Rocko didn’t want to remind him that The Noah Group would likely still try to take her, even if she didn’t have powers, to get to Apollo.He’d keep that depressing thought to himself, but that fact likely didn’t escape them all.
A short, heavier-set Spanish woman came out of the larger of the three houses and yelled, “Dinner’s ready.”
“That’s Rosaline,” Ellen said.“She was my nanny before escaping to safety away from my family.Now she’s my mom.”
“She thinks she’s everyone’s mom,” Griffin huffed, shaking his head.“Damn pain in the ass.”
“We’re lucky to have her,” Apollo corrected.
“Yeah, yeah,” Griffin grumbled.
“Spencer and Rick told me about their mission when they found you,” Rocko said.
“Without them, I would have never escaped that situation alive.I owe them everything,” Ellen said.
“As do I,” Apollo said.“Or I would have never gotten you back.”
“They’re good people,” Rocko agreed.
“Get your freaky, mutated butts in here and eat.I didn’t spend the last three hours cooking for it to go cold before you all stop yapping,” Rosaline ordered as she walked into the group and up to Rocko.“Our guest has been traveling all day.He must be hungry and tired.There’ll be time for talking later.Now move.”
Rosaline wrapped her arm around Rocko’s bicep and led him into the main house.Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as he thought.Then again, the glare Griffin sent his way crushed that thought the moment it occurred to him.Maybe not.
***
Apollo
Apollo watched their visitor’s retreating figure with curiosity.The sense of peace he’d found in Rocko’s presence worried him.WTF?Was it perhaps part of the man’s abilities: soothing troubled souls?
“You wanna tell me what’s going on?”Renee asked as soon as the others were out of earshot.“Your heart rate is steady at sixty-two beats per minute when you average ninety-five on a good day.Are you feeling okay?”
That was the thing about having a healer in residence; she knew everything and could pick up on any variation from normal, even if your normal wasn’t normal.
“It’s something about the new guy,” Griffin said before Apollo could.
“It’s nothin’.Don’t get all worried,” Apollo assured.
“I’ll worry when I want to,” Renee stated.“Promise you’ll tell me if anything strange happens.”
“Yeah, like you dragging the Dick-tective away and bending him over the nearest hard surface,” Griffin chuckled.
“Not everything is about sex, brother,” Renee scolded.“Wait, you’ve got a thing for the detective?”
“No.Shit.All I said was that he intrigues me.”Apollo was sorry he’d even said that.
“Yeah, intrigues you how fast you can get him in bed,” Griffin said.
“Seriously, let it go before I gut you,” Apollo warned and marched off toward the house before another word could be spoken.
“You could try.”Griffin laughed.
He had no idea what it was about Rocko that affected him, and he was damn sure he’d keep it to himself until he could pinpoint the cause.After all, the other man still might be a danger to the team, and in that case, the gloves came off.He’d never allow someone to endanger his team or their mission.
Without thought, he traced the raised scar running from his left elbow to his wrist.Not only had The Noah Project used risky and unstable genetic manipulation in its effort to create the perfect warrior, but sometimes they resorted to much cruder methods.A phantom pain shot through his arm as his memories flooded back, attempting to drown him as they always did.Metal bars and wires sat on a tray a few feet away from the table he’d woken up strapped to.It wasn’t the location that struck him— after all, Apollo had been in this surgery numerous times over his first sixteen years of life, if that’s what you wanted to call it.No, it wasn’t the room; it was the stranger wearing scrubs and unpacking equipment that he imagined belonged better in a slaughterhouse.
No one spoke to him; they never did.Apollo was simply a test subject, nothing more than a lab rat with an ever-looming expiration date.As the man unpacked his tools, he inspected each with a calculated precision that suggested his familiarity with each and a sick union between the man and metal.Apollo noticed lines had been drawn on his left forearm in black with numbers written every few inches.He knew what the stranger was here to do.He’d heard the screams of the others as the same procedure was done on their bodies.As the stranger approached him, his twisted grin matched the implement of pain in his hand.Apollo swore he wouldn’t scream.No matter how bad the pain got, he wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.
Apollo had kept that promise that day and every day following.No matter what the pain, he remained silent.No matter what he suffered, he bore it alone.The pain and destruction inflicted by the Noah Project and their group of wannabe world leaders was immeasurable, crossing all lines: geopolitical, economic, age, race, and location.Who knew how many more survivors were out there, without the knowledge about how to manage their new abilities?
