19. Jet
Jet
Ishowered and set about finding us something to eat before bed.
I was exhausted. After what happened in the red room, I’d been taken from Elliott and put in a sparse room at the facility where I was left with a tray of food and no explanation.
I ate a bit of the food to keep my strength up, then spent the rest of the time pacing.
When they came to take me out of there soon after, I had no idea what they would do to me.
I’d been incredibly relieved when they’d taken me to Elliott. Evidently, he’d been so upset, he refused to stop crying or to eat. Probably worried he would ruin their experiments, Freedman ordered that I be taken to him.
I was thankful we’d been together when the place had been raided. I don’t know what I would have done if someone had made off with Elliott.
Elliott came into the kitchen after having showered and changed into sweatpants and a t-shirt that were slightly too big that he’d found laid out on the bed in one of the bedrooms. He looked so cute like that, with his dark-blond hair damp and hanging in his eyes, I had to hide a smile.
“This must be one of Jermaine and Kristopher’s houses,” I said. “They’ve prepared everything for us.”
“Are you going to shower?” Elliott asked me.
“Let’s eat first, and then I will. Then we’ll have a talk.”
A little over an hour later, we sat on the couch in the living room together. I had showered and found a similar outfit to wear. Elliott pulled a navy knit blanket off the back of the couch and covered up with it. Lifting the end, he asked if I was cold.
I wasn’t, but I didn’t pass up the chance to cuddle under it with him.
“Now, start from the beginning,” I told him. “When you left the ranch, you went to the bus station and took the bus to Adams. I traced you that far. Then what?”
He told me about getting picked up by the ORCRO guys, then how he was taken to a mansion in the suburbs.
“I don’t know where we were, exactly. Not even the city. Sorry,” he said.
“That’s okay. Go on.”
The man sounded like someone who paid the ORCRO guys to bring him omegas before they took them in, hoping to find an omega x to sell for profit.
“Sounds like you did a great job fooling him,” I told Elliott when he explained how he’d acted dumb.
Then he told me about arriving at the facility and what happened up to the point that I appeared.
When he got to the part where Dr. Freedman had somehow electroshocked him, I wanted to go find the man and rip him limb from limb. What the actual fuck? How had he managed it? Elliott needed a thorough physical. They might have somehow planted something on him.
When Elliott finished telling me everything, I sat for a moment, my emotions in turmoil. About Edge, the alpha who had originally traumatized Elliott, being brought in before I was. About Freedman using that device on him twice more. About Elliott being treated as less than human.
When I had myself under control, I took Elliott’s hand and said softly, “That’s a lot for anyone to go through, especially by themselves. Are you okay?”
He nodded. “I’m really sad about my dad. Dr. Mooneyham had told me he’d let me see him.”
“He probably just said that to ensure your cooperation with the experiments,” I told him as gently as I could.
“But…what if he does know where my dad is? Can someone make him tell?” Elliott asked, looking at me hopefully. I would do anything for him. I’d beat the information out of Mooneyham if I had to.
“I’ll find out for you.”
“Thank you, Jet.”
When we went to bed, Elliott surprised me by asking me to sleep with him. I readily agreed. As I listened to his breathing deepen, I made plans for the following day. Besides giving our statements to the FBI, I wanted Elliott to see a doctor. And then I wanted some time alone with Godrick Freedman.
***
Kristopher and Jermaine arrived around noon, bringing us lunch.
Kris was an alpha and older than his beta spouse-mate, whom he clearly doted on.
After my initial meeting with Mooneyham, before I went in as a volunteer, I’d sent as much information to Kris as I could.
It hadn’t been a lot—just Mooneyham’s name and what I’d observed from inside.
Between my interview and what Ben had called Kris to tell him later, after having telepathically spoken to Elliott, they’d had enough to raid the place.
“I want Elliott completely checked out,” I told Kris when he had a moment in private, after Kris and Jermaine had debriefed me and Elliott separately. “How the hell did they inflict so much pain on him?”
“Perhaps a microchip. I’ve already got a doctor lined up to look at him.”
