“I’ll be damned. I bet that cat would bark if I told him I’d hurt her if he didn’t. This is intriguing.” She waved her hand as she faced Becca. “You men can leave us alone.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Dean hesitated. “We should stay in case you need us. Her legs aren’t strapped down.”

She shrugged and walked around the exam table, studying Becca. “What’s your name?”

“Rebecca.”

“Well, Rebecca, I’m going to take a swab of your mouth to test you for drugs and get a sample of your DNA. Open up and if you bite me one of these guys will knock out your teeth. Do you understand? I’m also going to draw blood and give you a shot. I’m trying to figure out what is different about you that attracted him to you. Leave those feet down and don’t kick at me either. I have no sense of humor.”

Becca didn’t fight and opened her mouth for the swab against her cheek. She flinched when the bitch drew blood from her arm. The shot to her hip hurt but the doctor finally backed away.

“Are you on any form of birth control? IUD? Do you have breast implants? Take any medications? Do you have any diseases?”

She clamped her lips together.

“Do you want a full body exam?” The woman reached into her front pocket to withdraw gloves. “I don’t have an ultrasound here to see if you have implants but I could feel my way around. It won’t be comfortable but the men might enjoy holding you down, tearing off your clothes—and the view.”

“Fuck you,” Becca hissed. “No. No breast implants or anything else added. I don’t have any diseases or take drugs.” She paused. “I’m totally healthy and I am not on any medications.”

“What about birth-control pills?” Dean stepped closer. “Or those shots. My girlfriend takes those.”

“Are you on any form of birth control?” The doctor suddenly grabbed Becca’s nightshirt and jerked it up to her ribs, exposing her stomach.

Becca gasped but the woman’s hands were on her skin before she could react. She held still, afraid one of the men would hurt her since they lunged forward, ready to grab her if she fought the doctor’s touch.

“No scars from surgeries.” The hands were cold as the woman lowered the waistband of her underwear a few inches. “No stretch marks from pregnancies.” She glanced up at Becca. “I take it you don’t have any children? You haven’t answered me about the birth control.”

“No children and I’m not on anything like that either.”

* * * * *

Brawn stayed seated but fumed and worried about Becca. Horrible images of the things being done to her filled his imagination. Memories surfaced of what Species women had endured at the hands of Mercile staff during the breeding tests. They’d examined the women, sometimes performed exploratory surgeries on them and didn’t even have the decency to drug them first to alleviate the pain.

A snarl built in the back of his throat at the idea of Becca suffering that way. She hadn’t had years to build up tolerance to pain. She was gentle, sweet, and he worried about her mental state. He might be able to keep her alive if given the chance but their captors might kill her outright. He definitely couldn’t protect her mind from the atrocities she might have to endure.

He fingered the coin inside his pocket and worried that it was useless since help hadn’t arrived. The second he’d placed the emergency distress call to Homeland they should have activated the tracking device hidden inside the metal. A team should have already shown up and attacked, or better yet, reached them before they were secured inside the underground prison. Becca had been certain hours had passed since they’d been taken and that meant help probably wouldn’t come.

His eyes closed as he thought of the reasons why his coin had failed. It had been tested before he’d left Homeland so it wasn’t defective but the assault team could have had something to jam the signal. The walls around him appeared to be thick concrete and they could block the signal too.

Fuck! He jerked his eyes open as two men opened the doors where they’d taken Becca but they weren’t escorting her. He shot to his feet.

“Where is she?”

“Calm down, beasty boy,” one of them sighed. “Your girlfriend is with the doctor. We’re here for him.”

They edged toward the cage with the pacing male who refused to calm or speak. Panic gripped Brawn as he lunged for the cage wall. “Take me instead. I’ll breed with the human. Don’t allow him to touch her. He’d end up killing her.”

Both men paused and glanced at each other. The one who spoke finally stared at Brawn. “919 isn’t going to mount your girlfriend. He’s got one of his own.”

His male companion chuckled loudly. “She’s a real sucker too.”

The joke Brawn didn’t understand made both men laugh.

“Where is Becca? Why did she scream? What have you done to her? Tell the human in charge I have the authority to pay a ransom for our return to Homeland. All of us, including Becca.”

They stopped laughing and the dark-haired one bit his lip. “How much money are you talking about?”

The redhead slapped his companion’s arm. “Shut up,” he hissed. “That isn’t even funny.” His gaze lifted to the camera. “She’ll hear you, might take it serious and you’ll end up with a bullet in your brain, numb nuts.” His voice rose. “Real funny, Greg. Don’t play with the fucker. I know you’re bored but false hope is the last thing he needs right now. Let’s do our job.”

The dark-haired guy lowered his voice. “She’s busy and I doubt she’s watching those cameras right now. We could at least hear him out.”

“Randy will kill us both. They can’t pick up whispers on the audio but I’m telling you now not to talk to him about that shit. We’re all in this way too deep and the only way he’ll ever leave here alive is on a cargo plane bound for some hellish third-world laboratory where they make us look like amateurs.”

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

The redhead glared. “Shut the fuck 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 fuck 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 fucked 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 fuck 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.”