Other than allowing her to undergo some tests where he couldn’t be in the room for safety reasons, Danny hadn’t left his mother’s side. Theo watched in awe as Danny carefully climbed onto his mother’s hospital bed and lay down beside her, carefully placing one, very small hand on her back. It had been a terribly long night. Theo found himself dozing off in the uncomfortable pleather chair when he could have sworn he heard singing. The melody was beautiful and timeless. Theo thought he recognized it as a song he heard when he was in the hospital watching over his first wife, Jenna. But he was too tired to open his eyes and think carefully about what he was hearing. Besides, the melody was hypnotic, almost ethereal.
Danny lay wide awake beside the woman he chose as his mother and continued to sing softly to her. His little, warm hand stayed firmly planted on her broken spine.
A nurse came in to check the patient’s vitals only to find her sleeping peacefully, on her side, hugging a sleeping little boy closely.
Chapter 13 What If’s
“It’s going directly to voicemail now.”
“Try calling Theo,” Alik suggested.
“I already did. Theo, Mr. Burns—heck, I can’t get a hold of anyone!” Evan ran his hand through his hair anxiously.
Alik was worried; they all were.
“Maybe your Mom forgot to charge her phone,” Sloan offered lamely.
“Maybe, but what are the odds Theo and Greg let their phones die, too?”
“When are we going to discuss the fact that something bad may have happened?” Cole’s voice was muffled behind his thick arm that he’d draped over his eyes to block the early-morning light spilling into the SUV.
“Not until I see for myself,” Alik snapped.
“I have to agree. There’s no use in getting all worked up when it could be as simple as a lost phone charger and two exhausted parents who’ve been looking after a rowdy three-year-old boy.” Evan rubbed the back of his stiff neck thoughtfully.
“Do you honestly think that?” Cole looked incredulously at the brothers.
Everyone was exhausted, but too keyed up to get some proper rest. They’d been driving all night, and though they took turns at the wheel, they were running on emotional and physical fumes. Tempers were starting to flare.
“What are we going to do if the worst-case scenario has happened?” Farrow asked softly.
“Not you too, Farrow,” Alik moaned.
“We need a plan,” proposed Sloan.
“A plan for the worst-case scenario? Are you kidding me?” Cole bellowed. “Haven’t we lived through enough crap to have learned we are always going to be on the receiving end of Williams’ and Arkdone’s darkest plans? All we do is react! How does someone plan to be kidnapped and injected with nanoweapons? Or plan against having their DNA stolen and held at ransom? How can we brace ourselves for monsters that keep coming up with scarier and scarier shit?” Cole’s face was red with exhaustion and frustration.
“I hate to agree with the wheels-off logic behind Cole’s rant, but he has a point.” Creed’s smooth baritone voice was calm. He had just come off his shift at driving, so he was back in his favorite spot: Sitting in the back seat watching over Meg and Maze. As a soldier, he was trained to work under extreme conditions. Sleep deprivation was just part of his job. He and Farrow were the most awake and level-headed of all of them, but there was no way Creed was going to point that out to the others. He just made sure he and Farrow took longer turns at the wheel.
The two survivors of the German Facility would exchange knowing glances but kept their thoughts mostly to themselves. Farrow still felt as if she were hanging on to Alik’s coattails to be a part of the family, anyway. And now that Meg couldn’t even remember him, Creed wanted to keep the peace as much as possible with the rest of the Winter Clan for fear they would find his company unnecessary. But in the end, Creed’s sense of right and wrong won over his determination to bite his tongue and let the Winters lead the way.
“What are you saying?” Alik asked. He glanced at Creed with genuine concern in his sky-blue eyes.
Farrow was turned around in her seat, opening her eyes wide in warning to tread carefully.
“Look, I know we’re all exhausted,” he began, “but before we go pulling up to Greg Burns’ house and opening the front door yelling for your parents, it would be a good idea to know who would be yelling back. For all we know, Arkdone has them bound and gagged in the garage with a trip pin ready to go off the moment we step across the threshold.”
The SUV may have been roaring on the outside as it barreled down the highway going seventy-five miles per hour, but inside the SUV, Creed’s hypothetical scenario had created a vacuum of silence.
“That’s some messed up scenario, Creed,” Cole muttered.
“What did you call it? ‘Scarier and scarier shit’?” Creed nodded. “I won’t put anything past those two. And I won’t risk Meg’s life. She barely survived this last time.” He turned to look down at the sleeping girl when his eyes met hers.
“I survived just fine,” she spat, narrowing her eyes at Creed. “Do not treat me like a piece of porcelain.” She sat up, carefully climbed away from Maze and slipped gracefully into the back seat beside Creed.
“Listen, I may not remember what has happened to all of us, but I definitely know what I feel and in case I never told you this before, I feel everything! I can feel each of your emotions as if they were mine and other than it being a lot distracting, I…Evan, answer the phone.”
“What?”
“The phone, it’s about to ring.”