"You just won't stop, will you?" There was warning in his voice.
Tansy met his glittering eyes, not flinching from the arctic chill in his stare. "No, absolutely I won't, not after seeing these men. They aren't going to stop, Kadan, and the police aren't going to find them. They've had all this evidence, and yet no one can find a print, or a motive, or anything but the game pieces. You didn't even know there were eight players before I started helping you."
"Your sanity isn't worth it to me."
She held his gaze, refusing to back down. "It is to me. If I can save one life--prevent a child, a parent, anyone at all from suffering at their hands, you bet it's worth it to me. You're willing to trade your life for your country; well I've got this talent no one else seems to have, and whether it's a gift from God or a mutation, I don't know, and frankly, it doesn't matter. I choose . . ." She looked him right in the eye. "I choose to use it to stop killers. For me, the sun may rise and set with you, you may rule me in the bedroom and every other place, but not in this. In this, I say when I stop, not you."
Kadan tipped his chair back, not saying anything, regarding her through brooding, half-closed eyes. He looked frightening, his face a hard mask, his mouth tight. Her heart began to beat very fast. Kadan would never hurt her, certainly not for taking a stand, not when she was right--not ever. She forced herself to remain silent, not to appease him, although she wanted to. She lowered her eyes and sipped at the tea, holding the mug tight against her throbbing palm, hiding the knife impression from him.
"Your choice was to stop. I dragged you back into it."
She shook her head. "You walked away. You were going to tell them you didn't find me, or that I'd lost my abilities. I chose to come with you."
His jaw tightened. A muscle jerked and his eyes were twin chips of blue ice. "You have no idea the lengths I'd be willing to go to keep you safe."
There was no give in him and he didn't sound loving. He sounded cold and hard and terrifying. She caught a glimpse of that eight-year-old boy who found a gun in a river of his family's blood and chose to pick it up and seek his own brand of justice. He was ruthless and merciless, and he would be even more so protecting her.
"I'm counting on you to keep me safe while I do this, Kadan. But we have to stop them. Not for your friends, but because they're evil and we can't leave them running around loose on innocent people. You know it as well as I do. You have no intention of stopping."
"That's different."
She nearly snorted tea out her nose. "Why? Because you're the heap big man?"
He leaned forward then, the chair legs coming back to the floor with a crash as he bent over the table, catching her chin in his palm. "No. Because you're my woman and I'll be damned if anything happens to you. I didn't feel a whole hell of a lot before I met you, and now that I do, I don't like where it can take me if something bad happens. You don't want to hear this, Tansy, but I'm not all that far removed from the men you're hunting."
"That's not true, Kadan."
"Lie to yourself then, but don't ever be stupid enough to think that I wouldn't kill for you, or die for you. You want to do this, then you do it my way. I mean it, Tansy, you do it my way. That's all I'm going to give up."
"That's not giving up a thing."
"The hell it isn't. I don't want you anywhere near this mess. I can slap your ass in a safe house with ten guards on you around the clock and there's not a thing you can do about it, so don't tell me I'm not compromising here."
"You're being a bastard."
He put both hands on the table and leaned in close again, his voice pitched low, his eyes turning glacier blue. "I am a bastard. It's time you figured that out."
She sat back in her chair, glaring at him over her tea. After a moment of silence she heaved a sigh. "Fine. Tell me how we're doing this."
"You will give me your word of honor that you won't touch anything to do with the murders or the killers or the victims, nothing at all, without me present, and only with gloves. No handling anything without protection."
"I may not be able to track the puppet master," she protested.
"Then it won't happen. Gloves and me, or no handling. Your word."
His implacable tone set her teeth on edge. "Kadan, try to be reasonable. Do you realize how much information I got this time? We haven't even had a chance to go over it."
He didn't reply. He simply stared at her, unyieldingly.
"We can find a way to make it safer."
"Take it or leave it."
She growled at him. "You're so stubborn. Fine, then. You have my word. I could shake you sometimes."
