Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
It had been mere minutes since Rose was snatched from his sight, but to Steel it felt like a lifetime.
He knew better than most how much pain you could inflict on another human being in a short amount of time. Anyone on his team could have someone howling in seconds, and that was without needing to resort to a gunshot or knife wound.
There had been more than enough time for Dr. Gardner to have his little sister screaming in agony. The only thing that had him holding onto any semblance of a shred of control was the fact that Blade hadn't alerted him to any cries of pain from Rose.
Would his friend lie to him?
To keep him sane, yes. But still, he trusted that the man he considered a brother would let him know if Rose was suffering in any way.
Thunder was driving them through the forest like a madman, as though his enhanced speed extended to driving a vehicle. Despite their speed, the man was navigating with an expertise that could have gotten him a job as a racecar driver.
Ridge hadn't gotten much of a head start, a minute or two at the most, so Steel was tense, expecting to see the other vehicle at any second.
He wasn't sure how things would play out.
Dr. Gardner didn't seem like the kind of guy who would rather end his own life than be captured, he was too arrogant for that.
But nor did he seem like the kind of man who would give up even if the facts were that he was outnumbered and outgunned.
Using Rose as a bargaining chip was the most likely scenario, because the scientist had surely figured out by now that Rose was working against him, that she’d teamed up with them.
While Steel knew that Dr. Gardner considered he and his team nothing more than monsters, carefully created killing machines without consciences, he was starting to accept that he was so much more than that.
He was pretty sure, if it came down to it, he would let the doctor go to save Rose’s life.
More than that, he was pretty sure his team would agree with that decision because they all accepted that Rose was his.
Beside him, Blade suddenly stiffened, and Steel quickly followed. If the man had heard something, it wasn't good news.
Likewise, Dragon’s head went up, his nose sniffing as he obviously caught a whiff of something he wasn't pleased with.
“What?” he growled.
“Sounded like a car crash,” Blade replied, shooting him a worried glance.
“Smelled like it too,” Dragon added.
“Thunder—”
“Go faster, I know,” Thunder said, cutting him off and sending the car careening forward as it picked up more speed.
Less than two minutes later, he saw it.
The vehicle Ridge had thrown Rose into and taken off in was leaning precariously against a tree at the top of what he was sure as hell hoping wasn't a very steep decline.
Out of the vehicle before it even stopped moving, Steel rushed toward the other car.
He had no idea if Ridge Gardner was armed, but even if he was, the man had to be injured, there was no way he was going to just open fire on them.
Probably didn't even know how to shoot a gun, after all, Dr. Gardner designated all tasks he deemed beneath him to other people.
“Careful,” Lion warned as his team moved at his back. “We don’t know how unsteady the car’s position is.”
“One wrong move and we could send it down there,” Voodoo added, moving cautiously to the edge of the drop.
“How far?” Steel asked.
“Thirty feet give or take,” Voodoo replied.
The way the car was balanced would make getting a good grip on it difficult, but not impossible. All he had to do was find the best way to get a hold of it, and then he could lift it back up so it had all four wheels firmly on solid ground.
Before he could decide on the best spot to grab onto, a startled squawk came from inside the vehicle, and it swayed a little. The sound was distinctly feminine, but the windows of the car were tinted so dark that he couldn’t get a clear picture of what was happening inside.
At least he knew Rose was still in the vehicle and not lying dead at the bottom of the cliff.
“I only see one person in there,” Lion told him.
Another moan came from the vehicle, and it wobbled a little more.
It had been stopped by a dead tree trunk that had fallen sideways, landing partially over the edge.
Some of the tree’s roots were still buried in the ground, but he had no doubts that a dead tree could only hold up the weight of a car for a short time.
They had to get Rose out of that car, or that car pulled back away from the edge.
“Door’s partially open on this side,” Thunder called out, standing on the driver’s side of the car.
Moving so he could get the same line of sight, Steel got as close to the vehicle as he dared but was careful not to bump the car in any way.
He had the strength to lift it and move it safely away from the cliff, but to do that, he needed a good hold, and until he could find one, he wasn't going to risk sending Rose over the edge.
