Page 40 of Baby Me

I collapsed and lostconsciousness.

Chapter 10

Kate

It had beenforty-eight hours since Cameron had left for the hospital. Each hour that passed without news, I became more anxious. Missing him, I decided to spend the second night at the cabin instead of Silvia’s. Preparing for his return, I baked a pumpkin pie, a cheesecake, and finished off with a hearty stew, but still there was no word. Before the sun set, I chose a book from the library and curled up on the family roomsofa.

Half an hour into my reading, I heard a quiet but quick knock on the window, and I jumpedup.

“Hello?”

I set the book down and looked out the window. A pair of child’s fearful eyes stared back atme.

“Oh, myGod!”

The girl’s hair was short – chopped off and spiky. The cuffs of her long-sleeved hoodie were torn, and her leggings were stained with dirt and soaked through to the last thread. She knocked on the window again, a little louder this time, every few seconds looking behind her as if to check whether anyone had followed her. She looked familiar, though I didn’t recognize her until I opened the backdoor.

“Sophie?” Iasked.

This can’t beher.

Brook’s little girl was supposed to be back in New York, safe with her grandparents while Brook and Lola went to look for Xavier, myfather.

“Sophie! What are you doing here?” I ran to her and crouched beside her, checking her over for cuts and scrapes, of which there were plenty. That’s when I noticed what appeared to be a young wildcat sittingnearby.

“Kate.” Her lips trembled. “I’m soscared.”

The cat purred and skipped a few steps to sit beside mylegs.

“What happened? What are you doing here?” I lifted her up into my arms and felt her snuggle against mybody.

“There was a man chasing us. Two of them. They were big with long beards, and they were mean, and I had to keep my ears shut the whole entire time because they were saying all the bad words, and if Daddy was here he’d make them put a lot of money in my swearjar.”

“Where are theynow?”

“I think we lostthem.”

“What about your dad? Is Lola withyou?”

She shook herhead.

“He’s probably very worried aboutme.”

Her eyes looked sad, and I hugged heragain.

“Yeah, he probably is, baby. How in the world did you end up here? Okay, let’s get you inside, honey and we can figure everything elese out,okay?”

I didn’t have a working phone because Cameron was worried about a signal being traced to the cabin, so that was out of the question. I had to get Sophie warmed up, and after I decided we would drive to Silvia’s to use herphone.

Something touched my leg and I jumped up. It was the cat – except now that I got a closer look at the creature – the ginormous size of its paws, the elongated legs, and the tufts of hair on the top of its tall ears – I knew it was alynx.

“Where did you find this guy?” Iasked.

“He found me. Animals find me all the time. Boo should be here soon too. We got separated when he got scared and heard the shots. It was loud, and the echo scared him so, so, somuch.”

Shots?

“Who’sBoo?”

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