DEAD IN BED By Bailey Simms: The Complete First Book

PART 3, SECTION 7

Shawn sobbed.

He didn't hit me; he stepped away, and a huge tear slipped down his cheek. He just shook his head back and forth, still furious.

He knew I'd betrayed him. And it was true. However badly he'd been acting lately, I had betrayed him. I thought about the old Shawn, and how we used to be together when we were younger, and I felt sick. Then I thought about the old me, and how somehow I'd changed. Whatever I'd done last night, I'd done it. And right now, I couldn't afford to let myself feel sick about anything, even if I deserved to. All that mattered right now was keeping Morgan alive.

Shawn turned and stepped out of the room. He gave me one last indignant look over his shoulder, then he closed the door, surprisingly gently, and went back downstairs to sleep on my parents' couch.

I must have slept, because sometime before dawn I woke sitting up on my old desk chair.

Ian had returned sometime during the night. He was sleeping on the floor, pillowless, his folded hands beneath his cheek.

I'd awoken because I could hear someone pulling into the driveway. What sounded like a large vehicle moved over the gravel, then it came to a stop outside the window.

Ian woke, leapt up, and looked between the closed blinds.

"Crap," he whispered. "Stay here."

He left, hurrying downstairs.

Someone had started knocking loudly on the front door.

"Ian Craig? Shawn Young?" The gruff, official voice that called out paused long enough to knock loudly three more times. "Are Ian Craig and Shawn Young on these premises?"

I peered between the blinds. Some kind of large, black military SUV was idling in the driveway. Three men in uniform stood beside it. I couldn't tell what kind of uniforms they were, but they definitely weren't local or even state police. The men looked more like soldiers at war. They were dressed in full combat gear. Each held an automatic weapon pointed at the ground. They must have been some kind of military police. They waited without expression while the fourth man, the one in charge and who I couldn't see, called out to Ian and Shawn at the front door.

When I'd heard Ian's name, I wasn't totally surprised, even if I had no idea who these people were or what they wanted from him. But when they called out for my husband, too, I wasn't ready to hear his name in the same breath. What could they want with Shawn? I didn't understand how anybody could possibly know that Shawn and Ian were at my parents' house. Neither my husband nor my brother-in-law had addresses registered here.

I heard Ian open the door, then his startled voice.

"What is this . . . ?"

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