Ruthless Game

CHAPTER 13

Rose liked Paul Mangan right away. He looked very young with his freckles and his wide-eyed innocence. It was more than obvious that he was of Irish descent. He looked a bit awkward and blushed every time he snuck a glance at her. He was tall and slender, with fine hands, almost delicate. She couldn’t imagine him as a soldier, let alone him going into combat. While Javier Enderman looked young and could easily pass for a teenager, he had a steely strength about him, and if one looked into his eyes, there was no way they wouldn’t feel a chill go down their spine. The killer was in those cold, flat, very hard eyes. But Paul ... He was altogether different. He just didn’t look like he belonged in the Marine Corps, let alone have Special Forces training as well as what it took to become a GhostWalker.

Don’t underestimate him, Rose, Kane cautioned as he came into the room.

She couldn’t imagine that Paul could possibly see to the health of her child. He barely looked her in the eye, but the moment Kane walked into the room, he seemed entirely different. Rose frowned, watching the boy—no—man. He was definitely a man. His face changed very subtly, which told her part of what she saw was an illusion. She knew all about illusions; she could change her looks subtly or even blatantly if need be. Paul obviously had the same ability to a lesser degree, but why would he need to do so there in the safety of Kane’s home?

She studied him as he shook Kane’s hand and turned toward her for an introduction, nearly bowing, blushing redder than ever.

“It’s nice to meet you, ma’am.”

Can he even shoot a gun? She carefully avoided looking at Kane, afraid she’d laugh. “Nice to meet you too. I understand you might be able to look Sebastian over and tell us if he’s truly healthy without his blood leaving our home.”

His father is Sergeant Major Theodore Griffen. He grew up shooting guns. I doubt that the military would have ever been his thing, he’s a gentle man, probably more like his mother than father, but he has an amazing and coveted psychic talent. Whitney would probably kill us both gladly to get his hands on Paul. No one knows about Paul outside of our team.

“I can certainly try. Kane, you need to rest more. You aren’t completely healed.” He frowned, his eyes nearly glowing as he stared at Kane’s chest and abdomen, clearly looking through skin, deeper into his damaged organs.

Tell me about him.

Rose found Paul fascinating. His gaze was sharp and focused; his entire demeanor changed. There were frown lines around his mouth and brow, and all of a sudden she could see the quick intelligence she’d missed before.

Obviously he’s a genius, like Jaimie. He graduated from high school at thirteen and holds multiple doctorates in chemistry, math, and something else I can’t remember. He also has a BA in at least three other subjects. His mother is Shiobhan Mangan, an ambassador’s daughter and the current ambassador to Ireland. She kept her last name and they gave it to Paul because when they first were married, Sergeant Major had quite a few enemies.

She studied Paul’s face. He doesn’t belong in the military. He has too much empathy to kill, Kane. He shouldn’t be around violence.

No. They put him with us to protect him from Whitney. His psychic ability is ... amazing. But don’t shortchange him; Paul gets the job done when it’s needed.

“Who did this surgery?” Excitement edged Paul’s voice.

Rose tensed. There was no way he could know. No way. Just in case, she eased away from the two men, putting a little distance between them.

“Eric Lambert,” Kane replied.

Paul shook his head impatiently, brushing off the quick answer. “No, before the doc. Who was in the field with you? Who worked on you in the field?”

Kane shrugged. “Sorry, Paul, it was one of the team. I was out of it.” He looked at Rose. “Do you remember?”

She avoided his eyes. She had promised herself she would never lie to him, and if they were alone ...

“I do,” Javier stirred from the shadows.

Rose jumped. She’d almost forgotten about him. He blended, perfectly still, until he was part of the wall he had draped himself on. His gaze moved over her with open speculation—and something else. If she had done anything at all to harm Kane ... She shivered at the dark promise there. She was very good at assessing threats, and in spite of all the skills the rest of this team had, Javier was truly the most dangerous—and unpredictable—of them all. His protective and loyalty instincts must have been off the charts when they tested him.

“What’s wrong, Paul?” Javier continued.