"Well I could paddle you sometimes. So I guess we're even." There was no give in his voice, no triumph, just stating a fact in that wicked, black velvet, suggestive tone.
She had the feeling he was really contemplating turning her over his knee, and something perverse in her had her tingling with unexpected arousal. How did he do that, turn everything into sex with just a tone? She was in for one wild ride with him, but she couldn't let him just take her over. She had to learn to hold her own.
Tansy leaned her chin into her hand. "You've got that look in your eyes."
"What look?"
The one that took her breath away and made her panties damp. And they were arguing over something important.
"The argument is over. We both compromised," he pointed out, reading her mind. His lips curved into a sensual smile. "I'm fortunate that I make your panties damp. Lift up your shirt for me."
She regarded him steadily, wondering if he was challenging her or testing her. She didn't care which it was, she'd told him the truth. If he needed access to her body, she was more than willing to give it to him. She pulled the hem of her shirt up over her breasts and held the material out of the way. His eyes darkened from ice blue to midnight. His fingers trailed over the creamy slopes, brushed over her nipples, and followed the red marks down her body.
"Did you put something on this?" He stroked a caress over one angry streak on her belly.
She nodded. "It looks worse than it is. My skin marks easily."
He tugged her shirt down and leaned over the table to kiss her. "Do you want more tea before we do this?"
"No. Do you have a recorder?"
"It's on the sink. I knew you weren't going to let this go." A ghost of a grin touched his mouth.
She wadded up a paper towel and threw it at him. "I can't believe you."
He placed the recorder on the table and turned it on. "Why was the puppet master thinking about Frog instead of Blade when he carved the knife for Blade?"
"He despises Blade and men like him. He thinks Blade is a bag of hot air and dismisses him even though he runs the team." Triumphantly she glanced at Kadan. That was a confirmation that she'd been correct and Blade was the leader of the East Coast team. "If you can track Frog, using the water business, scuba gear, and being able to hold his breath for phenomenal amounts of time, you should be able to find Blade. They work together."
"In the military."
"I believe they are, or they were. They might have another business, something to do with security." She caught her breath. "Yes. They all run a security company together. That was the puppet master's idea. He made them think it was their idea. He's good at manipulating people. He manipulated Whitney. How? How did you do that? I'm so on you," she whispered. "And you're not going to get away from me."
Kadan stayed in her mind, intrigued by the speed with which she gathered pieces of information from images and thoughts and put them together with amazing accuracy. Her brain amazed him.
"He handpicked these men. For his own purpose. He duped Whitney. Whitney the all powerful." Her eyes lit up and she stabbed a finger toward Kadan. "He worked for Whitney during the testing process, Kadan. Can you track him that way? There have to be records. Whitney couldn't have run the testing. He had to interview only those who got through the first few rounds. And he was testing for psychic ability at that point, not w
hether or not these men were psychologically suited to be enhanced."
"We believe Whitney enhanced a few men who were screened out of the program for his own personal army. A group of men who were tested were listed as missing or dead over the next couple of years, but we found one or two of them very much alive and enhanced. Could these men be part of Whitney's army?"
She shook her head. "No. They had nothing to do with Whitney after he enhanced them. These men belong to the puppet master. He got them through the screening and then somehow through the interview with Whitney. He did it for his own personal gain, no other reason. He had a plan from the beginning. Can you track him?"
"Lily might be able to find out who he is through Whitney's records. Almost all documentation the military had on us was destroyed. What is there is behind a million flags. Whitney experimented on us at his research lab, not on a military base, and only a few people knew."
"You'll have to find those people if you want the puppet master. He's good. Really good if he can slip past Whitney's guard."
"What does he want with the killers? Does he get his kicks out of planning the murders?"
She frowned and rubbed her temples. "He doesn't plan them. The teams do."
Kadan reached across the table and erased a trickle of blood from her nose with the pad of his thumb. "We're done here, baby."
She shook her head. "I can keep pulling out more."
