“You assured us that he was civil, you said you can control him. He didn’t respond to the cease and desist command. Now my wife is afraid he may kill us all in our sleep!” My father growled, so angry I could hear his teeth grinding together. Their raised voices came from somewhere out side of the room I was in or maybe they were inside the room.
Once again, I tried to open my eyes but couldn’t. It felt as if I had been drugged. I was having a hard time determining if I was awake or still asleep. My mind felt sluggish, I gritted down on my teeth, I didn’t like this feeling.
The strange yet familiar man chuckled. “If he finds out what is going on, your wife won’t have to worry, because I can guarantee he’s going to kill us all.”
My father went on a cursing binge. “How can we fix this?” He asked when he had once again gained control of himself.
“I told you the program will work as long as nothing happens to disturb its hold on him.”
“Nothing happened; everything was going according to schedule before he had some kind of war flashback and took out half of Macon’s security team.” My father fired back.
“Oh please, Mr. Warren! You don’t think I know about the love interest? We discussed this. Strong emotions like love can interfere with the programming. His need to protect her will override everything we’ve trained him to do.”
“We did not expect him to fall in love with her. He’s never loved before. How were we to know this time would be different?”
“And what about the child?”
My father exhaled. “He won’t bring her around and he has them under constant surveillance. You can’t get close to them without him knowing. And if he’s not with them then he has the old man who is now completely loyal to him with them, another one of your brilliant weapons gone rogue!”
“Hey! The old man was there as a safeguard because you and your precious wife was too chicken sh*t to be around the kid without one.”
“It’s like you said, a weapon is a weapon.” My father said in a very patronizing tone.
“Either way, he was put there to keep him in order should you lose control. But once again, my instructions were not followed, and you allowed a bond to grow between the two.” He paused for a moment.
“Listen, if you don’t want this thing to crumble down around us, you had better find a way to cut those ties. Until then, he’s uncontrollable; there is nothing I can do.”
“Don’t you give me that!” My father hissed. “I put my whole career on the line for you! Remember if not for me, you would have never gotten a chance to parade your little freakshows in front of the Secretary of Defense.”
“How can I forget when you find a way to remind me every time we meet?” The man’s tone sounded as if he was bored.
“Well since you’re so good at hearing, hear this. If this thing crumbles as you so eloquently put it, I won’t fry alone. I’m taking you and all your little monsters down with me.”
Who were they talking about? My mind was so sluggish I couldn’t comprehend what they were saying. If my father was so worried about this person, why didn’t he tell me so that I could handle it? The pain in my head was beginning to drown them out. I went to lift my hand again, but the handcuffs prevented it.
What the hell was going on? I racked my mind trying to remember how I got here. The last thing I remembered clearly was seeing Journey clinging to another man. It had been the most painful thing I’ve had to watch in my whole life. I once was forced to witness one of my brothers-in-arms tortured and then brutally murdered, and it hurt less than that.
That poetry reciting bastard had the nerve to wink at me before he slid in the car and drove away with my woman. As I watched his car speed toward the gate, I swore that when I got through with him it will be awhile before he was able to see out of either of his eyes.
I went back into the house to get the keys to my car. At the same time, I turned on the tracker that I’d put on Journey’s phone and saw that they were headed toward the house.
“Jo, where are you going? You can’t just leave in the middle of your party!” My father growled as he and my mother burst into my old bedroom. I grabbed my keys out of my bag.
“How did Journey get here?”
“What do you mean, dear?” My mother began in her fake placating voice that only grated on my nerves.
“You know what I mean!”
“Joseph, don’t yell at your mother!”
I balled up my fist. I didn’t have time to deal with them right now. That bastard was with Journey and I swear if he so much as lay one finger on her, he was dead. My father grabbed my arm as I charged past him, but I snatched it away and angrily turned to face him.
He flinched. I shook my head, that’s not the first time he’s done that. Anytime I get angry he has to work hard to cover his fear of me.
“What about Chloe, son? If you walk away and leave her down there by herself it will disgrace her and her family.” He spoke in a calmer tone.
“I don’t give a damn about Chloe or her family. I’m not marrying her, I’m marrying Journey. You two need to get used to that fact.” I turned to walk out the door, but my father grabbed my arm again.
“Please don’t do this.
