Font Size:  

Considering whom Gina and Teo had accounted for so far and the distinctly male-shaped silhouettes, Gina checked off Jase and Tim on her mental list as present and accounted for.

“Where’s Amberleigh?”

“Probably still chattering in a corner,” Derek answered, gaze fixed on his father.

“There is no corner, Derek.”

The kid threw Teo an “are you for real?” glance, then jerked his head in the direction of the tree.

Amberleigh sat at the base, sucking her thumb.

“Peachy,” Gina muttered, and started for the girl.

As Gina walked away she heard Teo ask, “What did you see?” and Derek answer, “Not one damn thing.”

Amberleigh wasn’t any more help than anyone else had been. Of course the incessant sucking of the thumb didn’t allow her to say much, but considering all she seemed able to say was: “Whoosh!” Gina let Amberleigh have at it.

The crunch of footsteps had Gina glancing up. Jase and Tim had returned. She patted Amberleigh on the shoulder. “You okay?”

“Whoosh!” Amberleigh said around the thumb.

Gina stalked toward Jase. “What were you thinking to bring her out here?” She threw out an arm to indicate Amberleigh. “She’s slipped a cog. She needs a doctor.”

“She didn’t have that many cogs to slip.”

“Jase, so help me—”

“Gordon’s a doctor.”

Gina cut her gaze to Tim, who shrugged. “Don’t tell me you agreed that dragging her on horseback farther away from medical care was a good idea?”

“Uh—no,” Tim said. “But then, no one asked me.”

Gina narrowed her eyes on Jase, and he held up his hands—one now held a rifle—in surrender. “Okay. Bad idea. I figured she’d snap out of it.”

“Does that…,” Gina stabbed her finger at the tree, “look like she’s gonna snap out of it anytime soon?”

Jase contemplated Amberleigh, then sighed. “No. That just looks like she snapped.”

Behind him, Melda still sat in the dirt. She was rocking and humming, but at least she wasn’t, yet, sucking her thumb.

Teo and Derek joined them. Tim put his arm around his son’s shoulders. It was a testament to what had happened in the past twenty-four hours that the boy let him.

“What did you find?” Gina asked.

Jase and Tim exchanged a glance. Tim’s eyes shifted toward Derek, and Gina tried to think of something she could send the boy away to do.

“I’m not leaving,” Derek said. “Whatever’s out there could get me, too. I need to know what’s going on.”

“He’s right,” Teo murmured. “Tim?”

The man pulled his son closer, as if he could keep him safe by proximity alone, then nodded.

“Mel’s out there,” Jase said.

“Shit,” Gina murmured. “Dead?”

“Throat torn out.”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
Articles you may like