Page 62 of Flawed Revenge

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.