Page 50 of A Reluctant Boy Toy
“You riding with him, Molly?” I rose as the professionals cleared out and followed them at Molly’s side.
“Yes.”
“Will you keep me in the loop? I have to know how he’s doing. I—”
“Of course.” She put her arm around me. “I’ll call you as soon as I know where we’ll be, all right?”
“Tell him I’m here for him, okay? Anything he needs.”
“You can tell him yourself as soon as he can have visitors.”
“Right.” I couldn’t. Who’d watch the dogs? I had a vest and documents for Morrigan, but the hybrids…I couldn’t just leave them in a car while I went inside the hospital.
I stood in the clearing, numb with shock, feeling the same sense of disorientation I’d experienced after I was injured, when physical pain capsized me, left me upside down under water, looking at the sky from beneath the surface of the sea.
This time, my pain was emotional.
I felt like I’d—somehow—let Sebastian down.
Ahead of me, the ambulance tires spit dirt and sand as they pulled away. I wondered if I would ever see Sebastian Keye again, or if our late-night confidences and that glancing brush with his celebrity—or notoriety—was all I’d have to remember him by.
Morrigan nudged me to remind me that if I didn’t move forward, I’d die. My phone chimed and I found a new picture of baby Artemis in Ariel’s arms in my messages. I made the call, needing the grounding warmth of her voice and the grating rasp of my brother’s default sarcasm.
“Hello, honey. We were just thinking about you. How are—”
“I need help, Ari.”
There was silence on her end, then she said, “Tell me.”
“I can’t do this. One of the actors got hurt—”
“Hades and Persephone?” Worry made her shouty. “Are the animals okay? Did they—”
“Nothing to do with them. I promise,” I assured her. “I made a friend, and somebody targeted him online. He got hurt. There are news helicopters flying overhead. Uniforms everywhere. It’s bad, Ari. I’m jumping out of my skin.”
“I hear you. That’s a lot to handle.” Though she probably covered the phone with her hand, I heard my brother’s muted voice as they talked back and forth. She came back to me only seconds later. “Here’s what we’ll do. I’ll put Hannah on a plane. It will take a bit for her to get to your location, but you hang in there.”
“Hannah? Will she be okay with—”
“She’s young, I know, but I think she’s fully capable, and she’ll be over the moon to work with the animals on that show. You just—you hang in there, okay? Hang on. Once she’s there, you can figure out what you need to do next.”
“Thank you.”
“Is Morrigan okay? She’s taking care of you, right?”
“She’s my hero.” My throat was so dry my voice cracked. “More on that later.”
“Want to talk to Taggart?”
“Okay.”
“Bro. What’s going on?” The baby started crying, but one of them must have left the room because the sound grew distant.
“I don’t know. Cyberbullying maybe? Someone uploaded a video. Here”—I put the phone on speaker—”I’ll link you.”
When I went to YouTube, the video had been taken down.
“Oh, thank God. It’s already gone.” I told him briefly what the video showed and about the ominous message at the end.
