Given the scope of the situation, Jackie reassured her that such a thing wouldn’t be happening. This was the kind of illegal activity that they would focus all their resources toward investigating, doing everything in their power to ensure the enemy wasn’t tipped off before they hit them from every direction at once.
Because the only way to truly destroy a hydra, was to crush all the heads at the same time, along with the body too.
Illegal cloning? Disposing of those clones when they didn’t match the desires of the customer? Experimenting on children like lab rats?
Yeah, it was a big deal to them. This kind of underground criminal activity was the sort of thing that would put everything else on hold while they prepared for a massive sweep.
Part of me felt relieved.
The other part of me was shocked and devastated by how bad it all really was. Never mind the fact that I’d been betrayed, or that I had an evil woman living with me for a decade, treating me like I was a king and the most important person in the world to her, all while she looked upon our daughter like a test subject.
Just a body for her to steal if it turned out to be a success.
Shit.
Shit.
Winter reached over and rested her arm on my stomach then, holding my side. I finally moved my own arm, and wrapped it around her shoulders, so she could scoot down a little due to her height and rest her head against my chest.
It helped. A lot.
And I knew she probably needed the comfort herself, since she was likely still using her ability to help keep Freya level-headed. Because at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if what Freya really wanted to do was go ‘Nancy hunting’ and rip her head off, even though they’d likely need her to fully resolve the case.
Especially when Eden was now Freya’s daughter, and her knowledge of what my ex-wife had intended – at what my ex-wife had done, being indirectly responsible for the fire that killed Eden – was enough to make her want to kill.
At least, I assumed that was what the random weak surges of aggression indicated – though the sensation was so faint, it didn’t actually affect my overall dazed mood. But since my assumption was that Winter and I were still linked or whatever, I assumed I was indirectly getting a hint of what Freya was dealing with.
But despite everything, Freya kept her cool, commenting on last-minute details while Winter held onto me tightly, wrapped up in my arms, the two of us feeling numb and distant as we sat silently on the latex couch.
And then, finally they were done.
Jackie did give us a strange look when she saw how Winter was holding onto me, but she composed herself quickly enough, giving me a sincere smile and then sharing that she’d let me know once she found anything out about my evaluation.
I thanked her for that, as well as for the helicopter ride and everything else, and then wished her goodbye for now. Lexi went outside with her, probably to touch base, but I assumed she’d be coming back.
But, honestly, I didn’t care about the evaluation at the moment.
I just found out my ex-wife was not only alive, but an abhorrent, backstabbing, child-killing, heinous, sinister, narcissistic, cold-blooded, sadistic bitch.
Honestly, that description was too nice in my opinion.
I just found out my ex-wife created my little girl to kill her! To steal her body! And then she killed her anyway when she didn’t measure up to expectations – tried to kill me too – so she could disappear and move on to more promising possibilities, but apparently at the time she didn’t realize I literally couldn’t be killed.
Like, she knew I was immortal, but being truly unkillable was a different thing altogether. It kind of made me wonder if the few other women who had attempted to break through my depressed shell were actually her in disguise, possibly an attempt to try it over again. But I couldn’t be sure without asking Freya about it, and I didn’t want to know right now.
Because what I did know was bad enough.
So yeah, seeing my evaluation was not at the top of my priorities at the moment.
Shit, maybe I’d kill the fiend myself to ensure she was really done for. To make sure Eden’s nightmare never happened again to anyone else. To guarantee that Rose’s horrible reality, prior to us meeting her, never happened again to another innocent child.
Winter tightened her embrace on me, prompting me to take a deep breath, realizing my numbness was finally shifting to rage. And I wasn’t even sure if it was really my own anger, or someone else’s at this point, even though I had plenty of reasons to be angry. Could be Freya’s anger, though she seemed just worn out as she walked over to sit down at my other side.
But wait, did that even make sense?
Since when did I fall under the impression that I might feel someone else’s emotions just because I was connected to Winter? Because up until this point, it seemed like she could help stabilize me, with my emotions influencing her, but never did she insinuate that her emotions might influence me.
Yet, I felt like that was what was happening. The anger didn’t feel like it was entirely my own, and Winter was just resting against me, completely relaxed, minus her hold on me, so I wasn’t sure it was directly hers either. Not to mention, she didn’t really have a reason to be personally upset by this situation.
“How are you holding up?” Freya asked gently as she wrapped her arm around my shoulders, completely unbothered by Winter’s head resting on my chest.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’ve been better, obviously. But, I guess okay. Considering.” I
