Chapter
One
February 21st
11:03 P.M.
Gunshots echoed through the humid night as Thunder and his team approached the mansion near the beach on the tiny island.
Good.
He was in the mood for a fight, and he’d been hoping they’d get one when they arrived. He also hoped that the fact the place hadn't been completely abandoned meant the man they were seeking was still inside.
Two days.
That was all it took for Prey Security to discover this island was where Dr. Gardner, the man who had run the experimental drug program he and his team had signed up for over a decade ago, was living. All it had taken to be able to finally pinpoint a location was a single comment the only other survivor of the drug, Indigo Yates, had recalled from the months she’d been held captive and experimented on.
Now they were here.
Flight patterns leaving and returning to the island matched with the times they knew Dr. Gardner had come and gone, and the man had been spotted on CCTV cameras at a larger island close by as little as a month ago.
The scientist was there, Thunder could feel it, and he was more than ready to bring the man to his knees, make him scream, cry, and beg. Make him plead for mercy he’d never shown another living being. Make him suffer for every act of cruelty he’d committed against his younger sister, Rose, former child genius, Whitney Daley, and each and every one of his experiments, including Thunder and his team, and Indigo, who had survived, along with all the others who hadn't been able to handle the rage and suicidal thoughts.
It ended here.
Now.
And Thunder couldn’t help but feel as though he were the one who was supposed to do it. All six of them had reasons to want Dr. Gardner dead, but as of about a month ago, he was officially the only single man left on the team. Maybe the woman Lion loved was lost to the past, but they all knew the man would never move on and replace her.
As the only single man, he felt like he should shoulder this burden.
Just because it was something they’d all wanted, dreamed about, fantasized about, didn't mean the others should be the ones to do it, to end Dr. Gardner once and for all. They had partners now, other people to think about, to prioritize. They had to think about the well-being of the women who had stolen their hearts. Even though every one of those women understood who—what—Dr. Gardner was, who they were, and what they had been forced to become, he didn't want Rose, Cassandra, Whitney, and Indigo seeing what the men they loved looked likewhen they gave into the howling beast that lived inside each of them.
There was no one to see him differently if he allowed that beast to roam free.
And if he couldn’t cage it again when he was done, no one would mourn him if the only way to protect his teammates and their women was to end his life.
So it had to be him.
Now all he had to do was convince the others of that.
Dodging the bullets flying through the air was easy. They came from two distinct locations, the guard towers on either side of the gates leading to the tropical mansion. There was no way to know how many guards were there, but they knew the scientist liked to keep himself well protected. Whatever else you could say about Dr. Gardner, one thing he was smart about was his own safety. He knew the monsters he’d created, and while he would never stop trying to get them back, he also understood just how dangerous they were.
With a nod to his teammates—they didn't need to speak to know what the others were thinking—he took off at a dead run, heading for the towers. While he and his teammates couldn’t read one another’s minds, over a decade of knowing and relying on each other, with three years locked in a glass cage together, another year on the run, and six more living and working together all day every day, they just knew each other well enough to communicate through looks and signals.
That and maybe there was some element of deeper understanding that came from them all being altered.
Knowing his team had his back, Thunder used his enhanced speed to reach the towers quickly. Once there, he used the cover fire his team was providing to make quick work of scaling the large, wrought-iron gates and dropping down on the other side.There were doors at the bottom of each tower, and he picked the left one because he was a leftie, and broke it down.
Too caught up in firing at the rest of his team, the two guards inside the tower didn't realize he was there until it was too late.
Two bullets took care of them, and he was back down the stairs and up into the other tower before those two men realized that their friends were no longer firing weapons. Two more bullets took care of them, and the night fell silent once again.
Steel, Dragon, Blade, Voodoo, and Lion scaled the gate, then together, the six of them approached the mansion. There were no lights on inside, but there was no way anyone in there could have missed the firefight.
A month ago, when they’d raided a lab they’d linked to the scientist and his operation, they’d found everyone inside dead. Well, almost everyone. A lone survivor who had been hidden in a supply closet was now safely tucked away back at the Delta Team mansion, likely fast asleep in Voodoo’s bed. But everyone else had been executed, making it clear that Dr. Gardner’s orders were death before capture.
For everyone else.
