Page 99 of Fourth Point Of Contact

“I can’t fucking believe how she was living. Who treats their kid like that?”

He didn’t really need an answer. Hell, he’d lived with his old man for seventeen fucking years. He already knew just how bad it could get. But he’d never been forced to live like that.

“Did you talk to Harper yet?”

He shook his head. “She thinks I’m on a job.”

“Man, you’ve got to tell her.”

“I will. I just—how the fuck do I explain this to her? How do I tell her that this is all my fault?”

“It’s not?—”

“It fucking is,” he snapped, “and there’s nothing you can say that will make me think otherwise. That kid is in that bed because I was too much of a fucking coward to stand up to my old man.”

“You escaped. You fucking survived, Edu. None of this is your fault, and I will keep fucking telling you that until you get it through your thick skull.”

He sighed again, turning away from me. I didn’t want to go behind his back, but it might be the only way. Harper had a very loving nature, and I knew she could handle this. That might be what it took to get through to Edu.

And right now, I wasn’t sure he was in the state of mind to deal with a child just as fucked up as him.

While Edu paced the hospital some more, I made a call I fucking knew Edu would kill me for. But it was the only way. If this kid was going to trust us at all, we needed female reinforcements.

I dialed Chase and got to work.

“You want to tell me where you disappeared to for the last few days?” he asked.

I glanced back at Edu and dove headfirst into something I knew would get my ass beat. “I need you to bring Harper and any other women you can to Mercy Hospital.”

“We don’t have a Mercy Hospital. Where the fuck are you?”

“Kentucky.”

“Kentucky? Why the fuck are you there? And why do you need all the women?”

“Edu is with me.”

“Why?” His voice took on an edge that I knew meant he was going to lay into me later.

“It’s a long fucking story, but Edu has a sister. Ten years old, and she’s in the hospital. It’s a fucked up situation.”

“Is she sick?”

“Malnourished. She was living in a fucking hole. A literal fucking hole in the ground under a house.”

Silence met me on the other end of the line. I knew it was a lot to take in and way too fucking much to explain over the phone.

“Just get them out here. I’ll text you the address.”

“Yeah, I’ll get on it.”

“And Chase…fucking kid gloves on this one.”

“I figured.”

He hung up, and I shot off a text with the address. Edu was going to have my head, but none of that mattered right now. That kid needed to be surrounded with love, and if he had any shot of gaining custody of her, we needed all the help we could get. Right now, he was more likely to get her put in the system with the way he was ranting and raving.

“You’re playing a dangerous game,” Raven said as she walked up beside me.

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