They touched down just outside of the town of Rabak on the secret compound long abandoned by the US government where his men had set up shop. Reaper had barely cut the engine before he ripped open the console, grabbed the serum, and jumped out of the helicopter. “Caroline, stay here with Melissa. I’ll be back for you in just a minute.”

He had to get to his men. He had to get to them now. The empty expanse of packed dirt between him and the low-lying building overgrown with vines stretched out in what seemed like miles but was only fifty feet away. Before Reaper took his first step, Thornton, Hicks, and Diggs rushed across the expanse meeting him underneath the slowing propeller.

“Shit, man, talk about cutting it close.” Thornton stood expectantly his arms hanging loose but ready at his sides. All three of them had the shadows of sleepless nights hollowing out beneath her eyes. They’d lost more weight. Their jaws and cheeks were more stark and sharp.

“I ran into a few explosions, held us up.” Reaper hopped on his left foot, struggling to maintain balance and rip open the flat zipper pouch at the same time. “Here.” He shoved the entire contents at his men.

All three of them looked down, but not one of them made a move to grab a green vial.

“Is that all of it?” Diggs asked almost hesitantly.

He’d forgotten for just a second, somehow in the mad rush and the pain and trying to make sure Caroline stayed alive, that he was short one crucial vial. “That’s it.”

Hicks’ towering massive frame took a step back, his dark blue eyes full of realization. “It’s okay; we know you did what you could. You two, take your dose now. I’ll take the rest to the team inside.”

No, he didn’t want this. He didn’t want to lose a single man on his team. Unbidden, Reaper felt the strong urge to glance back at Caroline. She had one hand on the open door and a right foot halfway to the ground. Her gaze was locked on him.

Hicks continued, “Diggs, get a dose to Quantum ASAP. His vitals are spiking; he needs an injection now!”

Hicks grabbed one vial and took off running for the compound. None of them would take a dose and leave a single man on their team out.

Just like Reaper wouldn’t.

But he was their leader, it was expected of him to sacrifice for the team—not Hicks. Not Thornton or anyone else.

“Reaper?” Caroline asked hesitantly at his side now.

“You need to be with Melissa, she’ll be disoriented when she wakes up,” he said hoping he could distract her.

“She’s awake and a little drowsy but lucid. You think one of your guys could carry her inside?”

Before Reaper could speak, Hicks was striding off in the direction of the passenger-side of the helicopter. He wasn’t gonna take that dose, not unless Reaper knocked him unconscious and shot him up himself.

Thornton took another step back, as if reading Reaper’s mind. “Hey, man, you know I’m not going to do it. None of us will. We all took the vow—so that others may live.”

Reaper felt his insides cracking. He’d known they’d be stubborn, but he’d hope to convince them. “What if we each took part of the dose and saved enough for the last man from each of our vials. We can make up nearly a whole entire other dose.”

A doubtful shadow crossed his tanned face, “We could try, but there’s no guarantee.”

Caroline slid her arm around his waist, and Reaper clutched her to him. “There are no guarantees, but it’s our only hope. We need time.”

“Let’s go inside, put it before the entire team for a vote,” Thornton said.

Reaper checked to make sure that Hicks got Melissa out of the helicopter okay and then hopped on his good foot through the open door into the small makeshift barracks. Inside, stifling heat circulated by a lazy overhead fan greeted him.

Shep and Juarez leaned over a man stretched out on a small cot on the floor in the corner. Diggs was between them, injecting the serum into the man’s arm.

Quantum.

Dammit. He’d always suffered more than the rest of the team, overload from the enhancements kept him on the brink of death by seizure. He needed the serum more than the rest of the team.

With Caroline’s help, Reaper crossed the room and maneuvered himself down onto the floor at Quantum’s sweat-soaked head. Just like Caroline had before, Quantum’s eyes moved restlessly beneath his closed lids, his fingers and legs twitched and jerked.

