She shifted her eyes up to his and smiled. “I wasn’t looking at your cock.” She completely had been.
“Keren, pregnancy is not making you a better liar.”
“You need to cover it up. The nurses keep looking when they come in. Including the male one. And the doctor. I think even Sorrell stared at it for about thirty seconds earlier which is just wrong on so many levels.” She had moved her hand to his thigh, squeezing the muscle there.
Scott groaned. “This is torture. I need to get out of here.”
“I need you to get out of here. But I don’t want to bethrownout of here for mounting you and riding you like a cowgirl.”
“That sounds like a very good…” He stopped speaking, his attention going to the door.
Keren yanked the covers over Scott’s now very awake erection, praying that the visitor wasn’t under the age of eighteen or, even worse, over the age of seventy and called Gran. Or one of her coven.
“That is not something a brother ever needs to see.”
It was Alex. Quite possibly the least of all the possible evils. He was highly unlikely to ever speak of this and the least likely to need therapy. Hopefully their offspring would take after him in some ways.
“Can we forget you’ve seen anything?” Scott rearranged the covers which were now slightly less tented than they had been at first.
Alex squinted and looked at Keren. “Are you sure that whatever you were thinking of doing would be a wise idea given that, you know, he’s just come out of a coma and you’re a human incubator?”
She debated donating Alex’s live body to medical science.
“Move on.” Scott sat up. He still sounded a little croaky, mainly because having a tube down your throat would do that to you. Keren had been impressed with how little he had complained, even though she knew his head was hurting like hell still and he was battered and bruised. However, he had gone to town about wanting to get out of the hospital.
“Moved on.” Alex took a seat. “I thought I’d come over with an update.”
There was silence as Keren and Scott waited for Alex to carry on speaking. He sat back in the chair, hands behind his head, watching them without saying a word.
“Alex,” Scott fractured the odd quietness. “You were here to tell us something.”
Alex tipped his head to one side and continued to regard them, then gave a slight nod. “You two look good together. Although it freaks me out slightly that I remember you both staring at each other at various parties as kids and now you do it as adults. Really trying not to think about what would’ve happened if I’d been two minutes later.”
Keren grasped Scott’s hand. “Don’t think about it and instead tell us what you can about the investigation.” There had been little he could say in the days before. She suspected he’d purposely kept things low key to maintain the focus on Scott’s recovery, minimising any information reported in the press. But now was time for them to know more.
“Okay. The guy who assaulted Lena – Lewis Dyson - was known to the police in Cumbria. We received information on him after Lena was attacked; he’d been in a secure unit as a minor and served time for a couple of stalking offences. We know from January that he’d developed an obsession with being allowed to join the church up at Felley Manor, but they’d declined his membership.” Keren saw Alex focus in on their hands and he shook his head. “You two definitely need to get back home. Anyway. He decided that if he ‘saved’ Lena and reinstated her as a member of the cult, he’d be allowed to join. That got threatening and he tried using Lois as leverage. But this you both now.”
“So what do you know now?” Scott sounded impatient. Keren didn’t think this was because of Alex’s long winded story: this was because he was pissed he couldn’t be out there helping dosomething, whatever that something would be.
Alex sighed. “Very little. They told Lois that Lena was waiting for her had told them to bring Lois to her. Lois unfortunately believed them – I think the guy in the suit was pretty convincing. So she went with them. Once she twigged that they weren’t taking her to her sister, she put up a struggle.”
“Where were they trying to take her?”
Alex’s stare was an assessment and Keren figured that there was no way in this world that this was going to have a happy and sweet explanation.
“The flat stone at the top of Bleak Low.”
“The sacrifice stone?” Scott’s words were quiet and low.
Keren let herself lie back into him as she was now sitting on the bed. She didn’t really want to contemplate what would’ve happened had Lois not had the scuffle at the edge and fell.
“The sacrifice stone.” Alex repeated. The stone was reportedly where hundreds of years ago sacrifices had been carried out. Every so often, it might be used in some sort of ritual by a pagan group, nothing bloodthirsty or untoward. It was closely monitored by the Severton Historical Association as such a site would and could attract unwanted attention. “I don’t know if he would’ve carried out his sacrifice, but let’s say Lois is going to need a fair bit of therapy.”
“What about the other guy?” Scott had put his arms around Keren now, his hands protectively on her belly.
Alex shrugged. “We’re looking for him. I have enquiries to follow up on, but there’s no clear lead on who he is. The car he used – we have that – was a rental. Paid for in cash and a false driving licence was given. One more thing, we can link Lewis to the arson attack on Lena’s aunt. It seems he was obsessed with the family and blamed them for not being accepted into the cult.”
“Church,” Keren corrected. “Cult makes it sound demonic or terribly evil or something.”
