“He’s right,” Nathan interjected. He smoothed his hand over her leg as he spoke.
“What happened?” Ethan asked. “How did you end up with the Petersons? You were raised as their children and they never told you the truth. You have no memory of the laboratory?”
Shea shook her head. “In her journal, Andrea wrote that she and Brandon grew increasingly upset over our treatment. They’d been with us, studied us since our births, and they felt a bond to us. They considered us theirs because no one else acted as our parents. They planned their escape meticulously. For months. And then one night, they took us and ran.”
“Amazing that they were able to keep you hidden from them for all those years,” Donovan murmured.
“We moved a lot.” She turned to Nathan, a frown twisting her lips. “We talked about this before and it makes even less sense to me now. We never had a lot of money. Mom and Dad always scraped by doing jobs where they could be paid cash. But then we moved to that house in Oregon. You saw it. It’s huge. It’s on the ocean. It has state-of-the-art security and surveillance. We never seemed to worry about money after we moved there. So what happened? Why did we suddenly stop running? Where was the money coming from? They didn’t work. They spent their time homeschooling us, making sure we never went out in public. We didn’t have friends. I’m sure the townspeople thought we were crazy recluses.”
The men traded frowns. Swanny sat forward, his fingers forming a point. He glanced at Nathan and then at Ethan and Donovan. “That’s a damn good question. It certainly would appear that the Petersons got help from someone. Was there anything in the journal to explain it, Shea?”
“No. That’s what’s frustrating. She chronicled the events of our early years and she did so after the fact. It was like a written account almost as if she wanted us to know the truth one day. But her entries stopped when we moved to Oregon. Her last entry only says, ‘God willing, we won’t have to run any longer.’ ”
“Pretty damn cryptic,” Nathan muttered.
“It certainly adds another dimension to this whole mess,” Donovan said in a grim voice. “The Petersons got help from someone, but who? And what was their motive?”
Shea rubbed her forehead in an attempt to ease the strain and the thudding ache that pounded at her temples. Nathan pulled her to him and kissed her brow and then replaced her hand with his own, gently kneading.
“I don’t know. I swear I don’t know. I feel so stupid. I knew my life wasn’t normal. I didn’t always know that, but when I got older, I knew it was downright strange. Still, I never imagined this. How could I have? I thought my parents were just protective of Grace and me. They feared our abilities being discovered and what our lives would be like if that happened. I misunderstood their fear obviously, but I chalked up all of their eccentricities to concern for their daughters.”
“Shea, look at me,” Donovan said.
She lifted her gaze to see Donovan and Ethan both looking at her and Nathan with determination in their eyes. Gone was the skepticism, the doubt. All that remained was burning sincerity.
“KGI has a lot of resources. There isn’t a lot we can’t find out once we set our minds to it. But beyond that, you’re important to Nathan so that makes you important to us. KGI is an organization, yes, but we’re a family first. And we go to the wall for family. Every time. No questions asked. No conditions.”
Her chin quivered as she fought the tide of emotion his heartfelt words wrought.
“I don’t make promises lightly. I don’t bullshit people. We’re going to do everything we can to get to the bottom of this. I can’t guarantee that we’ll ever know who was the mastermind of the experiments on you and Grace. But what I can guarantee is that we’re going to do everything in our power to keep you safe.”
“And Grace?” she asked anxiously.
“And Grace. I need time to look at the surveillance and to gather as much intel as I can, and then I promise you that we will find your sister and we’ll give her the same protection we give you.”
She leaned forward and gripped his hand in both of hers. She included Ethan in her gaze. “Thank you. I’ve been so worried. I don’t know what to do anymore. I didn’t want to involve Nathan, but I couldn’t turn to anyone else.”
Donovan smiled and glanced beyond her to Nathan. “I’d say you chose well. I pity the fool that tries to get between you and him.”
“Damn straight,” Nathan muttered.
NATHAN hovered over Donovan while he tied off the last stitch he’d set in Shea’s shoulder. Her face was tight. She was pale, but she hadn’t done much more than flinch as the suture pierced her skin.
When Nathan had learned that Donovan had only a skeleton med kit with him and the only anesthetic he had was topical, he’d flat out refused to let him stitch Shea up. They could wait until they reached the safe house. He wasn’t about to let her endure unnecessary pain.
It had been Shea who insisted that it be done and over with. Donovan had assured Nathan that the cut was shallow enough that the stitches wouldn’t have to be set deep and that he could do the job with minimal pain to Shea.
Nathan was convinced that Shea bore it so stoically because she wanted to avoid him losing his shit if she cried out.
“You done?” Nathan asked.
Donovan sighed, tore off his gloves and gave Nathan a disgusted look. “Yeah, I’m done.”
Shea battled a smile.
“What?” Nathan demanded.
“You,” she said. “You asked him that at least a dozen times. He’d have been done earlier if he hadn’t had to stop so many times to tell you no.”
“Sorry,” he mumbled. “You okay? Does it hurt? Van should have something for pain. He’s a walking medical unit. Well, usually anyway. Maybe not so much this time.”
Shea looked up to where Donovan was putting away his supplies. “Is there anything you don’t do?”
Donovan donned a thoughtful expression and then shook his head. “Nope.”
Ethan laughed from his seat several feet away. “You walked into that one, Shea.”
Shea seemed baffled by the teasing that already included her. It was something that Nathan missed all too much. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed just being a part of the Kelly family. Endless teasing. Joking. Fierce loyalty.
And now Shea was experiencing it firsthand.
Exhilaration hurtled through his veins. He couldn’t have imagined the immense satisfaction he’d experience seeing Shea accepted into his family. Although Ethan and Donovan didn’t constitute the entire Kelly clan, he couldn’t imagine the rest doing any differently. They’d love her just as he loved her. How could they not?
He had no idea how the hell he was going to work this out, but the one thing he knew was that he absolutely could not imagine a life—his life—without Shea. She’d become as essential as breathing to him.
He didn’t question it. Didn’t argue. Some things just were. And this was one of them. The biggest thing of his entire life.
“I know that look,” Ethan murmured.
Nathan swiveled around to see that Ethan had come up behind him while Donovan had taken Shea to the side to finish cleaning the suture area.
“It’s the way Sam looks at Sophie. The way Garrett looks at Sarah. The way I’m sure I look at Rachel every time she walks into the room. You have the look of a man who is only sure of one thing. That the woman he’s looking at is his, that she’s the most essential part of himself.”
Nathan eyed Ethan warily. “Since when have you gotten so in touch with your feelings?”
Hell, it was one thing to think this kind of shit, but who stood around discussing it with his brother? Nathan’s discomfort level had just skyrocketed. Yeah, he was done for when it came to Shea, but he didn’t want to discuss her with anyone else. Not yet. It was still too new. He wanted to keep every part of her to himself. He didn’t want to share her and damn sure not his feelings about her with anyone.