“Do … do you think that Dr. Gardner still … wants to use me, or … is he ready to just kill me and be done with it?” Whitney asked, and Blade loved that she was handling this head-on and not trying to run or hide from it.
“What do you think?” Steel countered. “You know him better than any of us, other than maybe Rose, but she had a different relationship with him.”
“I … think that deep down he knows he can't do this without me,” Whitney answered. “I’m smarter than him. He hates that, but not enough to get rid of me. I don’t know if he has a particular reason for it or not, but he really wants this drug to work the way he wants. The way he wants … it’s never going to completely work. I can't erase a conscience. I can't remove emotions. I can disrupt the brain connections and dull them, but that’s it. The other things are easier, but it’s the lack of conscience and emotions that he really wants. I think it’s just to prove that he can, then use it to gain respect, power, control,and money. I think he sees this as the future of the world, and himself as the God who orchestrated it all.”
“Agreed,” Rose piped up. “My brother has always had delusions of grandeur. And he’s smart but not a genius like Whitney. He isn’t stupid. He won't get rid of her because if he does, his whole program falls apart. But … sorry, Whitney … he’s going to punish her for the trouble she’s caused him. Badly. And if he gets her back, she’ll never have another chance to escape.”
Fear for the woman in his arms flooded his system, trying to push his anger into overdrive. It wasn't until her small hands lifted to rest on his biceps and she squeezed gently that he realized he was basically crushing her.
“Sorry,” he murmured, dropping a kiss to the top of her blonde head.
“Good news is, he’s looking for you still close to the site, he has no idea you're with us,” Voodoo said.
“What about all those dead bodies?” Whitney asked. “There’s no way Dr. Gardner can think I killed them all.”
“My guess would be that when they didn't check in, he sent out more guards. When he found the bodies he probably knew you had help, but that doesn’t mean he knows it was me,” he told her. “Chances he knows we were there when the building blew up are slim. Even if he does, he probably thinks we left before we could be found. That means you’re safe here. He won't think to look for you with us, and if he did, he has no idea where we are. He’s not getting his hands on you again, darlin’, I won't allow it.”
In his embrace, he felt Whitney drag in a deep breath, and he assumed she was taking his reassurances to heart, convincing herself that her tormentor wouldn't get her back and would have zero control over her future, like he’d controlled her for the last twelve years.
“Dr. Gardner wants me back. We all agree on that. We also agree that he has to be paying someone to have me framed,because he’s the one who wiped out my identity, so he’s the only one who would know to put it back up. He’s obviously desperate enough to go to any length to try to secure me. What if we use that to our advantage?” Whitney asked.
“What do you mean?” Blade demanded, afraid he knew exactly what she was trying to say, but not willing to accept it.
“I mean, what if instead of him luring me into a trap, we lure him into a trap? We use this opportunity for you guys to get the revenge you so badly deserve, and we use me as bait to do it.”
January 14th
8:21 A.M.
“Absolutely not,” Blade roared.
So loudly in fact that Whitney winced and would have pulled back, only his grip on her had tightened again, to the point of being painful, even though she knew he wasn't trying to hurt her.
Everything inside her screamed to backtrack, to submit, to tell Blade what he wanted to hear. Anything to prevent getting in trouble.
But that had been the story of her life.
Avoid trouble no matter what.
Never rock the boat.
Do what’s expected of you so that you won't be punished.
Where had any of that ever gotten her?
Nowhere.
It had gotten her stuck in a situation she hadn't tried hard enough to get herself out of quickly enough. It had gotten her a back seared with marks for all the people who had died because of a drug she’d created. It had gotten her almost killed by thisman, who had quite rightfully been seeking revenge against the monsters who had played with his life like it wasn't important, like it didn't matter.
Now she had the opportunity to do something about it. But if she wanted to hold onto that opportunity, do something to right her own wrongs, make up for what she had caused, even if none of this had been her intention, then she couldn’t be meek and mild. Meek and mild Whitney would just say okay, submit to what Blade wanted, and hide out there while he and his team eventually found another way to get to Dr. Gardner.
That Whitney would be a coward, and she didn't want to be a coward anymore.
This whole thing, setting up the fake identity, warning Delta Team, erasing all of her data, blowing up the lab, had been about finding herself. Well, she’d found herself here, with men who should hate her, had every reason to, and yet instead were offering her a place in their little family.
If she wanted that place, she had to earn it.
Blade was offering her more than a family, at least she thought he was. He was offering her a chance to be seen as a woman, a person, not just the baby genius that everyone else in her life had categorized her as.
