Thin Skinned by Margo Collins (top novels .TXT) 📕

Neither of us had any idea how true those words would be.

OUTSIDE, I OPENED MY car door and slung my purse into the passenger seat, standing outside to let some of the Texas heat dissipate before I got inside.

That’s when I heard the Beaumonts arguing. Their voices echoed from around the corner of the building, though I couldn’t make out the actual words.

They still hadn’t left since their appointment.

God, you’d think they’d at least want to get into a change of clothes.

Then again, maybe they didn’t care that much.

I had a terrible feeling about this conversation.

I crept up to the corner of the building, hoping to eavesdrop, but still not able to hear them.

I glanced around furtively. The building windows all had their blinds down to keep out the worst of the Texas sun. This particular corner was shaded by some of the few trees on the lot. And no one was watching, as far as I could tell.

I stepped into the space between the building and the trees and kicked off my shoes. I’d worn a skirt and blouse for the first day of work, so the rest of this would be easy, as long as I pulled my arms inside my shirt.

I breathed into the change, determined for it to be as easy as possible. And honestly, it was, as usual, easier going this way than coming back into my human form.

My vision grayed out, the colors leaching out into the world around me. As my legs and arms began to meld together, I felt a momentary flash of panic jolt through me, my human brain fearing for the loss of motor control. I knelt on the ground, preparing for the drop down to the earth, the quick slither out of the pile of clothing I left behind, hidden away where I could find it later.

My reptile self took over almost instantly, the dissipation of my fear aided by the way my tongue changed to curl around the air, pulling it into my mouth one molecule at a time, passing it over the Jacobson’s organ on the roof of my mouth, telling me everything I needed to know about my world around me.

The whole process took only a few minutes. And even with my diminished serpentine hearing, I could still make out the Beaumonts’ voices.

I STAYED CLOSE TO THE edge of the building, sliding along the ground out of sight until I could hear what they were saying.

“We should go now,” Hale snapped at Lori. “If we wait much longer, your bitch sister will get Paige.”

“I just don’t know if this is the best idea,” Lori whined.

“Get in the goddamn car. We’ve discussed it enough.”

Clearly, they were planning a way to keep Paige, no matter what.

Dammit. I missed the bulk of the conversation.

Or, if I look at it another way, I made it in time to hitch a ride.

The problem with relying on the reptile part of my mind to make decisions was that I didn’t always stop to consider all the repercussions of my actions.

I waited long enough for them to get inside, then all but threw myself up under the car, looping myself up into the engine block from underneath.

We stopped about twenty minutes away, and I peered out the grill as Lori Beaumont went inside a run-down house and came out with a toddler in her arms.

Baby Paige.

They were taking her and running. I was absolutely certain of it.

I won’t let them get away with it.

Like I said, my serpentine mind is a lot more black-and-white than my mammal self. I was running on pure instinct, and I had tied my instinct to saving that child.

So I wasn’t going anywhere except with the Beaumonts. I settled in for a good, long ride. I moved carefully, twining myself into a position inside the engine block that I could hold for a long time. To my surprise, riding inside a car engine was actually restful.

For a weresnake, anyway.

We drove forever, it seemed like. Every so often, I stuck my head toward the air vents leading into the car. But the combined noise of the wind, engine, and road overcame my ability to listen to anything they might be saying inside the car.

It was during that drive than I actually began to think about what I had done. The secretary was expecting me back at the office, though maybe she wouldn’t think much of it if I didn’t return before she left for lunch.

In any case, I had apparently just walked out on my job. I was fairly certain that most counselors didn’t jump into cars with clients just because they were worried about them.

That was when I really began thinking about ethics in earnest.

I ran through everything I could remember from the Texas Counselor’s Code of Ethics. For some reason, though, at that moment I could remember only two items: a counselor must keep confidentiality, and a counselor cannot show a client his or her anus.

I knew that the human mind under stress often threw out odd tidbits. Apparently, the weresnake mind did the same thing.

But even when I had first read that section about a counselor not showing a client various body parts, it had occurred to me that the fact that it was included in the code at all suggested someone, somewhere, had actually done it.

I finally gave up fell into a kind of doze, maintaining just enough awareness around myself to let me know when the car quit moving.

We continued for what seemed like hours upon hours.

The silence when we stopped echoed eerily around me.

Where the hell are we now?

Chapter 4

Now that the engine was stopped, I could hear Hale and Lori inside the car talking.

“I don’t know why,” Hale was saying. “Phil just said to meet him here.”

“I’m not taking Baby Paige inside a funeral home,” Lori said. “It’s full of dead people, and I don’t want anything to do with them. We’ll wait out