Chapter 16
Chapter
Sixteen
Watching Indigo fall into that river, uncertain if she’d been shot, was one of the worst moments of his life. And he’d seen and experienced a lot of horrific things in the fifteen or so years since he’d joined the military.
How could any of them compare to this, though?
His girl, already so weak and vulnerable, once again been battered by life. When the hell was the universe going to give her a break?
When was it going to give her back to him?
She’d been so close, he’d been minutes away from having her where he wanted her, safe in his hold, and yet ultimately, he’d been too far away.
Now it was further away again. The river carried her away from him and given that his teammates had grabbed him before he could risk jumping down to the bottom of the cliffs so he could fling himself into the river and go after Indigo, it was going to take even longer to get her back.
He would have jumped.
Would have risked everything to try to get to her as quickly as he could.
If Steel and Dragon hadn't grabbed him like they’d known exactly what he was planning to do, he would have done it. Really, it wasn't even anything he had consciously planned, he’d just been driven by the need to get to Indigo, and it overrode everything else, including common sense.
Now they were making their way down to the river. Voodoo was so painfully aware that for each step they took, the river could drag Indigo the equivalent of two or more steps further downstream.
Every few seconds he glanced at Dragon. The man could smell everything, including death, and he was hoping that if the worst happened, his friend would at least be able to prepare him for it.
Dragon nodded, and Voodoo took that to mean that Indigo was still breathing, still doing what she did and surviving.
Whoever had fired that shot at Indigo must have immediately disappeared back into the trees, because they’d never seen who it was. It had to be the burning man, though, who else could it be? They knew he was out there, and that he’d been following Indigo the entire time.
Finding their way down to where Indigo had been was quicker than he could have hoped for, if the burning man hadn't shown up and shot at her, it would have taken him less than ten minutes to get to her. Instead, she was gone, and he was still chasing after her.
Not that he’d ever stop.
No matter how far he had to go or how long it took, Voodoo would never give up on Indigo. He’d track her all night, all day, all year if that was what he had to do to get her back.
“Someone up ahead,” Blade warned them, his voice quiet, a hint of sound heard only by the six of them.
Dragon nodded in agreement, and Lion pointed to something so far only he could see.
“I smell blood,” Dragon added. “It’s the same man who was driving the car Indigo caused to crash.”
That was what they were expecting, but there were still at least five other men who had been with Dr. Gardner, and they had no way of knowing if any of them were aware that he’d killed some of the men, that the car had crashed, or that Indigo was free again.
Without anything to prove otherwise, they had to play things worst-case scenario and assume that those men were also out there somewhere by now.
“Sixty or so yards that way,” Lion said, adjusting their course ever so slightly.
As they approached the man who had burned his beautiful, precious girl, Voodoo felt his adrenaline amp up.
While he might be running on fumes after days of hiking through the forest, protecting Indigo, worrying over her, trying to heal her, killing over and over again, when taking lives was something he avoided whenever he could, this was one target he was going to enjoy torturing, enjoy killing.
The sounds of footsteps grew loud enough for all of them to hear, the sound of ragged breathing, the metallic scent of blood strong enough to reach all their noses.
And then Voodoo saw him.
A shadowy figure stumbling through the forest, seemingly oblivious to the fact that not only were they following him, but they were seconds away from catching him.
Because they all understood what Indigo had become to him, none of his teammates attempted to step in, allowing him to do what he needed to do.
Throwing himself at the burning man, Voodoo tackled him to the ground. The other man screamed at the contact, and then began to thrash, attempting to buck him off.
Not happening.
At this second, the burning man was the epicenter of the rage exploding out of him.
He wanted to see the man bleed, wanted to feast on his screams, all thoughts of healing or saving gone.
This man didn't deserve to be healed, didn't deserve to be saved. From the moment he had decided to burn Indigo’s delicate flesh, he had sealed his fate.
Slamming a fist into the man’s jaw, he grinned when he felt the bone shatter, teeth go flying everywhere. It wasn't enough, but it was a start.
