Sinful Revenge (Prey Security: Delta Team #3)

Chapter 1

Chapter

One

Blade ran through the forest, leaving his team behind.

The cold night air cooled his overheated skin, and he barely felt the pain in his body from the explosion.

They’d all been lucky to survive it, and while he was used to having his team at his back, they were where they needed to be right now.

Rose was still unconscious from whatever drugs the man Dragon had just killed had given her. Cassandra might have been conscious enough to fight back and run, but there were still drugs in her system as well. Plus, both women were injured from the explosion they’d all been caught up in.

Since they couldn’t be positive that the mercenary who had tried to abduct Rose and Cassandra didn't have a partner, although it seemed unlikely because surely the partner would have stepped in when Cassandra ran, splitting up the two women, he wanted the remainder of his team with the women.

Not because they were women and therefore less capable, but because one was unconscious and the other had been seconds away from getting raped. They needed support, and the rest of his team needed to get them out of there and someplace safe, because the cops were on their way.

Besides, Steel wouldn't leave Rose right now, and Dragon was every bit as protective over Cassandra. With their focus on the women who had captured their hearts, they needed Thunder, Lion, and Voodoo to watch over all of them.

Which just left him to go after whoever he’d heard moving through the forest.

Not that he minded. Blade had a pretty good idea of who he was chasing.

It was absolutely true that if the mercenary who wanted to collect the money for delivering Cassandra to Dr. Ridge Gardner was working with a partner, then that partner would have shown up before now.

Cassandra running had left Rose alone in the van, a partner would have stood by and watched over one of their captives, while the now dead man had gone after the other.

Ruling that out left only two other options.

One was that the person running was the crazed scientist responsible for injecting him and the rest of his team with experimental drugs. While those drugs had given them enhanced skills, they’d also messed with their ability to feel and process emotions normally, stripping them of a conscience.

The only problem with that scenario was that they’d just laid a trap for Dr. Gardner a little over a week ago, using the man’s sister as bait.

They’d killed every single one of the armed guards the doctor had brought with him, and the only reason the doctor himself had escaped was because Steel had chosen to save Rose’s life rather than go after the man they all wanted dead more than they wanted their next breath of air.

Only that wasn't quite true anymore.

Steel wanted Rose more than he wanted revenge.

Dragon wanted Cassandra more than he wanted revenge.

Where that left his team, Blade wasn't quite sure. But he was sure that if it was Dr. Gardner he could hear out in the forest, then the man would have come with a small army because he knew it was his only chance at getting them back alive.

And he wanted them alive.

According to a woman who had accosted Cassandra at the park a week ago, Dr. Gardner needed them back if he wanted to create more super soldiers.

Blade and his team were the only ones who had survived the anger and suicidal thoughts that came as a result of the drugs.

Apparently, the doctor had figured out a way to reverse what he’d done and intended to do it, then study them, then inject them all over again.

It was their worst nightmare.

Becoming lab rats all over again.

But if the woman was to be believed, that was what would happen if they got caught.

Whether they believed her or not didn't really matter, Blade had no intention of once again becoming a test subject. Those three years he and his team had spent locked inside a glass cage, constantly observed and studied, had been a hell he’d rather die than endure again.

Since there was no army on his tail, none that had come searching for them in the rubble of the warehouse linked to the company that paid off the mercenaries after Cassandra, none that had accosted them as they searched the forests, he had to assume it wasn't Dr. Gardner he was following.

Nope.

It was her.

The mystery woman.

If Cassandra hadn't spoken to her, and there was no doubt she had since Cassandra had known things about what happened to him and the rest of Prey Security’s Delta Team that she could only have learned from someone involved, then he’d be tempted to believe this woman didn't even exist. But not only had Cassandra spoken to her, but Dragon, stalker that he was, had watched the whole thing on his tablet after hacking into CCTV cameras.

Despite knowing this mystery woman was a real flesh-and-blood person, they hadn't been able to identify her.

It was like she didn't exist, even though they knew she did.

