Sin (The Waite Family) (8 page)

“Mrs. Carson? It’s Sydney Waite.
I’m in your house. If you’re okay, I’m sorry about the broken glass.
I’ll pay for it when my next check comes.”
She rolled her eyes at herself.
“I’m babbling because I’m bleeding and my leg hurts like a mother fu…it hurts.”

She moved thorough the kitchen then in through the dining room.
Still nothing. When she got to the living room, she found her.

Mrs. Carson was bleeding from her head
and there was a nice gash on the side of her face too.
Her
eyes were wide as she looked up at Sin
,
so she fell to the floor next to her.
Not graceful
,
but it was the best she could do.

“I call
ed
the Mp’s…police.
I hope.” Sin reached out to take the gag out of her mouth
,
but Mrs. Carson flinched away.
“I’m not going to hurt you.
Let me get this out of your mouth.”

When the gag was removed Mrs. Carson spoke.
“
He’s coming
back.
He said that he was coming back.
You have to hide
.”

Sin shook her head and just as she started to tell her that he wasn’t coming back in here as long as she was here the front door burst open.
Sin had about three seconds of bright light then nothing
.

~~~

“This is the bedroom my sister is staying in. I told you she was very private, didn’t I?”
Coop nodded. Again.
“She’s
recuperating herself.
I don’t know how she’s going to react to you staying here, but I’m hoping she’ll move in with Jazzy
,
ou
r
other sister
,
when she finds you here.”

Coop didn’t care. He just wanted to sit down and take a pain pill. His leg was throbbing and his head felt like a jackhammer was being used in it.
He was nearly ready to tell Doctor Waite that he’d move to a hotel and call a taxi to take him when the man’s cell phone went off.

“Waite…
Yes, this is Cain Waite…
Yes, my sist
—
what’s happened to her?”
Another long pause when the man sat down. All thoughts of his leg hurting flew out the window when Coop noticed how pale Cain looked.

“Cain,” Coop asked as he hung up the phone.
“
What’s
wrong?”

“I have to go to the hospital. My sister…Sin, she’s been…she hurt her leg and can’t get home.
I have to…I have to call Alyssa. I don’t think…she told us to leave her alone. I knew she was running
,
but I didn’t know where. She was in the worst part of town and she…I’m sorry. Can we do this some other time?”

“Let me go get her for you.
Or take you. I can take you. You shouldn’t be driving.
” Coop was leading Cain to his truck even as he realized he should just stay the hell out of this.

The ride to the hospital was long. Cain had made several calls on the way over and
,
in between those and telling Coop how to get to the hospital, Coop was able to gather a great deal about the man sitting next to him.

He was in love with his wife
,
for one
—
very
much in love with her.
H
e
called her several times in the twenty minute drive and kept her informed of everything he did.
He had an infant son named Connor and
Captain Cait Grant was the local
police and a good friend of the family. Of Sydney
,
aka Sin
,
he’d gathered much about her as well.

She
was making her family pissed because she didn’t want to be bothered with them. She’d just had a tragic accident that she was still being treated for and she was a royal pain in the ass.
Coop had surmised that on his own when Cain had finally gotten to talk to her as they were pulling into a parking space marked Doctor Waite.

“Are you all right, Sin...Yes, I’m well aware that you’re sick of hearing that question. I
f
you’d let us see you once in a whi—don’t take that tone with me
,
young…You learn that language overseas
,
girl?
”

Yeah, Coop thought
,
a royal bitch.

The emergency room was a typical big city one.
The sliding doors slid back quietly and the silence of the very early morning was broken by the overwhelming noise within the large
,
open room.
Lots of cheap chairs and a few televisions turned on to cartoons or news. There was a reception desk right inside the door with several police milling about it and a well dressed woman who looked to be in her late forties to early fifties.
She
smiled when she saw Cain.

“You sister is pissed at you. I would suggest you stay out here until my men get her statement.
You and
she
can take it up where you left off when you get her home.”

