Chapter Fifty-Seven
Grace
“Get in there.” Some nameless agent from the Bureau of Investigation shoved me in a holding cell.
“I want my advocate, a lawyer, and my mates,” I yelled as they locked the door and walked off.
Ugh. I still felt horrid from the effects of being stunned by Solomon. While I was happy that my guys and I weren’t shot with bullets, it wasn’t very comfortable.
It hadn’t even worn off yet when we were transferred from the hospital to their local offices. Immediately, we’d been separated and questioned.
And just like last time I’d spoken to the Bureau, they didn’t like my answers.
Now, here I was. I was pretty sure that they thought I was part of all this. Not that they–or me, for that matter–understood what this even was.
“Hey, are you okay, Grace?” a male voice whispered.
Great. They put me in with Abel.
“I want my mates.” I sat down on the bench, feeling a little hopeless.
The two of us were alone in the small cell. Abel was cuffed to a ring in the wall. My brothers were here, in a world that was only half theirs–and Evan had spectacularly rescued me from him.
Yeah, I needed more stories about his and Wes’ Army days.
He frowned at me. “You’ll get us out of trouble, right? It wasn’t supposed to be like this. You were supposed to come with us.”
“You thought I’d just go with you?” I gave him an incredulous look.
“Well, yeah. You’re our sister. Mom only wants to talk to you. We'll bring you right back.” His baffled look made me think that he actually believed that I’d simply go with him.
They’d bring me right back? Mmm hmmm. Sure.
“You held someone up at gunpoint to find me.” I scowled, angry they’d have the audacity to do that.
“That was Sol. I tried to ask the guy, and he wouldn’t tell me. Mom’s going to be pissed.” He looked away.
His scent didn’t get salty, and honestly, he just sort of smelled like body spray. Maybe he didn’t inherit Rosalind’s genetics and was like Dad.
Yet, there he went again with the Mom stuff. I’d hoped I’d misheard.
“Rosalind’s not dead?” Of course she wasn’t dead. I curled into a ball. Spencer sent me love. Evan was worried. Wes was pissed.
“Mom? I didn’t know she wasn’t dead until yesterday. It absolutely shocked me. But Sol’s known the whole time. Um, I thought you were dead, too. We all did. Well, maybe not Mom? Though she knows you’re not dead now,” he blabbed.
Ugh, I’d forgotten how much he talked.
“You thought I was dead?” I shot him a look. Not missing. Dead?
He nodded. “Well, yeah. Your work caught on fire, and a bunch of people died, including you.”
Oh. Well, I guess if the Temporal Authority exploded the super collider at Spencer’s dad’s work, that they might burn down mine.
It hit me. No one looked for me. Because they thought that I was dead.
“Dad was really sad. He got all your stuff from your apartment. I think he gave your insurance money to your college for the cheer squad and bought the church a piano. It has a little brass plate on it with your name. It’s not at Mom’s church, but the new church Dad joined after the divorce. " His face scrunched.
Someone mourned me. Missed me. The fact that he’d done those things with the insurance money was sweet.
“Sol was really weird about it though. I guess it’s because the company you work for does so much for the military? I don’t know.” His brow furrowed. “Do I tell Dad when I go home that you’re not dead?”
“Considering I’m not going back, probably not,” I said softly. “The last thing I ever want to do is hurt Dad. Though if you talk to Levi, you can tell him I have lots of boyfriends who are also boyfriends.”
No one talked to Levi. He left after high school graduation while I was getting my PhD and told us all to fuck off. Even me, because he truly thought the divorce was my fault.
Why Rosalind had been against him being gay when she came from this world was beyond me.
“You actually used math to get to another world. That’s amazing. That’s how you didn’t die in the fire at your work, right? You escaped to this world?” Abel asked.
“Abel, how is Rosalind not dead? How the fuck did you get here? And why does she want to talk to me?” I snapped. I really didn’t want to do this.
What I wanted was answers. Well, that, ice cream, and my guys.
“Wow, such language. Um, how is she not your mom and Dad not your dad?” he pressed.
“She’s my aunt. My mom is her twin. My bio-dad is from here. Um, do you know it could be dangerous for you here?” I asked.
“I think I’m okay. That’s why they brought me in. Solomon wasn’t supposed to come, but you know him.” Abel shrugged. “Mom got mad, but he’s a control freak. Did she really expect him not to want to help me?”
“Answer my question,” I prodded. Yeah, I could see Solomon being a sigma.
“Geez, you don’t have to be mean,” he pouted.
