No going back though.
All he could do was move forward. Get Whitney home, find out everything she knew, use it to destroy Dr. Gardner, and then …
Blade wasn't sure what came next.
Let Whitney go and allow her to finally find her own way in a world that had controlled her every step so far seemed like the fair thing to do, especially if she helped them get their revenge. So why did the idea of letting her go leave him feeling like?—
Abruptly, he lost his train of thought when he noticed something he didn't like.
Three cars, all black SUVs with tinted windows, were driving slower than necessary along the winding mountain roads. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that those were Dr. Gardner’s people. The vehicles were the same ones that the scientist had used when they’d set the trap for him with Rose.
“We might have a problem,” he warned Whitney. While he was ninety-nine percent positive that she wouldn't try to get away from him, she had to know that she was safer with him than she was with Dr. Gardner, there was that tiny sliver of doubt that she might try to escape while he was dealing with these people.
“What?” Whitney turned away from the window she was still staring out of to meet his gaze.
“Three SUVs up ahead of us.”
“Those look like …” she paused, swallowed audibly, “like the vehicles Dr. Gardner’s guards use.”
“Thought the same thing, darlin’.”
“Can we just drive around them?”
“If we do, we’re only going to draw their attention.”
“Then we just keep going, follow along behind them, sooner or later they’ll turn off somewhere, and we can drive past them and then go on to the airport.”
That was a possibility, but he was pretty sure that as soon as they registered their presence, they would try to pull them over.
What they had on their side was that he doubted Dr. Gardner and his men knew that he was there. They were looking for Whitney, not him, and not two people. Even if he got Whitney down low, had her hide, if they saw him, they’d recognize him. There was no way every person on Dr. Gardner’s staff didn't know what he and the rest of his team looked like and had orders to take them into custody if spotted.
Before he even had a chance to figure out what he wanted to do, the cars suddenly did U-turns and picked up speed as they headed toward them.
“They’re coming,” Whitney squeaked, shaking in her seat.
“Hold on.” That was the only warning he gave before he did the same thing. Swinging the car around and heading back up the way they’d just come. All he needed was to put a tiny bit of distance between them so he could kill these men before they could get to Whitney.
“What are you doing?” Whitney cried when he suddenly yanked on the steering wheel, so they were now heading toward the trees.
“Crashing the car.”
“Killing us?”
Blade chuckled despite his fear for the woman beside him. “No, darlin’. Just going to make them think we crashed, then I’m going to get you to hide while I take them out.”
Because he knew Whitney was only going to panic more the longer this took, Blade aimed them at a large tree just up ahead, drove right for it, then slammed on the brake at the last minute, so their impact was minimal.
Barely feeling it, he was moving the second the car hit the tree. Grabbing his weapon, he flung open his door, closed it behind him, then rounded the car to get Whitney.
It was time to do a little hunting.
January 12th
8:40 A.M.
“You're really just going to leave me here?” Whitney asked as Blade physically picked her up and set her in one of the branches of the tree he’d just crashed the car into.
He said that he was making her hide so he could take out the men in the cars that had suddenly U-turned and come after them, but she didn't believe him.
