Theodore (Xavier's Hatchlings #2) - Kathi S. Barton Page 0,50

it, but I just can’t bring myself to let it go. I will soon enough, but it’s just that I spent a great many holidays there growing up with my family. Not always good ones, mind you, but we had a few of them.” Pem asked her what she meant by letting it go soon; she’d said something like that three times now. Jamie looked at him before she answered. “I have a rare blood disease attacking my body. While it’s doing that, it’s shutting down my major organs one at a time. The doctor said I have a few months left, but I bet if you asked Theo here, he’d have a better count. Don’t you?”

“You have less than three weeks if that.” She nodded and looked at Pem. “I can help you, Jamie. I’d be glad to help you out with this.”

“Naw. I don’t have much to go on for any more. I mean, my death will pay off my sister’s bill and pay for me to be burned up, and that’s it. I’m worth more to her dead than alive.” Theo asked if her sister would think that. “She hasn’t any idea who I am. Who anyone is, for that matter. She was in the same car accident that killed my parents. Massive head injury that caused her to be without oxygen for too long. She can get up and move around, but she doesn’t talk, feed herself, or even know how to dress herself. Walking is about it. Only, they told me, because she was just learning that when she was hurt.”

“I’m so sorry.” He watched as Pem hugged the other woman. Touching his fingers to her back, he sent as much magic as he could to her without her knowledge. Pem kissed him on the mouth when they separated. “No matter, you’ll stay here until we figure things out. I won’t take no for an answer. Also, I want to look into the money with your sister. You told me about that once. How there was an investment firm to watch over her money. I’m going to get to the bottom of that too.”

“She’s always been like that. Never leaving any stone uncovered.” Theo handed a bowl of mashed potatoes to Jamie to touch her. She was already getting better. “I lost my favorite pen once. Three weeks later, she brings it to me, telling me she finally chased it down. I didn’t tell her then that I’d already bought one to replace it. She might well have hit me with it.”

The rest of the main meal was like that. Laughter was all over the place. Theo also noticed that Finn made it a point to touch the young woman too. Even George, who wasn’t a dragon, gave her a little of what he had. Theo would bet in no time, Jamie was going to get a clean bill of health. Then perhaps she could help him talk Pem into being head of surgery at the new hospital. They’d make a hell of a team if they would work together. Finn nodded at his other brothers when the meal was being cleared away for dessert.

Chapter 8

Jamie watched Dover as he moved behind her. Then when he shook his head at Finn, she stood up. This shit was getting on her last nerve. He’d been the third brother to move behind her and sniff. The fuckers were treating her like a nasty dog.

Pushing the big man to the wall, she grabbed his, what turned out to be an impressive handful of balls and squeezed them tightly. The look of pain on his face was just what she was going for.

“What the fuck are you looking for?” He glanced at his brother, and she squeezed just a little more. Smiling at him, knowing that her eyes did not reflect her being in a good mood, she asked him again. “I’m talking to you, not him right now. Why are you fuckers going behind me and sniffing me like a mangy dog?”

“You’d be a bitch, not a dog.” She gave his balls a hard yank. “Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I was trying for humor. I don’t think you’re going to be in any better of a mood when I tell you what— All right. Yes. To the point. Finn told us to do it.”

Finn was moving out of the room when she pulled a knife from her boot and threw it toward him. The sharp blade was still