Page 18 of The Risk

“I knew we would be.” She yawned and blinked at him. “I’m sorry. I’m really tired. How long do I have to be here?”

“A day or so,” Genny said firmly. “Chad is being insistent. But this time, he’s right.”

“Has to happen sometime.” She yawned again. “Even a broken clock is right twice a day.”

“Go back to sleep, Chan. I have things covered here until you are ready to get out of here. I promise.” Her best friend leaned closer. Chantal hooked her free arm around Genny’s neck and hugged her quickly.

“I love you all, you know. You, Gia, Greer, my family, Aub. I thought I’d never get a chance to tell you all that again.”

Genny sniffled. She was a crier; everyone knew that. “Well, now you will. Sleep, I’m on guard now. And Aubrey is in the building. She’s going guard-dog fierce, too.”

“I will.” Chantal let her eyes close. “Gene, go home. It’s going to be okay. Calvin needs you now. Gen, Mom... I love you both... okay... I’m just so tired...”

“Sleep. It’ll all be okay when you open your eyes. I promise.” It was a male voice now. Not Gene’s. She blinked once.

There they were. Her brothers—Charlie and Chad. Taking care of her like they always had.

“Love you all so much...”

Everything would be okay now.

Her brothers were going to make sure of it.

15

He’d been caught.

Gene didn’t have a moment’s regret.

Chad had found him sleeping against the wall in the hallway outside Chantal’s hospital room. He’d held a hand out to Gene and helped him from the floor.

Chantal’s mother had taken pity on him and let him sleep in the chair in Chantal’s room. Her mother had taken the other bed, at Chad’s insistence. Genny had taken the other chair.

He doubted he’d be able to get his baby sister out of there for anything. She was hovering almost as badly as Chantal’s mother.

They could have lost Chantal.

They were all aware of that.

Gene would never forget.

He had woken a few minutes earlier. Now he stood at the window, looking out at the north side of Barratt County.

“She’ll be okay.”

It was a common refrain.

He turned toward the man who had spoken. Chad stood there, a contemplative look on his face as he looked down at his little sister.

Gene’s little sister... not Chad’s.

Chad reached out and straightened the blanket over Genesis. “Neither one of these two grew very big, did they? I don’t think I’ve ever really noticed that before. They seem to be... elf-sized compared to the rest of us. Not sure how I really missed it.”

“No. I think Chantal is an inch or so taller, maybe. Twenty or so pounds heavier. Greer and Gia are a lot bigger. Stronger.” Genesis was the runt of the Hiller litter. Chantal, the Fields’s. “She felt so... damned... fragile when I was carrying her. I kept remembering how she had been as a kid and regretting how I don’t really know her as a woman now. I mostly remember them annoying the hell out of us. I was so damned afraid she was going to die in my arms out there.”

“But she didn’t. Thank God you were there. And Lacy Deane.”

“Lacy is the one who saved her. Not me.” The other woman had kept her alive. Gene knew that. Somehow.