Brawn - Laurann Dohner [25]
He was sluggish as he rolled, fell right off the cot and she winced when his big body sprawled onto the metal floor. That seemed to rouse him though as he snarled, pushed up with his arms and his eyes opened. Fury twisted his normally handsome features as he stared at the bars and lifted his chin to take in the cage roof. Every muscle appeared to tighten with strain.
“Brawn?” Becca softened her voice. “Are you okay?”
His head jerked in her direction, confusion crossed his face. The anger receded and he paled. “No.”
“We were attacked. Do you remember?”
He rose to his feet slowly, rubbed at some of the marks from the darts he’d taken to his thighs and stared around them. His gaze stayed on the cages across the room where the two other prisoners were kept. He moved fast though, hit the side of the bars and growled at the pacing male.
The other guy ignored him, kept walking the length of his cage and Brawn sniffed loudly. “Fuck.”
“What?”
He turned his head. “We’re in a lot of trouble.”
“No shit!” She bit her lip and glanced at the cameras. “They are watching us.”
He followed her gaze and turned her way, came to the corner closest to her cage and studied her body slowly. “Are you harmed? Did they drug you too?”
“No. I think they are from Mercile.” She whispered that part. “I overhead enough to know they are working for some woman doctor and they know your number. That’s classified, right?”
“My number?”
“358.”
“That’s not me.”
She stared at the Species pacing. “Maybe it’s him.”
Brawn glanced at the other male before staring at Becca. “I can smell drugs heavily in the room and suspect he’s drugged. I’ve smelled those chemicals before and he’s mentally gone if it’s coming from him. Has he talked to you at all?”
“No. He growled a bit but no actual words. I tried to ask him how long he’s been here but he just began pacing again. He’s done that since we came in.”
“How long have I been out?”
“About four hours, best guess, but it could have been longer. I saw sunlight before they brought us down here. We were in that van for at least three and a half hours because that’s how long it would have been until the sun rose when we were attacked. They drove us here in a commercial van with a home security logo on it but I’m pretty sure they don’t work for that company. I got a good enough look at it to see it was one of those magnet signs affixed to it and a real company would have them painted.”
“We are in serious trouble.”
“You think?” She gaped at him a little. “What I can’t figure out is why they wanted us alive. Wouldn’t Mercile employees want you dead? You guys sue the shit out of the company and my dad said that they are tracking down anyone who worked at that company to show the victims pictures to try to identify the ones who abused your people.”
He sniffed the air. “Hope my memory is wrong.”
“What does that mean?”
He hesitated. “I smell the drug they used on us for breeding experiments.”
Her knees weakened. “What does that mean?”
“They developed a highly stimulating drug to force us to desire sex and dosed us when we refused to mount our women sometimes when they were trying to figure out why we weren’t able to get our females to conceive. The room reeks of it and that is very bad.”
No shit. “I don’t see any of your women. There’s the guy sleeping on the cot and him.” She glanced at the pacer who hadn’t slowed inside his cell.
“I smell another Species male, at least twelve different human males and two human females. You are one of them.”
That was seriously disturbing. Becca knew the doctor the mercenaries worked for was a woman so that just left her on the wrong side of the cage bars. The blood drained from her face at the implications.
“You don’t think they brought me here to…you know.” She slowly mouthed the next words she hoped he’d understand after lifting her hands to cover her profile from the cameras. “They think I’m your girlfriend.”
Brawn spun away with a snarl, obviously able to read lips. He walked to the cage door, studied it and gave