∞ The Tethered Ones ∞

Chapter 22

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• Luna •

Ethan had a confident air about him as he strolled inside once she opened the door. But it was nothing on Amir's predatory stare or the cocky smile he was wearing that instant. It was purely voracious and deadly.

Luna wasn't sure if meeting right now was a good idea.

"Evil," Amir drawled out, gripping his fork.

"I deserve that. Call me evil."

Amir choked on his potatoes. "I thought that was your name. Sorry."

Ethan shifted his eyes, giving him a go-to-hell look. Making himself comfortable across from them, he eyed Luna. "Hi, Moon."

Amir stiffened. A smile was still on his face, but his words were like frigid winds. "You don't call her that. Ever."

There was no stopping Iron Man when he came out to play, but she tapped him on his thigh under the table. Her husband didn't care.

"It's an old habit to break."

"Old habit?" Amir said, drawing her in closer.

She relaxed calmly. "Guys, stop. Let's get on with this. Where are Kai and the Khans?"

Ethan's gaze slid to Amir, and then back to her. "They're —"

A current of energy coursed through her fingers and shot across the table, shocking him in the shoulder. He twitched with a hiss, his eyes narrowing on Amir's plate.

"I hope that's enough for you to give us the answers we need," she said in a deep, scorching tone. "There's more where that came from."

Amir smiled.

"Look, you two, I know. You don't have to intimidate me." Ethan's voice dripped defiance. "You're just wasting your time when we can have a civil discussion."

"Shocking you as much as you shocked me is not wasting my time, sergeant. Payback's a bitch."

Amir squeezed her shoulder and then jumped up, bringing his plate to the sink. He'd only eaten half of his meal and that concerned her. She wanted him to eat everything, but their guest was making things harder to indulge in his food.

When she caught Ethan's stare, again, she demanded, "Where are they?"

"If I revealed that information, I'd have to trust that you two wouldn't chop up my body and bury the pieces in the backyard."

Luna rolled her eyes. "Trust is something earned."

"And we don't trust you," Amir spewed out.

"Touché."

She huffed. "Amir and I can find his family ourselves."

He drew in a long breath. "I don't blame you for not trusting me. I've given you no reason to except for the fact that I haven't told Dr. Kim about his healing abilities."

"And I'm grateful that you've been keeping it a secret," she said. "I still can't get over the fact that your children are their puppets."

Ethan's jaw worked. "I hate it, too. I'm hoping to free them as soon as I can. They also have Jamal, so there are four lives I care about that are in danger."

"Who's Jamal?" Amir asked.

"That's his husband," Luna answered, and Amir nodded.

"They believe they've got me. I drank their Kool-Aid and will do anything for them because the people I love is in their possession. That's farther from the truth."

Amir snorted. "You still care about saving yourself. Screw everyone else in the end."

Ethan ignored his comment. "The point is, I've managed to get them off my trail. Same with you two."

Her husband's fingers dug into the top of his jeans after he sat back down. "How do you figure?"

"After Luna and Chase's confrontation, she knocked a viable player out."

"Yeah, he isn't our biggest problem right now." Amir took a large gulp of his grape juice and gurgled it — actually gurgled his beverage. "If you didn't come over here with anything valuable, there's the door."

Ethan snickered. "Whatever."

A perilous look shadowed Amir's face, something fierce and savage, and for a moment none of them moved. Clouds rumbled, just like Luna's nerves.

Leaning forward, Amir glared, keeping his stare on Ethan. "We gave you a chance to tell us what you know. My patience is wearing thin."

A thread of terror showed on Ethan's churning eyes, and his voice was cracked. "I'll give you what you want."

Amir sat back, eyes hooded. "Then get on with it."

"Back to BARDA," Luna said. "How do you propose for us to escape?"

"If I tell you, you're going to have to trust me. And I mean, really trust me." He leaned against the chair, folding his arms. "What I may need to do will not be fun, but it's the only way."

She glanced at Amir. Ethan's facial expression mirrored their own, and none of them was prepared to trust the other. However, that was another problem for another day.

"Here's the deal," Ethan said, his gaze shooting straight to Amir. "I know where they're keeping Kai and your parents. Your brother is not with them, but he's in another part of the same building."

"Adnan?" Luna's voice was soft.

Ethan nodded. "The only issue is that they changed the access codes after Chase fell into a coma."

"Hold up," she hissed. "So, you can't get us in?"

"Go figure." Amir groaned. "Evil is virtually useless."

"I didn't say I couldn't get in, Mr. And Mrs. Khan."

"Then what can you do?" she asked.