“Brilliant fieldwork. He would have bled out, but someone repaired the artery; I just can’t see how.” Paul narrowed his gaze, stepping closer to Kane and actually crouching down to peer upward toward his abdomen and chest.

“There’s a definite wound site, the artery spliced together in some way.”

The darkness gathering in Javier’s eyes disappeared, and he flashed Rose a smile. “You saved your man, didn’t you? What exactly did you do?”

Paul pushed Kane’s shirt out of the way. “Clean cut. This is where he went in . . .” He broke off as Javier’s words penetrated. He blinked rapidly as if coming back from a great distance. Very slowly he stood, regarding Rose with awe. “You did this? How? You have to tell me what you did.” Excitement made his voice shake. “You know you saved his life. He would have bled out in minutes.”

Kane must have sensed her reticence, because he reached out and took her hand, rubbing the pad of his thumb over her knuckles. The small gesture comforted her. She shrugged, trying to look casual. They thought they knew about protecting themselves from Whitney, but she’d been under the scrutiny of cameras and microphones nearly all of her life. She knew what it was like to live under a microscope. It had become obvious, at a very early age, that each of the girls Whitney was experimenting on needed to hide as many of their abilities from him as possible.

She thought she’d have the chance to learn trust slowly—with just Kane. She hadn’t counted on his family. His team, with the exception of Paul, had grown up together, and Kane trusted all of them. He expected her to do the same. Panic hovered close. She could barely breathe.

You can do this, sweetheart. You don’t have to answer questions. This is your home. There are no expectations.

His voice caressed her. She forced her head up and looked into his eyes. She could live there. The way he looked at her—as if she was his entire world—it was a heady, potent experience, one she didn’t entirely trust. But she wanted to trust him. She wanted this to work. When she made up her mind to do something, she committed 100 percent. She wasn’t going to wimp out now.

“Rose, please,” Paul’s voice trembled with excitement.

“This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen and—seriously—the closest thing to what I can do. I’ve never met anyone like me.”

She heard the loneliness—the idea that he could be a freak of nature. All of them battled with being “different.” They always would. She could see how isolated Paul must have felt growing up. His father was a big man, a man who was disciplined and understood violence. Paul was just the opposite—a natural-born healer with tremendous empathy for those around him. His father probably had tried to understand him, but how could he? The boy was sensitive, and the idea of killing had to be abhorrent to him.

In some ways, even among the GhostWalkers, Paul was still isolated. He wasn’t a soldier by choice. He was far too empathetic to kill. He was a healer, a poet, a man whose very soul cried out for gentleness, yet he was surrounded by extremely violent men. She could see both Kane and Javier were protective of him, but they didn’t understand him.

“How? You have to tell me how.”

While she could do some extraordinary things, she wasn’t quite as empathetic. She made a good soldier and she knew she did. Paul seemed a little lost. She looked from him to Javier and Kane. These men had accepted the boy into their world—their family. They offered him their loyalty and complete acceptance, which he obviously needed. He would give the same back to them tenfold.

If it’s easier, Rose, I can take Javier into the other room.

She took a breath and shook her head. She suddenly found she wanted to be a part of them as well. She wanted that same acceptance. If she became one of them—like Paul had become one of them—Javier would give her the same loyalty he gave his family members. She wanted his respect and his protection, for her and for Sebastian. It was difficult to let go of her fears—she had so many—but she’d always believed in facing her fears.

“I’m able to visualize in my head what’s going on in someone’s body under extreme circumstances.” She chewed nervously on her lower lip, trying to find the words to describe how the talent manifested itself. “I feel heat in my fingertips first. And then my palms. Eventually my hands get so hot it feels as if they’re burning.”

Paul nodded. “The nerves are raw, and the heat starts running up your arms.”

Rose’s gaze jumped to him. He understood. He actually understood the manifestation. They smiled at each other. “The first time it happened, I was seven, and one of the girls, Thorn, stopped breathing. We all loved her so much. I was panic-stricken. We all were. Whitney had just left the room, and Thorn suddenly dropped to the floor. She’d been defying him, and he’d used electric shock on her. I ran to her, and my hands burned. I knew I had to . . .”

“Touch her. Put your palms on her,” Paul interrupted.

