Picking up the body, he threw it at two men who were trying to fire at him, but also trying not to hit their colleague.
All three of them went down, and before the two still alive could manage to get out from under the weight pinning them down, Steel was there. He grabbed one man’s skull between his hands and crushed it like it was nothing in a move reminiscent of Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13thfranchise.
The remaining man fumbled for his weapon, fear evident in his eyes, even as acceptance filtered in. Before the man could pick up his weapon and aim, Steel slammed his foot down on his face, crushing his skull like he’d just done to the other man’s.
Silence filled the area.
No more screams, no more weapons fired.
Not even the roar of the engine from the car cowardly Dr. Gardner had fled in, with Rose as his hostage, was still audible.
The only ones still standing were him and his team. You didn't create a special ops unit of monsters and expect to be able to control them. Or at least you didn't if you were smart.
“He took her,” he snarled at his team.
“That way,” Blade said, pointing to the east.
Dragon held a tablet in his hand and nodded. “I've got her on the screen. Hold it together, we’re going to get her back, and then we’re going to make her brother wish he’d never been born.”
With a nod, Steel moved toward the closest vehicle and jumped in. Thunder might be able to chase the car on foot, but the rest of them wouldn't be able to keep up with a moving vehicle, and he needed his girl back in his arms, needed to find a way to convince her to want to be his.
January 2nd
3:18 A.M.
At her taunt, Ridge snarled and snapped out a hand, wrapping it around her arm and tugging her forward.
The move would have hurt regardless, but the wrist he grabbed was her broken wrist. His fingers tightened, and Rose would have sworn she could feel the bones shifting inside her as he dragged her half across the seat so she was almost sprawled in his lap.
“You make nice with the little monsters, sister?” Ridge sneered.
Shoving the pain out of her mind so she could focus, she met her brother’s gaze squarely. “Call them monsters all you want, they’re better men than you’ll ever be.”
Ridge laughed. “Make no mistake about it, little sister, they are monsters. I created them. I found a way to shut down their consciences. The last time I saw them, they were nothing more than animals, barely able to control themselves, consumed with anger.”
“Of course, they were angry, you were holding them prisoner.”
“I was studying them,” Ridge corrected, like his word choice made any difference to what he’d done.
Holding people captive in a cell so they couldn’t leave and controlling every aspect of their lives was one hundred percent holding them prisoner, no matter how her brother wanted to dress it up to pretend he was merely playing at science.
“You're delusional if you think any one of them can care for you.” Ridge scoffed. “They aren't capable of it. I saw it myself, you lived it, they whipped you raw.”
Rose wasn't arguing that point.
That was exactly what Steel and the others had done to her. But then Steel had forced her to take the sedatives, and he and Voodoo had patched her up. The same thing they’d done after she pulled the ceiling down on top of herself. Her memories were hazy, but she’d heard the genuine fear in Steel’s voice as he told her she wasn't allowed to die, and he’d ordered Dragon not to kill her.
She wasn't deluding herself into thinking Steel was a normal guy, or that he was ever going to be one. Her brother had messed with his DNA, and that was never going to change, but he wasn't really a monster.
The monster in all of this was Ridge himself.
“Do you have any idea the time and money they’ve cost me?” Ridge ranted, his gaze darting between her and the forest around them as the car picked up speed. “Because they got free, I lost my funding to keep working with the military. That cost me access to the kind of subjects I needed.”
“You didn't stop, though,” she said, confident nothing would stop her brother once he became fixated on something. Ridge and Steel had that in common.
“Of course, I didn't stop. But none of my other subjects can withstand the anger. It either leads them to kill the others, or they wind up suicidal and end their own lives. I need those men back, I need to see what made them different, how they withstood the changes.”
“They didn't just withstand them. They thrived. They live productive lives working for the best private security company in the world. They built their own little family unit, and yes, they hurt me, yes, they used me, but then they realized it was wrongand they started to … accept me.” That was the best way she could describe how things had changed between her and Delta Team. They might not be the kind of men to tell her they were sorry, and to tell her she could be one of them, but she was there, they’d trusted her to help them with their quest for vengeance, which spoke louder than any words ever could.
