To break.
“Hey, it’s going to be all right,” a woman—a different one—said gently, and Whitney blinked because she recognized the voice, and tore her gaze away from the fight.
“Cassandra Charleston?” she murmured as she saw the familiar face. This was the woman she’d linked to Prey Security and decided would be the perfect one to deliver her message to. The woman wasn't a Prey employee, and she wasn't married to or involved with a Prey employee, so Whitney had guessed that the woman wouldn't just kill her or abduct her to take in for interrogation.
She hadn't wanted to be caught, she just hadn't wanted anyone else to suffer or die.
“It’s going to be all right,” Cassandra repeated, and Whitney so badly wanted to believe that.
“Break it up, children,” Steel called out, and she looked over to see that the man with the enhanced strength had physically grabbed hold of both Blade and Dragon and dragged them apart, although both men were still trying to swing at one another. “A little help?”
Two of the other men moved to hold Dragon. She wasn't sure which without seeing their faces properly, and Steel and the other man held onto Blade. She could see blood dripping from his nose and a cut under his eye, and her heart clenched as she whimpered.
“It’s okay,” Cassandra whispered, giving her knee a gentle squeeze before standing and moving to plant herself right in front of Dragon.
Whitney almost yelled a warning, not wanting the huge man to attack the small woman the same way he had her, but something stopped the words from escaping. Cassandra approached with confidence, and instead of cowering, lifted a hand and palmed Dragon’s cheek. The huge man was still breathing heavily, but he softened somehow at the light touch.
“You scared her,” Cassandra said, not a hint or a tremor of timidity in her tone.
“She smells of explosives,” he snarled, and Whitney realized he must still be able to scent it on her days later, after she’d showered, even over the blood she’d shed when Blade played with his knife on her skin.
All eyes seemed to turn to her, and she was too afraid to even try to figure out the energy pouring off them. Instead, she just whimpered, pressed her face to her knees, and tried to make herself smaller. If she could make herself small enough to disappear, she’d do it in a heartbeat.
“Get off me,” Blade snarled.
“Not if you're going to go after him again,” Steel said.
“Children indeed,” another voice muttered, making Blade growl.
“He put his hands around her neck, Thunder,” Blade snapped.
“He’s not going to do it again,” Cassandra said like she knew that for a fact, however Whitney was not convinced. “No, Dragon, at least give her a chance to explain herself. You know Blade got confirmation that everything she told him was true, which means she was just a baby manipulated by a man old enough to be her father. He erased her entire identity so he couldown her, treat her like a possession instead of a real person. We are not going to do that.”
That the woman she had approached, put in danger by doing so, seemed to be on her side confused the life out of her.
“Cassandra is right,” the other woman piped up, and now that she wasn't afraid Dragon was going to kill Blade, she could place the voice as belonging to Dr. Gardner’s sister Rose.
Which made sense, she guessed, since she knew about Rose winding up with Delta Team, and how they’d tried to lure her brother into a trap. The woman also seemed confident with the guys, and she’d spoken to Steel specifically. Was there a reason for that, or was it just because Steel had been the leader of the team?
“Would you let go of me?” Blade growled, and they must have because a moment later she felt him kneel before her. “Look at me, darlin’.”
No way was she lifting her head.
She wanted to squeeze her eyes closed and pretend that could make all of this go away.
“Please, Whitney,” he coaxed, and his hand nudged between her face and her knees, his thumb and forefinger grasping her chin as he firmly but gently tilted her head up.
“You're hurt,” she whimpered, getting a close-up look at the damage.
Something in his dark eyes softened. “I'm fine. Are you?”
As he asked, the fingers of his other hand stroked gently across her neck. It hurt, sure, but she was pretty positive it was the least of her worries right now, so she just nodded.
“How about we go inside, and you can tell us why you smell like explosives.”
Blade said the words softly, almost phrased like a question, but she knew they weren't. It was an order. And as she glancedaround at the five other men and two women gathered behind him, she knew it was one she had no choice but to follow.
Even if it led to her death.
