Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
Another twelve hours gone.
No closer to finding Whitney than they’d been before.
With each passing second, it felt like she was slipping further out of his reach.
How was he supposed to find her and bring her home when they couldn’t get a single actionable piece of intel?
Knowing she was out there, alone and scared, most likely hurt, wondering why he hadn't come for her was killing him.
Slowly but surely.
Blade had already peeled off the top layer of skin on both his forearms. They were the easiest to access, but he was going to move on to his legs now, start peeling skin from his thighs, making his way down toward his feet. It was only fitting that he suffer right along with Whitney.
For failing her, he deserved a whole lot worse.
If he got her back alive and in one piece, he would offer her his heart on a platter if that was what it took to earn her forgiveness, even if he wouldn't be there to enjoy it.
“Cut that out,” Dragon’s voice ordered, and there was an accompanying slap to the back of his head that made him growl.
“No,” he snapped, knowing that he sounded like a petulant child and not caring in the least. Dragon had gotten Cassandra back mostly unharmed after he’d thought he lost her in the explosion, and Steel had gotten Rose back after their plan to lure her brother into a trap failed.
They didn't understand.
They didn't know what this cloying fear felt like.
When it had been Rose in danger, she’d been alone with her brother only long enough for them to drive off and then crash. And Cassandra hadn't been alone with the bounty hunter for more than thirty minutes or so at the most.
It had been almost twenty hours since Whitney walked away from them to go to the park bench, and he’d been forced to let her.
Before he knew it, it would be twenty-four hours, a whole day since she’d disappeared.
One day would quickly become two, and then it would be a week.
A week would turn into a month in the blink of an eye, and then she could be gone for good.
How she’d managed to make such an impact on him in just a matter of days should be impossible, but it wasn't, and he would be eternally grateful for those days he’d had her as his, even if he would never forgive himself for losing her.
“That isn’t going to bring her back,” Dragon said, setting food down on the small table in their hotel suite.
“Neither is anything else we’ve been doing,” he shot back.
They had a list now of every one of the men who had been in the forest the day he and Whitney had left the farmhouse.
Snapping pictures of each of the dead men before they left had let Prey identify all of them.
They had the name of the man who had abducted Whitney and shot the cop, and they had all the intel she’d given them.
Names, dates, locations, you’d think enough to dismantle the entire operation.
But Whitney had been right when she said that Dr. Gardner moved labs regularly.
Prey had sent out other teams to the locations on the list and found them all either abandoned or sold and now run by other companies.
One had even been turned into a pet store selling a huge range of products for everything from dogs and cats to reptiles and exotic fish.
“We’re building a lot of evidence against these people,” Thunder reminded him as the rest of the guys began to trail into the room.
“Don’t care about convicting them, that was never our plan. We wanted Dr. Gardner dead, and as badly as I still want that, I would spare his life if it meant getting Whitney back alive,” Blade said, never more sure of anything in his life.
For the last decade, all he’d cared about was revenge. It had fueled him, got him through the dark days when anger and suicidal thoughts seemed to consume him. It had been all he’d wanted, and he’d believed that once they had it, they would finally be free.
Only he’d already found freedom.
A different kind than he’d been expecting.
This freedom brought with it peace that had been so desperately lacking, a quietness that, after ten years of hearing every single little sound, was refreshing.
It brought hope for the future and a desire to be something more than a man who had been genetically altered to have enhanced skills and stamina.
If he had a chance to give up revenge for hope, he’d do it in a heartbeat.
“None of us wants Dr. Gardner in a jail cell,” Steel told him. “And none of us is giving up on either one of them. Priority is Whitney, though.”
Maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Steel was willing to put Whitney above their revenge, given that he’d prioritized Rose over her brother.
But that was different. Steel had been obsessed with Rose from the moment they realized she wasn't what they’d been expecting and that breaking her wasn't going to happen. Add in that Whitney had unintentionally started the program that ruined their lives, and asking anyone other than himself to put her above everything they’d wanted for a decade seemed like a pipedream.
