“Don’t want you to die because of me,” she whispered, begging him to understand. Her life wasn't worth anything. No one would miss her. She had no family, no friends, no job, and she’d been homeless when she took this opportunity. While she might not fully understand who these men were or how they functioned as they did, it was clear they were a team and they cared about one another.
It was better for her to die than for them.
“No one is dying,” Voodoo assured her, but she didn't believe him. “Trust me, I’m a healer, it’s who I am, it’s what I do. Steel, you guys go, clear the way out, I’ll get her ready to move, and we’ll meet you outside.”
Steel hesitated for barely a second before nodding. And then without another word, the five other men trailed out of the room, leaving her alone with Voodoo.
For once, Indigo wasn't afraid of someone causing her physical pain, but while he didn't know it, Voodoo had the ability to break her in a different way. They were the same, both altered, and he was putting his life on the line to try to save her. No one had ever done that for her before.
Chapter
Three
January 20th
11:24 P.M.
“You should have gone with them, should have left me behind,” Indigo said softly from beneath him as her eyes drifted closed.
That she was so quick to dismiss the value of her own life told him that whatever this woman had been through had been rough, made her lose her self-worth.
She’d get it back. He’d insist on it.
Whether she agreed or not, Indigo was one of them, and they didn't leave anyone behind. Didn't matter that they’d known her for less than ten minutes. If she had been genetically enhanced with Dr. Gardner’s experimental drugs, then she had just gotten herself a readymade family.
Because that’s what he and his team were, a family. They might have been brought together by a drug trial none of them had fully understood, but those bonds that had been forged were for life. Even after Dr. Gardner was eliminated as a threat, and Voodoo had zero doubt that they would eventually catch the man, and his machinations would catchup with him, he couldn’t see himself ever moving away from the Gothic mansion they shared.
The men of Delta Team—and now Rose, Cassandra, and Whitney, Indigo as well—were as much his family as the parents who had raised him. Well birthed him and handed him off to a nanny to raise, and then to his own devices once they decided he was old enough to take care of himself.
Hearing Indigo so easily accept that she would be worthless enough not to matter had something stirring to life inside him. Rage, but of a different kind than the one he was used to as a side effect of the drugs he’d been given.
“Stop saying that,” he snapped at her, making her body flinch even as her eyes stayed closed. “And don’t pass out on me again. I am not leaving you behind, and I am not letting you die.”
Slowly—oh so slowly—those eyes of hers opened, beautiful brown orbs, shimmering with unshed tears. “Think it might already be too late,” she murmured. “Been sick for a while now. They don’t care. Make me keep doing it.” One of her hands gestured vaguely at the wounds littering her body before dropping back down to the floor.
“What’s your enhancement?” he asked as he rifled through his med kit and found bandages and antibiotic cream.
“Can endure pain. Weird, like it hits me hard but then fades so quickly.”
“They made you do this to yourself,” he said as he slathered on the cream to the worst of her wounds and then began to wrap them. He couldn’t do anything for her broken leg right now, and she’d need more heavy-duty antibiotics once he got her someplace safe, but the cream would at least help for now.
“How did you know?”
“Because Dr. Gardner’s sister is with us and he made her do the same thing, only without the experimental drugs in her system,” he explained. This woman was one of them, and she was coming back home with them, so that meant she was entitled to every bit of intel they had.
“Didn't know he had a sister. He is angry with someone called Whitney,though. He thinks she betrayed him, and she should be here to help him with the drugs.”
“He’s right, Whitney did betray him,” he told her as he yanked out a spare T-shirt and pants from his pack. It was all he had in there, not really enough to protect her from the elements, although he assumed she had the same ability to better handle hot and cold that he and his team did.
“You know who she is?”
“I’ll explain everything later, I promise. Right now, I need to get you out of here. I’m going to sit you up, put this on you,” he told her as he slipped an arm around her shoulders.
“Won't hurt much,” she assured him. “Never does. What can you do?”
“Healing. I heal people,” he replied as he lifted her off the ground and slipped the T-shirt over her shoulders. She winced at first, but quickly relaxed against him as he dressed her.
“The warmth?” she asked.
