New Species 03 Valiant (33 page)

drew that one, might draw another. We’ll find out soon.”

“Please,” Tammy begged. “Let me go. I have a lot of

it if this is about money.” She didn’t have a single qualm

about lying. “My grandmother died and left me two

million dollars. You can have it all if you just take me to

a bank.”

The guy in the back studied her. Tammy nodded,

giving him her I’m-totally-serious-trust-me look. She’d

gotten that expression down pat as a teenager dealing

with her grandmother.

“I’ll give you every penny of it, sign it all over to the

both of you, if you let me go. I know that you can’t be

getting paid that much money. It’s enough for you both

to retire.”

“Don’t even think about it, Mike,” the driver warned.

“You know you can’t spend money if you’re dead. The

doctor would put a bounty on your head and there isn’t a

corner on Earth you would be safe.”

Mike sighed, his gaze leaving hers. “Shut the fuck up,

bitch. Don’t say another word. You can’t bribe us because

Pete is right. We can’t spend money from a coffin. If you

want to beg and cry then forget that too. We didn’t get

this job because of our warm fuzzy hearts.” He snorted.

“Right, Pete?”

“Right.” Pete, the driver, laughed. “Warm and fuzzies.

You’re too funny.”

“How long until we get there?”

“A bout ten minutes. I wish we were still in Colorado.

It’s too hot here. I don’t know why the doctor had us

move 927. We should have just brought her there

instead.”

“He wanted to move here. Don’t ask me why. Maybe

he gets his jollies knowing how close they are and how

oblivious they are to him being so near them.” Mike

shrugged. “Maybe he wants to be closer to spy on them

while he works and doesn’t want to fly back and forth. It

may be because he’s afraid her scent would change if we

had to take her that far. We sure can’t load her on a

plane. We’d have to drive there. I am just going to hate it

next month when we have to transfer ten more of them

down here.”

“Fuck. Don’t remind me. Transporting 927 was bad

enough. That son of a bitch fought the drugs the entire

drive. He bent one of the corners of the cage before you

were able to shoot him again. I about shit my pants

when I heard him moving. I hit him with enough dope to

knock him out for a full day but he woke in less than five

hours. I thought we were going to run out of drugs.”

Tammy turned her head and examined the cage

she’d been tethered to. Sure enough she saw one of the

top corners of the cage had been bent a little. The cage

could have easily house a large bear. The vehicle was a

full-sized commercial van. She knew that because she

drove one for work. The cage took up half the back of

the van. She guessed the cage was at least six feet long

by five feet high and wide. The bars were fist thick and

she guessed 927 was a New Species who’d been strong

enough to damage them.

Confusion clouded her mind, the drug still in her

system didn’t help, but the picture forming made her

horrified and scared. New Species had been given names

when they were freed. Only one still imprisoned would

have a number. That would mean— Oh my God!

“927 was never freed, was he? He’s still property of

Mercile? You work for them, don’t you?”

The thug grinned at her but said nothing.

She had a sick feeling her suspicions were correct. A

testing facility had been missed. She had read the papers

not too far back about how more New Species had been

discovered. The doctor they worked for had to be a

Mercile employee and that meant these men worked for

that

horrible

company

too.

They’d

mercilessly

experimented on human beings for decades, had done

horrible things to them, and now they’d kidnapped her.

“You won’t get away with this.” Her voice shook.

“Hear that, Pete?” Mike grinned coldly. “Bitch, we’ve

never been caught because we’re the best.”

Pete turned his head to glance back. “Instead of

making threats, you should be saying your prayers. You

better hope 927 likes you. He’s killed two other women

we gave him to fuck.”

They planned to toss her to the mercy of the New

Species who’d bent those bars. The doctor believed she

wouldn’t be killed because she carried Valiant’s scent. The

horrific clues just kept coming together inside her mind.

The doctor thought that since Valiant was attracted to her

that another New Species would be too. She didn’t buy

into that theory one bit. Valiant had only been drawn to

her at first because she’d been ovulating. It wasn’t until

after he’d spent time with her that he’d said he wanted to

keep her. They’d fallen in love but, then again, he’d been

freed from Mercile, had learned that not all humans were

vicious jerks who thought New Species were nothing but

animals to use and hurt. The one they were taking her to

had probably never known kindness from a human

being. It made her close her eyes to fight tears.

She needed to remember facts if she was to survive.

They’d said they wanted to transport ten more New

Species and they’d come from Colorado, where the

hidden testing facility had to be. She calmed slightly,

forcing her mind to concentrate on that information.

Valiant would try to find her, he wouldn’t give up,

and they’d have to figure out that jerk of an attorney had

taken her. She hadn’t seen him so maybe he’d try to flee

the state. Maybe the police would catch him and make

him tell where she’d been taken. She clung to that bit of

hope.

“Don’t fall asleep,” Mike ordered her. “We’re almost

there.”

She opened her eyes and glared at him. “I hope you

roast in hell.”

He sat forward and made a fist. “You want to know

what a little hell feels like?”

“Don’t,” Pete ordered from front. “You heard what

the doctor told us before he left. We aren’t to hurt or

touch her unless we absolutely have to. I bet she’s scared

shitless and is baiting you to kill her. Can you blame

her?” He laughed. “I’d want someone to kill me.”

