Chapter 17 #2
Knowing his team would have his back, would take out the remaining threats, and protect his girl, Voodoo headed for the houseboat.
Scaling a tree close to the river, he got the first good look he’d had at Dr. Gardner since he and his team had escaped the facility seven years ago.
The man looked smaller, older than he remembered.
Or maybe it was the flash of fear on the scientist’s previously cocky face as he realized one of his creations was heading right to him, and he didn't have the means to protect himself.
“Go!” Dr. Gardner shouted, and the houseboat began to move.
“Not this time,” Voodoo vowed as he jumped, lifting his weapon as he flew through the air, firing at the man who had destroyed so many lives.
January 25th
2:56 A.M.
A constant war raged inside her.
Give up and let the inevitable happen, accept her fate, don’t ask for more, don’t want more, and don’t wish for more. Wait to die, however long that took.
Or cling to the hope that Voodoo had planted and nurtured inside her, and keep fighting, find a way to make something happen.
At any given second, Indigo had no idea which side was going to win.
But she knew what was going to happen next when two of the men strolled down the walkway outside her cage.
She knew that look.
While technically speaking, she’d been a test subject kept in a lab, everything done to her was to measure and gauge her ability to withstand it, that was really just a cover for saying she’d been tortured.
Didn't matter that the guards hadn't been allowed to touch her, because the scientists who worked for Dr. Gardner were every bit as sadistic as the doctor himself.
“Getting settled into your new home, little one?” one of them drawled as he pressed his palm to a panel outside the door to her cage. It was the man who had carried her earlier. From the hungry way he’d looked at her, she shouldn’t be surprised that he’d found his way to her cage this quickly.
Since she knew they weren't really after an answer, she didn't bother to offer one. Just sat on her bed and watched them. No one had given her any clothes, and there had been none in the room, so she was still naked. When she’d been kept at the lab these last several months, she’d at least been given underwear, but that didn't look like it was going to be the case anymore.
Maybe she should be used to being mostly undressed in front of strangers by now, but she hadn't learned to completely let go of modesty. Something she was going to have to rectify pretty quickly because this was her new reality.
“You play real nice, and maybe we can scrounge up a nice meal for you,” he said as he opened the door to her cage and stepped inside.
As he did, her gaze dropped to the ground, praying he wouldn't notice what she’d left on the floor right by the door.
In one of her bouts of determination, she’d tried to set up a way to escape. Chances were, it wasn't going to work, but maybe for once luck would be on her side.
Please be on my side.
You owe me after a lifetime of bad, I deserve one good.
Thankfully, neither of the men seemed to notice, too focused on whatever they had planned for her, and she let out a little breath as they stepped toward her. Whatever they were going to do would be awful, she knew that, but she would happily endure it if her little plan actually managed to work.
“You're like a real carnival show, aren't you, little one?” the man who had carried her in here earlier drawled. “Too bad freak shows are a thing of the past because you could have had a real career there.”
“Still got an audience here though,” the other man piped up. He looked young, way too young to be working a job like this, but there was no denying the sadistic glint in his eyes. Young or not, he was quite happy where he was and with what he was going to do to her.
“Sure do, little one. Pretty thing like you can probably learn real quick how to use that to her advantage. You’re going to be the only girl, with six monsters living side by side with you, and a whole team of men watching over you.
Don’t think it takes a whole lot of imagination to figure out how to make the most of this situation. ”
Was that what they were planning for her?
If they were going to rape her, they’d only been doing what so many men before them had done.
She could take it. She’d hate every second of it, but she could endure it.
Would endure it. And this time, she couldn’t make a play to bite anything that was put near her.
Couldn’t scratch it, or yank on it, or anything else either.
Because she wanted to see if what she’d done worked.
So she sat there, watched as they stalked toward her, waiting because there wasn't anything else for her to do.
Expecting things to take a sexual turn after what they’d implied, Indigo was a little surprised when the younger of the two grabbed her, sitting on the bed behind her and yanking her up so her back was pressed against his chest. He flung one of his legs over one of hers, pinning it in place, and with his arm keeping her arms pinned at her sides, there wouldn't have been anything she could have done to fight them off, even if she’d been going to try.
The older of the men, the one who carried her, was grinning at her like an idiot as he pulled out a knife. It glinted in the overly bright white light of her prison cell, and she didn't need a vivid imagination to guess what they were going to do.
“I didn't think this would be as cool as it is to hurt you and know you don’t feel any pain,” he told her as if she actually cared what he thought. She wasn't a game, wasn't entertainment, wasn't a toy to be played with and broken.
She was a human being, and that meant she was worthy of respect and basic human kindness.
For the first time in her life, Indigo actually believed those words, that sentiment.
She was a human being, and that did mean she was worthy of respect and basic human kindness.
It wasn't her fault that her parents were horrible people, nor was it her fault that some people signed up for the foster program because they wanted to get their hands on vulnerable children.
It wasn't her fault that her first boyfriend had been a sadistic psychopath, or that he’d taken her need for love and affection and used it against her.
It wasn't her fault that her ex-husband had decided to play with her because, apparently, dating a woman he saw as a loser, as less than him made him feel better about himself.
Nothing that had happened to her was her fault.
So she didn't shy away from meeting the man’s gaze as he plunged the knife into her leg. She supposed it was a good thing that he had targeted her already broken leg, if she got a chance to run, this new injury wouldn't impede that ability any more than it already was.
“Look, she really isn’t in pain,” the younger guy who was holding her said in wonder, like this was a simple and fun kids’ science experiment, making a baking soda volcano or something.
It was getting old.
Okay, she didn't feel pain, but that didn't make it fun to inflict wounds on her just to prove that.
“Dig it around a little,” the younger guy said, his voice all heady with excitement.
Which the older guy seemed only too happy to do.
Indigo could feel the knife moving inside her, but felt no pain, just a weird and uncomfortable feeling that came from a foreign object invading her body.
“What about if you—”
Whatever the younger man was going to say was cut off when gunfire sounded outside the truck.
Both men immediately straightened, all traces of amusement and playfulness gone from their expressions as they realized that playtime was over. The knife was removed from her leg, the man behind her jumped up, and they both went running out of her cell, letting the door fall closed behind them.
But they never looked back.
Never noticed her drag herself off the bed and crawl over to the door.
Never saw that the tiny scrap of material she’d ripped off the blanket and placed right at the opening of the door, hoping that when opened, it might flutter into place and prevent the door from fully closing.
Never even thought to check that she was secure, as she grabbed hold of the tiny piece of material, now wedged between the door and the doorjamb, and managed to open the door.
Elation filled her, strengthened her, and Indigo couldn’t believe that for once something had gone her way. This plan of hers, she would have given a less than one percent chance of working, and yet it had.
Now she stepped out of her cell and stumbled down the walkway to the back of the truck. She had to assume that it was Voodoo and the guys out there, but she couldn’t place all her faith in that.
So the second her feet hit the ground she ran as fast as she could with a ruined leg, hoping that if it was Voodoo’s team they’d be able to track her easily enough with their enhanced skills, and if it wasn't, that she was able to find a place to hide until she was strong enough to find her own way to safety.