12:04 A.M.
Rose woke to the lingering feel of Steel’s lips on her forehead and the faint hum of an engine.
Alone.
That was the first word that ran through her mind. She’d known she was doing this alone, it had been her idea, and at her insistence that she was dumped out there, but still there was a pang in her chest at the knowledge that Steel had just left her behind.
Which was perhaps the craziest thing she’d ever felt.
Or maybe just the next progression in a line of crazy things over the last week.
The man had inserted himself inside her mind, that was for sure. He was a dangerous man, his enhanced strength aside, and one who she knew would kill without hesitation. He’d also been okay with taking her, an innocent woman, and abusing her to get what he wanted.
Yet something about his possessiveness, his claims, the pain in his eyes when she went to him in the bathroom after he’d burned the bottoms of her feet, called out to all the broken pieces of her.
They’d been broken by the same person. Was it possible that together they could help each other put their pieces back together?
Could their darkness bond them, tie them together, or would it destroying them?
There was no way to know the answers to those questions unless she threw herself all in to this crazy … whatever the hell it was between them, and she was terrified to do that.
Growing up as she had, Rose had always been aware that the thing that could destroy her wasn't pain, wasn't loneliness, wasn't torture and suffering, it was the opposite. It was allowing someone to make her feel accepted, wanted, and adored, then losing it, that was the only thing that would break her beyond repair.
Now, Steel leaving her out there, to go after her brother alone, made her feel just that exact way. Despite the pain he’d inflicted on her, he’d also been kind and gentle, sweet even, which seemed a weird way to describe the man who could easily crush her if he wanted to.
“He’s not really gone,” she reminded herself as the foggy feeling from the sedatives she’d been given receded. While she hadn't liked the idea of being drugged while they transportedher out there, wherever there was, Rose had agreed it was their safest move. That way, her brother couldn’t torture the guys’ location out of her.
Unconscious left her completely vulnerable to Steel and his team, but then again, she figured with their combined enhanced skills they were basically unstoppable anyway, and if they’d wanted her dead, she’d be dead already.
“Steel is out there, he’s watching over you the best way he can, you are not alone.”
The pep talk did little to erase the feelings of abandonment, but she did know that the words she’d spoken aloud were true. The guys had placed numerous trackers on her, both in her clothes, on her skin, and even a couple under her skin. They wanted to be thorough because they all agreed that Ridge would check her for trackers once she got to him.
While she moved through the forest, called her brother, and waited for him to come to her, the guys would be following her every move.
“See? Not alone. Not alone at all.”
Shivering as the cold seeped into her, Rose found the burner phone lying beside her and scooped it up. If she didn't call Ridge soon and get up and moving, she was going to freeze to death.
Ignoring the pounding in her head from the drugs, she rolled herself over onto her stomach and pushed up onto her hands and knees, angling her weight so it was balanced on her good arm, not her broken one. For a moment she paused there, swaying from side to side, bone weary and wondering how she was going to stand, let alone move, let alone handle coming face to face with her brother again after five years.
But she didn't have a choice.
This was her chance to help Steel and his team take down Ridge once and for all. Her brother was an even worse human being than she’d ever given him credit for. The way he’d playedGod with people’s lives, altering their DNA, trying to create his own super soldiers, it was despicable, especially since he hadn't been honest with the people whose lives he was playing with.
Gathering stores of strength she’d almost depleted these last several days, somehow Rose managed to find a little more, and grabbed onto the bush she’d been set beneath to use it for leverage to push to her feet.
Immediately, she wished she hadn't.
The pain from the raw burns on the soles of her feet was severe. It felt like she was standing on a mat of burning knives. While the ground was cold not burning, and there were sticks littering it and not knives, it wasn't really that big a difference. She’d be lucky if the wounds didn't become infected, with all this debris getting into them.
Plus, she was going to have to walk on them, run even.
Gritting her teeth, she decided she may as well get it over with. Standing there anticipating the pain as she started taking steps was only going to make it worse, not better.
Because she knew that the guys wouldn't be all that far away, and she wasn't quite sure just how Blade’s enhanced hearing worked, and how far away he could hear things, and how loud they had to be before they registered, Rose resisted crying out as she took that first step.
It was every bit as agonizing as she’d expected it to be, but somehow, she managed to clamp her teeth together and bear it. If Blade could hear even a whimper from wherever he and the others were, he’d tell Steel, and she had a feeling that her big, super-strong guy would throw in the towel and come and get her.