Mike dropped his fist and leaned back. “Yeah. I’d

want to die before one of them got their hands on me

too. Fucking beasts. Want to bet on if he kills her or not?

Twenty bucks says she’s toast.”

The driver hesitated. “Sure. I’ll take that bet. The

doctor is pretty smart and he’s sure the beast will want to

fuck her once he gets a load of how she smells. We’re

here.”

“Great.” Mike smirked at Tammy. “We’re under

instructions to take you right to 927. The doctor is

already here, waiting.”

The van stopped a few minutes later. Pete climbed

out and opened the side door. Mike crawled over to a

side cabinet and opened it. He pulled out a pair of

shackles with a length of chain that was about six feet

long. He glared at Tammy as he unlocked the cage and

jerked the door open.

“Stick your hands out now.”

“Go to hell.” She hugged her waist, refusing to give

him her wrists.

Mike glared at her. “Do it or I swear, you’re going to

suffer.”

She hesitated, knew he’d get in trouble if he hit her,

but held out her wrists in the end. She could fight but

she’d lose. Either way, they were going to take her

wherever they wanted so she could go on her own steam

or be bleeding when she arrived.

Mike shackled her wrists and tossed the chain toward

Pete, who grabbed it and wrapped it around his fist. Mike

didn’t touch Tammy, careful not to, as he unlocked the

chain securing her collar to the cage.

“Move,” Pete ordered her.

She had to scoot on her butt to the opening of the

door. She breathed in fresh air and climbed outside. The

collar was heavy around her throat. She glanced around

but only saw a white industrial-looking, two-story

building. The parking lot was small and overhead lights

glared down from above as though it were daylight. A ll

she could spot were trees, assuring her the unfamiliar

building was remote.

“Let’s go, you stupid bitch.” Pete pulled on her chain.

The metal double doors were locked with a key pad.

Pete punched in five numbers, blocking her view with his

body to make certain she couldn’t see. The door beeped

and both men led her inside the well-lit, large room that

appeared to be an old reception room of some sort.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the building

had been abandoned when she spotted broken windows

at the back of the room high on the walls or the layers of

cobwebs and dust covering a few outdated desks that

had been left behind. She tried to spot any clues to tell

her what company used to own the place but no logos or

names were painted on the walls. They led her down a

dark hallway with a lot of pitch-black openings and the

smell of mold assaulted her nose. They kept her between

them, holding the chains that assured she couldn’t run.

A scary snarl, though faint, came from somewhere

ahead. She jerked to a halt and wanted to spin around to

flee. The men holding the chains pulled them taut

between them, trapping her in place.

Mike laughed. “She’s a little spooked.”

“Who the fuck wouldn’t be if they had a brain? Pull

on her and I’ll follow. I’m sure the doctor is tired of

waiting.”

Tammy’s gaze adjusted to the bright lights as they

entered another large section of the warehouse. Concrete

floors and walls with at least a fifty-foot ceiling greeted

her. A wall had been constructed at some point to cut the

room in half but it didn’t reach the ceiling, which she

could view beyond it. Long, fifteen-foot lights had been

strung at intervals above her from one side of the room

to the other. They’d all been turned on until their bright

strength nearly hurt her eyes.

“You’re finally here,” the older man in glasses stated,

walking around the wall that divided the room.

It was the man Tammy had seen when she’d been

sprung from the trunk. She now had a face with the title.

His icy-green eyes swept over Tammy, then back to the

two thugs who worked for him.

“It’s about time. He’s awake, has been fed, and I

tossed him in an extra five pounds of meat to make

certain he wouldn’t be hungry. He didn’t finish it all but I

assume he’s full. I’ve made certain he’s got nothing to

feel cranky about. Now we’ll get to see if he’ll breed with

her.”

“Should we strip her down before throwing her in? It

might motivate him to want to fuck her more.”

“No.” The doctor frowned at Mike. “She was living

with one of them and I’ll assume her clothes will hold his

scent. We need to retain as much of that as possible in

hopes he’ll accept her. Just toss her inside the way we

discussed. Immediately join me inside the monitoring

room. I don’t want him killing her just because he wants

the satisfaction of having an audience to perform a grisly

task for.”

“Please,” Tammy begged frantically. “Don’t do this.”

A ll three men ignored her.

“Here we go,” Pete said, tugging on her chains to pull

her toward the opening where the room had been

separated. “You better hope he smells something on you

he likes.”

Mike chuckled. “We’ll find out real soon.”

They passed an archway and Tammy dug her heels

into the floor, stopping. Someone had placed a large

cage in front of the concrete walls in the back corner. The

thick bars lined all four sides and the ceiling of the cage.

A solid metal floor rested on the existing concrete.

A single twin bed, just a frame and mattress,

adorned the cell and a toilet sat in a corner of it. That

didn’t hold her attention. The male inside sent terror

straight to her heart. He was big, had wild black hair that

fell midway down his naked back, and they had him

wearing off-white pants that had thick seams down the

sides of the legs. They hugged his waist low and fell

loosely to just under his knees. Bare, muscular calves and

big feet were planted a foot apart where he stood. He