“She complied without fighting it, and he’s sending his lackey in to wave a wand over her,” Lion continued.
Beside him, Thunder tensed, ready to spring into action if they needed to get someone to Rose immediately. The man could close out the distance between them and Rose and the others in less than a minute, which should be enough time to prevent anything disastrous from happening.
Steel hoped.
Prayed.
“They found the one behind her ear,” Lion continued his commentary.
They all tensed as they waited to see if her brother would locate the secondary one hidden just an inch away.
“He didn't,” Lion answered the unasked question. “Guy is moving the wand down her body.”
In his mind, Steel could picture Rose’s bruised body on display to all the men surrounding her. Her delicate skin exposed to temperatures that could easily kill her. She’d be shaking, even though he knew she wanted to look tough in front of her brother, there was no way her system wouldn't be doing everything it could to warm her up.
Unless she’d already slipped too deep into hypothermia, where it now lacked the ability to even attempt to regulate her body temperature.
No.
Lion said she was standing and complying with her brother’s commands. She wasn't lost to hypothermia yet.
“Found the one on her ankle,” Lion told them. Then a moment later, “But just the stick on one. She still has four trackers on her.”
Their plan was to take out whoever had come with Dr. Gardner here and now, and then knock Ridge himself out and return with him to their mansion, where they could lock him upin the basement and have their fun with him before killing him. The trackers were insurance in case Rose’s brother had done a snatch and grab.
That wasn't what they thought Ridge would do, because he believed Rose to be close to the location where they’d taken her when they kidnapped her, but since this was his woman’s life on the line, he wasn't taking any chances.
“Let’s go,” he said to the others. They’d given Dr. Gardner enough time to believe that if they were tracking Rose, they would have already launched their attack, but he didn't want to give the man too much time. The last thing he wanted was Rose alone with her brother for any reason.
His little ladybug was as tough as they came, but her brother was a damn psychopath who got off on hurting her. The man was never going to lay a hand on Rose again. It was time for her to be the one to inflict a little damage.
As soon as Lion’s feet hit the ground, they were all off, moving as one, a tight-knit group that may as well share one mind when they were on an op. While the rest of them didn't have Thunder’s enhanced speed, they worked out for hours a day, every day, so they were fast and strong and well prepared to take on a measly twenty-three-man army.
Letting Thunder make his impressive entrance as a distraction, Steel adjusted his hold on his weapon, not wanting the fury raging inside him to control him and have him break it. While he wanted to kill each and every one of these men with his bare hands as a punishment for daring to threaten his girl with their presence, they had to go with speed and efficiency.
Like they’d known it would, the blur of movement as Thunder rushed through the gathered group threw it into chaos.
Weapons fired, and people shouted as he and his team began to make quick work of picking off the guards one by one.Knowing his team could handle taking out all of them, Steel focused instead on Rose.
When it all boiled down to it, he would sacrifice anything to protect her.
Including his own revenge.
The thought slammed into him like a ton of bricks. It was true, he realized as he staggered slightly in his single-minded need to get to Rose, protect what was his. If he had to make a choice between vengeance and Rose’s life, he would choose his little ladybug every single time.
What was the point of killing his enemy, the man who had destroyed his life, if it cost him the only shot at a future he was ever going to have?
“You led them to me,” Dr. Gardner hissed at Rose as he grabbed her and threw her into the closest vehicle.
Whatever answer she sassed back at him, and Steel was one hundred percent certain his little ladybug had something to say to the brother she despised, was lost to him as the car sped off.
His howl of rage at Rose being taken away from him drew the attention of the closest armed men, and they quickly turned their weapons on him.
Something feral came over him, a primitive part of his brain that Dr. Gardner had been trying to find and exploit, and he gave into it. It demanded that anything that presented itself as a threat to him going after his girl be destroyed.
Tossing his weapon aside, Steel launched himself at the closest man.
Unprepared for his strength, the man dropped as Steel connected with him. Using every inch of enhanced strength the deranged doctor, who had just cowardly fled the scene of what he knew was going to be a slaughter had given him, Steel snapped the spine of the man pinned helplessly beneath him.