“Um, okay. So, I don’t know a lot. I was really just brought in to get you.
Um, yeah, Mom came to our world from this one to help people.
But something happened, and she needed to leave, so we thought she was dead.
Then Solomon said we needed to get you, because now people were after Mom, and you needed to tell them it wasn’t her,” Abel replied.
“Rosalind wanted to help people?” I blinked. Altruistic Rosalind always had a motive.
“Um…” Abel’s brows furrowed. “She had instructions from here that she took. Those refugees we used to help at Church? They were from other worlds. Some stayed, some went elsewhere.”
“Did they pay her or something?” What was even happening here? Rosalind helping otherworldly refugees? Though I remember the church adopting people who’d come seeking asylum.
“It’s her side hustle. Solomon’s been helping her,” he told me, nonchalant like she sold essential oils or something.
“Instructions?” Was Abel trying to tell me that what she stole from a federal vault were instructions for parallel world travel?
“Um…” He frowned. “She thought it was stupid that people didn’t want to help those like her. So, she stole the information, and came to our world, which was neutral, and helped other people establish a network of neutral worlds to get around the gate-keeping assholes.”
My belly sank. Shit.
Rosalind was casually running a smuggling ring among worlds that didn’t have designations. At least that’s what I guessed neutral meant.
It also didn’t sound like she was working alone.
This felt well-planned. How did information like this get into a federal vault in the first place?
No. I knew how. People were curious. Someone discovered something, something happened, someone got freaked out and locked it up. Scientists had friends, so someone probably knew where it was and didn’t have the same scruples and hired some thieves to get it for them.
Yeah, I hadn’t sometimes laid awake at night considering the actual ramifications and implications of reliable travel between worlds.
I sucked in a breath. If she had had access to some sort of technology to smuggle people, that meant she might have been able to send me to Wes.
Fuck.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
She didn’t have to get rid of my omega so that I wasn’t a biological problem. Rosalind didn’t need to tell me that my soulmate was imaginary. She didn’t have a genuine reason to keep me away from my theories.
All she had to do was send me back to this world. She could have sent me to her mom or fucked some shit up by sending me to the professor, or even just dropped me off at some Omega Center and told me that they’d help me find Wes.
So much anger and hatred coursed through me. They better keep me from her, or I might end up in jail.
Tears ran down my face.
“Hey. Don’t cry. She was helping people. Mom’s not mad at you, she just needs you to clear some things up,” he remarked.
“Not mad at me? She’s always mad at me. Is she here? Why would she come here if she could get in a lot of trouble?” That seemed risky.
“She’s at Grandma’s. I really like Grandma, she’s nice. She says she hasn’t met you, yet, though,” he added.
It hit me. Her mom knew I’d been in contact with the professor. If Rosalind couldn’t find me because my last name here had been changed to Thanukos, which Mrs. Silvers might not know, she must have sent my brothers to find out where I was…
“But what can I do?” I pushed. How did I even factor in with all of this?
“Something about the people who govern parallel world travel.” He frowned.
Great. What could I do that could help her that would be worth risking everything?
Unless…
Had I unwittingly caused the Authority to come after her? Did she need me to be a character witness or convince them that she wasn’t doing anything wrong?
I laughed bitterly. Like I had that sort of power. Still, it must have made her desperate.
“Everything is going to be okay, right?” he asked.
“I have a job and a girlfriend at home. Um. I didn’t think we were going to hold someone up at gunpoint or kidnap you or anything.
I thought we were just going to talk to you and go home.
We weren’t even going to bring you back. That’s why Mom met us here.”
Odds were, she wanted to take me elsewhere–and didn’t trust them to do it, which was why she took the risk of coming here.
“One of the people you were with is the guy you dreamt of, right? I never believed you, that he was real or other worlds were real. But they are, so… sorry?” Abel made his I’m an innocent angel face.
Could he just shut up? Was this my punishment? Death by Abel talking?
“He was there. I like this world, Abel. It’s my world. I’m happy here. The world we grew up on might be neutral for Rosalind, but it’s not good for people like me,” I replied.
The door opened.
“Hey, I have to piss,” Abel yelled.
Someone came in with Solomon and cuffed him to another ring on an opposite wall.
Solomon scowled from his spot on the bench. “Why am I cuffed, and she’s not?”
“She’s under omega law.” The agent shrugged and left.
His head cocked. “You’re an omega? How is that possible? Mom and Dad aren’t omegas.”
So, Solomon knew what omegas were.