She kissed me on top of my head and then moved over to where Sin was still sitting. “Hey there, buddy.” She and Mrs. Sinclair shared a look that was like they were talking without even moving their lips. Jace called it “mom telepathy” since it was like they could read each other’s minds.
Alicia turned her gaze back to Sin, and her chin trembled. “Thank you, Sin. You saved my baby girl today. You’re a brave kid.”
“Kassa helped me too,” he told her. “She hit the dog until he let me go then ran like a little pussy back into his yard. I saw the people who live there open the door and let him in. They don’t even care that he bit me.”
Her jaw clenched, and when she looked at the house where the dog lived, her eyes turned cold and kind of scary. “Oh, they’ll care when I get done with them. Just wait.”
THREE
Gray
I didn’t waste time once Mr. Peabody said I could leave. He hadn’t made me stay nearly as long as he had threatened when I had gotten in trouble during history class. He was just like most people in the world: full of hot air but no real conviction to back up what he said. The man was lazy, would have rather been at home, playing with his fifty cats than teaching kids all day. He came in every day with enough cat hair to make a blanket, and it made the girl in the front of the class sneeze so badly that we all wondered if her head was going to eventually explode.
The only good thing about detention was that I had finished my homework. I went to my locker and put my stuff away before heading home. On the walk, I wondered if Kassa was doing her homework yet or not. She was smart, maybe smarter than any other kid in her grade, but she hated homework. I had told Sin to make sure she did it, but she could twist him around her finger almost as easily as she could me.
Two blocks into my walk home, I saw a bunch of flashing lights up ahead. Curiosity had me jogging so I could see what was going on. It wasn’t just cop cars, either, I noticed as I got closer, but an ambulance too. There were at least half a dozen vehicles blocking the road, making passing cars have to detour around that street. My stomach twisted when I realized which house the cops were in front of.
That damn dog’s house.
I hated that dog. He was aggressive toward Kassa, always trying to bite her if she was by herself. She hated walking by that house, and that was one of the reasons I had asked Sin to walk her home. Alicia had been feuding with the dog’s owners for the last few weeks over it, but so far, it had just been words thrown at each other. I knew my aunt though, and she was just one more incident away from having the dog forced into some kind of aggression class. It needed a freaking muzzle—that was my opinion, at least. But no one had asked for it.
With each step I took, my pace increased until I was sprinting toward the house. I stopped when I recognized Alicia’s car.
“Kassa!” Her name was out of my mouth before I even realized my lips were moving.
One of the cops stopped when he noticed me. After giving me a once-over, he nodded in the direction of the ambulance and then went back to what he was doing. Which was just standing there, watching the house.
My heart was pounding so hard that it echoed in my ears. My knees shook as I raced over to the ambulance. The first person I recognized was Alicia. She was standing with one foot on the ground and the other on the bumper, her face tight with anger and concern as she spoke quietly to someone inside.
Then I saw little legs covered in the same purple leggings I remembered Kassa wearing that morning. The knot in my gut tightened even more as I moved around the open door of the ambulance and saw Kassa just standing there, looking into the back of the emergency vehicle. Her beautiful little face was pale, her eyes worried, but
my heart gave a squeeze as relief filled me.
“Kassa.” My voice was low and rough, full of all the emotions I wanted to hide but never could with her.
At the sound of my voice, even as quiet as it had been, her head snapped up and her eyes brightened a little. She let go of Alicia’s hand and practically jumped over the few feet of space that separated us, her legs wrapping around my waist as she hugged my neck. She barely weighed anything at all, and I held on to the most special person in my life.
“What happened?” I demanded, not releasing her as I tried to figure out what was going on.
Kassa seemed fine, so why the hell was there an ambulance? And where was Sin?
Alicia bit her lip and looked into the back of the vehicle. I followed her gaze and saw Mrs. Sinclair sitting inside. My gut twisted all over again as I walked closer so I could see inside better.
My best friend was lying back on a gurney, with what I thought was an IV in his left arm. His right arm was wrapped in a thick bandage, but it didn’t seem to be helping keep whatever wound he had from bleeding. The bandage was soaked through with blood, his arm and his fingers swollen.
Alicia gave me a grim smile and finally spoke. “Sin saved Kassa from getting hurt but got bit in the process. He’s been waiting on you to get here before he will let the paramedics take him to the hospital for stitches.”
Sin’s eyes met mine, and I could see the pain my friend was in, but I couldn’t seem to figure out how to make my vocal cords work. My arms tightened around Kassa, trying to reassure myself that she was safe. But Sin, he wasn’t. He had gotten bit by the neighbor’s big dog. If the bandage on his arm was anything to go by, it wasn’t a little bite, either.
“Thank you,” I whispered, but he must have read my lips, because he only shrugged, his gaze going to Kassa, who was holding on to me for dear life.
“He’s here now, Tate. You have to go to the emergency room now,” Mrs. Sinclair told him.
“Fine,” he grumbled. “But I’m not staying in the hospital.”
“You will if the doctor says you have to,” his mother snapped, which was unusual for her. She was normally so lighthearted and nice. Always had a smile on her face for her son.
I had never doubted how much she loved Sin or how far she would go to protect him. I had been jealous of that when my own mother had been alive. But, now, I had Alicia and I got to have that kind of love from a woman who was ten times better to me than I could have hoped my mother to be.