CHAPTER EIGHTEEN #2
“From their positioning and heat signatures, I’d say the two moving at the table are likely the guards, while the one sitting alone is our guy. They might be tied up,” Rocko said.
“Agreed. How do we proceed?” Griffin asked.
Seconds later and before Apollo could answer, the door opened, and a man walked out, closing the door behind him. The guy went over to a bush and unzipped his pants to take a leak.
“Griffin, do it quietly,” Apollo ordered.
The guard never saw it coming. Griffin went beast mode, scooped up the man, and carried him far away into the darkness before the guy ever knew he wasn’t alone.
There wasn’t a sound, absolute silence, the same way he’d dealt with Soloman, Xavier’s father, who’d threatened to blow them up back in New Orleans.
That only left one guard and one prisoner inside the hidden building. They’d wait him out. Sooner or later, the second guard would open the door to look for his friend.
Apollo inched up the side of the building until he was beside the door, then listened for approaching footsteps. He didn’t have to wait long.
When the door opened, the guy said, “How long does it take you to piss, man? We gotta wake this fucker up for another round of questioning. Personally, I think the boss just likes torturing these mutant fuckers, the guy knows shit.”
Apollo reached out and took hold of the man’s throat.
With a simple thought from Apollo, he interrupted the man’s heart rhythm, causing his heart to stop mid-beat, and with a soft gurgle, the guard slumped to the ground dead.
It had taken him seconds to snuff out a life with a mere thought, but Apollo found no pleasure in that knowledge.
Rocko emerged from the darkness, looking from the dead man to Apollo before entering the building.
It hit him then that Rocko had never seen him use his abilities to kill someone.
Did this make him a monster to his lover?
There wasn’t time to figure that out now.
Apollo followed Rocko inside and scanned the room.
Playing cards lay on the table where the guards had been sitting, and across the room slumped an unconscious man tied to a chair.
It was Tom. He recognized the man from the pictures Mary had given them, even though he was covered in cuts and bruises.
“We have Tom,” Apollo announced into the comms. “Alert Renee, we’ll require her assistance.”
“Roger,” Ace replied.
“Jagger, we’re on our way back with one survivor.”
“We’ll be waiting,” Jagger responded.
“How is he?” Apollo asked Rocko, who was busy cutting the ropes and checking Tom over.
“He’s unconscious and covered in wounds, but I don’t believe it’s anything Renee can’t handle. Let’s get him out of here,” Rocko said.
Apollo holstered his gun and bent to pick Tom up. Rocko led the way out of the building, with Blade and Damon providing cover. Halfway back to the boat, Griffin rejoined them; the only sign of damage was a slight cut on his cheek, which would be healed by the time they reached home.
“Will they find the body?” Apollo asked him.
“No,” Griffin stated.
“Good. The second one doesn’t have any marks on him to indicate we were here. Autopsy results will identify a heart attack.”
They continued on in silence. Tom was too light; they had to have been starving the man over the past couple of months of his captivity.
He made no noise, and Apollo could barely hear his breathing.
The quicker they got him back to Renee, the better.
Apollo doubted Tom would have survived another question period with those two assholes.
One bright spot, those two wouldn’t have a chance to ask anyone any more questions.
Jagger and Hendrix were waiting for them. He handed Tom to Hendrix and waited for the entire team to climb onto the boat before following them. Soon, they were miles away from the mental hospital property, and he noticed Tom’s eyes open as Rocko and Blade were bandaging a wound on his thigh.
Rocko placed a calming hand on Tom’s chest and said, “You’re safe. Mary sent us.”
Tom’s eyes widened.
“My Mary?” Tom asked, his voice cracking.
“Yes. You’ll see your family soon.”
“Thank you,” Tom murmured faintly.
“Rest,” Rocko said before going back to bandaging his leg.
Apollo knew he’d never get used to witnessing the pain humans inflicted on innocent people, but he’d be damned if he ever stopped fighting to stop it.