They had nothing to go on to figure out who she was and where to find her, despite searching every database they could get their hands on.

This woman was the key to unraveling everything. Blade knew she was. All he had to do was get his hands on her. Once he had her, he wouldn't hesitate to do whatever it took to get the answers he and his team needed to finally be free.

For ten years, they’d plotted revenge.

Three of those held as prisoners, another seven trying to rebuild their lives as they searched for the name of the man responsible for what had been done to them.

The only thing that had gotten him through this last decade was the men he considered his family. Not the one he’d long ago left behind, but the members of his team were every bit as much his brothers as the ones who shared his DNA.

Now that family was growing. Steel had fallen for Dr. Gardner’s sister, a woman they’d abducted and intended to use as a lure to get to the crazy scientist. Dragon had fallen for Cassandra while she stayed with them as her family hunted for the people after them, and recently embraced his second chance.

With two more members of the Delta Team family, it felt even more imperative to finally find Dr. Gardner and end his life. Only then would they be free enough to embrace a future that could be anything they wanted it to be.

“Which is why you're not getting away, darlin’,” he drawled to the quiet forest.

Quiet to others but not to him. His enhanced hearing meant he heard everything.

Everything. Which wasn't always as great as it seemed.

Hearing everything happening around him, the beating of hearts, the inhale of air into lungs, the flow of blood passing through veins and arteries, every word, whispered or not, was exhausting.

Utterly exhausting.

The only way he survived the day-to-day barrage of sounds was to use noise-cancelling headphones, and even those didn't always work.

Tonight, he’d gotten a taste of what it was like to live without his enhanced hearing, and the white noise generator in the warehouse had almost cost them their lives. No matter how much he hated dealing with his skill all the time, he was grateful for it.

“Yeah, I hear you. There’s no escaping me,” he whispered to the woman too far away to hear him.

But he heard her.

Heard each ragged breath as she ran, completely unaware she was being followed. Probably believing that her plan to blow them all up had worked and they were lying dead amongst the debris of the ruined warehouse.

“I'm coming for you,” he promised as he picked up his pace. Just because he didn't have Thunder’s enhanced speed didn't mean he wasn't easily gaining on his prey.

Everything inside him screamed that it was the mystery woman, that as soon as he caught her, he’d have everything they needed to destroy Dr. Gardner.

There would be no remorse as he did whatever it took to get answers from this woman.

She’d signed her own fate when she decided to work for a man who thought he could play God with other people’s lives without suffering any consequences for it.

“Not happening. You picked your side, and whatever happens next is on you. Easy way or the hard way,” he said as the sounds of feet pounding the ground grew louder.

Then, a minute later, he saw her.

A flash of black moving through the dark.

Blade almost laughed out loud. Did the mystery woman really think wearing black would hide her from them?

She knew what had happened to them, participated in it at least to some extent, and knew that they had skills that made them nearly impossible to beat opponents.

“Your world is about to come crashing down upon you, darlin’, and I can't wait to see you fall and break.”

January 9th

10:37 P.M.

It was hard to believe she’d done it.

Free for the first time in … too many years to count.

Maybe ever.

Even as a young child, Whitney Daley had had her every move mapped out for her. There had been no allowances for choice, no time allocated for fun. She had learned to do what she was told when she was told and not to ask questions.

Too bad she’d followed that rule.

Because of that, good men and women had suffered.

Died.

She might wind up dead, too.

What she was doing wasn't just dangerous, it was potentially deadly. If she got caught … well let’s just say she’d better not allow herself to get caught.

But despite the danger, the fear, it felt good to finally make her own decisions, to make the right ones for a change.

As much as she wished she’d found her strength sooner, Whitney also knew that if she hadn't become the obedient little worker bee she’d been recruited to be, then she never would have been able to make this move now.

It was because he trusted her.

Trusted that after years of being manipulated and coerced, she was now so completely under his control that she would never think to move against him.

Ha, take that, Dr. Gardner.