Chapter One #2
He wished he could. He might have become a mutant, but most of the time, his ability felt useless. The only way it had been used was to hurt people, something that made Reed’s stomach churn when he thought about it. He hadn’t wanted to hurt anyone. He hadn’t had a choice.
He shook himself when the sound of the gate closing pulled him out of his thoughts. Thinking about the past and what he’d done was useless. He was already doing everything he could to atone for it, and he needed to focus on that, not on the past.
Never on the past.
He put down his laptop on the passenger seat of his car for a second, just in time to stretch. His neck cracked when he tilted it sideways, but he ignored it and the slight flash of pain. It was pain he deserved.
When he picked up his laptop again, he moved back to what he’d been doing before the car arriving at the gate had interrupted him. The email was still on his screen, and he frowned as he read it.
He knew about Garrett. He hadn’t been the one to change Garrett, but he’d been working in the same lab.
He’d seen the results of what had been done to the poor man.
He knew why Garrett was so important to the Glass Research Company.
That meant he knew that he needed to get Garrett out of there as soon as possible, before the company ended up killing him.
It wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened, and it probably wouldn’t be the last, either.
Reed didn’t want to be responsible for that ever again, which was why he was planning on doing something.
Unfortunately, it looked like he wouldn’t have much time to plan. From the email opened on his laptop, it was clear that Garrett wouldn’t be staying in the lab for much longer. There was no way to know where he’d end up, but wherever it was, Garrett would be out of reach there.
Reed reread the email, his eyes catching on certain crucial sentences.
Demonstration scheduled. High-value prospect.
Potential buyers confirmed. Possible auction.
Each word made his stomach twist tighter.
He’d seen demonstrations before and had been forced to participate in some of them, using his ability to show off to rich, powerful people who saw human lives as commodities.
The memory of those events still haunted him.
He could still see the way the eyes of the people he was forced to hurt would go blank with fear and the way they’d be pushed past their limits, their bodies breaking down from overexertion, all to impress a room full of monsters in expensive suits.
He couldn’t let that happen to Garrett. Not again, and not to anyone else.
Reed rubbed his eyes. He hadn’t slept properly since he’d escaped months ago. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the faces of people he’d hurt.
He’d been forced to use his metabolic manipulation on them, speeding up their mutation processes, watching in horror as their bodies aged rapidly or their systems went into shock.
He’d tried to be gentle and to minimize the damage, but there was only so much he could do when the scientists were standing over his shoulder, threatening to make things worse if he didn’t comply.
It wasn’t only the nightmares that kept him awake, though. The fear that the company would find him and take him back in was always present and impossible to ignore.
His hands trembled slightly as he typed, and he had to stop and take a breath.
The gray stripe in his hair caught his attention in the rearview mirror, but he tried to ignore it.
It was a constant reminder of what overusing his ability had cost him.
He looked older than his twenty-eight years. He felt older, too.
But he couldn’t stop when there were people like Garrett still trapped in there.
Garrett was going to be used for a demonstration.
That meant that important and rich people would be coming to the lab.
Reed wasn’t sure whether it would be better to get Garrett out of there before that happened or during the event.
Having so many outsiders in the lab would make it easier for Reed to sneak in, but at the same time, there would be extra security.
It wasn’t only rich criminals who’d be there, but also members of the government and military officials.
Publicly, they might disagree with what this division of the Glass Research Company was doing, but they really liked to use the results of those experiments.
Not for the first time, Reed wondered if he should contact Morin Glass.
From everything he’d found out about the man, he’d been doing his best to change the company he’d inherited from his father.
The fact that there were some rogue people in it still using the company to hurt people wasn’t his fault, and maybe someone should warn him.
Reed wasn’t sure he’d do anything to stop it, but he had to believe that not everyone was evil.
Still, contacting the owner of the company was risky. Reed might be wrong when he thought that Morin wasn’t involved with these labs. What would happen if he was? Reed didn’t want to consider that thought, which was why he knew he wouldn’t reach out. He still needed help, unfortunately.
He was sure of one thing. By the end of this demonstration, Garrett would be sold off. That meant that Reed needed to get him out of the lab before that happened. Unfortunately for him, he was only one man, and he had no idea how to do that on his own.
But maybe he didn’t have to do it on his own.
He clicked out of the page he was on and opened another one.
This was a list of things he’d learned about the mutants who’d escaped the labs and had apparently banded together to take them down.
They had a leader, Moore, who Reed had never met but had heard of.
He didn’t know nearly as much as he wished he did about these mutants, but he did know that along with a tribe of Nix, they’d been working to rescue people from the labs and get them back to their lives and families.
That was what Reed wanted to do, too.
He already knew they wouldn’t trust him.
They would no doubt look into him, and once they found out that he’d worked for these labs, they would probably kick his ass.
He wouldn’t mind taking a beating if it meant they’d listen to him about Garrett.
He just needed to find a way to contact Moore or one of the people he worked with.
He was sure he could find an email somewhere, maybe a phone number if he was lucky, although it had been a long time since he’d been lucky.
* * * *
FRANKLIN WAS STILL confused about Matthew’s offer by the time he got home with his groceries.
As he started to put them away, his thoughts went over the short conversation they’d had.
After Franklin had agreed to meet Matthew for a drink, Matthew had almost been bouncing on his feet.
He’d seemed genuinely happy about Franklin’s answer.
Franklin couldn’t remember the last time anyone had been so eager to spend time with him beyond his siblings, and even that had changed once they’d gotten older.
When they’d been teenagers, they’d wanted nothing to do with him, but to be fair, he’d wanted nothing to do with them, either.
He sighed and leaned against the counter.
He missed them fiercely. Most days, he felt like he was walking around with a hole in his chest. They weren’t supposed to be separated.
They were supposed to be close, see each other every week or so at their mom’s, build their lives, and spend the holidays together.
They had none of that. Their mother was gone, and Garrett and Leah were who knew where. The only one who was free was Franklin, but was he actually free? Because he didn’t feel like it.
He felt like he’d been trapped since the twins had been taken and their mother killed. He didn’t know how to get out of that trap. He was pretty sure that the only way would be to get his siblings back, and he’d been doing everything he could to do that, but he didn’t even know where they were.
He would find them, though. He wouldn’t have it any other way.
He pushed away from the counter and got to work putting his groceries in the fridge and cupboards.
He liked the small cottage he’d been given.
He didn’t have to pay rent, but Rikar had warned him that it would need a little work, and he hadn’t been lying.
The structure was solid, but it was clear that no one had lived here in a while.
Franklin had done a lot of cleaning in the few weeks since he’d moved in, and while it would be nice to do some renovations, he was happy with the state of the place now.
He wanted this place to be a home for Garrett and Leah, and that meant he needed to make it one.
He wanted to eat something, so he started getting everything together to cook, but his phone rang, interrupting him.
No one ever called him, so he was a little confused until he saw Moore’s name on the screen.
This could either mean that he was being kicked out of the village or that something had happened.
Franklin really hoped it was the second option.
His mouth went dry as he answered. “Moore,” he said, hoping he sounded calm.
“Franklin. How are you doing?”
“Good. Is there anything I can do for you?” Franklin wanted to know why Moore was calling him. It was unusual enough to tell him something was off, but he didn’t know what.
“We just got an email,” Moore explained. “We’re still looking into it, but the person who contacted us mentions someone named Garrett who’s in a lab right now.”
Franklin’s heart felt like it stopped beating. He was sure it didn’t since he could still hear his blood pumping loudly in his ears, but he definitely stopped breathing for a second there.
He sucked in a breath. “Is it my Garrett?”