Read Online Sins (Vance Davis Dossier #2) by Heather Huffman - Free Book Online Page A

dryness was back and he wanted more. It took three more spoonsful for the humor of the situation to hit him.
    He cracked a small grin. “I can’t say I ever pictured you spoon feeding me ice chips, Jeff.”
    “I can’t say I ever pictured you letting me.”
    “Maybe it’s the kinder, gentler me,” Vance suggested.
    “Did you meet a woman?” Jeff leaned his forearms on the bed railing and regarded Vance.
    “Not like you think. No, maybe I’m just getting old.”
    “You’re 29.”
    Vance rubbed his neck with his free arm. “I feel older.”
    “Maybe it’s because you keep getting the crap kicked out of you.”
    “Job hazard.”
    Jeff chuckled. “We’re coworkers, and I’ve yet to be beaten so badly I needed to go to the hospital. What is this, your second or third time?”
    Vance wasn’t sure he wanted to answer that. “Must be my winning personality.”
    “Or your death wish.”
    “It’s not a death wish,” Vance answered before thinking. When the truth began to settle over him, he wasn’t so sure he liked it.
    “Listen, Vance. I have something I’ve got to tell you. Are you ready for it? I mean, I was going to wait until you were better, but…”
    “What?” Vance cut him off, suddenly very afraid of what Jeff would say. Had somebody found Valentine? Was she okay? Was Jessie okay?”
    “It’s Valentine…” Jeff began, pausing as if unsure how to continue.
    Vance felt like somebody was slamming a fist into his chest all over again. “What happened?”
    “No, no, she’s okay,” Jeff rushed to explain. “It’s just that I dug up who she is, like you asked me to. Vance, she’s your sister. Your half-sister, anyway. Her, her sisters, her brother—they’re your half siblings.”
    Vance blinked, slowly, painfully, trying to process what Jeff had told him. “My dad got out of prison?”
    “For a little while.” Jeff’s chin dipped in a half-nod. “He’s back in now, for life this time. Adelaide, Valentine’s mom, she was raising the kids in a tiny trailer in a park near Tulsa. Nobody’s seen or heard from her in a while, though. The neighbors finally complained because the dog was barking so much. Child services took the kids two days ago. They’d been living there alone since Valentine was taken.”
    Vance was sure he had to be watching somebody else’s life. Or maybe Jeff had just gotten it wrong. There was some crazy typo somewhere. Vance Davis didn’t have a family; he was alone. That’s the way it had always been. Sometimes he’d find himself on the outer edges of an adopted family of sorts, but always on the fringes, and it was never really his. Like a gust of wind crashing over him in a storm, he knew what he had to do.
    “I want them.” His quiet words sounded like they came from someone else.
    “Excuse me?” Jeff leaned closer, certain he’d heard incorrectly.
    “I want them. What do I have to do to take them in?”
    “Vance, you’re the closest thing this world has to a real superhero. Hell, that’s why Jessie started calling you Batman behind your back…”
    “Jessie started that?” Vance scowled.
    “But Vance, I don’t think a court will give you those kids right now.”
    “I’m their family. You just said so.”
    “Family who keeps ending up in the hospital because you’ve been beat to a pulp. Family with a slew of traffickers after you. Family with no roots, no ties to anything or anywhere. Where will you raise them, Vance? How will you raise them?”
    “You and I both know what happens to kids in the system, Jeff. I won’t let that be their fate.”
    Jeff leaned back, quietly regarding the stubborn set to Vance’s jaw. Time suspended, hanging on the silence between them. At long last, Jeff sighed heavily, his face relenting. “All right. I’ll help you. I don’t know how you’re going to pull it off, but I’ll help you.”
    Vance’s breath rushed from him in relief, and he realized he’d actually been holding it. “Thank you.” It