Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
Finally.
The door to the room where Rose and Cassandra had been hiding came into view as they rounded a corridor.
It was still closed, and Dragon prayed the girls were still in there.
They wouldn't have wandered off to look for him and his team, would they? Honestly, he didn't think they would, they had no idea where to find them, and they had to know the safest place for them was locked inside that room.
Scanning the hall, he didn't see anyone else, but there was another scent in the air, one he didn't recognize, and he could still smell Cassandra’s fear.
In front of the door was a pile of rubble that didn't appear to be disturbed. Was whoever he could smell inside there with his little rabbit and Rose, or had the person terrorized the girls from the hall and they’d refused to let him in?
“Something feels off,” Steel said as he scanned the corridor.
“I smell him, but I don’t see him,” Dragon said, completely frustrated.
Someone was there, that wasn't in dispute.
He could quite clearly distinguish nine distinct scents, yet he didn't see how anyone could have gotten into the room with the girls with the door closed and the debris from the explosion still in front of it. “I smell blood as well.”
“We’re all covered in blood,” Thunder reminded him. “Chances are, both Cassandra and Rose are too. The explosives were a little closer to our position, but this part of the building is damaged as well, they didn't avoid getting caught up in it.”
Although nothing his friend had just said was untrue, Dragon felt a growl rumble through his chest. He didn't want to think about Cassandra being injured, blood staining her beautiful skin.
“They’re not in there,” Blade suddenly announced.
“They have to be,” he growled, closing the distance to the door and ignoring the rubble to reach for the handle. It didn't turn, the door was still locked.
“They’re not,” Blade insisted.
“Then where else could they be, and how is the door still locked?” Dragon demanded.
He would have accepted the possibility that the girls had somehow managed to get out the door without disturbing the rubble, it didn't seem likely, especially since they would both be injured, but it wasn't impossible.
But how was the door still locked from the inside if no one was in there?
“Don’t know,” Blade replied like it was an actual question instead of a rhetorical one. “But I don’t hear them in there. My ears are still ringing so I can't get a read on how far away they are.”
Damn explosion was messing up everything.
If it wasn't for that, he and the others would have either found or not found whoever had been in the building then returned. Now they were separated, lacking vital intel, and both Cassandra and Rose were in more danger than they’d been in before.
With a roar, Steel suddenly leaned down and began to fling large chunks of concrete out of the way like they were mere pebbles, and less than a minute later, the man was slamming his foot through the wooden door, splintering it.
As Steel stepped through the ruined door, Dragon hurried to follow, desperate to prove Blade wrong, find whoever was in there with his little rabbit, and tear the man to pieces.
But just like Blade had said, the room was empty.
Panic threatened to overwhelm him. The need to scream out his rage into the universe and punish anything and everyone for tearing Cassandra from him was almost all he could think about.
Only one thing kept him from tumbling over the edge.
The fact that he was to blame for what happened.
Ignoring his instincts and bringing Cassandra along had been a mistake he might not get a chance to rectify.
Since tearing himself to pieces wasn't possible, he grabbed hold of every emotion raging inside him and stuffed them down deep.
No time to feel.
No time to lose.
The girls were gone, but they hadn't been for long.
“How did someone get two women out of this room, without disturbing the rubble by the door?” Lion asked no one in particular.
“They wouldn't have gone without a fight,” Thunder added.
“Even if they were unconscious, he would have had to carry them over that debris,” Voodoo said. “It’s like they didn't leave the room through the door.”
“Don’t think they did,” Blade called out, and Dragon looked over to see that his teammate was standing on the opposite side of the room, where it was obvious now that he looked that there was a second entrance.
“How did we not notice that before?” Steel growled.
“Because we were distracted,” he said without hesitation. There was no point in making a mistake if you weren't going to admit it and learn from it. Cassandra and Rose should have stayed in the car if they’d come at all, but it wasn't just their presence that had them all on edge.
It was that they wanted this so badly.
