Street Game (GhostWalkers #8)(80)
Author: Christine Feehan

As for her databases, she either developed them herself, or she stole them. Jaimie was resourceful, which made her invaluable to Colonel Wilford whenever he wanted information for his teams. Mack knew she still worked for the colonel and because her skills were needed on the computer, they didn’t insist she do fieldwork. That and the fact that it was common knowledge that anyone wanting Jaimie was going to have to go through Mack to get her kept her safe.

He rubbed his pounding temples. He was exhausted with trying to keep so many people protected. Do you have anything on that address for me, Javier?

Javier didn’t ask which address and Mack was grateful. A headache was kicking in hard. Talk flowed around him, Kane had picked up the slack immediately, but Joe was watching his face and Mack knew little escaped those eagle eyes. He kept his face without expression.

It looks like a drop to me, Mack. An apartment building in Virginia.

Who owns the building? Who is the apartment registered to?

That’s the thing I find interesting. A man by the name of Earl Thomas Bartlett owns the building. He appears to have no social security number and no driver’s license, yet he owns several companies. There’s a Lansing International based in Nevada he recently acquired and a company called International Investments. He has an entire list of companies in various states, all international. He owns a Falcon 2000

executive jet that seems to be able to land on any of our military bases in any part of the world, which he acquired from Lansing before he ever took over the company.

And Mack . . . Jaimie has a file on him as well.

He shouldn’t have been surprised by anything she did, but he was. Jaimie was thorough. When she began digging, she wasn’t going to let anything stop her. What’s in the file?

I have no idea. Jaimie’s private files are encrypted. I wouldn’t be in the databases except that she gave me a password to use on this particular machine for the various databases she’s tapping into.

Javier, how much trouble is she in?

There was another long silence. Honestly, boss, it’s hard to tell with Jaimie. She covers her ass, and I don’t think a computer working on her encryption could break it in a hundred years—she’s that good. But she’s got stuff here I’ve never seen before.

And Mack. Javier hesitated. She’s not working alone.

The words were a punch in the gut. Mack cursed under his breath. Are you certain?

She’s not only backing up her work; she’s sending it to someone else.

Damn her. I swear I’m going to wrap my fingers around her throat and strangle her. Mack flexed his fingers and shot Jaimie a glare. Joe watching him be damned. He would shake her until her teeth rattled. Why hadn’t she told him?

Boss. If you kill her, do I get all this cool equipment?

I’m not in the mood, Javier. Who is it? Can you get me a name?

Not a chance, Top. Remember that encryption program Jaimie was telling us about? Well, she uses it. I can’t hack her mail.

Do whatever she did to get into Paul’s. You were there. She talked you right through it.

Not exactly. She knows the code, not me. She told me what she did, not how she did it. She has a backdoor into the program, boss, not me. I could search for . . .

Yeah, I get it. A hundred years.

More like a thousand, boss.

It felt like a betrayal to him. She had been corresponding with someone else, sharing her data, her conclusions, her suspicions—with someone other than him. And she hadn’t told him. Had he really lost her trust to that extent? The blow was enormous. He stood up so abruptly his chair nearly fell over. Kane caught it, shooting him a strange look, but Mack paced away from them, wishing them all gone. Needing them to be gone so he could be alone to reason out the why of it. Why had Jaimie kept this from him?

It seemed impossible to separate his emotions, as intense as they were. Jaimie was his. His world. They’d talked about resolving their issues. Hell, they’d shared the best sex he’d ever had in his life. Everything was right. But this . . . Why hadn’t she told him she wasn’t working alone on trying to expose Whitney and whoever was backing him?

Kane, get them out of here.

What’s wrong?

I’ll tell you later. After he strangled her.

He stalked across the room, vaguely aware of Kane closing down the meeting with the others, filling them in on the plan to retrieve the weapons. Mack stared down at Jaimie’s face. So innocent. So pale. Her midnight black hair, so dark it gleamed bluish black whenever the light hit it, only made her skin look almost a pearl white.

Her lashes were thick and long and every bit as dark as her hair. There was even a curl on the ends of them, hardly surprising when her hair was so naturally curly.

He reached down and pushed the coil of tubing from around her arm and gathered her into his arms. She stirred, her lashes fluttering, lifting. Her eyes were so blue, like the deepest sea.

“Mack,” she said his name softly, a drowsy, slumberous, oh-so-sexy note.

Her smile was slow, drawing his attention to her mouth. The one he spent far too much time fantasizing over. His stomach did a slow roll in time to her smile. “That’s right, baby. It’s Mack. I’m putting you to bed and sending everyone home.” He bent his head to brush a kiss over her forehead. “You’d better not be giving other men that particular smile.”

“I reserve it just for you,” she assured.

He carried her across the room to their bed. He was glad they hadn’t gotten rid of the twin-sized thing she’d been sleeping in. The bed was tucked along the side wall.

Kane would have something to sleep on with Ethan in his bed.

I’m assigning Brian to Sergeant Major. We’ll put him in his room. There’s no way to trace him there, Kane said.

Sounds good. I’ll need Javier and Gideon to go with me to Washington.

I knew you were going to go, Kane said, resignation in his voice.

You might want to see if Joe can communicate telepathically. If so, put him on the roof when we’re gone. If not, Lucas would be my next choice.

Anything else?

Don’t get anyone killed while I’m gone.

I’ll do my best, boss.

CHAPTER 16

“What are you doing?” Jaimie asked, coming up behind Mack. She’d known the moment he’d left her bed.

Light was creeping into the windows. The sun could barely make it through the thick fog drifting in off the ocean, casting gloom over the early-morning light. She’d followed him on bare feet down to her workroom after making a cup of tea, more to give herself time to assess her feelings than for the need of her early-morning cup.