Chapter 18
Chapter
Eighteen
Pain throbbed between his temples.
Pulsing with each beat of his heart.
But … his mind also felt clearer than it had the last time he was conscious.
Uncertain of his surroundings, Lion remained still as he allowed his brain to click fully back on and took in everything he could.
He was lying on something hard, but it didn't feel like the dirt from the forest, and that was the last place he remembered being.
It was cold, but there was no wind against his skin, so he didn't think he was outside.
Even with his eyes closed, he could tell there was a small source of light nearby, and he felt more than heard the presence of other people nearby.
Not a threat, though, his teammates.
Opening his eyes, he had to blink a few times to clear his vision, and he saw that he was lying on the floor of a cell, with the rest of his teammates and their partners scattered around the small space.
“You're awake,” Dragon said from beside him.
“Going to try to kill us?” Blade asked, somewhat warily.
“No,” Lion croaked. His throat felt drier than a desert, and he’d kill for a glass of water, but he was cognizant enough to know that the beast inside him was leashed once again.
He’d satisfied it with enough bloodshed, and for the time being at least, it was happy to sit quietly, allow him to be back in control of himself. “Did I hurt anyone?”
“No,” Thunder replied, and Lion let out a breath as relief washed over him.
He hadn't been in control of himself. The leash had slipped enough that the rage he’d always been terrified would wind up hurting, or worse, killing Kate, had taken over. He hadn't been sure if he’d ever come back from it, but obviously killing enough people had done the trick.
“I think you killed about nine of their men before they shot you with the tranquilizing dart,” Blade added.
“They got us, though.” Obviously, the number of men sent to capture them had been enough to make it work. Or maybe the rest of his team had let it work. After all, this was the best way to get to Kate and Ariella, certainly beating wasting time trying to track a helicopter.
Kate and Ariella.
At the thought of his girls, Lion jerked upright.
His head gave a single spin but settled quickly, and he didn't feel that same urge to shed blood that had consumed him before he’d been sedated.
Hoping it was under control for good, he knew without having to ask Whitney that if he let it slip again, he likely wouldn't be coming back from it. Probably shouldn’t have come back from it this time, and might not have if he hadn't been sedated.
“They’re not here,” he said when he looked around the cell, found Dragon cradling Cassandra on his lap, Blade clutching Whitney close, Voodoo with Indigo sitting between his spread legs, and Thunder stroking Maya’s hair with a compulsion that looked as though it was the only thing grounding both of them.
But no Kate.
No Ariella.
“Not here in the cell with us, but that doesn’t mean they’re not here somewhere in the building,” Voodoo said.
“Chances are, they are somewhere in the building,” Thunder added. “Doesn’t seem very likely that there was another kidnapper out in the forest after we were taken down and hunted. They’re somewhere close by.”
Not close enough, though.
The only thing that would be close enough would be in his arms.
“Wait, where’s Rose?” he asked, realizing that instead of sitting around the cell like the rest of the guys with his girl in his arms, Steel was pacing back and forth in front of a row of metal bars that trapped them inside the concrete room.
“Not here,” Steel growled.
There was a thread of mania clinging to the man, that same mania that had almost destroyed him out in the forest. The last thing they needed was for their team leader to lose control while they were all trapped together inside a small cell.
Maybe the guys holding onto their girls wasn't just because they needed them close, maybe it was partly so they were able to put themselves between them and danger if Steel lost control.
That would be worse than him letting his rage slip free, because Steel’s enhanced strength meant he could already quite easily rip them all apart.
Add in the fact that if he gave in to that anger, he’d become more animal than man, and there would be nothing holding him back.
Quite literally, he could kill them all with his bare hands, and there was nothing they could do to stop it.
Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing that his girls weren't in there.
“I'm not going to slip,” Steel snapped as though sensing the direction Lion’s thoughts had taken. “Not while Rose is out there somewhere. She needs me to stay in control.”
“Has to be River then, right?” Lion asked.
He had no idea how long it had been since they were brought there, but he could assume that the guys had allowed themselves to be knocked out and transported.
They'd been awake longer than him, so they’d probably already had these discussions, but he needed to get caught up, make sure they were all on the same page.
