As soon as she was within reach, his hands darted through, grabbing her biceps and hauling her closer. Then he kissed her, and the foul taste of oppression and violence was replaced by one of freedom and security. Logically, she knew that the only taste in her mouth was the salty one of Master’s emissions, and that Thunder’s kiss couldn’t really erase that, but it seemed like it did.
“There’s a key on the wall,” Thunder told her when he finally broke contact, and she followed his line of sight to spot it. “Told you it’s going to be you who destroys him, and he won't expect it because he thinks you're nothing. You're going to prove him, the world, and yourself wrong, babydoll.”
Nudging her in the direction of the key, Thunder nodded, and Maya looked over her shoulder at the doorway, saw it empty, then hurried over to snatch up what could be their only chance at escaping. Things would go much easier, and there would be less chance of Master slipping away, if Thunder was free and ready to attack from the inside as soon as his team attacked from the outside.
Returning with the key, Maya’s hands shook badly enough that she almost couldn’t get it into the lock.
“Shh, babydoll, this is almost over,” Thunder murmured as he watched her, and she managed to slide it in and unlock the door.
The second it was open, she was in Thunder’s arms, his lips touching kisses all over her face as he held her clutched tightly to his chest. Since she suspected this was as much for his own benefit as hers, she let him hold her, kiss her, and when he finally stopped, she found his lips and pressed a kiss of her own to them.
“What do we do now?” she asked, trusting Thunder to get her through this and out the other side.
“We—” he started, but that was as far as he got, because right at that moment the gunshots they’d been waiting for suddenly sounded, and it was clear that Delta Team was ready to make their move and end this once and for all.
Chapter
Twenty-One
March 11th
6:42 A.M.
Finally.
Thunder was more than ready to end this once and for all. Seeing Dr. Gardner again after all those years, watching what the psychopath had done to Maya, the way he treated her like she was an object and not a real person, the same way the scientist had treated him and his team, had only intensified his desire to kill the man.
Preferably with his bare hands.
“Need you to hide, babydoll,” he said, scanning the room as he tucked Maya behind him just in case someone came running in before he could get his hands on a weapon.
Protecting her was his priority.
Above all else.
Even killing Ridge Gardner.
As badly as he craved seeing the man’s blood painting his knuckles, watching him take his last breath, feeling thesatisfaction of knowing that the scientist’s life was ended by his own creations, it wasn't enough to endanger Maya.
Losing her, even if they wound up killing Dr. Gardner, would feel like a hollow victory.
Ending Ridge Gardner’s life was important to moving on, but Maya was his future. He could see a future with her with the scientist still alive, but he couldn’t see a future without her, even if the scientist was dead.
“Hide?” she squeaked, and he could hear the fear in her voice. She’d done amazingly so far, held up better than he could have asked, put her sanity on the line to keep up her role as the sex toy the doctor remembered, but she wasn't trained for this, and the stress was getting to her.
“Won't risk you getting hurt,” he added, coming up with a plan. Since he didn't know the layout of the house well enough to know a good hiding place, he decided he already knew of a place where she would be untouchable.
It was just a major risk.
Because it assumed that Dr. Gardner wanted her alive more than he wanted to be smart. Assumed that the man’s ego was big enough that he believed he was going to come out on top, get what he wanted, which was all six of them back in a cage ready to be experimented on, and Maya in a cage of her own, his own personal toy.
Enormous risk.
But one he had to take.
The only other option was to take Maya out there into the unknown with him, where she might get shot anyway.
“In there,” he said, already scooping her up and depositing her behind the wall of metal bars he’d only just walked through.