But if they weren't … then this tracker could be the only thing that would save her life.
And since Terry had been in a very chatty mood earlier, she knew that Dr. Gardner wouldn't be going there. The plan was forTerry to break her, then when she was once again the obedient, meek, terrified little lab soldier, she would be taken to a new lab where she would continue working.
So if the guys were out there, they were waiting for the arrival of a man who wasn't coming.
Only they didn't know that.
It was time to activate this tracker so they would know to come and get her. If they made it in there before Terry Richards made it back, they could lie in wait for the man, and if not, then they could still get him the second they opened those doors. Her position in the hierarchy had been at the bottom of the pile, but Terry was on top, second only to Dr. Gardner himself, which meant the man would have a lot more information to share than she had. She was sure that the guys were persuasive enough to get him talking.
Touching her finger to the spot where the tracker wasn't even noticeable, she let out a breath as her tense body marginally relaxed. Blade was coming now.
Any minute, he’d be there, and this would all be over.
Whitney knew she was lucky that Terry had been called away earlier before he got his filthy hands on her. For the last few hours, she’d debated with herself whether to activate the tracker or if she should give it a bit longer just in case Terry was wrong and Dr. Gardner decided to make an appearance just to scream at her and tell her she deserved to suffer for betraying him.
Although she had no idea how you could betray someone who had literally bought you and kept you prisoner since you were a child, forcing you to work on something you didn't believe in, and making you carry marks on your body for each person that died because of something outside your control.
Still, it didn't matter, Blade was coming. He and the others would get Terry and take him back home with them so theycould interrogate him. Soon, Dr. Gardner would be dead and all of them free to live their lives without having to hide.
“Soon,” she whispered aloud, because she needed the sound of her own voice to break through the deafening silence.
Who knew silence could be deafening?
It seemed to pound in her ears, echoing inside her head almost to the point of pain. Or maybe that was the beginning of dehydration, giving her a headache. Terry hadn't brought anything for her to eat and drink, and the drugs she’d been given had contributed to dehydrating her body.
But Blade was coming.
Probably in just a few minutes, he’d come bursting through that door, and the first thing she was going to do when she saw him was throw herself into his arms and kiss him. Then she was going to tell him she never wanted him to leave her again.
Surprise had her straightening from where she’d been huddled in one of the corners of what she knew now was indeed a shipping container. That was true. She didn't want him to leave her ever again. It made absolutely zero sense that the man who had tortured her had become the man who made her feel safe and seen. But it was true. Crazy but true.
Sounds outside the shipping container had her pushing to her feet.
Someone was out there.
Blade.
Relief almost made her lightheaded as she hurried toward the door. She’d been hiding out at the far end, wanting a tiny bit of distance between her and her captor, but now she needed to be close to Blade. Seeking out his comfort had become easier than she would have guessed. Even before she was sold to Dr. Gardner, there hadn't been much warmth in her life. Her parents didn't understand her, she didn't have extended family, and she had no friends. Blade and his team had offered her morecare and acceptance than anyone else ever had, and like the love-starved girl she was, she was soaking it up.
Now she was bouncing on her toes, excitement and relief bubbling inside her.
It wasn't just that she wanted out of this shipping container, although she absolutely did, it was that she was itching to see Blade again. How quickly she’d grown so attached should scare her, but it didn't. Who you developed feelings for was the one thing in the universe she believed you couldn’t explain. When it happened, it happened, and given that she’d been sure it was never going to happen to her and then it had, she wasn't going to waste time trying to figure out the whys and hows.
As the door creaked as it swung open, Whitney was already moving.
It never occurred to her that it would be anyone other than Blade on the other side. His promises that he wouldn't let anything happen to her had been real, and it wasn't a coincidence that just after she’d set off the tracker alerting him that she needed him, someone had come to her.
But then a single shadowy figure filled the open doorway.
Because it was dark outside, it didn't take her eyes long to adjust to the slight light now filtering into her prison.
Enough to see that it wasn't Blade standing there.
Either he and his team were too far away to get to her quickly, or they didn't even know that she’d turned on her tracker, because they weren't there.
Terry Richards was, though.
“Morning, little one, I've cleared my schedule, so for the foreseeable future it’s just going to be me and you.”
