Read Renegade: A Taggart Brothers Novel for Free Online

children. As long as they were safe and warm and fed, she could withstand almost anything.
    Bronte helped Lily slip into the hospital gown, wrapping it as tightly as she could around her. Then she drew her daughter close, hugging her, hoping that her trembling would ease as she absorbed the warmth of her body.
    “No harm done,” she whispered.
    “But—”
    “Shh.” She stroked her hair, rocking her ever so slightly. “It was my fault. All my fault.”
    She should have remembered that Lily had said she needed to use the bathroom. She should have listened when Lily had tried to talk to her. Lily’s shyness had grown almost paralyzing over the past year—to the point where she would rather die than talk to a stranger. And Kari . . .
    Well, she couldn’t blame Kari for inattentiveness when Bronte had cavalierly displayed it herself.
    “Don’t you worry about a thing, pumpkin. As soon as we get back home, we’ll climb into bed. Come morning, everything will be better. It always is.”
    But the words sounded empty, even to Bronte.
    “Is Gramma Great’s our home now?” Lily asked, her voice barely a whisper—and Bronte instinctively knew that there were layers of meaning beneath Lily’s question. As much as Bronte might have tried to shield her children and obscure the true motives for their flight beneath the guise of fun, her dear, sweet, darling Lily had sensed the undercurrents of tension like a dowser finding water. With Kari, she might have prevaricated. But she sensed that Lily wanted—
needed
—the gift of truth.
    “I don’t know, sweetie. I think, at least for now, we’ll stay here. Gramma Great will need our help once she gets out of the hospital—and I think you’ll like it here.”
    She couldn’t be sure, but she thought that the tense line of Lily’s shoulders eased.
    “Would that be okay?” Again, Bronte offered her daughter a choice, knowing that, like Bronte, Lily needed at least the illusion of control.
    She was rewarded with an eager nod and a quick, gamin smile, and Bronte’s heart flip-flopped in her chest like a grounded fish. If her children only knew how completely they held her heart in their palms, merely by being happy.
    She gathered Lily’s things, stuffing clothes and shoes into the bag. She was taking Lily’s hand when there was another soft tap on the door.
    “Is everything okay?”
    Steff!
was beginning to grow on Bronte. Especially when Bronte opened the door to find the nurse bearing a soft fleecy blanket. “Look what one of my friends found for you in pediatrics,” the woman said, patting the furry fabric. “The minute she saw it, she knew it was meant to go to you.”
    “Why?” Lily asked in a barely audible whisper.
    “Well, she heard your name was Lily. Is that right?”
    Lily nodded.
    “Then this is definitely yours.”
Steff!
shook it open.
    It was a simple blanket, probably one of hundreds made by a ladies’ civics group or a local 4-H club. A single layer of fleece had been fringed at the edges and tied into decorative knots. But the bright blue fabric was covered with dozens of fat cartoon frogs basking on flowering lily pads.
    “I think that a blanket covered in lily pads should belong to a girl named Lily, don’t you?”
    This time, there was nothing shy about her daughter’s grin. She accepted the gift with a sigh of delight, rubbing the soft fabric against her cheek.
    “Thank you.”
    “You’re welcome, honey. But you know what this means, don’t you?”
    Lily shook her head.
    “You should never accept a gift from a stranger, so we’d better not be strangers anymore.” She held out her hand. “I’m Stephanie Sato, but everyone around here calls me Steff, so you be sure to do the same.”
    Lily shook the woman’s hand and nodded, then Steff helped her wrap the blanket around Lily’s body for warmth.
    “All done here?” The deep voice interrupted the introductions.
    Bronte wasn’t sure how, but she’d all but forgotten about Jace