Rose forgot everyone else in the room. She nodded, her heart pounding hard. “It was more instinct than anything else. Once I touched her, I could see her heart wasn’t pumping. It had stopped. I could see it in my head.”

“And in response, you felt the electrical current needed to jump-start her,” Paul said, “running through your own body. It’s as if our bodies provide what’s missing from those hurt or injured in some way. I always refer to it as psychic healing.”

“How does it work?”

“I don’t know. I’ve tried studying what happens to me when I run across someone damaged. Each response is different. I see the patient in colors. Is it like that for you?”

She shook her head. “Not really. When I lay my palms on their skin, I see inside their bodies, not through my eyes but in my head, as if skin to skin, I absorb them into me.”

Kane’s fingers tightened around her, startling her, drawing her attention. She looked at him, almost afraid of what she’d see. Seeing inside someone was a strange, freaky experience. Having her own body react to theirs was almost an intimacy, a bonding between the two bodies, hers providing whatever the other needed. She didn’t tell anyone if she could help it and she never elaborated on what happened—she didn’t want to think about what happened. It was frightening and exhilarating. It was also very, very painful.

Her eyes met Kane’s. There was nothing but awe. Respect. Love. Her heart fluttered in her chest, and she swore her knees went weak. He had a way of looking at her. Hungry predator. Intense desire. Amazing, absolute devotion. All the emotions were there for her, and he didn’t try to hide them. It was always a little difficult for her to believe he could feel those things for her, but she was trying.

“You saved my life.” Kane brought her hand up to his mouth. “Didn’t you?”

She shook her head. “I gave you a chance. I’m not adept at healing. I can only do it in a crisis. I managed to repair the severed artery, but I wasn’t certain it would hold, so I actually held it together until we got to the airfield. They’d set up for surgery right there. The doctor who did the surgery fixed everything else as well. The bullet ricocheted around in there and did a lot of damage. You were in surgery over three hours, and they nearly lost you twice, Kane.”

“He would have died in the helicopter if it wasn’t for you,” Javier said. “We’re all very grateful to you.”

Rose was so startled, she actually took a step back. Javier seemed to disappear and then just emerge from the wall itself. She put a hand to her throat, shocked at the way he was looking at her as well. She had gone from potential enemy to reserved acceptance. She was grateful she was on his good side.

“I don’t know what happens,” she admitted. “My body takes over my brain and just acts. I barely remember what I did.”

“You cut him open and put your hand inside of him,” Javier said.

She shivered, remembering his reaction. Javier had placed a knife to her throat. The gesture had seemed casual but was anything but. She’d kept working, knowing she didn’t have much time. She’d found the severed artery and repaired it within minutes, shouting for Mack to give Kane her blood immediately.

It had all been hazy from the moment she’d pulled Kane into the helicopter, “saw” the severed artery, and cut him open. Mack hadn’t hesitated, starting the transfusion immediately, even as Gideon gave him plasma. She’d been so frightened, wanting to grab Sebastian and leap from the helicopter, taking her chances with the unknown rather than with these grim-faced strangers without Kane.

Oddly, it had been Javier who helped her. He held her stable through the flight, using his own body to prop her up. He’d asked one of the others to slip makeshift pillows under her arms to help keep them up and then had her covered with a warm blanket as she crouched over Kane. Her blood flowed into Kane’s body in a desperate attempt to keep him from bleeding to death, while her fingers, deep inside his body, had reinforced her repair of the artery. She would never forget that incredible helicopter ride as she tried to breathe for Kane, willing him to live with every ounce of strength she possessed.

“Whitney never found out about you?” Kane asked.

She shook her head. “I told you, even as children we knew we had to hide our gifts from him. He might help us develop them, but had he known about me, he would have put the other girls in jeopardy just to see me use it. He can be very cruel. He doesn’t look at it that way. Everything he does, for him, is justified in the advancement of science.”

“That’s why you have such a difficult time with Eric,” Kane guessed.

Rose nodded. “His need to learn can outweigh his moral scruples. Once a man believes that an individual doesn’t count for the good of the masses, he crosses a line and is capable, in the name of science, of anything. Whitney crossed that line a long time ago. He believes himself far above everyone else in intellect. He has powerful friends who aid him. That only feeds his ego and belief that he’s above the rest of humanity. Laws don’t apply to him.”

