He took her shoulders in his hands and the dull roar instantly quieted.
“Caroline, were you shot?” The words, spoken slowly, calmly, penetrated the fog surrounding her mind.
She concentrated, trying to remember how to make her lips form the right shape. “No.”
“All right, I can tell that you can’t stand, so I’m going to carry you again.” His voice was full of command, not that she would’ve questioned him in the first place. He was a professional—the sight of the bodies strewn down the hallway confirmed that.
His arm was gentle as it slid around her waist, but the movement still hurt. And then he was easing her over his shoulder and the bile she’d been fighting burst from her throat, burning up the back of her mouth. She squirmed and pounded on his back, and sensing her urgency, he sat her down.
Kneeling, she bent at the waist and heaved the contents of her stomach, the man’s strong arms holding her up. Oh, God, she was dying. She had to be.
His fingers wrapped around her hair, holding it back from her face. That small comforting gesture brought tears to her eyes. No one had cared about her in so long. She’d grown up with such a loving father, but for days or months or whatever, they’d kept her prisoner. Using her as equipment. A blood bag. Not telling her anything. It had left her empty and hollow.
When she finished, she swiped a shaky hand over her mouth and panted. She wanted to tell him thank you, she wanted to throw her arms around his neck and hug him. She did nothing.
The man scooped her into his arms, cradling her against the massive solid chest, and she let her head come to rest on his shoulder. She took a deep breath, immersing herself in his raw masculine scent. He smelled like a man should. Like guns and grit and glory. She knew logically she wouldn’t be safe until they left this lab, but he made her feel protected—a feeling she cherished.
“Get up. I know you’re not hurt.”
Caroline heard Dr. Winters rise to her feet. She was breathing hard and fast, probably as shocked by the full-out battle as Caroline was.
“You don’t need me anymore. You know the way out.”
“Move.” The man’s chest rumbled beneath her and the vibrations traveled straight through her bones. As they pounded down the hall, Caroline fisted his shirt, trying to keep as still as possible so she wouldn’t distract him. A blast filled the air, the sound sending a fresh wave of pain through her head, as a bullet pinged off the corner right next to Caroline’s head. Concrete shrapnel showered down on them. The man shoved his shoulder forward, shielding her from whomever was firing at them down the hall. He took aim and fired and the barrage of bullets instantly stopped.
They traveled the maze of hallways in silence for the next few seconds before the man came to a stop in front of a single metal door. She had no idea where they were, but she could sense the dense pressure overhead and knew they had traveled deeper into the earth. Why wasn’t he taking her up and out? There was no way this would lead away from the lab.
The man lifted his gun and pressed it into the back of Winters’s head. Caroline watched her flinch with a small measure of satisfaction. It was about time that woman was prodded with something. She’d been poking and sticking her for who knew how long.
“Open the door.”
Winters licked her lips, her normally perfect hair askew and her glasses perched at an odd angle on her nose. “Captain Reaper, you don’t have to do this.”
Caroline glanced up at her savior in shock. He was United States military? And now she finally had a name to put with that savagely beautiful face and muscular body. Reaper. It fit him so well. He was her own personal angel of death.
Right now, all of his vengeful fury was focused on Winters. “I don’t need you alive to open the door.”
Winters’s lips flatlined and she pressed an invisible button on the wall. A panel slid to the left, revealing what looked to be some sort of scanner. Winters placed her hand on the largest panel, closer to the bottom, and leaned her eyes in toward a small scope just above it. Two sets of green lights flashed and the door buzzed open.
They entered a small, windowless room. It was dark but for the light spilling in from the hallway.
The air shifted and Caroline shivered.
She sensed a change in Reaper.
As if in slow motion, Dr. Winters turned to face them, her flat gray eyes free of fear or anger. “You’re making a mistake. You need me. I’m the only one who knows the formula and there’s not enough serum left to maintain your team.”
“Shut up,” Reaper said in a quiet, dangerous voice.
Dr. Winters kept going, completely ignoring the threat. “You volunteered. Your team and yourself. You chose this.”
Caroline could practically feel him trembling beneath her, although when she looked up at his face there was no hint of emotion whatsoever.
“I signed up for something completely different than what you doled out. You changed us. You killed one of my men. Do you remember that day? Do you remember what I said I would do to you?”
Winters’s eyes widened a fraction and Caroline gulped. Something terrible had occurred between these two. Whatever had happened to Reaper’s team sounded far worse than what Caroline herself had experienced. Her heart reached out to him. She wanted to soothe him, but she sensed the absolute fury in him.
Obviously, Dr. Winters didnotsense it, because she continued in a scathing tone, “You signed yourselves over to us. Your team member was too weak to handle the change. That’s not on me. It’s your fault. And now you can’t exist without me.”
