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“Is this anif I tell you I’ll have to kill youkind of things?”
“I think you know the answer to that.”
Strolling with him around the end of the aisle, she looked over a display of candy bars. “I get it. There are things about my past I don’t discuss either.”
The wrappers were vintage, but the candy had not fared as well as the Twinkies. They moved down the next aisle that contained plumbing and other random hardware on one side and gardening tools on the other. She fingered a ball-peen hammer, while he went for another pickax. It was lighter than the one he’d used in the mine but could come in handy. “It’s not that I don’t want to tell you about my life back then, I just…”
She waved a hand in the air. “It’s okay. I’ve never told Savanna about some of the things I had to do during Project 24. I doubt Trace has told her all of it, either.” She left the hammer where it was, drumming her fingers on the M4 and scanning the rest of the shelves. “She’s seen and investigated a lot of horrible things for her show. It’s not like she wears blinders, but there’s a part of me that only sees her as my little sister. Someone I need to protect.”
Boy, did he get that. “You’re a good person, Parker.”
She snorted. “I’m not sure everyone would agree, but I appreciate the sentiment. Savanna brings out the best in me, and I’m lucky to have her, even if she sometimes drives me crazy.”
He stroked a finger down her arm. Keeping her mind off Charmaine was important. “I remember when Mom and Dad brought Sarah home from the hospital. Mom propped me up in bed with her and let me hold and feed her. I looked into her eyes and everything changed. I’ll never forget that moment.”
“Savanna spit up on me the first time I held her.” She chuckled. “Brat.”
“Little sisters, right?”
Her smile melted him. “She looked so fragile, but that girl was a menace from the start.”
Sarah had been, too. The memories flooded his mind and a warm sensation swirled through his heart.
Parker turned to face him. “Will you visit her?”
He stuttered, caught off guard. “Um, maybe. She doesn’t really want to see me.”
“Did she say that?”
I’ll leave a light on for you. “Not in so many words, but it’s better if I leave her be. She’s happy with her family. She doesn’t need me in her life, and I’ll never be right up here.” He tapped his temple. “I’m not the same boy who held her and gave her a bottle.”
“You’re her big brother. You’re bound by blood. Of course, she needs you.”
The pain hit his heart and solar plexus like the stab of an ice pick. He hadn’t shared the truth about his adoption with anyone. Right now, at that moment in a ghost town, he thought about taking the secret to his grave. What would that prove? If there was one person in the world who wouldn’t judge him about his mother’s rejection, she was standing right in front of him.
Baring his soul was hell, but what if he died tonight? What if they didn’t make it out of here and he never told her the one truth that had defined his life? Taking that secret to the grave wasn’t noble or heroic.
In his mind, he heard Vivi.It’s stupid. You have to let yourself be vulnerable to at least one person in this lifetime. The secret may be huge to you, but it’s not to everyone else, so get over yourself.
“I…” He swallowed the lump in his throat.“She’s not my biological sister.”
Parker rubbed the hat of a plastic gnome. “Oh? Was she adopted?”
His gaze dropped to the top of the boots he’d stolen. He kicked a toe into the edge of the lowest shelf. The big reveal. Could he do it? Could he, as Vivi pointed out, get over himself?
“No,” he said around the lump in his throat. “I was.”
TWENTY-TWO
Parker’s mouth flew open. “I had no idea.” Which sounded feeble for such a deeply emotional subject. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Never told anyone but Beatrice. She already knew.”
“No surprise there. She knows everything, doesn’t she? So many secrets.” Knowing her scrutiny might be too much for him, she shook her head and gave him a smile before fingering a combination multi-tool knife. If she made a big deal out of this, he’d shut her out. If she played it cool, maybe he’d open up and share more. “I can’t imagine keeping it all straight.”
He stood next to her, helping himself to the knife and a few other gadgets, filling his pockets and hers. “She compartmentalizes like the rest of us.”
Searching for a way to ask about the adoption and what it meant to him, she ambled down the aisle and returned to the counter, propping the stick against it. Coming at the subject head-on was typically her way. In this situation, it wasn’t the best way, however. “You did great back there, with the bear and Romalov. I owe you.”
