The Vines by Shelley Nolden (ebook and pdf reader .TXT) 📕

Kristian declared, stepping toward Cora. “Before you showed up, I had things completely under control.”

With measured strokes that told Finn his father was trying to keep his anger in check, Rollie cut Finn’s cords. “As long as I’m still alive, everything on North Brother is under my control.”

“Except Cora. She’s become a feral, savage dog.”

“Kristian!” Lily said sharply.

“As wild as this island,” he continued without looking her way. “But I can change that.”

Rollie broke the last tie.

His fists already balled, Finn bolted upright. Hit by a wave of dizziness, he nearly fell off the rickety table.

Light and dark blurred together, and he swayed.

“Take it slow.” Rollie held him steady while reaching into his bag for a water bottle.

As Finn guzzled the room came back into focus. He lunged toward his brother.

A loud crack sounded, followed by a shriek from Lily, and Finn spun toward the noise.

The table had landed behind him on its side. Plaster dust filled his nostrils. Coughing, he waved at the cloud to disperse it and resumed his advance on Kristian.

“Finn,” his father said firmly, “we need to get Lily home.” He looked to Kristian. “Get them suits. Then start dismantling the onsite lab.”

Cora groaned, and all three men spun to face her.

Her eyes flew open and Finn registered fear in their blue depths. Blinking rapidly, she sat up, and the foil blanket fell away.

Grasping for words that could quickly pacify her, Finn concluded there were none and braced for her fury.

Cora looked down at her naked upper torso, clearly searching for a freshly sutured incision. Her fingertips met the reddened injection site, and she raised her chin and fixed her stare on Rollie. “You promised,” she said in a glacial tone.

Instinctively, Rollie raised his hands to shield himself, then dropped them. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that Kristian was planning this. He’s never gotten over Ulrich’s death. I underestimated how unforgiving and resentful he’d remain. That was my fault.”

“Ulrich’s death wasn’t my fault,” she hissed.

“Let’s not go there now.” Rollie shuffled backward. Beyond her, Kristian had slinked toward the corridor, where Lily had backed up against the far wall.

“I tried to stop him,” Finn said, embarrassed by how empty the claim had sounded.

Her focus didn’t stray from Rollie. “I suppose I’m now a carrier of Lyme,” she said far too calmly for the circumstances. “And God knows what else.”

“He didn’t inject anything,” Rollie said.

“But he did ‘take,’” she replied, rubbing the spot. Her emotionless tone, boiling with anguish beneath its surface, agitated Finn. He wanted her to know that he hadn’t been involved, but what good would that do now?

Shaking her head in apparent disgust, her hand drifted to her hip and her eyes narrowed. “You’d better give it all back.”

“Of course,” Rollie said, glancing at Kristian.

Cora didn’t follow his gaze. “Then get the hell off my island.”

“Kristian, go get the suits,” Rollie said without taking his eyes off her.

“I’m not—”

“Now!”

“Fine,” Kristian said curtly and left the room.

Wrapping the foil around her chest, Cora addressed Rollie: “We should have told him years ago.”

“It was the right call. I still believe that.”

“Sylvia doesn’t think so. According to Finn, she wants me to tell him now.”

Rollie turned to him, a questioning look on his face.

Finn shrugged. “Mom knows you never gave up your work.”

“How?”

Finn raised his hands. “I didn’t say anything.”

From the hallway, Lily scoffed. “She knew the same way any woman would: intuition.”

Rollie released a long, tired sigh. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Despite her illness, she’s still incredibly perceptive. Cora, I swear to you: we are done. This,” he said, waving his hand at the stretcher beneath her, then the medical cart, “has shown me it’s impossible to ensure we stay within the boundaries you and I established.”

“It took this for you to realize that?” she asked, raising one eyebrow.

“No,” he said softly. “It took Finn for me to realize it.”

Finn’s chest tightened, and he glanced at Lily, hoping she understood why he’d played up Cora’s feelings toward him.

Her attention fixed on the ground, she didn’t acknowledge him.

“I’m mothballing the project,” Rollie continued, “which is more reason not to tell him. If Kristian knows, it’ll be harder for him to give this up.”

“What are you talking about?” Finn asked, the sting from his abrasions flaring.

Shaking her head, Cora bypassed the overturned examining table and moved outside. Standing among the dormant weeds, she held the space blanket tightly around her.

Something bumped into Finn’s back, and he spun around and accepted a gear pouch from Kristian.

“Sorry for the rough treatment earlier.”

“Drop dead.” Finn hurriedly put on the suit as Lily, still in the corridor, did the same.

Kristian surveyed the room and located Cora, in the field. “I want things to be better between us,” he said in a surprisingly gentle tone.

“Give me my sweatshirt.”

He grabbed a plastic bag from the corridor and tossed it to her.

“And my satchel and scalpels.” She stepped out of sight, regaining a modicum of privacy while she put her top back on.

Kristian gesticulated to Rollie that they shouldn’t return her blades.

Finn had to agree that doing so right now could be deadly for them all.

“She’ll need them to survive on her own, as is her wish,” Rollie said loudly, clearly for Cora’s benefit.

She stepped into view. “My things.”

Crossing his arms over his chest, Rollie mouthed the word “go” to Kristian.

Kristian stalked into the hallway, almost knocking into Lily.

“Not a word,” he said to her.

She huffed. “You’re a hypocritical, chauvinistic pig.”

Finn stifled a smile. No doubt she had a few choice words lined up for him, too.

Returning moments later, Kristian handed the items to Cora, and quickly retreated.

“I’m sick of fighting,” he said from the interior wall.

“That’s only because you’ve lost. If you didn’t worship the memory of a man who tortured me, and thousands of others, I’d still be giving you monthly blood specimens.”

Kristian raised his index finger. “Ulrich’s experiments at the work camp were meant to ultimately save lives. He took far too many liberties in the name of the ‘Greater