Page 66 of Flawed Revenge

“I'm fine,” he assured her.

“Good. I didn't tell Kate about your loss of control in the forest. I didn't want to worry her any more than she already was, and I didn't know if you'd been able to come back from it.”

He didn't take offense at her statement because, at the time, he hadn't thought he would be coming back from it. It was like being taken over by another being. A physical being that assumed his identity, that had only one purpose, and that was destroying anything that got in its path.

But he had managed to regain control, and now he had a different purpose.

Get to his girls and get them the hell out of there.

Then eliminate the last remaining threat to their safety so neither Kate nor Ariella, nor any one of them ever had to live in fear of being caught and caged ever again.

“They’re okay?” he asked, moving to the bars and curling his fingers around them as though he would be able to rip them away despite knowing it was impossible. If Steel couldn’t do it, then he certainly couldn’t.

“They're fine,” Rose assured him. “I woke up in a bedroom, went out the window. Oh, don’t even start with me,” she hushed Steel when he opened his mouth, no doubt to reprimand her for doing something reckless. “Are you forgetting how I almost got out through the vent when you had me locked in your basement?”

“I remember that you brought the roof down on yourself,” Steel grumbled.

“Well, no ceilings fell on me this time,” Rose sassed with an eyeroll. “I went along the side of the house until I found a room that was occupied. Kate and Ariella were inside it. Neither of them is hurt. You hearing me, Lion?”

Maybe he wouldn't fully believe it until he could see them with his own two eyes, but he was going to take her word for it. “Hearing you.”

“There was no way Ariella could go out the window, and it’s easier to move and remain unseen on my own, so I picked the lock on their door and told them to go hide somewhere, then I came looking for you guys,” Rose explained.

“Did you see who took us?” Thunder asked.

“No,” Rose answered. “But Kate did. It’s my mom. Apparently, she was working with my brother all these years. Only while Ridge wanted super soldiers, it seems my mom is after something different. Immortality.”

“Immortality?” Whitney echoed. “My drug could never do that. It boosted the immune system, gave enhanced tolerances for lack of food and water, temperature extremes, and faster healing, but there is no way any drug can ever make anyone live forever. That’s just not possible.”

“I don’t think my mom agrees,” Rose said. “She wants to study Ariella. I'm guessing she was also hoping that Lion would be a match if he ever made contact with Kate and their daughter, and now she wants to see if, between the transplant and the drugs, she can save Ariella’s life. Then use that to try to find a way to cure any and all illnesses.”

“Over my dead body will she be experimenting on my kid,” Lion growled.

“Then let’s get you guys out of here so we can go and take care of my mother,” Rose said. “Steel, you can't break or bend the bars?”

“If I could, you wouldn't have been climbing along the side of the house, little ladybug,” Steel replied.

“Right. Well, there has to be keys around here somewhere. Lion’s little breakdown did one good thing, I think you wiped out a good portion of my mom’s security, because I only spotted a dozen armed guards. Not enough of them to properly patrol the property. And I don’t think my mom realized I wasn't going to just sit in my room and wait for her like I was still four years old. Ah ha!”

For a moment, Rose disappeared from view, returning with a set of keys in her hands. Making quick work of unlocking their cage, Rose swung the door open and then stepped back so they could all file out.

Now they were free, there was nothing to stop them from seeking the revenge they’d been craving for a decade. River Gardner had to be stopped. There was no telling what she’d spent the last ten years doing, but chances were, she’d left a trail of dead bodies in the wake of her own experiments. More innocent men and women who had signed up for a program they didn't fully understand, and had little hope of surviving.

It ended here.

Ended now.

Because not killing River Gardner meant leaving a threat hanging over his daughter’s head, and there was no way he would ever allow that to happen.

March 19th

10:32 A.M.

Cramped and uncomfortable, it didn't matter how badly her muscles ached, Kate wouldn't move for anything.

Not when she and her daughter were crammed into the bottom of a wardrobe in a random room that she’d found as they crept their way along the halls. Taking turn after turn, she hadn't bothered to make sure she could find her way back, she just wanted to put some distance between the room they’d been put in and the place they chose to hide.

It stood to reason that when River eventually sent someone to check on her and Ariella, and they realized they were no longer in the room, they would search room by room, starting from the closest rooms and working their way out. So she didn't want to pick a room that was too close.