“None of us wants Dr. Gardner in a jail cell,” Steel told him. “And none of us is giving up on either one of them. Priority is Whitney, though.”
Maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Steel was willing to put Whitney above their revenge, given that he’d prioritized Rose over her brother. But that was different. Steel had been obsessed with Rose from the moment they realized she wasn't what they’d been expecting and that breaking her wasn't going to happen. Add in that Whitney had unintentionally started the program that ruined their lives, and asking anyone other than himself to put her above everything they’d wanted for a decade seemed like a pipedream.
“Stop acting surprised,” Voodoo muttered, flopping down into the seat beside his. “And give me that knife.”
No one was more shocked than Blade himself when he handed over his favorite knife to his friend without hesitation. Maybe it was because he was spiraling. Already in the last twelve hours, he’d promised himself a dozen times that he would stop wallowing in fear and panic and focus on finding Whitney. Each time he’d broken that promise to himself.
To think clearly, he needed to let go of the past.
That knife represented everything about his past that he’d held onto for ten long years. The people he loved and had left behind to protect them, the family that had once meant everything to him.
But he had a new family now. A future where he could be happy again, and that future was all wrapped up in a five-foot-three, blonde-haired, blue-eyed package that was currently counting on him. He’d already let her down once, he couldn’t allow it to happen again.
“Whoa, didn't think Blade would really give up his blade,” Voodoo teased, and since he knew it was said in an effort to help him pull it together, he offered up a weak smile.
“We’ve been going through all of these people for hours now, and don’t have anything. We need a new angle,” he said.
“Their prior work histories,” Lion said without hesitation, causing all of them to turn to look at the man who had been hammering away at his keyboard during their entire exchange.
“Work histories?” Blade asked.
Glancing up, Lion gave a quick nod, then continued working while he spoke. “Between the dead bodies and the intel from Whitney, we have a pretty comprehensive list. Different ages, different ethnicities, different socio-economic groups, some military, some scientists, there is nothing cohesive enough amongst them to say that’s how they’re being recruited. Until we start looking at their work histories.”
“You found some links?” Steel asked.
“A couple,” Lion replied. “Since we know Terry Richards, Dr. Gardner’s head of security, is the one who abducted Whitney, I've been focusing more on the security side of things than the science side. My guess is there’s a chance some of the other scientists working for the doctor were also recruited under false pretenses, although I doubt anyone was strictly there as a prisoner like Whitney was. When I started looking more closely into the dead men, I found that three of them had previously worked for a trucking company before being hired, and four of them had worked for a shipping company.”
“Names for both?” Blade asked, and Lion rattled off two.
“Been looking into both businesses, and they both seem like they’re a little shady. The trucking company is legitimate, they take contracts from a range of different companies that I can verify are above board. But there have been a few investigations into them. Products going missing. Some fraud and tax evasion. Some rumors that they might be hiding drugs inside their trucks and running them for a few gangs. Definitely something we need to look into closer.”
“And the shipping company?” Blade asked.
“Again, there were some insinuations that they might be shipping drugs and weapons, but investigations failed to turn up any proof. There was a murder at the shipping yard about two years ago that remains unsolved, but guess who the lead detective on the case was?” Lion asked.
“Detective Deacon Hayes,” Blade guessed.
“Bingo. My guess is that the cop found something that linked Dr. Gardner to the murder. They offered him money in exchange for his silence, and then they either offered him more or blackmailed him to get him to promote Whitney as a suspect and then hand her over.”
Both options sounded like viable ones, and for the first time since he heard that gunshot, Blade felt like things weren't completely hopeless.
January 16th
11:23 P.M.
For whatever reason, they weren't coming.
It was becoming increasingly clear of that.
As badly as Whitney’s fear was urging her to believe that it was because Blade was just like her parents and had decided to abandon her, she was doing her best to push through that and ignore those feelings.
Because they weren't true.
The cut on her palm and Blade’s vow assured her he wouldn't do that to her. If he hadn't come when she turned on the tracker embedded in the outskirts of her wounds, then it was because he couldn’t. Maybe Terry was using a jammer to block any signals. It would be a smart thing to do since he knew how smart she wasand that she might want to protect herself if anything happened to her by giving access to the trackers to someone.
Although, who he thought she would give them to she had no idea.
As far as Terry Richards knew, she’d been on her own. They hadn't discussed how all those men had wound up dead in the forest, he hadn't seemed to notice the scratches on her skin and bruising on her neck, and she had never mentioned that she was no longer on her own. That the very men Dr. Gardner wanted back almost as much as he wanted her back were almost within Terry’s grasp. That they’d found her, hurt her, saved her, and were trying to get back to her, ready to dismantle the doctor’s entire operation.