I sighed with relief. “I want some time alone with Freedman. Have you found any other facilities connected with the program?”
“Just one, but by the time we got to it, it had been abandoned. Just as we’d suspected and feared, the place was where omegas were taken to be exterminated.
We found plenty of evidence of that. As we speak, the FBI has men digging all around both facilities, so there’s bound to be more.
” He paused. “Jet, about your brother...”
I shook my head. “I’m not expecting Clayton to be alive. But I’d like some closure.”
“Of course,” Kris said. After a moment, he asked, “What you told me happened in the red room…did it cause you to bond with Elliott?”
I frowned. “I don’t think so. Why do you ask that?”
“Just the way you phrase things sometimes. Like you’re in charge of Elliott.”
“Of course I’m not in charge of him, but I’ve been taking care of Elliott…”
“How do you feel about him?” Kris asked.
“I care a lot about him. Before this happened, I was solely responsible for his safety because he trusted me.”
Kris nodded. “He seems a little clingy with you now. Was he like that before?”
“Well, no. But he’s been through a lot, and what happened in the red room…”
“Brought you closer,” Kris finished for me. “And now you want to, what? Beat the shit out of Godrick Freedman for hurting him?”
“For starters, yeah.”
Kris chuckled. “I think you know I can’t let you do that.”
“You don’t have to tell anybody,” I said. Then, when Kris continued to look at me with an expression that said I knew better, I sighed and said, “Okay, fine. But he’d better be locked away somewhere for the rest of his life.”
“I plan to make that happen. But first, we have to interrogate him and take down this deplorable program. It appears from the paperwork I’ve seen that whole thing was incredibly efficient.
ORCRO brought the omegas in, the central facility examined them, and the final facility exterminated them.
All within the space of a week at most. The betas barely got their hands dirty.
They’ll probably try to claim they knew nothing about that side of it, but we’ll get them; don’t worry.
The director of the FBI is meeting with the president today.
I don’t think he wants anything to do with this.
He’ll shut it all down fast and give us anything we need to make it stick. ”
I nodded. “Before I forget, will you see if you can find out what happened to Elliott’s birth father? The doctors Mooneyham told him that his dad was still alive, and Elliott is so hopeful that they might have kept him alive because he was an omega x.”
“Of course. I’ll put it at the top of my list, along with your brother.”
“Thank you.”
When Elliott and Jermaine returned to the room after having gone to sit outside on the patio together to talk, Kris told Elliott about his appointment with a physician.
Elliott looked at me, obviously agitated. “I don’t want to see a doctor. Those men were doctors, and they hurt me.”
“Our physician wouldn’t hurt you, though,” Kris said.
Elliott’s eyes didn’t leave mine. Shaking his head, he said, “No.”
Taking his hands, I said seriously, “El, haven’t you wondered how Freedman managed to hurt you with whatever that device was? We need to see if he implanted something under your skin. Maybe when you first came in and were unconscious. You said he told you he examined you.”
Elliott shuddered and tears filled his eyes.
Pulling him into my arms, I said, “It’s okay. I’ll go with you. Would that be alright?”
Swallowing, Elliott nodded his head. “Okay.”
Kris and Jermaine took us to a local hospital where a doctor that they knew and trusted worked.
I accompanied Elliott into the exam room and held his hand throughout the entire exam.
The physician fairly easily found the microchip implanted near Elliott’s hairline on the back of his neck and removed it, placing it in a vial to be studied later.
He also examined his star-shaped freckle, although there really wasn’t anything to be gleaned from that.
He took some photos for comparison with other omega x’s in the future.
When we met back up with Kris and Jermaine, I asked, “What now? Do we go back to the ranch?”
Kris smiled. “We’ve booked a flight for you this evening.” He looked at Elliott. “Is that good with you?”
Elliott smiled and nodded. “I really want to see everyone. But, Kris, can I ask you for a favor?”
“Sure. What is it?”
“Will you find out if Dr. Mooneyham lied about my birth dad being alive?”
Kris smiled. “Jet already asked me to do that, and I will definitely will.”
“Thank you.”