"I know someone who has the codes we're looking for," Ethan replied, laying his hands on the table. "I know the level and cell number everybody is being kept in. Without me, you'd be running into a compound that could be an ambush. If the organization wanted you both there, you'd be there."

"Basically, they haven't brought us there because there's a bigger plan for our lives," she said, a tremor shooting down her spine.

"Yep. And the mayor wants to showcase your injury to Tethered Souls who are captured and have Amir heal you," he explained. "They have that planned within the next few days."

"Why? What is he trying to gain?"

"My fist is begging to be in your face, dude," Amir said, scowling.

Luna looked at him and shook her head.

Folding his hands in his lap, Ethan answered, "Healing you will set an example that neither of you is being harmed. That you were accidentally shot during a 'training round.' They want to fool the masses to stop their uprising."

"What does their plan have to do with us trusting someone else to help with the codes?"

"That someone else is like you, Luna." Ethan's shoulders squared as he cracked his neck. "He's an Origin, and he has abilities that can be useful. He's the only one who has gotten away from every private organization on the globe and has more eyes and ears than Colin Decker." She shivered, and he continued. "And he loathes The Biological Research and Development Agency with a passion. So, I know for a fact he'd love nothing more than to screw with them. He's not going to betray anyone."

Yeah, she wasn't believing any of that. "And how does someone hide from them?"

Ethan's smile disappeared. "They stay off the grid. Leave no trace behind."

Amir jerked in his spot and looked away, thrusting a hand through his bushy hair. "How do we contact this person?"

"Obviously, he cannot come here, so we must go there," Ethan said, fiddling with a dirty napkin. "I know where Titus hangs out at."

Amir's mouth curled. "The Origins' name is Titus?"

Ethan nodded. "Titus is funny about the government tapping into electronic devices, so he chooses not to use cell phones or computers. He may have a landline phone, but I don't know. He rarely uses his telepathy since he knows about soul hunters."

"How will we meet him, then?" she asked.

"That's where the trust from both of you comes in for me," he said. "We have two options and you're not going to like either of them."

She tucked her hair on both sides, feeling cagey. "Tell us what we need to do."

"Option A is that I lay both of you on a gurney and put you to sleep. I'll load you in the back of the ambulance car out front and tell the guards at the gate that I'm transferring you to Mercy Hospital. You were found unresponsive."

She glanced at Amir, and his eyes were shooting daggers at him.

"What is Option B?"

"We'll do the same thing as Option A, but only this time, I'll restrain you guys on a gurney and pretend that I'm taking you to St. Matthew's. You'll be awake. The security team will think I have orders."

"Wouldn't they want papers or something?" Amir asked.

"I can fake the necessary papers to leave."

Luna quickly shook her head. "I don't like either of those options."

"Well, you are the ones who want to leave, right?" he countered.

"Are there any other options we can figure out?"

"There's one thing we can do, but it would require a lot of pain. And I mean, a lot," he replied.

"What is it?" she asked.

"You'll need to be hurt. Physically." Ethan didn't stutter with that last word. "Amir would need to cut you. That's the only way to ride out of here and portray a severely sick patient."

She scoffed. "No. Absolutely not."

"Well, then, you have a problem."

"No, we don't," Amir said, crushing the can of grape juice he had next to him. "There's gotta be another way. I know about the poisonous pods around the yard. Are there any routes to bypass them?"

Ethan tsked. "They had us put those pods up after capturing both of you. It was their defense if you tried to escape. You showed them what you could do after the St. Matthew's incident."

"We were running for our lives, Sergeant Trent," Luna said sternly.

He looked between his legs, and then back to her. "Believe me, I remember. Colin shot me."

"You deserved it," she snarled.

"Let's say we do the first option. What happens after that?" Amir asked, meeting Ethan's stare.

"Most weekends Titus is at a club in Chalmette. It's a few miles outside of New Orleans," he explained. "He'll be there this Saturday."

Amir laughed, and both Luna and Ethan stared at him. She wondered what he found so funny. "You're telling me that people are going to clubs in the middle of a war?"

Ethan didn't bat one eye. "Yeah."

"What the fuck?" Luna remarked.

"BARDA is in control. They have agents inside of every government," he said, gaining their full attention. "Factions have been put in place. The governor of Louisiana has made public appearances portraying everything is fine and for the public to go about their daily lives. They've covered everything up."

"That's crazy. India and every area surrounding them are a mess. And then there's Nigeria, Iceland, and countless other locations that have been destroyed." A swell of tears pooled in her sockets. "How is this happening?"

