Page 41 of Little Sunshine

Her words and body trembled when she whispered, “He happened. They happened.”

They.

More than one person did this to her.

Rage twisted in me, mixing with the poison rot until I could hardly see straight.

I could practically smell it. Taste it. Feel the lives I would snuff out.

But none of that mattered. Not right then.

Murder would come later—slow and painful and torturous.

“Who’s they?” I asked once I locked it all down tight enough to keep my voice gentle. Mila didn’t need me shouting and scaring her worse than she was.

The flinching.

All that fucking flinching.

She lifted her shoulder in a small shrug before burrowing into me. Within seconds, her breathing had evened out.

Pierce stood and started for the door. “Let’s get her to the hospital.”

I’ll be damned.

Literally, once Mila wakes up and turns those tiny fists of fury my way.

Chapter 6

Keep Your Cool

ASH

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Mila swallowed up by the hospital bed—vulnerable and pale with tubes sticking out of her bruised arms.

And every damn time, my murderous rage was stoked.

I paced the private room, waiting for her to return from some scans. My attempt to follow had been shot down by harried nurses who’d bluntly told me I would be in the way.

It made me fucking antsy to have her out of my sight, but the sooner it was done, the better. They’d already run X-rays, blood work, more blood work, and had her hooked to an IV.

She’d slept through it all.

The sedative Dr. Pierce had slipped her under the guise of pain meds wasn’t to blame. He’d only given a low dose—enough to relax her and chip away at some of the pain.

My cell buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out to see it was one of the few people I wanted to talk to right then. “What’d you find?”

Cole was unfazed by the lack of unnecessary pleasantries. He clacked away at a keyboard, the noise carrying like he was on speakerphone.

The fact he’s still at it and unwilling to stop long enough to make this call isn’t a good sign.

My suspicion was confirmed when he bit out, “I was able to trace her down the street on the SafeCams, but the farther I got, the fewer cameras there are until I lost her altogether.”

Damn.

SafeCams were an extensive system of security cameras that were supposed to prevent crime.

They were also supposed to be confidential.

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