Christine Feehan

by Deadly Game

  Her leg was bleeding again, and there was a trickle of blood near her ear. Another at the corner of her mouth. Ken wiped it away with his thumb, a warning going off in his mind. The thin trickle returned.

  “I can move things, and I can even make suggestions, have a guard look away, that sort of thing, but I’ve never seen anyone else with the power to control another person’s movements. I didn’t want to come to you, but I couldn’t stop myself,” Mari admitted. She shook her head and wiped at the blood staining her mouth. “Whitney can never find out. Never, Ken, not even accidentally. You can’t do that in front of anyone who might report it to him.” She lifted her head, the color draining from her face. “You didn’t report it, did you? It isn’t written in a file somewhere?”

  “You’re really upset. No, there’s no file. Jack and I try using various talents on our own. If we have them, we practice until we get good at them. We live quietly and we just try different things.”

  “If Whitney knew you could control other human beings, take over their minds like that, he’d never rest until he had you. And he’d definitely want your baby, or …” She broke off. “Can Jack do that? Is Briony really pregnant? Is Whitney after her because she’s going to have a baby? That’s it, isn’t it? That’s why he sent Brett and was so determined I get pregnant. He knows already. You were telling me the truth.”

  “Calm down. You’re trembling, Mari. Whitney is a jackass. Of course he’d want our children. He’s a nutcase and he thinks he can have a superbaby. He doesn’t know what I can or can’t do, other than what he deliberately enhanced.” He used the corner of the shirt she was wearing to wipe at blood dripping steadily from her leg.

  Hurry up, Jack!

  “When he targeted certain psychic talents, he strengthened other ones too, didn’t he?” Mari asked. “That’s what happened to all of us. We don’t tell him everything either, but Ken, this is a major talent. He would want it more than anything else. He’d want a child to have it. He can shape and mold children where he has more trouble with the adults. Adults don’t have as many negative side effects, but he can’t control them so easily. He can’t find out about what you do.”

  Ken was silent a moment, listening to the sound of his own heartbeat. “If he knew, if it came out, say he had access to a file of mine it was recorded in, he’d make a grab for me, wouldn’t he?”

  “He’d move heaven and earth to get to you. He’d pull every string he had in the military and with every official who owes him favors to have access to you.” She shook her head. “Don’t even think about it. I’ve seen him take apart people to see if their brain is different. You’d spend the rest of your life hooked up to machines so he could study your brain activity.”

  Ken didn’t reply. He knew he was a sick son of a bitch to do the things to Mari that he’d done. In spite of what Mari and Jack believed, Ken was certain Whitney had psychic ability and had already discovered the hidden monster in him. His fingers tunneled into Mari’s hair, and he leaned his head to brush a kiss along the top of her head. “You have to stop trying to escape. You could have been killed, you know. You dove out of a moving car without even knowing where you were going to land. You could have hit a tree. As it is, you’re bleeding again.”

  “I didn’t. And you would have done the same thing.”

  “It’s different.”

  “Because I’m a woman?” She snorted. “I’m a soldier first. It’s my duty to escape.”

  He closed his eyes briefly and then opened them to meet her steady gaze. He had to tell the truth, just once. He owed her that much. “Because you’re my woman. I might not be able to have you, but I don’t want you dead.” His fingers moved over her injured hand and dropped to her leg. “Or hurt.”

  Mari looked up at him. “I can’t be your woman if you’re planning on running away from me. Ken, he’s destroying everyone’s life. He has to be stopped. It isn’t just me. There are others, both men and women, he’s got locked up for his stupid breeding program. We can come up with a plan to make this all right.”

  “I’m not a product of his breeding program, Mari; I wish I was. I wish I had that excuse for my behavior, but I don’t. People are born with things wrong with them—little glitches most people ignore or can’t ever see. Mine is dangerous. I may be attracted to you physically because Whitney paired us, but it’s more than that, and whatever it is, it’s growing stronger.”

