Page 34 of The Pale Rider
I spent two years planning my escape, but I made it to the bus station with the money I stole. I ran all the way to California and didn’t stop looking over my shoulder for two years. Even after I became legally emancipated from him, it scared me he would kidnap me and bring me back.
The only person I could think of that would kidnap me from California and keep me in a coma during the apocalypse instead of killing me was him. If I would be killing the president with Aeron and his friends and someone found out, they would have just put a bullet in my head.
Those people that staffed the research facility and watched over me wouldn’t have stayed if they weren’t being given something in return. Someone probably went in with a Rage Head bite because they feared losing whatever perks were being offered for keeping me alive too.
My stomach sunk to my feet. I was important because my father was somehow involved in all this. I had a feeling all those tests that were done on me was to prepare for all of this.
Was my father now the President of the United States? Was that Aeron’s big secret, and why he only ever referred to him as Isaiah? Was that why I was so important to all of this?
I knew I hated him. I could feel it in my bones. I wanted him dead, but how would killing him fix any of this?
Chapter 21
I
had every intention of demanding answers from Aeron when he got out the shower, and then he had to go and stroll out the bedroom, dripping wet, wearing nothing but a towel. I could see the defined V at his hips, and that towel looked like it would fall off at any minute. My throat went dry. Damn. He was one beautiful asshole. He had this grin on his face like he knew what I would ask and came out in that towel just to distract me.
I just blurted it out before I said something stupid or ripped that towel off and ran my tongue down that delicious V on his hips.
“Is my father the president, Aeron?”
“Did you have another memory?”
“No, but it’s the only thing that makes sense.”
Aeron sighed and sat on the foot of the bed.
“Yes, Ariel. Isaiah Nahum is your father. You might think you know how evil he is, but you have no idea.”
“Did all those tests on me have anything to do with the supplement in the water that turned people into Rage Heads?”
Aeron refused to look at me.
“Are you sure you want the answer to that, Speedy?”
I really didn’t. I didn’t want to know one of those tests on me somehow paved the way for those corpses with red eyes who ate people. But I had to. I didn’t have the option not to. Ihadto know how I fit into all of this.
“Yes, they do. Isaiah had been looking to create something like the Rage mutation for a long time.”
I closed my eyes and braced myself.
“Did he succeed when he started testing on me?”
“Not right away. It had to be manipulated first.”
I could feel tears welling up in my eyes, and I was trying not to let them fall.
“The AB negative people who ended up immune are because I’m AB negative, right?”
“Yes. But I can finally tell you this, Speedy. Your blood was used to create the Rage mutation. Leif has a theory he can take a blood sample from you to reverse it. If he can put it into a drone and release it into the air, the Rage Heads will all revert to corpses and drop dead on the spot.
“After we kill Isaiah, Dice will swoop in and get rid of the other dictators in power. We’ll put the countries back to what they used to be. Asher can handle some more power-hungry militant gangs that like the status quo.”
“How do you plan on doing all that with just the four of you? Why don’t you start doing that now and rally the people to help you storm the White House?”
Aeron looked grim.
“Because the Rage mutation and World War III is not the worst thing Isaiah can do. It’s just two parts of his plan. I can’t explain just yet, Ariel, but it can get much worse than this.”
