I’m not. Nonny would never allow us to leave two small babies in a place like that. This house is safe for them. We’re GhostWalkers. Maybe you haven’ heard the term, but we’re like you, no matter whether or not you think you’re the only flawed one. We’re all flawed, Pepper. Clearly you haven’ been around any of us.
We have to keep moving. It’s the only safe thing to do. These children can’t go to a school, or be around other children until they learn discipline.
There was no note of hope in her voice, but still, he felt it through their connection, probably a remnant of hope she didn’t even recognize she felt. She’d been utterly alone for a very long time with an overwhelming responsibility. The three children couldn’t be let loose on the world, not when they were teething. Not when they truly didn’t understand consequences.
First, that’s your trainin’ talkin’, sayin’ you got to keep movin’. They’ll expect that, he pointed out.
That’s the problem with the babies. They do understand, but they don’t have the discipline to stop themselves when they feel threatened. Pepper replied to his thoughts, not his words.
It wasn’t the first time she had responded to something in his mind – and he had a lot on his mind. Wyatt couldn’t help worrying about keeping the babies in his home, not that he was concerned they’d hurt Nonny. Very few creatures in the bayou would harm her. She had the “gift,” a miracle she’d passed down to her grandsons. Still, he had brothers and neighbors to think about, yet where else could they go?
In the bayou they could play and learn and have freedom to grow and thrive. They couldn’t be in a city or a place where neighbors were too close. They’d been engineered as soldiers with soldier’s instincts. Their games were bound to be… dangerous. Who better to raise them than Pepper and the GhostWalkers right there in the bayou? It all made perfect sense to him.
Moving them constantly won’ give them the security they need to feel, Pepper. You know that. If we clean out the hornet’s nest, which we’re goin’ to do no matter what, then the bayou will be safe for them. That’s my job. To make all of you safe.
Pepper’s heart fluttered. A small shiver crept down her spine. Such simplicity. Wyatt spoke as if he meant every word, and she was connected to him. In his mind. She could feel his resolution. As much as it terrified her to rely on or trust another human being, she knew this one wasn’t lying to her. She was there. In his head.
She was so tired of trying to figure out how to keep the children safe by herself. There were three of them. Most of the time she was just trying to stay alive with them. She didn’t know family. She didn’t do family. Wyatt was all about family. She couldn’t stop looking at his face as he interacted with Ginger.
He was beautiful. Truly beautiful. His bone structure. His dark, beautiful eyes surrounded by long lashes. All that thick, wavy hair. He was the most sensual man she’d ever seen, and she’d seen a lot of men. Her world had been mainly men. Very few women were brought in to work at the school or in the field with them.
She had the urge to sink her fingers into his hair and put her mouth to his – that mouth she couldn’t stop thinking about. For once in her life, she wanted to be kissed by someone who saw her. Saw past her looks and all the enhancements Braden had made to make her so alluring. She wanted to be seen. She had a feeling Wyatt Fontenot saw her.
Wyatt turned his attention back to the child. Ginger watched his face intently and then switched her gaze to Pepper, as if she knew they had been communicating telepathically. He knew there was always energy pushed into the air when there was any kind of movement, and psychic movement felt different. Most GhostWalkers knew when another used it.
He hadn’t felt energy coming off Pepper or the child. He was uncertain which of them, or maybe it was both of them, could shield their energy from other soldiers like he could. He held out his arms when he realized the baby was nervous.
“Come here, Ginger. Sit right between us. You can touch Pepper gently and give her a kiss if you want to. That will make her feel so much better. Can I look at your arm and make sure it’s healing properly?” The sight of her little arm bandaged sickened him.
Wyatt looked down at Pepper’s face, wanting to read her expression when the little girl came close. There was no fear at all, only love. Her eyes glowed softly, and her smile was warm. She looked almost transformed. He thought she was beautiful from the moment he’d laid eyes on her, but now, in spite of the harrowing night, her face, as she looked at the child, was more beautiful than ever.
She might as well have given birth to Ginger. She couldn’t have loved her any more than a birth mother. He knew the baby had been born to a surrogate, a woman who had carried the mixed cocktail for Whitney or Braden, whichever had ordered the experiment, but when he studied Pepper’s face and Ginger’s, his mind tricked him into seeing similarities.
This child really was conceived in a test tube?
It was difficult to think that even from birth Ginger had never had a parent who cared. It was even worse to go all the way back to when she was first conceived, realizing she didn’t have two people who loved her coming together. That knowledge somehow made him feel as if a monster in a lab from a horror movie had thrown ingredients together to concoct her.
Yes. Pepper reached out with one hand, sliding it along the bed until she caught Ginger’s fingers in her own.
Wyatt’s heart performed a curious somersault in his chest when he saw the tiny little fingers curling around Pepper’s. The hand was so small and perfect lying in Pepper’s palm. His heart actually ached. That was the healer side of him, that sentimental idiot who had believed in happy-ever-after endings.
He didn’t want to feel that way about these two females. He wanted to see them as nothing but problems – preferably someone else’s. He couldn’t get over the resemblance between Ginger and Pepper. Ginger’s hair was dark and wavy, a baby’s hair. She had a small dimple that appeared occasionally on the right side of her mouth. Pepper didn’t, but her mouth was Pepper’s mouth. They had the same high cheekbones and oval face. He looked into her dark eyes, so dark, yet he could see the beginnings of a faint amber ring, surrounding the darkness, much like Pepper’s eyes.
Wyatt continued to stare down at them, his mind suddenly putting pieces together. Pepper had an immunity to cobra bites. Cobras couldn’t kill one another. She’d said the doctors were trying to build her immunity to snakebites and develop an antivenom that could be used for the soldiers. She hadn’t specified which snakebite though. She was already immune to the cobra bite. It had been the viper venom that had made her so ill.
“She’s your daughter,” he said aloud.
Pepper frowned at him. “I consider her my daughter, but I’ve never given birth, which is required for what I think you’re talking about. I’d claim her if she was mine.”
He shook his head. “Not if they used your eggs, which, believe me, honey, if Whitney is involved, he collects such things from anythin’ or anyone GhostWalker.”
Wyatt couldn’t keep the note of bitterness out of his voice. He’d been deceived when he’d gone into the program. Whitney was supposed to have been long gone, on the run, a man wanted by the military to answer for the crimes he’d committed. That wasn’t exactly the case. Someone high up was protecting him and aiding him in his experiments. Whitney still worked for the government, he was just far more covert.
Pepper studied Ginger’s face, the little hands and the mop of hair. There was no horror on her face, if anything, she examined the baby with a hint of eagerness. “Maybe a little. It would be absolutely wonderful, a miracle, if that were the case, because I intend to take care of all three of them, to be their mother. They need one. But you might take another good look at her, Wyatt. She looks more like you than she does me.”
Wyatt stared down at the child.
“Not to mention, you’re the genius,” Pepper pointed out.