"We're done. You're going to get a brain bleed and then we'll be in trouble. I've got a lot to go on. I think with what you've given me, I might be able to find Frog. Ex-military, or still in it, a security company with his teammates, and an affinity for water."
She leaned her head into her hand again, rubbing. "Don't go in the water with him, Kadan. I can feel that's what you're thinking of doing, making him lead you to his underground colony, but he's at home in the water."
He took her swollen hand and brought it to his mouth. "Don't you worry about me, honey. I know how to take care of myself."
CHAPTER 16
"What's wrong?" Tansy asked as Ryland, Gator, and Nico entered the house.
The sun had gone down, leaving shadows over the windows. She'd had to sleep on and off throughout the day, waiting for her headache to let up. Without the glare of light, her eyes felt better and she was beginning to feel alive again.
The three men collectively winced at her question and then exchanged a long look with one another.
For men who were normally inscrutable, Kadan found it surprisingly easy to recognize trouble the moment he saw the faces of the three GhostWalkers. They looked grim, angry, and very upset that Tansy was in the room with him. There was nothing wrong with Tansy's radar. She picked up the signal almost at the same moment he did.
Kadan. She won't like hearing what we have to say. Her father's involved, Ryland warned. She's in immediate danger.
Kadan felt the blow to his gut, but stayed outwardly impassive. Immediate danger. How?
"Don't!" Tansy said sharply. "If you think you can cut me out of this now, Kadan, I swear I'll walk out of this house. I deserve better than that."
"I thought you were shielding," Ryland said a little sheepishly. "Sorry, Tansy."
"I am shielding. She's very sensitive to vibrations." Kadan reached out and shackled Tansy's wrist, pulling her beneath his shoulder so he could circle her waist with one arm. Don't threaten me like that. You try to walk out and see what happens. He didn't give a damn if all three GhostWalkers knew he was talking telepathically. Her threat had shaken him more than he wanted to admit. In place of ice, there was suddenly a cauldron of fire roaring in his belly.
"We wanted to protect you, chere," Gator added in his thick Cajun drawl.
Tansy shoved at the wall of Kadan's chest, not even rocking him. That took her temper up another notch. "I'm putting myself on the line too. If you have something to say, just tell me. I don't break so easily, and I don't need to be wrapped up in cotton like a doll."
"Settle down, Tansy," Kadan said without looking at her. He couldn't look at her. She thought she was going to walk out of the house? What the hell did that mean? His grip on her waist tightened. "You need coffee, Ryland?"
"I'm not sure we have time for coffee. How well guarded is this place? You have an escape route?"
"Of course. We can defend fairly easily, that's why I chose it. We have a way to the roof and another below-ground if need be. If the bastards want to come for us, they'll get more than they bargained for."
Gator and Nico were already moving to the windows, checking alarms and drawing the drapes. Gator flicked off the lights and went to the next room to do the same there.
"Who's after us?" Kadan asked.
"Our friend in Washington."
"The same one who sent the first team after Tansy?"
Ryland nodded. "They know where she is."
Kadan felt the breath slam out of Tansy's body, but she stayed still, waiting for Ryland's explanation. "Here? They know she's here? How?" He drew her closer, his arm going to an iron band of protection.
"I spent some time with the reporter who broke the story on the murders and how they might be connected." Ryland didn't go into how he'd spent the time with the reporter, but Kadan knew his friend and his patience when it came to getting information. "He was also the one who wrote about Tansy's whereabouts in the Sierras. It seems he was tipped off by a friend of his, a secretary to Senator Freeman's wife, Violet."
"Violet Freeman. She just keeps turning up. You'd think she'd have enough to do with her husband on life support." Kadan shook his head. "We should have capped her when we had the chance."
"Are you talking about Violet Smythe-Freeman? What does she have to do with this? She and the senator are good friends with my parents. I've been to their home any number of times," Tansy said. "Her husband was a presidential candidate and someone shot him in the head, leaving him on life support. It's a terrible tragedy."