For a decade, revenge had been all that had kept them alive. They dealt with the anger that constantly bubbled inside them all by promising it that one day it would be unleashed on the man who had played God with their lives.
Now with that revenge within smelling distance, everything was heightened, and they’d learned to rely so much on their enhanced skills over the last ten years that the bleach and the white noise generator had messed with all of them.
“Look,” Lion said, holding up what appeared to be a syringe, and they all looked over to where he was kneeling, not far from the secret door they hadn't noticed when they first cleared this room. “Same as before. Whoever this was came prepared to kidnap someone.”
“Then whoever was in here wasn't the person who ordered this place cleaned down, or set up the white noise generator,” Thunder said.
“Could one of the mercenaries have figured out the link from the payment to this place same as we did?” Voodoo asked.
“Makes sense,” Blade replied. “And it’s the only reason someone would come with a vial of sedatives ready to use. Especially since we already know Dr. Gardner wants Cassandra alive.”
“But there were two of them,” Lion reminded them. “Two women, but only one syringe. How did he get both of them out of the room if he could only sedate one?”
“Potential signs of a struggle,” Thunder replied somewhat hesitantly, his gaze darting between him and Steel.
“Rose would have fought,” Blade added.
“Chances are he knocked one of them unconscious, or maybe one of them was still unconscious after the explosion,” Voodoo said.
“If this guy is one of the mercenaries out to collect for delivering Cassandra, then we have to acknowledge the possibility that there’s a contract out on Rose as well, and we just didn't know about it.”
Beside him, Steel stiffened at Voodoo’s words, but there was nothing the man could say to refute them. It made sense, especially with both women missing.
“At least we know they’re both alive,” Lion said confidently as he pushed to his feet. “If one of them hadn't survived the explosion or had been killed in the struggle, they would have been left behind.”
That at least was true, and it did offer the tiniest amount of reassurance.
For now, the fact that both Cassandra and Rose weren't in the room meant that they were both alive, both savable.
“It hasn’t been that long since the explosion went off, maybe thirty minutes or so, the merc had to have been injured as well, he was in the building.
If he heard something in here that’s likely what drew his attention, and he figured he’d check it out.
He couldn’t have known at first who it was, so he had to have gotten in here, fought with the girls, then taken them.
There’s only one way out since we know he didn't use the main door, and he can't be that far ahead of us,” Thunder said, already heading for the secret door.
“Want me to run on ahead? See if I can catch up to them?”
“Can you?” Dragon asked, remembering how he’d found the man, with chunks of concrete pinning his legs. If there had been damage caused to Thunder’s legs, it could either temporarily or permanently affect his ability to use his enhanced speed.
Maybe it was time they all learned to stop relying so heavily on their skills.
They’d spent a decade hating that Dr. Gardner’s experiments had messed with their abilities to feel emotions normally, and yet they had no trouble using the skills they’d gained with the experiments, wanting to have their cake and eat it too.
But the more time he spent with Cassandra, the more he realized he was more than a man who had been born into a violent crime family, who had joined the military to escape, and walked into an experimental program because he was cocky enough to ignore anything that could go wrong.
He was more than his anger, he was more than his fears that his DNA would lead to only one possible outcome, more than a man who had to hide from everyone because he believed he was a danger to anyone who got too close.
Cassandra saw a different side of him, a man she trusted with her secrets and her body, who she was willing to be honest and open with, even when it contradicted what she knew he wanted to hear.
If she wasn't afraid of him, then maybe it was time he stopped being afraid of himself.
And that started with accepting that with or without special skills, he was a human being doing the best he could with what he had, and that made him worthy of love and affection.
Worthy of a future.
“Go,” Steel ordered, and Thunder took off without a second glance.
The rest of them followed, moving fast, but not as fast. They tore through rubble, watched each other’s backs, and wouldn't give up until this ended the only way it could. With Cassandra and Rose safe, and one step closer to the man who saw himself as a god.
January 9th
9:41 P.M.
Everything felt fuzzy.
Weird.