Deadly Game (GhostWalkers #5)(17)
Author: Christine Feehan

Mari nodded and touched her tongue to her dry lips. She’d rather be tortured than feel this way, confused and helpless and so feminine she ached with need. She understood torture and duty and discipline. There was no way to understand the heat in her body or the blood pounding in her veins. Her awareness of Ken was incredible, as if her every sense—every cell in her body—were tuned to him.

She tried to steel herself as they lifted her, but nothing could prepare her for the pain ripping through her, driving out everything else, robbing her of breath and thought and for one moment clearing her head so she could be who she was—strong and stoic and in control. She was the one the other women looked up to, the rebel refusing to give in to Whitney’s latest demands. She was the one encouraging the idea of escape—if that was all that was left to them—and she was the one who promised that if they all helped her get a chance to see the senator, she’d convince him to free them.

The other women believed in her and she had let them down by being captured. It was possible Whitney had already killed one of them, but he’d been away from the compound, and as long as no one told him she was gone, they would all be safe. The men would be frantically looking for her—not wanting Whitney’s wrath to fall on one of them. His punishments were sometimes lethal.

Now that she knew what it was like to be so absorbed in another human being, to need to feel his touch, hear his voice, while he seemed to be indifferent to her other than as a prisoner, she wanted to take back everything she’d said and done the past couple of years regarding the men helping Whitney with his breeding program.

The men were prisoners as much as the women, they just didn’t realize it—but Whitney’s experiment couldn’t continue. She knew it with a certainty. It wasn’t natural and it was fundamentally wrong to take away choice. Even if she fell in love—and she wasn’t certain that was possible with the way she felt about men—she would never get over wanting Ken. It gave her understanding and compassion that she’d never had before for the men unnaturally paired with the women. How could any of them find happiness?

Ken watched the conflicting emotions flit across her face as he helped carry her into the small house where they would wait for ground transportation while Nico threw off the hunters. He’d continue his flight plan to another location, a house Lily had also rented. When Mari’s team got there, it would be empty and Nico would already have the helicopter back on the base where it belonged. He’d lay low for a while in case they decided to grab him to extract the information. Nico wasn’t a man easily found. He was only waiting for the doctor to get moving so there would be little time to realize he’d made a stop somewhere.

Ken found it difficult to watch the beads of sweat break out on Mari’s face with each step they took. She had refused more pain medication because she wanted to be alert. He could read her confusion and humiliation. She was undeniably attracted to him, with the same frightening addictive rush he felt each time he inhaled her scent. He understood now what had driven Jack to go to such lengths to keep Briony. Jack had managed to walk away from the woman who was everything to him once, but he couldn’t do it twice. Ken wasn’t certain how his twin had managed the first time, but he knew he had to find the same strength.

He couldn’t have her. It didn’t matter that she wanted him, or that he could persuade her—he couldn’t have her. He didn’t dare. Jack had come through it, but he was different. Jack hadn’t believed he was a good man, but Ken had always known that Jack was. Ken had watched him carefully for any signs of the legacy of madness their father left them. He had stayed close to Jack and smoothed his way in every situation, making certain Jack didn’t have to do any of the things he preferred not to do, so there would be no reason for him to feel the burning rage—rage so deep it burned cold, not hot. Rage so ugly, it was beyond madness and as relentless as hell.

Jack had the same ice in his veins, the same ability to turn off emotion with the click of a switch, a trait that was dangerous but manageable, but Jack knew how to protect others. He watched out for the men in his unit, for the one woman who had saved them so many years ago when they were still raw teens out for blood and revenge on the world, and he watched out for anyone else they stumbled across in their lives that needed protection. He looked out for everyone, including Ken.

Ken hid his rage behind a ready smile and a quick joke, and he guarded his brother with his life. He looked out for one person, and that was Jack. He loved his twin fiercely, protectively, and was determined that Jack would have a good life with Briony and their children. Ken would keep his brother and his family safe—even from him and the certain knowledge he had that their father’s insanity lived inside of him. It was a monster he dealt with every day, knew intimately, and could barely conceal or control.

“You’re frowning.”

Mari’s voice startled him out of his introspection.

At once his smooth mask slid into place. It was ironic to him that the very mask people now saw revealed what was beneath the skin as well, but no one bought it. “I don’t frown.” He would have to be more careful. If she caught him slipping, so would Jack, and that wouldn’t do.

“The doctor is going to examine you one more time, and if he can, he’ll remove the catheter and the IV.” Jack’s voice was ultra-calm. He had his gun out, his hands rock steady and his eyes cold. “If you so much as twitch, I’ll kill you.”

She turned to look at him, forcing a smile when she wanted to scream with pain. “Maybe you’ll be doing me a favor.”

Something dangerous flickered in Jack’s eyes. “You don’t want to play games with me, Mari. I don’t know anything at all about you. Briony is my world, and if you are in any way a threat to her, you’re gone.”

Briony. She couldn’t think about Briony. Her twin was somewhere in the world, far away from all of this insanity. She was safe and happy and had a husband who adored her, not a stone-cold killer with silver slashing eyes and without a single shred of mercy in him.

The doctor moved in close to her. It took a moment before she realized just how humiliated she was going to be. He was removing the catheter with both men in the room. She wore little beneath the thin cover.

“Take a breath,” Ken advised. “We don’t exactly have a choice here, and in any case, we’ll be seeing to your needs until you can walk again.”