Page 47 of Knot All Is Lost: Part 2

Feet pounded down the stairs, and I got a wave of anger from Savo as he appeared in the kitchen with his laptop. “You’re never going to believe what that mother fucker has been doing.”

I flinched at the venom in his voice, even though I knew it wasn’t directed at me.

“Savo, please, watch your language,” Rafael chided.

“Sorry,” he muttered, then plunked his laptop on the table. “Seems Cambrie wasn’t the only Omega he was trading off to other countries. He just sent a busload of Omegas to Asturg. I shut down the border and had them redirect the bus back to the Care Center but that doesn’t fix what he’s already done.”

My jaw fell open. How could this man, evil or not, be shipping off innocent people to other countries? What if they had a family that cared about them? Would we ever be able to get them back?

“What do we do about those already gone?” Rafael questioned.

Savo ran his hands through his hair and growled in frustration. “That’s the thing, there are no records. We know who was brought into the Care Centers, but we don’t know which country they were sent to or how long ago. What I don’t get is what is Yoram getting out of this? I’ve been over his financials with a fine-tooth comb, and I can’t see anything that would make sense.”

“What if it’s not money, but power?” Bodhi suggested. “He’s got as much power as he can here but what if he was trying to take over Oscad completely? As in, making himself king or something?”

“What doesn’t make sense to me is that Yoram isn’t a young man,” Rafael pointed out. “Why put all this work into becoming so rich and powerful when he’s sixty and isn’t going to live but maybe for another twenty years?”

“You’re looking at this like a rational person,” Savo commented. “If he's anything like my father then it doesn’t matter, power is power, and he’d rather die knowing he got all he could while he was alive.”

Hearing him talk about his father made me wonder what might happen if this ended up causing a war between our two countries. Most start when one person promises something and then they couldn’t provide it anymore. If Yoram made a deal for Omegas and we cut them off, would they come after us?

“That’s fair,” Rafael admitted. “I wasn’t thinking with that frame of mind.”

“Why would you? Why would anyone? It’s pointless,” Bodhi muttered.

“What’s pointless?” Nixon asked as he rejoined us.

He’d stepped out to deal with a few matters for the shelters. While I loved that they were all here with me, I knew they had things to take care of. When I mentioned this to Nixon, he just gave me a disapproving look and didn’t bother to give me an answer.

“Power hungry people and the way they look at the world,” Spencer interjected, answering Nixon’s question.

The Alpha blinked at us for a moment then cocked his head. “What brought that up?”

“Yoram,” everyone at the table answered.

“Ah, I suppose I should have guessed,” Nixon said, taking a seat at the table. “I take it you got word from Marius then?”

“In a manner of speaking,” Savo mumbled as he typed away on his computer. “I had to divert a bus full of Omegas from being smuggled out of the country. Now, Rick and Marius are going to a Care Center that Yoram uses for Omegas he picks out personally.”

“Why does that sound terrifying?” Spencer said with a shiver. “I would never want to be someone that man singled out.”

“If I told you it was conveniently located near Neenan Pharmaceutical, would you be surprised?” Savo added, looking over his screen at Spencer.

“No,” Spencer gasped. “You can’t think he’s trying to revive the program, do you? Hasn’t it been twisted enough to kill off almost all the Omegas? When will people learn to leave well enough alone?”

Rafael let out a heavy sigh and slid me off his lap as he got up from the table. “Never, it’s in our nature to keep pushing limits. If we could actually learn from our mistakes, then that might be one thing, but so far mankind has been found incapable of doing that.”

“Deep,” Savo said, nodding his head in agreement.

Rafael cupped my chin, lifting it so I gazed into his eyes. “Would you mind grabbing Oscar? I thought it might be nice to make lunch and have a picnic in the backyard. While we need to keep out of the public eye, I don’t think that means we need to be trapped in the house. The backyard is fenced in, no one will see us out there.”

I smiled brightly at him. “That sounds lovely, I’ll go find him right now.”

Oscar had work that needed to be completed, so he was taking the morning to work on it. I entered the bedroom without knocking and found him with a pair of headphones on, staring intently at a screen as he adjusted the music he’d finished. Through our bond, I could feel how intent he was but the moment he became aware of me he paused and turned. With a smile, he removed his headphones and reached out for me.

I let him pull me onto his lap and capture my lips with his in a sweet kiss. Warmth and love flowed into me from him and I wasn’t sure there was a better feeling in the world than knowing how he felt without having to use words. “Rafael wanted to have lunch outside in the backyard and asked me to come get you.”

He nodded but instead of getting up he just wrapped his arms around me and nuzzled into my neck. Longing and relief swirled between us and I realized that he’d been having some withdrawal, having been apart from me all morning. Twisting, I tossed my arms around his neck and kissed him deeply. Marius had mentioned that Alphas took a little while to adjust to new bonds, making me wonder how he was doing. Nixon had been around me for most of the morning and Savo had off and on. Whereas Oscar and Marius were the only two that had been more distant because of other obligations.

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