“Don’t finish that thought, Samantha. She’s my niece too. Let’s go.”

“I’ll be here with the kids,” Celia said. “Let us know as soon as you hear anything.”

“We will,” Nick said for both of them.

Sam and Nick got into the back of the ambulance and sat on the cot on the other side from where two paramedics were assessing Brooke’s condition.

“Can’t figure out where all this blood is coming from,” one of them said.

“Might not be hers,” the other one said. To Sam, he said, “Does she do drugs?”

“No!” But as the word burst forth from her lips, Sam realized she honestly didn’t know if Brooke did drugs. Her niece had become someone totally unrecognizable in the last year, and her parents had recently sent her to a special school in Virginia, hoping to separate her from the friends who’d been a bad influence on her. “At least I don’t think so.”

“She’s definitely on something.”

Sam felt like she was coming out of her skin. The idea of her sweet baby Brooke willingly taking drugs was something she couldn’t bear to wrap her head around.

Nick’s hand on her leg provided a much-needed slice of calm as Sam watched the paramedics work to stabilize Brooke.

“What’re you giving her?” Sam asked as they started an IV.

“Narcan. It’ll offset the effects of whatever she’s on. If it was an opiate, it’ll work. If it wasn’t, it won’t, which will tell us more about what she might’ve taken.”

“I thought she was in Virginia,” Nick said quietly as he watched the paramedics insert a needle into Brooke’s hand. She never stirred.

“So did I. Trace was going tomorrow to pick her up for Thanksgiving, which is why Dad and Celia had the kids. She and Mike were leaving early in the morning.”

“So what’s Brooke doing in the District tonight, and where do the people at the school you all paid so much money to send her think she is right now?”

“That’s a very good question,” Sam said. “And one I’ll be tackling the minute we know she’s okay. I’d also love to know how she ended up at our place.”

“Me too.” His gaze was fixed on Brooke. “This is the stuff that scares the shit out of me as a parent.”

“Yeah.” As she stared at Brooke’s bruised and bloodied face, Sam tried to imagine her adorable Scotty as a surly seventeen-year-old who took drugs and ran away from school. In her wildest dreams, she couldn’t see Scotty becoming that kid. But then again, she never would’ve expected it of Brooke either.