Reaper yanked the camouflage netting off the small helicopter he’d stashed at the edge of the jungle. It could accommodate two people, but that wasn’t something he had to worry about now.

He had the serum. That was the only thing that mattered.

He didn’t need Caroline Cotter or her feelings. He needed to remember who he was—a cold-blooded assassin without a family and without any hope for an existence outside his training.

He dug in the wet dirt at the front end of the helo, pulled out the small metal box containing the keys, and opened the bubble-shaped glass door. Two empty seats greeted him.

Caroline should be here. You left her tied up on that bed. Anything could happen to her.

Sweat formed along his brow and dripped down his arms. Climbing into the cab of the helo was a lot harder than he’d anticipated. He couldn’t stop looking back over his shoulder, as if he had X-ray vision that could slice through the miles of trees and jungle separating them.

Not that he wanted to see her tear-stained face. Or pretend like he didn’t feel the guilt wrapping around his spine and digging in deep.

Maybe he should go back—

He climbed inside and sat down, fisting his hands on his thighs, fighting every muscle in his body to keep from rocketing back through the jungle. The thought of her alone in that hut made it hard to breathe.

No, he couldn’t afford to be emotionally attached to her.

He jammed the key into the ignition. As soon as he got the drugs to his team, he’d come back for her, and by then he would’ve had enough time to rid himself of this weakness of wanting things he couldn’t have.

By then, he would be just as numb on the inside as he had been since losing his best friend in the streets of Afghanistan.

By then, maybe he could look at Caroline and not feel this hollow ache in his chest.

Reaper tightened his hand on the key but didn’t rotate it to the right.

Instead he sat back in his seat, staring straight ahead.

He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t leave her.

She meant more to him than his team or his sanity.

He grabbed his gun and the serum and took a step from the cab. He didn’t know how, but he had to get her back.

Burning shockwaves of electricity seared outward from the base of his skull, blazing a path across his neck and shoulders. He seized, falling from the open door of the copter onto the ground.

He grabbed his head and screamed.

When the pulsing waves subsided, he shifted his fingers and brushed his thumb across a small, hot knot just to the left of the place where his spinal cord entered his skull. Tingles shot through his thumb when he touched it, and he yanked his hand back, staring at it in shock.

Dammit.

He traced the pad of his finger across the bump on his skin again and electric pulses shot through his hand.

He hurried back to the helicopter, tilting the square pull-down mirror so he could examine the back of his neck. There was a visible red, blinking light just beneath his skin.

Son of a bitch, those fuckers had implanted something inside him. He’d suspected it, even searched his body for it, but this was the first time he’d seen any evidence.

Whatever that thing was, it had to come out.

He pulled his knife from his pocket and flipped it open and then twisted in the seat ’til he could see most of the knot protruding from the back of his neck in the mirror’s reflection. Without hesitating, he pierced his skin with the tip of his knife and sliced down. Blood poured from the wound and his exposed nerves burned.

Ignoring the pain, he carefully inserted the tip of his knife into the cut and pried out the thing that was buried in his flesh.

The tiny device fell into the cup of his hand, and electrical shocks zapping him on contact.

Reaper grabbed one of the gloves laying in the passenger seat, and used it to hold the device so he could study the tiny, cylindrical, blinking red light.

A tracking device.

He’d used them himself before, only soldered onto the back of the circular chip was a long narrow metal tube about a millimeter in diameter and an inch in length. It had to send whatever was in that tube that shocked him. So why had it been activated now?

He and his men had escaped the lab several months ago, but this must have been implanted in them during their time in Mayhem. The answer to this question came in a stunning moment of clarity. They were tracking him—they knew where he was—and that meant they’d found Caroline.

And he’d left her tied and helpless, unable to run or hide.

He might as well have handed her over to the general himself.

If the general took Caroline away, not back to the lab, Reaper would never be able to find her again. She’d be gone forever and his hopes of saving his men would disappear right along with her.

And his naïve hope for a future with her, no matter how small, would vanish too.

---

“Be careful, easy, we don’t know what type of trauma she may have suffered.” Dr. Averton hovered near Caroline as the lab technicians moved her body from the rolling gurney to her hospital bed. “Get back, move.”

When the technician was slow to move, she shouldered her way in and laid her fingers at Caroline’s pulse. Strong, but too fast. She yanked the cuff from the blood pressure monitor, wrapped it around Caroline’s elbow, and quickly took her measurements. 180/110. “Get me atenolol 75/25 stat.” Too high. Her blood pressure was too high.

Caroline’s body was obviously working in overdrive, despite the fact she remained unconscious from the entire trip back to the lab, and her condition wasn’t improving.

The lab tech on her right fumbled in the drawers and then went to the glass cabinet in the back, digging through the bottles.

