Page 114 of Wicked Nightmare

I watched his face as he peered through the peephole. His expression went from annoyed to blank to something I couldn't read, all in about two seconds.

"No fucking way," he muttered, his hand hovering over the doorknob.

My curiosity was killing me. "Who is it?" I stage-whispered, inching closer. "The ghost of Christmas Past? Girl Scouts selling cookies? Ooh, I hope it's cookies."

Cam shot me a look that clearly said shut up. I just grinned back. What can I say? Danger makes me giddy.

As he slowly opened the door, I craned my neck, trying to get a view past his massive frame. He blocked most of the doorway, but I caught a glimpse of a face that made my stomach drop.

"Well, fuck me sideways," I breathed.

There, standing in the doorway like she'd just popped out for milk instead of disappearing for years, was Sarah. Our old social worker. The one who'd tried to "save" us back when we were bouncing around from home to home.

I pushed past Cam, ignoring his grunt of protest. "Sarah?" My voice came out all weird and breathy. For a split second, I was that scared little girl again, the one sitting in a cold office with unbrushed hair, desperate for someone to give a shit.

But I squashed that fast. I wasn't that pathetic kid anymore. I was Lakey fucking Aldrich, and I didn't need anyone's help or pity.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I demanded. "Come to check up on your favorite little psychopaths?"

Cam's hand landed on my shoulder, a silent warning to cool it, but I was too wound up. Sarah's appearance had knocked me sideways, and I hated feeling off-balance. It brought back too much. The offices. The paperwork. The promises that things would get better that never, ever came true.

My hand inched towards the knife on my thigh. If this bitch was here to cause trouble, she'd regret it.

Sarah breezed past us into the apartment, her eyes sweeping the room before landing on the operative strapped to the table. I tensed, ready to pounce if she so much as flinched wrong, but she just stood there, taking it all in, while Cam and I were internally losing our shit.

"Well," Sarah said, her voice steady as she looked from Beaver to Rose, "I see you two haven't changed much."

I barked out a laugh. "Oh, you have no idea."

Sarah turned to face us, and I swear to God, she looked almost amused. It made me uneasy. She had a better poker face than Cam did, and that was saying something.

"I know this is a shock," she said, walking into the living room and looking around before checking out the broken window that Beaver had come through. "But we have a lot to discuss, Lakey. You too, Cam."

I glanced at Cam, trying to read him. His face was a mask, but his jaw was tight. He was just as thrown as I was.

"How about we start with why the fuck you're here?" I took a step towards her. "Last I checked, social workers don't make house calls to their old cases. Especially not ones they fucked up so spectacularly."

Sarah didn't flinch. She just looked at me with those steady eyes, and my anger climbed higher. Who the fuck did she think she was, waltzing in here while we had a man bleeding out on our kitchen table?

"I'm here because we're connected, Lakey," she said softly. "We always have been. And right now, you need my help more than you know."

I laughed, but it sounded hollow even to me. "Help? Lady, you couldn't help us when we were kids. What makes you think we need your help now?"

But even as I said it, a tiny part of me wondered. She had always been good to us. Kept us together. Until she didn't, and Cam went to prison.

She took a deep breath. "I wasn't just your social worker," she said, her voice low and steady. "I was part of Chimera. Which, judging by the fact that you have one of their guys on your kitchen table, you've heard of. That changes everything, don't you think? You are both in over your heads and quite frankly, could use someone on your side."

The words landed on me like a truck. My ears started ringing. My hands clenched into fists so tight my nails cut into my palms, and the sting of blood welled up in the creases. "What the fuck did you just say?"

"It's true," Sarah continued, her calm making me want to scream. "I was recruited out of college. Told I'd be helping kids. It wasn't until later that I realized what they were really doing."

I looked at Cam. He was silent, but underneath that silence, something was building. His nostrils flared, the tendons in his neck taut. If Sarah wasn't careful, she wouldn't leave here in one piece.

"They were experimenting on us," I spat out. "All those tests, all those 'counseling sessions.' It was all bullshit, wasn't it?"

Sarah nodded. "I didn't know at first," she said. "But when I figured it out, I started digging. And what I found was worse than I could have imagined. You were their pride and joy. Everything they threw at you, you handled. Both of you."

My mind was reeling. All those years, all that pain. It hadn't just been neglect and bad luck. It had been deliberate. Planned. My stomach churned and I tasted bile.