When you were two years old and reading proficiently, you didn't have friends. When you were seven and completing your final year of high school, you didn't have friends, and when you were ten and completing four degrees simultaneously, you didn't have friends. And when you were kept locked away in a lab, forced to work basically around the clock, you didn't have friends.
So why did it matter now that she was alone again?
It wasn't like any of these men wanted to be friends with her. Maybe they weren't going to kill her, and that was still a maybe as far as she was concerned, but that didn't mean they liked her. They wanted to use her, and the fact that Rose and Cassandra had been so nice to her last night was probably just a ploy to make sure she didn't refuse to cooperate after Dragon had almost killed her.
Crawling to the edge of the huge bed, she wondered when she’d actually passed out. She’d tossed and turned for hours after putting on some pajamas, brushing her teeth, and climbing into bed. At some point, exhaustion must have come for her, although she felt no better for whatever sleep she’d gotten.
Wearily, she grabbed a change of clothes, jeans and a sweater, and headed into the bathroom. She’d set up her toiletries last night, and now she stepped into the huge walk-in glass-enclosed shower and did her best to wash away the horrors of the day before.
The horrors of her life.
Once she was clean, she shut it off, towel-dried her hair, and pulled on her clothes, then she headed for the door, intending to go downstairs to the kitchen. Just because she still didn't feel like eating didn't mean she didn't have to. An interrogation was coming today. Maybe it was coming with words instead of fists, but it would be terrifying all the same, and she needed to be fueled for it.
Only when she grasped the door handle and turned it, she found it didn't open.
Locked in.
That shouldn’t surprise her, but it did. These people weren't her friends, and they didn't care about her, she’d known all of that, but more than that, they didn't even trust her enough to not keep her locked in like a prisoner.
Because shewasa prisoner.
All that chatting the girls had done was to make her feel safer than she was, and Blade wishing her sweet dreams was again nothing but a ploy. Why did she keep falling for it?
“Why can't you ever understand that nobody cares about you unless they want something from you?” she muttered as she crossed the room and dropped down into a large rocking chair by the window. Whitney didn't bother to try to look out it, she didn't care what was out there. Were they going to starve her? Leave her there until she was so weak that it would be easy to get information from her?
It wasn't necessary, she’d gladly tell them everything she knew and then plead for mercy.
Maybe they wouldn't give it to her, but she truly had nothing left to lose.
If they said no, then this house would be the last place she ever saw before she took her final breath.
A knock on her door startled her, but given that she was locked in, she doubted whoever was out there was truly asking for permission to enter. Nobody needed permission from the captive to enter their cell.
When she said nothing, the person out there waited a moment and then opened the door just like she knew they would. She’d been expecting to see Blade on the other side, but it wasn't, it was Rose and Cassandra, and both women were smiling at her as they carried in plates filled with all sorts of breakfast food.
“We don’t know what you like,” Rose said by way of explanation as she set down a tray of waffles, pancakes, and French toast on the bed. Beside it, Cassandra put down her tray with toast, fruit, and an assortment of toppings, jams, jellies, and peanut butter.
The food looked good, but she wasn't hungry.
Too nauseous to even consider putting anything into her stomach.
“Thanks,” she said, because it would be impolite to say anything else. She’d nibble at the food, because again, manners, but she wasn't going to be able to get much of it down.
“Don’t be too upset about being locked in,” Rose said, not bothering to beat around the bush, and Whitney appreciated that. This woman might look similar to her brother, but it was clear they were nothing alike.
“It’s fine, I get it,” she mumbled, not wanting to make a big deal out of it. She was a prisoner, it was what it was.
“I don’t think you do,” Rose countered gently. “Do you know how I ended up here?”
“I assume they kidnapped you? That’s what Dr. Gardner said anyway, but then you lured him into a trap, so I assumed you switched sides?”
“They did kidnap me,” Rose confirmed. “Wanted to make me break. But they didn't know my brother had been torturing me all my life. Handling what they gave me was child’s play. After I got hurt trying to escape, they brought me to one of these gorgeous bedrooms. Beautiful but still a cell. They kept me locked in until they realized I had more reason to hate my brother than they ever could. One thing you should know about them, and I say this as someone who they have hurt, they aren't monsters.”
“I know they're not,” she rushed to assure them. From what she had seen last night, Rose was dating Steel, and Cassandra was with Dragon. The last thing she wanted was for them to think she thought badly of the men they loved.
“Do you?” Cassandra asked, but there was no judgment in her tone. “Do you really get that they aren't monsters? I know Dr. Gardner thinks they are, and you’ve been with him for a long time. And Blade … he hurt you.”
“He thought I was one of them,” Whitney hurried to defend him. “I don’t blame him for hating me, and I don’t blame him for hurting me. If I’d been put through what he had and thought I'd caught one of the people responsible for it, I would have reacted the same way.”
