Chapter 7 #2
“You seem more relaxed today,” Rose continued, and Kate finally turned to smile at the woman who had pulled up a seat beside her, the other women also sitting around the table.
“You here to gossip?” she teased, feeling less on edge around the women now that she wasn't as afraid of their partners. Kate was still intimidated by Steel and the others, but she no longer feared they would pull out a weapon and shoot her with the slightest provocation.
“Yep,” Rose agreed cheerfully.
Sobering, Kate looked around at the group, aware they all knew a whole lot more about what had happened to Leo and the others than she did.
“Leo told me what happened. About the experimental drug program.
About how it made him and the others angry and suicidal.
How Dr. Gardner kept him in a cage for three years before they escaped and eventually went to work for Prey Security.
But he didn't explain how you all came to be part of this.”
The others hesitated long enough that she was about to take back her request to know more, understand more. Maybe it wouldn't change anything, and she still wouldn't be able to let go of the lingering anger that Leo had chosen to hurt her in such a cruel way, but maybe it would.
“Ridge—Dr. Gardner—is my brother,” Rose admitted.
“Your brother?” Kate hadn't been expecting to hear that. She couldn’t imagine this confident woman having a sadistic psychopath as a sibling.
“He’s a lot older than me. He raised me after our parents were killed in an explosion.
Or at least, I thought they were, although it seems my mom might still be alive.
We lived on a remote farm, I was homeschooled, and we were completely self-sufficient.
He … tortured me my entire childhood. I left as soon as I turned eighteen,” Rose explained.
“Whoa, I'm so sorry you went through that.”
“It wasn't pretty, but it at least made me strong enough to throw Steel and the others off their game when they came for me.”
“Came for you?”
Rose’s green eyes studied her. “You sure you want to know all the details? You're already having trouble trusting Lion, this could make it harder.”
Gaze shifting to where Leo was happily chatting with their daughter while they took turns using the rolling pin to smash the cookies, she realized there was nothing anyone could tell her that would ever make her think he was a threat to their child.
“I want to know. I want to understand. I don’t know if it will change anything … I don’t know what I want, but I do know deep down Leo is a good guy. He told me he did things he’s not proud of because he was in a desperate place, and I believe that.”
“Okay then. Well, Steel and the others abducted me once they got my brother’s name. They thought they could use me as bait to lure my brother out of hiding.”
“Did they … hurt you?” Kate asked tentatively.
Rose’s gaze was steady as she answered. “Yes. But I've forgiven Steel for it. Forgiven all of them. My brother isn’t a good man, and I understand why they were so desperate to get to him that it was all-consuming.”
“My brothers work for Prey, and while my family was in danger, I stayed here for a while. I kind of developed a thing for Dragon, but I left when I found out they were going to go after an innocent woman,” Cassandra piped up.
“When someone came to me with a warning for the guys, it wound up putting a target on my back, and that’s how Dragon and I reconnected. ”
“I was that person,” Whitney added. “I'm the one who created the drug.”
“You?” Kate asked, completely shocked by that revelation. Why would the person responsible for the drug be living with the guys? Wouldn't they hate that person?
“She should add that she was only ten years old at the time,” Indigo inserted. “And it wasn't what the drug was supposed to do.”
Whitney nodded. “It was supposed to help children living in poverty, give them a better chance at surviving their harsh environment. Dr. Gardner bought me from my parents and forced me to work for him, but he kept fiddling with my formulas.”
“So you didn't really create the version of the drugs the guys were given,” she said slowly.
“No. That version was all Dr. Gardner. I kept trying to fix it, remove the parts that made those who received it angry and suicidal, but because he kept fiddling with it, I could never fix it. Blade, the rest of the guys, and Indigo, are the only people to ever survive it, most die within weeks at the most.”
The brunette nodded. “I also signed up without really knowing what I was getting into. I was homeless and recently divorced, living on the streets. The prospect of food and a place to live, plus being paid was too much to resist,” Indigo explained.
“And now you're here too.”
“The guys eventually found Whitney after she accidentally almost blew us up. After they realized she was another victim of Dr. Gardner, they were able to find some of the labs. I was being kept in one, experimented on, but Voodoo and the others saved me,” Indigo explained.
“And then I remembered something that helped us find Dr. Gardner’s home, where he was holding Maya as his slave. ”
“Slave?” Kate’s gaze shifted to the blonde who never seemed to speak. There was a haunted look to the woman, and she didn't think she even wanted to think about what Maya might have gone through.
“Thunder saved me,” Maya said softly, and that the other woman had spoken to her seemed like a sort of rite of passage, like she had just been accepted into this group. “I helped bring Dr. Gardner down. But … I didn't know they thought Mrs. Gardner was dead. I messed up.”
“No,” Kate said before anyone else could offer reassurances, which from the expression on their faces, they’d been about to do.
She didn't have to know the details to know that whatever Maya had done to help bring the crazed scientist down had required immense bravery and strength.
“You did a lot. Thank you. I'm … glad he’s dead. Does that make me a terrible person? Being glad someone is dead when my daughter is dying?”
“Of course it doesn’t,” Rose assured her. “We’re all glad he’s dead, like we’ll all do whatever we can to save your daughter.”
“I'm working on trying to recreate my drug, but it takes time,” Whitney piped up.
“Voodoo tried healing her,” Indigo added.
“Healing her?”
“Lion didn't go through their other enhancements?” Cassandra asked.
When Kate shook her head, Rose explained, “Steel has superhuman strength, Dragon superhuman sense of smell, Blade superhuman hearing, Thunder superhuman speed, and Voodoo an ability to heal others.”
Turning, she looked at Lion, still laughing with Ariella as they both had their sleeves rolled up and their hands in a large mixing bowl. “What’s Leo’s ability?”
“Superhuman sight,” Rose replied.
“I … this is … it’s a lot … to take in …
” she stammered, so overwhelmed by everything she’d learned in the last twelve hours.
It changed everything, and yet it didn't erase anything.
Understanding why Leo had done what he did didn't magically take away all the pain she’d suffered, even if it definitely eased the anger.
“Of course it is,” Cassandra said, reaching over to place a hand over Kate’s. “And no one thinks you should just forgive Lion and go back to the way things had been between you two before.”
“Take your time,” Whitney added. “Work through your feelings. Figure them out. Whatever you decide is up to you. No one is going to pressure you, not even Lion. Whether you two get back together or not, you’re always going to be one of us.
I’m going to keep working on creating the drug in case it can boost Ariella’s immune system, and Voodoo will keep trying to heal her.
You and your daughter are family now to all of us. ”
“Just don’t count anything out,” Maya said softly. “Sometimes the most beautiful light shines out of the darkness. It’s hard to believe it’s real. You don’t want to trust it because it’s easier to hide than take a risk. Only sometimes taking that risk is the best thing you’ll ever do.”
Shifting her gaze once again to watch her daughter and Leo, Kate forced herself to truly examine Maya’s words. Putting any faith in Leo again, beyond him stepping up as Ariella’s father, was handing him the opportunity to crush her heart all over again.
Was she brave enough to take that risk?