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“He was lucky to have someone there to keep him alive until the paramedics got to him, Mrs. Cutter,” the doctor was saying now. “From the blood work we put a rush on, he was drugged with a mixture of ecstasy and ketamine. There was enough in his system to have drugged three men his size. A little more and he would have died, without a doubt.”
“I don’t understand how he got the drugs,” Natalie told him. “He isn’t like that. He’s a hard worker and doesn’t mess with drugs. He’s a good boy.”
“I don’t doubt that, Mrs. Cutter. From his physical condition I can tell he isn’t a regular drug user.” His head inclined toward Jenna. “Perhaps you should ask this one about it, though. From how jittery she is at the moment, I can almost guarantee you she knows something about the drugs that nearly killed your stepson.”
Wild eyes went even more wild if that were possible as Natalie turned on her sister. “What is he talking about, Jenna?” she seethed. “Do you know anything about this?”
Jenna paused in her pacing and glanced back at the exam door before reluctantly meeting her sister’s eyes. “I wasn’t doing an internship in Phoenix, Nat. I was in a rehab there. I was getting clean.”
Natalie took a menacing step toward her. “Did you do that to Harris?” She moved so quickly the doctor had no time to react. In the blink of an eye, Natalie pushed Jenna back against the wall beside the exam room door and got in Jenna’s face. “Did you?” she screamed.
Tears flowed down Jenna’s pale face. “It wasn’t me, Nat. I would never do that to him. Never. It…it must have been Tess…” A sob cut her off.
“Tessa? Your girlfriend?” Natalie put her hand to her sister’s throat and squeezed. “That bitch did this to my son?”
“I think so,” Jenna whispered brokenly.
The hand at her throat dropped and Natalie took a step back. She closed her eyes, whispered something under her breath and seemed to calm down a little. But when she opened her blue-gray eyes again there was pure hatred in the depths. Her hand lifted and in the next second the corridor echoed with the slap she’d just put across Jenna’s face.
Jenna’s cheek welted instantly, her tears flowing silently as Natalie turned away from her. “Can I see him?” she practically pleaded with the doctor. “Please. I need to see my son.”
The doctor turned his pitiless eyes from Jenna back to Natalie and they softened. “Of course, Mrs. Cutter. But only for a few minutes. The boy needs to rest.”
“I-I understand,” she assured him, then finally caught sight of me and Jace standing a few feet away. ?
?Jace,”—she moved forward and wrapped her arms around him tight—“thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you for helping him.”
I watched helplessly as Jace’s eyes filled with tears again, but he blinked them back. “I’m just glad he’s alive, Nat.”
“Me, too,” she whispered. “Me, too.”
Jace went with Natalie to check on Harris while a nurse appeared and then showed me and Jenna to the waiting room. Jenna moved to stand across the room, putting herself as far away from human contact as possible. I watched her for a few minutes, worried about her. Her cheek was still blood red from where her sister had slapped her and she was alternating between crying and cursing under her breath.
Jenna had worked hard to get clean, so I hoped that this didn’t set her back.
Knowing I couldn’t do anything for the older girl, I pulled out my phone. Someone needed to tell Lucy, and since no one else had mentioned her, I needed to call her. The phone rang and rang, and I was just about to hang up and try again when Lucy’s voice filled my ear.
“Hey, Kin.” Her voice sounded odd. Not sleepy like I had expected, but choked as if she had been crying or was going to.
Did she already know?
“Lu, did someone tell you about Harris?”
There was a long pause on her end before she blew out a harsh breath and released a humorless laugh. “In a way,” she assured me.
“I’m sorry,” I rushed to tell her. “Look, can you get Marcus to drive you over here? I don’t think the doctors will let you in, but it’s worth a try.”
Another pause. “Doctors?”
“Of course, doctors. What did you expect in a hospital, Lucy?” Maybe she was half asleep after all if she was so slow about this shit.
“What fucking hospital?” she cried.
I blinked. “You said someone told you what was going on already, Lucy.”
“Not that he was at a godsdamn hospital, Kin. Why is he at a fucking hospital?” There was a voice in the background and Lucy’s voice sounded like it was coming from a barrel as she spoke to them. “Harris is in the hospital, Aunt Emmie.”
Emmie? Why was she with Emmie. I was so confused.
