“You can’t do it here?” Becky asked, watching as he prepped her arm, but then looked away before he stuck her with the needle.She didn’t need to start puking again. Blood usually didn’t bother her, but she wasn’t trusting that right now.
“I’m not set up for that kind of examination, Becky,” Slade informed her. “Hold still for me. You’re going to feel a poke.”
Becky braced for the sting as she stared at the wall until Sloan stepped in front of her, grabbing her free hand. She smiled her thanks as she looked at him instead of the wall.
“Okay, bend your arm for me,” Slade said after a few minutes of complete silence.
“Thanks,” Becky whispered, holding her bent arm. “What did Kent find out?” she asked, then glanced up at Sloan, who gave Slade a warning look.
“Everything looked legitimate,” Slade answered after a moment of hesitation. “Steve went in invisible.”
“And?” Becky had been around these men long enough to know they were keeping something from her. “I saw the look you guys shared, so I know there is more.”
“Only that Daniel is following a lead,” Sloan said, then helped her off the table. “Now come on, let’s get you home.”
Becky let it go even though she knew that wasn’t all there was to the story. She’d let them have their secret for now because, in all honesty, she had a secret of her own, and now she didn’t feel quite so bad about it.
CHAPTER 8
Katrina walked into the small drugstore at the edge of town. Finding the aisle she needed, she glanced around before heading toward what she was there to buy. She stopped in front of the products, then glanced around again before laughing under her breath at her own paranoia.
In truth, her paranoid state was Becky’s fault.
Getting a call from one of your closest friends, who was whispering so low that even with Katrina’s superb hearing she could hardly make out what was being said, tended to do that to a person. After promising and swearing a few thousand times not to say a word to anyone, and to make damn sure she didn’t buy from anywhere local, Katrina now found herself in a drugstore on the edge of town acting like a criminal.
She swore if anyone was watching her on the cameras, they probably thought she was getting ready to rob the place, which was ridiculous. She wasn’t stealing. Nope, she was panic-shopping for Becky. Big difference.
A voice from her past sent chills racing up Katrina’s spine taking her by surprise. “Am I going to be an uncle?”
Katrina turned, her eyes narrowing the second her gaze landed on her brother. For one split second, she wasn’t standing in a drugstore. She was back in the Iron Drake’s clubhouse, on her knees, begging him to help their mother while he stood there and did nothing. Hatred hit hard and fast, burning through the shock of seeing him.
“Have you been following me?” She stood her ground refusing to show any fear.
When Blaze told her he’d found her brother and let him live, it hadn’t really shocked her. What did shock her was seeing him here, standing this close, when she knew damn well Blaze had warned him to stay away from her.
“To talk to you,” he replied, the smile he’d been wearing disappearing.
Katrina’s jaw tightened. “I don’t have anything to say to you, Craig.”
“Then just listen...please.” His voice lowered, and for the first time, he didn’t look exactly like the brother she remembered. He looked older, harder. His hair was still reddish brown, shorter now, but still wild with unruly waves. “And I don’t go by that name anymore. I go by Asher.”
“You can change your name, but that will never change what you did or who you really are.” Katrina held his stare, refusing to let him see how badly just looking at him tore through her.
“You’re right,” he replied, his eyes shifting away from her.
For a second, Katrina thought she saw true regret there.
“Craig is the name that bastard gave me,” he said quietly. “Mom gave me my middle name, Asher, which is what I legally go by now.”
“The mom who would still be alive if you’d helped her when I begged you,” Katrina spat, then tried to move past him.
His hand closed around her arm.
Everything inside her went cold. “Let. Me. Go.”
He released her immediately, his face tightening. “You know I couldn’t have stopped him from doing what he did any more than you could have, Katrina. You weren’t the only one trying to survive that hell.”
Craig, Asher, whatever in the hell he wanted to call himself, stood there like those words should matter. At the moment, they didn’t. She remembered the way her voice had broken as she begged him for help. What replayed in her mind the most was looking at him through tears and seeing no emotion. But what really turned her heart against her own brother was when there had been no move on his part to stop what was happening to save their mother.