Katie's Hellion (Rhyn Trilogy, Book One) Read Online Free

looked again to Toby, who’d begun to mess with
the buttons on his side of the car.
    "Shouldn’t you have your seatbelt on?" she
asked.
    "Okay, Mama," he said cheerfully, and
complied.
    I’m going insane.
    The driver said nothing the rest of the way
and dropped them off in front of her apartment complex without
asking for directions. Toby darted out of the car and shoved the
door to the lobby open with all his might.
    She trailed, even more perplexed when the
janitor waxing the floor called out a cheerful, "Hey, Toby!"
    She rubbed her head, wondering if the kid
lived somewhere else in the building while unable to shake the
sense that something was really, really wrong. Toby held the
elevator for her and pressed the button for all twenty floors. She
looked at him hard, unable to recall anything at all about the
kid.
    They reached the sixth floor, where her
apartment was. He darted off the elevator and down the hall,
stopping in front of her apartment. She opened the door, and he
strode in as if he owned the place. Toby bolted to the first room
on the right, the guest bedroom.
    Katie looked around her apartment, eyes
lingering on a drawing done by a child on the fridge. There were
pictures on her mantle of the two of them together when he was
younger, toys piled into a box near her couch, a school lunch menu
and more pictures --these apparently from past Halloweens --on the
bulletin board on one wall of the kitchen. She took it all in,
feeling as if she'd stepped into the Twilight Zone, and followed
Toby down the hall.
    The guest room was redone in race cars and
Disney characters. His energy sapped, the kid was sprawled half
asleep across the race car bed. She stared at the walls, wondering
who’d had the time to repaint her guest room. It certainly didn’t
smell like someone had painted it recently, and there were scuff
marks, crayon, and dirt on the walls.
    As if it’d been a kid’s room for a long time.
She hesitated, then covered him with a blanket and walked to the
guest bathroom. It, too, was done up in a race car theme with toys
lining the side of the tub.
    Head pulsing, she retreated to the kitchen
and painkillers, staring at a picture drawn by a kid, probably
Toby, on the table before her.
    She didn’t have any kids. She’d never had
kids. She’d never met Toby before this day!
    Her cell rang, and she stared at it briefly
through bleary eyes.
    "Hey sis," she said after pressing the answer
button. "I’ve had a horrible day!"
    "Oh, hon, I’m sorry to hear that," her sis
said in a distracted tone that said she really didn’t care. "Toby
still sick?"
    "What?"
    "Is Toby still sick?"
    Katie drew the phone away from her head and
stared at it, willing herself to wake up.
    "Hello, Katherine?"
    "Yeah."
    "Ooooh, are you having one of your…issues?"
Hannah whispered the last word.
    "What issues?"
    "You know…your amnesia issues."
    "I have amnesia?"
    "Hon, call Dr. Williams immediately."
    "Who? Hannah, when I left home this morning,
I had no kids! None. None! "
    "God, it’s getting worse, isn’t it?" Hannah
said with genuine concern. "Gio’s paying for the best neurologist
in the world. You may as well go in."
    "So you’re still engaged to Giovanni. And I
work at…"
    "McGillen’s, like you have for the past few
months. I think it's your third job this year."
    "I remember those things. You can’t tell me
I’d forget my own child!" Katie all but shouted.
    "Let me guess, you have a headache. You
probably did something stupid like leave Toby on the train."
    Katie’s mouth worked without producing
sound.
    "We go through this at least twice a year."
Now Hannah sounded bored rather than concerned. "Call the doc. You
keep his number on the fridge."
    Katie looked to the fridge, where a small
business card was stuck beneath a cartoon magnet. She plucked it
free.
    "Yeah," she managed. "Yeah, I’ll call
him."
    "We’ll have brunch Saturday. Don’t be late
this time. I have to get ready for the Kingsly gala. Oh, and