fired her.”
After the day he’d had, Eneko couldn’t deal with this. He shook his head and started back for his car–he didn’t know how Andy had found him here, but he wasn’t going to lead the angry drunk right to his house and his children.
“You’re going to lose everything,” Andy spat at him. “I’ll make sure that you go to jail and never see the light of day again. And as for those brats of yours—”
Eneko whirled. He had the man by the throat before he could stop himself. Andy’s eyes widened and Eneko shoved him into the car, a growl rumbling in his throat. His lips pulled back and he could feel the change starting in him. By now he’d have a set of terrifying fangs.
“Never threaten my children,” the bear snarled. His instincts rode him hard, the shift seconds from happening.
Andy turned and fled. Eneko stayed where he was, breathing deeply. After a long moment he glanced at his house. Then he got into his car and drove away again, unable to face Jasmine after what he had just done.
Chapter Five
Jasmine stood at the window, looking out into the street. It had been hours since she had seen him through the window, hours since Andy had driven him off again with his cursing and screaming. Jasmine had phoned Eneko after she saw him drive off, and all he said was that he needed to clear his mind. A little while after that, he called her to tell her what happened with Jana. Now it was morning and the kids were up and upset that their father wasn’t home.
“Jasmine?”
She turned to find Maite looking up at her, big brown eyes wide. “What you looking for?”
“Nothing.” Jasmine ruffled the little girl’s hair. “Sorry, I just got lost in my thoughts. Are you done with breakfast?”
Maite nodded and wiped her nose. “I feel sick. I don’t want to go to school today.”
Jasmine sighed. It was best if the children had a day that was as normal as possible, wasn’t it? Maite was lying–probably, at least–and needed something to take her mind off the fact her dad wasn’t here. “Go get dressed, sweetie. You’ll feel better once you start moving around.”
Maite frowned, but moved off to obey. Jasmine took a moment to center herself and started to clean up the mess from breakfast.
She wanted to be here to greet Eneko when he came home. With this murder, though, her anxieties were kicking up to new levels. Jana was the leader of the protestors. Now she was dead, and it was a sure bet that people were going to blame Eneko. What if Andy had continued to follow him the previous night? What if he had him cornered somewhere? Nobody was answering at the clinic and Eneko’s phone went straight to voicemail…
She wanted to call someone, anyone, to get their help but who? All the police she had met had negative opinions of shifters. Growing up, there had been several times when something happened and she was blamed by the cops. Even after it was proven she was innocent, they treated her like a criminal. More than once she thought she was going to end up jailed for something that wasn’t even a crime.
The front door opened. Jasmine jumped and rushed into the hallway. Relief washed over her as Eneko shrugged off his jacket and hung it up. Heavy lines wrinkled his face, but he smiled briefly at her. Two sets of thumping steps ended with Luken and Maite both shouting out and rushing past her. Eneko dropped to one knee to embrace them as they jumped onto him.
“Da! You’re home.” Maite buried her face in her father’s shoulder. “I was worried.”
Eneko grimaced. He glanced up at Jasmine and she shrugged slightly, not knowing what else to do. Eneko hugged his children a little tighter before moving back. “I’m sorry I wasn’t home. There was work I had to take care of. Now hurry up and get dressed. Luken, you need to brush your teeth. I don’t want you late for school.”
Both children nodded obediently. They lingered a bit longer before turning and padding back down the hallway. Jasmine waited until she heard their doors close before she turned back to Eneko. Dark circles were smudged under his eyes and he ran a hand through his dark hair.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen now,” he told her, keeping his voice low. “I won’t be able to pay you.”
“Never mind about that. Are you okay?”
Eneko hesitated a moment before he rose his hands helplessly into the air. “I don’t know. This is… shocking. And awful. I don’t know how I feel and I don’t know what to do.”
Jasmine took a deep breath and nodded. In this sort of situation there was only one thing to do. Take care of the immediate situation. She could feel cold radiating from his body and grasped his hand, which was like ice. She shivered.