He’d never seen him so out of it; Winters hadn’t allowed it. And since escaping, none of them had missed a dose; they couldn’t risk losing control.

Quantum’s twitching slowed but didn’t stop. What if he needed another dose?

After the reaction outside, Reaper had no doubt that his team would voluntarily give Quantum the entire pack if it meant saving his life.

“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Caroline laid a hand against his chest and Reaper pulled her into his embrace, staring down at his fallen friend.

“I don’t know.”

“He passed out this morning,” Juarez said, “and started getting twitchy a couple of hours ago.”

Shep nodded, “We tried waking him, pouring water on him, but nothing worked. He needed the serum.”

Reaper held out the open kit.

Four lonely looking vials lay in the half-empty pack. There were five men left. A cloud of silence dropped in the room and the only sound was the soft scratching from Quantum’s fingers still twitching against the mat.

Hicks cleared his throat from the doorway, holding aloft Melissa, who looked slightly dazed but aware.

“We are one vial short, men. Which means we either have to choose who dies or take half the dose and give the rest to the last man, and we all might die.”

Shep slowly got to his feet and faced his team. “I don’t want to. The rest of you take it.”

Hicks stepped farther into the room and kicked the door shut behind him with a loud clang. “You’re too late, I’ve already volunteered.”

Juarez and Diggs both shook their heads.

Reaper sighed, not surprised in the least by his men’s refusal. “Fine, but cut the doses. Hicks, I already know you’re going to demand to go last, so don’t bother opening your mouth. The rest of you take a needle and inject three fourths of the liquid into your arm. It’s not the most sanitary thing in the world, but we don’t really have a choice.”

Juarez reached for a vial, his crooked grin flashing across his dark tanned face. He was still the youngest member of the team and with his curly black hair and constant grin, he looked even younger. “Well, Mother,” Jaurez tilted his head back and stared up at the ceiling, “I hope you’re watching this. You always warned me about the dangers of doing drugs and sharing needles.”

Shep snorted and grabbed his own vial. He yanked his belt off his pants and quickly made a tourniquet around his arm. “Dude, it’s not like you’re shooting heroin.”

“Heroine doesn’t have a chance of touching this shit.” Thornton grabbed the third vial. Diggs followed suit and Reaper dropped the empty packet to the floor, leaning his head over on top of Caroline’s to breathe in her scent. Somehow, in all this horror, she managed to give him a small measure of peace.

Hicks strode to the center of the room and went to a knee, carefully easing Melissa down on the floor close to Quantum. The brunette, however, had other ideas about lying down on the floor, and she shoved Hicks away with her head and her good hand and sat up, wincing with every movement. “What are all of you talking about? You can’t share doses. They’re formulated in the exact correct amount; if you’re short, you’re wasting your time; it won’t work.”

Shep paused mid-air, the needle inches from the crook of his elbow. “Who the hell are you?”

“Apparently, the only one in the room with any common sense. If you inject less than the full dose, the protein will bind only to half of your DNA instead of all of it. Which means half of your body is still going to self-destruct. Pointless.”

“Glad to see you woke up and joined the party,” Reaper muttered. Without the hope of sharing the needles, not one single man on his team would take from the other. Although Dr. Winters had altered their DNA, she hadn’t altered their honor.

“Why wouldn’t you each just take a full dose? I can make more. Get me to a lab, give me an assistant and the right equipment, and I’ll have a new batch ready same time next week.” Melissa shifted and then grimaced.

“We’re one vial short,” Reaper said quietly.

Without pausing, Melissa shoved a hand into her pocket and pulled out a small cylindrical canister. She flipped open the latch and pulled out a new needle, full. “Now you’re not. And from the looks of that guy, none of you have a spare minute. You,” she shoved a finger in Hicks’ direction, who just glared at her with his arms crossed, “get down here. Give me your arm.”

“Not before the rest of my team gets theirs,” Hicks answered.

“You’re sure it’s the same thing?” Caroline asked.

