Ryland evidently knew Sam very well. Those steely eyes narrowed. “You’re a damn big help, Knight. If anything, you’re full of shit.”
“I’m telling the absolute truth, Rye,” Sam confirmed.
“I’m sure you are. What the hell’s going on between you two?”
Sam shrugged. “I plan on asking her brothers’ permission to marry her.”
Azami gasped, swinging her head around to look up at him. It was one thing to fight quietly for her, but he was openly aligning himself with her.
Sam’s fingers tightened on her arm, but his gaze was locked with Ryland’s. “Azami is a GhostWalker. She’s one of us and more than that, she’s the one for me. I want you to know that up front. That’s how certain I am of her.”
“And you don’t think that there’s a possibility that you’re blinded by your feelings for her? You just met her. Don’t you think that happened just a little too fast?”
Azami winced. She knew what Ryland was implying. Whitney had somehow managed to pair them together. She kept her head down, long lashes covering her eyes to prevent anyone from seeing distress that might show.
“So how did that work out for you, Ryland?” Sam demanded. He looked around the table. “For any of you with a wife?” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “I don’t much care if Whitney paired me with Azami or not, although I don’t see how he could have, but I know she fits with me. There isn’t a doubt in my mind.”
Azami shook her head. As much as she wanted Sam for herself, she couldn’t let him sacrifice. “Let’s slow down. There’s something else you should know, something that may be very pertinent to how you’re feeling right now, Sam.” Her lungs felt squeezed for air, but she had to be fair to him.
“I don’t need to know anything else, Azami,” Sam assured.
The tears burned again and she blinked rapidly, her throat clogging for a moment.
“You might not need to know anything else,” Ryland said. “But I do. Please continue, Azami.”
It was a major concession that he’d used her first name again. His voice had been filled with warning to Sam. She rested her hand over his, a very light measure of caution beneath the table. She didn’t want him to get into trouble with his unit, at least not before he heard what she had to say.
“Whitney’s pairings so far have seemed to fit. I speculated that perhaps that was part of his psychic gift and he clearly has one. Those of you I’ve tried to study a bit seem very grounded by one another, but none of you have been placed in a position that might cause you to do something you don’t want to do.”
“What do you mean?” Ryland asked.
“Suppose you had to make a choice between your wife and your son?”
“There would be no question. My wife would expect me to choose my son. He’s a child who needs help and guidance and love right now. If she suddenly went crazy and wanted to get rid of him, which is what you seem to be implying, then of course I would protect my child.”
Azami didn’t try to hide her relief. “Violet Smythe-Freeman didn’t.”
“She has a child?” Ryland looked around the table at his men. “Are you certain?”
“She aborted the child at Whitney’s demand. And she killed Senator Freeman. He was scheduled for the operation. They had taken him to do the surgery at the hospital and Whitney insisted on seeing Violet. They met at a small private airport. He was alone with her for several hours in a hangar. There appeared to be some sort of field surgery set up in the hangar, but my informant only caught a glimpse of the inside. When she emerged, she appeared different, very submissive toward Whitney, yet flirtatious. She boarded her plane and went straight to the hospital and pulled the plug on the senator, and then insisted on an abortion.”
Ryland frowned. “You believe he paired her with a second man and she immediately killed the senator and his unborn child? She was completely loyal to Freeman. She betrayed all the women in the compound in order to secure an alliance with Whitney.”
“Senator Freeman had no psychic ability. His child would be worthless to Whitney,” Azami pointed out. “Violet is well entrenched in the political arena. She’s intelligent and personable if a bit cold. The camera loves her and there’s talk of her running in the senator’s place. A weeping widow who valiantly fought for her brain-dead husband, trying to find a way to save him, would definitely look good in front of a camera. And her voice is enhanced.”
“Who was she paired with?” Ryland asked.
Azami shook her head. “My informant doesn’t know. Violet was groomed to take a political position in Washington. Whitney wanted her in the White House. The senator was supposed to be the vice president. Violet would have continued to have a great deal of influence. If she is elected to a senatorial position and her loyalty is to Whitney, can you imagine how he could use her to influence his programs?”
Ryland sat up straight, comprehension dawning. “You think Violet Freeman is paired to Whitney himself.”
CHAPTER 11
There was a small silence while the men seated at the table absorbed the idea. Whitney paired, perhaps married to a U. S. senator. What kind of carte blanche would he have for his experiments? The idea was daunting.
“Who is your informant?”
Sam threaded his fingers through Azami’s and held her hand under the table. He wanted to brush his mouth across her knuckles just to show her none of the things she said mattered. He wasn’t afraid of anything Whitney might have done to pair them together. He didn’t see how the man could have, not when Azami hadn’t seen Whitney since she was eight and he had joined the GhostWalker program a few years ago.