Chapter 24 #2
“We had been hunting the doctor that created the method for turning us into what we all are since the first of us was found. Lethal and his team found him. Feral was on Lethal’s team.
They found wedding photos on the doctor’s desk of his daughter and Feral.
Turns out Feral was his son-in-law. Feral was hunting the bastard himself, and is the main reason he’d joined Lethal’s team.
He remembers his life before being Variant, and remembered the bastard putting him through the DNA transference and conversion.
Everybody knew Lethal’s SOT was the strongest — but also the most volatile.
We’d figured out that we had a mole about that time, too.
When Lethal realized Feral had lied to them all about his memory of his past, and about who he was, he had him locked up until it could be proven or not that he was our mole.
Feral maintained his innocence, and even said he didn’t lie, he just never told anybody he had memories intact.
When it was all settled and Feral was proven to be innocent, Lethal told him he wanted him back on his team and Feral told him to get fucked.
I see both sides. Can never be too safe in the bullshit we were forced into, but then again, Feral never hurt any of us, even if he’d been the mole.
So, yeah, I swung back and forth on that one for a while.
We’ve made our peace, though. Even Feral said he understands the suspicion and had it been anyone else he’d have thought the same thing.
He just wishes that anybody would have given him the benefit of the doubt.
I don’t know anybody that has any problem with him.
But he’s stepped back from Alliance since all the shit went down. ”
“Did nobody stand up for him?” Rance asked.
“Nina did. She fought Lethal on it tooth and nail, and she’s his woman. And Brutal did. He is head of security at Alliance. He didn’t even lock Feral in a cell. Just gave him the keys and let him do whatever he wanted in the security building. Brutal is also Three’s brother, by the way.”
“Our Three?” Jack asked.
“Yep. They’re identical twins.”
Rance and Jack shared a surprised look. “You know all the tea,” Rance said.
Frenzy winked at Rance. “Short version on all of it… I trust Feral with my life, as evidenced by the fact that I invited him along on this.”
“If he comes back, he’s welcome among us,” Jack said.
“If he comes back he better quit bossing Alison around. She’s quiet and keeps a low profile, but she won’t put up with it,” Rance said.
“Oh, he knows now. It’s just a hard habit to break when your entire survival depended on you controlling any situation you found yourself in. I don’t know what his plans are,” Frenzy said. “But I do know he liked that female, though. A lot.”
“I’m sure we’ll know what he’s doing as soon as he knows what he’s doing.
But getting back to the subjects at hand, I’m going to contact the Council and see where that goes, but I’ve got to get the last of these people into their own houses before I take care of any sensitive Pride business,” Jack said.
“Why’s that?” Frenzy asked.
“I run things from here. My house is the center of most of our Pride meetings and business. Not the leather manufacturing side, but Pride business itself. I usually operate from that table right there,” he said pointing to the large formal table in the dining room.
“It’s where my most trusted and I get together and plan.
It’s safe here, no chance anyone has been in to plant any kind of sound device or that our lines are tapped.
Everyone is comfortable here. But with the last of the females and children that arrived with Gwen still living upstairs, you never know when they’ll walk through.
Titus and his crew should have the next four houses finished in a day or two, and three of them are duplexes.
So the last group of females that are upstairs with their kids, and camping out in our family room in there,” he said, pointing toward the room that opened up onto the pool and splash pad, “will soon be in their own places. Afterward it will just be us and Gwen and her kids.”
“It’s nice of y’all doing all you have to find space for these females. And damn y’all work fast.”
“Titus is good at what he does, and he’s pulled most of the males that aren’t working security into the building process.
We don’t need palatial mansions. We need safe, clean, nice accommodations, and luckily we started on some before Gwen and her people ever showed up.
These last four should pick up the slack, at least for those here.
We’ll get Titus on another round of duplexes that’ll provide for everyone bunking with families on the mountain.
After that, we’ll get back to providing housing for our own.
Like I said, I got a feeling that we’re going to need some more options for our own people soon,” Jack said.
“Still, you didn’t have to do any of this. It says a lot about your character,” Frenzy said.
“Thank you, Frenzy. But it’s the right thing to do and I’d never consider not taking them in, but honestly, I’ll be glad to get back to normal around here.
In the meantime, what are we going to do about the three other Gamieyon males?
If you seriously think they were involved, I can’t have them wandering around my people at will. ”
“Steve and Dean are keeping their eyes on them, not giving any indication that we suspect anything,” Rance said.
“And I intentionally let them keep their ear pieces. Valor knows to continue monitoring them. Hopefully they take them back to their rooms or wherever they’re staying and toss them on top of a dresser or a table or something.
Whatever they say will be picked up. If its incriminating, Valor will let me know,” Frenzy said.
“You people are devious. I like it,” Jack said with a grin.
“No doubt about it. But you’re wrong about one thing… I’m your people, now,” Frenzy said with a grin.
~~~
Overgrown vines and low hanging tree limbs covered about seventy percent of the old, weather-worn farmhouse.
Without knowing exactly what lay beneath them, one might think the whole house was beyond saving, but Niko didn’t even notice as he stood back, his eyes seeing it the way it once was, rather than what it had become.
To the left he could clearly see the rounded shape of the bay window that his grandmother had loved so much.
The front door was nestled immediately to the right of the bay window, with a set of three wooden six foot steps set directly across from it, leading up to the porch itself which stretched from the bay window to the far right side of the front of the house.
He couldn’t see them at the moment, but he knew there were three double windows to his right, looking out over the porch.
There were three to his left as well, though those were part of the bay window and were smaller regular sized windows to fit into the smaller angled walls necessary to create the fully rounded bay window, and from what he could tell at least one of those in the bay window was cracked.
His heart ached as he moved a little closer, but not in the crippling way it once had; more in a longing, missing home kind of way.
He walked through the thigh-high overgrown yard toward the front porch of the house, pausing on the bottom step to grasp several handfuls of vines and yank them away from where they grew so he could continue on.
Looking to his right, he took note of the faded, peeling gray paint on the boards of the porch, and the peeling white clapboard of the exterior walls.
The windows were opaque with dust and dirt, but their frames had held up well — no warping that he could see from where he stood.
He noticed the remnants of the old wooden flower boxes that used to hang from the railings along the porch had crumbled and fallen to the porch floor.
He walked the length of the porch slowly, looking up at the roof over his head, knowing that he was seeing the bottom of a portion of the bedrooms on the second floor.
To his surprise there didn’t seem to be any sagging or water leakage, at least from where he stood.
The square wooden posts, once whitewashed, still held strong and when he pushed against them, there was no give in them.
Unable to avoid it any longer, he walked over to the front door and tried the knob.
To his surprise it turned. He slowly opened the door, peering inside like a stranger that didn’t belong there, until the sight of the tiny pink roses printed on the floral striped white wall paper covering the living room walls had him stopping in his tracks. He shook his head as the tears started.
“I’m home, Mimi,” he said, his voice strained with his struggle to stop the tears.