Retribution (SSU Trilogy Book 3) (The Surgical Strike Unit) Read Online Free PDF Page A

She’d… Had her work contributed to their deaths? She swallowed heavily then shook her head. This wasn’t the time for guilt or recriminations. She had to focus on getting away from these men.
    “Where did these photos come from?” she demanded.
    The man holding her studied her for several agonizing heartbeats. In the faint light he appeared cut from stone. Cruel. Totally without mercy.
    Yet the tips of his fingers caressed her throat so tenderly. The contrast made her dizzy.
    “He,” the man nodded to his colleague holding the phone, “took these in the back of a truck that left the underground portion of your lab tonight.”
    “Tonight?” Her voice cracked. She needed to know what time it was. God, please don’t let her have slept through the rescue. Gabby craned her neck, but the man’s head blocked the clock’s display.
    Or had something gone terribly wrong with their escape plan and this was the result? She looked at the man with the phone. “Explain.”
    Phone Man cocked an eyebrow at her command, but obeyed. When he was finished, she lay in stunned silence. She’d known Kaufmann’s program had nasty side effects. But this was far worse. And these men…
    “You think I had something to do with that?” Outraged, she tried to sit up. But the man’s hand didn’t release her throat. With a grunt of annoyance, she glared at her captor. “Let me up, damn you. I refuse to let you accuse me while I’m flat on my back.”
    The man’s mouth twitched and for an instant his fingers tightened, but to her surprise he released her. He even helped her sit up, then cut the ropes binding her.
    Narrowing her eyes at her captor as she rubbed feeling back into her wrists, she tried to ignore the chill at her throat now that his warm hand wasn’t touching her.
    “You’re afraid the man in that picture is going to end up like the men in the truck. And you think I know what’s going on,” she said. Her hands moved of their own will, shoving the man in the chest hard enough to make him grunt in annoyance.
    “I had nothing to do with whatever happened to those men.” Please let it be so. She’d been trying to help. To give the men some ease while she tried to find a way to free them. She’d never be able to live with herself if Kaufmann had once again used her data in unforeseen ways.
    “Oh really?” It was the voice of the man who’d been searching her cabin. She’d totally forgotten about him. But now he stepped into view, holding her smuggled test tubes and notes.
    “Then how do you explain these?”

Chapter 4
    G abby stared in horror at the man holding the test tubes and the wrinkled notes. She thought she’d been so clever, inserting the test tubes into tampon wrappers, so at first glance they’d look like the other tampons in the box. And the notes were folded into several squares and stuck in between the folds of unused sanitary pads.
    How on earth had he known to look inside? Weren’t all men allergic to feminine hygiene products?
    “Found these in a packed duffel bag just inside the front door,” the man continued. “Looks like the doctor was ready to run.”
    Gabby sucked in a breath, nearly choking on the tension coming off the men as they waited for her to explain. But there was nothing to tell them. They said they weren’t part of security. Maybe so. They still might be reporting back to Dr. Kaufmann.
    She couldn’t trust them with the truth.
    The man who’d been holding her throat had his head turned toward the other man. Gabby took advantage of his distraction by pushing off the bed and leaping across the short expanse of floor to the wall with the window.
    She had her fingers on the clasp, struggling to open it, when an arm snaked around her waist and a large hand covered her mouth. She clawed at the man, taking some small satisfaction in feeling skin shred beneath her nails, but her struggles didn’t stop the man from lifting her off the ground and tossing her facedown on the