King stared at him in shock. That had been the last thing he’d expected his team leader to say. “Comeagain?”
“He blinded you and nearly killed you, you have every right to want revenge.” Reaper paused, bridged his fingers beneath his chin, and rubbed his jaw with his thumb. “But you didn’t have permission to go rogue. Especially against one of ourown.”
King’s heart hammered hard in his chest, and the pulse monitor next to the bed kicked up a notch. “He stopped being one of our own when he held a gun point blank to my face. He stopped being one of our own when he tried to assassinate ourteam.”
“Do you really think John Dawson would try to kill us? The man that saved our lives on more than one occasion?” Reaper blurtedout.
His pulse beat even faster on the monitor. “No, I don’t think the Dawson we knew before Project Mayhem would harm any of us. In fact, he’d lay down his life for each and every one of us. But that isn’t John Dawson. Not anymore.” King had gotten up close and personally looked into the man’s eyes. There was nothing there. Nothing but mindless, seething rage. He was a beast out of control and bent ondestruction.
“If you’ll remember, none of us were the same after we escaped thatlab.”
King carefully sat up, curling his waist so as not to stretch his wounds and tear them open. It took more effort than he would’ve liked to prop himself up by his arms and face his leader. “Yeah, but we also didn’t go on a killingspree.”
Reaper stopped stroking his chin. His stark black gaze pinned King. “Didn’t we?” he saidquietly.
King clamped his jaw tight. “We didn’t have any control over that.” General Rainier, the traitorous bastard that had started the experiment had implanted some kind of mind control device in their brain stems. He’d used them as test subjects, lab rats to see if he could turn a group of men who’d dedicated their lives to fighting evil intomonsters.
“And you think Dawson has controlnow?”
King eased his legs over the side of the bed, rubbing the prickly chills that had formed on the back of his neck. They’d all tried to block out the day when they’d been forced to kill, but none of them could. Although they had had no control of their bodies, their minds had been fully functioning. Each and every one of them lived with the stain of blood on theirhands.
But that had been in the lab, and they’d been specifically triggered. Dawson had attacked them on his own. “Maybe he doesn’t have control, I don’t care. He’s not going to get it back. You didn’t see him like Idid.”
Reaper shot to his feet, toppling the tiny plastic chair behind him. “I was there that night. He shot at me too,remember?”
King jumped to the floor and planted his feet, his blood pounding in his veins. “Did he do this to you?” King jammed a finger in the direction of his blind eye, thankfully feeling the weight of the eye patch that never left hisskin.
Reaper got toe to toe with him, so close King could feel his breath on his face. “He could have killed you.” Reaper paused and then said, “But hedidn’t.”
King curled his hands into thick tight fists at his sides. “He damn suretried.”
The door burst open. Melissa flew into the room, her long brown hair swinging around her shoulders. “What are you doing? The monitor alarms are going off like crazy. King, sit downnow.”
King didn’t budge, all his attention was focused on Reaper. How could he think that Dawson hadn’t intended every single injury he inflicted thatnight?
Diggs wanted to give Dawson a second chance. Reaper wanted to give the murderer a second chance. Hell, the whole goddamn team wanted to give the man a second chance. Maybe they’d all been brainwashed. Whatever the reason, King wasn’t going to give the bastard a free ticket on doubt. He knew Dawson was lost. Gone. Checked out. Whatever the hell they’d done to him since he’d been gone, it’d fried the bastard’s brain. In no way was King going to sit back and watch and wait for Dawson to do moredamage.
He’d hunt him down, and put a bullet in hishead.
No. He wouldn’t hunt him down. He had the bait. He had Dawson’s sister and niece. All he had to do was wait for the man to show up at his frontdoor.
“Damn it, King, moving ripped open your wounds. Lay down before you bleed out again.” Melissa none to gently inserted herself between the two men, grabbed King’s forearms and tugged him down. With an inward smile King let her, welcoming the distraction. He had no intention of giving in to Reaper, not now. He’d wait until the end and ask for forgiveness later. After Dawson wasdead.
As if reading his mind Reaper lifted a finger, “I order you not to go after Dawson without mypermission.”
King let the cold smile slide across his lips. “You have my word. I won’t go after Dawson.”But I’ll damn sure make sure he comes afterme.
Reaper watched him, but held his silence. He wasn’t stupid; King knew that although Reaper might not know his exact plan, he’d keep a close eye on him. AndLaura.
That thought had him straightening up again. “Where’s the woman and thegirl?”
Melissa pressed him backward onto the too-small bed and began cutting through the freshly blood-soaked bandages across his chest. “Upstairs. We decided to put them in the room next to yours until we figured out what else we cando.”
Perfect. That’s exactly where he wanted them. “Thanks.”
“I’m going to check on Caroline. We’re holding a meeting at oh nine hundred. Be there.” With that, Reaper stormed out of theroom.
The door hissed shut behind him, the air cushions keeping it fromslamming.