“She was in the worst part of town at five in the morning and she didn’t expect anything to happen to her. What was she thinking?
She
could just run the streets like a common fool and not get hurt?” Cain’s voice rose with each word until he was shouting.

“Yeah, I can see why she’s pissed. Alyssa said to keep you out here until she got here. She told me you need to take several deep breaths before…Cain, you’re turning purple.
I don’t think
that’s
a good color
for
you.”
Coop like
d
this woman
,
whoever she was.

Cain growled and it was all Coop could do not to laugh. He was hurting to do it too. When Cain looked over at him, the vein in his forehead throbbing, Coop lost it. The laughter that burst from his mouth was so unexpected that he surprised himself.
When
he
glanced
over at the
woman
,
s
he too was laughing.
Coop had to sit down before he fell or Cain knocked him down.
That
was how he met Mrs. Cain, laughing like a fool in a cheap plastic
chair
,
wiping tears from his eyes.

“Well, I’m glad to see someone enjoys your temper ta
ntrums.
Cain, don’t look at me like that.
Here
.
” Alyssa shoved a baby into Cain’s arms.
“Take your son.
I’m Alyssa Waite, you must be Payton Cooper.
Nice to meet you.
Cait, what’s going on?”
And just like that, everyone was organized, had their assignments
,
and was doing everything
Alyssa
said.

“I’m going back to talk to Sin. You
.
” Alyssa pointed at her husband. “Will sit right here until you can hold your temper. I will not have whatever you think you have to say to her bandied about this hospital, do I make myself clear?”

“I’m not a ten
-
year
-
old and I would very much appreciate it if you didn’t treat me as one.”
Cain bounced his son on his knee as he spoke to his wife.
“
She
was jogging in the middle of the night in a bad neighborhood. A man shot at her and she
threw her knee out again. How does she expect us to take care of her when she does stupid shit like that?”

Alyssa didn’t say anything for a full minute and when she did she sounded as pissed as her husband. “How old is Sin, Cain?
Ten? Eleven
?
And where has she been for the past ten years
?
If you don’t like being treated like a kid, then I would imagine she doesn’t either.
I’m going back to see her.
When
you can act like the adult that I know you are you can come back too.”

When Alyssa went to the doors they opened and closed behind her while Cain and Coop sat on the chairs.
Cain held his son up to his face and blew on his belly
,
making him laugh.
Coop laughed with him.

“She’s as worried as I am about
Sin
,” Cain said after a second
raspberry
was blown on Connor’s belly.
“
I almost lost her…my sister Sin
.
I almost lost her a few months back and I’m still…it’s been hard thinking of her as the person lying in that hospital bed and this woman here.
I still see her as my kid sister.”

Coop nodded. He understood little sisters.
“I have a sister too.
Shaller
Hall.
She was married a few years back. Some dickweed that thought she should listen to him or his fists.
She wouldn’t listen to us when we tried to tell her. It took getting the shit beat out of her best friend before she decided being married to him wasn’t such a smart move.”

When
a nurse came toward them she looked as if she was either pissed off or terrified out of her mind.
She approached them with both caution and wariness.

“Captain Grant said for you to haul your ass on back there. Her words
,
not mine. She said if you don’t want her to have to arrest your wife and sister you better move quick.” She walked away
,
mutter
ing
under her breath about women with tempers and
alcohol
.

“Your wife brought
alcohol
to a hospital?
I think I love your wife.”
Coop grinned when Cain glared.
“You think if I’m ever in the hospital again she could smuggle me some in?”

“Might be sooner than you think. Stay away from my wife.”
Cain grinned.
“You go in the room first, just in case they decide to throw something at me.”

Even as far away as they were Coop could hear them as soon as they stepped through the door. Alyssa was laughing hysterically and Cait was talking.
He could hear another person
,
a woman
,
and assumed it was the sister.
When they opened the curtain and walked in Coop’s breath caught.