“Give me one minute. I was working on folding some laundry earlier today.” Farrow called over her shoulder as she ran out the room.
Theo took the opportunity to talk man-to-man. “Are you sure you want to do this? I could try calling Greg and see if there’s anything the law can do for us.”
Alik was shaking his head no even before Theo finished his sentence. “I am sure I want to do this. There is no one else who can. Farrow and I are the last good-guy metahumans. It has to be us.”
Theo nodded. “Thank you, Alik. Thank you for being willing to step up and fight for the family. You’re so young. You shouldn’t have all these burdens put on you.” His soft blue eyes glistened.
“You just take care of Mom and Danny. Farrow and I will take care of the rest. Okay?”
Theo nodded, sure that if he spoke just then, he’d burst into unmanly tears.
“I will protect them with my life,” the middle-aged doctor managed after a moment.
Farrow returned with her arms full of folded clothing. “I figured we needed to stick to black anyway, she shrugged at the dark pile in her hands.”
“Here,” Alik offered another cloth sack for her to put the items. “Ready?” he asked Farrow.
“Let’s go,” she said decisively. Farrow marched as if she was finally in her element out the back door and toward the driver’s side of the navy SUV. She opened the door to the back seat and tossed in her bags. Alik followed suit on the other side of the SUV.
They climbed into the SUV, buckled their seat belts and backed out of the driveway. Theo couldn’t help but let those unmanly tears flow as he watched the only hope for his son’s safe return back down the driveway and pull away from the house.
Chapter 44 Cell #5—Evan
Evan woke to the sound of footsteps echoing.
His whole body hurt, but that’s not what stilled his heart.
Everything about his situation made a layer of cold sweat cover his skin.
It was the dim light of a monitor to his left that read, “WATCH ME” on a simple scrap of paper taped to the top corner. It was the dank scent of old and new mildew that tickled his nose. It was the blackened brick walls with what looked like scratch marks some six feet above the floor and there was something else.
Evan slowly sat up and looked around him.
Oh, shit, he thought in a panic. This isn’t right.
He stood gingerly, leaning over with his hands on his knees for a moment to steady the tilting nightmare that was his vision. On shaky legs he hobbled to the nearest brick wall and steadied himself as he walked the perimeter of the room looking for the most obvious missing feature.
How did I get here? Where am I? Evan’s mind was trying desperately to wrap itself around what was happening, but however hard he tried, none of this was making sense. He looked down at himself. His clothes were covered in black automotive grease.
I remember going to the auto shop with Creed and helping the guy rig the best kind of lift for Mom’s chair. To do that I had to crawl under the van and get my hands dirty. Evan looked down at his hands. There was grease under his nails.
Okay, what happened next?
He worked to try to piece together the chain of events. I went home with Creed and Meg gave me a hard time about being dirty, so I went to my room to take a shower. Evan frowned at his still greasy arms.
Evidently, I never got that shower. Tentatively, he patted himself down, trying to figure out how injured he may be. He had some cuts and scrapes on his elbows and his jeans were torn at the knees. One finger was swollen and tight, possibly sprained or even fractured he thought, trying desperately to keep his mind intact.
Otherwise, he was fine. He ripped off part of his own T-shirt and used it to wrap his swollen ring finger to his pinkie, giving it stability and support so he didn’t accidentally damage it further.
After he secured a snug knot, he looked around. His eyes caught the dimming glow of the laptop.
He walked to it and carefully sat on the hard dirt floor.
“WATCH ME,” the note screamed.
Using the trackpad, Evan woke the laptop from its sleep mode and saw the screen was already set. All he had to do was press play.
Something about this moment made him want to vomit. With the soundtrack of a rhythmic dripping of fluid echoing from somewhere, Evan’s shaking finger tapped the trackpad, pressing play.
Chapter 45 The Tracker
Alik and Farrow headed around to the front of the house where Alik had “seen” the two white vans loaded with their family members.
“Okay, now what?” She asked tentatively.
“Give me a minute,” Alik whispered, staring at the front door.
Farrow tried not to blatantly stare at him, but she did sneak glances. His eyes were nearly glowing their beautiful violet blue.
“Okay, let’s follow you bastards,” Alik mumbled to himself.
He reached his hand out and pointed in the direction he could see the vans drive.