Page 16 of Carver

“Agreed,” they replied. “I intend to ensure they go on to live well after this.”

“Good. I'm getting the boy some help now.”

Royce hummed again. “Boy?”

“Yes, boy. He was in a separate space from the others.”

“My question wasn’t to correct you. I spoke with many of those you rescued. There was a bit of a language barrier, but we brought in specialists and according to them, the one called ‘pet’ was not a boy. From what they've suggested, I’d say early to mid-twenties. A few of the older ones have been there as long as hehas. They saw him come in as a young child. He couldn't have been more than five or six years old at the time.”

Carver's heart sped up at the news. “What's the longest someone remembers?”

His words were broken.

His emotions shattered.

Royce paused. Their voice came out softer as they replied, “One person had been there for twenty-two years, and they said he'd been there almost just as long.”

Carver ripped the phone from his ear as he roared in outrage. His phone flew across the room, smashing against the wall. The audible crack of the screen didn’t even make Carver flinch. He was too lost in his own dark thought to even care about the fucking thing.

Seven

Carver shoved on his clothes,then stomped all the way back to the medical bay where Doc was working.

The other man looked up from the patient, his brow furrowed. "I don't have any answers for you yet, Carver."

"He's in his 20s,” Carver said, voice hollow as he shook his head. "I just heard from Royce. It was confirmed that he's been there for at least twenty-two years."

Doc's eyes widened. "Holy shit," he murmured.

Then he rushed to move around the room, gathering his notes and medical equipment.

"If that's the case, then this is worse than I thought. He needs intensive care. I don't know that you have everything here that I can use, Carver. And he needs to be watched around the clock. Fury is going to need to talk to him as well, because when he wakes up, he's going to need it. Over two decades of confinement and abuse changes a person. He wasn't even a fully formed individual when he was taken.”

“I understand that," Carver bit out as rage enveloped him all over again.

Even though he didn't want children of his own, he had watched other people raise theirs. He had saved several duringhis years as an Angel. He knew just how fragile they were, how malleable.

Stopping Mordecai should have been more of a priority. When she first came onto the scene, he should have swept in and taken over.

But then he remembered all the lives they’d saved earlier that day. He remembered the people who might have become casualties if they had gone in before they had a solid plan.

He dropped his hands to the edge of the bed where the boy was laid out asleep. Monitor's beeped in the background and an IV had been hooked up to him.

"Do you think he'll survive this?" Carver asked Doc.

"It's anyone's guess. The psychological effects are what I'm most worried about at this point. Knowing his age and the damage that's probably been done to his system, I can say the physical will take a while, but eventually he'll be okay there as well. It's the mind that will wander; that will question things and be unsure. Everyone he comes in contact with will need to be patient with him. Wherever he winds up—” his words cut off as Carver growled.

“He's not going anywhere.” The fierceness in his voice surprised even him.

Doc shook away his shock and continued ahead. "I understand what you're saying, Boss. What I'm telling you is that this is so much more than just him having a safe place to sleep and restarting his life. This is physical, mental, and emotional abuse spanning far longer than he'll remember. I'm not sure the clubhouse is the safest place. However," he held up his hand to stop Carver's response, "however, I understand the need to ensure he's stable before he goes anywhere else. Besides, he might latch on to someone here, might find himself wanting to be near the people who saved him.”

“You think he'll have a hero complex?"

Doc shrugged as his eyes trailed over the boy's form. "It's quite possible. Then again, he might fear everyone. With Mordecai being a woman, I have a feeling he'll distrust them in general. But the guards were all men, right?”

“They were," Carver answered.

"Then it's anyone's guess. I truly think we're in for many surprises for however long he's here."