Shadowgame

But it's real now, Lily, I can't turn it off. I'll never be able to turn it off. If your father made you part of an experiment and it involves us both, we aren't going to be able to turn it off any more than I can stop the information flooding my brain.

I have to be sure, Ryland. My world has turned upside down. She coded the door and opened it for Arly. He was looking frantic, but recovered quickly, even scowling at her when she stood arching her eyebrow coolly at him in inquiry.

'We didn't get him.' He held up his hand to prevent her protest. 'He was good, Lily, I'm talking a major professional. I'd like to know how he knew the codes and what kind of systems we have. He was busy planting bugs and a camera or two in your private office.'

She let her breath out slowly. 'He knew the way to my office in a house with eighty rooms in it? Nobody knows where all the rooms are, not even me. How would a complete stranger have that information, Arly? He came straight to my father's office, planted bugs, and he does the same to my office. What does that tell us?' She tilted her head at him in challenge.

'That I'm not on top of the security and that you're in more danger than I suspected.' Arly balled his fist and smacked his palm. 'Damn it, Lily, someone has to be feeding them information. He knew the layout of the house and he was out of here like a damned ghost.'

Lily stiffened. Could Ryland break through the security of her home? He was trained to walk in enemy camps unseen. Were there other GhostWalkers? Men she didn't know about, men working with her enemy? Is that possible? Are there others?

'I'm sorry, Lily, I thought the house was impenetrable.'

'We have to look closely at the day staff, go over their backgrounds with a fine-tooth comb.' Is it possible, Ryland? Are there others?

Arly shook his head. 'Day staff wouldn't have the information on our security systems. They might be able to give the location of your office or Dr. Whitney's office, but they would never have the codes. And they wouldn't have Dr. Whitney's prints. That's a pro all the way, Lily, with big money behind him.'

There could have been others. There were a few men they said they phased out, men who didn't meet the exact criteria. They could have been taken somewhere else.

Do you think they were?

God only knows. Ryland sounded utterly weary.

Lily silently cursed her father. She looked around for a chair to sit down. How could one man have done so much damage to so many people's lives? And how could she not have ever suspected?

'Lily?' Arly caught her arm and guided her to a chair. 'You've gone pale. You're not going to faint on me or anything stupidly female like that, are you?'

Lily laughed softly, the sound bitter and distant. 'Stupidly female, Arly? Where did Dad ever find a woman basher like you?'

'I don't bash women, I just don't understand them,' he countered, hunkering down beside her chair, his fingers loosely circling her wrist, taking her pulse. 'I'm brilliant and handsome and can talk circles around most guys and women shudder when they see me coming. Why is that?'

'Could be the way you curl your lip every time you say the word 'woman.' ' Lily pulled her wrist away from him. 'You've worked with Dad for years. I grew up with you, following you around…'

'Asking questions. Nobody asked as many questions as you.' He grinned suddenly. She caught a brief glimpse of pride in his eyes. 'I never had to tell you the same thing twice.'

'Did you ever help with his experiments?'

At once Arly's face closed down, the smile fading. 'You know I don't discuss any of your father's business, Lily.'

'He's dead, Arly.' She kept her gaze fixed steadily on his, watching for a reaction. 'He's dead and you can't protect the things he's done.'

'He's missing, Lily.'

'You know he's dead and I think one of his projects got him killed.' She leaned toward him. 'You think it too.'

Arly drew back. 'Maybe, Lily, but what difference does it make? Your father knew people most of us hope we never meet in a lifetime. His mind was always working on ways to make the world a better place and in thinking that way, he managed to find the dregs of society. He thought it would help him understand how people worked.'

'Did you like my father?' She asked it directly.

Arly sighed. 'Lily, I've known your father for forty years.'

'I know you have. Did you like him? As a person? As a man? Was he your friend?'

'I respected Peter. I respected him a great deal and I admired his mind. He had a great mind. He was a true genius. But no one was his friend, expect perhaps you. He didn't talk to people, he used them for sounding boards, but he couldn't be bothered knowing anyone. He used people to further his own interests-oh, not for monetary gain, he didn't need that, he already had enough money for a small country, but for his endless ideas. In all the years I knew him, I doubt he ever once asked me a personal question.'

She lifted her chin. 'Did you know he adopted me?'

Arly shrugged his thin shoulders. 'Since I never saw him with a woman, I figured he had to have adopted you, but we never discussed it. If you weren't his biologically, he would have made damn sure you were his legally. The only thing he loved in his life was you, Lily.'

'Did you know he had other children here?'

Arly looked uncomfortable. 'That was years ago, Lily.'

'And the men?' She took a stab in the dark, watched his reactions closely.

Arly held up his hand. 'Anything to do with the military I don't see or hear. That's just the way it is, Lily.'

'This is important, Arly, or I wouldn't ask. I think whatever this project he was working on at Donovans, something for the military, got out of hand and someone killed him for information he wouldn't turn over. I'm being asked to take over that project and find the missing information. I need to have all the pieces of the puzzle. Were there men here recently? Men he may have been working with?'

Arly stood up, paced across the room. 'I've kept this job and my home here for over thirty years because I knew how to keep my mouth shut.'

'Arly,' Lily said softly, 'my father's dead. Either your loyalty swings to me and you're working for me and you're a part of my family and my household or you're not. This is information I need in order to stay alive. You'll have to make up your mind which it's going to be.'

'My loyalty swung to you the moment I laid eyes on you.' He said it stiffly.

'Help me then. I intend to find out what's going on and who murdered my father.'

'Let the police handle it, Lily. They'll find a lead eventually.'

'Did he bring men to this place? Military men? And did they stay here for any length of time?' Lily's gaze was steady on her security man's face, not allowing him to look away from her.

Arly took a deep breath. 'I was certain he brought three gentlemen in and I know they didn't leave that same day. I never saw them again, and I never saw them leave. He didn't take them to his office, but up to the second- story rooms in the west wing.'

'Are you in my employ or that of the United States government?'

'Damn it, Lily, how can you ask me that?'

'I am asking you, Arly.' Deliberately Lily reached out to take his hand, settling her fingers around his wrist. Lightly. Yet her fingers found his lifeline, searched for his emotions. Searched for the truth in him.

Arly instinctively attempted to pull away from her but she tightened her fingers.

She reached for Ryland. Can you read him?

No. I have no ability to do that, not even with you enhancing his emotions for me. He would have to be in the room, touching me, or me touching something of his to tune him in so clearly. Be careful, Lily, he's going to know you're acting out of character.

'I don't work for the government.' There was heat in Arly's voice.

'Do you work for the Donovans Corporation?' Lily pursued.

Arly did jerk his arm away and stumbled backward, nearly tipping over. 'What the hell's wrong with you? Do