Chapter Fifty-Seven #2
“My bio-dad, the one you held up at gunpoint, is an omega. Me? Rosalind literally had my omega killed at wilderness camp,” I countered.
Abel frowned. “I don’t know what that means.”
“You and Rosalind are running an interdimensional smuggling ring?” I prodded, wanting answers.
“What? No. That would break the law. We just help people sometimes.” Solomon shrugged.
“For a fee?”
His eyes rolled. “She’s allowed to have her own money.”
“What do you need me to do?” I asked curiously.
“Look, we make most of our money off things that technically aren’t illegal. Sure, sometimes we help people. But, all you need to do is tell them we’re not doing anything wrong,” Solomon answered.
Sure.
“You do know that the Temporal Authority puts people in prison for helping. The world we grew up in is Class IV.” Yeah, I still didn’t know why they thought I could help.
“Prison?” Abel looked worried.
“We won’t go to prison.” Solomon shook his head.
“I’m supposed to help my aunt, who stole me and hurt me so badly that it changed me genetically, and the two of you who were awful to me because…” The logic wasn’t logicing.
“We’re family,” Abel said. “Look, sorry I was a shitty brother. No, really. In college, I realized that I was an enormous dick. I just was afraid to apologize to you, though Dad said I should. It’s just a lot easier to be a dick when I’m around Sol and Mom.”
Solomon shot him a look.
“Well, it is,” Abel replied.
“Because of you, Mom’s in trouble, so it’s your responsibility to fix it.” Solomon stared at me.
“What did I do? Rosalind ‘died’ before I even graduated.” I put died in finger quotes.
“She left because we made some poor business decisions, and she went to help someone elsewhere while I handled things here. Then, just as she was ready to come back, people started inquiring after her and asking questions that could topple the whole thing,” he told me.
I snorted. “I’m not helping you.”
“You owe me,” he scoffed.
“For what? What did I ever do to you, Sol? I was a good big sister. I never told on you, I didn’t hurt you, I wasn’t mean to you.” All those things would get me into more trouble, anyway.
“What did you do to me? You were a freak, and no one wanted to be friends with me because of you. Also, I had to pick up the slack after you left,” he snarled.
“Pick up the slack? You moved away and played football for your dream college.” I snorted. “Freak? Honestly, I was pretty popular until after wilderness camp.” Mostly because I was a cheerleader.
“Look, I fucking hate you. So just clear Mom and we’ll let you go back to your weird life here,” Solomon threatened.
“Or what? You’re going to kidnap me and make me go back to a world where I’m dead?
Also, do you understand that the Temporal Authority isn’t anyone to mess with?
Not to mention that Rosalind is wanted by two different federal agencies here.
Her coming here is dumb. But it means she doesn’t actually trust you enough to do it yourselves, so she has to risk her own life.
And look, you blew it. Dumb and Dumber couldn’t even kidnap me properly.
Rosalind must be so proud,” I retorted, angry, annoyed, and just done with all of this.
“Ow, Grace. That hurt. I know I was a dick when we were kids, but I try to be better. Hannah and I are going to move away, eventually. She makes me a nicer person. You’d like her,” Abel stated.
“That doesn’t fix everything you two did to me. Also, it’s not her job to make you not be an asshole.” I rubbed my forehead.
“Dr. Thanukos? We need to question you again,” a female voice said as the door opened.
“Do I have a choice?” I got up and went to the door.
“Hey can I be uncuffed? I have to piss,” Abel shouted.
They let me out, and I came face to face with the Bureau agent from the hospital. The one that out of frustration I told that I grew up somewhere else.
“You were telling the truth.” She studied me. “Somehow you got to another world.”
“Did you throw me in there to get them to talk?” I disliked being used like that. “What was in the vault?”
“Dr. Kepler’s research on parallel worlds. Initially, no one thought anything of it. But at some point someone realized what it actually was and got very upset, because it was locked away for a reason,” she replied as she led me down a hall.
Wait, I’d come across some of Dr. Kepler’s research in my work for Spencer. She’d been a renowned quantum physicist.
“I don’t know where to go from here. I have two people who aren’t in the system. The mother and the grandmother aren’t talking,” she added.
I sucked in a breath. Rosalind was in custody. So was Mrs. Silvers. I realized I had no idea where Mrs. Silvers lived, where Thora had grown up.
“Though,” the agent continued, “Rosalind is in the system. We can circumvent The Office of Designation Management until we get an answer from her. But of course, that really doesn’t help, because they know that once they talk, we’ll turn them over.”
I wasn’t sure I wanted her to die.
“Can I go home?” This made my head hurt. My heart hurt.
“Right now? No. This is a nightmare. But I can take you to one of your mates. Would you like that?” she asked.
That was better than nothing. “Yes, I’d like that very much.”