Page 5 of Cryptic Curse
Mom nods.“All right, Hawk.I’m glad you’re here.Thank you for coming.”
I nod back at her.She doesn’t need to thank me for coming, and she knows it.He’s my father.Of course I would come.
Dad and I have a somewhat troubled history, but he’s my father.Plus, he gave me my blue eyes that have made me a chick magnet since I hit puberty.Something about the combination of tan skin, dark hair, and piercing blue eyes gets the women going like nothing else.
I pull Falcon aside for a minute.“What’s this ID requirement thing?Isn’t that overkill?Dad’s been here at the hospital for months already.”
“Not my idea,” Falcon says.“It was our attorney’s.And the security team backed him up.”
“Why, exactly?”
“Hell if I know.”He runs his hands through his hair.“Apparently now that Dad’s awake, things are different.Legal liability, inheritance, media vultures—they’re all circling.”
I narrow my eyes.“What does that have to do with checkingmyID?”
Falcon leans in, his voice low.“Because if something happens to Dad now—anything—it’s going to blow back hard.They’re covering every base.Every person who steps foot in that room is logged.”
I glance toward the ICU doors.“So we’re treating him like a national secret now?”
“More like a walking target,” Falcon mutters.“You didn’t hear it from me, but someone tried to bribe a nurse last week to get access to his chart.”
My stomach drops.“What the hell?”
He nods grimly.“Yeah.So…ID checks.Security guard.Surveillance.All of it.Until we know who’s behind it.”
“Behind what?”I ask, suddenly colder.
Falcon looks me dead in the eye.“That’s the thing.We don’t know yet.Or if the attorneys do, they haven’t told me.”
I shake my head.“For fuck’s sake.Okay.I’ll wait outside for the others.”
I leave the room, only to run into Grace again.
She gives me another dazzling smile.“Just need to check your dad’s vitals.”
“Yeah, okay.I’m going to stay out here and wait for my sisters.”
Savannah didn’t say anything about Eagle being on his way.
Not a surprise.
As the youngest of our brood, Eagle has always had a wild streak.He tends to think with the wrong head, especially where Scarlett Ramsey is concerned.
Or he doesn’t think at all.
Which has gotten him in hot water more than once.
Does he even care what Falcon and I have given up for him?Especially Falcon.He went to prison for the SOB.
And I let him do it, even though I knew it wasn’t right.
I’ve tried to rationalize it.Weigh out the different outcomes.
But I’m not sure my conscience will ever be clean.
2
DANIELA
