Predator by Janice Gable Bashman Read Free Book Online

“It’s just…I trusted Kelsi. You trusted her . How could she do that to us?”
    “We can’t possibly know. So don’t let it distract us from what we need to do.”
    A burst of air left Bree’s lips. He was right, but still—that wasn’t what she wanted to hear. She wanted him to get upset too, just this one time. Just so she knew he was on her side. “How can you act like it doesn’t even bother you?” she said. “I saw the way you looked at Kelsi. I know you liked her. And Mom’s been gone a long time…”
    “Look, I don’t know what you think you saw, and even if I did have—oh, I don’t know—a crush on Kelsi—that’s all it was. Nothing happened between us, and I seriously doubt she even saw me that way. And as far as what happened with the hand…I feel betrayed too. She wouldn’t have known about it if I hadn’t hired her. If you hadn’t led her to it.”
    Bree shrugged. “You think they’ll find her?”
    Her dad swirled the ice in his drink. “I hope so. I’d love to find out what she’s so afraid of.”
    Bree smiled; she couldn’t help it. Only her dad could be more curious than angry at a time like this. And now he had her wondering too.
    Her dad’s cell rang from the other room. He set his drink next to the TV and went to answer it.
    After a few minutes of quiet conversation, all went silent.
    She peered into her dad’s room and found him with his head down and his face in his hands. “Dad, what’s wrong?”
    He looked up at her with tears in his eyes. “That was General Maberry.”
    Bree couldn’t breathe. “It’s Andy, isn’t it?”
    He nodded. “Andy’s body is slowly shutting down. He begged me, pleaded with me to do something, anything, to save his son…and I couldn’t. I didn’t know what to say. If only I had worked harder and figured out a way to perfect the wound repair serum, Troy and all those soldiers…they’d be…they’d still be alive.”
    Bree kneeled in front of her dad. When he raised his head, she was surprised to see tears streaking his cheeks. “But Andy’s still alive. There’s still time to save him.”
    He shook his head. “When Andy was first injured he was crying out from pain. Now he’s just an empty shell. He hasn’t made a sound in weeks. I don’t know which is worse: saving him on the battlefield to have him end up like this or not saving him at all.”
    “How long does he have?” Bree asked.
    “Weeks, maybe a few months at most.”
    “You have to think, Dad. There has to be something we can do to fix the serum so the wound repair process doesn’t reverse.”
    He sighed so quietly, as if he barely had the energy to simply breathe. “If I knew what it was, I would have done it already. And even if I could figure something out, it could take years before it’s ready. Andy doesn’t have that kind of time.”
    “But if we don’t save Andy,” Bree said with a hitch in her voice, “then Troy will have died for nothing.”
    He turned his head away from her. “You don’t think I know that, Bree? That Troy sacrificed his life to save Andy’s? I think about it every single day.”
    “I didn’t mean it like that,” she said. “I miss him too, you know. A lot.”
    He swallowed hard. “I know. I’m sorry.”
    “We’ll figure it out, Dad. I know we will.”
    He wiped his eyes with the backs of his hands, nodded, and took a deep breath. “The answer has to lie in the preservation properties of bog bodies. I just know it. But for the life of me I can’t figure out how.”
    She stood. “You said the acid in the peat preserves the flesh, right?”
    “Yes.”
    “So, we’re not looking to preserve the flesh. We need to transform it into something else, so we can permanently repair it.”
    “Okay…”
    “So what if that hand’s really from a lycanthrope?”
    “I’m not getting where you’re going with this, Bree.”
    “Lycanthropes transform, right? Maybe there are some clues in there.”
    He stared at her but said