Those minutes she’d spent with Voodoo’s team were blurry at best.Infection had been ravaging her system, she’d been barely conscious, and she’d never gotten a good look at any of the other men’s faces because they’d all been wearing night vision goggles.
She had no way of knowing if this man really was Thunder or if he was trying to trap her. If she made a mistake and trusted him when she shouldn’t, she’d be captured again, but if he was safe and she ran away from him, she could wind up captured again.
What a choice.
Chapter
Fifteen
January 25th
12:55 A.M.
“I’m going to lose her, she doesn’t trust me,” Thunder’s voice came through the comms unit and set Voodoo’s heartrate into overdrive.
Sending Thunder on ahead hadn't been his first choice. Splitting up again put them all at a disadvantage, especially when they knew that not only was Dr. Gardner so close, but that more men were being brought in to hunt them.
But there hadn't seemed to be any other choice.
They knew that Indigo wasn't alone out there, that she was being followed, although they had no idea of the condition of the man who had been driving the car and if he was injured to the point that he was no longer a threat. Voodoo hadn't wanted to waste time trying to find him, Indigo was the priority, and he wanted Lion, Dragon, and Blade to use their skills to locate her.
Since Thunder’s skill was speed, without any actual physical advantages that could help him track Indigo, they were making this awkward.Dragon directing Thunder based on what he could smell, Blade directing him based on what he could hear, Lion’s enhanced sight not as much a use to them with so many trees around.
It had seemed like such a long shot that this way of locating her would work, and yet it had. Thunder had found her, but from the sounds of things, his girl was ready to bolt, unsure who she could trust.
Not completely unsure, though.
There was one person Indigo was absolutely certain was safe.
Him.
Maybe he wasn't there right now, but there had to be something he could give Thunder to tell her so she would know he was who he said he was and that she could trust him.
Wracking his brain as he ran, Voodoo tried to come up with something that would convince Indigo that Thunder was with him. It couldn’t just be something about her past because there was every reason to believe that Dr. Gardner would have done a deep dive into her background to ensure nobody was going to look for her. After all, that had to be why he’d shifted to experimenting on homeless people. Their anonymity provided a safety net that snatching people off the streets or advertising in more mainstream places where people with friends and family looking out for them wouldn't.
It hit him all of a sudden. “Bubbles,” he blurted out. “Tell her that Voodoo said her favorite thing that made her smile was bubbles. Her mom used to get her some when she was small because they were cheap and she’d chase them around in the front yard. Then, when she was in foster care, some of the families would only allow her a small amount of money for gifts, and she’d choose bubbles for herself.”
Waiting to see if that was enough to reassure Indigo had to be the tensest minute of his life.
“Not far to go,” Blade assured him.
“Less than a mile,” Dragon added.
A mile was still a long way, though, and for the first time ever, he wished he’d been given Thunder’s speed instead of his ability to heal. Healing hadn't saved Indigo. All that had saved Indigo was her own decision to keep fighting. If she hadn't made that choice, he would have lost her to infection or hypothermia days ago.
Keep fighting, honey. Please. I'm coming, but I need you to keep fighting.
“Got her,” Thunder’s voice through the comms almost brought him to his knees as relief hit him hard.
“It worked? She believes you? Knows you're with me?” he asked, needing a little additional reassurance until he could get there and haul her into his arms.
“Yeah, when I told her what you said about the bubbles, she believed that I was Thunder and that you were talking to me. I told her you were coming, and she started crying.” There was amusement in Thunder’s voice as he said that, and Voodoo knew it wasn't that the man thought it was funny, but that he was amused that things had progressed so quickly between him and Indigo and that now another one of them had fallen hard and fast for a woman.
“Tell her I'll be there in less than two minutes,” he ordered. “Is she okay? How badly is she hurt?” He wanted to be prepared for what he would find when he got there. Indigo had made it a fair distance from the wrecked car, especially since she was moving on a broken leg, but that didn't mean she wasn't badly injured.
“I'm not with her,” Thunder said, and Voodoo jerked to a stop.
“What the hell does that mean? You said you found her, that she didn't trust you, but that the bubbles convinced her. What do you mean you're not with her?”