  “With me too. The more I’m near you, the more I seem to care about you. The sex and the emotion are all woven together. Whitney’s never been able to make me do what I don’t want to do. He can’t control my mind—or emotions—so he isn’t doing this. He tied us together chemically and sexually, but he couldn’t make me want to make everything better for you.”

  “There’s no making it better for me, Mari. The sooner we both accept that, the better off we’ll be. The only thing I can give you is the certainty there will be no other woman. Whatever happens in your life, and I swear, I can’t think about you with another man because it makes me crazy, but whatever happens, wherever you are, you’ll always know there’s no one else for me.”

  “There has to be a way to make this right.”

  “Mari.” His voice was low and compelling, washing through her body like the touch of fingers on skin. “You’re afraid of me, and you have good reason to be. I don’t trust myself and I’m not going to fuck up your life any more than Whitney’s already done. The last thing you need is to be tied to a man who could fly into a jealous rage and do you physical harm.”

  “I’m capable of protecting myself, Ken, and I don’t think you’re the type of man to be beating women.”

  “No, just losing my mind and nearly raping one because another man looked at her.” He shoved a hand through his hair, leaving it more disheveled then ever.

  “I wanted you. I didn’t care the circumstances, or the excuse. I wanted you.”

  “There are things you don’t know about me, none of them good. You’ve been through enough with Whitney and his program. We’re taking you to Lily. She’ll make certain you’re healthy and she’ll help you start a new life.”

  “Lily Whitney, the doc’s daughter?”

  “Don’t say her name like that. She’s as much a victim—maybe more—than any of the rest of us.”

  “You really trust her? I’ve worked with Whitney on and off for years and I sure don’t trust him—or his friends. They know what he’s doing; they don’t approve, but they don’t stop him or even tell someone higher up what’s going on.”

  “Tell us where the compound is, Mari. We’ll get the women out.”

  She shook her head. “You know there’d be a fight. The men would protect the laboratories. Hell. They’re under orders. They have to protect the base.”

  “Then we’ll have the admiral shut it down.”

  “The minute the orders came down, Whitney would move everyone. He’s got places all over, and he’d never willingly allow anyone to shut him down. He’s protected, Ken. You can’t just walk in and get him.”

  “But you thought Senator Freeman might be able to help you.”

  “We hoped. His father has a lot of influence with Whitney. We thought if I talked to him and explained what was really going on, he would intercede for us. We know his father is already upset by the experiment. Whitney wants babies. He’s certain he can produce the perfect weapons, psychically and physically, so that no one would ever suspect a child of being brought into a country and doing whatever needed to be done.”

  “Whitney wouldn’t just give you that information.”

  “No, but I have friends. Not everyone involved agrees with what he’s doing. One of the women is already pregnant, Ken. He’s going to take her baby away from her if we don’t get her out of there. I have to go back and help them.”

  “You wouldn’t have to if I let Whitney get to me.”

  “No! He’d never let you near the others. He’d have you in a lab and dissect you so fast you wouldn’t know wh
at happened.”

  Jack returned, handing Mari the jeans, his gaze narrowing when he saw the blood running down her leg.

  “He’s thinking of allowing Whitney to take him prisoner,” Mari said. “You can’t let him do that.”

  “Actually that’s one way, but I’m thinking maybe the admiral can get me assigned to the compound. If he’s using the military as a cover, and he has soldiers guarding the place, then we should be able to get assigned,” Ken said. “Put your arm around my neck. I’m going to lift you a little so we can slide the jeans on. There’s no need for you to be nude with a bunch of men around.”

  “She’s bleeding again. Why the hell is she bleeding so much?” Jack asked.

  “Be careful,” Ken cautioned as he watched Jack clean up the wound. “Did she reinjure it?”