“Little ladybug?” he called out. According to Lion, only one person was in there, and the voice he’d heard belonged to a woman, he was sure of it.
Maybe Rose had been trying to make a break for it when the car crashed, and that’s why the driver’s side door was open. Dr. Gardner had fled in a rush, so it made sense he hadn't buckled himself in. If the door had been open when the car crashed, he might have been thrown out of the vehicle.
While the doctor didn't deserve a quick death after everything he’d done to Rose, to him and his team, and to who knew how many other innocent men and women, Steel cared more about the man being dead than him suffering first.
“S-Steel?” Rose’s weak voice called out. She sounded woozy and out of it. Chances were she’d hit her head and been knocked unconscious.
“You need to get her out,” Blade said softly from beside him. “That tree is going to give at any second, and when it falls, it’s taking the car and Rose down with it.”
“Right here, little ladybug,” he assured her, while nodding at Blade to let him know he understood the stakes.
He hadn't lost Rose yet, but he could at any second.
“My head hurts,” she moaned softly, and he swore. He needed her focused and able to assist in her own rescue.
Even though he knew he could lift that car, it meant nothing if he tried to grab it and couldn’t get a hold. All he’d do was end Rose’s life instead of saving it.
Shifting slightly so he could get a better view, Steel could just make out the huddled form of Rose’s body, crammed in the space between the driver’s seat and the front of the car. How she’d ended up there he had no idea, and right now it didn't really matter.
“I know it does,” he soothed, or tried to, although he wasn't sure he sounded calming in the least. “The car is balanced over the edge of a cliff.”
“So it’s not just my head that makes it feel like the world is moving beneath me,” Rose groaned.
“No, it’s not. The world is really moving beneath you. We have to get you out. Do you think you can move closer to the door so I can try to reach you?”
A pained moan sounded from Rose, and he felt his entire body tense at the sound. She was in pain, and he couldn’t make it better. Couldn’t even order her to stay still because he needed her out of that car.
“I … don’t think so,” she murmured, defeat coating her words. “I feel … heavy.”
“Concussion,” Voodoo murmured from beside him.
If Rose couldn’t get herself to the door so he could try to reach her, he had no choice but to risk getting a hold on the car.
“It’s going to go at any second,” Blade warned as the car shuddered, making Rose cry out.
“Steel?” her panicked voice called for him, and while it soothed the roughness inside him to know that when she was scared his girl wanted him, it also amped up his fear.
He was seconds away from losing her for good.
Perched as she was in the recess at the front of the car, there was no way she could survive the fall.
“I'm here, little ladybug, and I got you,” he assured her, praying he hadn't just made the last words she’d hear from him a lie.
Tearing his gaze from her shadowy form, he forced himself to take a few steps back, so he was standing right at the back of the car, his eyes scanning for a place to grab hold of. Only cars weren't made to be held onto like that, so they didn't come with handy little handholds.
The sickening crack of splintering wood filled the quiet night, and as the car tipped forward, Steel threw caution to the wind and launched himself at it.
January 2nd
3:36 A.M.
She was going over the edge.
That was one thing Rose was certain of. The throbbing in her head made it difficult to think, and her entire body felt too heavy to move, but she did know that the tipping of the car she was in meant only one thing.
It tipped precariously, and she rolled further into the recess at the driver’s seat. When the car fell, she’d either stay where she was and get crushed to smithereens when they hit the ground, or she’d be tossed about like a ragdoll, or she’d get thrown out the open door.
Where the hell was Ridge?
He’d been there when they crashed, she knew that because they’d been fighting for control of the steering wheel.
He’d been gone when she crawled back to consciousness, and she wanted to believe that it was because he’d been thrown from the vehicle and was dead now, but what if he’d survived the crash?
She had.
There was every chance her brother had, too.
If that was the case, he’d run as soon as he woke up, knowing that the men he had created were coming for him.
Ridge might have been the one to play with their DNA and create them, but that didn't mean he wasn't terrified of them.
He, better than anyone else, knew just what Steel and the others were capable of.
Another crack rang in her ears, and the car tilted further until it felt like she was lying on her back, and then she was falling.