I’m here to keep them safe.
I can’t do that if my head isn’t in the game.
I nod, forcing myself to draw in a shaky breath even though the sting of failure and suffocating panic still battle to control me.
And that pisses me off more than anything about this entire situation.
It isn’t like me to spiral, to give in to those emotions that prevent me from focusing on my job, on the task at hand, which, right now, should be tracking down whoever is responsible for what happened to Jack and Allegra.
But this has been building and building with each attack on the Hawkes, each time I fail to prevent another catastrophe, and it’s only getting worse.
Get a fucking grip, girl!
Another deep breath helps me regain a bit of my composure, but Pope and Aunt Nora appear down the hallway behind Astrid, and any hope I had to let go of that rising tide of panic disappears.
I immediately tug out of Astrid’s hold and rush toward them, unable to wait for even the few seconds it would take for them to reach us to find out what they’ve learned.
Falling into step with them, I raise a brow. “What’s wrong? Are they going to be okay?”
Nora inclines her head to indicate that we should keep walking toward the room instead of stopping to discuss this in the middle of the hallway and issues me a reproachful look.
She’s already kicked out the rest of the family and banished them to the waiting room due to their incessant questions and buzzing around, but I refused and stood fast by the door despite her objections.
I failed to protect them everywhere else, but I damn well am not going to leave them unprotected here.
No one has gone in or out of that room unless they were family since Nora and Pope brought them over from the clinic after determining they needed more testing than they could handle there.
It would have been more private.
Easier to control and defend should anyone take the opportunity to attack while we were distracted.
But ultimately, Nora wanted them here. Which means that’s exactly where I will stay.
She steps into the room first, followed by Astrid, but I grab Pope’s arm and keep him back.
“Well?”
He offers me an incredulous look. “You think I’m going to give away confidential medical information to you?”
I glower at him. “This isn’t the time to try me, little brother.”
Pope stares down from almost a foot above me, fighting a grin. “Call me little brother again. I dare you.”
The humor in his threat somehow cuts through the tension about to snap me in half—likely his very intention. He knows how wound up I’ve been since I arrived, and he also understands—as a brother and a doctor—that it isn’t healthy for me to get like this.
I can’t help the twitch of a smile, despite my current distress. “I’ll see you in the ring in the morning, and we can put this to the test.”
He grins and tugs out of my hold easily, and that tilt of his lips is enough to ease a little of my worry. If they were in danger, he wouldn’t be so quick with a smile.
I follow him into the room where Coen and Isaac are already on their feet, each of them gripping the hand of the woman they love tightly.
Matching sets of panicked blue eyes land on Nora.
Isaac swallows thickly. “Mom? What is it?”
She offers a tight smile and glances at Pope, sharing a look I can’t quite decipher.
Coen shifts restlessly. “Mom, what’s wrong with them? Do you know?”
