“I wish I could, but even if we were on the same side, they’re going to come looking for me and someone will end up hurt. I may be able to sneak back into the compound before Whitney realizes I’ve ever been gone. My people are going to try to make that happen.”
“Just give us the location of the compound, and we’ll be happy to escort you home,” Jack suggested.
“And you’d bring a few of your friends just to make it fun,” Mari said. She waved him away. “I’m tired. You can interrogate me later, okay?”
“Take another drink of water.” Ken slipped his arm behind her back again. “We can’t risk you getting dehydrated.”
“Did she do much damage to her leg?” Jack asked.
Mari closed her eyes and turned her face away from them. She liked them. She even understood them. They were soldiers. She respected that. They were doing their job and they very well could be on the same side—she was fairly certain they were—but she couldn’t chance risking everyone’s life to find out.
She inhaled, dragging Ken’s masculine scent into her lungs. She’d been more stimulated, more humiliated, and more exhilarated than she’d ever been in her life. She had to escape. Nothing she said or did was going to convince them to let her go.
“Mari, drink the water.”
The steel in Ken’s voice set her teeth on edge. She knew the ripple of anger going through her body tipped him off. She had a stubborn streak a mile wide, and it was the one thing that had gotten her through her separation from Briony—through her unusual childhood—and through the degradation of Whitney’s insane breeding program.
Ken tightened his arm around her and lowered his face until his warm breath fanned her cheek—until she was enveloped in his scent and her body began to respond. She tried desperately to focus on the pain in her leg, on her dire situation, on anything but the feel of the muscles in his arm, the heat of his skin so close to hers.
Are you doing this on purpose? Because it’s low.
Don’t defy me just to prove some silly point. You need the water to keep you healthy. Drink it.
She turned her head to glare at him, her lips inches from his, her gaze locked with his. It was a good thing she was telepathic, because she had no air left in her lungs to breathe—or talk. Has anyone ever mentioned to you that you’re a complete ass?
I believe my brother has done so on many occasions.
She nodded her head. Well. Okay then. As long as someone has.
She took a small sip of the water and let it trickle down her throat, surprised at how parched she was. The drugs were beginning to leave her system, and things were much more sharply in focus. Time had passed. She understood why they had kept her knocked out as they moved her from place to place, probably one step ahead of her unit, but she had no idea if it had been hours or days.
Panic gripped her for a moment and she fought it down. The five women left in the compound were her only real family. Well, there was Sean and a couple of the other men who had not been caught in Whitney’s web of deceit. But she’d been raised with the other women. They were all close, sisters. They had no parents, no other friends, so the bond between them was strong. In the end it didn’t matter if she was on the same side with Ken and Jack, because she had to go back. She couldn’t leave the others to face possible death at Whitney’s hands.
She was absolutely convinced Whitney had begun a descent into madness. He might have started out a brilliant scientist, but somewhere along the way he had become convinced he was far smarter than anyone else and his ends justified his means. Rules weren’t for him. He had too much power and too little accountability.
Mari drank more water. She had to regain her strength. “How long did you keep me out?”
“A couple of days,” Jack answered. “We can’t have you calling in your unit, and they’ve been hard on our heels.”
She flashed him a brief smile, deliberately leaning back against Ken’s arm, determined to show him—and herself—that she could be in control of her physical feelings. “They’re good.”
“Not that good,” Jack disagreed. “They don’t have you and we do. Had we been looking for you, we would have found you.”
“You’re so arrogant.”
Jack’s eyebrow shot up. “That isn’t being arrogant. It’s a fact.”
“I’m tired and my head hurts.” She glared up at Ken. “Probably from where you slammed your elbow into me.”
“I remember. And you didn’t even thank me for saving your life.”
“I would have preferred you being a lot gentler about it.” She was joking, trying to lighten the situation—or stall for time, she wasn’t certain which—but a shadow crossed Ken’s face. Up so close to him, she caught that fleeting reaction to her words.
Ken laid her back on the pillows. “You’ve been out a couple of days. We’ve been leading your unit away from anyone who could get caught in the cross fire.”
Mari glanced at Jack. They had a plan. Whatever they were doing, she couldn’t be a part of it. “I have to get back. You don’t understand. If I don’t go back, Whitney is going to hurt one of the others. I can’t let that happen.”
“Give us the location and we’ll go in and bring them out,” Ken said.