Chapter 6
Nadya
Present Day
HOSPITALS SUCKED.Ihad no idea how Vera could spend all day working in a place like this, but my skin crawled every time the antiseptic smell hit me.
What I hated the most about it right now wasn’t the smell or the fluorescent lights.No, what I hated was the reason we were here.The same damn reason as back then.
Our adoptive father’s evil had caught up to us again.The last time, they’d poked and prodded the three of us until they found enough evidence to toss the bastard in jail.But here we were again.
He had gotten out and the first thing he’d done with his freedom was try to kidnap my younger sister.He almost succeeded, too.
Vera and I made it up to the fourth floor and found Ljuba’s room at the end of the hall.She had been out of it for most of the day, so when I heard a murmur of conversation, my heart did a happy flip at hearing her voice.
Dan was with her, hunched in the chair with a posture that implied he’d been up for two days straight.He wore an army hoodie, camo shorts, and a very manly-looking leather bracelet that matched Ljuba’s.Apparently, he was good at leatherwood.
Ljuba’s hair was a mess.Her face was pale, her lips chapped, and she had the bouquet of bruises.I didn’t know all the details, but apparently she had jumped out of a moving vehicle to get away.So badass for someone who always seemed fragile, but if she actually were that fragile, she never would've survived our hellish childhood.
“Finally, you’re awake,” I announced, walking into the hospital room.
Ljuba squinted.“I don’t feel awake.”
I shrugged.“I guess you could still be talking in your sleep, though your open eyes are worrisome, if that’s the case.”
Vera nodded.“You said something about human tuna.You should probably stop reading shifter romance.It’s messing with your head.”
Dan chuckled at that.“Tuna is an old friend.He was too full of himself about being a Navy SEAL, so we started calling him Tuna.”
I froze.
Tuna?What were the chances there were two Navy SEALs with the same nickname?Oh, hell.
I could practically feel his lips on me, his hands, his voice.Two years, and I still couldn’t get the man out of my head.
“Is that the guy who pointed the gun at me?”Ljuba asked.
That didn’t sound like him at all.Although, what did I know?Maybe he was a monster, and that fact would finally stop me from daydreaming about what could have been.
“Hewhat?”Vera looked like she wanted to make tuna salad.
I was still too shocked to move.
