“That was me,” he inserted, not wanting to add to any paranoia she might be feeling.
“I know you’ve been watching me, Dragon, or at least I suspected. This was different. It felt different. When I feel eyes on me and I think it’s you, I usually feel … safe. Today I didn't. I can't explain it, it just felt … wrong.”
Anxiety hummed inside him. There was no denying that he’d gotten a buzz when she told him that she knew he’d been watching her and it made her feel safe, but the rest … he had no way to tell if it was drug-induced paranoia or real unless he was there to smell the pheromones she was giving off. Even then, it would be partially up to his judgment as to how to read them.
“She said that someone called Dr. Gardner is angry that all the other people he tested his drugs on died. That you and your team are the only ones left.”
Those words had him straightening.
There was no way that Cassandra should know the name Dr. Gardner.
They’d only learned the name of the scientist who had played God with their lives a couple of months ago. As far as he knew, the only people who were aware of the man’s name were Eagle, his wife Olivia, who had managed to find the name after years of searching for it, and the members of his team.
Paranoia, drug-induced or otherwise, couldn’t supply Cassandra with that intel.
“She said you guys are the only survivors, and that Dr. Gardner wants you back so he can figure out what makes you different,” Cassandra continued.
That was something they already knew. The insane scientist would do anything he could to get his hands on them again. It was why he and his team had been in hiding these last seven years after they managed to escape the facility where they’d been held captive for three hellishly long years.
“Dragon, that’s not all she said.” Cassandra’s voice was brimming with fear now. “She said you need to know he has an antidote, something that is supposed to undo everything he did to you.”
For a second, it felt like the earth stopped spinning.
An antidote?
A way to take it all back, go back to who he’d been before?
The key to living a normal life, maybe even getting a chance at making things right with Cassandra.
“She said that Dr. Gardner plans on giving you the antidote, studying you, then doing whatever he did to you the first time around all over again.” Cassandra’s voice had dropped to the mere hint of a whisper. “Dragon, this woman doesn’t think you’ll survive if he does that. She said you can't let him get you because if he does, then you’ll all lose your lives.”
January 3rd
10:10 P.M.
Her hands were shaking as she set her phone down.
So badly, Cassandra almost dropped it on the floor of her room.
Why couldn’t she be as strong on the inside as she pretended to be on the outside?
It took a lot of energy pretending to be strong all the time, to have it all together, to act like she wasn't absolutely shattered inside after learning how she’d been conceived and the chain of events it had set off.
If she didn't exist, would her mom still be alive?
The fact that she existed, living, breathing proof of the gang rape, that the people involved decided to use their connections to target the man she’d thought of as her father and had his SEAL team killed. That allowed them to frame her mom and stepdad, the only man who had survived the ambush that killed the rest of the SEAL team. The two had been arrested and then suicides staged, designed to put an end to the whole issue.
Only it wasn't the end.
Because her brothers wouldn't let it go. They’d dedicated their entire lives to searching for the truth, and while she was glad they’d found it and got justice for their parents, it had stolen so much of their lives from them.
Sure, they were happy now, all paired up, dating the women who had captured their hearts, planning out the rest of their lives, but still, Cassandra couldn’t help but feel like her existence had made so many people’s lives worse.
There had to be a way to undo some of the bad her existence had caused, and calling Dragon to warn him about what the woman in black had told her might edge her a little closer to that goal.
Calling him hadn't been easy, though.
Cassandra had been falling in love with that man. Drawn in by the pain in his eyes, the way he held himself apart, even from his team, like he didn't deserve to have any comfort, any connection. She’d noticed it those first few days she stayed with the guys, and she’d decided that while she was there hiding out as her brothers risked their lives to save hers, she could try her best to help him however she could.