“Can you see the fantastic job Dr. Lambert did?” Paul asked, indicating Kane.

She shook her head. “It never happens unless there’s a crisis. That’s why I can’t be certain Sebastian is completely healthy. I know he’s not in immediate danger, but I can’t examine him.”

“Do any of the other women have this talent?” Paul asked.

“We stopped sharing information fairly early on because he recorded our conversations. Most of us became very secretive. Whitney believed we each had one strong talent and maybe another to a far lesser degree. It wasn’t until he began experimenting on adults that he discovered there could be more than one strong psychic talent in one individual. He isolated us after that, but we’d learned to be vigilant by that time.”

Kane tugged at her hand, a little disconcerted to have Paul staring at his insides. “Come take a look at the baby, Paul.”

“I’ve never really examined an infant,” Paul hedged. “I’m not certain I’m really qualified to do this.”

“You’re what we have,” Kane said. “That makes you qualified. Take a look at him.” He stepped back to allow Paul into the bedroom where the small crib was.

Rose hovered close as Paul approached the crib. Kane indicated for Javier to follow him out of the room. He wanted to know exactly what threats his family faced. Rose wouldn’t leave Sebastian’s side while Paul was with him, giving him the opportunity to assess the risks.

“Where’s Mack?” he demanded.

“Didn’t Paul just tell you to rest?” Javier asked, one eyebrow raised.

“The hell with that. What’s going on, Javier? Half the team is missing, and don’t tell me they’re out on a mission somewhere.”

Javier shrugged and swaggered into the kitchen to pour himself a cup of coffee. “Mack will be here in a few minutes. He wasn’t that far behind us. You got yourself a good woman. She admits she learned to be secretive, yet she’s obviously disclosing information to us in an effort to show good faith. That takes a great deal of courage.”

Kane glanced up at the admiration in Javier’s voice. Javier rarely showed inner thoughts or allowed real emotion to surface.

“You should see her in action,” Kane said, “No hesitation, Javier. None. She gets the job done.”

“I can see that in her. I put a knife to her throat, Kane. When she was cutting you open on the helicopter. One moment we’ve pulled you aboard, blood all over the place, and the next she’s on her knees, slicing into your belly. It scared the holy hell out of me. I thought she was hacking you up, she was that fast. I put my blade against her neck, tight enough to cut the skin, and she never so much as flinched. I swear she didn’t even bat an eyelash. She just kept working fast. Your blood was all over her, and she was shouting orders to all of us. In the end we just did what she said. She’s one cool customer.”

“I should beat you to a bloody pulp for threatening her,” Kane said, “but it wouldn’t do a bit of good. You’d do the same thing again.”

“I’ve never seen anything like that, Kane,” Javier answered seriously, leaning back against the sink, coffee mug in hand. “Seriously, she moved so fast, no wasted effort, cut right into you in front of us, no hesitation, not even when I threatened her. She’s a very unusual woman—and dangerous.”

Kane’s gaze flicked over Javier. “You admire her.”

“Damn right. She reminds me a little of Rhianna.”

Javier rarely mentioned Rhianna Bonds. She’d grown up with them on the streets of Chicago, the only other girl in their “family.”

“Does she?” Kane wasn’t altogether certain he was happy Javier thought that. Although he never admitted it, Javier was obviously crazy about Rhianna in a weird, possessive kind of way. Kane didn’t want Javier looking at Rose that way.

Javier nodded. “Rhianna doesn’t seem to have a fear factor, other than when it comes to me, where Rose battles fear, but they both are very dangerous.”

“And you like dangerous women.”

Javier shrugged. “They’re intriguing to me. That edge you come up against. She might kiss you or stick a knife in you. You never know what you’re waking up to.”

Kane burst out laughing. “Well, she did shove a gun in my gut,” he admitted. “She was very serious about it too. That’s when I ditched my locator.”

