Page 16

Tony

Six Months Later

The three of us walk up to the estate that Bennet and his family have been calling home.

“It’s gorgeous,” Mara breathes. “Look at all the wildflowers.” I follow her gaze to the landscape, purples and yellows and blues mixed in with the tall grass. There’s a shimmering lake beyond the lawn. The view is truly stunning.

“Apparently this place used to be a Bed & Breakfast,” Quinn says, reaching out to press the doorbell. “I bet it was popular.”

The door opens and an older woman with white hair and a huge grin steps out.

“You must be Tony,” she says, looking straight at me.

“How did you know?” I ask, grinning back at her because I can’t help it. She’s such a warm presence that I kind of want to hug her.

I don’t have to ask, though, because she comes to me, wrapping her arms around my torso. “Thank you for saving our Bennet,” she says, wiping away a tear as she steps back.

“You must be Mrs. Coolson, I’ve heard a lot about you,” I say kindly, wanting to turn the attention away from myself. Bennet has told me a lot about the older couple that take care of the estate. She raised Jackson, and has insisted on staying on board to help take care of the house and all of them by proxy.

“Please, please, come in. Who do you have with you?”

It occurs to me I still don’t know how to introduce us as a unit, but then again, Mrs. Coolson lives with Bennet and his family of six. Mara and Quinn introduce themselves and get wrapped in a warm hug as well. I’m watching them all fondly as they chat up the old lady, looking around at the interior that is just as gorgeous and welcoming as the outside of the estate.

A throat clears behind me and I turn to see Bennet Adley, leaning against the doorframe. He looks surprisingly casual in a pair of dark jeans and a white button-down shirt. As long as I’ve known him, I’ve never seen him in anything other than a suit and tie. But I suppose these last few months have changed us all.

“Good to see you in person, finally,” he says with a grin, coming to shake my hand.

“Good to see you alive,” I respond, and he pulls me into a hug that shocks me more than his clothes.

“Good to be alive.” He grins, and I can see how truly happy he is for probably the first time in his life.

Having Jackson Adley for a father was rough, but he never shared the depravity he lived under until after the incident at the lab. After he died. After we finished with the BioCere business, Bennet and I talked for a long time about everything he’d gone through with his father and what happened while he was being tortured in that lab.

I still don’t quite understand the circumstances of how he lived through all of his injuries. From what I understand, he actually flat-lined. Lukas had kept me updated on his progress while they were in the hospital, and when they brought him home. When Lukas called to tell me he died, I mourned the man that was my employer, who I respected, who became my friend.

It hurt to know all that we’d been through. All that Six, Micah, Lukas, Jackson, and Luis had gone through, to get him back only to have him taken away. Because of his own father.

But the next day, I got another call. Bennet was alive and well. I was shocked and more than confused, but he asked me to trust that he would explain himself more after we attended to some unfinished business. We worked together to take down the “legitimate” side of the BioCere, Inc. corporation with the help of the FBI agent Bennet had been talking to.

Mara and Quinn were by my side the whole time, working in the background to hack whatever information we could get our hands on in case the feds tried to cover it all up. It’s taken six long months to dismantle every facet of BioCere, Inc. and all the small satellite labs all over the country.

After it was all said and done, we found some pretty important information that we wanted Bennet and Six to see before we handed it over. And since Bennet had invited me to meet his family in person, we thought it would be the best way to break the news.

I introduce Mara and Quinn to Bennet, and he winks at me knowingly.

“Come on, I want to introduce you to my family.”

We follow Bennet into a comfortable sitting room, where all the guys that we’ve gotten to know are hanging out with Six. They’re all playing a video game, laughing in glee because they’ve apparently found something that Six isn’t good at.

After the grand adventure was over, Bennet let me in on a secret and told me that Jackson Adley hadn’t just created Six in a lab, but he’d actually succeeded in creating a “perfect” specimen, a human with enhanced abilities. It was her blood that saved Bennet, that brought him back from the brink of death.

She looks up and her light grey eyes lock on me, filling with tears and raw emotion that almost has me tearing up too. She stands and bounds over the ottoman, throwing her arms around me in a tight hug. Wrapping my arms around her, I hug her back. As thankful as she may be for helping save their lives, I’m just as thankful for the new life she’s given Bennet.

The guys all stand up and shake my hand. Jackson and Micah both hug me, and I’m shocked that Jackson doesn’t show any signs of having been shot. How exactly did he and Bennet heal so quickly?

It feels like a family reunion, except…

“I’d like you all to meet my family. This is Mara, and this is Quinn. They wouldn’t let me tell you until now, but they were there the whole time, helping me do everything. It’s because of them you’re all alive.”

Eyebrows shoot up, Six gasps, and the guys murmur.

“I wondered how you could do so many damn things at once,” Jackson says, laughing.

Six throws her arms around each of them as well, tears still streaming down their faces.

Mrs. Coolson, and an elderly man who she introduces as her husband, invite us into the dining room for a celebration feast. We walk in and see the most interesting spread I’ve possibly ever seen. There’s what looks like Chinese noodles, lasagna, caprese salad, pastries, and a bunch of other random, but delicious looking, foods to choose from.

“All your favorites, dear,” Mrs. Coolson says, kissing Six on the cheek. “Happy birthday.”

Six beams.

“I didn’t realize we were celebrating. We would have brought a gift,” Quinn says.

“It’s actually my first birthday,” she says, laughing at Quinn’s expression. “And you being here is a gift, honestly.”

Later, after everyone has stuffed themselves on the random buffet and cake, I get a chance to pull Bennet and Six aside.

“Look, I don’t know how to tell you this, so I’m just going to say it and apologize ahead of time for being so blunt.” My eyes flit back and forth between their worried faces.

“Jesus. Out with it already, Tony.” I have to grin at his command. That sounds like the Bennet I remember.

With a deep breath, I hand him a file of data that we just uncovered from the final BioCere Inc. lab raid. Inside, there are records of an insemination done off-site, and what looks like a healthy, successful pregnancy. The mother, an unwilling incubator, is in a hospital in Boulder, Colorado after being found in one of the labs.

“That poor woman,” Six says quietly, and I know she’s thinking about Eight. The pregnant woman from the Raleigh lab had turned out to be the only other surviving person from the study that Six was born from. During our infiltration of the lab, Six had to do the unthinkable, giving Eight the most humane death she could possibly have.

I turn my attention to Bennet. “Do you remember telling me about the specimen your father forced from you? You’d thought it was just a power play, making you debase yourself at his command, under the threat of much worse.”

Bennet’s eyes widen, and it shouldn’t surprise me he is catching on so quickly.

Ripping off the bandage, I lay it out so Six can catch up too, although I suspect she could figure it out. “That baby was created using both of your DNA…”

“You’re going to have a daughter.”

The End