Edge of the Heat 3 by Lisa Ladew Page A

she could just stay away from him. He was busy. He never came out of the room anyway. If she just did stayed out of his way, things would be fine. Wouldn’t they?
    She made up her mind. She was staying.
    She heard movement outside her door. “Vivian, um, sorry about earlier again. Craig just called. Can I talk to you?”
    Vivian scrambled to her feet. “Sure, I’ll be out in a second.”
    She ran to the bathroom and checked her face. She looked ok, she hadn’t been crying or anything. A few more deep breaths and she was ready.
    The hallway was empty so she walked carefully and quietly to the computer room. Hawk was sitting in the computer chair and he smiled at her again when she walked in. She wished he would stop doing that. She sat on the couch.
    “I’m going to put Craig on speaker,” Hawk said. He pressed a button and put the phone down on the table between them.
    “Vivian can hear you now.”
    “Vivian, I got your CODIS results back. Do you want me to open them now? Or do you want to wait till you get home?” Craig’s voice was loud and clear out of the cheap cell phone.
    “Open them, open them!” Excitement grabbed Vivian. “Wait, where’s Emma?”
    “I’m here, we’re opening it.” Emma’s voice was also filled with excitement.
    Vivian heard papers rustling. She sat on her hands and leaned forward, staring at the phone.
    Craig spoke. “There’s a result. It says it matched you with an uncle, and his name ...” Craig’s voice trailed off. Then he spoke again. “What the hell?”
    “What, what?” Vivian couldn’t contain herself. An uncle!
    Craig’s voice came through again, sounding almost indecisive. “It says your uncle is Tim Oberlin.”
    Hawk shot his head forward, eyebrows touching in confusion. He echoed Craig. “What the hell?”
    Vivian thought for a second. Oberlin. She knew that name but didn’t place it right away. She heard Emma say something in the background. “Oberlin, as in Senator Oberlin? Is his first name Tim?”
    Vivian grasped it suddenly. Oberlin was the name of the Senator who Craig and Hawk were investigating. The Senator who they believed had ordered the hit on Hawk’s sister. The Senator who had used Norman to do all his dirty work.”
    Craig’s voice came through the line again. He sounded weird, defeated. “No, his first name is Frank. Tim Oberlin is his brother.”
    Denial speared through Vivian. No. No way. She shook her head. It couldn’t be. In front of her, Hawk flipped around in his chair and his fingers flew over the keyboard. Emma said one more thing. “Does Tim have any other brothers or sisters?”
    Hawk spun back in his chair, facing towards Vivian and the phone once again. This time he spoke. “No, I just checked. Tim Oberlin’s only sibling is Frank Oberlin.”
    Vivian felt like that sentence spelled doom for her. Frank Oberlin was her father? The monster the guys were investigating was her father? She was related to Senator Frank Oberlin? Not just related to but descended from? Her stomach felt woozy, like maybe she was going to throw up or pass out. She sat up straight and tried to steel herself against the feeling. It didn’t work.
    Emma’s voice cut through her reverie. “Wait, wait, wait. This is all too much of a coincidence! How in the hell are me and Vivian related to Senator Oberlin. It just can’t be! There must have been some mistake.”
    Vivian heard rustling near the phone, like maybe Craig was taking her hand. “It does seem like a pretty big coincidence,” he told her. “And we can redo the test, but it seems unlikely that the CODIS results are wrong.”
    “I can’t believe it,” Vivian said to know one in particular. “Hawk, I want to see a picture of Senator Oberlin.”
    Hawk spun around again and pressed a few buttons. A picture of a middle-aged man stared out of the monitor at Vivian. He looked perfectly nondescript, just like any other older, white man. Except for one thing. His sapphire blue eyes. They bore