"It's easy to fool people." Smugness crept over Ethan's expression.

"What is their endgame? This organization," she asked.

Ethan sighed. "The government wants to go back to the way things were. To do so, they have to portray that things are 'good' in most areas. It's a brainwashing technique they've used in the past. Do you really think 40,000 people have been killed? It's actually over 800,000 fatalities and counting. But the media won't disclose any of that."

"I'm about to be sick," Luna murmured, and Amir rubbed her spine gently. "There has to be internet articles and cell phone images showing what's really going on. There's no way they can cover it up completely."

Ethan shrugged as his eyes traveled around the kitchen. "They have their ways."

"Let's get back to how we're going to rescue our people," Amir asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence between them.

"The club Titus is involved with is different than most clubs," Ethan said. "Females don't normally wear jeans and oversized shirts."

She gave him a bland look as she took a sip from her drink. "I'm supposed to show up wearing nothing?"

"Well, the closest thing to nothing. I'd have to get you a skimpy top and a short skirt, and then you'd be good to go."

"There's no way she's going out like that," Amir said. "We have to meet him somewhere else. Somewhere that we all can dress appropriately."

"That's not going to be possible. The club has shields all around it, and Titus feels secure."

"Does he live there?" Luna asked, her throat tightening.

"Something like that," Ethan replied. "Anyway, we'll get out of here and go to my in-laws' abandoned home in Meraux. We'll stay there for a night and then go to Titus. He'll give us the codes we need, and we'll go from there. After leaving here, we'll only have three days before Dr. Kim finds out what I've done. They'll be on my trail along with both of you."

"This plan is risky," Luna said. "I don't like it."

"I know, but it's the best plan we've got. We go in, you get what you want, and I'll get what I want. Then we'll go our separate ways. You'll never see me again."

"That's the only thing I'm looking forward to, you leaving our sight." Amir's sharp gaze landed on Ethan's hair. "I've never seen anybody wear so much gel before. Who were you trying to impress? A squirrel?"

Ethan snickered. "I connected to my husband before coming here. Jamal is inside Mercy Hospital wearing an ankle bracelet filled with shocks. Sorry if seeing him came first."

Amir narrowed his eyes and cleared his throat. "I didn't know."

Luna looked at Ethan, a tear escaping her eyelid. The moment she saw the tethered soul hooked to a wall in the orange security floor came to mind. He was miserable and in pain. And she wouldn't wish that treatment on anybody who didn't deserve it.

"Titus is a Tethered Soul, correct?" she asked, and Ethan nodded. "Has he connected to his partner?"

"Yep. They're like you two," he answered. "They're together. Her name is Jeorgia, with a J, not a G."

"They're immune?"

A mysterious glimmer filled his eyes. "Something like that."

Well, that didn't answer her question. But it didn't matter anymore. She'll find out all she needs to know at a later time. Now, she and Amir had a big decision to make. They were already in deep, and their world was crazy. Their government and BARDA was hiding important things from people, and there was so much at stake for everyone. Saving Amir's family was at the top of her list, and then the rest of the population, whoever was still alive. She knew the only way to save others was to work with her enemy and be a beacon of hope. They might as well sink or swim, as her father once told her.

"Listen," Ethan murmured, fixing a steady stare on her. "What I did to you in St. Matthew's, I'm sorry. I regret every second of it. All I'm asking for is to trust me. I'll get both of you out of here unharmed, and then we'll get our families."

"You still haven't told us why you want our help. Of all people, why us, Ethan?"

"Because . . ." There was a pause as he narrowed his eyes. "I believe in you two. You're my beacon of hope, Luna." When he said that, it indicated to her that he heard what she was thinking. "I want Amir's family to be safe. Just like I want with Kai. That's what Tethered Souls stands for. Uniting for the greater good."

"Your speech sounds rather rehearsed," Amir said, and Luna felt a faint tremor coursing through his skin. Static built, raising the tiny hairs on her body. "If for one minute we believe you're screwing with us, we won't hesitate to shock you into the next parish. You won't have another chance. And you won't like what we do with your body. Have I made myself clear?"

"Crystal," Ethan answered, his eyes downcast. "So, are we doing this?"

The million-dollar question — were they prepared to be put to sleep and transfered to somewhere else? Amir's heartbeat calmed, and Luna felt it in her own chest. His thoughts were scattered, but his mind was made up. He wanted to do everything in his power to free her and his family from their confinement. And he'd do anything to make that happen. There were so many things that could go wrong, but she couldn't see any other way out.

It was all or nothing.

She lifted her lashes and met Ethan's gaze. "We're on."

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