Page 47 of Homecoming

“By the government?”

Owen snorted. “No. Funnily enough, by the ex-wife of the man who ran the Silverstone Collaborative. Her name is Elizabeth. She’s a doctor, and she’s fantastic. Actually, she married one of the men who initially escaped.”

Grace blinked, and he could feel the incredulity rolling from her. It was a crazy story, but every word had been the truth. “You’re handling this pretty well,” he said, glancing at her.

“I’m assimilating the information. There’s a lot.”

Owen quirked a brow in agreement and downed the rest of his water. He dropped the plastic in the recycle bin. “And I’ve only told you the bare bones,” he murmured.

“What is your ability,” she asked, eyes narrowing a little. “You haven’t been reading my mind for the past several months, have you?”

He watched her for a long moment, long enough that her cheeks started to go pink. One side of his mouth tipped up in a smile. “No, I don’t read minds, although I do get impressions of feelings sometimes. I’m a little stronger, physically, thanaverage. My talents lay in details, though. I notice things that no one ever would.”

She lifted her brows skeptically. “Like…”

“Like… You have 138 eyelashes on your right upper lid, and 142 on your left. Your heart rate rests at about 58 beats per minute, but when you climax, it speeds up to 100-110. I notice endless, tedious details that stay in my head a very long time. When we got coffee two days ago, the girl shorted me thirteen cents at checkout, but I didn’t say anything. The front right tire of my truck is low on pressure by two pounds.” He shrugged. “Things that make me an excellent planner and organizer. And overload my brain with tedium I can’tnotthink about.”

He glanced at her. There was a slight smile on her lips as she looked at him. “100 to 110, huh?”

Owen matched her slight smile. “Yes. And your temperature goes up a whole degree.”

She cocked her head at him. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

“You used fourteen different colors in my hatband,” he said, and reached for the hat to hand it to her. She waved him off.

“You’re right, I did. How many beads did I use?”

Owen blinked and spun the hat, looking at the band. “Two thousand, eight hundred beads. There are three hundred and fifty rows and eight beads in each row. The hat is six and a half ounces heavier since you gave me the band.”

Grace stared at him for a long time, and he wondered if he’d finally freaked her out.

“Can you turn it off?” she asked.

“I wish. I can muffle it sometimes, usually with hard physical labor, but not for very long.”

“And how does this pertain to the baby?”

Owen frowned. “We’ve been under scrutiny by a lot of different governments and factions, including our own. Whenwe took the drug, it changed us on a chromosomal level. Aiden is one of the strongest of us, and he’s also the first to have a baby. Everyone wants to know if he passed on those chromosomal changes and if the baby is as special as he is. There have been several kidnapping attempts, and men have died protecting her.”

Grace cocked her head. “And is she?”

He stared at her for a long second, wondering if he was doing the right thing. It felt so foreign to spill out all these details they’d kept close for so long. He wanted to trust Grace, though.

“Yes,” he said, and watched her face.

Grace didn’t say anything for a long time. Then she turned to him and lifted a hand to his throat. “Did they do this to you?”

Emotion threatened, and he swallowed. “Yes,” he rasped. “The drug helps us repair a lot of things, but some of them just liked to make us scream. It permanently damaged my vocal chords.”

Leaning forward, she pressed a kiss to his throat, and it took everything in him to hold still, to not grab her and wrap her up. She needed to make the decision whether to be with them, and he wasn’t going to force her in any way.

Grace stepped back and looked up at him. “I need to think about everything you’ve told me. Can you run me down the mountain, please?”

Owen tried not to let the disappointment show on his face. He tried to take her words at face value, but he could see a coolness settling into her expression. “Yes, I can. I’ll go warm the truck up while you get ready.”

SIXTEEN

Grace’s mind was spinning with information, and as she walked out of Owen’s rooms, she kind of just stopped. She could hear the hum of voices and laughter from the group in the other room. All of those men out there had been beaten and tortured and starved. Disregarded by their government. And what about their families? She thought of Crash’s disfigured face, and tears filled her eyes.

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