Jack. Briony isn’t waiting for you at Lily’s, is she?
Jack stirred, a predatory tiger stretching. His gaze was flat and cold as it drifted over Mari. Yes. It was the only safe place I had to stash her. Ryland and his crew are watching over her. And I thought if she was going to meet her twin for the first time, it was the safest place. There was a question in his tone, although he didn’t voice it.
Don’t! Mari blinked back sudden tears. He was warning his brother off, sending Briony away. For the first time Mari really let herself think about seeing her sister. Just a quick glimpse, that was all she really needed. Just to know she was alive and happy. Mari desperately needed Briony to be happy.
Mari wasn’t touching him, but she knew. Ken could see it on her face, read it in her mind. There was panic, sorrow, anger, all mixed into one, as if Mari couldn’t quite make up her mind how to feel about what he’d done. But he had no choice.
Get her out of there, Jack. Send her to Jesse Calhoun or Nico and Dahlia. We have to have Lily take a look at Mari, and we just can’t take the chance without knowing what’s going on. She has talents we don’t have a clue about.
Jack swore softly. Briony was anxious to see her sister. He had made her a promise that he would find Marigold, and he meant it. But Ken was right. There were no taking chances with her. Until they knew what Whitney was up to and whether or not Mari was really on their side, they just couldn’t take the risk.
How could you warn him off of me like that? What kind of threat could I possibly be to my sister? That’s what you did, isn’t it? I’m a prisoner, surrounded by trained GhostWalkers, and I have a broken hand and leg. You must think I’m really good.
Shaking with anger, she stared up at Ken’s expressionless face. He was every bit as cold and unfeeling as she’d first thought him. He’d managed to fool her because Whitney had set it up that way, made her vulnerable to him. Whitney so loved his little jokes. He loved to feel superior, and she’d defied him so often. This was probably his punishment—to make her believe she was close to seeing Briony. She’d been right not to think about her, not to hope.
Mari, we have to protect her until we know for sure.
She wouldn’t listen to that caressing voice, so velvet soft and playing through her body like a musical instrument. Not again—never again. Her throat felt raw and her eyes burned, but she stared up at Ken defiantly. Let him try to defeat her. Nobody, not even Whitney, with all his humiliations and his tricks, had defeated her.
Wouldn’t you want Briony protected?
I don’t want you to say her name. She’s dead to me. She’s not my sister. My sisters are back at the compound waiting for me, and believe me, I’ll get back to them. There is no Briony. It was a trick, a fairly vicious one at that. I accepted her death a long time ago.
He wasn’t going to use her sister to hurt her. She had to put everything out of her head except her desire to escape. If she didn’t do it soon, before they arrived at their destination, it would be nearly impossible. They were going to a fortress; she’d heard Ken say so.
Ken knew better than to touch her, and yet, even without touching her, he knew what she was thinking. He was catching images, emotions, impressions she wouldn’t want him aware of. Something is happening that I don’t understand, Jack. I know what she’s thinking and I don’t have physical contact. And she can do the same with me. It isn’t perfect, but we’re picking up the gist of it as if there’s some sort of silent transmitter between us. Do you have something similar with Briony?
Jack shook his head and shifted his weight slightly, leaving his gun in an easier position to pull out should he need it.
Mari shut out everything around her. The swaying vehicle. The pain. The fuzziness in her brain. The men. It was hardest to block out the image of Ken and the mask that was his face. Those eyes that always stared directly into hers. She forced her thoughts down a long, dark tunnel, bringing in waves of water to wash away random thoughts. She needed to focus on only one thing. The steering wheel. It was her only chance. She planned out every step carefully and then locked on to the wheel.
She couldn’t actually see it, so she built the image in her mind. She could see it clearly, feel it in her hands, hard and smooth, ready to do her bidding. She tested it just once, a very small little movement to the right. The vehicle jerked to the right and then was back on track, running smoothly down the road. It wasn’t a freeway, more of a back road. And that meant there would be foliage.
“Would you mind opening a window? I can’t breathe.” Not too pitiful, just the right balance of neediness and defiance. She didn’t dare look at any of them; they were too skilled, so she kept her face averted, her fingers gripping the sheet.
Logan hit the button to bring in the night air. She inhaled, taking in the scents of the evening. Trees for certain. Lots of them. Grass. Animals. Oh, yeah, if they were heading for a city, they were taking the back road in. She could so deal with that!
Whatever you’re thinking, Mari, don’t.
She wasn’t going to talk telepathically to him again. It was a shade too intimate for her liking. She had to find a way to break the mesmerizing sexual web he’d trapped her in. “I have no way of knowing this isn’t one of Whitney’s traps. He loves to play with people’s minds.”
“How so?”
“He knows what I think about his breeding program. It’s common knowledge the other women are following my lead and resisting. It would be just like him to pair me with you, use my own body against me, to punish me, to force me to do his bidding.” She glanced at him, when she knew it was a bad idea. The night hid the mask covering his beautiful face, leaving him looking too handsome with his brilliant eyes. His eyes were like jewels, diamond hard and so intriguing. One moment so cold she felt burned by their touch, the next alive with some hidden pain she wanted to soothe away.
“I haven’t seen Whitney in a couple of years and he certainly isn’t pulling my strings.” I know you’re upset about Briony, Mari, but if you really care about your sister, you would want to know she was getting the best protection we can give her.
She wouldn’t be swayed by his looks or his voice. She concentrated on the road, utilizing every bit of information the air would provide. There was only the dim light from the moon, partially obscured by clouds. There were no sounds to indicate farms or ranches, or even the occasional house. She didn’t even know what state she was in. She couldn’t smell the ocean, so they had to be inland.
She focused on the brake, building the shape and feel of it in her mind, the cables and the way it worked. She tapped, just for a moment, and the car lurched and ran smooth. It was just a fraction of a second, barely noticeable, but she heard a man’s voice, coming from the driver’s seat, swearing. She immediately filled her mind with other things, puzzling out whether Whitney had paid these men to trick her.
It had to be a trap. She remembered Whitney, the last time she’d seen him, furious because not only the women were upset and uncooperative, but some of the men had become reluctant. He had locked them in their rooms, refusing to allow them to interact, blaming Mari for the mutiny. He had promised her retaliation if she didn’t do as he wanted. She thought sending Brett had been what he meant, but evidently she was wrong. It was no wonder it had been so easy to convince her unit to allow her to go along to plead their case to Senator Freeman. Whitney had to have virtually orchestrated everything. And that meant these men were his men and her “sisters” back at the compound were in danger.
“Talk to me, Mari.”
Her plan had to be carried out with precision and without hesitation. They had made the mistake of not securing her. To keep Ken off balance and from reading her plan, she kept images of Brett in her mind. Brett bent over her. Brett touching her. Brett tying her down to keep her from fighting him.
Ken clenched his teeth, a muscle ticking along his jaw. His fingers curled into fists. His eyes glittered in the night, twin swords of steel piercing through her body, seeing far more than she wanted him to see. He knew she was deliberately taunting him.