Tired of waiting, Melissa grabbed the pick herself and set up the IV and hung the bag next to her head. By the time the lab tech returned with the medication, she was ready to administer the dosage.

“Come on, come on.” Melissa watched the monitors, fingers crossed that Caroline would begin to stabilize.

“We can’t stay here long, Reaper knows our location. We have to move.” General Ranier’s years of harsh and uncaring voice grated down the back of Melissa’s neck.

She didn’t bother trying to hide her ire this time. “We can’t move her like this. She will die.”

Her eyes turned back on the monitor. Caroline’s blood pressure had increased. Not decreased. Crap. “Grab the lisinopril. And volume. It’s not working.”

As if sensing the urgency in her voice, the slow-moving lab tech picked up the pace and had the medications in his hands within seconds.

“What’s wrong?” Ranier asked.

Melissa jammed the first needle into Caroline’s IV, administering the ACE inhibitor for the sedative. “Externally she appears to have overcome the seizure, but internally her body is still showing signs. Her blood pressure is climbing, so is her pulse. If we don’t get it down ASAP, she’ll stroke out.”

Caroline’s eyes moved back and forth beneath her closed lids, sweat dripped down her face and neck, her fingers twitched. She was struggling, maybe fighting the biggest battle of her life. And more than anything, Dr. Averton needed the serum, because that’s exactly what Caroline needed to stabilize. Reaper cleaned out their stores and she had no fresh dosages ready to go.

“200/130, Doctor, it’s still climbing.” A lab technician stared at her across the table with worry in his eyes.

“Get the coma inducing medication. I’ll have to put her under or she’s gonna burn out.” Dammit, it was too risky. It had worked for Quantum, putting him into a medically induced coma until his body had enough time to recover from the major internal damage when he had seized so terribly in the beginning. But it hadn’t worked for John Dawson.

“Coma? You can’t put her in a coma. We’ve got to move, now!”

Melissa spun on the general, her gaze blasting with fury. “The only way she’s going to get better is with a dose of the serum—serum that we don’t have. This is her only option, unless you want her to die.”

Why the hell was Ranier smiling with such satisfaction? Did he want her to die? Wasn’t Caroline his source of money?

“Why didn’t you just say that in the beginning, Dr. Averton?” Ranier reached inside his jacket and pulled out a syringe. “From my own personal stores.”

“You had more?”

“Of course, I have more. Do you really think I’d leave every drop in that refrigerator in the back of the lab?”

“How much more?” Melissa grabbed the needle from his outstretched calloused hand and spun, injecting Caroline within seconds. She had to fight to keep her hands from trembling.

If what he said was true, Melissa’s plans would be ruined. She’d already planted small incendiary devices on every computer and every server in this entire lab. She’d taken the data and downloaded it onto a flash drive, which was tucked safely in her pocket next to Reaper’s remote trigger.

“Enough so that we could replicate and make more if we absolutely had to, although it’s not perfect, it’s better than nothing.”

Melissa kept her eyes plastered to the monitor, the muscles around her stomach so tight she could barely breathe. “Where is it? Do you have it stored properly? If you don’t have it at the right temperature, the effective agent will become completely useless.”

Caroline’s blood pressure went down 10 points.

“Don’t worry about that, it’s stored properly. Any luck?” Ranier approached the bed and Melissa’s skin prickled. Everything about the man was wrong.

“Her blood pressure and her pulse are dropping. It’s working.” As much as she hated being beholden in any way whatsoever to the man, without that serum Caroline would have died from an internal brain hemorrhage.

“Good, how long before we can move her? I’ve already had the rest of the subjects transferred from the lab. I’ve got the convoy waiting for her. “

Melissa swallowed, praying her responses sounded reasonable and realistic enough to keep the general here a little bit longer. “I have to do a thorough physical examination of the subject; I noticed some light bruising around her neck. I’ll have to assess any physical trauma, treat that, as well as administer antibiotics and any other types of medications depending on what he may have done to her.”

“You mean treat her for sexually transmitted diseases. Don’t sugarcoat it. Although I doubt you’ll have to worry about that—we checked both Reaper and Caroline before they entered the program.”

Ranier reached out and traced the back of his knuckles down Caroline’s pale cheeks. Melissa bit the inside of her cheeks to keep the bile from rushing up her throat and floating outward.

“She is beautiful, is she not? She would’ve made a wonderful wife.”

“Wife?”

“Yes, Caroline and I were set to wed six months ago.”

Too shocked to process that disgusting scenario, Melissa asked, “What happened?”

“My lovely bride got cold feet, and when she attempted to run, my adversary kidnapped her. It was a political match made in heaven,” he practically sighed out. “I bet she wishes now that she would’ve stayed.”