  Jack was gentle as he slid the jeans over the light cast on her leg. The doctor had put on more of a splint than an actual cast, because he wanted air to get to the bullet wound. “Doesn’t look like it.” Other than the excessive bleeding, her body seemed remarkable, healing at such a rapid rate that both men knew it was impossible even with genetic enhancement. “Whitney shot you full of an accelerant, didn’t he?” Jack asked, his voice grim. “I should have expected he would do something like this.”

  Ken’s fingers tightened to the point of pain on Mari’s shoulders. “He gave you Zenith? Oh, God, baby, tell me you didn’t let him shoot you up with that stuff.”

  “We’re always given a shot of it before every mission, just in case we’re wounded. Isn’t everybody?”

  “When?” Ken snapped, jumping to his feet, Mari in his arms. She had to grab his neck and hold on as he took off for the Escalade at a dead run. “Damn it, Mari, when did he give you the shot? Day and time. Tell me now.”

  Fear put her heart into overdrive. Both of the Nortons were alarmed. “What do you know about Zenith that I don’t?”

  “It can kill you, Mari. Tell me now, how long has it been in your system?”

  Logan held the door open and Ken practically leapt inside, Jack after him. “Tell Lily to send a plane. Not military, private. One of her company planes.”

  “We can’t risk that, Ken,” Logan protested. “What’s going on?”

  “They shot her full of Zenith before they sent her out,” Ken replied. “We have to risk it.”

  Neil put the vehicle in motion, racing down the road. “I can get us there by morning. We’re a few hours out. How much time does she have?”

  Ken swore bitterly, his silver eyes glittering with far too much menace as he exchanged a long look with his brother.

  “Have Lily send the plane, Logan. Tell her to meet us at one of the labs with a medical facility. Tell her we need the antidote for Zenith.”

  “Ryland isn’t going to let her risk her life.” But he flipped open his radio and began talking into it.

  Mari held herself very still. They weren’t joking around. The tension in the Escalade could have been cut with the proverbial knife. Zenith, the drug used to accelerate fast healing, was dangerous, and they all knew it. Why would Whitney pump all of his men full of it before he sent them out on a mission if he knew the drug was dangerous? And if these men knew it was dangerous, Whitney had to know. He was the inventor of Zenith.

  “I should have known; you were healing way too fast even for a GhostWalker. Damn it.” Ken smashed his fist on the seat in front of him. “What the hell was I thinking?” But he knew. And Jack knew. He could see it in his brother’s eyes. He was so fucked up thinking about sex, he hadn’t given much thought to anything else.

  “There’s an airstrip about eighty miles from here. A small farmhouse with a crop-dusting plane. Lily says to make it there and she’ll have a pilot waiting, a friend of hers, not military. She’ll meet us at the underground laboratory where Ryland and his men were first imprisoned. It isn’t far from her house, and no one would think twice about her going there. She works there often. Kadan will be with her to protect her, along with most of Ryland’s crew, so no worries on that score,” Logan announced.

  Ken leaned close to Mari, his breath warm against her ear. “You’re forgetting to breathe. We’ll get you there in time.”

  “How long have you known about Zenith?”

  “Lily found the compound in the laboratory with all the data on it. It clearly works to regenerate cells, but if left in the body too long, it begins to break down the cells and hemorrhaging occurs. And yes, Whitney is well aware of it. It’s his find, his results. Two men died in his laboratory as well as dozens of research animals,” Ken said. “We don’t even mess with the stuff short-term.”

  Mari buried her face against Ken’s shoulder, uncaring that the others would see it as weakness. She wasn’t afraid of being a prisoner. She could endure torture if she had to, but Whitney’s continual betrayal was difficult to take. He’d raised her, had been her only source of information. He’d brought in teachers, but ultimately, she had followed his curriculum. She had learned languages, studied and mastered subjects quickly, and followed the training of a soldier. She was disciplined and proficient with weapons and in hand-to-hand combat, as well as being highly skilled in her psychic talents. Whitney should have been proud of her—of all of them—yet he continued to betray them in every way.

