AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Zoey heard something.Crying.
Just as the scent of smokerose to taunt her.
She didn’t hesitate. She knew how to get through locked doors.
Zoey kicked. Repeatedly. Until the door was swinging on the hinges.
She flipped on the light.
And stared at the little boy on the bed for a heartbeat.
Just a moment. Not fully believing what she was seeing.
A little boy with her own eyes and rich dark hair the same shade as Rafe and Caine’s stared back. He looked like one of her nephews Mikey or Dalton sitting right there now.
There was only one way this was Denise Daviess’s son—and she had no doubt that he was exactly that—a donor egg from Denise and a surrogate mother.
Because Eastman had been doing this for decades. And embryos could be frozen. For years. Decades, even.
“Are you Orion, baby?” she asked. Her escape had just gotten a lot more complicated. How many children was that bastard hiding in this mausoleum of evil? “Come here, sweetie. My name is Zoey. We’re going to get out of here together, ok? Do you know where your sister is?”
“You my mommy!” He slipped off the bed, a stuffed toy in his arm. In his jammies. The same kind of jammies she’d seen on Sweeney just a few nights earlier. “Zo my mommy! Oakie said!”
Zoey swung him up into her arms. “Are you in here alone? Where is Oakley?” That had been the name Eastman had used.Oakley.
“Want Oakie. Where Oakie?”
“I don’t know. Let’s go find her.” There could be…more. Lots more kids stuck in this place somewhere. Dozens of children’s images marched across her head, each one looking like Dalton, Mikey, Keller and the rest. “Do you have other brothers and sisters here, Orion? Are they here, too? Do we need to find them?”
Even if there were dozens, Zoey had to try.
The scent of smoke was unmistakable.
A smoke alarm started going off somewhere nearby. He sniffled and buried his face in her neck. “No kids! Oakie! Want Oakie!”
“Let’s go find Oakley, ok? You just hold on, baby. We’ll get out of here. I promise.”
Zoey stepped back into the hallway. She crept down toward the bend in the hall. The center of the L most likely.
A shadow’s movement just around that corner had her freezing. She had nowhere to go—and no way to defend him.
Then she just stared. In shock. “What areyoudoing here?”
The younger woman had just appeared out of nowhere. In a shirt splattered with…blood. Zoey just stared, probably longer than she should have.
“Zoey. Hell, they got you, too?”
“How did you get here?” Zoey tightened her hold on Orion when he wiggled.
“Long story short. We were ambushed a block away from campus. I don’t know about Grace and Jo-Jo. They were down bleeding—shot, Zo. They were shot. Pen and I were taken. Brought…here. Her guards are dead, Zo. And one of mine. I’m almost certain of it. I don’t know about Gerard, he was hurt badly. Some old maniac has Pen in here, too. Something about a breeding program and donor eggs, and—surprise—I thinkIwas supposed to be the artificial womb or something for some mad experiment. You?”
Eastman’ssurrogatestared back at her.
Sydney looked like hell, her cheek was swelling, and she was covered with…blood. There was no missing the blood.
“I think I’m supposed to be the egg factory.” Zoey rocked the boy in her arms for a quick second, trying to decide what to do next. Pen was in here. Captive of a madman. That was her worst nightmare come to life. “I think I’ve found another creation right here. His name is Orion.”
There was a little girl missing, too.
