Page 26 of Fallout

His question had been ignored, his mom too far gone to even comprehend what was happening—or what she had done.

Jasper had to choose between his parents, his job, and Destiny.

One choice might lead to happiness. The other was his duty.

How on earth was he going to choose?

ELEVEN

The screen of Destiny’s phone flashed with two letters:FO.

Finally.She swiped and put the phone to her cheek. “Where were you guys?” Her thumb bumped the scratch on her cheek.Ouch.

“We lost him.” To her credit, she sounded mad. The Famous Ones weren’t happy.

“Who?”

“The shooter.”

Destiny scooted to the edge of the bed and slid her feet into her shoes. She’d had the scratch cleaned and bandaged. Time to see how Richard and his wife were doing. Especially if she wasn’t going to be arrested.

Could she go home, crawl into bed, and forget this day ever happened?

That sounded good.

But first… “You went after the shooter?”

“Of course, we did. He shot at you!” They had her on speaker. And as per usual, their voices blended together until she couldn’t tell which one was speaking. Or her head was swimming, and she needed to lie down. Probably both.

One of the others said, “He could’ve killed you. He nearly killed that woman.”

“She’s Jasper’s mother,” Destiny said.

Someone gasped.

“And I’m about to go see how she is.”

“Call us back. We wanna know.”

Destiny said, “I need to get back to Vanguard. But if you guys are busy?—”

“We’ll split up.” There was a pause. “Ten minutes.”

“Copy that.” Destiny hung up, too exhausted to figure out how better to sign off the call. They had been there, saw what happened, and then jumped on a pursuit. Leaving her to think she was alone with Jasper’s parents. Facing the police who had taken his mother’s word that she had been the shooter.

She couldn’t even process how nuts that was.

Why would Mrs. Hollingsworth say that? Jasper hadn’t seemed surprised when she’d told him. Another confusing part of this. She needed a nap to be able to start to process it.

Destiny filled out the paperwork to get checked out.

Her phone rang. Her brother was calling her. She silenced it and headed for the Hollingsworths’ rooms. Maybe Jasper’s mom was in surgery or something. She spotted Detective Jesse in a bay talking with a young woman and Jasper. It looked serious. Two officers stood in the hall.

She approached them. “Is Senator Hollingsworth around here? Or his wife?”

One lifted his chin. “Who are you?”

His suspicious look rubbed her the wrong way. She didn’t know these guys, and they didn’t know her. “Destiny Reed. I work for Vanguard.”