Chapter 18 #2
Growing up as she had, Rose had always been aware that the thing that could destroy her wasn't pain, wasn't loneliness, wasn't torture and suffering, it was the opposite.
It was allowing someone to make her feel accepted, wanted, and adored, then losing it, that was the only thing that would break her beyond repair.
Now, Steel leaving her out there, to go after her brother alone, made her feel just that exact way. Despite the pain he’d inflicted on her, he’d also been kind and gentle, sweet even, which seemed a weird way to describe the man who could easily crush her if he wanted to.
“He’s not really gone,” she reminded herself as the foggy feeling from the sedatives she’d been given receded.
While she hadn't liked the idea of being drugged while they transported her out there, wherever there was, Rose had agreed it was their safest move. That way, her brother couldn’t torture the guys’ location out of her.
Unconscious left her completely vulnerable to Steel and his team, but then again, she figured with their combined enhanced skills they were basically unstoppable anyway, and if they’d wanted her dead, she’d be dead already.
“Steel is out there, he’s watching over you the best way he can, you are not alone.”
The pep talk did little to erase the feelings of abandonment, but she did know that the words she’d spoken aloud were true.
The guys had placed numerous trackers on her, both in her clothes, on her skin, and even a couple under her skin.
They wanted to be thorough because they all agreed that Ridge would check her for trackers once she got to him.
While she moved through the forest, called her brother, and waited for him to come to her, the guys would be following her every move.
“See? Not alone. Not alone at all.”
Shivering as the cold seeped into her, Rose found the burner phone lying beside her and scooped it up. If she didn't call Ridge soon and get up and moving, she was going to freeze to death.
Ignoring the pounding in her head from the drugs, she rolled herself over onto her stomach and pushed up onto her hands and knees, angling her weight so it was balanced on her good arm, not her broken one.
For a moment she paused there, swaying from side to side, bone weary and wondering how she was going to stand, let alone move, let alone handle coming face to face with her brother again after five years.
But she didn't have a choice.
This was her chance to help Steel and his team take down Ridge once and for all.
Her brother was an even worse human being than she’d ever given him credit for.
The way he’d played God with people’s lives, altering their DNA, trying to create his own super soldiers, it was despicable, especially since he hadn't been honest with the people whose lives he was playing with.
Gathering stores of strength she’d almost depleted these last several days, somehow Rose managed to find a little more, and grabbed onto the bush she’d been set beneath to use it for leverage to push to her feet.
Immediately, she wished she hadn't.
The pain from the raw burns on the soles of her feet was severe.
It felt like she was standing on a mat of burning knives.
While the ground was cold not burning, and there were sticks littering it and not knives, it wasn't really that big a difference. She’d be lucky if the wounds didn't become infected, with all this debris getting into them.
Plus, she was going to have to walk on them, run even.
Gritting her teeth, she decided she may as well get it over with. Standing there anticipating the pain as she started taking steps was only going to make it worse, not better.
Because she knew that the guys wouldn't be all that far away, and she wasn't quite sure just how Blade’s enhanced hearing worked, and how far away he could hear things, and how loud they had to be before they registered, Rose resisted crying out as she took that first step.
It was every bit as agonizing as she’d expected it to be, but somehow, she managed to clamp her teeth together and bear it.
If Blade could hear even a whimper from wherever he and the others were, he’d tell Steel, and she had a feeling that her big, super-strong guy would throw in the towel and come and get her.
The thought made her smile, and she took advantage of the momentary high to start running.
When Ridge came for her, she had to look like she’d been running through the woods for hours on end.
The guys had helped by removing the cast on her arm, and taking out the stitches that Voodoo had put into the wounds she’d gotten when the ceiling fell in.
She knew she had to make her brother believe that she had escaped men still intent on torturing her, or he’d kill her in a heartbeat.
Big brother was a dangerous man. More dangerous than Steel and his team.
They might believe they were monsters, but her brother really was one.
Maybe Ridge’s experiments had damaged their abilities to empathize and created a gap in their consciences, but they weren't monsters.
Not at all. They were damaged men, sure, but they weren't destroyed by Ridge’s games.
Her brother, on the other hand, had never had a conscience, never learned to empathize, and there was no way he could learn now.
If she messed this up, she was dead.
It was as simple as that.
When she couldn’t run another step, Rose leaned against the nearest tree, dragging in a few ragged breaths and cursing her cracked ribs for making it so painful.
With shaking fingers, she dialed her brother’s number and waited.
After a single ring, he picked up.
“What took you so long to call back?” Ridge snapped in that arrogant tone she remembered so well from her childhood.
“I … passed out,” she lied, which wasn't really a lie if you thought about it, most of the time since her last call until now she had been unconscious.
“You're wasting my time,” Ridge complained, not an ounce of sympathy for his poor, abducted, and tortured sister, who had collapsed from exhaustion. Not that she’d expected any. Psycho that he was.
“A-are you coming for m-me?” she asked, still breathing hard from the exertion of running. Now that she’d stopped moving, her body temperature was dropping and she was beginning to shiver. Was there a chance Ridge would just leave her out there to die?
Okay, so she wouldn't really die, Steel wouldn't let that happen, but her brother didn't know that.
“Of course I'm coming,” Ridge replied, sounding annoyed. “I've been looking for those men for the last seven years. I created them, and I own them, they’re going to pay for costing me seven years’ worth of progress.”
No way, psycho brother of mine, they’re going to kill you like the cockroach that you are, and the world will be a better place for it.
“Did you turn on the location services?” Ridge asked impatiently.
“I’ll do it now.” Fiddling with the phone, she switched the services back on and sent out a silent signal to her brother, giving him her location, drawing him into their trap.
“Okay, I have you. I already have a team prepared, so we’re leaving now. Don’t move from the location you're in right now. If you do, I’ll know, and I won't be happy about it.”
“What should I do if they find me? If I hear them coming, should I run? Hide?”
Ridge laughed, a cold, inhuman sound. “You won't hear them coming. They’re too highly skilled to make such a simple mistake.”
After that, he was gone, leaving her smiling at the phone.
“You won't hear them coming either, big brother.
Your arrogance is going to cost you your life.
You're about to lose your power, and it’s going to be a beautiful thing to behold.
Enjoy your last free moments on earth because once you get here, you're going to wish for death the same way you used to make me wish you'd just kill me and get it over with.”