Page 46 of Knot All Is Lost: Part 2

“You’re correct, I don’t know much about what’s been going on here and that’s what we are trying to change. Do you know how many Care Centers there are active?” I questioned.

“Just this one and the other Yoram oversees,” she answered. “The others have staff there to take in new Omegas, but they all get sent here. This is where we have all the medical and educational things we need. Every other location is just a place for them to wait if we don’t have room here, but that hasn’t been a problem since we’ve been sending them out of the country.”

“Thank you, Kim, I truly appreciate you being so honest with me,” I said with a smile as I stood. “I’m going to have you and the other staff members be escorted to an alternate location for now. We have more questions, but I think it would be best if we made a stop at the other location as well.”

“Of course, we have no contact with that Care Center, only the Head Caretaker and Official Yoram interact with the staff,” Kim informed me.

Reaching out, I shook her hand before she was escorted out by one of Rick’s men.

Running my fingers through my hair I let out a frustrated growl. “What do we know about the bus?”

“Savo located it and sent word that it’s not to be allowed to cross. That we are in a state of emergency and the border needs to be shut down. Protocol should be that they return here since they can’t continue. I’m sending out a team to escort them back and to ensure my men can keep an eye on them,” Rick shared. “I’ve called in more men, at this point there is no way that Yoram isn’t going down for this. How the fuck did he think he could get away with selling our own people?”

“The bastard is far too comfortable in his place at the top, figuring that no one would want to challenge him with all the strings he can pull,” I growled as we headed back to the Humvee. “We need to get to that fucking center now, because if what I think he’s doing is really happening, I’m going to murder someone.”

Rick grabbed me by the shoulder before I got in the vehicle. “I get it, man, I do, but remember that woman you have back home? The one you have to look in the eye and tell what happened here today. Don’t let it be having to tell her that there’s blood on your hands. Trust me when I say this from experience. You don’t want that.”

My shoulders sagged, and I nodded. “Yeah, I hear you, and I don’t want that, but fuck do I want whatever other retribution I can get.”

“Now that I can stand behind,” Rick agreed. “These people need to pay for their transgressions but to the letter of the law, so no one else tries to take matters into their own hands. Just imagine what it will be like when the people learn their child is in another country. They are going to need a person they can trust and lean on. Right now, it’s going to be you.”

That reality slapped me in the face. “There’s going to be riots in the streets. Hell, I wouldn’t put it past them to burn the Capitol Building down.”

“One step at a time,” Rick warned. “We’ll go to this center, deal with what we find, then we’ll manage the rest. If we have answers to give, a person to blame, and actions already being taken to right this atrocity, we’re ahead of the game.”

“Right, well let's go find out what else Yoram’s been up to,” I urged. “Not that we need another nail for his coffin at this point,” I muttered as we headed off.

Chapter 21

Theguysspentthemorning doing everything they could to distract me while Marius went off to deal with things at the Care Centers. All I could do at this point was wait to hear word, and pray that it would all be over. Nothing I’d learned about my birth father gave me hope that whatever was going on would be good.

We finished the last movie for the Lord of the Rings, and now Rafael, Spencer, and Bodhi were teaching me how to play Speed. I quickly learned that Spencer was far more competitive than I ever thought. He was so selfless that to see him standing by the table throwing down cards left and right was a surprise. When he lost he didn’t take it well either, always challenging a move or how something had been played.

“No, you can’t put them down like that,” Spencer snapped. “You have to lay them down one at a time.”

Bodhi scoffed and narrowed his eyes at the fellow Beta. “That’s a load of crap, Spency-boy, and you know it.”

“Would you like me to google it?” Spencer challenged.

“Yeah, actually I would, and that other thing you yelled at me for in the last round. Personally, I think you’re changing these rules so you win,” Bodhi countered.

Rafael chuckled as Spencer pulled out his phone and started to type. “Just you wait.”

“Hey, if you can prove it to me in three different sources then I’ll believe it. The internet lies so we need a few opinions to suss out the truth.”

Not wanting to get in the middle of their fight, I got up from my chair and sat in Rafael’s lap. He nuzzled into my neck, purring. “Hello, Little One,” he murmured. “Are you having fun?”

“When we actually get to play the game,” I answered. “Is there another one that might give us a better shot at playing longer before this happens?”

“Hmm,” Rafael pondered, resting his chin on my shoulder. “I suppose there is Go Fish, Bullshit, or maybe we can see if the house has Uno or something like it.”

“What’s Bullshit?” I asked.

“It’s a game where the object is to get rid of all your cards but you have to lay them down in sequential order. If you don’t have the card then you lie and put down something while saying it’s what you need. The other players can call bullshit if they think you’re lying,” Rafael explained. “Did you want to give it a try?”

I shook my head furiously. “No, I can’t lie at all.”

“I suppose that would make the game challenging,” Rafael agreed.

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