Ruthless Game (GhostWalkers #9)(81)
Author: Christine Feehan

“Because Whitney fed you bullshit to justify his experiment?”

The small edge to his voice made her glance up at his face. The lines were carved deep, making him look tougher than ever. His jaw was set in a stubborn line she’d come to know. He didn’t understand. Her shame wasn’t about Whitney—maybe he added to the voices in her own head telling her what a screwup she was—but her shame was all about the way she’d acted toward his family members. As if they weren’t trustworthy enough to be alone with her child. In her mind she had been the only one who could adequately protect Sebastian. Okay, there was Kane. She had trusted him—maybe.

Her face flamed. Not completely, not with Sebastian. She was so determined Whitney wouldn’t get his hands on their son, and she didn’t think Kane adequately understood the danger Whitney presented. She’d been so foolish. Without his family, without the very men she’d snubbed, her son would be in Dr. Whitney’s laboratory.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered again, shaking her head. How could there be forgiveness? Kane had brought her into his home and offered her a life with him. She wanted him—but she hadn’t really wanted the rest of them. She didn’t know how to act with them, what to think or do. She felt such an outsider, and yet they had risked their lives for her son.

“Tell me what happened. All of it. What each person had to do to get Sebastian …”

“And you,” Kane said quietly.

She shivered continually, unable to stop her body’s reaction from the aftermath of the drug, or perhaps the time spent in the cold seawater. She could smell fish on her hair and skin. Dragging the blanket closer, she nodded. “And to get me back. Tell me.”

She listened in silence to the quiet sound of his voice as he detailed the rescue and what each team member had contributed.

“If Javier hadn’t spotted the SUV, they might have gotten away with it.”

“It may have taken longer, but we would have found you and Sebastian, Rose,” Kane said. “We had the microchip in Sebastian, and Whitney isn’t the only one who can track with a satellite.”

She felt a wave of raw fear. “My tattoo. Javier and Jaimie got rid of it.”

“They deactivated it. There’s a difference.”

Now her teeth were chattering, but she didn’t care. She was horrified. “If they know a way to activate it, so will Whitney.”

He shook his head. “I’ll put Jaimie and Javier up against anyone Whitney has in electronics. Jaimie’s figuring out how they managed the lock on the door, but my guess is, the doc had something to do with it.”

She felt color flooding her face. Once again she’d not trusted the members of his team.

Our team, he corrected. “Our family. We’re a unit, Rose. You. Me. Sebastian. And our family. We have to think that way, believe that way. It has to be absolute. No individual is going to be able to fight Whitney. As a team, a family, we’re stronger than he can possibly imagine.”

He was right. When she’d been in the compounds, if Whitney separated all of the girls, it was much more difficult to fight him, but together, they had too much strength and too many psychic talents for him to control.

“I grew up with every single man and woman in this team other than Paul. You’ve met Paul. He’s no plant. His talent is incredible, and we all watch over him, especially Javier.”

Her breath caught in her throat. She knew Paul was no threat. He was too honest—he felt too good—not that he wouldn’t fight if he was forced to do so. But Javier … He scared her, and yet it had been Javier who had ultimately been Sebastian’s guardian. She’d seen the look on his face when he dropped in to see the boy. He always referred to himself as Uncle Javier, and she had secretly cringed.

Rose shook her head. “I’m sorry,” she repeated. “I didn’t trust them. I didn’t want to like them or give them a chance.”

“Rose.” His voice was a velvet caress, stroking over her skin. “What did you expect? You’ve never been around a man who wasn’t keeping you prisoner or torturing you. Did you think it would be easy? All of us knew we’d have to earn your respect and trust. It’s never automatic, not when our lives depend on one another.”

“But you trusted them. I should have …”

He drew her up, blanket and all, pulling her shivering body against his, and she let him, wanted to melt into him, to draw from all that male heat and strength. She let herself be fragile and vulnerable, she already was—to him. She let herself open to him. He was so deep inside her that she’d never get him out, nor did she want to.

“Why should you trust anyone you don’t know? Especially with our child? Every member of my family would be shocked and horrified if you’d easily accepted them. They want you, just as I do, to be leery of strangers.” He massaged her shoulders, and then slid his hands down her back, pulling her closer. “Look at Eric. He’s been our chosen doctor for all the teams, and yet not one of us realized he was an enemy.”

She leaned into him, wanting shelter in his arms, in the strength of his body. He was like an enormous oak tree, solid and unyielding, a sentinel she could always count on. “You were uneasy around him,” Rose said. “That’s one of the reasons I had trouble with him. I didn’t like that he was so interested in DNA. He was always so obsessive about taking Sebastian’s blood, even after I explained my worries. But had you trusted him implicitly, I might have acted differently.”

When he framed her face with his large hands and her eyes met his, her heart nearly exploded with love for him. There was no censure there, only respect and admiration. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “I don’t deserve you to feel like that about me, Kane. Not now. I can’t forgive myself for nearly losing Sebastian. If I’d been better with everyone . . .”

He stopped her with his mouth, that sinful, tempting mouth that she often fantasized about. The moment his lips, so cool and firm, settled over hers, her heart shifted, and her stomach did a long, slow somersault. Her heart stuttered. His body heat warmed her. The steely strength of his arms caging her made her feel safe—as if she had truly found a home. The taste of him drove her wild.

Her eyes burned and her throat clogged with tears, even as her body went into familiar meltdown. She nearly dropped the blanket as she kissed him back, sliding her arms around his neck, clinging tightly to him. She gave herself to him, to the white-hot heat rushing through her veins in a fever of need, allowing the sensation to drive away guilt and fear and replace it with—him—with Kane.