Page 118 of Coerced

“Yeah? Thanks, Kerry.” John laid his forearm over his eyes.

“I’ll stay with him,” I heard Mira say.

“No!”

Everyone stared at me, and Mira’s eyes darkened.

Now she probably thinks I don’t trust her to stay with John.

I had to say something to explain my adamant response.

“Miraand Iwill stay with John. In case anything happens and we need to be somewhere in the States quickly. Fastest you all could get back here is twenty, twenty-four hours. Between the two of us, we can handle almost anything that might crop up. And I have to admit I don’t feel up to running all over Norway.”

That sounded like logical reasoning to me, even if it wasn’t thewholetruth.

“I keep forgetting you’re injured, too.” Kerry scratched his head. “Sorry.”

“You’re injured?” Mira whipped around and glared at me. “More than the giant goose egg on your forehead?”

“It’s nothing.” I touched my head gingerly with my fingertips.

Thankfully, Kerry diverted her attention. Too bad it was in another direction I didn’t want to go.

“You seem to be dealing with her taint okay. Way better than you did mine at first, anyway. You sure it won’t become an issue?”

“I’m good.” I glared at him, and he glared back. “After living with your stink for more than a week, I’ve learned to tolerate it.”

“What? Istink?” Mira bent her head and sniffed her shirt. “I showered earlier.”

“It’s your taint. It smells bad to warriors.” Gigi made a face. “Don’t worry about it.Normalpeople like Travis and John and I don’t smell it.”

But Mira seemed stunned and hurt shadowed her eyes again. She dropped her gaze to the tops of her red boots and didn’t look up again. I wanted to say something to ease her discomfort, but I didn’t know what.

Kerry was either ignoring or oblivious to her reaction.

“Mira, I want you to get something to access the Internet. What do you call it, Travis? A mobile what?”

“Device.” Travis flicked his eyes away from his phone. “A mobile device.”

“Yeah. Use Rome’s Council card, not your own money. Then, while you’re waiting, I want you to find out more about Mrs. Hubler. I have a feeling about her.”

“What kind of feeling?” Mira asked.

“A bad one. She’s still alive, right, Dragon?”

“Yep. Lots of pictures of her on Hubler’s arm at social functions, but not a lot of information beyond which designers she favors for dresses and shoes. Doesn’t even do any volunteer or charity work. It’s like she doesn’t exist outside of his shadow.”

“Send me the most recent picture you can find of her. After Mira picks up a smartphone, I’ll share it with her as well as our contacts list.” I glanced at Kerry, who looked pensive. “What is it, buddy?”

“The other week, I told Jax about seeing marks all over Argaud’s arms, and Jax said Argaud wasn’t always a jerk.”

“That’s right.” Gigi nodded. “Jax came to the Sanctuary when he was eight. He said Reilly arrived a year or so later and they got along well. But about three years ago, Reilly changed. He became mean and distant and didn’t want anything more to do with Jax, which is odd because Jax gets along with everyone.”

“Yeah, I remember hearing Whit ask Reilly why he’d started going home every break and long weekend.” Travis looked from Gigi to Kerry. “Reilly didn’t answer him. Do you think it might have something to do with his twin or half-brother? Maybe something happened to one of them, or they got sick? Maybe they died, too.”

“Then Grandma Argaud would have done that memorial stuff you said she did for the little girl. Itiscurious, though.” Kerry looked at me. “You think it matters?”

“More information never hurts.” I shrugged and slid my hands into my back pockets. “Sometimes the smallest things tip the balance. I think we need to find out as much as we can from this Argaud kid.”

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