Forbidden by Cathy Clamp

didn’t come to get you because he was in an accident last night.”
    All of a sudden, Denis looked shaken. He looked from John to Asylin and back again. “What? On his bike? Is he okay? Where is he, Mama?”
    Asylin shook her head, both sad and angry. She sat in the chair next to Denis’s. “Did you not even notice Dani’s face? Just look at her, son. And poor Claire’s head, all covered in gauze. Alek saved their lives last night when a wild animal attacked them. Dani’s car was torn apart.” She laid a gentle hand on his bare arm and the simple gesture broke down his last defense. The surliness slipped from his aura and Claire saw that he finally took notice of the woman who had been his AP sibling for the past decade: swollen face, thick black stitches across her forehead, eyes brimming with tears. Worry washed from the teenager’s pores. “Dani … I … Are you okay?”
    Danielle shrugged her good shoulder. “I’ll heal. Eventually. Claire saved my life when we wrecked. Then Alek had to save hers. He gave her CPR until Marilyn got there. So we’re family now, the three of us. We protected each other, just like people did after the plague. The big question is whether you are too. Are you family, Denis?”
    Denis didn’t respond for a long moment. Claire understood what was happening but she wasn’t sure how she felt about Dani making her into a bludgeon. Her nose told her the kid was already embarrassed about being arrested and having a total stranger witness him being berated by his family. She decided to offer an olive branch. “I’m sure Denis would have helped if he’d been there.”
    His gaze flicked to her and he seized her words like a rope in a raging river. “Sure. Of course I would have. You know I’m family, Dani. I’ve been helping search for Kristy and Darrell. I’m not a jerk.”
    Dani looked to her parents for confirmation with raised brows. They both nodded, staying out of the interaction between the siblings. There must be a reason why, but Claire didn’t know it. Too many emotions rose from Dani and the others for Claire to sort out.
    â€œAre you, Denis?” Dani asked sadly. “Sometimes I wonder if you even know what a family is.” Denis’s reaction was clear—his expression shifted from stunned to angry and new scents rose into the air. Dani sighed and turned away. “Look, I’ve got to get down to the police station to see if they have my purse. And the nurse should probably look at Claire’s head.”
    Claire couldn’t think of anything she would like more than to leave the house for a while and get away from the tensions swirling about the family. “That sounds like a great idea, Dani. You can show me around town.”

 
    CHAPTER 6
    No good deed goes unpunished. Alek forced his exhausted leg muscles to push the remains of the Toyota up next to the police cruiser on a tarp they’d spread out against the fence of the impound lot. Although “impound lot” sort of implied that the police actually impounded vehicles, the fenced-off area generally contained the remains of junkers strangers dumped in the wilderness. The problem was that none of the larger city police departments would take them and there wasn’t a crush yard for a hundred miles in any direction. Oh, Lenny went through the motions of entering the vehicle identification numbers in the system—when he could find one—but mostly the cars were wrecks with no particularly interesting history and no known owner. “Okay, that’s the last of it. Can I finally go home and get some sleep?” He was pretty sure he’d ripped out his stitches, but he was too tired to care.
    Ray Vasquez pulled the remaining broken car parts from the backseat of the car and tossed them over Alek’s head to land in the tall grass. He snorted. “You wish. Wanna