Guard (The Underground Book 3) by Becca Jameson Read Free Book Online Page A

toward her patients, not her surroundings. In fact, she lived above the clinic in the smallest space he’d ever seen. And its furnishings were not a bit different from this office.
    Although, now that he thought about it, Haley’s place was hardly larger or nicer than Katie’s.
    “How are you feeling?” Katie asked Haley.
    “Better. Awake at least. I slept for nearly two days. Or I suppose two weeks if you count the time I spent at that damn lab place.”
    Katie winced. “I can’t imagine how scared you were.”
    “Out of my mind, but only when I was lucid enough to consider it.”
    “Do you mind if I ask you six thousand questions?”
    “Nope. Go ahead. Anything I can do to help.”
    “Okay, so I’m trying to make sense of the blood samples I took from you, and also the ones I’ve taken from the guys and Alena. And I’ve never been so stumped.”
    Mikhail sat up straighter and snapped his fingers. “Interesting fact. Haley lived in Russia in 1984 as a baby. She was born the same year as the guys and I.”
    “Huh.” Katie furrowed her brow.
    “You think we might have gotten the same sort of immunizations?” Leo asked. “That would account for the crazy antibodies in our blood.”
    Katie shook her head. “Haley’s is different. So is Alena’s.”
    “Wait.” Mikhail rubbed his hands on his jeans, his brain firing all sorts of information at once. “Immunizations? You think this might have something to do with shots we got as children?”
    “I don’t think I would have gotten any immunizations as a child. My parents were hippies. They didn’t believe in that sort of thing,” Haley stated.
    Katie scrunched up her face and shook her head. “I’m still trying to piece it all together. There has to be some sort of common denominator.”
    “I agree. What is it?” Leo asked.
    Katie shot him a glance. “I’m working on it, big guy.”
    He held up both hands and pursed his lips.
    She grinned. “Okay, so I’d agree, Haley didn’t get immunizations. There’s no evidence of that in her blood work.” She turned toward Mikhail. “But you did, right?”
    “Yes. I remember it distinctly. And I can tell you Alena did not .” He stiffened, remembering that time in his life well. He’d spent twenty-five years stuffing that era into the recesses of his brain, and it was all about to explode right here in Katie’s office.
    “I can see that from her blood work. How old were you?” Katie tipped her head to one side. “Why do you remember this? And how the hell did you know Alena didn’t get immunized?”
    “I was four when our parents abandoned us. I even have vague memories of our mother. Alena was only two.”
    “Did you get immunized before that?”
    “No. I don’t think so.” He shook his head, his palms growing sweaty even though he kept wiping them on his thighs. “About a year later, when I was five…” He dipped his head toward his lap and swallowed. This wasn’t going to be easy.
    Haley set a hand on his back and eased it upward.
    Her touch grounded him in the present, keeping him from sinking into the horror that comprised that summer in Russia.
    He took a deep breath. “Some medical people came to the orphanage. Each day they pulled some kids in to give them their shots. I wasn’t in the first few groups. One night, this boy in my room started convulsing. I was scared out of my mind. I didn’t know what was happening to him.
    “I was also one of the oldest kids in the nursery. By the age of four, most kids were moved out to the main section of the orphanage and blended in with the older children, a boys’ dorm and a girls’ dorm. Probably whenever they were completely potty-trained.
    “But they let me stay in the nursery longer because of Alena. She cried all the time when she wasn’t with me. I think the headmistress didn’t want to deal with Alena, so she let me stay way past my age requirement to essentially parent Alena.”
    Haley’s hand tightened as it eased to his