“Were you driving around out there in the snow without any heat on in your vehicle?”
“No. I drove out to the park and went for a walk.”
“Well, you need to warm up and get to bed. Go to the kitchen, I’ve got some coffee on and you can have a bowl of steel-cut oats. Walking about in the dead of night at this time of year. Bear or not, you’re not immune to the cold.”
Eneko nodded, then hesitated. “Sorry I didn’t call. My cellphone’s battery died. I’m just worried that—No, I don’t want to drag you into this mess.”
“Oh, I’m already involved. So just go eat, warm up, and I am going to get the children out the door for school. We’ll talk when I get back. Or after you sleep.” Jasmine peered at him worriedly for a moment before she turned and marched down the hall.
Now that their dad was home, she was able to insist that the children go to school without too much push back from them. Maite still dragged her feet, but a firm word from her father had her out the door. Jasmine made sure Luken got on the bus and took Maite to her school, all the while worry churning her stomach.
She returned to the house to find Eneko dressed in plaid pajama pants and a dark shirt. He lay on the couch wrapped in a blanket, but his eyes were open. Jasmine sat on the coffee table. She had to resist the urge to lay her hand on his head to check his temperature. He was a grown man and that would be exceedingly awkward.
“What did the police say?” she asked him quietly.
“The police?”
“You called and told me that they took you to the station. What did they say?”
Eneko shrugged and looked away. “That they would be in contact with me.”
“They think you did it.” Jasmine’s hands clenched. “They think that you did it and now it’s—”
“Hey.” He put his hand over hers. “Listen, it’s okay. Objectively, it makes sense to me from their point of view. I’ve been having problems with her and then she… she died at my clinic. Don’t worry about me. The matriarch has good lawyers, it’s going to be fine.”
Was that doubt she saw in his eyes? Jasmine looked away, knowing that any misgivings about the police that she expressed right now could very well be construed as doubts of his innocence. Best that she let it go, and focus on what she could do to help him rather than rale against the unfairness of law enforcement. Her mind cast about before she remembered something else she needed to know.
“Are you going to keep working?”
He shook his head.
It shocked Jasmine more than she cared to admit. While it was true that she hadn’t known him for long, everything
she did know about him spoke to a kind, generous heart. She had the feeling that sitting around doing nothing wasn’t going to help him.
“Why not? The people around here need your services. You can’t just throw away your practice, they depend on you and—”
“And I need to talk with the matriarch, but right now my clinic is a crime scene. I can’t go back to it until the police open it up again, and I don’t see them doing that any time soon. It doesn’t matter. They need to do their jobs and Jana… she deserves justice.”
Jasmine looked away. She pressed her lips tightly together, not caring to admit that Jana was the least of her worries. The woman had wanted to force him out of business, and Jasmine, for one, wasn’t feeling charitable towards her. Yes, it was awful that she was dead. But if her death meant that lots of people weren’t getting the medical care they needed, that was even more of a crime.
“So, that woman. She was the one that came screaming at you, right?”
Eneko grimaced and nodded.
“Who was she, really?”
“She used to work for me. She had a boyfriend that I had to chase off a few times because he kept basically stalking her. Once she found out I was a shifter, though, she quit. Apparently, she told her boyfriend I fired her for refusing to sleep with me.”
That bitch. Jasmine pressed her lips tightly together to stop herself from speaking ill of the dead any more than she had already done.
“You know what?” Eneko shook his head. “I don’t really want to talk about it. I don’t know if I’ll need you… well, if the police are going to come back around I’m going to need you to watch the children. I’m sorry. Things are going to get hectic and you’re not going to have steady hours. And about what I said before about not being able to pay you, that’s not true. I’ll pay you. I have savings that I can dip into.”
“Hey, that’s the least of my worries.”
She bit her lip, guilt starting to trickle in to her stomach. At first, she didn’t realize what she was feeling guilty about, but when her heart warmed, she understood.
The Bear Shifter's Nanny Page 3