“Of course, I’m sure; I’m the one who made it. After your guy there took out Dr. Winters, I took over as head of the experiment.”

“She’s telling the truth,” Reaper confirmed, sitting up a little straighter. “Go on, do it now. Every one of you. That’s an order.”

For the longest moment, no one moved, and then Hicks’ massive shoulders sagged and he went to a knee beside Melissa, holding out his right arm.

She made quick work of the injection and then handed him the used needle. “You’ll have to discard this. I don’t think I can stand up.”

At least they had Melissa. She could keep them alive until figuring out how to remove his team’s dependency on the serum. He sure as hell didn’t have any intention of allowing Caroline to be a permanent blood donor.

They’d been changed so much, more than any of them had anticipated. Living a normal life would be out of the question. “We’ll have to relocate in the states. If the government gets wind of our whereabouts, we will never see the light of day again.”

“You could stay at my estate for now,” Caroline offered with hesitation in her voice.

“Task Force Scorpion is there; we can’t trust them to keep our identity secret.” Reaper couldn’t trust anyone except for the people in this room—especially not with Caroline’s life.

“You’re going to need somewhere secluded,” Melissa said, “away from too many crowds. The risk of sensory overload is still too high. Plus, I’ll have to have a full lab set up; we’ll need to be doing tests, trials . . .”

“The kind of stuff that draws attention,” Reaper said.

Hicks straightened, grabbed the syringe for Melissa, and tossed it across the room. “And how exactly are we going to go about acquiring a full compound?”

Caroline climbed to her feet, her dirt-smudged legs a stark reminder of what he’d put her through. The guilt gut-punched him. He should never have left her side . . . But then if he hadn’t, he might not have ever found the tracking device in the back of his neck.

“I’ve got the money. We can have the operation up and running in no time,” Caroline said.

Reaper scraped the back of his neck, fingers rasping over the raw cut. He’d removed it, but if he had one, then so did the rest of his team.

“A secret compound won’t do any good, will it Dr. Averton? Not when the general can track us so easily.”

“Not unless we remove your beacons,” Melissa nodded at Reaper, “which I saw you did on your own.”

Hicks sat forward, “Tracking beacons?”

“Implanted at the base of your skull.” Fucking traitorous Rainier and his lies. No person on this Earth deserved to be put through what his men had.

Hicks grabbed the back of his neck, “I don’t feel anything. Plus, how the hell would they get a tracking device implanted without me knowing it?”

“When you are asleep, Dr. Winters pumped gas into your room to keep you unconscious and then had the chip implanted. Very simple, actually.” Melissa shifted uncomfortably on the floor. “But, what the general doesn’t realize yet is that I destroyed all the systems capable of tracking your devices. You are safe for now and once we get to a stable location, I can easily and safely remove them.”

“And Caroline? Does she have one too?” Just the thought of Rainer doing that to her made Reaper’s fingers curl into fists.

“I convinced him it was too unsafe and could taint her blood. She’s free and clear.”

Hicks snorted, “So, it was just us that it was okay to torture and alter.”

“Pretty much.”

Reaper wasn’t laughing. Goddammit, he should’ve known better. He should have realized his mentor’s ulterior motives. He couldn’t even look his men in the face. He didn’t deserve to. “I’m sorry.”

The room fell silent. Caroline eased to the floor next to him and her hand circled his. “What for?”

“I should have never let any of you into this project. It’s my fault.”

Hicks, who sat a couple of feet away said, “Are you serious with that shit?”

Reaper tore his gaze from the dirt-packed floor, holding his chin up sheer force of will. “You have every right to hate me. I believed Mankel. I was a fool.”

“We all believed Jack Mankel. We all agreed to the experiment for the same reason as you—we thought we could help. Don’t you try to blame yourself, this was a team decision, we all share the blame,” Hick’s voice cracked, and he scrubbed a filthy hand down his tanned face and thick beard. “We are all responsible for Dawson’s death.”

