Blood Will Tell Read Online Free PDF

that.”
    Now Nick was stuck behind an old beater pickup doing about thirty-five. What was the guy even doing on the freeway? The next lane over was full of trucks, so he couldn’t pass. “Come on,” he muttered, gripping the steering wheel so tightly it cut into his palms.
    Nick’s dad must have sucked it up when he was in Iraq. You could bet that he hadn’t been puking on the front lines. You couldn’t be a soldier if the sight of a little blood turned your stomach inside out.
    His mom never even talked about his dad, who had been dead for a dozen years. But Nick had seen the medal, snug in its case, in her dresser drawer. A Bronze Star on a red, white, and blue ribbon. He had looked it up on Wikipedia. “Rewarded for bravery, acts of merit, or meritorious service.”
    But his mom never talked about the medal or the man. His dad had fallen in combat—that was all Nick had been able to piece together from cryptic scraps of overheard conversation. Sacrificed himself to save others.
    Nick had been four when his dad died. Sometimes he wondered if his few memories, now worn paper thin, were even his. Maybe he had imagined them or seen them in a movie. He thought he remembered a deep, booming voice; big hands lifting him into the air; a scratchy cheek against his own.
    All his mom ever said was, “The army destroyed your father. You’ll join up over my dead body.”
    When it was the only thing Nick wanted.
    In the army, he was sure he would feel like he belonged. He had this weird pale Afro. He was too light-skinned to be black, too dark-skinned to be white. Nick had grown up in a white world, but he didn’t really fit there. That world didn’t really want him. If he went into a store with a white friend, his friend would be left alone, while Nick would be followed.
    But in the army, Nick was sure he would fit in. All the army asked was that you be fit and strong and fast. And brave. And until tonight, Nick had thought he was well on his way to getting there.
    Finally, he spotted a chance to pass the pickup, and he took it, even though his mom’s car shuddered, even though his exit was just ahead.
    What would his dad think now if he could see Nick? Vomiting and nearly passing out when he should have been helping a little girl? Yeah, sure, he had eventually pulled it together, but what if it kept happening every time he saw blood? If he joined up, could he even make it through basic training, let alone an actual firefight?
    Nick was a failure. As a potential boyfriend and a potential soldier. With an index finger, he punched the button on his mom’s radio so that it switched from the golden oldies station to something a lot more angry. Something that fit his mood.

 
    CHAPTER 10
    K
    SUNDAY
    MONSTER
    What had he done? What had he done?
    In the small bathroom, he threw up and kept throwing up until all that came out were strings of yellow bile.
    He was a monster.
    No. What had happened was a mistake. A mistake he would never make again.
    That was what he told himself. Over and over.

 
    CHAPTER 11
    NICK
    SUNDAY
    FULL OF BLOOD AND SCREAMS
    Nick was too keyed up to sleep. Images kept flickering through his brain. Alexis hanging on to Bran. Mariana’s mangled leg. Alexis brushing the hair out of Bran’s eyes. The weight of Mariana’s skull in Nick’s hands. Interspersed with pictures of other things, darker things.
    What kind of dreams would he have, full of blood and screams? He most definitely did not want to go to bed right away.
    With luck, Kyle would be up, he thought as he put his key in the door. Or at least he would get up once he heard Nick. He let the front door thump closed. Their mom slept so hard that nothing could wake her, but Kyle was a light sleeper.
    Nick needed to let off steam. To get out some of the energy still humming in his veins. He and Kyle could play a little Call of Duty . It would be way more fun without Mom hovering in