“You’re both welcome to stay with us,” Dr. Winter was saying. “I know we all have a common goal right now, and we will be vigilant until we’re successful at putting an end to that man’s reign, but there will be life for us after Williams’ death. If you want to stay with us, you have a home.” Margo smiled with love even through her tears.
Gavil looked over at Creed. Their eyes locked and between them flashed years of pain and trauma living under the assumption Williams force fed everyone at the Facility. Violence was to be respected, weakness stomped out. This woman spoke a completely different message of forgiveness and care for one another. This gave Gavil a new understanding of why Creed did what he did for the Winter family. He nodded once to his little brother and in that one moment the brothers began to heal.
“Well, now that we got settled,” Theo walked toward the coffee pot. “Someone want to tell me why I was shot with a tranquilizer and put in bed next to my lovely lady?”
Chapter 33 Pig Latin for Dummies
Maze still hadn’t awakened from his tranquilizer induced sleep. Meg was trying not to get worried after six hours passed and he still couldn’t be roused, but Dr. Andrews and Dr. Winter both checked him frequently and they assured her he was doing fine—just sleeping off the effects. They explained that his body mass was much smaller than the rest of them so he was bound to be more deeply affected. She argued this point instead: “If that’s true why did I wake before the rest of you?”
Creed cleared his throat. “Um, that would be my doing.”
Meg narrowed her eyes at him.
“During the shooting frenzy, I gave the soldiers direct orders to leave you to me. I emptied about half of the tranq into the dirt before loading my weapon.”
Her hands shot to her hips angrily. “You shot me?”
“I wanted to be sure you’d wake first so I had a chance to talk with you.” He grimaced at the white bandage Evan had wrapped around his sliced hand. “Maybe I should have doubled your dose instead.”
She narrowed her eyes at the man sitting nonchalantly at their kitchen table, fighting the urge to beat the tar out of him.
“Dude, utshay upway,” Alik mumbled under his breath to Creed.
“What?”
Meg took a deep breath and walked four paces across the kitchen floor. Everyone stepped out of her way.
“Let me get this straight. You told the meat-head cretins at your command to stand down when it came to me so you could shoot me yourself?”
“Exactly.”
She locked her jaw trying to control her fury.
“Did it occur to you how terrifying it would be for me to wake and find the bodies of my entire family—everyone I have ever loved—strewn on the ground?”
Creed shrugged. “I expected to be in the room when you woke.”
“But you weren’t, were you? No. Instead I ran from one body to another frantically feeling their throats for pulses terrified the next body I came to would be cold and lifeless!”
Creed looked around the room starting to understand why no one would meet his eyes.
“Don’t look to anyone for help, Creed Young. Figure this out yourself, genius,” Meg spat angrily.
Creed stared back at her, his facial expression as stoic as ever.
“What do you want me to say?” he stood gracefully to face her directly. She refused to step back from his hulking frame, her hurt and fear was seething right at the surface.
Once he reached his full height, he looked down into her face. His eyes softened as he reached out as if he was about to touch her face but stopped himself, dropping his hand to his side. “I’m sorry to have caused you any pain, Meg.” His eyes filled with tenderness before he turned and walked out the back door where just a few hours before he had chased her to the barn.
She stared after him, shocked into a rare moment of speechlessness.
“Well, about the plan,” Alik said to no one in particular, trying to break the awkwardness left in the wake of his sister’s terse exchange with Creed. “Gavil, you’ve already contacted Williams, telling him we were already boarded on the plane and en route so that buys us—what, about eight more hours before all hell’s gonna break loose.”
“Right,” Gavil was saying. “We have three choices now, as far as I can see. One, plan an immediate attack, two, go into hiding or three, a combination of the first two.”
“Let’s gather as much information as we can and lay it out so we know how much time we have. Meg? What do we know about Williams’ current research?” Margo looked intently at Meg’s profile.
She felt her mother’s eyes, but she wasn’t listening. Instead, her legs carried her across the floor and out the door—this time it was her turn to chase Creed.
They were smart not to stop her. She wouldn’t be any use to their logic-minded plans right now anyway. She had to go deal with the emotions exploding inside before she burst into flames.