Reborn(61)
“We got a problem,” I said.
“What’s that?”
“I think Elizabeth’s mother is working with Riley.”
“Really?”
“She was at the house when I got there, right when the Branch agents swept in.” I winced, and held my breath for a beat as a new twinge of pain subsided. “And when I saw a picture of her at Elizabeth’s house earlier today, I thought she looked familiar, but the memory was one that just appeared, you know? Not a flashback, just a memory that resurfaced, like it’d never been gone. I knew I’d seen her before, I just couldn’t place where until now.”
“So where did you see her?”
“At the lab beneath the barn, which makes sense, because she was kidnapped with Elizabeth, except I don’t think she was a prisoner.”
“Well, we can sort all this out after I clean you up.”
We hobbled out of the church together. Trev’s car was waiting nearby. “Looks like you’ll be getting blood all over your pretty Jag.”
“I brought plastic.”
“You what?”
“Anna told me you were injured, so I brought plastic.”
“I can’t believe you right now.”
“I can’t believe you’re surprised.”
The plastic crinkled as I sat down. It stuck to my arms, covered in sweat and blood. I needed a shower. And a shot of tequila.
“Got any booze at your place?”
Trev slid in behind the wheel and started up the car. “What do you think?”
I grumbled as he took off.
“We’re a half hour out,” Anna said through the line. “You’re okay?”
“For now,” I said. “Bring booze.”
She relayed the message to Sam, who grunted in the background.
“Hey,” I said. “I’m going to need it. I’m banged up, remember? We can use it to numb the pain and clean the wound.”
“I can buy rubbing alcohol for that,” Anna said. “I think there’s some in the first-aid kit already.”
“Bring me booze,” I said again, and she finally relented.
I lay back on the bed in Trev’s hotel room and slammed my eyes shut. The room was spinning. And not because I was drunk this time.
“We have to go after them,” I said to Trev as he handed me a glass of water.
“I know.”
“They have Elizabeth.”
“I know.”
How had I lost her? She’d been so close. And then she was just gone.
Probably that had been their plan all along. Send in a bunch of Branch agents to distract me so they could nab Elizabeth without a problem.
Of course, I couldn’t compete with her mother. Elizabeth would probably have followed her anyway.
I took a gulp of water and set the cup down.
Trev stood at the end of the bed staring at me. “We should probably check out your wounds.”
“Are you trying to get me naked?”
He sighed. “You’re a lot more like Cas than you care to admit.”
I snorted. “Bullshit.”
“You’ve got the sarcasm down pat.”
I tugged off my shirt and tossed it aside. Trev had to help me with my jeans, which were almost glued to the wound in my leg, and I had to bite back a string of curse words while he doused the area with water to loosen some of the old blood. Then he quickly and none too gently ripped the material away.
“Fuck!”
“Sorry.”
The jeans met the shirt on the floor.
Trev pulled on a pair of black-framed glasses.
“Since when do you wear glasses?”
He shrugged. “About a month, I guess. It’s been getting worse lately. I think I might have worn glasses before the Branch, but the alterations, and all the shit they had us on, changed my sight for the better. Now that I’m not receiving treatments…” He gestured to the glasses. “Sight’s going again.”
He crouched beside the bed to examine my leg. “Didn’t go straight through, so that’s good. Seems to be a superficial wound.”
He stood up and came to the head of the bed to check out the wound in my shoulder.
“Knife wound,” I explained. “But just a slice.”
“Deep, though,” Trev said. “It’ll need stitches.” There was a second slice on my abdomen, on the lower right side. “That one, too, probably.”
“You got any pain meds?” I asked.
“Ibuprofen.”
“That’ll work.”
A half hour later, as promised, Anna, Sam, and Cas showed up. Cas whistled when he saw me lying in bed with hardly any clothes on. I told him to screw off.
Anna came straight over and wrapped her arms around me. I groaned from the pain, and she pulled back. “Sorry,” she said. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”