The sun hung low in the sky when Slade glanced back at Trisha. He’d found a dugout area of earth inside the side of the hill. A large boulder had once taken up the space but time and gravity had caused the large rock to roll down the hillside into the ravine below. It had been really hard to reach the area. It was so steep that Trisha had nearly fallen three times, and if not for Slade, she would have. He’d climbed behind her, one hand on her, and had caught her each time she’d lost her footing.

“You are safe here.” Slade crouched down in front of her and his hand brushed her uninjured cheek. “You will hear anyone coming from below and it’s too unstable above for them to use their ropes to try to climb down to this place.”

“Okay.”

“I want you to wait here where my people will find you if I don’t come back. It might take a few days but some of the males they send were trained with me from before we were freed. They know how I think and they will realize what kind of hiding place I would look for to stash you. Don’t shoot them when they do, Doc.” He gave her a tight smile. “It is considered rude to injure or kill someone attempting to rescue you.”

Trisha didn’t smile back, knowing he tried to use humor to defuse the stress, but she was too worried about him. “Come back to me.”

His smile faded. “I can’t guarantee that, Doc. I won’t make promises I can’t keep.”

“Then stay with me where we’re safe. Please? We could just wait right here together.”

Slade hesitated. “I didn’t realize there would be so many of them hunting us, Doc. Those men I killed are not the same men who followed us down from the road when we crashed. They obviously have different teams out there searching for us. You know this from hearing them. That puts you in extreme danger and there’s only one way to handle this situation. I need to hunt the hunters and turn it around on them.” He paused again, staring intently at her.

“But—”

“They won’t expect that from me and their numbers need to be thinned out. It could take some time for my people to reach us and I need to help us survive. It will confuse those ass**les when they find themselves under attack. Some of them will flee when people start dying. It will weed out the cowards from the truly deadly ones. Those are the ones who need to die. It’s the only way to protect you, Doc.”

“But this is a really good hiding place. Just wait it out here with me, Slade. Please? I’ll beg you if I have to. I’m terrified they will hurt you or worse. You’re just one man and there are too many of them out there. Those are your words.”

Slade’s head slightly tilted and his mouth tightened into a grim line. “I’m not just a man, Doc. I’m something far worse with the advantage, whether they know it or not.” He hesitated. “This is what I am. I’m a New Species and I have something important to me to protect. But this isn’t just about you and I don’t want you to feel guilty if something happens to me. My people will be coming and I don’t want them walking into a trap of any kind, which is a possibility. I need to take out as many of these ass**les as I’m able to. I’m a predator beneath my humanity. I may try to hide it but it’s still there. I’m also a survivor who has had to kill in the past to remain breathing. Mercile trained me to fight to show off their drugs and it’s one lesson I’m grateful for at this moment.”

“You don’t have to fight them. You aren’t locked inside a cell anymore and we can hide. From what I understand, you were never really meant to be placed into a real battle zone, which makes that training not count. They just taught you enough to show what you could do but this is real, Slade. I don’t want you to die.”

He took a deep breath. “It was always real. Not all of my people survived their cruel tests or the shows they forced us to participate in to demonstrate the results of their drugs. I am dangerous, even though it’s never what I wanted to become. Whether you accept it or not, that’s the truth. They trained us too well and made us less than completely human. It wasn’t their intention to ever see us free but we are. I’m New Species. You’re a doctor but just because you aren’t inside a hospital doesn’t mean you stop being what you are. You’d help any injured person if you could regardless of being on the clock or off, wouldn’t you?”

Trisha hated his logic. “Yes, but I don’t want you to go. Stay with me. Chances are, when your people arrive, it will scare those ass**les off. I’m sure they never planned to have to search for us.”

“Don’t tempt me, Doc. Holing up with you inside this small space for a day or so…” He winked. “I would enjoy the hell out of keeping us from growing bored.”

“Stay with me.” Hope soared inside Trisha. She just wanted him safe, with her.

“It’s too big a risk if I were to stay with you and do nothing. There’s too many of them and they can spread out to search a lot of places. If we’re found they could surround us.” He glanced around the cave and then back to her. “You could be struck by a bullet if there’s a shootout. There’s too many rocks buried into the walls that something could ricochet off and strike you. I won’t allow that to happen. We also don’t have enough bullets to hold them off. They could also start a brushfire and smoke us out. It’s better if I go after them than risk them trapping us here. I’ll make certain that anyone who comes close to you is no longer breathing.”