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 f**k 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 f**k.”

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 theory one bit. Valiant had only been drawn to her at first because she’d been ovulating. It wasn’t until after he’d spent time with her that he’d said he wanted to keep her. They’d fallen in love but, then again, he’d been freed from Mercile, had learned that not all humans were vicious jerks who thought New Species were nothing but animals to use and hurt. The one they were taking her to had probably never known kindness from a human being. It made her close her eyes to fight tears.