Rush (Roam Series, Book Four) (7 page)

Such red hair.
Grinning, I turned back to the windshield to give them privacy.
As crazy as the circumstances may be, she
is
my sister.

I have always wanted a sister.

The Christmas music on the radio, so familiar even in 1955, comforted us- a little. Logan reached for my hand, and I let him take it.

The confusion and shock of the next ten minutes were burned into my memory forever. I stood by the Pilot, watching Roam turn back into hers
elf and bleed all over the snow, dropping to her knees. West went back and forth through the fountain, shouting at Roam, but she was curled over, unable to speak.

Eva
was gone.

Somehow Logan
carried her into his Camry, and I watched as West turned to darkness.

He fired orders at Logan, instructing him to take Roam to the hospital and call her father. Log
an was pulling onto the highway before West could turn back to me.

I
ran to the passenger seat of West’s Pilot; he was already shifting the SUV into gear as I closed the door. “What… what happened to Eva?”

“
Don’t talk.
”

I closed my mouth, stunned. He peeled onto East Ninth Street, and I gripped the handle near the window. Once on the freeway, I jumped as he slammed his hands once, twice, on the steering wheel, a tortured growl forcing me to shrink back against the door.

How well do I really know him? What will he do?

He
reached in the tray beneath the radio and retrieved a phone that I assumed was Roam’s. He dialed some numbers on the phone screen, and I heard him speaking to someone about building a cell in his basement.
Materials, supplies, within twenty-four hours, price doesn’t matter.

Who in the hell
was
he?

I held the door, white-knuckled, silent during the entire thirty minute drive. We were almost to his house when
the phone rang.

“How is she?” He barked.

I watched his eyes narrow and his forehead crease, anguish washing over his expression. He ended the call without another word, tossing the phone to the tray near the console.

“Is she okay?” My thin, tentative words
hung in the air.

“She had a miscarriage.”

The truck slowed; his breathing labored.

His suffering was too much for me to
watch. I pinched the bridge of my nose, the burning tears threatening.

“I’ll secure him in the basement, and then we’ll go
… to the hospital…”

I nod
ded as he pulled into his driveway. When he turned off the ignition, he remained unmoving, staring out the window into the darkness.

I thought back to the day that my mother disappeared
, and the strangers surrounding me. Nothing made sense, and the heartache was only slightly less bearable than the fear of what was to come.

Reaching, I hesitantly touched his shoulder.

I expected him to stiffen…

I
nstead, he fell.

“
I’m so sorry.
”

My whispered words drew his attention. He turned
toward me, and his watery, blue gaze met mine.

“I deserve this pain. Roam doesn’t.”

“You don’t deserve pain, West.”

“You have no idea what I’ve done… over all the years of this
fucking
life.”

His hurting words broke my heart
. I struggled with my voice, finally raising my eyes to his.

“
I can’t imagine going through an entire life and not making
any
mistakes… whether in one year, or in… hundreds... of years.”

He searched
my face with his grief-stricken gaze. After a moment, he reached for my hand on his shoulder, squeezing it tightly in his fingers.

“Thank you for that.”

I decided, at that moment, that I might be able to accept him as my father… someday.

An hour later, Troy was chained in his basement, and a crew of workmen arrived at the door. West kept glancing at his watch and pacing. “I can’t go until visiting hours
begin in the morning. I’ll make it look like I stopped on my way to the school.”

“She’ll understand. Logan is staying right with her,” I covered my stomach as it growled, shifting with embarrassment.

He left the path between the door and the table to move into the kitchen. “You’re hungry, and you need sleep, Vi. Sit down.”

“I’ll just have a bowl of cereal or something and lay on the couch.”

He reached for a high cabinet, pulling a cream colored ceramic bowl from the shelf. “I have three extra bedrooms upstairs, besides my own. You’ll sleep in a bed.” He reached for another cabinet, and I watched his hand skip over multiple boxes of cereal. “Do you need to call anyone? Your foster parents?”

I thought of my foster mother,
Jen. The Corrigan house burst at the seams with their own five children, three foster children (including myself), two cocker spaniels, four cats, and two gerbils. I was lucky enough to have my own room… even though it was
actually
the laundry room. Either way, Jen and Bill went out of their way to make me feel welcome in their home.

“No, I’m
almost eighteen. She knew I was going to visit friends. She doesn’t expect me to call.”

“How did you get here? To Ohio? Logan said you were in Virginia.”

“I got a ride.”

He froze with the milk carton in his hand. “Are you telling me that you hitchhiked? In 2012?”

I ignored him, eagerly reaching for the bowl of
Cheerios
.

“Listen to me.” He scraped the chair out from beneath the table and lowered to the
seat. “Even though you are immortal, you are not immune to pain, Violet.”

“I remember,” I held up one wrist pointedly, and then filled my mouth with cereal. He looked at his watch again, and I jumped at a loud whirring from down in the basement. “It must take a lot of money to pull the strings that you do.”

“People have always done… immoral, illegal, and sometimes irrational things for money. I’m no exception.”

I lowered my spoon to the bowl.
After eating in silence for a while, I lifted my eyes back to his. “Can you answer one question for me, before I go try to sleep?”

“I’ll try,” he promised, sitting back in the chair and stretching his legs out.