“Stop acting surprised,” Voodoo muttered, flopping down into the seat beside his. “And give me that knife.”
No one was more shocked than Blade himself when he handed over his favorite knife to his friend without hesitation.
Maybe it was because he was spiraling. Already in the last twelve hours, he’d promised himself a dozen times that he would stop wallowing in fear and panic and focus on finding Whitney.
Each time he’d broken that promise to himself.
To think clearly, he needed to let go of the past.
That knife represented everything about his past that he’d held onto for ten long years. The people he loved and had left behind to protect them, the family that had once meant everything to him.
But he had a new family now. A future where he could be happy again, and that future was all wrapped up in a five-foot-three, blonde-haired, blue-eyed package that was currently counting on him. He’d already let her down once, he couldn’t allow it to happen again.
“Whoa, didn't think Blade would really give up his blade,” Voodoo teased, and since he knew it was said in an effort to help him pull it together, he offered up a weak smile.
“We’ve been going through all of these people for hours now, and don’t have anything. We need a new angle,” he said.
“Their prior work histories,” Lion said without hesitation, causing all of them to turn to look at the man who had been hammering away at his keyboard during their entire exchange.
“Work histories?” Blade asked.
Glancing up, Lion gave a quick nod, then continued working while he spoke.
“Between the dead bodies and the intel from Whitney, we have a pretty comprehensive list. Different ages, different ethnicities, different socio-economic groups, some military, some scientists, there is nothing cohesive enough amongst them to say that’s how they’re being recruited.
Until we start looking at their work histories. ”
“You found some links?” Steel asked.
“A couple,” Lion replied. “Since we know Terry Richards, Dr. Gardner’s head of security, is the one who abducted Whitney, I've been focusing more on the security side of things than the science side. My guess is there’s a chance some of the other scientists working for the doctor were also recruited under false pretenses, although I doubt anyone was strictly there as a prisoner like Whitney was.
When I started looking more closely into the dead men, I found that three of them had previously worked for a trucking company before being hired, and four of them had worked for a shipping company. ”
“Names for both?” Blade asked, and Lion rattled off two.
“Been looking into both businesses, and they both seem like they’re a little shady.
The trucking company is legitimate, they take contracts from a range of different companies that I can verify are above board.
But there have been a few investigations into them.
Products going missing. Some fraud and tax evasion.
Some rumors that they might be hiding drugs inside their trucks and running them for a few gangs.
Definitely something we need to look into closer. ”
“And the shipping company?” Blade asked.
“Again, there were some insinuations that they might be shipping drugs and weapons, but investigations failed to turn up any proof. There was a murder at the shipping yard about two years ago that remains unsolved, but guess who the lead detective on the case was?” Lion asked.
“Detective Deacon Hayes,” Blade guessed.
“Bingo. My guess is that the cop found something that linked Dr. Gardner to the murder. They offered him money in exchange for his silence, and then they either offered him more or blackmailed him to get him to promote Whitney as a suspect and then hand her over.”
Both options sounded like viable ones, and for the first time since he heard that gunshot, Blade felt like things weren't completely hopeless.
January 16th
11:23 P.M.
For whatever reason, they weren't coming.
It was becoming increasingly clear of that.
As badly as Whitney’s fear was urging her to believe that it was because Blade was just like her parents and had decided to abandon her, she was doing her best to push through that and ignore those feelings.
Because they weren't true.
The cut on her palm and Blade’s vow assured her he wouldn't do that to her.
If he hadn't come when she turned on the tracker embedded in the outskirts of her wounds, then it was because he couldn’t.
Maybe Terry was using a jammer to block any signals.
It would be a smart thing to do since he knew how smart she was and that she might want to protect herself if anything happened to her by giving access to the trackers to someone.
Although, who he thought she would give them to she had no idea.