“Mack was pissed about that, Kane. It was just as well you nearly died, because he would have killed you himself.” Javier took a slow sip of coffee, obviously savoring the blend, before scrutinizing Kane over the steaming mug. “You scared us all, bro.”

Kane heard the sincerity in Javier’s voice. The man rarely showed emotion; although all of them knew he felt it deeply, he just buried it equally as deep.

They both turned as a cursory knock on the door preceded a flashing alarm as Mack shoved the door open before the alarm had time to deactivate. Mack cursed and paused long enough to punch in the code again.

“Damn thing. Jaimie has to speed that up,” he groused. “Can’t even keep up with me.” His gaze ran over Kane, clearly assessing his condition. There was a shadow of worry in his eyes and few more worry lines etched into his face Kane hadn’t remembered seeing. “You’re finally on your feet. That woman is fucking overprotective of you.” His voice was gruff, almost hoarse, both accusing and shaken at the same time.

Kane grinned at him. “I could get used to it.”

“Well, don’t. You ever scare the shit out of me like that again, and I’ll put a bullet in you myself. We clear on that?”

“Yeah, Top, I get it.”

“Good. We’ve got that settled. Is Paul looking after the baby?” Mack pointed to the coffeepot.

Javier obligingly poured him a cup of coffee.

“He’s in the other room with Rose, who most likely heard the alarm and covered you with a gun. She’s a little edgy like that.”

Mack threw himself into a chair and pressed his fingers to his eyes. “She’ll need it. Damn cartel is a little pissed off at her, Kane.”

Kane took the blow stoically, but for a moment the blood thundered in his ears. He sank down into a chair, feeling a little weak in the knees. “It isn’t enough Whitney is after her? Tell me what’s going on, Mack.”

The infamous Lopez family was notorious for their bloody sieges and brutal retaliation. They’d virtually declared war on their own government, targeting policemen and their families, wiping them out, decapitating them and leaving their bodies in plain sight for all to see. They had begun going after the politicians recently, ambushing the cars carrying them, killing their military escorts, and carrying out their brutal death threats. Bombs were frequent, blowing up police stations and cars on the roadways.

“Diego Jimenez made a deal with Whitney,” Kane explained. “Whitney supplied Jimenez with guns and ammunition and probably money in order for him to fight the former president. That made Jimenez very unpopular with all of the cartels, but the Lopez family in particular. Apparently they targeted Jimenez’s family, and when he found himself dying of cancer and Whitney was willing to do anything to get Rose back, he found a way, he thought, to get the cartel off his family’s back.”

Kane raked his fingers through his hair and huffed out his breath, a sure sign for those who knew him that he was angry. “Rose nursed the old man through his dying days, but he sold her out to the cartel, trading her life for his sons’. He told the cartel where she was and what she was worth to Whitney. They know her identity, and they know she was involved in the deaths of the cartel members sent to acquire her. Damn Jimenez. If he wasn’t already dead, I’d kill him myself.”

The sound of soft, feminine laughter whispered inside his head. He glanced up and met Rose’s laughing eyes. His stomach did its famous flip, and his body stirred to attention. It took a moment to realize her laughter was for him alone and the intimacy of the moment shook him.

She pushed herself off the wall. “It was a natural conclusion, Kane. I knew they’d blame me. They had my name and they lost at a lot of their men. They seek vengeance as a rule; it’s how they keep everyone afraid of them. They have to blame someone for all those deaths, and I’m all they’ve got. It was a war zone out there. There’s no trace of any of you. Whitney’s men probably cleaned up their bodies, so what’s left as an explanation? They have to find me and get their answers.” She shrugged her shoulders. “You would have figured it out if you hadn’t been unconscious and recovering for so long.”

“You might have told me,” Mack pointed out.

She stood still for a moment, her dark eyes searching his face. “Yes. I should have. I’m sorry for that. I knew it wasn’t just going to go away, and by being with you all, it would put you in jeopardy as well. I should have said something.”

Mack nodded, accepting her apology. “Jaimie is very good at hearing threats in chatter. She monitors everything, and about three weeks ago, we realized the head of the Lopez cartel had reached out to one of the gangs affiliated with them here in the States, and your name came up.”

“And yet you didn’t mention this to me.”

