Pepper’s parents had been highly intelligent, and Whitney had chosen her as the girls’ mother and Wyatt as the father, hoping for superior intelligence. He had achieved that goal. He wasn’t happy with the fact that Pepper demonstrated repeatedly that she didn’t follow orders as well as he would have liked. She clashed with Braden and repeatedly refused assignments given to her. He’d ordered Braden to put her in charge of the three girls with the idea they could use the babies to keep her in line.
Whitney’s notes were thorough. Everything. Including her training to be a sexual predator, taking her victims down with ease. Wyatt’s stomach turned when he read what they’d done to train her. A girl not yet out of her teens with no protection from the men who refused to think of her as human – only as a weapon.
He found himself angry, and then it dissolved and he felt like putting his head down and crying. Around him, his men began the work of going through the laboratory, checking every floor and room for soldiers, but the place was deserted.
He sat and read Pepper’s file, his heart aching for her. It disgusted him that Whitney felt no compunction about “sacrificing” her parents for the greater good. They had made the mistake of documenting their daughter’s encounter with a cobra and how she seemed to have some kind of natural immunity. That had drawn Whitney’s attention immediately. When he’d discovered Pepper’s intelligence and her psychic abilities, there was no question in his mind the parents had to go so he could acquire her.
Wyatt pressed his fingers to his eyes. Whitney had coldly killed her parents and taken her, and then began his psychic enhancements of her. Pepper’s mother had been a uniquely beautiful woman, and he was certain Pepper would be even more so. From the beginning he had the idea of using her as an assassin.
He turned over the typewritten note Trap had handed to him when the team went to take the bodies down to the crematorium. Whitney had left the keys and the handprints of the men who could open the elevators for his team. He’d thought of everything. Wyatt smoothed the note out and reread it.
Wyatt, you owe me for this. You have the woman and your daughters, although you don’t get to keep them. You and Trap come up with the formula I need for our soldiers. Braden couldn’t get the job done. He was so blinded by his need of Pepper he couldn’t see straight. The fool lost sight of what we were trying to do. Stop our soldiers from being killed. Give them every advantage. This is a small thing I’m asking in return. I know the two of you will figure it out. When you do, contact me at this address.
There was an email address for him to send Whitney the information.
I get what I want and you get what you want. The girls I’ll need back, but at least you will have spent time with them while you’re working this out. You can keep the woman. She’s useless to me. Pepper was never going to do what we asked her to do. I’ll cut my losses and leave her alive, leave her to you.
Wyatt stared down at the note, anger roiling in his gut all over again.
“Wyatt.” Trap closed his hand around Wyatt’s shoulder. “He’s not going to take your girls from you. None of us will let that happen.” He looked around the laboratory. “He left behind good equipment. I’ll make inquiries and see if we can pick this place up ourselves. We’ll make a fortress around you. Stockpile weapons. He’s not going to take those children.”
Wyatt looked up from the letter, and he tapped Pepper’s file. “I don’ want anyone else readin’ this, Trap. You have to because we need to know everything he’s done in order to try to find a way to reverse it, or at least find something to minimize it.”
Trap carefully rolled his hand over Pepper’s file. “He’s had years to work on her, developing that biochemical, and we most likely aren’t going to be able to remove it from her system. You know that.”
Wyatt nodded. “We may be able to counteract it, find a way to give her some relief. I thought maybe pregnancy. He must have considered that possibility. He wouldn’t use her for missions if she was pregnant and he’d want more children from her.”
“Maybe. That could happen. It’s easy enough to test that theory. Still, Wyatt, her life isn’t going to be easy and neither will yours if you keep her.”
“I’m way past that, Trap, and you know it. I wake up in the mornin’ feelin’ alive. I do everythin’ I can just to make her laugh. Her smile lights up the room – and my life. She’s worth burnin’ in hell if that’s what I have to do every now and again.”
“Then work the hell on that nasty temper of yours and your jealousy. She can’t help what she is. They did that crap to her. You need to learn control. Control is the key to everything.”
Wyatt found himself smiling. “Yes, Zen master. Your student hears and obeys.”
Trap gathered up the files and smacked Wyatt over the head. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Chapter 21