“You're going to die for what you did to her,” Voodoo roared into the night.
They all had reason to want this man dead. For what he’d done to them personally. For the way he’d tortured Rose from childhood. For putting a contract out on Cassandra just for being unwittingly dragged into this. For taking Whitney’s drug, created with goals of saving lives, and twisting it into something dark and dirty. For misleading, imprisoning,and forever altering innocent people like Indigo. For every man and woman who hadn't survived the drugs.
But right now, Voodoo knew that he had to be the one to end it.
To steal Dr. Gardner’s life like the man had stolen so much from so many people.
Knowing his team would have his back, would take out the remaining threats, and protect his girl, Voodoo headed for the houseboat. Scaling a tree close to the river, he got the first good look he’d had at Dr. Gardner since he and his team had escaped the facility seven years ago. The man looked smaller, older than he remembered. Or maybe it was the flash of fear on the scientist’s previously cocky face as he realized one of his creations was heading right to him, and he didn't have the means to protect himself.
“Go!” Dr. Gardner shouted, and the houseboat began to move.
“Not this time,” Voodoo vowed as he jumped, lifting his weapon as he flew through the air, firing at the man who had destroyed so many lives.
January 25th
2:56 A.M.
A constant war raged inside her.
Give up and let the inevitable happen, accept her fate, don’t ask for more, don’t want more, and don’t wish for more. Wait to die, however long that took.
Or cling to the hope that Voodoo had planted and nurtured inside her, and keep fighting, find a way to make something happen.
At any given second, Indigo had no idea which side was going to win.
But she knew what was going to happen next when two of the men strolled down the walkway outside her cage.
She knew that look.
While technically speaking, she’d been a test subject kept in a lab,everything done to her was to measure and gauge her ability to withstand it, that was really just a cover for saying she’d been tortured. Didn't matter that the guards hadn't been allowed to touch her, because the scientists who worked for Dr. Gardner were every bit as sadistic as the doctor himself.
“Getting settled into your new home, little one?” one of them drawled as he pressed his palm to a panel outside the door to her cage. It was the man who had carried her earlier. From the hungry way he’d looked at her, she shouldn’t be surprised that he’d found his way to her cage this quickly.
Since she knew they weren't really after an answer, she didn't bother to offer one. Just sat on her bed and watched them. No one had given her any clothes, and there had been none in the room, so she was still naked. When she’d been kept at the lab these last several months, she’d at least been given underwear, but that didn't look like it was going to be the case anymore.
Maybe she should be used to being mostly undressed in front of strangers by now, but she hadn't learned to completely let go of modesty. Something she was going to have to rectify pretty quickly because this was her new reality.
“You play real nice, and maybe we can scrounge up a nice meal for you,” he said as he opened the door to her cage and stepped inside.
As he did, her gaze dropped to the ground, praying he wouldn't notice what she’d left on the floor right by the door.
In one of her bouts of determination, she’d tried to set up a way to escape. Chances were, it wasn't going to work, but maybe for once luck would be on her side.
Please be on my side.
You owe me after a lifetime of bad, I deserve one good.
Thankfully, neither of the men seemed to notice, too focused on whatever they had planned for her, and she let out a little breath as they stepped toward her. Whatever they were going to do would be awful, she knew that, but she would happily endure it if her little plan actually managed to work.
“You're like a real carnival show, aren't you, little one?” the man whohad carried her in here earlier drawled. “Too bad freak shows are a thing of the past because you could have had a real career there.”
“Still got an audience here though,” the other man piped up. He looked young, way too young to be working a job like this, but there was no denying the sadistic glint in his eyes. Young or not, he was quite happy where he was and with what he was going to do to her.
“Sure do, little one. Pretty thing like you can probably learn real quick how to use that to her advantage. You’re going to be the only girl, with six monsters living side by side with you, and a whole team of men watching over you. Don’t think it takes a whole lot of imagination to figure out how to make the most of this situation.”
Was that what they were planning for her?
If they were going to rape her, they’d only been doing what so many men before them had done. She could take it. She’d hate every second of it, but she could endure it. Would endure it. And this time, she couldn’t make a play to bite anything that was put near her. Couldn’t scratch it, or yank on it, or anything else either.