“We’re assuming so,” Voodoo replied.
“Would be the only reason for Rose not to be here with us,” Indigo added. “And we already thought that if someone had sabotaged the plane, it had to be Mrs. Gardner.”
“She followed Kate,” Cassandra said gently. “It’s the only way for her to have found the mansion, and sabotaged the plane.”
“It’s not Kate’s fault,” he growled, his fury knocking against the walls of his chest, urging him to let it back out, and punish anyone who dared say anything disparaging about his girl.
“Not saying it is,” Cassandra assured him at the same time Dragon snarled at him, and Cassandra ran soothing hands over Dragon’s chest. “No one blames Kate. I'm just saying what must have happened. Don’t lose control again. Don’t you lose it either,” she told Dragon.
“We don’t need you two going at it while we’re all trapped together in here. ”
“I'm not losing control,” he assured everyone. Lion was more sure than not that that was true. “Kate knew it too,” he admitted, remembering their conversation on the plane.
“If she has been watching Kate all these years, hoping that you might contact her at some point, then she knows that Ariella is a sick little girl. She probably put the two of them in a bedroom somewhere, assuming we are in a house of some sort,” Voodoo said.
“You guys were all knocked out too?” Lion asked, trying to play catch-up.
“Yeah, after you lost it and started attacking them, the guys fired back, but we all knew there was only one way to end this once and for all,” Whitney replied.
“By letting yourselves get kidnapped,” he said.
“We all woke up in here, so we don’t know where we are exactly, but we’re assuming some remote estate,” Whitney said, and it was clear they’d all been awake long enough to talk through theories.
“If there’s a lab here, then they’re coming for Whitney at some point,” Blade said, his arms tightening around his girl.
“If that happens, we take advantage of it. You can't break through the bars?” he asked Steel, who tossed a glare his way.
“Don’t you think if I could, we’d already be out of here? They must have reinforced them. I can probably get through them, but it would take time,” Steel told him.
“So we’re thinking that when we got here, wherever here is, that River told her people to put her daughter in a bedroom rather than with us. Maybe she does love Rose after all,” Lion said, making Steel growl.
“That’s a mistake,” Cassandra said. “Rose isn’t going to just sit quietly in a bedroom and wait to see what her mother has planned. If I know her, she’s probably already figured out a plan, maybe even a way to get herself free.”
“Rose wasn't raised by her mom, not past the age of four anyway, so there’s a chance that River doesn’t realize what a threat she actually is,” Thunder said.
“Which makes her our secret weapon then,” Blade added. “Because Cassandra is right, Rose is going to figure out a way to get out of wherever it is her mom stashed her.”
“Hopefully without bringing the roof down on her head all over again,” Voodoo muttered, making Steel give another growl before a small smile curved his lips up.
“My girl should never be underestimated,” Steel agreed. “She’s going to blow this whole mess wide open. River Gardner has no idea what she’d gotten herself into by bringing all of us here at the same time.”
Lion could only hope that Steel was right.
That with enough time, he could bend those bars enough that they could get out, that Rose was cooking up a plan of her own, that there was a lab here somewhere, and that someone would come to get Whitney at some point, necessitating the opening of the door, which would give them an easy out.
Could only hope that his girls were here somewhere, safe for now, and sure in the knowledge that nothing would stop him coming for them.
Even if he had to let the anger inside consume him to make it happen.
He would sacrifice himself in a heartbeat if it meant getting his girls out and setting them free to live the lives they deserved.
March 19th
7:01 A.M.
“Mommy?”
The soft voice drew her attention from Rose and back to the bed where her daughter rubbed her eyes and sat up.
“Yeah, sweetie-pie, I'm here. You feeling okay?” she asked as she headed toward the bed and sat on the edge of it, running a hand over her daughter’s messy blonde locks.
“I have to pee,” Ariella replied.
“Okay then. Bathroom is just through there,” she said, pointing to a door on the other side of the room.
As she pulled back the covers, she tried not to focus on the bruises littering her daughter’s skin.
So much worse than what she was used to seeing.
Damn River Gardner for playing with their lives and almost killing her daughter in that plane crash.
What had the woman been thinking?