She was safe.
Even if her brother managed to take her away before the guys got there, they’d be able to follow her every move.
It was over, or at least close enough. The wheels were in motion, and Ridge wouldn't be getting away with his crimes against nature, free to keep playing with innocent people’s lives.
No sooner had she had the thought than there was a blur of movement that captured everyone’s attention.
Whoa.
She’d known Thunder had super speed, but she’d never seen it in action before.
Pandemonium broke out around them. Weapons fired, there were shouts of surprise and then pain as Steel and the others moved in and began to kill off Ridge’s men. Timid man shrieked like a little girl, and Rose actually rolled her eyes at him, then startled when her brother grabbed her and shoved her into the car he’d climbed out of only minutes ago.
“You led them to me,” Ridge hissed as he shoved her over the console into the passenger seat and climbed in behind her.
“Your problem was always underestimating me,” she told her brother as he flung the car into drive and sped off. “Every time I survived one of your torturous games, you acted surprised, every time I achieved something, you acted surprised. Hell, you seem surprised that I can handle life at all. But they’re coming for you, and they’re going to make you pay for what you did to them. There’s nothing you can do to stop it from happening. Your creations are going to destroy you, and I'm going to help, and love every second of it.”
Chapter
Twenty
January 2nd
3:12 A.M.
Thanks to the enhanced skills Dr. Gardner had given them, Steel and his team didn't even need to set up a surveillance system. They’d parked themselves the maximum distance away from Rose that they could while Blade could still hear her, and Dragon could still smell her.
Then all they’d had to do was wait.
As soon as Blade announced that he could hear approaching vehicles, they’d adjusted their position so they wouldn't be spotted, and then Lion had shimmied himself up a tree so he could put his enhanced vision to good use.
Before they were even close enough to be detected, they knew that five vehicles had driven up on Rose’s position. Five men dressed in full tactical gear were in four of the vehicles, which made for twenty opponents. Another three in gear were in the remaining vehicle, and then the doctor himself and what was clearly one of the scientist’s minions.
Twenty-three to six, Steel liked those odds.
He had no doubt that the men Dr. Gardner had brought with him were highly trained, but he was also confident that they weren't super soldiers. If the mad scientist had already created another working team, he would have sent them out after Delta Team long before now.
So whoever the unlucky teams were that accompanied the doctor, they didn't stand a chance. Steel wouldn't have felt regret for killing them either way, since they were a threat to his little ladybug, but the fact that they had to know what the scientist was up to and were willingly backing him meant they were just as evil as far as Steel was concerned.
They deserved to die.
“Uh, Steel, man, don’t lose it,” Lion called down from up in the tree where he was perched.
There was no way he wasn't going to lose it when Lion sounded tentative and concerned. A growl rumbled through his chest because there was only one thing Lion would be worried about.
“What did he do to her?” Steel demanded.
“He made her strip,” Lion replied.
Red rage clouded his vision. Whatever Dr. Gardner had done to mess with their ability to feel normal human emotions had amplified their anger. Just because he and the rest of his team had learned how to control it over the last ten years didn't mean it wasn't still there.
A constant companion.
Simmering under the surface, waiting for something to set it off.
The words his brother had just spoken were enough to do that.
“He’s worried about trackers,” Blade added, head cocked to the side.
