Page 21 of Families and Other Enemies

Kellen didn’t spare the words. “Your mother’s a liar who’s manipulating you for her own good.”

“I’m not stupid.” Sophia was enraged. “I’ve heard about foster homes. Remember a couple of years ago here in Virtue Falls when that couple had a kid in high school football and a foster child they kept in a cage?”

Bridget nodded at the unknowing Kellen. “Yes, it’s true.” Bridget handed Sophia tissues. “But I’ve been a foster parent.”

Uh-oh, Kellen thought.

Sophia sat forward with a gasp. “Would you take us? All of us? I’d keep them in line, even the little ones.”

“No, dear. I’m sorry.” Bridget was very gentle, but very firm. “I don’t do it often. I’m single. I don’t have any kids of my own, and there’s a reason for that. This job takes all my attention. I’m here in the day and the evenings—” she gestured at the clock that showed 8:10 p.m. “—and I think foster kids, especially, need extra care.”

“We wouldn’t be any trouble!” Sophia’s face glowed with hope.

“I was just trying to explain,” Bridget said, “all foster parents aren’t bad.”

Sophia sat back with a thump.

Bridget continued. “When you get in foster care, you’ll get a job. You’ll go to school. Your brothers and sister will go to school. It will be better. I promise.”

“We won’t be together. No one will take four kids. My mom told me that, too. She might be a liar, but she’s right about that, isn’t she?”

Bridget hesitated.

Abruptly, Sophia stood up. “I gotta go to the bathroom.” She left the room almost at a run.

Kellen and Bridget exchanged glances.

“She’s going to bolt,” Bridget said.

Exactly what Kellen thought. “I’d better go check on her.”

From the hallway, she heard a squeak, a thud and a growling sound like a mad dog chewing at a bone. She rushed out, Bridget on her heels.

A tall woman—thin, angular, large boned—straddled a struggling Sophia. She had her hands around the girl’s neck, squeezing hard enough to crush Sophia’s esophagus. The growling rose from deep inside her, from some dark, venomous place.

Kellen sprang at her, kicked her in the ribs.

As if she didn’t feel any pain, the woman turned her head and stared at Kellen. Her face was bright red. Her eyes were all white iris and black pupil with only a tiny rim of blue around the edges. Her lips curled back from her teeth. Kellen knew who she must be.

Sophia’s mother.She looked like a rabid dog.

Kellen kicked her again.

The woman shrieked and sprang at Kellen, a violent charge so overbalanced Kellen was able to spin her and knock her flat on her face. Kellen jumped on her back, slammed her face into the floor, caught one arm and twisted it behind her back.

The drugs had made the woman oblivious to pain, given her power and stamina. She bucked, still shrieking, and the free arm flailed wildly.

Kellen barely hung on, trying to grab the arm, oblivious to the scene around her.

Suddenly, a second body, and a third, landed on Sophia’s mother, subduing her with weight and brute strength. The flailing arm was grabbed, a pair of handcuffs appeared and attached and two officers picked up the swearing, ferocious, kicking woman by the armpits and dragged her out.

In the sudden quiet, Kellen could hear Sophia breathing, one deep breath, then another. She glanced over; Bridget sat beside the girl, cradling her in her arms.

Thank God the kid was alive.

Gasping, Kellen sat on the floor with a thump.

Kateri knelt beside her. “We’ve got EMTs coming for Sophia. Are you hurt? Do you need help?”

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