“More than I can remember,” Steel replied.
“Whitney was there, from the beginning, from before we were, she was a part of this. How many times do you think she’s heard us called monsters? Hundreds? Thousands? She’s been with Dr. Gardner for twelve years, since she was just a little girl. You really think how he views us hasn’t rubbed off on her?”
There was no way it hadn't.
And all he’d done since she met him was prove what her former boss had said about him was true. He’d dragged her from her bed, hung her from a tree, poured water down her nose, cut her skin, and wrapped his hands around her throat. The truth was, he had acted like a monster, and hoping Whitney might see him as anything else was ridiculous.
“I think she’s a whole lot smarter than you give her credit for,” Steel answered.
“She’s a genius, I fully accept that.”
“Then act like it. Maybe she’s a timid little thing, but that doesn’t make her weak. She just needs to find her strength and tap into it.”
“Not arguing with you there.”
“If you weren't, you wouldn't have spent the last couple of hours hiding from her. You heard her this morning. You're the one who told Rose and Cassandra to hurry up and get up to her room because you heard her say that people only care about her when they want something from her. She needs to know that you don’t want anything from her.”
“But I do,” he whispered, more to himself than Steel.
“Not what she thinks you want,” Steel said, then turned and walked away.
How the hell did Steel know what he wanted from the sweet little genius sitting upstairs in her room, feeling all alone in the world, even as Rose and Cassandra kept her company?
Was he that obvious?
That he craved her more than he craved his next breath of air?
That she was the oxygen his soul had been needing for so long that he hadn't even realized he was missing out on anything?
Things had changed around there when Cassandra first came to stay with them. It soon became clear to all of them that there was something between her and Dragon, regardless of whether he admitted it. Then Steel fell for Rose, and Cassandra returned, and now Whitney was there, and she felt like … life.
The life he’d been living for the last decade was all about survival. About getting through each day in the glass cage they were trapped in, about evading capture as they remained constantly on the move, about joining Prey and proving they could do good instead of the evil they’d been created for.
There had been no time to just be.
To figure out who he was beneath enhanced skills and superhuman hearing ability. To figure out what he wanted his future to look like. But there was no way not to think about those things now as he’d watched two of the men he considered brothers fall hard and fast.
Now a confused, terrified woman sat upstairs, pretending she wasn't confused and terrified, and feeling alone and abandoned.
The look in her eyes as he killed the last of the men after her and she’d thrown herself at him, utterly in wonder that he was still there, that he hadn't left her, was front and center in his mind as he took the stairs two at a time. Drawn to the pretty little genius by a pull he didn't even understand. It seemed to transcend everything else, it went beyond logical thought, beyond emotion even, it just pulled him to her, and he was helpless to fight against it.
It was no wonder Whitney had abandonment issues after she’d been sold by her parents. If he had to guess, she’d never had their love and support, they’d likely always viewed her as something that could potentially make them rich. And it had, but at the expense of their child’s freedom. How could they pay such a steep price?
At the door to her room, he paused. He could hear them talking in there, Whitney and Rose discussing the latter’s brother, while Cassandra interjected her thoughts on what a despicable person Ridge Gardner was. There was still a timidity to Whitney’s tone, but it had grown more confident over the last couple of hours as the girls kept her company.
When he finally pulled up his big boy boxers and opened the door, her gaze immediately flew to his, and he would have sworn there was relief in those pretty baby blues of hers. But he could be imagining it.
The truth was, he wanted her to need him.
Wanted her to want him.
Wanted her to crave him.
“Hey, Blade,” Rose said, waving him into the room. “You have perfect timing.”
“I do?” he asked
“He does?” Whitney asked at the exact same second, making Rose and Cassandra laugh.