Melissa held in a derisive snort. Caroline Cotter would have chosen this over being tied to a monster like the general, which she obviously had when she ran. “How . . . terrible.”

“Do you really think he touched her in that way?” His hand trailed down Caroline’s jaw past her neck, inching her robe down.

Melissa grabbed his wrist without thinking, feeling violated on Caroline’s behalf. She’d never spoken directly with Caroline, but the girl had done nothing but try to get away from the general.

Him touching Caroline while she was unconscious made Melissa’s skin crawl. “I will need some privacy to conduct a thorough inspection of her person.”

Ranier withdrew his hand, but not before Melissa caught the flash of annoyance in his gaze. “She belongs to me. Remember that.”

Human beings didn’t own one another—whether in marriage or this forced bondage. “Like I said, I’ll need to conduct an exam before we can move her. If you want that to happen soon, you can move your person from my lab so that I might continue.”

In a move so quick, Melissa didn’t have time to blink, Ranier snatched her wrist and yanked her against his chest, pure menacing power radiating from his frame. How could she have ever once thought this man average and unassuming? He would do anything to get what he wanted—he’d proven that already.

“Just so we are clear, you do anything to step out of line, and I’ll have you killed. I run this show. I hold your life and hers in my hand.”

Anger edged out in a rush of terror and Melissa yanked her hand from his grip, his fingers dragging forcefully across her skin. “And just so you understand, I’m the only one who knows every detail of this operation. You kill me and you’re screwed.”

He’d never so openly threatened her before, not that she’d given him reason to. And she hadn’t thought she’d given him reason to now, but a snake like Ranier could probably sense deceit a mile away.

“I’m watching you. And everyone is replaceable—don’t you doubt it.”

He strode from the room without a backwards glance and it was all Melissa could do to keep standing upright her knees were quaking so bad. She’d never been physically threatened in her entire life. Raised in the sheltered cocoon of her college professor parents, her whole life had been entirely study. She distanced herself from everyone and everything, immersing herself in the research, but she’d never been able to stop connecting and remove her emotions completely.

Caroline met the wide-eyed gaze of the single lab technician still in the room. “Get out.”

The young man didn’t need to hear her order twice, as he bolted. When they were alone Melissa purposefully turned her back on the camera in the corner of the room, trying to block Caroline’s body from Ranier’s view as much as possible. He was watching from the control room, of that she had no doubt, but Melissa had absolutely no intention of allowing the general any clips of Caroline’s naked skin to satisfy his perversions.

But for now, she’d assumed he viewed Caroline as a tool, only to fund his project—but the naked lust that he’d shown in his double gray eyes just moments before couldn’t be denied.

Although it was awkward, Melissa pulled the sheet over Caroline’s body, carefully holding the edge aloft so that she could inspect her in quadrants, her left torso, right torso, left leg, and then her right leg. She uncovered multiple faint bruises, but nothing that looked like it was caused from blunt force except for possibly the faint traces of fingerprints around her neck. Her wrists had been chafed or bled, so she either hadn’t been bound for very long or she hadn’t struggled. There were no traces of skin or blood under Caroline’s nails; overall, she had the appearance of someone who’d been well kept.

Except for the bruising. Melissa clipped on a headlamp, scooted the chair to the end of the bed, and completed Caroline’s pelvic exam under the covers as quickly as possible. She was nearly shaking with relief when she found no signs of trauma, but there were definitely more finger-tipped shaped bruises on Caroline’s thighs. He’d touched her there, but for all appearances, he hadn’t raped her.

Melissa dropped her instruments into the stainless-steel tray on the counter with a loud clatter, stripped off her latex gloves and dropped them in the trash and then went to the medicine cabinet. She would give her a strong dose of a broad-spectrum antibiotic just in case, just because there weren’t signs of trauma didn’t mean there wasn’t a chance for infection or STDs.

Reaper’s tracker remote alert buzzed against her hip. He was here.

Caroline’s vitals stabilized, her fingers stopped twitching, and her eye movements ceased beneath her eyelids. Caroline admitted a low almost inaudible moan.

No, it was too soon. Melissa needed to keep the general away, allow Reaper time to infiltrate and take them from this horrific lab experiment. Melissa leaned down, acting as though she were inspecting Caroline up close and whispered, “Keep your eyes closed. I need him to think that you’re still out. Help is on the way.”

“Reaper . . .”

“I can’t explain now, but I’m on your side. I’m getting you out of here, just pretend to still be asleep.”

Melissa straightened, praying Caroline would trust her. Caroline didn’t open her eyes, but then again, she could’ve passed back out. Still, Melissa had to continue with her plan regardless. She slid open the door and called out, “Tell the general the subject will be ready to move within the hour. I will have her ready by then.”

The technician who had been in the room with them earlier simply nodded, “Yes, Doctor.