Page 49 of Fallout

Blake’s eyes filled with tears. “You should have told me.”

“I was dealing with it.” She cleared her throat. “Processing what it meant.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to say, “I’m sorry,” but she’d been told over and over the past few weeks that she had nothing to be sorry for, so she’d quit saying it as a reflex. Apparently, the Famous Ones’ mantra had sunk in.It wasn’t my fault.

They’d killed the girl she was kidnapped with and raped Destiny before she was rescued.

Double tragedy didn’t mean she wouldn’t suffer the rest of her life, but it also didn’t beget a life of tragedy. Life was just life.

She said, “I’m doing okay.” And it was true.

Blake tugged her close for a hug, and she held on to her brother, even though she registered some kind of commotion in the hallway.

Jasper went to the door. At least, that was the conclusion she drew from what she heard with her eyes closed, standing in her brother’s arms.

“I’m all right.”

“You better be.”

She rolled her eyes because big brothers were weird and annoying. “Will you help me tell Grace, Mercy, and Hope?”

He nodded against her hair. “Sure, kiddo. I’ll help you with whatever you need.” He pulled back. “Both Violet and I will. I know she’ll be on board.”

She didn’t need to cry for the millionth time, but apparently, that didn’t factor. Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Thanks.”

Blake tugged her head against him again.

Out in the hallway, someone screamed, high-pitched. A woman. Destiny stepped around her brother, reluctantly separating from the support. She’d never been a hugger before. That was another thing different about her these days.

“What is..?” She didn’t understand what she was looking at.

Jasper faced off withhis mother? Hands raised. His mom wore a hospital gown, thankfully tied in the back. A bandage came up out of the collar on her left shoulder at the neckline. Her face was pale, and her eyes glassy and wild. Hair stringy and all over the place.

A security guard ran up behind her, red-faced and out of breath. “Mrs. Hollingsworth?—”

She screamed like a banshee.

Jasper waved the guy off. “Don’t.” He took a step closer to her. “Mom, put the scalpel down.”

“She’s trying to kill all of us! I’m gonna end her before she kills you!”

TWENTY-ONE

“Mom, listen to me.” As if his words would get through to her. When she was like this, there was nothing Jasper could say or do that would get her to listen. Not a thing even penetrated the fog in her mind—or the strength of what she had decided was true. “Elaine.”

“She’s trying to kill us!”

“Mom, Destiny doesn’t even know you.” Maybe that would get past her mental block. “She’s never even met you.”

“Just like that other one! She tried to kill me, and you did nothing!”

Jasper’s chest thrummed with pain. The only time it hadn’t hurt was when Destiny came in, and he’d been able to think about her instead of the injury. The feel of her hand on his chest. What pain he’d felt from being hit by a bullet to the vest had disappeared.

Now this?

It was proof there was no God in heaven. And if there was, then He certainly was no heavenly Father. Jasper knew what everyone thought of his dad, and how the senator acted. The truth was he’d been as good of a father as he was capable of being. Even with their differences, he and his dad were a team.

They backed each other up because it took both of them to contend with the woman in front of him. Even if they were at odds over nearly everything else.

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