If Dr. Gardner is there, Steel and the others will come. If he’s not, whoever is here will have orders to take Thunder to Dr. Gardner. The man wants Thunder alive, that’s where his value lies, so he’s not dead.
The pep talk didn't really do much to assuage her fear, and when she heard footsteps thudding up the stairs, that fear skyrocketed.
It wasn't Thunder coming.
She knew that with absolute certainty because if it was Thunder, he would have called out something so she knew that they had Dr. Gardner in their custody, and she didn't have to worry about anything.
But there were no comforting words.
None.
Just the sound of multiple sets of boots thumping on the stairs.
People were coming to get her.
As much as she tried to retreat to that place in her mind, she couldn’t quite enter it. Not the way she had before. It was like she could see her beautiful unicorn, but there was a large chasm between them, and she didn't know how to get across it.
Because she didn'twantto get across it.
Didn't want to hide inside her mind anymore.
Back when she was Master’s prisoner, that place was safe, special, it was where she felt comfortable, better than in the real world. But now the real world was better, because the real world had Thunder.
Down the hall, a door slammed open. She could hear it bang against the wall.
Then another door was flung open.
And another.
Next, someone rattled the doorknob to her room.
“This one’s locked. Must be where they were keeping her,” a voice called out. She’d never heard the voice before, but she knew from Thunder that Dr. Gardner regularly put out requests on the dark web for mercenaries to do his dirty work for him.
That had to be who these men were.
If they were here, it meant Thunder had been incapacitated.
Not dead. Remember, he’s not dead.
Again, that pep talk didn't work, and when someone on the other side of the door fired a shot at the door, it took all her efforts not to scream. The old Maya wouldn't have screamed. She would have just lain in her cage, presented in the way she’d been taught, and wait for her Master to do whatever he pleased with her pliant body.
So when the lock was blown off, and the door swung open, she shifted on the bed. Bent her legs so her heels were tucked up against her backside and spread her legs wide. At least she was wearing clothes, so she wasn't bared to these strangers, and that made it a teeny bit easier to keep her expression blank and wait.
“Ha, she did exactly what he said she would,” the man who she’d heard before said as four men dressed all in black stepped into the room.
“Boss will be glad to get his toy back unharmed,” someone else said.
Actually, Dr. Gardner wouldn't be glad to get her back at all. Because she wasn't his toy any longer. Now she belonged to herself, and she had people in her life who would fight for her. Maybe Thunder had been temporarily incapacitated, but as soon as they got to wherever cowardly Dr. Gardner was hiding, he andthe rest of his team were going to make Master wish he’d never decided to play god with other people’s lives.
“Pack her up and let’s get out of here,” a third man said. “We don’t know when the others will come back, and we don’t want to be here when they do.”
As one of the men came toward her, Maya felt a deep-seated satisfaction in knowing that these men were scared of Delta Team. That Master was scared of them. They were a terrifying opponent, and they were on her side.
Dr. Gardner didn't stand a chance.
Chapter
Nineteen