Page 65 of Sigma
She looks at me with confusion.
“I’m not leaving Cicely and I’m also not bringing her.” I don’t know how much he knows.
“Shit,” He mutters. “Let me see what I can arrange. See if I can get back over there.” He sounds aggravated. “Are you certain you can’t come here? See, I’ve just gotten back…”
“I’m sure. Can’t we just talk remotely?”
He holds the phone a minute before he replies. “I’m… not sure that’s wise. Let me get back to you.”
“You can’t give us anything on the phone? Nothing at all?” Cicely asks.
“I’ll… ring you back. Let me see what I can rearrange here.”
“Yeah, all right,” she says and ends the call, irritated.
“He’d better call soon. Curiosity is gonna burn until he calls back,” she mutters, getting out of bed and stomping to the bathroom, slamming the door.
Fuck, she’s beautiful when she’s angry. She’s beautiful all the time.
Where’s my phone? Probably dead in my truck. I get up and dig through my wardrobe for a pair of jeans and a plain tee as well as grab a pair of shoes.
When I’m back, she’s got the fridge open.
“Call Linc on speaker, will ya? This is dead.” I see my charging cord dangling from the outlet beside the couch, so I plug it in there.
“My phone’s in the bedroom. Go grab it and I’ll heat up dinner. Want beef stew or chili?”
“Chili,” I say and go fetch her phone.
***
“Linc,” I say into the phone after he answers. “Blakely called. He wants me in Scotland to talk. I told him no.”
“He called me, too, asking me to work on you. I was just about to call you. He wants to do a full workup in his office. He won’t say why, but he did tell me something good that I can share, though the way he said it I get the impression he’s paranoid about who knows.”
“Elaborate.”
“It’s confirmed: your father is alive and incarcerated. I don’t know if he’s related to your issues but something in my gut is sayingyes. Blakely says he needs us there where he’s got the right medical equipment and an on-site lab. He says if we do it there, we can involve minimal folks, much fewer than if he or Cat does shit here that’d mean a third-party supernatural lab and delay.”
Cicely hugs me, holding on, looking happy for me.
Alive. I was close to my old man. He wasn’t around much, but when he was, he made our time together meaningful. Once he was gone, life went from hard to much, much harder. And maybe I blamed him a little for it.
The idea of him being alive, in prison somewhere? I don’t know how to feel.
“Not sure how my father has anything to do with this. I spent plenty of time around my folks when they were shifted. This isn’t likely genetic.”
“I could be wrong, but I got the impression from Blakely there’s a connection.”
”If I go there, bet you a dollar I end up in custody.”
Cicely’s body goes stiff. She looks at me, looking pissed.
Linc says, “Or… we get answers that could result in help. And you don’t have to go alone. I’d go. Same as Cat Savage. She’s invested in your care, even though she hasn’t laid her healing hands on you yet, she knows you’re part of the pack now, and she’s insisting on being part of everything as our pack healer.”
Everything inside me is now eerily still and I feel beyond strange.
Part of the pack now.
