back.”
The girls tried to smile but Reina looked terrified and Lotus’s pale cheeks were streaked with rivulets of tears. She gave them both a quick kiss on their foreheads.
“It’s going to be okay.”
Nyxie hated to lie. Nothing was going to be the same. Even if Cody lived, his recovery would be long and painful. And now CPS would step in. Were they going to take all three children away from her? Would they take them away from the most stable, loving home any of them had ever known—including Onyx?
If CPS needed to get involved, why hadn’t they done it twenty years ago when they could have helped her sister and her, long before Cody was born, long before her sister ran away, gave birth to two babies and became a meth-head?
Dr. Declan Stryker finished consulting with the ER resident, gave the kid a quick glance and was about to head to the OR to begin scrubbing for surgery. He turned and there stood the girl from high school he had fantasized about at least a thousand times.
His eyes darted to the name tag she wore for confirmation and he stood there confused for only a second until he made the connection from Onyx to Nyxie. If she’d used that nickname in high school, he’d never heard it. But then again, he’d never really known her.
He and his parents had moved to the farm town of Chimera Flats, population six thousand and change, his junior year. His father had been hired as the head football coach for the West Texas town and Declan quarterbacked the team. But it wasn’t until the new freshmen came in his senior year, that he saw Onyx Carmichael for the first time.
He’d never lived in a small town before so he didn’t know about the collective consciousness of an inbred community. It reminded him of a Borg hive out of Picard’s Trek . Everyone knew everyone, and they all knew each other’s life story. He quickly learned she was persona non grata .
Waifish in appearance with jet black hair, huge brown doe eyes and a delicate bone structure, Declan was attracted to her vulnerability. He didn’t understand his burgeoning proclivities, but he did find himself drawn to the loner.
“M-may I see him?” she asked barely sparing a glance at him. That hadn’t changed. If Onyx’s eyes ever met his in school, they immediately turned away.
Declan flipped open the chart and looked at the parts of the paperwork that hadn’t drawn his notice before. Cody Carmichael, age twelve . Declan quickly did the math and realized Onyx couldn’t have been more than ten or eleven when he was born.
“What’s your relationship…?”
“I’m his sister and guardian.”
“We’re getting ready to take him upstairs. It’ll have to be quick.”
He only waited as long as it took for her to clear the doorway before he charged out to get ready for surgery.
Christ, he’d have to get his mind off of her if he was going to concentrate on saving her brother. But damn she looked hot in that short pink waitress outfit. Oh, just the idea of banging her in that dress; made every cell in his body stand up and take notice.
He wondered which came first: his attraction to women who seemed helpless and his desire to dominate them, or his attraction to her.
2
Declan Stryker peeled the plastic gloves off his hands and freed his face from the mask. As he glanced at the clock, he wondered where the time had gone.
He checked his appearance quickly to make sure there was no blood on his scrubs and finding none, he made his way to the surgical waiting room. Thankfully, the operation had gone well so far and the tough little kid was hanging in there.
Onyx Carmichael sat in a corner chair looking pale and shaken. The two girls he’d spotted as he left the trauma bay sat on the floor next to an open box of pizza. Offhandedly, he noticed they shared a small cheese pizza and thought it wasn’t enough to feed three people. Hell, he could eat that much by himself—not that he ate
The girls tried to smile but Reina looked terrified and Lotus’s pale cheeks were streaked with rivulets of tears. She gave them both a quick kiss on their foreheads.
“It’s going to be okay.”
Nyxie hated to lie. Nothing was going to be the same. Even if Cody lived, his recovery would be long and painful. And now CPS would step in. Were they going to take all three children away from her? Would they take them away from the most stable, loving home any of them had ever known—including Onyx?
If CPS needed to get involved, why hadn’t they done it twenty years ago when they could have helped her sister and her, long before Cody was born, long before her sister ran away, gave birth to two babies and became a meth-head?
Dr. Declan Stryker finished consulting with the ER resident, gave the kid a quick glance and was about to head to the OR to begin scrubbing for surgery. He turned and there stood the girl from high school he had fantasized about at least a thousand times.
His eyes darted to the name tag she wore for confirmation and he stood there confused for only a second until he made the connection from Onyx to Nyxie. If she’d used that nickname in high school, he’d never heard it. But then again, he’d never really known her.
He and his parents had moved to the farm town of Chimera Flats, population six thousand and change, his junior year. His father had been hired as the head football coach for the West Texas town and Declan quarterbacked the team. But it wasn’t until the new freshmen came in his senior year, that he saw Onyx Carmichael for the first time.
He’d never lived in a small town before so he didn’t know about the collective consciousness of an inbred community. It reminded him of a Borg hive out of Picard’s Trek . Everyone knew everyone, and they all knew each other’s life story. He quickly learned she was persona non grata .
Waifish in appearance with jet black hair, huge brown doe eyes and a delicate bone structure, Declan was attracted to her vulnerability. He didn’t understand his burgeoning proclivities, but he did find himself drawn to the loner.
“M-may I see him?” she asked barely sparing a glance at him. That hadn’t changed. If Onyx’s eyes ever met his in school, they immediately turned away.
Declan flipped open the chart and looked at the parts of the paperwork that hadn’t drawn his notice before. Cody Carmichael, age twelve . Declan quickly did the math and realized Onyx couldn’t have been more than ten or eleven when he was born.
“What’s your relationship…?”
“I’m his sister and guardian.”
“We’re getting ready to take him upstairs. It’ll have to be quick.”
He only waited as long as it took for her to clear the doorway before he charged out to get ready for surgery.
Christ, he’d have to get his mind off of her if he was going to concentrate on saving her brother. But damn she looked hot in that short pink waitress outfit. Oh, just the idea of banging her in that dress; made every cell in his body stand up and take notice.
He wondered which came first: his attraction to women who seemed helpless and his desire to dominate them, or his attraction to her.
2
Declan Stryker peeled the plastic gloves off his hands and freed his face from the mask. As he glanced at the clock, he wondered where the time had gone.
He checked his appearance quickly to make sure there was no blood on his scrubs and finding none, he made his way to the surgical waiting room. Thankfully, the operation had gone well so far and the tough little kid was hanging in there.
Onyx Carmichael sat in a corner chair looking pale and shaken. The two girls he’d spotted as he left the trauma bay sat on the floor next to an open box of pizza. Offhandedly, he noticed they shared a small cheese pizza and thought it wasn’t enough to feed three people. Hell, he could eat that much by himself—not that he ate
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