“I met with Alex, the new village alpha. He told me that he has no further plans to attack Eagle Village. I also increased the perimeter guards so your friends are as safe as I can make them.”
She accepted his answer with a nod, then concluded, “We’ll continue to be at risk as long as the ratio of women to men is so out of whack.”
“That’s the primary reason I’ve remained focused on off-world communication,” Gabriel stressed. He turned and moved closer to the fireplace. “If we stay on Rydaria, these raids will continue to happen.”
Feeling awkward standing in the middle of the room by herself, she returned to the chair she’d occupied earlier. “I thought all the off-world communications equipment had been destroyed. Have you made any progress repairing or replacing it?”
“I recently managed to establish a repeating signal. The problem is, we’re not sure where we are and the signal’s range is limited. I’m still trying to create something interactive. But as you indicated, we’re starting from the component level with most of these devices.”
“Is this what you did back on Earth? Were you some sort of engineer?” When he didn’t immediately answer, she loweredher gaze and said, “If you don’t want to talk about the past, I understand. I just thought it would be nice to know a little more about you.” If Patrick had his way, she’d be their captive for months or years, yet all she knew about them was that they’d been experimented on by Nuevo Biotech and they were founding members of Eagle Village.
Gabriel’s fingers curved beneath her chin, and he guided her gaze back to his face. “My brother and I owned a pharmaceutical company called Echo, Inc.”
Her eyes widened and then narrowed as she looked at him more closely. “You’re one of the Torloni twins?”
He chuckled, then averted his gaze. “In another life. So much has happened in the past ten years that Echo, Inc. doesn’t seem real anymore.”
Ten years? The hybrids had only been on Rydaria for the past four. How long had he been a prisoner of Nuevo Biotech? Knowing he wouldn’t want to revisit his captivity, she remained focused on the earlier era. Echo Inc. created low-cost versions of many popular medications. They had started out as an outreach for needy veterans, but demand for their ‘imposter’ drugs was so great that they quickly expanded their line. “I was lucky enough not to need any of your products, but I know so many people who were helped by what you guys did. No one else had the balls to take on the pharmaceutical giants. You guys were modern-day Robin Hoods.”
The bathroom door opened and Patrick stepped out. His hair was damp and he wore only a faded pair of jeans.
“My turn,” Gabriel muttered and made a beeline for the bathroom.
Patrick gave Gabriel a questioning look as they passed, but neither said anything out loud.
Had her questions upset Gabriel? He hadn’t seemed eager to leave until she asked about the past.
Patrick ambled toward her, his gaze sweeping over her form with lazy insolence. “Were my instructions unclear?”
“No, Master. I was distracted by my conversation with Gabriel.” She pushed to her feet and raised her hands to the buttons on the front of her shirt. She was determined to keep her temper in check and her responses respectful. The result of her defiance in the past had been harsher punishment. She wasn’t sure her new strategy would be effective, but there was only one way to find out. “May I ask a question before we begin?”
“What is the question regarding?” Patrick asked.
“Gabriel said it has been ten years since he founded Echo, Inc. How long were you guys prisoners?” She doubted that Patrick would answer, but saw no reason not to ask.
“Six years, four months, and twenty-one days,” he listed. “We’d already been at Nuevo for two years when you arrived.”
“I didn’t realize,” she said softly.
“You didn’t care,” he countered.
“That’s not true.” She looked into his hostile eyes and sighed. She could restate her defense, but he’d never believe her.
“Then how do you explain Krew?” he challenged.
Heather tensed and lowered her arms to her sides. Of all the horrible things that had taken place at Nuevo Biotech, the continual abuse of Krew Fuller topped the list. Need for theexperiments had been blamed on scientific curiosity. What Krew suffered had nothing to do with science and everything to do with the evil inherent in some humans. At barely twenty years old, Krew was the youngest member of the tribe to which Heather had been assigned. The older hybrids tried to protect him, but a couple of the guards enjoyed abusing him.
“I told my supervisor as soon as I realized what was happening.”
His gaze narrowed and his lips pressed into a grim line. “And how soon was that?”
“I’m not sure.” Krew’s handsome face and soulful eyes flashed through her memory. He’d been soft-spoken and kind, the sort of person who was never a threat to anyone. “He admitted that it had happened before, but I don’t know how often.”
“Your supervisor did nothing,” he stressed. “Those bastards beat Krew and raped him over and over, yet the staff—you included—did nothing.”
She shook her head. Should she even bother defending herself? None of her other explanations had moved him in the least. “When my shift supervisor did nothing, I notified Dr. Jarrel. When she shrugged it off as well, I arranged to have Krew transferred to another tribe. I contacted Jarrel’s boss and then her boss’s boss until I found someone willing to do something. The transfer was approved, but…” Emotion closed her throat and she couldn’t complete the sentence.
“He died before they could move him?” Patrick guessed. A bit of the hostility eased from his expression.
