Not that it mattered. Right now, all that mattered was regaining her strength. Tingles swept up her legs, and she welcomed the return of sensation, even though pain accompanied each awakening nerve. Her head still felt as if a watermelon had taken residence between her ears. Was this how most people felt every day?

The truck finally came to a stop, and she unwillingly rolled to the side. Hands grabbed her ankles and yanked her out, and her nose bumped on the metal. Fury caught her but she remained limp as he flipped her around and hoisted her over his shoulder. She caught a glimpse of his determined face, confirming her suspicions.

He strode across an icy trail and then into a warm, humid building. The feeling began to return to her upper arms and shoulders. Then the area spun as she was flipped back over and landed on a wooden dolly on the floor. She blew hair out of her face and looked up at Jason Abbott.

“Was any of this truly necessary?” she murmured

He crossed his arms, looking down at her. “I think you knew we’d end up here.”

She looked around the spacious greenhouse with its rows upon rows of flowering black dahlias. Several other plants grew in a bed in the far corner, one of them with lovely yellow bell-shaped flowers. “You shoved Gelsemium extract in my mouth?” The bastard. “You could have killed me.”

“I was willing to take that chance,” he drawled. He was dressed in black jeans, shirt, and puffer vest, his dark beard cut short, almost just scruff. His dark hair was also shorter than the last time she’d seen him. He’d always been lean and apparently in good shape, but she’d miscalculated his strength.

“That’s quite unkind of you. Don’t tell me this is about your hatred for your mother and all of that?” She waved a hand in the air, almost able to raise it to her waist. “I thought we took care of those silly issues.”

He crouched so they were eye to eye. “Oh, we did. You taught me, Abigail. Showed me that my strength was in fighting back and taking what I want. Not waiting and seeing. Not turning the other cheek and hoping. You taught me that I was a predator. You were my light.”

His mind had been surprisingly easy to infiltrate. But the two weeks away from her had changed him. She’d have to proceed carefully as she sat up fully.

He smiled and looked more like a wolf than a test subject. “But you’re just a liar like all of them. At your office at the university, you’re a blonde with blue eyes. Yet in real life, you look like this. I didn’t even recognize you at your sister’s office the other day. Why?”