Snake Skin Read Online Free PDF

guys. Her phone rang. She glanced at the caller ID.
Megan. Sigh. Even if her pre-teen didn't always see her that
way.
    "Call me if you need me," she told Fletcher,
heading towards the van with the mannequin in the back seat. She
flipped her phone open. "Hey sweetie, I hear you're not feeling
well."
    "If you're too busy, I can call Dad. Again,"
Megan said. Somehow the twelve-year-old's tone managed to carry
more disapproval than a Taliban watching a striptease.
    "No, it's fine. I'll be there in twenty
minutes." Thank god the operation was on the right side of the Fort
Pitt tunnel. And there'd be no traffic on a Saturday morning.
    "The doctor said he has to leave for the
hospital by 9:30."
    "I know, Megan. I'll get you there. I
promise." Silence. "Did you take some ibuprofen? That will help you
feel better."
    "Yeah, Dad told me to take some. And to
drink lots of fluids."
    "Good." Lucy started the van and pulled away
from her team, resisting the urge to go back and remind them that
they had another meet set for tomorrow. This one was in a motel, so
no room for snakes. At least she hoped not. She shuddered, told
herself it was the AC. "I'll be there soon."
    "When we lived in Virginia, I never got
sick."
    Lucy tightened her grip on the wheel. Bad
enough she had the powers-that-be in the Bureau judging her every
move, she really didn't need it coming from her twelve-year-old
daughter. "Think of it as building up your immune system."
    Megan grunted in reply.
    "Well, if you're really sick, I can call
your gram to come watch you." One of the few perks of moving to
Pittsburgh was that Lucy's mother was only forty minutes away in
Latrobe.
    Megan used to love spending time with her
gram. But not since adolescence had gotten a stranglehold on her.
Now family was soooo boring.
    "Whatever," Megan said and hung up.
    Lucy tossed the phone aside and hit the gas
pedal. Maybe the stress of moving and starting a new school, making
the soccer team was too much for Megan. One more thing to feel
guilty about. As if trying to juggle a career and her family
weren't enough already.
    Way she figured it, every kid she rescued
here at work put another penny in the karma bank, saving up to
protect Megan. That was some consolation for time spent away from
her family. Not that she could ever explain that to Nick or
Megan.
    She glanced in the rearview, caught the
mannequin's eye and winked. "Let's not tell her about the snakes,
okay, Katie Mae?"
     
     
     
     

Chapter 4
    Saturday, 9:06 am
     
    Lucy twirled her wedding band around her
ring finger, rubbing it clean of the smudge of Ruby's lipstick.
Megan swung her legs from her perch on the exam table, her gown
flapping open, revealing tanned legs and bruises she wore with
pride ever since making the soccer team.
    There were so many things Lucy should be
doing: double-checking on the snake handlers' processing and
paperwork, prepping for tomorrow's op, reviewing the latest NCMEC
bulletins, cleaning her guns...
    Megan rustled through a tattered copy of National Geographic , looking up over the top of the pages,
glaring at Lucy.
    "You know you look like a slut," she finally
observed in a bored, world-weary tone. As if her mother always
dressed like a trailer-trash single-mom ready to sell her kid to
strangers. "And what's that smell?"
    Lucy remained silent, staring at the
duckling wallpaper above Megan's head. Lately, since they'd—no, she'd —uprooted Megan and moved to Pittsburgh, everything
Lucy said only made things worse.
    "You could wait outside," Megan continued.
"Really, it's fine. I go in alone for my checkups now, you
know."
    Lucy wasn't sure she liked that idea either.
Hard to believe her baby was twelve, almost a teenager. The thought
was laced with strychnine. Lucy knew all too well what dangers
waited for Megan as she grew older. Hated that no matter how good
she and Nick were as parents, Megan would still eventually face
them alone.
    "Don't forget soccer next week," Megan said,
adding one more