Page 1 of Flawed Revenge

Chapter

One

March 13th

1:00 P.M.

No one was supposed to be there.

The only people who had this address were he, his five teammates, and their boss.

Since Lion was right there at home, along with his five teammates, and there was no way Eagle Oswald, founder and CEO of Prey Security, would turn up unannounced, whoever had just set off the alarms by touching the front gate shouldn’t have found that gate.

This wasn't the sort of property you just stumbled upon by chance. It was buried deep in the forest atop a mountain. A few towns were nearby, but none close enough that you’d have your car break down driving from one to someplace else. There were roads that circled the mountain further down, and one barely noticeable track that led only to their front gate.

Once in the six years he and his team had lived there, a lost hiker had stumbled upon the place completely by accident. When that happened, they’d taken the badly hypothermic man straight back down to the closest hospital, administering first aid along the way. Thankfully, the man had no idea who had helped him or where exactly he’d been, because a security breach could quite literally result in him and his teammates losing their lives.

Not just him and his teammates.

Now five women lived there with them. Five women who had captured the hearts of his teammates. Five women who were now part of the Delta Team family. Rose Gardner, the younger sister of the man who had tricked them into signing up for his experimental drug program a decade ago. Cassandra Charleston, the younger sister of their Prey colleagues who made up Charlie Team. Whitney Daley, the woman who had created the initial version of the drug they’d been given, then been bought by Dr. Gardner when she was just ten years old and forced to work for him. Indigo Yates, the only other survivor of those experimental drugs who hadn't succumbed to either the anger or the suicidal thoughts that came as side effects. And most recently, Maya Newell, who had been bought by Dr. Gardner and kept as his sex slave.

Five women who had changed everything, breathed fresh life back into their previously revenge-fueled existence. Steel, Dragon, Blade, Voodoo, and Thunder now had a purpose that didn't revolve entirely around retribution. They smiled more, laughed often, their eyes were bright with hope, and the house was nearly constantly filled with the sounds and scents of sex.

Because they had no idea who had shown up unannounced at their remote property, those five women, the heart of their Delta Team family, were safely tucked away in one of the safe rooms, while he and his team grabbed weapons and headed out into the thick forest that surrounded the house.

If anything happened to any one of those women, he wasn't sure that his teammates could survive it.

Over the last several months, they had all come to accept that perhaps they weren't the monsters Dr. Gardner had spent three long years telling them they were. The drugs had messed with their ability to connect to their emotions, but it hadn't destroyed it. They weren't without conscience like they had believed themselves to be. They could still feel empathy, compassion, joy, and excitement.

Love.

But that anger still existed. Those whispered voices urging them to end their lives hadn't disappeared. They’d just quietened. For the others at least.

Not for him.

The woman he had loved was forever lost to him. Choices he’d made a decade ago couldn’t be undone. Not with the words he’d thrown at his girl when he’d realized the experimental drugs were coming with side effects he hadn't expected, and he’d truly believed the only way to keep her safe was to get her as far away from him as possible.

Just because he’d lost his chance at love and had no desire to search for another, didn't mean he wouldn't kill anything that threatened the lives of his teammates’ women.

Whoever just showed up there had no idea what they were walking into.

Or maybe they did.

Two days ago, they’d finally gotten what they wanted. Dr. Gardner had been killed. All six of them, along with Maya, had participated, and they’d watched as the man bled out before them.

It should have meant this was over.

Should have been the culmination of a decade of planning.

Only the crazed scientist had delivered a shocking declaration with his dying breath. He’d told them that the experimental drug program had been someone else’s baby, that he had been running it for none other than his mother, who they had all, including Rose, believed to have been dead for the last twenty years.

Was it Mrs. Gardner who had somehow managed to track them down?

It seemed unlikely because Dr. Gardner had no idea where they lived, and they were also careful when they came and went from their remote property. They’d been living these last seven years, ever since they escaped the glass cage Dr. Gardner kept them trapped in, with a target on their heads. Safety had always been paramount. They knew that the scientist would never willingly let them go and would also be hunting them.

Whoever had shown up could be completely innocent. They might have no idea who lived there, or what danger they were in, but there was no way they could take chances.

Not with Rose, Cassandra, Whitney, Indigo, and Maya there.