Page 22 of Fennick’s Fortune (Sentinels of Apollo #2)

“It was later, when the invaders got to me, that I learned the man who bought the babies was an undercover FBI agent. They’d been hearing things and traced it to us.

The women were freed and given new identities.

I was taken and placed in foster care and given a new name.

The two men who helped my father were arrested, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison with zero chance of parole.

I mentioned Peaches and Ernie. They were the wonderful people who took in a train wreck of a teenager.

They gave me love, attention, and suffered through my ups and downs.

To ease my misery, they told me to treat the memories as if they were only a dream.

Those memories almost ate me alive, so I started to do that to just live with my guilt and pain. ” Akiva stopped and drank her wine.

“You have nothing to be guilty about! No, you listen to me. You were as much, if not more of a victim, as any of those women were. You had no choice. You were a child. Truly, I don’t know how you survived it with your mind intact,” I growled as I rocked her on my lap.

The others nodded and murmured their thoughts on the matter. They coincided with mine.

“Intellectually, I tell myself that, but deep down, emotionally, I wondered if I should’ve killed myself, and maybe they wouldn’t have suffered as much.

The men seemed to become greedier after they discovered my talent.

Or as I called it, my curse. I haven’t dared to touch a pregnant woman until I touched Cerys.

It was like a compulsion I couldn’t resist with her, and it happened before I even thought about it. I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about. I love that you were able to communicate with them. I can’t wait to see if Brax and I can do it.

And what Fen said about you not being at fault is true.

I don’t want to invade your privacy, and you can tell me it’s none of my business if you want,” Cerys said hesitantly.

“You want to know why I didn’t end up with my momma?

She was so crippled by what she endured for all those years that she was mentally incompetent.

She had been one of the first they took.

A few of the women were severely damaged, so they were placed in mental institutions.

She was one of them. Two years after Momma was admitted, she hung herself.

She got access to a belt. They don’t know how. ”

That was the last straw. I couldn’t stand to hear more and didn’t want her to go through more. “We’re done. If there’s anything else, it can wait for a later date. I’m not trying to be rude, but we’re going home.” I stood with Akiva, still clutched in my arms. She wiggled to get down.

“Fennick, put me down. I can walk. And there is more. I have one more thing to say about this, and then we’ll leave the other issue for later. I believe you need to be aware, for the future, though we can’t wait too long to discuss it. If I’m to stay here, you need to know all the risks.”

“You’re staying. We agreed, remember? Finish it,” I muttered.

“Please, let me stand first,” she said.

Reluctantly, I eased her feet to the ground but kept an arm around her. Akiva got straight to it.

“I told you the two men who worked with my father are imprisoned, or at least they still are as far as I know. I’ve never bothered to keep tabs on them. As for my father, he’s still out there, and he’s looking for me. It’s been sixteen years.”

“How do you know he’s looking? He might’ve said what he did that day, but you were given a new identity,” Royal pointed out.

“I was given a new identity. But I know he’s still searching for me, because when I was eighteen, a letter arrived from him, telling me he knew where I was.

I panicked and showed it to Ernie and Peaches.

They assured me I was safe. They did let the FBI know.

The Feds were in the process of deciding what to do with me when my father came looking for me.

I fought him, alongside Ernie and Peaches.

They told me to run, which I did. I found out later that they were killed, and my father disappeared again. ”

“What did the Feds have to say about that?” Nico asked gruffly.

“Nothing because I didn’t stay to speak to or attempt to contact them afterward.

The only way my father could’ve known my new identity and where I was was if someone at the FBI told him, either intentionally or by accident.

Who knows? I knew they’d want to give me a new identity, and I was over that.

I created one of my own. I was savvy enough, and from what the FBI did the first time, I found those who could create an entire backstop history for me.

Luckily, I had access to Ernie and Peaches’ money.

They said it was always in case they both died at the same time.

“You wanted to know why I keep moving? That’s one of the reasons.

Whenever I stop and try to put down roots, thinking it’s been long enough that he can’t find me, he reappears, and I have to leave.

I don’t know how he finds me. It’s better and less dangerous to everyone I meet if I don’t linger.

If I stay, he will come, and I don’t want any of you to die.

He’s an unhinged monster. He has to be. The other two men at their trials admitted that they did what they did to increase the population with their genes.

They wanted it to spread. They purposefully found women who were shifters like them and kidnapped them, although they didn’t disclose the shifter part.

They told the jury they wanted to have children with their own kind.

They’re narcissistic megalomaniacs, and my father is the worst. He was the one to come up with the idea. ”

As she finished speaking, her body sagged. I ignored her prior protests and scooped her back up. She had her face buried in my chest. She wasn’t crying, but she was done.

“Take her home. We’ll talk sometime tomorrow. You were courageous in telling us all that, Akiva. We understand more, and we’ll discuss it and its implications, but after you’ve had a chance to rest. Do you need one of us to drive you?” Brax asked.

“No, I can do it. We’ll talk tomorrow. Thank you for a great dinner, ladies,” I replied.

Both women kissed me on the jaw and then murmured goodbye to Akiva, who was past responding.

I walked to the truck. Gunnar came along and opened the passenger door for me.

I secured her and shook his hand before getting behind the wheel.

It was a silent drive home. I kept going over what she said and what she had endured.

At the house, I took her to my room and, repeating what I had done the night before, I stripped her down to her underclothes and then tucked her into my bed.

She kept her eyes closed. I decided it was worth a shot.

When I stripped everything off except my briefs, I cautiously slipped into bed with her.

She didn’t yell, so I wrapped her in my arms after I spooned her.

“Get some sleep. I’ll be here, guarding you,” I whispered.

A minute or so later, the sobs began. They were gut-wrenching. I rolled her over so she was facing me, and I held her, letting Akiva soak my chest with her tears. She needed this, and I needed to hold and protect her.