So, with a determination Maya thought she was no longer capable of, she reached behind her, grabbed the door handle, jerked the door open, and threw herself out of the car.
Chapter
Three
February 22nd
12:29 A.M.
One second the woman from the cage was lying propped up beside him, a vacant look on her face, the next she was tumbling out of the moving vehicle.
“What the hell,” Thunder exclaimed as he scrambled to reach for her and missed. “Pull over.”
Usually he would be the one driving, his ability to run at an enhanced speed seemed to translate into an ability to drive a vehicle at top speeds with great control, he’d never crashed, and he liked the control of being the one driving.
But not today.
Today he hadn't been able to separate himself from the woman from the cage. Something about her drew him in, a need to protect that ran deeper than he had thought he was capable of. This woman was another victim of the man he hated with a burning passion, and now he had another reason to want Dr. Gardner to suffer.
“Thought she was out of it,” Lion exclaimed as he slammed on the brakes, bringing the vehicle to a screeching stop.
“She was. At least I thought she was,” he replied. Thunder had been pretty sure she was catatonic, no longer even capable of registering the world around her. Her eyes hadn't shifted, hadn't focused on anything, and she didn't seem to hear any of the reassurances he’d been whispering in a constant stream.
Guess she’d fooled him.
There had been some measure of consciousness left in her because she’d been prepared in that cage for Dr. Gardner to walk into the room. She wasn't completely lost, but he had underestimated how much she was taking in.
It was clear she had no interest in trusting or believing him, and while he didn't take that personally, he did wish he could get through to her. Not just because he wanted to get intel out of her—in fact, that idea was quickly shifting to the back of his mind—but because he hated knowing that she was locked inside her own head, trapped in a world of fear and horror.
As he climbed across the seat and went out the same door the woman had just thrown open, he scanned the side of the road.
Had she even survived the fall?
The woman was tiny, skin and bones, and already covered in evidence of prolonged abuse, and the vehicle had been moving quickly, all of them anxious to get the woman off this island and someplace where they could get her the treatment she needed.
It wouldn't have surprised him to find her dead body lying in a crumpled heap, he was almost expecting it, but what did surprise him was seeing a naked woman stagger to her feet and stumble off into the trees.
She’d not just survived the fall but capable of moving. She was one strong woman.
“Dragon?” he asked as he hurried to follow after her. Even though he could easily reach her, he didn't want to spook hermore than she already was. He did need to know if she was badly injured, though, and hoped that Dragon’s sense of smell would tell him that.
“Nothing life-threatening,” Dragon replied.
“What's the plan?” Steel asked, and for a moment Thunder faltered, because it was clear all eyes were on him even though Steel was their team leader and the one who usually made the call when they were out in the field.
Now, all of a sudden, everyone looked to him.
Why?
It wasn’t like he knew anything more about the woman than the rest of them, he just felt a responsibility to her because he’d been the first one to find her.
“Why are you asking me?” he demanded.
“You know why,” Steel said quietly, and the words forced him to assess that deep protective rage prowling beneath his skin. It demanded that he find the woman, make her hear him when he told her that she was safe, and destroy anything that presented itself as a threat.
But that was crazy.
As soon as they knew her name and asked her what she knew about Dr. Gardner, they’d be sending her home to her family. She wasn't a stray animal for him to keep and rehabilitate. She wasn't his. Saving her meant making her understand that she was rescued and then getting her back with her family, where she belonged. Nothing more and nothing less.