“Don’t pretend otherwise, little one,” Terry warned, stalking closer to where she was huddled on the floor. “You always flirt with me, have since you first arrived.”
“I was ten,” she reminded him. She’d never seen the man look like this. He was always cold and indifferent, always calm and in control. Now he looked almost manic, and the lecherous grin he was giving her meant she needed zero imagination to figure out what he wanted from her. “I didn't even know what flirting was back then, and even if I did, I never would have flirted with you. You were one of the people keeping me prisoner.”
Terry just laughed. “Pretend all you want, little one, but we both know you wanted me even back then. Dr. Gardner didn't want anyone messing with his precious little baby genius, but since you’ve proven yourself to be a nuisance, that’s changed. You're mine now, little one. Mine to play with, mine to use however I want, mine to break so you never consider running ever again.”
Chapter
Nineteen
January 15th
8:39 P.M.
Too many hours had passed since Whitney had disappeared, and Blade was dangerously close to losing his mind.
Or maybe he’d already lost it.
Ever since he’d realized that their plan had been derailed, and the tracking devices on Whitney had either been found and destroyed or their transmission was being blocked, he’d felt like his skin was too tight on his body. His anger felt trapped inside him. Wanting to let it out, to rage at something or someone, but not having an available target, made him turn that anger on himself.
When it boiled down to it, he was the one to blame.
He’d gone against his better judgment in letting Whitney play bait. Hadn't learned his lesson from the disaster things had turned into when they’d gone this route before with Rose. Steel had almost lost her, and they hadn't even got their hands on the doctor.
At least they’d gotten Rose back alive, but whether they’d find Whitney before it was too late was still up in the air.
As much as he didn't want to lose hope, and he would never give up, the chances of them finding her were slim. Whitney had been their best source of intel, and she hadn't been able to lead them directly to the insane scientist. Without her, he couldn’t help but feel that they had nothing.
They’d never had anything.
They’d been chasing their tails for seven years now, always playing defense. Even when they’d finally learned the name of the man they’d known only as doctor during their time in the program and while held captive, their one attempt at gaining the upper hand had only led to them to take a step toward becoming the monsters Dr. Gardner had always told them they were. Rose had easily flipped to being on their side, she had even more reason to hate her brother than they did, but she didn't know anything about her brother’s evil plans. Prey had been doing everything they could, but even they hadn't been able to pinpoint anything that would give them the doctor’s location.
Why should he believe that would change now that the life of the woman whose big innocent eyes, and sweet timidity had pierced his heart was on the line?
“If you keep doing that, there’s not going to be any of you left when we find her,” Dragon said quietly from beside him.
Glancing down at the skin on his forearm he’d been absently peeling off with the blade of his knife, Blade just shrugged. The pain was the only thing keeping him marginally sane. A way to work out his anger and keep the panic at bay enough that he didn't go off on a screaming rampage. A rampage that would do no good. By the time they’d gotten to the produce store, Whitney and whoever had killed the cop were gone, and they hadn't been able to pick up a trail.
The kidnapper had come prepared to throw off their enhanced skills, and it had worked.
“We have a name,” Steel suddenly announced, and Blade’s gaze jerked up from his bloody skin.
“Of him?” he asked, wanting clarification before he let himself light even a glimmer of hope. After they’d searched the entire area without coming up with a single angle to pursue where Whitney had been taken, they’d gone back to their cars, called Prey to get Cyber Team going through CCTV footage, and then checked into a nearby hotel.
The plan had never been to hang around there. If they were lucky and Dr. Gardner had come to the meet up with the cop, they would have moved in and taken the scientist with them. Otherwise, the plan had been to follow the trackers and let Whitney lead them right to the man they all wanted to destroy.
“Yep,” Steel agreed, shooting him what Blade was sure was supposed to be an encouraging smile. “His name is Terry Richards. Served a single tour for the Marines before being honorably discharged. He’s forty-three years old. Grew up in the foster system after he was taken from his parents before his first birthday, due to drug use and abuse in the home. No siblings. Not married, never has been, and no kids. He’s done security work ever since leaving the Marines. Started small, working at a mall, then moved up to a bank. Before taking on a new job about thirteen years ago, working as the head of security for a pharmaceutical company called Nature Plus.”
“As in From Nature, dressed up under a new name, when it was taken over by Dr. Gardner,” Thunder muttered.
“That’s my guess,” Steel agreed.
Backstory for the man who had been in that room when the cop was shot, who had taken Whitney from him, and who had quite obviously terrified her, was the last thing Blade was interested in right now. "Address?" he barked out.
“Raven said that the address listed for Terry Richards is actually an empty plot of land,” Steel replied.
If Raven Oswald, the second oldest of the six Oswald siblings, and a computer genius who led Cyber Team, said it then he believed it. He also knew her team had been running every CCTV camera in the area they could get, but all they’d been able to pick up was a man all in black pushing out a trolley with pallets of fruit and vegetables to a van that delivered to a local charity right around the time he and his team had arrived at the store.
There was no doubt the man in black was Terry Richards, and that Whitney’s unconscious body had been hidden beneath the produce, but the van had disappeared along the way, and Cyber Team was yet to pick it up anywhere.
