Page 8 of Cyrus

I snorted. “I’m up against more than that. Being Blade’s sister means I have to treat her with kid gloves.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Stitches sneered. “That girl needs her ass busted. If Blade can’t see that he’s a dumb shit. And I know he’s not a dumb shit. Do what you have to and keep her safe. That includes punishing her for putting herself in danger last night. What if you and the other guys hadn’t been there? What would have happened to her?”

“I know. I still want the OK from Blade to take her in hand. He should get back to me in the next couple of hours.” I hoped. I’d told him to take his time because Odette was safe and he had a very sick child he was helping. Not that Odette wasn’t as important, but she was looked after. She was safe.

Stitches opened the door to his office and went around behind his desk. I sat on the couch opposite him, crossing one ankle over the opposite knee. He pulled out a couple pieces of paper from his briefcase and rested his forearms on the desk while he scanned over it.

He frowned as he read over first one page, then the second. Then the first. “Mother fuck…”

“Was she drugged?” I sat up straight, fury settling inside me like I’d never known. Emotions were hard on the best of days. I didn’t understand them in others and had no idea what to do with my own. I preferred to be in my workshop, building and designing things for the stuff Argent Tech supplied us with. They’d give us a weapon or security measure and I… made it better. Only reason I didn’t work at Argent was that asshole Giovanni Romano didn’t like being upstaged. Well, that, and I didn’t belong there. I belonged with Iron Tzars. My brothers.

“Nope. All alcohol. However, she has a positive pregnancy test.” He looked up. “She or Blade say anything about her being pregnant?”

I felt like all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. “She’s… pregnant?”

“Yep. My lab tech friend ran a quantitative test to determine how elevated her HCG level was. By the math, she’s maybe four or five weeks. Not far.”

“So maybe she doesn’t know.”

“There is a very strong chance she doesn’t know. But a home test would pick it up at this point.” He sat back, rubbing his finger under his nose. It was a gesture I’d seen him do often when he was deep in thought. “Maybe she came up here for abortion care.”

“There are other places she could have gone. Why here? At four to five weeks, she could still get it done in Florida.”

“True…” Me and Stitches stared at each other a long moment. “You know her?”

“I dragged her back to her brother two years ago when I caught a prospect trying to sneak her in at Salvation’s Bane. She didn’t have permission to be in the compound and was only sixteen at the time. The prospect in question was twenty-three. Said he didn’t know she was underage, but Thorn didn’t let that slide. Kicked the fucker out without a moment’s hesitation.”

“Good thing he wasn’t here,” Stitches muttered. “There any reason she might come to you?”

My gaze widened, then narrowed. “Me. Specifically me.” Stitches nodded and I had to really think about that. “Ain’t smelled a man like you since I tried to nail me a biker,” I muttered, repeating the words she’d said when I picked her up from that bar last night.

“What?”

I brought my focus back to Stitches. “Just something Odette said last night when I carried her out of the bar.”

Stitches whistled. “Was that a good thing or a bad one?”

“Well, she buried her face in my neck and called me delicious.”

“Christ.” Stitches grinned. Then chuckled. “Bro, you’re so fucked.”

“Bastard.”

He shrugged. “Well, you wanted answers. I just read the paper and tell you what the numbers mean.”

“Yeah, well, I still need answers.” I stood. “She needs food in her stomach.”

“And rest. And water. Hydrate her with something other than booze, will ya?”

“All over that.”

“You gonna tell Blade?”

I paused. Was I? “Not sure. I’ll have to think about that. I’ve already violated her privacy.”

“Whoa there, brother.” Stitches stood, raising the lab test results once before tossing them to the desk. “She gave up that right when she chose to get blackout drunk and pass out in your arms. She scared the bejesus out of you and me both.”

“I could just see having to call Blade and tell him his sister was brain-dead from alcohol poisoning.”

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