There was something magnetic about those midnight eyes of his that she couldn’t break away from.
“Tell me. Everything,” he commanded, and once again she felt powerless to disobey.
“Ten. I was ten when I graduated from college. My name is Whitney Daley, and I was a child genius. I graduated from high school at seven. At ten, I had four college degrees. I didn't have friends, no little kid wants to be friends with another little kid who doesn’t actually know how to be a kid, and no adult wants to be friends with a ten-year-old smarter than they’ll ever be. The drug was something I'd been thinking about since I was five.”
“You wanted to create an army of super soldiers when you were five years old?” Blade sounded incredulous at the idea.
“No. That’s not … the drug wasn't supposed to …. When I graduated, my parents were approached by a man. One who had connections to the military and was a scientist just like me. He told them if they let him take me, I’d help him change the world, and since they never really knew what to do with a child like me anyway, they agreed.”
“Your mom was a scientist, too. Worked for From Nature.”
Shocked that he knew that, she nodded. “Her family owned the company, but she was the only one left still working there. He bought the company, but really what he was buying was …” Whitney trailed off, unable to say it out loud.
“You,” Blade finished for her. “Dr. Gardner bought you when you were ten years old. That’s why your mom retired so early.”
“I don’t know how you know that, but yeah, she did. Win-win, she got enough money to live the rest of her life however she wanted, and she got rid of the problem that was me. I went to live with Dr. Gardner, at the warehouse, in one of thebuildings out the back. He scrubbed my existence from every database, making it like I don’t even exist. I don’t think you’ll find me with the fingerprints, he was thorough. If I didn't exist, then I couldn’t run. I had nowhere to go, and I was just a little girl, barely in double digits. What else was I supposed to do but whatever he ordered me to?”
The image of Blade standing before her blurred as tears filled her eyes. It had been a long time since Whitney cried for the little girl she’d been back then. Alone and scared. Locked away from the rest of the world, no ally who put her needs first, no one to care what happened to her.
“All of what happened to you was my fault. I created that drug, but, Blade, please, you have to believe me. I never wanted that to happen, never intended it to. My drug was supposed to help children living in poverty have a better chance at survival. Make them strong, more immune to illness, better able to withstand temperature extremes, and their bodies better able to tolerate not having enough food. My drug was supposed to save lives. Instead, Dr. Gardner turned it into something that ended lives, and now I carry each and every one of those deaths on my back, where they belong.”
Chapter
Six
January 11th
5:29 P.M.
“No.”
The word burst from him with a ferocity that caught him by surprise. Whitney, as well, if the way her mouth dropped open and her eyes widened was anything to go by.
If what she’d said was true, then …
Hell, he and his team were batting two for two when it went for going after people connected to Dr. Gardner and winding up with innocents.
Ifit were true.
And right or wrong, Blade was inclined to believe her.
Sure, it was one hell of a story, but they’d always worried from the beginning when Cassandra first gave them the sketch of the woman who had accosted her at the park with a warning for them that she looked far too young to be involved. There was every chance the woman was lying about her age, but then again, he would have put her around early twenties, which was exactly how old she claimed to be.
What she’d said about From Nature also linked to what they knew. That the woman Cassandra thought looked similar to the one she’d met, just several decades older, had taken a huge payout and retired early. That was around twelve years ago, which would again put Whitney at twenty-two if she’d been ten back then when she graduated from college.
Graduating from college at ten with four degrees, that had to be a lie, right?
There was no way, and yet was it really any less believable than everything else the woman had just told him?
“Yes,” Whitney countered, although her bottom lip wobbled and tears shimmered in her eyes. It was abundantly clear that she wholeheartedly blamed herself for each and every mark on her skin that she said counted for a person who didn't survive the anger and suicidal thoughts that came with the drugs.
There was a hint of defiance back in those big blue eyes of hers, and he found it somewhat amusing that she was prepared to argue with him over blame for the deaths of those who took her drug, but not to spare her own life.
“If what you just told me is true, then it would make none of what happened your fault. Little girls can't make their own choices about their futures, and your parents, damn, darlin’, they sold you.”
“If,” she repeated, and it was like her entire body sagged at that one small word. “So you don’t believe me. Of course you don’t,” she muttered, although that seemed to be more to herself than him, a reminder that she was on her own, she didn't have a single ally or a team member to have her back.
What he and his team had suffered at the hands of Dr. Gardner was horrific. The tests, the loss of freedom, being treated like test subjects and not humans, and spending three years locked in a cage, the pain, the anger, but through it all, he had never once been alone. There had been plenty oftimes during those three years of captivity that he’d wished for privacy, that his every move wasn't watched, and he could have just a moment to himself, but the truth was, he might not have survived it without knowing he had a team at his back. Without them, he might have fallen victim to the same rage and suicidal thoughts that had claimed the rest of the test subjects.
