Tastes Like Candy (Lean Dogs Legacy Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

know.” She pressed her lips to his forehead. “I know you are.”
     
    ~*~
     
    She woke with a start to find the room dark and her neck bent at a terrible angle. She grimaced and sat up, eyes struggling to adjust.
                  “It’s okay. Stay there,” her father said, and she relaxed again.
                  Phillip had dragged a chair up alongside hers and sat pitched forward, elbows braced on its plastic arms.
                  “How long have you been here?”
                  “About an hour.”
                  She darted a glance to the bed and saw that Tommy was still asleep, breathing shallowly, but regularly.
                  “He’s out of the woods, you know,” Phillip said. “The doctor said surgery went well, and barring infection, he’ll be good as new.”
                  “But he almost…” She couldn’t bring herself to finish.
                  “He could have,” Phillip agreed. “Had the knife gone in differently. Yeah. It’s a miracle, really.” His head turned toward her, the nightlight on the wall gleaming in his pale eyes. “The news is calling them homegrown terrorists. Everyone thinks it was some kind of religious shit.”
                  A sensation like insects crawled across her skin. “Albie thinks they were after the thumb drive.”
                  “I think he’s right.”
                  She swallowed. “The man who saw our faces…”
                  “Dead. Nearly decapitated.” He made a chopping motion against the back of his neck with a faint smile. “They’re speculating one of his own people did it. Disagreement or some such.”
                  “But?”
                  “But I don’t know if the others saw.” He gave her a regretful half-smile. “Do you have it still?”
                  She fished it from her jacket pocket. It felt warm and heavier than it should have. Important. It was a relief to pass it into her father’s capable hand.
                  “What are you going to do?”
                  “Open it,” he said, “and figure out why the hell someone wanted it bad enough to blow up a street.” His free hand settled over hers, rough and callused. “But first I’m going to get you somewhere safe.”
                  “Dad, no.” She came fully awake, heart slamming against her ribs. “You can’t–”
                  “Can and will, love.”
                  She gripped the arms of the chair, chest burning with anger, frustration, and a hot surge of grief. “You would exile me.”
                  “No. I would protect you.”
                  She’d known this was coming. If she was honest with herself, she’d been expecting it for the last few years, half-afraid every time he called her into his office that he was about to insist she venture out into the civilian world.
                  “Michelle.” He pulled her head down to his shoulder, and she let him, exhausted and unwilling to fight. “I’ve been a poor father, putting you at risk the way I have.”
                  She closed her eyes.
                  “So I’m going to do the right thing this time. “Don’t call it exile, darling. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
     

Three
     
    Amarillo, Texas
     
    Candy
     
    “Today?” Jenny exclaimed. “Why didn’t you tell me she was coming today ?”
                  He shrugged and shoveled in more breakfast. Sausage and leek quiche with grits and fried ham on the side. If he didn’t know better, he’d think Darla was trying to kill them all with hypertension. “You’ve been busy,” he said around a mouthful. “Figured you had more important shit to worry about.”
                  His sister