“They’re both fine,” Steel assured him.
“And you guys?”
“We’re all fine too.”
“Good. So …” he prompted. After confirming that everyone was recovering from the injuries caused by the explosion, there was only one thing he wanted to know.
“No matches,” Steel replied.
“None? At all? Surely her fingerprints were in a system somewhere. And I sent you a clear photo of her face, she has to be in some database somewhere.” How could she not? The woman existed. Despite moving away from the window, he could still see her hanging out there. Her body was limp, although he could hear the sounds of her breathing and the beating of her heart so he knew she was still alive.
“She should be but she’s not,” Steel said.
“So she was scrubbed. Removed from everything so nobody could find her,” he said. It was the only thing that made sense. “But why would Dr. Gardner do that? He didn't scrub himself from the systems, he just hid himself away so we couldn’tfind him. But now we have a name, he’s searchable in several databases. Why isn’t she?”
“I can't answer that,” Steel replied.
“Her fake ID says she’s thirty, but I'd bet my favorite knife that she’s not. Even if she was, that would put her at twenty a decade ago, very young to be working on a program like this. Maybe Dr. Gardner was bringing in young college students because they were easier to control, but he would still need experienced scientists,” he said, his gaze glued to the woman hanging in the tree.
“We keep assuming that just because she knew about the tests that she was in it from the beginning,” Thunder spoke, and Blade realized he was on speaker.
“No way to know that’s true,” Voodoo added. “She might be new to the program. We know it’s still going. We know that he never stopped the experiments and that the others all keep dying, which is why he wants us back. Maybe she just took a job for him, not realizing what it really entailed, and once she realized she knew she couldn’t stay on and stand by while we’re hunted like animals and decided to do something about it.”
“That would make her another innocent,” Cassandra said softly.
It would.
And Blade’s stomach cramped at the thought.
Was the woman he had left hanging from a tree for almost eight hours now an innocent?
There was an innocent air about her, that was for sure. Those wide blue eyes screamed young and sweet, and the blonde waves and pouty lips added to the image. There was a softness to her he felt rather than saw, and he couldn’t be sure whether it was real or a projection she wanted him to see.
The last thing he wanted was to be just another stupid guy to fall for a pretty face.
“You need to talk to her, get her to open up,” Dragon growled, the implication clear even if he didn't want to say the words in front of Cassandra, who he’d almost lost once because of their need for vengeance.
He had to make her bleed, scream, and beg. It was the only way, and what he’d taken her to do.
So why did he suddenly feel uneasy about it?
“Keep looking for her real identity, just because she was scrubbed doesn’t mean she’s not still out there somewhere. I’ll work on her and hopefully get her talking,” he said before abruptly disconnecting the call.
As he walked to the kitchen and filled a glass with water, he realized what had him so unsettled. Dr. Gardner hadn't removed himself from databases, yet he’d made sure that this woman didn't exist anywhere outside his own facility. The only reason Blade could think of to do that was that this woman was important somehow. If she was important enough to erase, then it didn't make sense that she’d only been with him for a short time. But she was too young to have been there from the beginning, even if the birthdate on the fake ID was real.
Strolling out of the house, he felt the woman’s eyes on him as he closed the distance between them. She still didn't say anything, but he could see the blood streaking the cuffs of her simple pink long-sleeve T-shirt, and the dried tear marks on her cheeks.
He still wasn't sure if her silence was a conscious choice or if she was just literally too scared to talk. But he did know she was freezing, the temperature had dropped further since he brought her out in the middle of the night, and she was wearing only the long-sleeve T-shirt and a pair of flannelette pajama bottoms. Her bare feet would be frozen and unusable even if she got free, which she wouldn't, and her hands must be numb, her shoulders screaming in pain.
But she didn't speak, just eyed the glass of water in his hands, and he knew she was thirsty, too, on top of everything else.
“Drink?” he asked conversationally, holding out the glass.
Surprise filled the blue eyes that snapped up to meet his, and the range of swirling emotions in them was like a punch to the gut. Some he expected, fear, uncertainty, confusion, guilt, remorse. But there was another one there. Gratefulness. Like she truly appreciated this seemingly genuine offer.
She really was so sweet and innocent that she thought he was going to give her water to drink. What the hell was up with her? Surely, she knew he had zero good intentions where she was concerned, yet she believed him.
Or she was playing him.