“I don’t think I need to ask if you know who I am,” Voodoo drawled as he pressed a knee into the man’s throat to pin him in place, taking care to ensure he didn't press too hard and cut off his air supply.
Not only did he want to prolong this, but he wanted every drop of intel this man had.
No forcing his hand and making him kill too quickly this time around.
Wide, terrified eyes stared up at him. Guess the burning man wasn't such a tough guy when he didn't have a tiny woman to play with. Now he was the helpless little plaything, and Voodoo was going to make sure his last minutes on earth were as horrible as he could make them.
“How many men are back there with Dr. Gardner?” he asked.
Despite his fear, the man remained silent. Broken jaw or not, burning man was capable of talking, and silence wasn't going to cut it.
Not wanting to waste time Indigo didn't have, Voodoo pulled out his knife and held it above the man’s eye. “How many men are back there?” he repeated his question.
Burning man whimpered but didn't offer an answer, so Voodoo dug his fingers into the man’s eye socket, causing him to howl in pain and thrash about. That didn't stop him from slicing the blade of his knife through the muscles and nerves attaching his eye to his body.
Once he had it free, he held it up before the sobbing, screaming man, allowing him to see it with his remaining eye, then squashed the eyeball in his fist, tossing away the ruined tissue.
“Hard way or easy way. I have questions, and I want answers. I want to make you suffer, but I want Indigo back more. So you answer my questions, tell us what we want to know, and you get to save yourself a bit of suffering before I slit your neck.” Normally, talk like this would make him a little queasy.
His healing instincts so innate to who he was as a person that even his years in the military, his training and experience, and the drugs that had been given to him couldn’t eradicate it.
Now those words flowed easily, he was ready and willing, more than that, he was excited about inflicting pain on this despicable excuse for a man.
“S-seven,” the man stammered through his broken jaw. “Seven men back there with him.”
“And how many more are coming in the next wave?” he asked.
When the burning man hesitated briefly, Voodoo swiped the sharp blade of his knife through the man’s nose, severing it and throwing it aside.
Burning man choked on the blood now flowing down his throat, but Voodoo merely pressed a little firmer against his neck.
“I see why you’re so addicted to your knife,” he said over his shoulder to Blade, who was grinning in amusement at the ruined face of the man they were interrogating.
“Right? Nothing beats a knife. A gun is so impersonal, but a knife lets you get a whole lot more creative,” Blade agreed cheerfully.
“How many more are coming in?” Voodoo asked again.
As much as he was enjoying giving his anger an outlet before it could consume him from the inside out, he wanted to find Indigo before she disappeared for good.
It wasn't just the river he was afraid of.
An undetermined number of people were out there now or would be sometime over the next day, and each and every one of them was a threat to his girl.
“A dozen,” burning man wheezed. “You’ve killed so many of his men, Dr. Gardner is having trouble finding more. Word is getting out that anyone who takes a job for him winds up dead, so most of the mercs will no longer take the jobs he offers.”
Perfect.
Bit by bit, they were putting more and more dents in the doctor’s operation.
Without Whitney to work on the drug anymore, with all of his labs located and destroyed and no longer operational, with his only other living experiment now free, and with no one left willing to take on a death sentence no matter how much money he threw at them, there wasn't much more Dr. Gardner could do to remain out of their clutches.
“When are they arriving?” he asked. Just because the word had been another twenty-four hours didn't mean things couldn’t change. He wanted to know how much time he had to find his girl and get her someplace safe before they went for Dr. Gardner.
Burning man’s one remaining eye met his, and despite the pain and terror still present in it, there was something else there too.
Something that set his teeth on edge and had the hairs on the back of his neck standing up.
“You're already too late,” burning man said, then spat blood at him. “They’re already here, and they already have her.”
January 25th
2:02 A.M.
It seemed never-ending.
There was no way to properly position herself in the back of the truck and not get tossed all about as it sped along roads that took her further away from Voodoo, from safety, from a life she shouldn’t be brave enough to want but craved with every fiber of her soul.