Mack’s expression didn’t change as he briefly nodded. “That’s true. Perhaps I should have said something.”

Kane looked from one to the other. “Are we at war?”

Mack flashed him a grin. “Not me.” He held up his hands in surrender. “She saved your life, bro. I owe her for that. And she gave me the most amazing nephew in the world. So permanent truce. Although, you know, I expect her to marry your ass. I had Jaimie do the preliminary paperwork.”

Rose went a little pale while Mack looked wholly pleased with himself.

Kane grinned at Rose. “Get used to it, sweetheart. He bosses all of us. I guess you’ll have to marry my ass. Boss man says so.”

“Both of you are crazy.”

“You knew that going into it.”

“I’m going to ignore both of you.”

“You do that,” Mack approved. “Just say ‘I do’ at the appropriate moment, and all will be well.”

She frowned, obviously not really understanding or taking him seriously. Kane knew better. He shot Mack a warning glance. “Paul, is Sebastian healthy?” he asked, changing the subject.

Paul hovered just outside the door, looking awkward. His face lit up. “Very healthy, Kane. He’s unusually strong. He’s also alert and aware of what’s going on around him. When I came into the room, he locked onto me right away, without blinking, almost uncomfortably so, like a predatory animal might. I know you have feline DNA and Rose admitted she did as well. He has a few traits that make me think he’s developing at a faster rate than most children, but I’m not a baby expert.”

Kane frowned. “Are you saying he’s part animal? Should we expect claws?”

Paul hastily shook his head. “No, no, of course not. I’m just saying you might want to expect unusual behavior rather quickly from him. His lungs, heart, every organ is in perfect working order. He’s extremely healthy. Really. Nothing crazy, no leopard skeletons inside of him, but his intelligence shines through. Looking at him, you get the feeling he understands. When Rose introduced me to him, that alert stare vanished, and he seemed just like a normal baby, checking out a stranger.”

The explanation tumbled out. Paul talked fast, stumbling over his words, trying to convey something intangible when it was impossible. Kane understood. He’d noticed Sebastian’s strange stare as well as the too intelligent look the boy often gave him. “Thanks for taking a look at him, Paul.”

“When I gave him a few strength tests, he pushed back hard, harder than I ever expected a child his age to be able to do.” Again the words fell nearly on top of one another. It was apparent Paul was eager to discuss the baby and all the possibilities he presented, or at least to bounce his ideas off them.

“You know you can’t mention Sebastian to anyone,” Mack said, startling Kane.

Rose threw him a grateful glance.

That pulled Paul up short. He flushed. “Of course not. Never outside this room and never to anyone not a member of our team.”

“Our family,” Mack corrected. “Some others consider themselves part of us, but they’re not. You protect Sebastian in the same way we protect one another.”

“I got it, Top,” Paul assured.

He looked so awkward, Kane took pity on him. “Coffee’s on, Paul. We were just discussing what Mack’s found out about the threat hanging over Rose’s head.”

Paul threw him a grateful look and headed to the coffeepot.

“What exactly is the threat, other than they know my name?” Rose asked. “As far as I know, none of them saw me alive.”

“There was an old woman,” Mack reminded. “Her name is Olivia Lopez Martinez. Her son was guarding the outskirts of town when the two of you were escaping.

Apparently you pretended to be in labor. Apparently she took your picture.”

Rose’s dark eyes went wide. “Damn it. Just damn it. She was my neighbor, and she seemed such a nice woman.”

“She introduced you to Diego Jimenez.” Kane made it a statement.

I’d been so alone, felt so vulnerable, there in a foreign country with no real knowledge of how to live day to day without being in a military complex. I gravitated toward the elderly to tap into their knowledge and because they were far less threatening. I can barely believe that sweet old lady was born into the cartel.

“She did,” she acknowledged out loud. She looked at Kane, wanting to apologize, needing him to understand.

I brought another enemy straight to their door. It isn’t as if they don’t have too many against them already. I’m so sorry, Kane. I was so scared when it came closer to the baby being born.

Kane stood up, not quite with his usual fluid grace, but he managed without a cane, and went to her, wrapping his arm around her waist. She moved into him, nearly melting into his skin, slipping beneath his shoulder as if she just, for one moment, needed his strength.

