Come Out Swinging (Reach for the Moon Book 2), Sam Hall [leveled readers .TXT] 📗

“Of course,” he replied politely and then opened the door.

Bridge was near unrecognisable. Not so much because of the injuries, though they were plentiful, but due to the way she scuttled back in her bed, pressing her back into the corner and tucking all of her limbs in tight.

“Bridge?” I said gently, but she just eyed us suspiciously.

“I’ll give you a few minutes,” the doctor said and disappeared out the door.

“Hey…” I pulled up a chair and sat back from the bed, giving her plenty of space and keeping my head lower than hers. It was something wolf shifters did to show respect or to reassure. “Bridge…” What could I say that was not completely banal and prosaic? “Are you OK?”

“Did you know?”

There was none of my cousin in her voice. All the warm humour and mischief had been scrubbed away, replaced by a hoarse growl. Her throat’s been torn up by screaming, I realised.

“When Nance and Selma showed up in the town meeting, I figured something had happened. The way she tells it, you’re gay, unable to stand living at home anymore, and are headed to the big smoke to study full time.”

The sound that came from her next was so odd, it took a bit for me to interpret. A harsh snort or bark, it was almost a wheeze. That’s laughter, I thought. But what a grim sound that was.

“So I’m the one—” Her words were cut off by a racking cough. I was up and out of my seat without thinking, grabbing a jug and a cup to pour her some water, but her eyes went wide at the movement. I paused, put both of them down slowly until she nodded. I poured the water, leaning over to hand it to her, and she drank it down greedily.

“You killed them,” she said finally.

“Yes.”

“This isn’t the local hospital.”

“No, we’re in Berkefeld.”

“You want to avoid Mum and her cronies.”

“I want justice,” I said definitively.

Her smile, when it came, was a ghastly shadow of her old one.

“You’ll have to kill her. It’s the only way. She will let nothing, absolutely nothing, get in her way of taking the alpha’s estate. Selma will be her puppet heir, and they’ll keep brainwashing Aidan into raping her over and over until she bears a daughter. That’d have been me if she could influence me at all,” she said with a shudder.

I nodded slowly, making it clear I’d had the same thoughts.

“Then you better sit down. I’ll tell you everything I know, but in exchange, I want one thing.” She fixed me with an unwavering gaze. “I’m not going back there. Not ever. That fucking town… The fucking bullshit that goes down… Never, you hear me? Never will I step foot in that place again. Promise me, Paige.”

I thought about the position I’d found her, the sight of those fucking dicks clawing at her, Mason falling face forward into the dirt. I nodded, my jaw firming.

“I promise, Bridge. I’ll get you away and free of this place. We’ll set you up somewhere safe.”

“My dad did most of this,” she gestured vaguely to her face.

“What? Bryan’s—”

“Dead? Yeah, and I learned last night he’s not my father. Marshall is.”

“Aidan’s dad?” I jerked back when I realised what that would mean. “So that would mean…” I recoiled in horror. Selma and Aidan were siblings?

“Yeah, but just me. It’s where I get my gift as a null from. Mum worked out it was Marshall that had created the problem when she couldn’t coerce me, so she let Dad… Bryan sire Selma. He didn’t know, of course. Thought that both of us were his.” Her eyes softened. “I’m not sure if that would have mattered. Dad would have loved us either way. He was soft, too soft. She killed him, she let me know that.” She snorted. “I guess evil monologues where you confess your crimes are all par for the course when you’re murdering your daughter.”

I remembered vaguely when Uncle Bryan died, as it wasn’t too many years after Mum. It was part of what had seemed to bring Bridge and me together and keep Selma apart from us. She was younger, quiet and unnaturally still through all of it, just staring at her father’s prone form through the vigil, unblinking. My hand slid hesitantly across the bed, waiting for her to reach out and take my hand. She squeezed the fingers hard.

“She’s had this plan in play since she was a girl. Get rid of your mum, then Dad, then your dad when it looked like he was going to encourage your nix nature. Couldn’t stand for that. She was the answer, the way to ensure the Spehr legacy was retained. Initially, the plan was to have you go through the normal process and she would have made sure you selected Aidan.”

“She was going to coerce me?”

Bridge nodded, letting my hand go to trace circles on the sheets.

“But then she saw it.” Her eyes met mine, still discoloured by bruises, one swollen almost shut. “She figured you were still the gullible little girl that left here. I think your dad knew. I think half the reason why he said no to Mason was what he knew. God knows what would have happened if you’d stayed with Declan.”

My hands closed down into tight fists.

Bridge straightened up, some of the old fire returning to her battered face.

“You didn’t come back that girl, or one beaten down by trying to make it in the city. That guy of yours, Zack, he held you and cherished you and helped shape you into a fucking badass. But, Paige…”

She was complimenting me, but I didn’t want to hear the next words, knowing what was coming.

“You’ve come back a threat, and she needs to neutralise you, somehow.”

“Like she ‘neutralised’ you?” I croaked the words.

“Worse. She has to remove you entirely, no mistakes. You, your guys, even Aidan, if what’s inside him manages to fight its way free.” She shook her head.