“Name your price,” Brawn hissed softly. “I could gain access to millions.”

The redhead glared. “Shut the f**k up. We’re all screwed.”

“He might mean it. They got money,” his friend whispered again. “I don’t trust any of them, Mike. You’re the only friend I have left. They don’t give a shit about us.”

Mike spun on Greg and grabbed his shirt. He spoke low but Brawn’s hearing picked up the words easily.

“Do you want to get us both killed? We’re wanted by the police, they are going to stick a needle in our damn arm or lock us up for life if we get caught and the only way out of this mess is to do what Doc Elsa says. She’s the brains, she’s making us money and she has the connections to get us the f**k out of here. We’re going to live in Russia with new identities, find us some sweet brides and drink vodka, damn it.”

“Money we don’t see. They control everything, Mike. We’re as f**ked as those animals are but we aren’t locked in cages. For all we know, they could put a bullet in our brains when we’re not useful anymore or just take off without us.”

“They wouldn’t dare. We know too much to leave behind and Randy isn’t going to kill one of his men unless he thinks he can’t trust someone. I worked with him far longer than you have. He might be a prick but he’s a stand-up guy for his crew. He’s all about loyalty. You f**k that up and you will be dead.”

“Shit.” The dark-haired guy shoved his fingers through his close-cropped curls. “Okay. I’m just sick of this shit. I just want to get to Russia and start my life over.”

“Me too and we’re so damn close. We just need to capture a primate. You heard Doc Elsa. They want a complete set, they’ll pay enough for them and we’ll finally get out of this shithole.”

“Right.” The guy nodded. “I used to clean floors, damn it. How the hell did this happen?”

“We worked for the wrong damn place,” Mike muttered. “Let’s worry about getting this bastard to the other room without him killing us and take it one day at a time. We’ll get to Russia and hell, we’ll buy us a few of those hot brides we see on the internet all the time.”

“Yeah.” Greg reached behind him and pulled out a Taser gun from his waist. “Let’s get him.”

Brawn didn’t speak as he watched the two humans approach the cage. He’d heard enough to know they were too afraid to be lured by the promise of money. They wanted to capture a primate Species and he worried about the officers mixed with that DNA who traveled between Homeland and Reservation. He watched with rage as they shot the drugged male, hit him with enough volts between the two guns to make him lose consciousness and entered 919’s cell. They lifted the limp male and carried him away.

They said they weren’t taking the male to mount Becca. They could have lied but he doubted it. Humans were cruel, enjoyed inflicting emotional pain and they would have taunted him with the knowledge if it were true. A growl tore from his throat as he began to pace the confines of the cage. Where is she? What are they doing to her? Why hasn’t the task force located us?

* * * * *

“Why isn’t she on something if she’s his girlfriend?” Dean looked confused.

“Because they can’t get a female pregnant yet, moron.” Doctor Elsa glanced at Becca and shook her head. “See what kind of idiots I deal with? Get her up, Dean.”

He wasn’t gentle as he helped Becca sit and pulled her off the exam table. She shivered, inched away from the guy and watched the doctor walk back to her desk to stare at the monitor.

“Do you know why he chose you? Did he ever say why he was attracted to you specifically?”

“No.” Becca hugged her chest.

The bitch turned and smiled coldly. “Do you care about him?”

“Yes.” That wasn’t a lie. She didn’t want anything to happen to Brawn.

“Good. Follow me.”

The doctor strode out of the room and Becca followed, the goons right on her heels. They turned in the opposite direction from which she’d come and walked farther down the hallway to a closed door. The doctor paused and glanced at one of her men.

“Is he ready, Ray?”

“Yeah. They stunned the shit out of him, got him all tied up good and he’s shaking off the stun-gun effects.” He tapped his ear. “He’s secure. Mike said it’s all good.”

Becca didn’t like the sound of that or the way the doctor smirked, seeming amused at the news. The door swung open and Randy stood there. He looked surprised at finding anyone on the other side of the door and two more men stepped next to him.

“Move out of the way. I’m going to show our guest what we do here.”

All three men backed up to allow the doctor admittance and Becca hesitated long enough to get a hand shoved against her back to propel her forward. She turned her head long enough to see it had been Ray who had done it.

She turned back and halted again, her mouth fell open and a soft, horrified gasp passed her lips. The pacer, the New Species from the cage, had been moved. He’d also been totally stripped na**d, was chained upright, spread-eagle, near the back wall and he snarled loudly at the sight of them.

The overhead light fixtures where what they’d attached restraints to. His ankles were locked to what appeared to be large concrete blocks with metal pins inside them. He was very muscular, didn’t have a lot of body hair and his c**k was erect. Becca jerked her gaze to his face, refused to glance lower to see that sight again and wanted to set him free. Doctor Elsa turned, stepped to block Becca’s view and smiled coldly.

“It’s primitive but effective. We tried to move the equipment to their cages. It would have been easier to string them up from the bars but there aren’t any electrical outlets close enough. We’d have needed hundreds of feet of extension cords. It compromises the equipment if there’s a short and we can’t risk it.”

“Why are you hurting them?” Becca whispered. “What are you doing to him?”

A hand lifted and the doctor jerked her thumb at her prisoner. “Blame the people who interfered with my research and his kind. I wasn’t left with a choice once they were discovered. We were lucky to get out with three of them and that’s only because we got a little notice first. Your boyfriend is spliced with large cat DNA. I wasn’t able to get one of those. Oh hell no. I got stuck with only dogs.”

“Doc…” Randy stepped closer. “Why are you telling her anything at all?”

“Shut up.” She shot him a glare before her hand lowered and she peered at Becca. “I need your help.”

