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He turned his attention back to Seyla. Although unconscious, her breathing and pulse maintained a steady, if somewhat slow, pace. With her in his arms, he stumbled to his feet as the effects of the anesthetic gas waned. He laid her on the surgery table behind them, then moved her to the linoleum floor when she began to twitch. The anesthesia was wearing off. His shoulders sagged in relief.
A noise in the next room drew his attention. As much as he wanted to stay close to Seyla, the concern that they might be ambushed won out. He crept in the direction of the sound. There he found another person in a regular cage near the floor. Blood coated the back of their blond hair. A cane lay next to them.
Chase Emmerlin?
Jax opened the cage and rolled the man over.
His chest rose and fell.
Jax heaved a sigh of relief and checked the man’s pulse. Abnormally fast.
A groan from Seyla in the next room distracted him right at the exact moment suspicion blossomed in his mind. A crackling burst of agonizing electricity dropped him to the ground.
/////
Seyla emerged from a haze, careful not to open her eyes. The last time she’d awakened, she’d been hit again with a jolt of electricity. The sensitive skin on the inside of her elbow registered a burning pinch, followed by liquid ice spreading through her arm before she blacked out again.
When she came to, the ground rumbled beneath her with distinct, slight dips. She was moving, strapped to some kind of chair. A wheelchair? She allowed her eyes to open a sliver, enough to see by the moon’s light that the wheelchair rolled across the wooden planks of the sanctuary walkway, which wound through the animals’ field habitats. The elevated walkway offered a view of the animals without disturbing their sense of territory.
A sick feeling washed over her.
These enclosures were the only ones open to the sky. Open to the walkway. In one heartbeat, she understood the plan—dump her into one of the animals’ enclosures and let them do the rest.
Cold wetness splayed across her skin, followed by the unmistakable iron-scented odor of the blood popsicles she’d made as treats for the sanctuary’s carnivores. They’d been melted and poured on her.
To be killed using a thing she created by the animals she worked so diligently to protect.
Whoever planned this was heartless. And smart.
Hoping they wouldn’t spot her movement, Seyla angled her head in slow increments until she caught a glimpse of her left arm. A white liquid that had to be propofol filled an extension line that connected to a catheter in her arm.
When they wheeled her closer to the observation deck, she saw a sight under the lights that made her own blood go cold. Jax, inside a travel cage, unconscious, with duct tape binding hisarms and legs. The same blood-tinged water covered him. He had a catheter like hers.
Seyla’s heart broke at the danger she’d brought to him.
This was her fault.
Jax shouldn’t even be here.
She had to do something to help him. But what?
“I know you’re awake, Seyla,” a bitter-cold voice stated right behind her. The dead calm in the tone sounded foreign to her, yet the voice itself reminded her of Chase.
Seyla craned her head to find Chase smirking at her like she was a child pulling some silly prank. His eyes glittered under the walkway lights.
“Chase? Why are you doing this?”
He pushed the wheelchair forward until she sat less than a foot from Jax, then rotated it around. “You were warned. Over and over. But you just wouldn’t give up. You were supposed to be weak and fragile like they said. That’s why I chose you. You were supposed to fold under the pressure, the last straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Seyla stared at him. Why hire her if he thought she’d fail?
Weak.
Fragile.
The words screamed through her head, blocking out the rest.
“He wants to close the sanctuary,” Jax answered for Chase. At the sound of his slurred voice, tears pricked Seyla’s eyes. This was her fault.