“I’m sorry,” she said aloud to Mack. “It was stupid of me to trust any of them. She seemed so harmless, and I was about to give birth. I can leave . . .”

“Don’t be ridiculous. This is your home,” Mack snapped, impatience crossing his face. “We don’t turn tail and run, and we sure don’t throw our family members to the wolves.”

“They kill everyone. They’ll go after Jaimie.”

Javier had slid back into the shadows; now he stirred, drawing her attention, quite frankly startling her. Kane felt her jump. He was used to Javier disappearing on them, fading into whatever was solid behind him, but Rose scowled.

“Stop doing that. I’m going to have a heart attack.”

He flashed a small, unrepentant grin. “I need the practice. Don’t you worry about Jaimie, Rose. She can handle herself, and she’s got all of us. No one’s going to get to Jaimie.”

Kane felt a shiver run through Rose, and he tightened his arm around her. Javier is on our side, Rose. He’d die for Jaimie—and for you and Sebastian. More important, he’d kill for you. He’s a good man. He lives by a strict code. He’s a man of honor.

I believe that, Kane, but I also believe it would never be a good idea to cross him—or betray him.

She was a good judge of character, no doubt about it. He rubbed her rib cage with gentle fingers, soothing her as he turned his attention back to the matter of the cartel. “Do they know she’s with us?”

“Of course not. They have no idea. Whitney sure isn’t going to give her up to them. More likely, we’ll get an influx of his men hanging around to help protect her—or snatch her if they get the chance. They’ll just muddy the waters for us,” Mack groused.

“So what are you worried about?”

“They have her picture. It’s been circulating, and they’ve got bounty hunters looking for her. They put a hefty price on her head.”

Kane took the body blow without flinching. His hand found hers, threading his fingers through hers in silent reassurance.

“What are we doing about it, Mack?” He knew Mack. There was already a plan in motion.

Mack’s smile was anything but pleasant. “We’re adept at urban warfare; they’re adept at killing unarmed, terrified people. We have as good—or better—weapons than they do. If they’re stupid enough to come at us, they’re going to get a fight they won’t believe.”

“I don’t understand what that means,” Rose said.

“It means,” Kane explained, “that if they find you here, if any bounty hunter finds you here, we’ll take the fight right back to them.”

“And shove it up their ass,” Javier added. “If you’ll excuse my language, ma’am.”

“You can’t invade a foreign country,” Rose said. “It would cause an international incident. Every GhostWalker could be in trouble.”

Mack shrugged. “They’d have to catch us first, baby sister, and that just isn’t going to happen. We’re ghosts, remember?”

“Have you sent them a message, Top?” Kane asked.

“Not yet. We’ll deliver it though, personally, if and when it’s needed.”

Kane frowned and shook his head, his body straightening. “No one is doing my job for me. I’ll take the message to them myself.”

Rose tightened her fingers around his and stepped in front of him, as if she could physically block his body from harm. “No one is going to deliver any message. They don’t have a clue where I am. They don’t know about any of you or what you do. If you go throwing down the gauntlet, you’ll be stirring up a hornet’s nest. Right now they’re looking for a pregnant woman worth a lot of money to a crazy billionaire. They don’t know about any of you. They know about Whitney, the man who supplied weapons and Humvees to the rebels. They think he killed all of their people trying to acquire me.”

There was a small silence. “She’s probably right about that, Top,” Kane said. “The cartel has to think Whitney’s men shot them all to hell.”

“In fact, they did,” Rose pointed out. “We only were responsible for a couple of them, and remember, they think I was a hostage.”

“Is the word on the street to kill her?”

“Dead or alive,” Mack’s voice was grim. “Preferably alive, but they’ll take what they can get. It’s more money if she’s delivered alive.”

“They plan on taunting Whitney with her,” Javier said. “Showing him they will retaliate.”

“The bottom line for me,” Kane said, “is that they said dead or alive. That’s unacceptable.”

“You can’t go to war with the cartel,” Rose said.

The three men smiled at one another, and there was nothing at all pleasant about those smiles.