“I will.” I pivoted on my heel and jogged toward the nurse. “You have news?”
“I’ll let Burdock?—”
A growl poured over my lips, and I slapped a hand across my mouth. “Sorry about that.”
“Oh, no. I understand.” She cleared her throat. “I, um. Well. She’s stable.”
“I heard you growling from over here.” Jess cut around the nurse and embraced me. “I know you’re worried about Sloane, I am too, but you can’t take it out on those who are helping her.”
“I’m so glad you’re here.” I hadn’t seen her since I left her floating in ice water at GSG. “I’m trying to rein myself in, but it’s harder than I thought it would be to calm a dragon-sized temper.”
“Just wait until she fully manifests.” She released me, and we hurried after the nurse. “I got hit with all kinds of PMS jokes from the other kids after my bear got a taste of freedom. She’s moody, hangry, and can be downright mean.” She gestured for me to follow the nurse into Sloane’s room first. “We’repolaropposites.”
“That pun deserves a solid belly laugh, but I’m scared I might vomit if I try. Raincheck?”
“You got it.”
“Sloane will have to stay overnight for observation.” Burdock tugged on his ear. “The dragonsbane doesn’t seem to have harmed her beyond a stomachache, but it did cause a sedative-like reaction. We’re pumping her full of fluids to flush out the toxins, and I’ve given her something for cramps.”
“But she’s okay?”
“Yes.” He set his wide palms on my shoulders. “She’s going to be fine.”
“Thank God.” My knees turned to jelly. “What about the others?”
“I can’t prove it yet, but I suspect they were hit with an aerosol version of what Sloane ingested. I sent my nurse practitioner to tend them while I stayed with Sloane. She reported the others have milder symptoms than Sloane’s, and they’ll be discharged within the next hour.”
“Oh good.” I exhaled slowly. “I’m glad we scraped through again.”
Another memory popped into my head, seeming to confirm what I had already been thinking.
When we confronted the Nelson pride after they kidnapped the Pampered Pooches staff, they had been shocked to discover the Walshes were dragons. They had heard the rumors, of course, but Carmichael had used his charisma to convince them it was all a lie.
But it was hard to stare into the face of a titanic beast like Rían’s dragon and not become a believer. The fact Liam had joined in the fun, squishing a member of the pride under his foot, made it even harder to rationalize away what they were seeing.
Did that mean I was right about the purpose behind these poisonings? Had they been meant to suss out the number of true dragons in the clan? To what end? To prove their numbers? For what reason? To sell out the valuable ones and paint targets on the back of the dangerous ones?
The more we learned, the less the situation made sense. Mix in the bombs, and I was stumped as to how it all fit together. The first explosion served a grisly purpose in eliminating Mindy and tying up that loose end. The rest? They were all flash and bang with minor payoff.
“I’ll stay with her,” Jess offered in a small voice. “You’re going out, right?”
“I appreciate the offer, but I can’t leave her like this.”
“I—I understand.” She swallowed. “She’s your best friend, and I…” She folded in on herself. “I overstepped.”
“It’s not that,” I rushed to reassure her. “I just know I wouldn’t be able to focus on the job if I knew she was still unconscious and I didn’t wait around to make sure she came out the other side okay.”
Especially not when, more than once, she had crawled to me on her belly when our roles were reversed. I couldn’t repay that loyalty by ditching her when she needed me the most.
“Oh.” Jess nodded. “That makes sense.”
Any mission plans I had for tonight evaporated in the face of her relief.
“Liam is going home today. Rían will probably be babysitting him all night.” Not exactly true, but not exactly false either. “Do you want to hang out with me while we wait on this bum to wake up?”
“Yes.”She cleared her throat. “If you don’t mind.”
“I invited you, right? We can ask someone to drop off snacks and a tablet so we can binge a show together. I haven’t been watching much TV lately, so I have no clue what’s out there. How about you?”
