Quick Fix by Linda Grimes Read Free Book Online

shook him. His gaze, if anything, intensified.
    “Are you really stuck, Molly? Not just grabbing a little attention? This would be a great way to delay your trip back home.”
    Molly stood, shaking her head emphatically, looking first to Billy, then to me, and finally to Thomas, the staring contest tossed by the wayside in an effort to convince us wordlessly of her innocence.
    I picked her up and gave my brother a dirty look. “James, how could you? Don’t you think she’s upset enough?”
    He rose in one graceful motion and laid a hand on her head. “Sorry, Molly. I just had to be sure.”
    She was having none of it. She pulled away and stuck out her tongue at him.
    He smiled at her—a darned engaging smile, if it’s not conceited to say that about someone who looks so much like me.
    “Come on, Molly. I’m a scientist. You told me you wanted to be one, too—you know scientists have to test all theories. Now that I’ve scratched off ‘doing it on purpose,’ I can concentrate on other possibilities. Forgive me?”
    “Don’t ask for forgiveness too soon,” Billy said. “It’s a plausible theory. She wasn’t thrilled when I told her we were going back early after she started projecting random aura parts.”
    “It would be an effective maneuver if she wanted to stay here. Something I might’ve thought of at her age,” Thomas added. His legal mind was one to appreciate good tactics.
    Molly sagged against me, her sense of betrayal evident to all.
    “Piss off, all of you,” I said. We girls had to stand together. “James, you should know her better. Isn’t Molly at your lab every spare minute?”
    He gave me a look, a mini double take. But it was gone in a flash.
    When he spoke again, it sounded remote. “Relax. I told you I believe Molly.”
    I could see him regrouping data behind his eyes: sorting, eliminating, categorizing, prioritizing. It wasn’t that he was cold or didn’t care about Molly. It was just the way his brain worked. Affection had its place, and it was firmly behind solving a scientific conundrum. The fact that this one involved an aura-adapting anomaly—possibly a genetic mutation, his current field of study—was icing on the cake for him. It might provide him with the break he needed to crack the code.
    Billy still looked skeptical. Thomas accepted James’s verdict as gospel. I was somewhere in the middle but leaned toward giving her the benefit of the doubt.
    “We have to get her back to New York so I can run some tests.”
    “And just how do you propose we do that, airline security being what it is these days?” I said.
    “So drive.”
    Billy blanched. His car was here, since he’d been working yet another job with Mark the previous week, so technically there was no reason not to drive. He’d flown up to get Molly and bring her back as a favor to our moms. When she barfed on a plane, the flight attendant had to clean it up.
    “But … I, uh, can’t take her home until she’s back to normal—Mommo would have a fit.”
    “I need my own lab. I’ve been working on an adaptor genotype, and I can’t risk the data leaking out.”
    “Mark could probably find us something secure around here,” Billy pressed.
    “God, no. Government noses are the last thing we need sniffing around now. It has to be my lab.”
    “Where is Mark, anyway? Isn’t he supposed to be here?” Thomas said.
    I shrugged. “Something came up. He’ll be here later.”
    Billy ignored us and went on talking to James. “What am I supposed to do with her there? I can’t let you keep her at your lab like some sort of specimen.”
    “There’s always your place,” I said helpfully, and enjoyed the wince I’d known would follow.
    “That is not a good idea. I have a”—he cut me a glance—“friend staying there right now.”
    “A friend ?” I said, trying to keep my eyes from narrowing. (It’s harder to do than you might imagine.)
    “Friend of a friend, really. It would be tough to explain Molly