“Did you ever come find me? Just… to see me, even from a distance?” I focused on the cuff of his sleeve. “I used to pretend you were watching me. That if things got too… terrible,” I swallowed, “that you’d save me.”

He
leaned forward, pausing between breaths. Finally, he met my eyes.

“No, Violet. I won’t lie to you. The last time I saw you, you were four months old.”

I blinked rapidly at the instant sting in my eyes, nodding. He stood, and I pulled myself to my feet. “Thanks for being honest.”

“
I didn’t want to lead Troy right to you.”

“I understand.”
Whatever.
A thought occurred to me, and I narrowed my eyes. “Are there... more like me? Do I have brothers and sisters who are… immortal?”

He had the courtesy to
look down. “Maybe.”

Great. My father, the immortal man-whore.
“So you just… spent
centuries
… fathering a bunch of twenty-seven year old, undying…
bastards
?

“Violet.” He cringed. “I
don’t know.”

“They could be out there, right now, wandering through time, never aging, not knowing
why
?”

He sighed.
“I already answered you.
Maybe
. I have no way of knowing, or finding them, if I did.”

The tortured ocean in his eyes satisfied me- a little.

With respect to the kindness he showed me now, I dropped the subject.
At least he married my mother.
“I need to look for a place to stay.”

“
This is just as much your home as it is mine. I can send for your things in Virgina, if you’ll stay.”

I traced the table’s edge. “Let me think, okay?”

He nodded slowly, gesturing to the stairs. “Any room is fine. Just get some rest.”

I made it up three
steps before stopping and turning back to him. “I’ll go with you to the hospital, West. Just wake me up.”

“Okay.”

He tucked his hands into his pockets, staring out the darkened window.

Logan

“She’s on suicide watch.”

I watched his face carefully, but needed no subtle clues. He was ready to push past me into the hospital lobby and go to her.

“West, you can’t,” Violet caught his wrist, and he jerked his hand away heatedly.

“The police finished questioning us both about the ‘mugging.’ We both just described Troy.” I shrugged. “Morgan is in there. Her dad is in there. I already told her dad I’m spending the night,” I stretched my arms behind my head, trying to open the muscles in my back. I never wanted to see the blue plastic-upholstered hospital chair in her room for as long as I lived.

“
Did she try to kill herself?” He demanded, clenching his fists at his sides.

“No, she’s just crying all the time, and she pulled her IV out of her
arm. They took that to mean she’s cool with hurting herself.”

“
Do you think she will?”

I threw him an annoyed glare. “No. It’s Roam.”

He nodded, rounding the corner outside the hospital. Handing Violet the keys to his car, he gestured to me. “Can I talk to Logan alone for a minute?”

Violet lifted her eyes to me. The deep, V-neck of her red sweater disappeared behind her silver jacket, and her jeans traveled
with her curves. Every time she looked at me, I wondered if she was replaying the way that I choked her in that basement. Taking a tentative step toward her, I nodded toward the car. “Hey, can we do something tomorrow? Before you leave?”

“Sure,” she shrugged, jostling the keys and looking back at her father. “I’ll be in the car. Just call me when you want to get together tomorrow, Logan.”

“I will,” I promised, unable to peel my eyes off of her as she crossed the parking lot.

“Hey.” West’s commanding voice snapped me out of the stupor that her
body had sent me into. “Violet’s going back to finish school. Don’t change her mind.”

I scowled. “Don’t tell me what to do.”

He tucked his hands into his pockets, moving more fully around the corner in front of the hospital. The wind picked up, but was unseasonably warm for December. His face fell, and he cleared his throat twice. I waited impatiently, crossing my arms over my chest.

“
Can you tell me… what happened?”

“What do you mean?”

“With Roam. The baby.”

I realized that while I had been listening to every single detail of Roam’s medical report, he had no idea what was happening behind the closed door of the hospital room. I focused on a yellow leaf dragging along the sidewalk. “She
had some kind of operation- a D and C.”

“
Okay
.” His short, emotional response drew my attention. His face turned a shade of white I’d never seen on him.

Roam and I had known each other all of our lives, and I vividly remembered the day she got her period in the May’s pool. She was only eleven and completely mortified, and Ally (who apparently hadn’t gotten hers yet) had yelled at her to hurry up and get out of the
water. I helped her to the edge, promising her that it wasn’t that gross (even though it was
really
gross, all cloudy in the water) and finding Morgan.

Uncomfortably, I thought back to the nurse’s checks.
“She’s not bleeding a lot,” I said softly, fighting my natural compassion. “But one minute she’s trying to smile, and the next she’s bawling her eyes out. Her throat is bruised, but getting better.” I kicked at the leaf, waiting.

“
Morgan is being supportive?”

“If it wasn’t for Jason, Morgan wouldn’t leave her side. Jason convinced her that if I’m there or her dad is there, she’s fine.”

“Has she asked for me?”

Oh.
Weak. Interesting.
“She cries for you. In her sleep. I know Morgan has heard her- but I don’t know what she thinks.”

He
raised his eyes to the parking lot, and I shifted uncomfortably to see the hint of moisture in his blank stare. “Please tell her that I love her.”

I nodded, looking up at the windows of the hospital. “I do. I tell her that you wish you could be in there with her.”