The Secret (Book 1 of the Secret Series)

Chapter 47.

KATARA

I touched Sammie's chest as he breathed shakily. He looked at me with tired eyes and my hands shook as I traced his wound. "What have I done so wrong Sammie?" I asked him as tears streamed down my cheeks. "What did I do?" I traced the scar on the other side of his chest and wondered where it would have come from. He was quiet.

We were in a cell. We were locked up, caged up like animals and we were all wounded. My leg was done for. I wouldn't ever be able to use it again. Max had been hit in the head and probably had a concussion. I would have to keep him awake. Sammie had a hole in the side of his chest. He'd lost a lot of blood and I was scared that he wouldn't make it. I had to keep them both up, while battling against my own weakened body for consciousness.

"Katara." Max whispered and touched my shoulder. I looked at him and he helped me sit back. I gripped his shoulder tightly as I tried to contain my cries. "You need to stay off your leg." I closed my eyes as he started to look at it. He touched it and I couldn't help my cry. I had had many bad things happen in my life, more than I could remember, but this had to be the worst right now. I wouldn't ever use my leg again, and I was going to need it.

I grabbed Max's wrist as he touched my leg again.

"Stop." he grabbed my hand and looked at me. "Katara stop. I have to look at-"

"What's the point?" I breathed and my hand shook. "I won't have it long anyway. I can't use it." I opened my eyes to look at him. "I can't use my leg anymore Max." he looked me in my eyes. His were so sad and it made me wish that he wasn't here so much more. He didn't deserve this. He'd done so much for me and now he was paying with me. Slowly, he put his hand to my cheek. "I'm done."

"Listen to me." he whispered as I felt Sammie's hand on mine. Slowly, he pushed himself up. Max's fingers slid behind my neck and held me there when I tried to look away. He brought my other hand, the one that he held, to his chest. "You will walk again. I will make sure of it-" I shook my head. "I will. We will get out of here, I'll get us out, I don't know how yet, but I will and you will walk again and I will keep you safe. I'll protect you and nothing like this will ever happen to you again-"

"Don't make promises you can't keep." I whispered and someone laughed outside the cell. We looked at the leader standing there and I wondered again, where I had seen him before.

"She's right Max." he said. "You shouldn't make promises you can't keep." Max got a little closer to me. "Didn't your daddy ever teach you anything about that. I would have thought after he promised your mommy the same thing that you would have learned from his mistake." his hand tightened on mine and I wondered what the guy was talking about. "After all, I am the one who murdered her."

Max started toward the cell door, but I held tighter to his hand and pulled him back to me. I could understand his anger, but I didn't want him to do something stupid out of it. I pulled him close and held him. I didn't want him hurt anymore.

"Max." I whispered and held him tighter as he tried to pull away. "Max, stop, please." he was hurting me, not on purpose, but he was hurting me. I couldn't let him go. "Max." I grabbed his face and made him look at me. "Max, stop." he was so close and those eyes were so sad, angry, and scared. I ran my thumb over his cheek and tears ran down mine. Something in the way that he looked at me, made me think of Jarrod. The way he sometimes had that distant look when he saw Max and me together. The way he looked when he was remembering something.

I breathed shakily as the realization hit.

"J-Jarrod is your dad." I whispered and he looked down as if I had just said the words that would condemn him to Hell. He hadn't told me, granted, I had never asked, but it was like a slap in the face that he wouldn't say something. That would have changed my whole perspective of things. "M-Max why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want you to hate me." he answered and looked at me. "You hate my dad, for killing them, for killing Tonnie and your... parents..." he sighed. He didn't know what to call them, just like I didn't. They had been my family, but I had been kidnapped, taken to an orphanage, and adopted. What was I to call them? What was I to call Dell now? Was he still my brother? "I didn't want to lose what I've had with you."

"You were scarred that you would lose me?" I whispered. He nodded. "Max, you couldn't lose me even if you tried. I love you." he smiled, even with this situation, and he pulled my lips to his. He was slow and gentle as he kissed me and slowly, I started to kiss him back.

"Awe, so sweet." Max pulled away and looked at the man. "Too bad you can't keep her either." I leaned into Max and he held me close to his chest. After so long of being together, so long of being so close, and so long after Corrie, I wasn't sure if I was ready to move on, but I knew that I was going to give it a chance. I needed to, for Max. "She'll get ripped away from you, just like your mother." I held tighter to him, even though it hurt me, and he kissed my head.

Sammie grabbed my hand again and I held on.

"What do you want with me?" I asked the man. "What did I do to deserve all of this?"

"You didn't have to do anything." said the man. "It was what your parents did long ago." I shivered. Whichfamily? "Before you were born." Oh, that family. "What they swore to, before they got out of the family business."

"What?" I asked. He didn't answer at first, just opened the cell door and came and crouched in front of me. He reached over and traced my hair out of my eyes, and stroked my cheek. I caught Max's hand as he moved it to push the guy away. He looked at me, as I lifted my head to look at the man. Those eyes, they were so familiar. They were so... so blue.

"Oh my-" I looked away instantly and buried my face in Max's chest. I covered my ears and shook as those shots rang out in my head. Mommy! I could hear my screams as she fell. Da! He fell too. I ran to them and knelt in their pooling blood.

"Baby?" I felt Sammie's hand on my shoulder. "Baby, what's wrong?"

"H-he killed them." Mommy, please, wake up. Red was everywhere, coming from her stomach as she gasped her final breaths, and daddy's chest. He was just gone. Da! I cried.

Someone grabbed me and pulled me to my feet. I cried in pain and tried to get away as others rushed into the room and grabbed Max and Sammie. A gun was put to my head and I was dragged back as the others were chained, like wiled animals, to the wall. As soon as they were chained, the gun was removed and I was drug out of the room.

"Sammie!" I screamed. "Sammie, help me!"

"You aren't getting any help." said the man that had me. The man that had killed my mommy and Da. The man that destroyed my life all those years ago. The man that, now, had complete control over me. "There is no help for experiments." I stopped fighting. I stopped thinking, I stopped breathing, as that word bounded around in my head, over and over and over again. Experiment? Experiment, experiment. It turned and changed and formed into a word that I couldn't define. The word that I had heard of, learned of, done myself, was no longer something that I was familiar with, and that scared me.

Experiment.

They put me on a table, and someone had to hold me down as I fought back again, and another tied me down with straps. I found the two, to be Jessie and Nick-Nick. They looked so sad as they did this. They had definitely fooled me. I cried in pain and then I screamed and they had to put a gag on me to quiet me down. I struggled and tried to pull the restraints off, but the more I fought, the more it hurt, the more I bled, and the more I weakened.

Someone grabbed my face and pulled my head to the side, that one was Jordan. I struggled more and screamed as loud as the gag would allow, as another person, someone dressed in what looked like a lab coat and medical attire, picked up a syringe and took the cap off. He pushed the stopper and a little of the liquid in it, squirted out. He looked at me, with what looked like sad eyes, (I couldn't be so sure, I was too scarred) and he pushed on my shoulders as he pushed the needle into my neck. I could feel the liquid enter my blood stream as he pushed the stopper, and I was instantly feeling the effects.

My body loosened. My eyes blurred over. I stopped moving. I could feel my heart rate slow. My eyes fluttered closed and I let out a few shaky breaths.

Then everything was gone.