  He was the closest thing any of them had to a parent, and he was cruel and cold, completely without emotion as he conducted his endless experiments. He had grown worse over the years, and now to find out it wasn’t just the women he’d betrayed. The men in the special ops unit had all been given Zenith before they went out.

  Ken’s fingers tunneled in her hair, a slow massage that seemed more soothing than sexual. She was certain he brushed a kiss on the top of her head. “The unit was given orders to go out Monday evening. Whitney was gone, but he left the Zenith for the men to take before they left. His doctor gave the shot to everyone. Sean stole a syringe-full for me. We thought it was a good thing.”

  She felt Ken’s reaction to the name. He took a deep breath and let it out. “This Sean, was he with the team?”

  Mari shook her head. “Not anymore, not usually, but he knew I was going and he didn’t try to stop me. He could have. He guards Whitney and he didn’t want me to go. He said it was too dangerous, but he went along with it this time to protect me.”

  “You’re a trained soldier, why would he say it’s too dangerous?” Ken asked.

  She frowned. “I don’t know. We’re friends. I think he just worries about me.”

  This Sean seems to be around her a lot. Do you think Whitney has paired her with him as well as with Brett and with me?

  Jack glanced up sharply at the edge to Ken’s voice. Not unless he wanted Sean and Brett to kill each other. I wouldn’t share Briony with some other man, and anyone paired isn’t going to want to share either. More likely he’s someone she’s been around and is a friend.

  She may think they’re friends, but old Sean has the hots for her.

  Jack scowled at his brother. You could try to get that jealousy under control. I feel it when men look at Briony, but I have in under control.

  This is me being controlled. I’m not hunting him down to put a fucking bullet in his head, now, am I? Because very soon he had to let Mari go and he wanted her to be happy.

  Brett was going to die, and if he ever touched Mari again, Ken would tear the bastard apart with his bare hands. That was all there was to it. He was going to make certain of that, but Sean—now Sean might be someone Ken could respect—at least enough to let him live, as long as he never thought of Mari and Sean together.

  He tried not to groan aloud and give his thoughts away. Mari was so tuned to him now that, like him, she could catch impressions of what he was thinking. He didn’t want her thinking worse of him than she already must.

  Holding her on his lap was plain stupidity, but he couldn’t let her go. He couldn’t control his body’s reaction, and it was too good to feel alive again. And the more he was around her, the bigger a
reaction he got—and the faster. The painful continual erection was part of the pleasure now, but pain was a small price to pay to be able to feel like a man. He had thought that had been taken from him. Holding her, feeling her body so soft and pliant, the way it fit into his, the curve of her bottom nestled in his lap, the brush of her breasts against his arm, robbed him of his breath and most of his sanity.

  His body throbbed and burned, his raging hard-on constant. Hell, he hadn’t been able to get it up at all after the torture, and now it wouldn’t go away, bulging and painfully swollen with need, wedged along the seam of her buttocks. She couldn’t fail to feel how much he wanted her. The sway of the Escalade only added to his increasing discomfort, as her bottom rubbed over him.

  He was starving to taste every damn inch of her, was desperate for the feel of her bare skin against his—and the heat of his body was affecting her as well. Her breath quickened, her breasts rose and fell beneath the shirt she wore, her body moved restlessly, sliding over his, causing a burst of pleasure throbbing through his cock.

  He needed to slide his hands beneath her shirt and feel hot skin, cup her breasts and tease her nipples into hard peaks. He wanted more than that—so much more. He wanted to eat her like candy, take her fast and rough, hearing her soft little cries, her moans, begging him for more. Always more. He had to keep her wanting him—tie her to him sexually. He could do it—he had no doubts about that.

  Her mouth was made for kissing, for sex. He could only fantasize about her mouth around his cock, her teeth scraping over the scars, her tongue dancing over him. She would be kneeling in front of him, cupping his sac, her fingernails raking over him, drawing out his pleasure, and all the while her chocolate eyes would be locked with his, while she took him down her tight, hot throat, watching what she did to him—loving what she was doing to him.