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

by the cold or the light settling over
him, outlining him like glitter on black construction paper.
    Like one of Toby’s drawings on the
fridge.
    Toby.
    She didn’t know why she suddenly felt near
hysterics. She felt no motherly bond to the kid huddled beside her
in a thick coat despite how adorable he was. With the living shadow
staring at her, the winter wind sucking the air from her lungs, and
the prescriptions clenched in her hand, she’d never felt less a
part of her world.
    A car approached, and a window lowered.
    "You need a lift? Taxis quit coming this way
after rush hour."
    The voice of the friendly nurse from the
nurse’s station brought her back from her thoughts. Blinking back
tears, Katie looked toward the shadow. He was gone.
    "Yeah," she forced herself to say.
"Thanks."
    The nurse dropped her and Toby off, and they
trudged to her apartment.
    The shadow man was on her fridge. Toby had
drawn him on black construction paper with silver glitter outlining
the shape of a man. There was no mistaking the image.
    Death dealer, Toby had called him.
    Katie stared at the picture for a long
moment, then emptied her pockets on the table. She attached the
prescriptions to the fridge with another cartoon magnet and
smoothed out the paperwork she’d been given from the police
station. Toby dropped his coat in the middle of the floor and
trudged to his room with a yawn. She slumped in a chair at the
kitchen table, eyes blurring as she struggled to make out the
forms. There were biographical forms and consent forms she hadn’t
really read, all signed in a loopy, angry signature, and a copy of
Toby's birth certificate.
    Wiping her eyes, she pored through the rest
of the paperwork, growing cold despite her wool coat in the middle
of her warm apartment. Biographical information on her and her
immediate family, her own medical and employment histories, all
forms she’d completed without question. Toby's birth certificate
listed her as the mother, no father, and the naval hospital in
Annapolis as his birthplace.
    The paperwork otherwise had nothing to do
with Toby or their accusation that she abandoned her kid on the
Metro.
    Aside from the birth certificate, there was
no way the rest were official police papers!
    Dropping the papers on her computer desk, she
then stripped off her coat and passed by the guest…Toby’s room. He
was asleep.
    She returned to the desk and scoured the
paperwork for some sort of identifying information on the place
she'd been or the company that developed the forms.
    Nothing.
    Frustrated, she searched the Internet for Dr.
Williams until she found the eminent neurologist, whose picture she
recognized. Somewhat relieved, she read his biography, impressed by
his clientele, who ranged from heads of countries around the world
to the richest families on the planet. He’d graduated from a
Switzerland medical school and practiced extensively in Europe
before coming to the United States thirty years before…
    …and dying twenty years ago at the age of
sixty-four.
    She reread the entry, brow furrowed. Yes, it
was his picture and yes, his clinic had been located in the same
place it was now.
    She’d spent several hours in his office
talking to a dead man?
    "Mama."
    She jerked. She had forgotten Toby…again. He
stood sleepy and frowning, dark hair tousled.
    "I want cocoa."
    Did she even have…of course she would. Right
next to her tea. She went to the kitchen and made him a cup in
silence, glancing at him a few times as he propped his head up with
both his hands.
    "Do you go to school?" she asked
awkwardly.
    "Yes," he said, and rolled his eyes. "I have
a map. I know you forget."
    I can’t be this crazy.
    She sat across from him, cocoa with
marshmallows before both of them.
    "Do I forget often?" she asked.
    "No."
    "Do you like…school?"
    "I guess," he said with a shrug. "The
teachers are mean to me."
    "That sucks, I guess."
    "Yeah. I like marshmallows."
    She stretched for the counter and tugged the
bag