Page 54 of Flawed Revenge

When his team leader looked at him, Lion got the clear message that he was to agree. He did agree, but he wasn't interested in anything but getting out there and tracking his girls. They hadn't been gone all that long, and between the six of them, they should be able to find them fairly easily.

Assuming they were still there to be found.

What if more guards were out there, hanging back and waiting to see what happened with the first round? What was the plan, to kill them all or to recapture them? If it were to recapture them, what did that mean for Kate and Ariella, as well as Rose, Cassandra, Whitney, Indigo, and Maya? If River Gardner was really behind this, it would make sense she would want her daughter back, the genius behind the original version of the drug, and the only other living test subject. But that left Cassandra, Maya, and his girls as potentially expendable.

Not something he was ready to consider.

“Since you're all alive, it was the right call,” he agreed, because he knew Steel was more likely to get going quicker once he’d assuaged any guilt Rose might have.

“Pack everything we need and let’s move out,” Steel ordered, and Lion let out a breath of relief.

“Is Indigo able to be moved?” he asked. Although he was anxious to get going, he didn't stop caring about the people he considered his family. His brothers and sisters were not replacements for the little sister and parents he’d left behind, but a new family, one that had been there for him when he’d been lost in a sea of grief after giving up the woman he loved and the child he would have wanted if he hadn't been consumed by a rage he couldn’t control.

It was only because of these people that he’d learned to control that anger. That he was able to let Kate and Ariella back into his life without being afraid that one day he would snap and tear them apart with his bare hands.

“Indigo is fine to be moved,” Indigo answered before Voodoo could even open his mouth. “Really,” she added when their healer raised his brows at her. “I have the same enhanced ability to heal that you guys do. I'm weak, not pretending I'm not, and I’ll be careful not to tear the stitches, but you know I'm not in any pain.”

“No pain doesn’t mean you're okay to move,” Voodoo grumbled. “It was the fact that you weren't in pain that meant I almost lost you since you didn't know you were injured.”

“But you didn't lose me,” Indigo reminded Voodoo, stepping into the circle of his arms and pressing her cheek to his chest. “I'm okay, alive, thanks to you. Now Kate and Ariella need us. Ariella is sick, Kate is injured, we don’t know if they made it past the shooting without getting hit.” Indigo sent him a quick apology smile when he tensed at her words, but she wasn't wrong.

“Take everything we can carry while still being able to move quickly,” Steel ordered, and they all spent the next couple of minutes packing the packs of things they’d salvaged from the crash.

Once they were ready, Cassandra, Whitney, Maya, and Indigo carried the few bags they had, leaving him, his teammates, and Rose armed in case they encountered more soldiers sent in to get them.

They were all on edge. As tense as he was, Lion could feel that same tension humming between their small group. What had seemed like such a simple plan, get out of the house, get into the plane, get to Prey’s secure office, then find a way to go after River Gardner, had turned into anything but. If he’d known someone had tampered with the plane, he would have insisted they stay, lock the girls in the safe room, and take on whoever was after them where they had the home-ground advantage.

Out here, there were too many unknowns, too many things that could go wrong. They didn't know this landscape like they knew their home, and that had his anxiety ramping up several notches.

As they moved, Lion constantly scanned the forest, searching for something he didn't want to see. The bodies of his girls lying discarded and forgotten on the forest floor. Each step they took where he didn't see them, the knot around his heart loosened a little.

If he couldn’t see their bodies, they were still out there somewhere.

Waiting for him.

I'm coming, Katie-Bear. Won't ever not be there for you again. Hold on and keep our little Ari-Bear close until I get to you.

“That way,” Dragon said, nodding to their right, and they slightly veered course.

It was clear that the girls had just been running, his little girl in a panic, afraid, and with no plan other than to get away from the shooting. Kate had followed, probably trying to keep as quiet as possible so that she and their daughter weren't spotted. It had worked because it seemed like the two had gotten away.

“Right,” Dragon commanded, and no one hesitated to obey. There was something pretty amazing about his ability to track someone just like a dog would do, and Lion had never been more grateful for it.

Even though Kate and Ariella had likely been running when they left the farmhouse, and he and his team were walking, making sure they didn't miss any important signs, he was pretty sure they were making just as good time as his girls. Ariella was just a kid, a sick kid at that, and Kate was injured. Running would have been hell on her broken ribs.

Although he doubted his girl had been thinking about her pain as she chased after their daughter.

“Wait,” Blade suddenly announced, and they all froze. Trust between him and his teammates was implicit. So many years working together, living under extreme circumstances, and having no one but each other to rely on meant they didn't doubt one another. Ever. Doubt led to hesitations, and hesitations could lead to death.

“What is it?” Steel asked.

“I hear something,” Blade replied. Although they’d all known that, they wanted to know what specifically he was hearing.

Scanning the area, he searched for something, anything, that would tell him his girls were just up ahead, or even that there was another small army coming in after them. This feeling of not knowing, or uncertainty, was the worst. He needed actionable intel so he could have his girls back where they belonged, in his arms.

Lion spotted it through the trees at the same time Blade answered Steel’s question.

“A helo,” he and Blade said in unison.