Chapter
One
January 9th
10:13 P.M.
Blade ran through the forest, leaving his team behind.
The cold night air cooled his overheated skin, and he barely felt the pain in his body from the explosion.
They’d all been lucky to survive it, and while he was used to having his team at his back, they were where they needed to be right now.
Rose was still unconscious from whatever drugs the man Dragon had just killed had given her. Cassandra might have been conscious enough to fight back and run, but there were still drugs in her system as well. Plus, both women were injured from the explosion they’d all been caught up in.
Since they couldn’t be positive that the mercenary who had tried to abduct Rose and Cassandra didn't have a partner, although it seemed unlikely because surely the partner would have stepped in when Cassandra ran, splitting up the two women, he wanted the remainder of his team with the women.
Not because they were women and therefore less capable, but because one was unconscious and the other had been seconds away from getting raped. They needed support, and the rest of his team needed to get them out of there and someplace safe, because the cops were on their way.
Besides, Steel wouldn't leave Rose right now, and Dragon was every bit as protective over Cassandra. With their focus on the women who had captured their hearts, they needed Thunder, Lion, and Voodoo to watch over all of them.
Which just left him to go after whoever he’d heard moving through the forest.
Not that he minded. Blade had a pretty good idea of who he was chasing. It was absolutely true that if the mercenary who wanted to collect the money for delivering Cassandra to Dr. Ridge Gardner was working with a partner, then that partner would have shown up before now. Cassandra running had left Rose alone in the van, a partner would have stood by and watched over one of their captives, while the now dead man had gone after the other.
Ruling that out left only two other options.
One was that the person running was the crazed scientist responsible for injecting him and the rest of his team with experimental drugs. While those drugs had given them enhanced skills, they’d also messed with their ability to feel and process emotions normally, stripping them of a conscience.
The only problem with that scenario was that they’d just laid a trap for Dr. Gardner a little over a week ago, using the man’s sister as bait. They’d killed every single one of the armed guards the doctor had brought with him, and the only reason the doctor himself had escaped was because Steel had chosen to save Rose’s life rather than go after the man they all wanted dead more than they wanted their next breath of air.
Only that wasn't quite true anymore.
Steel wanted Rose more than he wanted revenge.
Dragon wanted Cassandra more than he wanted revenge.
Where that left his team, Blade wasn't quite sure. But he was sure that if it was Dr. Gardner he could hear out in the forest, then the man would have come with a small army because he knew it was his only chance at getting them back alive.
And he wanted them alive.
According to a woman who had accosted Cassandra at the park a week ago, Dr. Gardner needed them back if he wanted to create more super soldiers. Blade and his team were the only ones who had survived the anger and suicidal thoughts that came as a result of the drugs. Apparently, the doctor had figured out a way to reverse what he’d done and intended to do it, then study them, then inject them all over again.
It was their worst nightmare.
Becoming lab rats all over again.
But if the woman was to be believed, that was what would happen if they got caught. Whether they believed her or not didn't really matter, Blade had no intention of once again becoming a test subject. Those three years he and his team had spent locked inside a glass cage, constantly observed and studied, had been a hell he’d rather die than endure again.
Since there was no army on his tail, none that had come searching for them in the rubble of the warehouse linked to the company that paid off the mercenaries after Cassandra, none that had accosted them as they searched the forests, he had to assume it wasn't Dr. Gardner he was following.
Nope.
It washer.
The mystery woman.
If Cassandra hadn't spoken to her, and there was no doubt she had since Cassandra had known things about what happened to him and the rest of Prey Security’s Delta Team thatshe could only have learned from someone involved, then he’d be tempted to believe this woman didn't even exist. But not only had Cassandra spoken to her, but Dragon, stalker that he was, had watched the whole thing on his tablet after hacking into CCTV cameras.
