Chapter 38
He froze…Oh, hell. This was real.
He wasn’t just seeing things.
Colesons were dangerous.
Daniel almost choked.
That was Hope, Heather’s baby sister, the gremlin, running around the living room in a black thong and…
the matching bra…she wore the matching bra under that t-shirt.
That…shirt that had the sleeves cut out almost completely and showed everything beneath it.
Why had she even bothered to put the T-shirt on in the first place?
The thin well-worn t-shirt just brushed midthigh, when she bent over to pick up the toys on the rug…he stopped breathing. He just did.
Gremlins shouldn’t be built like that. Hope was…athletic, even though she was small. Very toned. In all the right places. He must have made a sound. She whirled around.
“Oh! Commander McKellen! I thought…I didn’t realize you were down here.
You actually got out of bed okay. That’s good.
Sam said you should be able to move around a bit more soon.
Is everything okay? Do you need more pain meds?
Cashlyn has your scheduled doses on the chart on the fridge.
She’s like a scary dominatrix when it comes to following her precious schedule.
And Eden double checked the dosages—for both of us. ”
It was probably the first time he’d seen the gremlin—gremlin—with her hair down everywhere. It was longer than he’d expected. Shaggy cut, but it suited her.
It slammed into him. She was as hot as her sister.
She was a beautiful woman. Far too young for him, she made him feel old at thirty-eight every time she spoke, but…he hadn’t realized just how beautiful. How attractive.
How damned hot.
Of course, it was kind of right there in his face.
The pale green t-shirt had TSP: Homicide printed right over the breasts, and it hung so damned low those breasts were just visible at the top.
It was obviously for a big man, and without the sleeves…
hell, she might as well have been naked. It showed almost as much.
He would never look at this woman the same way ever again.
He garbled something.
“The…shirt? Whose…?”
She looked down, as the shirt slipped off one thin shoulder.
The scars from what hell she’d endured were right there for him to see.
He could swear his matching scars pulled.
Taunted. “Oh. Miguel left it here when he stayed here last time, and for some reason, Joy slipped it into my basket. She was helping Summer with the laundry. Laundry is usually Heather’s chore, but…
well…Heather came up with our laundry system when we first lost our parents.
You do not mess with the system, you know.
All of my clothes have purple H’s sewn on the tags.
It’s how we know they are mine. Heather gets green H’s.
Our favorite colors. I don’t know why she put a purple H on this shirt, but…
that means it’s mine now. It’s the rule.
I should probably give it back to him, don’t you think?
He probably paid money for it. Well. At one time.
There really isn’t much left of it at all now, I guess. ”
“No. There…isn’t. You…why are you up so late?”
“Just…I was talking to Miriam, but she fell asleep on me and everything. And I couldn’t sleep because of the storm. I…called the hospital again. Just…worried. And when I worry, I look for food. Probably not a good habit, really…but I burn it off, mostly.”
“How is your sister?” The Coleson family had held a family meeting, and he’d been a part of it, along with the evidence tech filling in for Hope now. Apparently, Miriam was a regular fixture at Coleson Castle, one they had known for years.
“Her fever dropped a little. They think the experimental antibiotics may work. I’m reserving judgment.” Hope knew all about antibiotics and how they worked, considering her doctoral work. She’d explained it for the rest of them earlier. “She’ll probably still be…almost unresponsive for a…while.”
She was tearing up again. Daniel shoved back the panic.
He couldn’t deal with one of them crying.
It broke a man’s heart. There had been a lot of tears earlier tonight.
He almost hadn’t been able to handle it.
Fortunately, Alex had been there—and he seemed pretty good at handling Coleson women when they were upset. Somehow.
It was probably a magic power no one had even known Alex possessed.
Still, he couldn’t stop himself. He stood and wrapped his arms around her, ignoring how she gave a little jump. He hadn’t forgotten what hell she’d gone through at the hands of a cop before. “It’ll be okay. Your sister is the toughest woman I have ever met.”
That was the truth. Heather had survived incredible odds before.
Daniel held her while she cried for her sister. He just wanted to make everything better for her. Somehow.
Never had he felt more useless than he did now.
Daniel just…told her good-night, at least…he thought it was good night. He just didn’t know. And he retreated. To the very room the chief of the TSP Homicide division had been in just weeks before.
Everyone knew Miguel hadn’t been the same since he’d been sucked into this vortex. He just hadn’t.
Daniel…Daniel was starting to understand why.
This was probably the most dangerous place a man could ever be.
He was just going to stay in his room at night. Before he did or said something completely stupid.