Conspiracy Game

and you and I both know how tough I am. I look fragile to the world, but I’ve got the baby and you and the boys, and I’m not going to ever sell myself short. I won’t get caught in the same trap twice.” She looked around her at the trees swaying with the rising wind. “It’s very dark, Jeb, and I’m determined to go through with this, so let’s just get there, feel him out, and get it over with.”

“Has it occurred to you he might decide he wants the baby?”

“Of course I considered that. What would he do with a baby?” She turned her gaze on her brother, and this time the fire in her eyes made him wince. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to protect my child, Jebediah. Jack Norton, or anyone else, isn’t going to take this baby away from me.”

Jebediah swore under his breath as he started the SUV. “I knew you were stubborn, Bri, but I had no idea you were impossible.”

Briony rested her head against the seat and kept her eyes on the scenery passing by. She prayed she was doing the right thing. Jack Norton terrified her on so many levels. She’d waited until after three kidnapping attempts, three, before making the decision to contact him. And it wasn’t because he might want to kill her-or take the baby. It was because Jack Norton was the only person in the world she feared might take her over. He was stronger, dominant, definitely light-years ahead of her sexually. She had voiced aloud to her brother the hurtful things Jack had said, just to remind herself, to keep them in front of her so she wouldn’t be taken in again. It was all too obvious to her that she would be swallowed up by Jack’s dominant personality if she wasn’t careful.

Don’t come near me again. Not ever, because I’ll never be able to give you up twice. Had she heard him whisper that as she was coming out of her sleep, or had it been an inexperienced girl’s last hope? Maybe it had been her own warning system, screaming-shrieking-at her to stay away. Self-preservation demanded she obey, yet she was sticking her head right back into the lion’s mouth.

The Lolo National Forest was on all four sides of them, completely surrounding the property they were trying to find. The mountain was lush with trees, and she often caught glimpses of wild animals.

“I think this is it, Briony,” Jebediah said, slowing the SUV and staring at the narrow trail leading off to his right. “You have to be absolutely certain this is what you want to do. I think we follow this creek for another four miles and we’re there. Once we arrive, it will be too late to change your mind.”

For a moment she couldn’t breathe. She held up her hand and her brother stopped the vehicle. Briony jumped out and was sick, over and over, leaning against the door, while her stomach protested the need to ask Norton for help. Pride alone dictated she stay away from him, but to have to ask him for protection-Briony shook her head as she took the cloth Jebediah handed her. The idea of leaving the safety of her family when she needed them the most, to go to a man who didn’t want her, left her cold inside.

“You all right?” Jebediah rubbed her back in sympathy.

“Don’t tell him about the baby. Let’s tell him about Whitney. We can see how he reacts.”

“If we even get that close,” Jebediah said. “Be careful, Briony. We could get killed.”

“I know.” She nodded her head, her stomach cramping again. “I’m sorry I’m putting you in danger. Maybe I should walk from here.”

“Not a chance. If you go in, I do too.”

A sound awoke him, something out of tune with the familiar night noises. Jack lay for a moment fully alert, all senses flaring, seeking the disturbing break in the rhythm of the night. He rarely slept for any length of time, and always very lightly. A low, one-two hoot-like an owl, without the proper resonance-sounded from somewhere nearby; not the yard, more likely the forest just before the entrance to his home.

Jack dropped his feet to the floor in complete silence. He caught up his jeans and shirt, pulled them on, and strapped on a long leather sheath containing a razor-edged knife. A Smith and Wesson in his hand, he padded silently to the door. He moved down the hall unerringly in the dark and eased through the door to his brother’s room.

He touched his twin’s shoulder lightly. Ken was already alert, dragging on his jeans, aware of the need for silence. They used hand signals, as they had since they were children, preferring to use telepathy when distance separated them. Ken caught up his rifle, a night scope, and a box of shells.

Jack chose to leave by a side door, moving into the night silently, stealthily. He signaled Ken to high ground and then made his own way through the yard, a shadow among the shadows, first a boulder, then a tree, a part of the night.

