Page 6

“Mommy says they’re pigs.” The little girl flinched like she hadn’t meant to say that.

Kenna said, “Their job is to keep you safe. They’re not going to hurt you. The police are here to keep all of us safe.” She focused on the boy. “Did your mom hurt your sister?”

He pressed his lips together tight and nodded.

“Is that woman outside your mother?” Kenna pointed at the window.

He croaked out the word, “Yes.”

The little girl sniffed.

“Does she hurt you?”

The boy said, “Lila is hurt.”

Kenna nodded. “The doctor can help her.”

“He helped us.” The kid motioned to Bruce with a lift of his chin. “He kept her away from us.” He looked at the window, where an ambulance had parked with its flashing lights reflecting on the unbroken glass of the door. “Is she dead?”

“No, honey.”

“Shame.” A tendon in the kid’s jaw flexed.

One of the cops cleared his throat. Kenna touched the little girl’s knee. “We’ll take care of you, okay?” Not really a question, and she didn’t wait around for an answer. She stood and turned to the cops. “These two don’t fall through the cracks.”

The cop lifted his brows. Officer rank, and his nameplate said Albertson . “Is that right?”

His partner, a younger guy, said, “Seems like they already did. So let’s fix that.” He went to the kids and crouched as she’d done.

Officer Albertson didn’t move. “Ma’am, I need you to answer some questions.”

Kenna nodded, looking around for Bruce. Where did he…? The guy was gone. Nowhere to be found. While her back was turned, in front of cops. She needed to put a little bell on that guy.

Fatigue washed over her, and she hadn’t even done all that much so far this morning. The persistent heaviness of her body that seemed to have crept up on her slowly over the last two months was her most prominent symptom. The nausea was a secondary factor.

She needed her test results.

But until she could get those from the doctor, she slumped into a chair on the far side of the waiting room.

Officer Albertson asked her a few questions, and she gave him some basic answers.

After all, she’d only shown up and then defended herself.

The whole thing had been barely a couple of minutes from start to finish, so what more was there to say?

Kenna glanced over at the kids, who were talking to the younger cop.

The boy’s attention drifted to her. She gave him a smile, fully intending to check up on them in a few days.

She’d meant what she said to the cop—that they didn’t fall through the cracks.

Sure, it had effectively been a threat. He just didn’t know that.

The doctor came back in with her nurse, both of them removing protective gloves. Doctor Santorini shook her head.

“Is she…?” The implications of the doc’s expression send an icy shiver down her spine. Kenna bit her lip.

“She’s in a bad way.” Santorini sighed.

Her nurse went behind the front desk and spoke to the older woman sitting there with her headset on. Had that woman seen where Bruce went?

Kenna said, “The girl needs to be looked at.”

“She needs an X-ray, something I can’t do. We should get another ambulance here.”

“Good call not putting her in the ambulance with the woman who did that to her.”

Santorini’s expression flashed with surprise, then hardened. “She is going to a different hospital entirely, then.”

Officer Albertson said, “My partner and I will escort the kids to the hospital and make sure they’re taken care of.” He grabbed the radio on his shoulder and said to his partner, “I’ll call it in.”

It didn’t take long for them to encourage the kids into the police car so the little girl could get an X-ray somewhere that was equipped with the tech. Kenna crouched in the open back door of the cop car to speak with them both before they left.

When the officer shut the car door, he said, “We’ll take care of them.”

Anything she responded with would probably sound like a threat, like Make sure you do , so Kenna simply nodded. “Thank you.” Still, she watched them drive away until they were out of sight.

She headed back inside the medical center and found the doctor behind the front desk.

“You’ll need to find a new doctor’s office.” Santorini folded her arms.

“I didn’t start that fight.”

“You finished it, though. That woman might die as a result of a crushed sternum. You caved in her chest.” She shook her head.

“At least tell me how I managed to do that.”

The doctor frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Before you kick me off your patient list, maybe you could tell me what’s wrong with me. How I could’ve done that.”

Santorini looked at the computer screen behind the desk and tapped a few keys. “Kenna Banbury.”

She nodded.

“Everything came back normal.”

“So tell me how shoulder-checking that woman means I caved her chest in.” Desperation leached into her tone.

“There’s no need to get angry.” Santorini straightened, looking nervous.

Was she really scared of Kenna? “I’m not angry.” She shook her head. “I want to know what’s wrong with me. Because there’s nothing normal about this.”

Santorini looked at the screen again. “You have elevated calcium levels.”

“And my weight.” Jax had bathroom scales, and she’d stepped on them a couple of weeks ago. Now she did it every day. Trying to figure out why she felt heavy.

Because she was heavy.

“What about your weight?” Santorini checked the screen.

“Explain how I’m thirty pounds heavier than usual, but my clothes still fit fine. I’m no bigger than I’ve been in a long time, but I weigh that much more? How is that possible?”

“Well, as we age…”

Kenna frowned. “How can I be that much heavier, but no bigger?” It was ridiculous that they had to do this in the waiting room, but given the doctor’s scared expression, she stayed where she was. “There’s no way this is normal.”

She hadn’t told Santorini about being captured by the Dominatus . Probably, the doctor would think she was nuts.

Just thinking about it made her breathing speed up and her heart race. “Explain how there’s nothing wrong with me.”

“If you’re feeling anxious about changes that are happening in your life, I can give you a recommendation for someone to talk to. Treatment of a different kind.”

“You mean therapy.”

Santorini said, “I can give you a referral. There are some excellent psychologists in this area. Any one of them can help you work through your fears.”

“You mean the medical condition I obviously have. One that made me heavier. Stronger.”

“The mind can be powerful.”

“So I imagined caving that woman’s chest in?”

Santorini folded her arms. “It’s time for you to leave. There’s nothing more I can do to help you.”