«He won’t. The last thing we need right now is for him to flip his shit. Julio, close the door.»
He did, his gaze fixed on Sera’s battered face. «What the hell…?»
Intense embarrassment filled the room, but Sera lifted her chin a little, almost a challenge, and pointedly ignored the question. «Kat didn’t tell me what happened to my dad. Just said there was an explosion at the clinic.»
Julio answered it out of what seemed like habit. «That’s all we know right now. It was definitely some sort of incendiary device. There’ll be an investigation.»
«Maybe not such a formal one,» Carmen interjected.
«No.» He shook himself. «No, maybe not. But we’ll find out what happened.»
Some barely visible tension in Sera seemed to fade away. The defensive tilt of her chin lowered. The tight set of her shoulders relaxed a fraction. She tilted her head as she studied Julio, quiet curiosity in her eyes. «I’m a coyote.»
He stared back. «I’m aware of that.»
A tiny furrow appeared between her eyebrows. «Most wolves aren’t very friendly to me.»
«I’m not most wolves, sweetheart.» He glanced at Carmen. «Alec’s about to head out to pick up some stuff. He wants to know if you need a change of clothes, anything.»
He could head to her place and kill two birds with one stone. «Yeah, and Lily needs a few things too. Tell him I’ll be there in a second.»
«Sure.» With one last look at Sera, he left.
«My brother,» Carmen explained.
«Oh.» Sera smiled a little. «Sucks for you. I’m pretty glad my parents didn’t see fit to saddle me with an alpha bastard brother.»
«Yeah? I guess I’ve got two now.» Cryptic words, but explaining would take too much energy. «If you want to wait a while, I can find someone to fix up these bruises.» Jackson, probably, though Carmen hoped he could keep it quiet, or she’d have to test just how well she could reach Alec through a haze of rage.
Sera’s smile faded. «You need to go. I’ll be okay. Kat’s mad at me, but she’ll get over it. She can help me out.»
«She’s not mad at you. She’s scared for you. Terrified.»
«She’s mad, and she should be. She hated Josh.» Sera laughed, a tired, broken little sound. «Guess she always knew.»
She didn’t need to be alone. She needed support, comfort — and Carmen didn’t even have time to provide it, not with everything else going on. «I’m going to get my other brother. He can come in and hang out with you.»
«It’s okay.» Sera reached out and folded her slender fingers around Carmen’s. «I’m stronger than I look. I just want someone to fix my face so I can see my dad. If you tell me where to go or who to talk to… That spell caster Kat used to work for. Is he here?»
«Jackson. I’ll find him right now.»
«Thank you.» Sera squeezed her hand before releasing it. «I think Kat’s hovering outside the door. She’s not very sneaky.»
Carmen could feel her. «You’re right, she’s not.» She passed her hand over Sera’s head and took a deep breath. «Hang in there.»
Then she turned to go, because there was so much left to do, and the last thing she could afford was to think too closely about Sera’s pain. She had to stay strong and hold things together, at least until Franklin was well.
That was the best thing she could do for Sera anyway.
Chapter Nineteen
Franklin looked like hell, and Alec had never seen him happier.
The surgery had gone on for five nightmarish hours. Alec had spent them trying to keep a mostly grown-up and thoroughly hysterical Sera from crashing into the room where spell casters, shapeshifters and doctors were systematically breaking the bones in her father’s legs. Even narcotics and Franklin’s stone-faced stoicism couldn’t keep him sedated. By the third hour, everyone in the warehouse was tensed against the next scream.
Agonizing, but fleeting. It might be weeks or months, but shapeshifter healing would repair the damage to Franklin’s body. Sera and Lily had already repaired the damage to his heart. Bandaged and pale, Lily sat on one side of his bed, his hand pressed to her cheek as she watched him in silence. Sera hovered on the other side, her quiet murmur indecipherable over the quiet beeps of machinery.
Franklin had the two people who mattered most to him, safe and sound. He had half a dozen medical professionals on hand, ready to leap if the tiniest thing went wrong. He’d be fine.
And Alec was taking Carmen home for a few hours of uninterrupted sleep on a horizontal surface if he had to drag her there by the scruff of the neck.
She pushed through the door, her face and hands scrubbed and damp. «Okay, I’m ready. Let me check on them one more time.»
Famous last words. «They’re fine, Carmen. Franklin doesn’t need anything else. And you’re not the only doctor around anymore.»
She stopped and rubbed her palms on the scrub bottoms she wore. «Right, I know. If I don’t just leave, it’ll be another hour or two. Let’s go.»
It seemed too easy, but Alec wasn’t in the mood to try his luck. One hand at the small of Carmen’s back urged her down the hallway, toward the cavernous main area.
They passed Kat and Miguel, curled up on one of the makeshift pallets and sound asleep, Kat’s tiny little computer resting on the floor under her hand. Julio sat nearby in quiet conversation with Derek and Nicole. Alec didn’t stop, not until they hit the side door and stepped out into the afternoon sun. «My truck’s a couple blocks down. Gonna have to figure out better parking around here, that’s for sure.»
«One more thing on the list.» Carmen leaned against him, letting him bolster her as they walked to his truck.
She remained silent as she climbed into the cab and buckled her safety belt. He’d already started the engine, put the truck in gear, and pulled out into the street when her hand crept across the seat and brushed his leg.
Driving with one hand was easy enough. He curled the other around her fingers, rubbing his thumb along her palm. «You did a damn good job, pulling that place together like you did. I couldn’t have managed it.»
«Most of the pieces were in place…» As the sleepy murmur died, Carmen’s eyes snapped open. «And if you ever really considered making buttons of Wesley Dade’s teeth, you should think twice.»
The transition was so jarring he blinked. «Does Wesley Dade have something to do with this?»
She smiled as her eyes drifted shut again. «It doesn’t matter. Just cut him some slack, okay?»
«Honey, you’re punch-drunk. Get some sleep. It’s a long drive back to my house.»
«Mmm. Mine is closer.»
Maybe, but only having her in his house — in his bed—would soothe the terror that had been gnawing at his gut since the first phone call about the clinic. «You care?»
«No.» She squeezed his hand. «I like your house.»
«I like you in my house.» Which she probably knew better than he did. «We’ll get there and sleep until this evening, okay?»
«Mmm,» she said again, already tumbling into sleep.
She was so tired that she slept through the long drive back to his property, and the soft sound of her rhythmic breaths eased the tension rattling inside him a little more with every minute that ticked past. They’d have two days of comparative peace, and then—
Then the bottom would fall out of the world as he knew it.
No, that was unfair. There was nothing passive about the shakedown to come. He was kicking the bottom out with both feet and trusting there’d be somewhere to land. If not, a lot of people would get hurt. Small comfort that he’d be too dead to see it.
Carmen stirred as he turned down the long gravel drive that led to his house. «You with me, honey?»
«I’m here,» she whispered, her voice low and thick. «I’ll always be here.»