“No way.”

“You don’t even know what I want from you.”

“I don’t care. The answer is no.” Becca took a step back and bumped into Ray. Her body inched forward to avoid touching him any longer. “I won’t help you.”

“I’m wanted by the police and the FBI. I’ve lost everything.” Anger deepened the other woman’s voice. “They seized my home, my car, my bank accounts and even arrested my husband, thinking he knew what was going on. He wasn’t a big loss but it hurt that they hauled my parents in for questioning. I am not spending the rest of my life in prison for trying to make the world a better place.”

“Is that what you call working for Mercile?” Becca’s temper flared. “You tortured and abused New Species. You held them captive in prisons all their lives. How dare yo—”

“Oh shut up,” the doctor snapped. “Our research helped. That is the important factor in this. People benefited from the research we did before it ended. The test subjects aren’t really people, weren’t created to ever live outside the testing facilities and are no different from rats or mice used in experiments.”

“You’re nuts.” Rage poured through Becca. “And pathetic.”

“That might be but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re going to help me.”

“Never,” Becca swore vehemently. “You won’t get away with this.”

“Who is going to stop me? This warehouse was abandoned three years ago and nothing will link me to it. Randy’s cousin used to work here until it went out of business. I found buyers in Europe who are sure they can find a way to artificially inseminate women with the sperm from them.” Her thumb jerked over her shoulder at the restrained Species. “Their scientists believe they are so damn smart and can figure out what we couldn’t for years.”

Dean snorted. “They are never going to breed those things.”

Doctor Elsa rewarded him with a smile. “They are smart enough to know that the sperm dies quickly after leaving the canine-spliced subjects. It’s some kind of weird side effect with their mutated genetics. It isn’t viable for long after it’s released from them.” She pointed to a corner. “Do you know what those are?”

Becca turned her head to study some large, weird machine with small tanks attached to it. “No.”

“It’s a cryogenic freezer. Are you familiar with that?”

Becca stared at the woman.

She sighed. “Obviously you don’t work in the medical profession. I’ll use small words for you. The Europeans believe if they are given enough samples that they can find and fix what makes the sperm die so fast, use human surrogate mothers to birth half-breed New Species and profit from it. There seems to be a black market over there for rich people who want to own them.”

“Exotic pets,” Ray snickered. “They don’t know how mean the sons of bitches are when they get big.”

“The point is,” the doctor spoke louder, shot a glare at him and crossed her arms over her chest again. “We get the samples, freeze them immediately before the sperm dies and they pay us for each of those tanks. They offered to help us smuggle the subjects out of the country but I don’t trust them. They could kill us, or just steal them and I can’t afford to risk that. I figure in three more months they’ll have paid us enough money between the sperm samples and what they offered me to sell the subjects outright that we can all get the hell out of here to retire to a non-extradition country. We’ll live well somewhere else and never have to worry about being brought back to the States.”

“You’re a monster.” Becca fought the urge to attack the bitch just for the pleasure of punching her in the face. If there was ever a woman who needed a broken nose, Doctor Elsa was the one. “It’s morally wrong and didn’t you take an oath at some point to do no harm?”

That amused the doctor. “Probably but the point is, that’s what we’re doing here. The males have to be aroused for their sperm to be activated, the people we deal with test some of the samples despite the quick death once they are removed from the tanks and we don’t get paid unless it’s active sperm from an altered male.”

Bile rose in Becca’s throat but she swallowed it down. These people were twisted and sick. “You’re selling their sperm?” That piece of information finally sank in.

“Yes. The Europeans don’t think I will sell the actual subjects though. We’re haggling over prices and they want a full set when they do buy. Unfortunately I don’t have that yet but I will.”

“A full set?”

“At least one of each.”

“You have four including my…boyfriend.” Becca didn’t want to tell them Brawn’s name in case they didn’t know it yet.

Randy inched closer. “There are three types of subjects. Dogs, cats and monkeys. We only had dogs until we caught the kitty cat. They rarely leave their damn zoos and it cost us a fortune to locate the one with you. We had to bribe a guard at the gate to warn us when a pu**y was leaving and hire a pilot to follow the vehicle he left in right to your house. We just need to capture us a monkey next. Then we can sell them to make even more money.”

That’s how they found Brawn. “What guard?” She wanted a name. The New Species had someone working for them who’d betrayed their trust. They needed to discover who it was to protect another Species from being kidnapped.

“Who gives a shit what his name is?” Randy glared at the doctor. “Why are you telling her anything? Just make her do what you want or we’ll beat her until she agrees.”

The doctor gave him an annoyed glare. “Marco is willing to pay triple if we can give him samples without the drugs present in them. One of the idiots he has working for him believes that’s the problem. I told him it’s not but he’s willing to fork over the money anyway. His ignorance is making us richer.”

“Shit.” That perked Randy’s mood up and he smiled. “That’s a lot of money.” He studied Becca closely. “Ah. You want her to turn him on and jack him off to get his goodies without having to dose him up.”

“Exactly.” The doctor focused on Becca. “That’s what you’re going to do.”

“Fuck no,” she hissed.

“Grab her,” the doctor ordered, dropped her arms to her sides and turned away.

Ray’s hands clamped around Becca’s elbows painfully and she didn’t struggle, knew it was useless with five men in the room and watched with dread as the doctor walked to another corner with a bunch of strange medical equipment stacked on carts and tables.

One of the men followed the doctor and held out his arms. He took a box and turned to approach the restrained Species male. Becca was afraid to see what they planned to do to him. It would be awful, she just knew and closed her eyes. She refused to watch his torture.