March 10th
7:12 P.M.
They reallyweredoing this.
It was surreal, and yet as terrified as Maya was, she wasn't going to back down from this, just like she’d told Thunder. This felt vital to rebuilding her life. She needed to know that she wasn't just an object anymore. She was a living, breathing human being who got to make her own decisions about her life and what happened to her.
She was fully informed of the risks—they’d gone over them a thousand times along with every possible scenario Thunder could think of—and she had made the choice that this was worth it.
“Go upstairs,” Thunder ordered her.
The plan was for her to go upstairs to one of the bedrooms, lie in the bed, and pretend that she was as trapped inside her head as she’d been when Thunder first found her. That was her role, to lull Dr. Gardner into a false sense of security if he was there.
If he wasn't there, then she had to allow herself to be abducted.
There were no words to describe how much that idea terrified her, but regardless of her fear, she was committed to this.
After all, she wasn't going to be alone.
Thunder was with her, and they were both wearing trackers so that the rest of Delta Team could follow their every move.
Giving a nod, Maya pushed up onto her tiptoes and brushed a quick kiss to his lips, then she took off up the stairs. As much as she wished that it wasn't just Thunder alone downstairs, she understood why the rest of his team couldn’t be there. If Dr. Gardner was there, they’d move in and capture the man, but if he wasn't, their only chance to get to the man was to allow themselves to be abducted.
No one, especially not the man responsible for the enhancements, would believe that a team of normal men could catch and contain the six powerful Delta Team men. But maybe they’d believe they could catch and contain just one of those men.
As she found the room that was hers and rushed inside it, it wasn't lost on her what a risk Thunder was taking. She’d learned what Whitney had first contacted Delta Team to warn them about.
If Dr. Gardner got his hands on Thunder and the others, he planned on undoing the enhancements he’d given them, and then studying them before re-injecting them with the drugs.
According to Whitney, she didn't believe they could survive that.
So Thunder was putting his literal life on the line.
The thought of anything happening to him …
Heck, she could barely think about it and breathe at the same time.
Letting the door automatically lock behind her, thanks to the one the guys had installed when they first came to this house five days ago, Maya headed for the bed. Dr. Gardner didn't know that in the two weeks since she’d been rescued, she’d come leaps and bounds toward recovering the person she’d been before she wasabducted, so they hoped he still thought she was nothing but a pliable, broken toy.
To keep up that charade, her role was to simply do nothing. Pretend she was afraid, which was not at all a stretch since the thought of Master getting anywhere near her again was absolutely terrifying, second only to her fear for Thunder. Follow the same instructions Dr. Gardner used to give her, and act like the guys had been keeping her locked up because they knew she was a valuable tool to try to get their hands on the man they hunted.
Still, even though she knew what to do, even as she agreed to do it, even though she thought she was prepared for what it would be like if Dr. Gardner took the bait and followed the dark web trail the guys had left for him, when the sounds of gunshots echoed through the house, Maya realized she hadn't really known anything.
Although she had no weapon, she had to fight against her instincts to get back out of this bed and go downstairs to watch Thunder’s back. It didn’t matter that she had no skills that would actually help her do that, she just hated the idea of him alone so much that she wanted to be there for him. Like he’d been there for her.
But even if she gave in to the temptation, she couldn’t get downstairs to him. The automatic lock was set to engage the second the door closed and could now only be opened from the other side.
Which meant her only choice was to fulfill her role. Lie in the bed, dressed in baggy sweatpants and an oversized T-shirt, both of which belonged to Thunder. Having them wrapped around her wasn't quite as good as the real thing, of course, but it did make her feel closer to him. More than that, Maya was pretty sure it was the only thing keeping her sane.
As long as she was wearing his clothes, Thunder was close.
A couple of tears still leaked free as things went suddenly quiet.
Eerily quiet.
The kind of quiet that made her worry that Thunder had been killed.
No. They won't kill him.