***
Rocko
He could hear Mary crying from inside the spare bedroom.
They’d reunited husband and wife, and Renee had begun healing him.
He’d live, but the cost to this innocent small family was dire.
Those fuckers got off easy, meeting a quick end when they deserved to have suffered as much as these innocent people had.
Tom’s only crime was being seen using his powers to save a fellow worker’s life from a falling beam. This shit had to end.
“You okay?” Apollo asked as he joined Rocko, who was sitting on the deck.
It was still dark out, well before dawn, and Rocko’s mind wouldn’t settle. He’d never been a vindictive man or prone to violence unless necessary. He upheld the law and fought for what was right. Now all he wanted to do was rage at the injustices and make those people pay.
“I’m having a crisis of faith in my chosen profession.”
“I see.”
Apollo sat in the chair beside Rocko. His silent strength and calm settled over Rocko.
“I have to admit I was worried about what you saw me do,” Apollo said, surprising Rocko.
“You mean with that guard?”
“Yes. I stopped his heart with one thought. Disrupted his heart’s rhythm with my touch until it seized inside his chest.”
“If anything, I might have been jealous. My abilities center around my overstuffed brain. It’s either my memory or my ability to read and track people. Nothing physically useful.” Rocko raked his palm down his face.” Shit, now I’m sounding like Hendrix. What the fuck is wrong with me?”
Rocko realized his crisis might involve more than his profession. Was he finally losing his mind? Become full? Maybe he’d snapped and didn’t realize it yet.
Apollo held out his hand. “Come with me.”
Without a second thought, Rocko took Apollo’s hand and followed him back inside the house, up the stairs, and to their bedroom.
As soon as he shut the door, Apollo turned and, without saying a word, began unbuttoning Rocko’s shirt, then his jeans, and slid them off along with his underwear.
Rocko was all for a bit of distraction, but was now the right time?
“Get in bed,” Apollo ordered before he could ask any questions.
Rocko crawled into bed, and when he turned, he found his lover hadn’t gotten naked; he still had his boxer briefs on.
“Why do you still have your clothes on?”
“Because this is about you, not me. Now lie down on your stomach.”
Confused, Rocko did as he was told. The bed dipped on Apollo’s side, and then he heard the click of a bottle cap. Moments later, Apollo’s warm palms were sliding across his back as he scented something close to eucalyptus.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“It’s a massage oil Renee created for me to use on my sore muscles when we were building like crazy earlier this year.
By the time I’d make it to bed, my arms and legs were so stiff I could barely sleep, and there was no way I’d ask Renee to use her healing powers on something so frivolous.
So she created this for me to use when I was having a hard time getting my muscles to loosen. ”
A moan slipped out of Rocko’s mouth as Apollo rubbed and squeezed his tense neck. He hadn’t realized how much tension he was holding in his muscles. With every squeeze, his body slowly melted until he was a puddle, and somehow, he could think more clearly.
“You’re a good person and an excellent detective,” Apollo stated, his voice low.
“Don’t allow these people to make you second-guess who you are.
You’ve been under a great deal of stress this past week, between being bombarded with visions from hell, having to relive other people’s shit, and figuring out what it all means while trying to save an innocent man’s life.
You may wish you had a more physical ability, but without you, Tom would be a dead man right now instead of being downstairs with his family.
Sure, I can end some asshole’s life, but you can save one. ”
Rocko remembered saying something similar to Hendrix when he’d first arrived.
The stress and confusion of the last weeks had drastically affected him in ways he hadn’t even noticed until it all came to a head tonight.
He’d lost sight of his true self, and it took the man he was falling in love with to remind him of who he was and what he stood for.
In that moment, Rocko knew he wasn’t leaving. Apollo would have to kick him off the property to make him leave, and as his eyes grew heavier, he held on to that declaration as his guiding light. This was his home.