“I heard them call a ‘code blue’ just before I left,” Evan said over his shoulder as he walked his milk glass back to the kitchen and slipped it into the dishwasher so he could hide his face. He leaned over the counter, affording himself a moment to take some slow deep breaths, but however he tried, he felt no relief from the heaviness in his chest. Maze limped up to him and sat at his feet. Evan slipped quietly to sit on the floor beneath the sink and let Maze drape himself across his lap. Absently, he rubbed the coydog’s ears and stared off at nothing.
They’d escaped the United States by using Greg Burns’ contacts. All of them were given new identities and passports then directed to a lock box in a bank where Burns had already stashed thousands in euro for them. His retirement money, they later learned, funded their escape. The Winter clan had been living under the radar in Cairo, Egypt since that night back in June when Meg left for a run and never came back—the night that changed Evan forever.
“Would you please help me to bed?” Margo called from the living room.
Abruptly, Evan scooted Maze off his lap, stood and hurried back to his mom.
“Sure. What about Danny?”
“He can lay on the bed with me,” she leaned down and kissed the top of his head, breathing the little boy scent.
Evan nodded, then leaned down to unlock the wheels on his mother’s chair and started pushing her down the hall to the room she and Theo shared in the modest house. Once beside her bed, Evan easily lifted Danny off his mother and laid him carefully on the bed.
“Do you need to use the restroom first, Mom?” Evan knew it was important for her to clear her bladder on a schedule.
“I guess I should,” Margo sighed.
“Do you want my help?” Evan asked nonchalantly. Sloan and Evan had taken turns helping Margo with her physical tasks during the past three months as Theo wasn’t strong enough to lift her, but the loss of Meg had put an enormous strain on Evan’s relationship with everyone. No one had outright said it, but Evan knew he was blamed for her loss.
“No, thanks, Evan. I’ve got it.”
Though still wheelchair-bound, Margo was making slow but steady progress in regaining sensation and even some movement in her legs. Cole had made it his job to work on her physical therapy daily. He’d buried himself in studying the best techniques, stretches and exercises. When he wasn’t helping Margo, Cole was taking martial arts classes as his way of dealing with his heartache over Meg. Keeping busy helped him hit the bed at night exhausted, making it less likely that he’d have nightmares. He avoided Evan as much as possible. They all did.
Five minutes later, Evan heard his mother washing her hands, so he tapped on the bathroom door.”
“You good?”
“Yes, Son.” Margo opened the door slowly, trying to maneuver her chair out of the path of the swinging door so she could make it through.
“Here, let me help,” Evan offered, feeling frustration for her at all she still struggled to do in a world made for the able-bodied. Margo’s eyes looked bloodshot and her nose pink.
“Are you okay, Mom? Can I lift you to bed, Mom?”
“That would be great. I’m feeling pretty tired.”
With the most skilled and gentle of maneuvers, Evan reached under his mother and lifted her easily in his arms. He laid her carefully on the bed beside his little brother, fixed her blankets just right and closed the drapes to dim the light in the room.
He repositioned her wheelchair so she could transfer easily from the bed when she awoke, and thinking she had likely drifted off while he did so, he was walking on stealth feet toward the door when he heard her speak.
“Evan?”
“Yeah, Mom?”
“Why won’t you talk about it?”
“Talk about what?”
“Evan.”
“Mom, I can’t—there’s nothing more to say about her.”
“Then let’s talk about you. You’re a scientist—surely you have wondered about your evolution.”
Evan shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans, but didn’t say anything. He wanted to crawl into a corner and disappear at the pain he heard in his mother’s voice.
“You were burned so badly. Could that have prevented your gift from evolving?”
“It’s possible,” he answered vaguely and shrugged.
“You haven’t found any changes in your abilities, Evan?” Margo asked outright.
“Nothing to speak of,” he answered imprecisely.
“Evan,” Margo’s sharp, dark eyes saw right through her son’s evasiveness. “Why wouldn’t you tell me? Why are you so distant? What are you hiding from me? And why are you hiding? This just isn’t like you, Evan. I don’t understand.” Margo kept her voice low so as not to wake Danny, but it was clear she was angry.