"Yeah, a real tragedy," Kadan said. "We all held a candlelight vigil for him."
Tansy frowned. "He was a friend."
"He was a slimebag. He sold out his country, Tansy. He sent a team of GhostWalkers to the Congo, where a particularly vicious rebel leader was waiting to ambush them. The torture a couple of them endured was immeasurable. He then toured Whitney's breeding facility with Violet--yes, she not only knows about Whitney, she's one of his enhanced girls, and she allows his work to continue so that she and her husband can get into the White House. He was shot at Whitney's compound, not as the newspapers reported."
Tansy sank onto the couch. "Are you certain? They've been at my house. Violet and my mother go shopping together. They play cards. They . . ." She trailed off and looked up at Ryland. "What else? Just tell me."
Kadan stood behind the couch, dropping his hands to her shoulders, fingers easing the tension from her. He ached for her. Her world was turning upside down.
"Whitney put a tracking device in all the girls. He surgically implants it in their hips."
Tansy gasped and looked up and back at Kadan, her eyes locking with his.
It's okay, baby. We'll deal with it. He wanted to hold her, rock her, take her somewhere else where all the ugliness was out of her life. Unfortunately, this was their lives and always would be. He had no choice. He was enhanced and so was Tansy. He couldn't change that.
"Your father apparently found out about the tracking device when you were about fifteen or sixteen and had it removed. He told Violet about it. According to the secretary--"
"You talked to the secretary?" Tansy asked.
Ryland shrugged. "We had a little meeting. It seems she enjoys knowing secrets, so she often listens in to Violet's conversations with her guests. She claims Violet initiated the topic of tracking children with your father."
"She's taking a huge risk, spying on Violet," Kadan said. "Violet would have no hesitation killing her."
Ryland nodded. "I did suggest that Ms. Harris get a different job immediately and destroy any tapes she ma
y have. Whether she listens or not is up to her. Meadows knows Violet was one of Whitney's experiments. My guess is she confided in him to gain his trust."
"And then when Whitney lost his tracking device, he sent Violet to find out why," Kadan guessed. "That would be like him. She's playing both sides."
Ryland nodded, avoiding looking at Tansy. "And Meadows planted one of his own when he had Whitney's removed."
"In me?" Tansy leapt off the couch and paced across the room, whirling around to face Ryland, her fingers closed into two tight fists. "My father planted a tracking device in me? They can actually use GPS to find me?"
Ryland nodded. "I'm sorry, but yes, that's what he told Violet. They apparently had a long conversation about how all parents should put them in at birth, and she was interested because the senator might want to bring this up and back the idea. Kidnapped children could be found easily. The conversation was all about what tracking devices could be used for, the good they could do. It also got a little technical on how they work. Violet knew how to find you." Ryland looked at Kadan. "I spent some time with Ms. Harris, and as it turns out, Violet wanted the information about the murders and Tansy given to the reporter. Violet had her secretary leak the information."
Tansy's hand was still over her mouth, her eyes wide. "And the secretary just gave you all this because of the generous good heart that she has?"
"I persuaded her that if she wanted to live a few minutes longer, she'd better tell me the truth," Ryland said without flinching away from her steady gaze.
Tansy glanced at Kadan's impassive face. "You all play for keeps, don't you?"
"Yes, ma'am," Ryland answered. "We've dealt with these people for a long time. Our friends end up dead or tortured. Sometimes both. Violet traded your location, and basically your life, for something big that she wants. What it is I don't know, but the reporter heard a rumor that Senator Freeman was going to undergo some kind of new, experimental brain operation. If that's true, I'm guessing your life is the price someone was asking in order for the senator to be a candidate for the surgery."
"So they're going to come here and kill me." She swallowed hard. "And all of you."
"I would think that was the plan," Ryland agreed. "But we have a few plans of our own."
"Great." Tansy swept a hand through her hair and looked at Kadan. "Can we get rid of the tracking device?"