She appeared absolutely calm—much calmer than he was feeling. Sam wanted to gather her close and protect her from what was to come, but she clearly didn’t need him to shield her. There was no fluttering of nervous hands; she folded them neatly in her lap and simply waited while everyone took a chair. Ryland nodded toward Gator, who quickly leapt up to make a cup of tea for Azami.
“Ms. Yoshiie,” Ryland began.
She inclined her head in that graceful, demure way she had. “Please call me Azami. I would prefer to learn American ways.”
“Azami then,” Ryland said, in no way deceived by her delicate features. “I think it’s time for an explanation, don’t you?”
“You certainly deserve one,” she agreed. “You’ve been more than patient. Dr. Whitney called me Thorn. He gave the girls names of flowers and seasons, a careless acknowledgment that we had to be called something other than the numbers he gave us in his files. He thought me quite useless as anything other than for experiments, so instead of a Lily, or a Rose, I was a Thorn to him, a constant pain that nagged at him until he threw me away—back onto the streets in Japan. I was eight years old.”
Silence greeted her matter-of-fact revelation. Ryland put both hands on the table and leaned toward her, his piercing steel gaze fixing steadily on her face.
“GhostWalkers recognize one another by the energy surrounding us. I don’t feel it when you walk into a room.” Ryland made it a statement. He looked to Kadan for confirmation.
Sam shoved down anger. He rarely got angry, but Ryland was all but calling her a liar.
Kadan shook his head. “I don’t feel anything at all,” he agreed, “but Sam did. From the very beginning he felt something was off about the Yoshiie family, in particular Azami. He went so far as to scan their faces and send them to Lily to run the facial recognition program.” Kadan too leaned toward Azami, a slight frown on his face. “Why would Whitney find you useless to him and the program when you’re obviously gifted?”
“Whitney is able to recognize those with psychic talents, even when they are mere infants. Unfortunately he isn’t a terribly patient man with children. My ability to teleport didn’t appear until I was ten.”
“There was a mention of a child named Thorn,” Kadan told Ryland. “Jesse, from Team Two, his wife, Saber, talked about her a few times.”
Azami remained quiet, and she held herself away from Sam. He knew what she was doing. If Ryland didn’t accept the things she told him—if this meeting turned bad—she didn’t want him in trouble with his unit or to have to make a choice between them.
Don’t worry about me, Azami. I’m a grown man. I make my choices and I live with them. I know exactly what I’m doing and why.
Ryland’s head snapped around. “Speak out loud for everyone to hear if you have something to say, Sam. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”
Sam had rarely heard Ryland use that voice and more than anything else, as low and as stern as it was, the tone told him he was on treacherous ground.
“I told her not to worry about me, that I make my own choices and I know exactly what I’m doing and why.” Sam wasn’t about to dodge the truth.
“I hope you do,” Ryland said.
“I had reservations about the Yoshiie family from the moment I met them, especially Azami. From the beginning I thought it was possible she was one of us—a GhostWalker. It wasn’t that I felt the familiar energy, I can’t put my finger on what it was exactly, but I was very uneasy and indicated that to Nico and Kadan as well as sending Lily pictures,” Sam reported. He resisted the need to put his hand over Azami’s folded hands beneath the table. “Of course my first worry was for Daniel.”
It was important Azami knew that he would fight with his last breath for the boy against anyone who tried to harm him. She had to know his loyalty to his team whom he considered family ran deep, as would his commitment to her—and any children they had.
“She fought beside me, Rye. I’ve been in her mind. She saved me out there. I put my life in her hands and I would never have allowed her to come here if I thought for one moment she was a threat to Daniel or that she was working with Whitney.” Sam looked him right in the eye. “If you don’t know that much about me, what the hell am I doing here?”
Ryland didn’t flinch. “If I didn’t know that much about you, Knight, you wouldn’t be sitting at this table. Wounded or not, you’d be on your ass in the brig.”
“Mr. Miller . . .” Azami began.
“Captain. Captain Miller,” Ryland corrected.
Sam ducked his head. Ryland was royally pissed. It was difficult to get the man riled, but once he was, there was very little backup in him.
“Forgive me,” Azami said in her demure tone, those long lashes lowering as she bowed her head gracefully. “This is my fault. When I was young, my father asked only a couple of things of me. He asked that I live a life of honor and that I throw hatred and anger away as useless. I hated Whitney with the passion only a child could have. My father taught me that he is a monster, yes, but my hatred of him gave him great power over me. Bringing a man like Whitney to justice is impossible, but someone has to try.”
“How?” Ryland asked. “You must have a plan.”
Azami looked around the table. “You are asking me to trust all of you when you don’t trust me.”
“You came to our home on false pretenses,” Ryland pointed out.
She shook her head, her eyes steady on his. “That is not so, Captain Miller. I insist on visiting all corporations or countries who wish to purchase one of my satellites. Our company is legitimate and I know you didn’t choose us blindly. We deliver the best in the world. There is no competition as of yet. Our lens is superior, as is our software, to any other on the market. You reached out to us.”
Gator placed a cup of tea in front of Azami. “I noticed you took milk in your tea earlier.”