A Whole New Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 1)

“You didn’t.” I nodded at Kevin. “What’d you do?”

He grew still, sitting to his highest height on the chair. “What are you talking about?”

“You owed Jace Lanser a favor. He cashed it in.” I gestured to myself. “Me.”

His eyes widened.

“Oh, dear.” Shelly paled.

The counselor shrunk down in her seat, her head jerking from me to them.

I asked again, “What’d you do? I’m assuming he covered for you with something. No one does anything for free.” I saw the guilt flare up over his face. “It must’ve been a pretty bad mistake for Jace to call this favor in. I mean, taking a daughter in for life, that’s a big-ass favor for you to agree to.”

“Honey.” Shelly reached for her husband.

He brushed her hand off and turned to the counselor. “Maybe we could have some privacy?”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Oh. Uh.” She clipped her head in a nod. “Of course. I have some work I can do in the other office.” She stood, pushed up from her chair, and paused in the middle of the room. She swept another look over them. Her lips pinched together and she said, “I will be referring you to Mr. Daniels, the other counselor, due to my own ethical obligations. Jace Lanser is a known drug dealer. Because of your association with him, I am uncomfortable continuing my work with your children so I will no longer counsel any of them.”

Kevin rolled his eyes and waved at her. “Fine, fine. Just go.”

Her eyes darkened. Then she left and the door shut a second later.

He was worked up. His cheeks were red and he was wringing his hands together in his lap. He was going to go on the offensive, but I beat him to it, “Don’t try to deny it. Jace already told me the truth.”

“Oh, honey.” Shelly reached out to me. Her hand was trembling. It was so thin and frail. “I don’t know where you get these ideas, but that isn’t true. We wanted you. We did.” She glanced to her husband for support.

There was none. His eyebrows were still furrowed together and his lips were pressed in a flat line.

“Kevin?”

He ignored her and said to me, “What did he say?”

She sucked in a dramatic breath.

“That you owed him a favor. What was it? Someone overdosed on your pills?”

He looked away. Bull’s-eye.

“Oh my god.” Shelly started rocking back and forth. She wrapped her arms around herself.

“The person died.”

Holy shit. I hadn’t expected him to confess.

He closed his eyes, cursed, and looked at the ground. His hand raked through his hair again. He grabbed a fistful of it and he remained like that as he took a moment. Inhaling, then exhaling, his voice dropped low, “I messed up. They sent a girl to me. She was on other meds, and she was asking for a different painkiller. I didn’t read the file. I was sent an email. It was in code, but it said the patient’s name and what I was supposed to give her. I swear,” he raised his haunted eyes to me, “I had no idea what would happen.”

I sat there in shock.

A disgusted and wrangled sound came from him. “I’ve been holding onto that for so long.” He looked at Shelly. “I’m so sorry, honey. I am.”

Her hands were pressed to her mouth. It was hanging open and her eyebrows remained arched high. She shook her head in a tight motion and whimpered, then jerked to her feet. “No. No, you can’t do this.”

“Honey?”

“You can’t—” She stopped, look at me, and another whimper slipped out. She pressed her hands even tighter to her mouth. “I am so sorry, Taryn. You’re right. We never should’ve adopted you. Our family is not good enough for you. I am so sorry.” She bit back her next words, glared at her husband, took her purse and left.

He started to go after her.