Chapter
Eighteen
January 9th
8:49 P.M.
That was the only thing that made sense to Dragon.
The woman who accosted Cassandra at the park had to be the one responsible for cleaning out the lab. Dr. Gardner might move locations, but if he thought there was even an inkling that they could link the payments to the mercenaries to this building, he would be there waiting for them with an army.
Which, by process of elimination, left only the mystery woman.
But why would she clear everything out and then wash everything down with bleach?
So much bleach had been used that it was messing with his ability to smell anything else. Even the scents of the seven people standing right beside him didn't properly register. It was more than obvious that nobody wanted them to find a single shred of intel there, and it was working.
There were still more buildings out the back to search, and he wouldn't say he had completely given up hope that they’d findanything, but it was getting less and less likely. You didn't do this thorough a job of cleaning up only to then get sloppy and leave something behind.
“So what do we do next?” Cassandra asked. “We still don’t know who this woman is, and while the woman I thought reminded me of her led us here, to this warehouse lab that’s been cleaned, that woman doesn’t have any kids, so they can't be related. The woman doesn’t have any sisters, cousins, or nieces either. So they really can't be related.”
Sensing her frustration, Dragon took a step closer, brushing a hand down her back. She was holding up so much better than he could have hoped. No part of him wanted her there, he wouldn't feel better until he got her safely tucked away back at the mansion, and he could tell from the way Steel’s gaze kept darting to Rose that their team leader felt the same way.
But she was there, and she was doing everything he had told her to, keeping up, staying behind them, keeping quiet, and her weapon in her hand was held with an unwavering grip. It was time he stopped underestimating her ability to handle everything life threw at her. Cassandra had been underestimated her entire life, the fact that she was so sweet and sunshiny made her seem like she might be weak, but she wasn't.
And if he kept treating her like she was, he would lose her.
Guaranteed.
“Next, we finish searching this place, and then we move on to the other buildings here. Even if we don’t find anything, we know that this place was connected to Dr. Gardner, the coincidence is too big to come to any other conclusions. That means we go back home and dig into everything we can find out about this building. Even though it doesn’t feel like it right now, answers are out there somewhere, and we will find them,” he vowed.
Nothing else could be allowed.
Not when the stakes were this high.
“And I can keep looking for the woman,” Cassandra said, straightening her spine and meeting his gaze squarely, showing him she was still all in on this and ready to handle whatever needed handling.
“We’ll find her. She exists, you spoke to her, I saw it happen, and she knows things that she could only know if she was involved in this,” Dragon said.
“Unless …” Voodoo said slowly. When all eyes turned to land on him, he shrugged. “I was just thinking that the only way she got to Cassandra was by breaking ranks. She went against her boss, and we all know how Dr. Gardner feels when he’s not in control.”
“Do we ever,” Rose muttered. Of all of them, she had suffered the most at her brother’s hand. Her entire childhood had been one of abuse, and she bore the scars, physical and psychological.
“There’s no doubt he found out she’s flipped and gone rogue, because he sent people after Cassandra,” Voodoo continued. “We don’t know how he found out, but maybe it was through the mystery woman. He could have her, be holding her prisoner, torturing her, possibly even killed her already. She might turn out quite literally to be a dead end.”
That might sound cold, but Dragon didn't disagree with what his friend had just said, even if the wording was harsh. This woman had been involved in what happened to them, she was no innocent. She was an enemy and worse, she’d dragged Cassandra into this mess.
None of them cared about what happened to the woman, but they would all like to get their hands on her, drag out of her whatever intel they could before they ended her life if Dr. Gardner had left her alive.
Blade suddenly cocked his head, and they all turned their attention to the man. If he said he was unable to pick up anyother sounds, then his assertion that there might be a white noise generator somewhere in the building made sense.
But if somebody had gone to the trouble of setting one up, it had to mean they were still there.
Shifting closer to Cassandra, Dragon scanned the hall they were in. They’d just cleared what had been a lab at some point, and he focused on it now.
“Someone is here,” he said, and Blade nodded. “No other reason for trying to distort Blade’s abilities.”
“Has to be the woman,” Blade said. “She ordered this cleaned down, and if she’s still here, it makes sense she doesn’t want us to know. She was involved so she knows what she’s up against. Has to know what we’re going to do to her if we get our hands on her.”
