Page 13 of Unchained

“Well, it’s true. This drug . . . it gives me superhuman strength. I can run for miles, hours, without getting exerted. I can fight multiple armed guys at once. My body can still feel pain, but it’s blunted. Almost like I can override it.”

Her eyes took on a faraway look. He’d lost her. His only fucking chance at escaping and he’d lost her.

“Why would they make you kill someone?”

“To see if the drug can supersede my emotions and conscious mind. They put me in . . .” Memories rushed into his mind. Innocent men begging him to show mercy. “Situations that would test someone’s morals. Then they delayed giving me the drug and discovered that I had less control over and connection with my conscious mind and that the drug filled me with rage so intense that I couldn’t stop myself from harming people.”

She toyed with the strands of her ponytail. Her eyes reflected her indecision. His gaze went to the name tag above her breast. Camryn. His lips moved silently on the syllables, needing to speak the soft waves of her name, to taste something delicate on his tongue.

She exhaled loudly. “Okay. Look. I believe you. Something is very wrong with this facility. But I need something more concrete to know I’m making the right decision by filing a report.”

He laughed, the sound abrasive. “Filing a report? What the fuck do you think this is, a grocery store? You think they care about a disgruntled lab rat?”

“No, but I need to go through the proper channels.”

He dropped his hand back to the belt. “Might as well lock me up, Cam. They’re shipping me off first thing in the morning. I won’t be around for any investigation, and I suspect my file will be wiped from the system too.”

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “How do you know that?”

“Because I heard Leonetti on the phone. He said they’d ship me off first thing in the morning. I killed another man, Eddie, Leonetti’s assistant. That’s four men in total, if you count the three from two nights ago. Leonetti wants to continue his work with me. I’m too valuable to kill. But . . .” He stretched his neck from one side to the other. Damn, he hated being forced to lie down. “I guess I cause too much trouble around here.”

She stepped closer. This time her scent invaded him. Ah, god, she smelled sweet. Like a lavender cupcake or some shit. It was a scent that struck him. Took him back to simpler times. Times when he could buy a pretty woman a drink and take her home for some good old-fashioned fun. Something he hadn’t even had the luxury to miss lately, let alone partake in. Not when he’d been so driven to survive.

“Brooks, I’m going to help you. I promise.” Her palm touched his cheek.

Instinctively, he brought his hand to hers. A smile tugged at his lips, but he couldn’t place a finger on the emotion that charged his body. Appreciation? No. Amusement? No. Something else made him want to smile, and it’d been so fucking long since he’d smiled a genuine one that he couldn’t even give her a full grin. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Camryn.”

The door whooshed open. “What the hell is going on?”

He snapped his head up. The witch head nurse, Jen, loomed at the door. “Camryn, get the hell out of here. Now.” She bustled to the cupboard above the sink. Her back to them, she pulled out the tray with the syringes filled with the liquid that would put him out for another fucking eight hours. Then he’d be gone, away from this place and from Cam.

The familiar red mist filled his vision. He locked his gaze on his target—no one would stand in the way of his freedom this time.

CHAPTER 5

Cam Gripped Brooks’s fingers. She watched as Jen snagged a vial of medication from the cupboard. Brooks let go of her hand and lowered it to the sheet, his movement slow. She watched as he went for the restraint at his confined left hand.

Oh, no.

Sharp fear bit her insides. She brought her attention to Brooks’s gaze, and widened her eyes with warning. He jerked his head, urging her to back up.

Shit. If something happened to him—or Jen—it’d be her fault. She’d undone his restraint, hadn’t given him the meds . . .

But even before she’d witnessed the devastation on the twelfth floor, she’d had her concerns about Brooks’s treatment. Regardless of what wrongs he’d committed, he didn’t deserve to be tortured or experimented on. She’d promised him she’d protect him, and she would.

Her chest moved in spasms. She couldn’t let Jen give him the sedative. If he was right and they took him away, he was screwed. “Leave him alone,” she said. Her voice rang with an authority she didn’t carry. But there was no way she could stand back and let them torture him. “He doesn’t need to be sedated.”

“Oh, right,” Jen said with a laugh. “Tell that to Dr. Leonetti.” She whirled around, syringe in hand. “Look, I get some things are hard to deal with. It’s all part of the job. But if you want to keep yours, you need to hold your tongue. If this is too much for you to handle, there’s the door.” She nodded at it.

Camryn stiffened her spine. “Did you see what happened on the twelfth floor? Do you know what Dr. Leonetti has done to this patient?” Her voice rose to a high octave.

Jen’s eyes flashed. “It’s not my business, and it sure as hell isn’t yours. We have orders to follow and medications to administer. And you’re going to believe the word of a paranoid patient over a doctor?” She brought her attention to Brooks and grabbed his now-free wrist, needle poised.

Brooks smirked then snagged Jen’s forearm. He lurched into a sitting position, twisting her in his hold. Jen sucked in a breath to scream, but he silenced her with his palm. She struggled in his grasp, her back to his chest.

Camryn pressed her fingers to her temple. Her heart rapped against her chest. She went to the door and snapped the lock in place. She turned around just as Brooks wrestled the syringe from Jen’s fingers and stuck it in her neck. Jen’s wild eyes landed on Camryn. The fluid drained from the syringe.

Guilt hit Camryn’s gut with the force of an anvil as Jen’s eyes rolled back and her body turned to limp spaghetti. Brooks stood with her in his arms, lowered her to the bed, secured the restraints on her wrists, then covered her with the sheet.

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