Page 103 of Freak Show

He nodded. “The white one rubbed up against my leg as I was leaving to go to you the other day. It was like she was trying to apologize for hurting you.”

My heart melted.

And my eyes filled with tears.

“I’m going to be depressed as hell if anything happens to her,” I murmured quietly. “If I could move off to a place with high walls, I’d take them with me and let them roam free forever. And feed them whenever they want to be fed.”

Hearing an engine noise, I looked up, wincing slightly at the pain in my neck to see a white and orange van that said ‘Hunter Exotic Veterinarian’ on the side parking at the front of the tent.

Crimson walked in with the vet, filling him in on all of the symptoms and details leading up to the present. As they came to our side, I heard the vet say, “We need to draw blood.”

Three Hours Later

“She was poisoned,” the vet said hours later when they called back with the blood tests. “Radiator fluid.”

Radiator fluid?

“What?” I asked.

“We can try to treat her, but I’m not holding out too much hope here,” the veterinarian continued. “She’s ingested it and had it in her system way too long. Tiger’s…”

I stopped listening, knowing what he was going to say.

“Treat her. Money is not an object,” Slone growled.

My heart, which had already been only his, became his for eternity. In this life and the next.

The vet left, taking Coco with him to his practice, and didn’t look back.

Heart in my throat, I watched them go until I couldn’t see anything but the dust his vehicle left in his wake.

“Where’s Hades?” I heard Slone rumble from behind me.

Surprised he’d be asking about her after all that had happened, I turned and surveyed the group at my back.

All of my sisters except for Hades, and Keene, were standing at my back with Slone.

But it was Slone’s angry face that had me tilting my head in confusion.

“Slone, what is it?” I asked quietly, not sure I wanted to hear the answer but asking him anyway.

Then he shocked the holy hell out of me by saying what he said next.

“Does Hades know that radiator fluid would be enticing to them, but also kill them if they ingested it?” Slone asked.

I felt my stomach sink.

“Fuck.”

She sure would. She knew just as much about the animals sometimes as I did.

“No…” I couldn’t finish the sentence.

“Let’s look for her.” Keene sounded grim when he voiced his request.

So we looked.

And couldn’t find Hades anywhere.

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