“Have you been blaming yourself the whole time?” Hicks asked.

If Reaper could’ve stood and faced his men like a man he would have, but he stayed put, unable to put any more weight on his shattered foot. “It’s the truth. I’m team leader, so I’m responsible for each and every one of you. I should’ve known.”

“And how would you have known Mankel and Ranier’s intentions? Can you read minds?” Hicks came back, sarcastic and quick.

Anger rushed up Reaper’s throat, hot and burning. “Of course not, but that’s not an excuse.”

“And it’s not an excuse for any of us. We took a vote, remember? That means you did not order us into Project Mayhem—we willingly participated. End of story.”

“You and I both know that’s not how it works,” his voice was harsh and rough like sandpaper.

“So, you held a gun to our heads and forced us to join the project?” Hicks said.

“No.”

“You threatened to strip our ranks and kick us out of the team?”

“No.”

“You had some type of mind control over the team?”

Reaper’s anger boiled over; his veins popped in his temples, and his muscles bunched up tight. “No, Goddammit! But I’m responsible for you all!”

Hicks squatted in front of him, the taunting smirk on his lips gone. There was only raw rugged honesty reflected in his dark blue eyes now. “Then let go of your burden, brother. We know it’s not true. You’re the only one lying to yourself. We don’t blame you. We don’t blame anyone but the people responsible for creating this project, two of whom are dead. And I vow, right here and now, to kill General Rainer and wipe his presence from the Earth. Until then, the only way we’re going to survive this is the same way we always have.” Hicks placed a large hand on Reaper shoulder. “Together.”

The boiling fury subsided and Reaper’s chest pulled tight. Caroline squeezed his fingers in hers. Reaper looked at the rest of his men, searching for any hint of blame, but found none.

“I don’t know what to say,” Reaper said after a few moments. He’d spent so long blaming himself, he wasn’t sure if he could let that go.

Ever since he joined the military, the fact that the team leader was responsible for each and every one of his men had been ingrained into his very DNA.

And he was responsible, always would be. But maybe . . . maybe . . .

“Stubborn, as usual. Well, I’m not wasting any more time on your pity party. I called in the evac as soon as your copter touched the ground. They should be here any minute. I don’t know about the rest of you, but my ass is ready to sleep on a soft bed, after I take a long hot shower.” Hicks walked away before he could get a chance to argue.

“You know he’s right, it’s not your fault,” Caroline said softly in his ear. “None of this is your fault.”

He couldn’t take his eyes off her; she captivated him, cast a spell over his senses, dragging him deeper and deeper.

Reaper dropped his head to hers, closing his eyes to simply feel her. “I don’t know if I’ll ever believe that.”

Caroline cupped his face, forcing him to look at her. “I’ll help you. I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

“Even after I left you? Why?” He didn’t deserve her or his men. And he should hate her for making him feel this undeniable swell of hope. But he couldn’t. The simple truth was that he loved her, no matter what.

“Because I love you. I always will. We are going to find our way through this together.”

His throat closed. His heart beat hard and fast. He wanted to believe her so badly; could he?

His entire life was filled with people he’d trusted, leaving and betraying him. Could he take that chance again?

The answer came to him without hesitation. “I love you too.”

His past may have been nothing but abandonment but Caroline was his future.

“If you two love birds are through necking in the corner, our ride has arrived.”

Reaper glared at his teammate, Hicks. “You’re becoming a real pain in my ass.”

Hicks gave him a salute and crossed the room to the still unconscious Quantum. He squatted down and lifted his teammate in his arms, like it was nothing. “Just doing my job.”

Hicks strode from the room, but Reaper wasn’t watching his friend anymore. Caroline smiled, that tiny movement transforming her entire face. Yes, he had a future with her, one full of bright glowing light. He wouldn’t have to worry about the dark shadows of his past anymore. “Are you ready to go home?”

She placed a feather light kiss on his lips, and Reaper felt it in his very heart.

“With you.”