They’d been changed so much, more than any of them had anticipated. Living a normal life would be out of the question. “We’ll have to relocate in the states. If the government gets wind of our whereabouts, we will never see the light of day again.”
“You could stay at my estate for now,” Caroline offered with hesitation in her voice.
“Task Force Scorpion is there; we can’t trust them to keep our identity secret.” Reaper couldn’t trust anyone except for the people in this room—especially not with Caroline’s life.
“You’re going to need somewhere secluded,” Melissa said, “away from too many crowds. The risk of sensory overload is still too high. Plus, I’ll have to have a full lab set up; we’ll need to be doing tests, trials . . .”
“The kind of stuff that draws attention,” Reaper said.
Hicks straightened, grabbed the syringe for Melissa, and tossed it across the room. “And how exactly are we going to go about acquiring a full compound?”
Caroline climbed to her feet, her dirt-smudged legs a stark reminder of what he’d put her through. The guilt gut-punched him. He should never have left her side . . . But then if he hadn’t, he might not have ever found the tracking device in the back of his neck.
“I’ve got the money. We can have the operation up and running in no time,” Caroline said.
Reaper scraped the back of his neck, fingers rasping over the raw cut. He’d removed it, but if he had one, then so did the rest of his team.
“A secret compound won’t do any good, will it Dr. Averton? Not when the general can track us so easily.”
“Not unless we remove your beacons,” Melissa nodded at Reaper, “which I saw you did on your own.”
Hicks sat forward, “Tracking beacons?”
“Implanted at the base of your skull.” Fucking traitorous Rainier and his lies. No person on this Earth deserved to be put through what his men had.
Hicks grabbed the back of his neck, “I don’t feel anything. Plus, how the hell would they get a tracking device implanted without me knowing it?”
“When you are asleep, Dr. Winters pumped gas into your room to keep you unconscious and then had the chip implanted. Very simple, actually.” Melissa shifted uncomfortably on the floor. “But, what the general doesn’t realize yet is that I destroyed all the systems capable of tracking your devices. You are safe for now and once we get to a stable location, I can easily and safely remove them.”
“And Caroline? Does she have one too?” Just the thought of Rainer doing that to her made Reaper’s fingers curl into fists.
“I convinced him it was too unsafe and could taint her blood. She’s free and clear.”
Hicks snorted, “So, it was just us that it was okay to torture and alter.”
“Pretty much.”
Reaper wasn’t laughing. Goddammit, he should’ve known better. He should have realized his mentor’s ulterior motives. He couldn’t even look his men in the face. He didn’t deserve to. “I’m sorry.”
The room fell silent. Caroline eased to the floor next to him and her hand circled his. “What for?”
“I should have never let any of you into this project. It’s my fault.”
Hicks, who sat a couple of feet away said, “Are you serious with that shit?”
Reaper tore his gaze from the dirt-packed floor, holding his chin up sheer force of will. “You have every right to hate me. I believed Mankel. I was a fool.”
“We all believed Jack Mankel. We all agreed to the experiment for the same reason as you—we thought we could help. Don’t you try to blame yourself, this was a team decision, we all share the blame,” Hick’s voice cracked, and he scrubbed a filthy hand down his tanned face and thick beard. “We are all responsible for Dawson’s death.”
“Have you been blaming yourself the whole time?” Hicks asked.
If Reaper could’ve stood and faced his men like a man he would have, but he stayed put, unable to put any more weight on his shattered foot. “It’s the truth. I’m team leader, so I’m responsible for each and every one of you. I should’ve known.”
“And how would you have known Mankel and Ranier’s intentions? Can you read minds?” Hicks came back, sarcastic and quick.
Anger rushed up Reaper’s throat, hot and burning. “Of course not, but that’s not an excuse.”
“And it’s not an excuse for any of us. We took a vote, remember? That means you did not order us into Project Mayhem—we willingly participated. End of story.”
