Page 73 of Bound By Water
“Thank you,” I tell him, staring up at this enigmatic man. “What happened after the experiments?”
“Except for Oliver and Quaid, everyone turned on me. When they were tapped to lead Phoenix operations at this compound, they submitted a list of soldiers to join them, and I was lucky enough to be on it. They knew I committed terrible acts, but they didn’t hold the past against me. Instead, Oliver thought helping people would be a better use of my powers,” he informs me. “His support saved me. And that’s why I think you should hear River’s side. All of it. Without judging.”
“I will. Thank you for sharing your past,” I say, wanting him to know how much it meant for him to tell me something personal about himself. Kind of evens the playing field between us. Not that he’s going to be here for much longer.
“This is the last batch. Why don’t I finish up and you go find River? He really needs a friend right now,” he suggests with a gentle smile.
I reach up and place a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you again.”
* * *
River’s sittingby the stream with his hands buried in the mud when I find him. His relationship with the earth and nature is quite remarkable. It reaches for him when he’s in pain and carves a path when he’s running from the enemy. As I stand there, a flower curls itself over his shoulder.
“Mind if I join you?” I ask softly, not wanting to disturb him.
His shoulders droop at the sound of my voice. “I hoped to have more time before I had to confess my sins, but time is against us.”
I sit down beside him and draw my knees up. “It always has been.” I remind him. “Let’s start with something easy.”
He lifts an eyebrow. “Shoot.”
“When that guy put you to sleep, how did you come out of it so quickly? I mean, I was standing there. I saw the ground cover you. Does it heal you?” I know it’s an odd question, but I could have sworn the water did the same to me that night Trent and Tommy tried to kill me, because the next day, I woke with no bruises, broken bones, or soreness.
“It does,” he replies with a grin, looking down at his hands. He pulls them out of the ground and shows me his dirty, bruise-free knuckles. With a sigh, he digs them back into the wet mud. “There are so many things I have to tell you. I don’t know where to start.”
Part of me doesn’t want to know, but I have serious decisions to make myself, and I can’t do that until I know the truth. “Start at the beginning.”
“The beginning is my favorite part because it led me to you,” he says, looking at me. “No matter what you hear, please stay for the entire story. Okay?”
Shit, it’s bad. I swallow but give him my word. I’m not sure I would have if I hadn’t spoken to Beckett earlier, but he convinced me to hear him out. “I will. Promise.”
“Our beginning wasn’t at the gas station. It began on campus,” he begins.
I raise my head to clarify. “My school? I would have remembered if we’d met.”
He shakes his head. “One day, you ran into a football star. Unfortunately, he wasn’t very smart. When he saw the mark on your shoulder, he decided to search his father’s files. His father, on the other hand, is very, very smart. An alert immediately went to his phone informing him of his son’s activities.”
Chills erupt across my arms, and I pull my knees in close to my chest as if they can help protect me from whatever he’s going to tell me. “Trent.”
He nods. “Hightower thought his son was in trouble, and he sent me to save him.” He pauses. “Remember when you told me about your stalkers? You thought you had two but weren’t sure? You did. Trent was one, and I… was the other.” He thrusts a hand through his hair, ruffling it up, then smiles.
“The first time I saw you, I thought the dunce had made a mistake. You didn’t feel like you had an ounce of power,” he says with a shake of his head. “You were also the prettiest girl I’d set eyes on in forever.”
Shock renders me speechless. Of all the secrets I thought he’d reveal, this wasn’t one of them. Senator Hightower, leader of the Ravens, sent him to what… eliminate me? I look around the deserted forest. If so, he’s had plenty of chances. I return my gaze to him.
He searches my eyes, then continues. “I stopped following Hightower’s orders the moment I took that first photo. I was standing in the bushes, waiting for you. You came out of the library and stopped at the top of the stairs. Your hair was sticking out everywhere, and you looked so tired. I couldn’t help myself. I thought you were beautiful.”
He laughs at the look on my face. “For the first time ever, nature gave me away. A twig snapped and scared you off.”
That jolts me out of my stupor. “The envelope with the pictures… that was you? You broke into my car? You followed me everywhere. Nowhere felt safe. You scared the fucking hell out of me.” I shove him hard and stand, my body trembling with fury. “What is wrong with you?”
He jumps to his feet and grabs me. “I was trying to scare you! Make you run. Trent, the Hightowers, they wanted me to kill you. I couldn’t do it. Most of us with powers are ready to run at a moment’s notice. I didn’t realize until later you didn’t know anything about our world.”
“So, this is my fault?” I ask in a dangerously quiet voice. Water splashes over my feet, and I look down and see the tiny stream has diverted itself. “You left me at the mercy of Trent and his buddy Tommy. Do you know what they did to me? They drugged me, kidnapped me, stuck me in a fucking shack in the middle of the woods, beat me, and threw me off a cliff!” My voice raises higher and higher with each word.
“And when that didn’t work, they scaled down to finish the job. If I hadn’t been by water or had these powers, they would have killed me. Where were you? If you wanted to save me, that would have been a great time to do it!” I yell at him.
I jerk my hands from his, but I have no intention of leaving. He has my full attention. I want answers. I deserve answers.
