Valiant Read online

  Valiant threw back his head and roared in rage.

  “We’ll find her,” Tiger swore. “Everyone is on this.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Tammy had fallen asleep at some point but awoke when the thugs released her from the bed. They’d dragged her on barely working legs, her entire body sluggish, to push her into a bathroom. To her humiliation, they’d refused to give her any privacy, leering as she used the facilities. She’d had no choice. One of them had threatened to hit her if she didn’t comply.

  They’d gripped her arms at that point and dragged her back outside to a white van. The sun had gone down, assuring her she’d been unconscious for hours, and she wasn’t given the opportunity to escape. Both men kept a tight hold on her wrists. They threatened to beat her if she put up any resistance. One glance at their faces made her a believer. They had cold eyes and cruel demeanors.

  They’d put a metal collar around her throat and locked her inside a large cage at the back of the van. The collar was chunky and had a two-foot chain they connected to the bars of her tiny cell. She’d peered at that large cage with terror. Even the fact that they contained her in one was terrifying. Why would they need a cage like that and what did they usually transport inside it? She touched the wide metal bars, guessing, whatever its purpose, it would hold almost anything.

  One of the men climbed out while one remained inside the back of the van with her. He turned on an overhead light to watch her with a smirk. The departing guy slid the side door closed and then opened the driver’s door, got in and started the engine. Tears filled her eyes from fear and not feeling well from whatever drug they’d given her. She had a headache, her tongue was a little swollen-feeling, and her limbs still moved sluggishly.

  “Don’t bother putting on the waterworks,” the man in the back snickered. “Nobody gives a shit if you cry.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Tammy hated the way her voice shook. “Who are you people?”

  “Why? Because you like to fuck them. Because one of them fucked you and didn’t kill you. That’s why. The doctor we work for is really interested to see if 927 will breed with you. You better hope he likes you. It will be fun to watch, either way.”

  The man in the front laughed. “I doubt she’ll think it’s fun.”

  The man in back laughed. “Yeah. True.” His eyes sparkled with glee. “Do you want to know what happens if that beast doesn’t tear you apart with his claws and toss your body parts outside the cage? The doctor is going to strap you down to a table and flood your system with hormones and drugs to try to get you to conceive with that beast. Afterward, we get to toss you back inside with him so he can fuck you again. The doctor has all kinds of formulas he’s thought up to try to get you pregnant by the beast. It could take months before he figures out how to get the results he wants.”

  The driver laughed again. “That will be a lot of fun to watch if he accepts her. I’m not getting my hopes up though. He killed the other two women we locked up with him. That last one was the one who got to me. She was one fine piece of ass. I almost cried when he snapped her neck and threw her at the door. Maybe we should toss in men to the beast.”

  “She was hot.” The man in the back scowled at Tammy. “This one is cute but nothing even close to the other one. She’s definitely not playmate-of-the-month material. I think the doctor is excited for nothing. I think the beast will kill this one just as fast as the last one.”

  “Who knows?” The driver sighed. “Maybe the doctor’s theory is right and he’ll accept her because she’s doing one of them and she’ll smell like him. They never killed their own women. He’s also sure it’s got something to do with their sense of smell and body chemistry. Whatever 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?”

  “About 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 th