“Just following orders, sir.”
“Yes, of course. Call me once you’re airborne to check in. Put Creed back on the line.”
“Yes, sir.”
Gavil handed the phone back to Creed. “Creed here, sir.”
“She’s beautiful, isn’t she?”
His words felt like a punch to the throat. He had been trying not to stare at Meg and felt caught in the act.
“Sir?”
“Oh, come now, my boy. We’re both men. A beautiful woman is a thing to behold. And Meg is especially precious because of her gifts. She is my masterpiece, my magnum opus. I imagine her children would be just as exceptional, but no one can compare to the original M57. Treat her with care, Creed. Bring her home to me, and I will reward you well. I may even allow you to have your way with her so we could create the next generation with fresh DNA strands. What do you think of that, my boy? Wouldn’t it be lovely to have that creature forced into submission?”
Creed’s face had been turning deeper and deeper red as he listened to the vile filth spewing from the scientist’s mouth. He wanted to rip the blackened heart from the man’s chest with his bare hands. But right now, the monster was waiting for a response. He couldn’t. He just couldn’t open his mouth for a moment because his jaw was locked in rage. How dare he sully the act of loving this angel?
Creed swallowed hard.
“Sir, we’ll contact you once we’re airborne.”
“Yes, yes…so much planning to do. So little time! Goodbye, son.”
The line went dead. Creed resisted the urge to smash the phone like tinfoil in his hand.
“What the hell was that about?” Gavil and Slider had been busy collecting dead meta bodies, stripping them of their weapons and dragging them into a pile by the back door.
Creed shook his head, heart pounding in his ears as he relayed Williams’ conversation.
Gavil just stared at his little brother with narrow, hate-filled eyes. “He’s one sick bastard.”
Slider’s eyes slowly widened and darkened. “You guys haven’t told me the half of it, have you? There’s a lot of sick shit going on with Williams, isn’t there?”
“I’m worried even we don’t know the half of it, but the more I learn, the more sure I am he needs to stop walking this Earth with the rest of us. He belongs in hell.” Creed reached down and carefully slipped his strong arms under the girl, lifting her easily and walked her to the sofa to lay her there. He couldn’t stand seeing her lay like an animal on the ground…especially not after what Williams just said.
He grabbed the throw draped over the back of the sofa and carefully covered the girl’s body, now feeling self-conscious for looking at her long bare legs and bare midriff peeking out from the cropped Lycra running shirt she wore. Everything about her was precious to Creed, and he needed to help her maintain that purity especially as she was so defenseless right now. He would never let anyone hurt her again.
The three got back to work cleaning up the ranch. All fourteen bodies of the dead soldiers were gathered. Creed was worried about how the family would react to the pile of bodies, so he asked his brother to take care of them.
“What do you suggest I do with them?” he asked after they loaded the last body. They had stacked them inside two vans.
“When we were driving, there was construction going on at the south side of Dallas. It looked as if they were pouring a cement foundation for a new structure. Do you remember the area I’m talking about? We talked about the traffic it was causing with all the construction vehicles.”
Gavil was nodding as he thought back to a few hours ago. “That could work perfectly. Good idea, brother.” He slapped Creed on the back before calling over to Slider. “Yo, Slide. You ready?”
Slider sauntered to the brothers and nodded. “We got a plan for them?”
“Oh, yeah.” Gavil climbed into the driver’s seat of the nearest van. “Just follow me and be careful. Getting pulled over by the cops could add a lot of unnecessary excitement to our day.”
Slider smirked before sprinting back to the other van and starting the engine.
“Gavil, you’re going to have to be real discreet at the site. Can you do that?”
“Dude, are you asking me if I can be a sneaky son of a bitch?” he shook his head laughing. “Good luck with them when they wake up. If I come back and they have you hog-tied, it could make the next part of our plan a little difficult.”
Creed nodded. “Yeah, this is going to be tricky, but it would be trickier if they woke to a pile of bodies in the back room. Thanks for taking care of them.”
“You can thank me when I get back. Dude, if something happens, I need to say something to…”
“We can talk more when you get back.” Creed interrupted.