Once in the cover of the forest, Jack picked his battleground carefully-good cover, good escape routes, a clear shot for Ken. Jack whistled softly, calling in the intruder. Ken would use a scope to get the exact number of intruders.

“Jack.” The voice was a soft hiss of a sound. “It’s Jebediah, Jack,” the voice continued. “Jebediah Jenkins.”

“Come on in,” Jack said softly into the night, a challenge more than a welcome. He closed his eyes briefly, fighting back the memory of Briony, of soft skin and sheer ecstasy, a haven of pleasure that took him outside himself and the hell he constantly lived in. He was never going to be free of her.

He’s not alone. Ken’s voice filled his mind.

Jack sighed softly. Surely Jebediah wouldn’t be a big enough fool to come after him because he found out about Jack sleeping with Briony. The idea was too childish for words, and not Jebediah’s style. Let them come, Ken.

The wind shifted just a bit, just enough for him to catch their scent. Need slammed into his body, pheromones spinning out of control, enfolding him in her feminine allure. Briony was with Jebediah, and her scent called to him, heady and intoxicating, threatening his tight control. Jack let his breath out slowly. How could he ever give her up a second time? He wasn’t a man who lived by rules. He wanted Briony, and the temptation to take her, to keep her, to tie her to him irrevocably was overwhelming. He had no doubt he could do it. He’d warned her. Why the hell hadn’t she listened? And what was wrong with her brother that Jebediah didn’t keep her safe-away from Jack, a continent away?

Jack waited there in the darkness, seeing the heat of their bodies before they stepped through the foliage to approach him. He needed to be watching Jebediah, but he couldn’t take his eyes from Briony. Stay on him, Ken. I’ve got the girl.

She was everything he remembered and more. He’d filled his nights and his days with the memory of the feel of her skin, her body surrounding his, the fierce, almost primitive need to possess her. Stark, raw emotion surged and poured through his veins until his blood pounded with heat. Mostly he remembered the way she looked at him-as a man, so that he could see himself in her eyes-the man he should have been, if he’d met her years earlier. She looked like the most beautiful woman in the world to him, and here he was, up in the mountains where no one would ever be able to take her away from him.

Her hair was short and thick, platinum and wheat, sassy and inviting so that he itched to bury his face in the soft strands. Her eyes were as large, as beautiful as he’d remembered, so dark they were nearly black. As she and her brother approached him, she reached out to Jebediah, taking his hand, as if she was afraid. Jack could see the strain around her mouth, the shadows in her eyes. As she neared, he caught the minute difference in her scent. Even more feminine, as if chemical changes in her body had occurred since he last saw her. He remembered his own scent mixed with hers, powerful and appealing. The raw sexuality of their union, lust and overwhelming emotion mixing until they were both so wrapped in one another they were locked in another world.

Damn. He wanted her with every cell in his body. Every part of his brain. She walked out of the night looking too young. Too innocent. Too soft and sweet for a man like him. She was the epitome of everything he wasn’t, would never be. Home. Family. Children. She was good and he’d lost that so long ago. All he had left was his honor, and if she didn’t get the hell off his mountain, she’d rob him of that. She’d fight his possessive nature and eventually he’d break her spirit. In that moment, as she came closer, he truly hated the monster he had become.

“What the hell do you want?” he spat out, remaining in the shadows, knowing Jebediah wouldn’t be able to spot him. He was less certain of Briony. He knew she was every bit as enhanced as he.

Jebediah and Briony exchanged a long look. Jack could smell their fear. It oozed through their pores and permeated the air around them. The tension shot up a notch. Jebediah stepped protectively in front of Briony, and that annoyed the hell out of Jack. He wanted their fear, but at the same time, if anyone was protecting her, it should have been him. She belonged with him.

“If you came to challenge me to a duel because I fucked your sister, Jebediah, you’re a hell of a lot stupider