Sweet.
“Think this is funny, little ladybug?”
“Actually no, not at all. I do, however, think that nickname is ridiculous.”
Rose would have sworn he smirked beneath the mask. “You're as close as we’re going to get to your brother, the only chance we have of drawing him out when he learns baby sister is in danger.”
If his hand hadn't been around her neck, that definitely would have made her laugh. This man was dreaming if he thought that Ridge cared about anyone but himself.
“You're going to stay here until you crack, and then you're going to bring your brother right to my doorstep.” Mr. Bedroom Man lifted a hand, trailed a gloved finger down her cheek, then his thumb pressed bruisingly against her bottom lip.
It was definitely a bad sign that the rough touch had a spark of arousal lighting inside her.
Yep, they totally messed you up, Rose.
Broke you in ways you didn't even know.
Now is not the time to be getting the hots for Mr. Bedroom Man, you know you're going to kill him if given half a chance.
“Your brother has a penchant for playing God, destroying lives.”
Tell me about it, Mr. Bedroom Man, tell me about it.
“You, little ladybug, are going to pay the price for your brother’s sins.”
Story of my life.
“You think you’ll still be laughing by the time I'm done with you, little girl?” Mr. Bedroom Man gave a derisive chuckle. “You don’t know the first thing about what I'm capable of, or what it’s like to pray for the sweet relief of a death that never comes.”
I really wish that were true.
Problem for you, Mr. Bedroom Man, is I already know I can survive anything you throw at me. I've been surviving since I was in diapers.
Chapter
Three
December 25th
12:38 P.M.
So much for Christmas lunch.
It wasn’t like Steel had expected his team, his family, to be chirpy and chatty, full of laughter and the joy of the season, they never were, not even on Christmas Day. But he hadn't expected the mood to be this somber.
They had all agreed that once they finally managed to procure the name of the person at the head of the program they had unwittingly signed up for, they would do whatever it took to get to them.
When that intel led them to a lone family member, once again, they had all agreed that they would use that family member, a much younger sister, to lure out the man who was the very definition of crazy scientist.
Ridge Gardner wanted to advance human physiology and create a new race. Stronger, faster, smarter, and better senses than the old one. He wanted to be the king of that new race, to rule over it with an iron fist.
Delusions of grandeur aside, the man had gotten his dreams off the ground. He and the five men sitting around the table with him were living, breathing proof of that.
Superior strength, superior sense of smell, hearing, and vision, superior speed, and an unnatural ability to heal.
Those were the skills he and his teammates had been given.
The experimental program they had signed up for when they were newly minted special forces operatives, drafted to form a new team spanning different branches of the military, turned out to be nothing like they had been told it would be.
