Deadly Game

identification. If they died during a mission, they were buried quietly, without public fanfare, because no one knew they existed.

Ken jerked down his shirt, covering the scars running down his belly, disappearing even lower into his jeans. He leaned over her. his hand spanning her throat, fingers stroking a caress over her silken skin. His whisper was soft, lips against her ear so that his breath was warm, fanning curls of heat through her body. 'I don't live by anybody else's rules. I make up my own.'

She wrapped her fingers around his wrist, a bracelet that went halfway around, but her fingers dug into his skin, into the ridges of his scars as her lashes drifted down. 'Don't let anyone else see me. Especially not Briony.'

Ken closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against hers. It was sheer hell to be so close to her and not touch her. Even with blood and sweat and the drugs, her scent drove him crazy. Whitney's experiment into pairing through scent was more than a success. But even more than the physical need, he felt the urge to protect her. Maybe it had been the sight of her broken and battered body when they'd cut off her clothes. Maybe it had been the sound of Nico and the surgeon swearing, or Jack's hiss of rage. All he could remember was feeling the impact like a punch to his gut, and then later, when they'd rolled her over to examine her back, he felt his heart being ripped from his body.

He had known there were monsters in the world-he'd met a few, destroyed a few-but who would want to do this to a woman? Someone like his father. Abruptly he pulled his mind from going in that direction.

'Are you all right, Ken?' Jack asked, touching his arm.

'I swear, Jack, this is like going through it all again. First the deer and then Mari. I don't think I'll ever close my eyes again.'

'We've got to get out of here. We don't dare stay any longer.'

'I'll stay behind. You take her to a safe place and get some rest. I'll make certain they can't come looking.'

'You can't kill them all, Ken. And in any case, we don't know who the bad guys are. She said they weren't there to kill the senator-that they were supposed to protect him. If the order came down that way, they're no different than we are. They want her back because we don't leave a GhostWalker behind.'

'One of them did this to her.'

'We don't know which one.'

Ken straightened slowly and turned to face his brother. 'She doesn't want Briony to know.'

'Briony's not a child. I don't lie to her, not even for you, and you can't ask me to, Ken.' Jack spread out his hands. 'Let's get her on the helicopter and we can sort all this out later. We'll take her to the small house Lily rented for us and stay there a tew hours. The van will meet us there and we can disappear with her.'

'Are you bringing Briony in?'

Jack shook his head. 'It's too dangerous. She's pregnant and Whitney wants her. I'm not willing to risk her life, although she wants to see her sister. She's staying with Lily now at the big house, and Kadan and Ryland's team is guarding her while we make a run for it.'

'You mean while we figure out how best to use Mari in our little game with Whitney.'

Jack pushed the gurney toward the door, ignoring the bite in his brother's voice. 'She'll go back the first chance she gets. Ken. You can't trust her. You heard her. You saw her. She's not Briony, as much as they look alike. This one is tough as nails and could rip your heart out if you take your eyes off of her. Don't you forget that. At this point I wouldn't trust her with Briony's life, let alone yours.'

'I haven't forgotten.' Ken slung his rifle around his neck and checked his guns and ammunition belt. 'I just am not willing to turn her back over to whoever hurt her like that.'

'Don't identify with her. She's our prisoner. And she could easily cut your throat-or mine. We don't know anything about her. She's capable of running a con just like we are. She was trained as a soldier, so her first duty is to escape.'

'Copy that. Daddy.' Ken said.

Jack halted so abruptly Ken ran into the bed. Their eyes met. a slash of steel swords clashing over Mari's head. 'I'm going to look out for you. Ken, whether you like it or not. You think I don't know how shook up you were looking at the deer carcasses? You're identifying with them.'

'Maybe, but I'm not letting anyone take this woman back to Whitney.'

'If she goes back, we can follow her, rescue the others, and cap Whitney's ass,' Jack pointed out. 'It all sounds good to me.'

'Has anyone ever told you that you're a bloodthirsty son of a bitch?' Ken asked.

'Yes,' Jack assented. 'More than once.'

'Well, it's true.' Ken lifted Mari into his arms while Jack steadied her leg and took the medical rigging. The helicopter was a few yards away. Nico waiting, rifle ready as he searched the area around them for an enemy. 'You always think in terms of killing, Jack. I thought once you were with Briony, you'd get out of that habit.'

Jack shrugged. 'It's easier than jawing at everyone the way you do. By the time you finish talking to them, we realize we have to kill them anyway. I just save you all that trouble.'

Ken scowled at his brother. 'You do realize everyone thinks you're the pretty boy, now that my face is scarred. It doesn't go well with your Dr. Death image.'

'Pretty boy!' Jack glared at him. 'If I didn't have my hands full, I'd shoot you for that comment.'

'You mean to tell me Briony doesn't tell you how pretty you are late at night when the two of you are all alone?'

'Don't think I won't take you out,' Jack threatened.

Ken flashed a sudden grin, genuine this time. 'She does, doesn't she?'

'She thinks I look rough and tough,' Jack corrected.

'Hey, Nico,' Ken called out as they boarded the helicopter, no easy feat with trying to keep Mari's leg from being jarred. 'Don't you think Jack here is a pretty boy?'

Nico glanced at Jack's face and grinned. 'Yeah, he's a hot babe, all right. Must make all the women folks crazy.'

'You can both go to hell,' Jack said.

Ken turned away, depositing Mari carefully on the small gurney locked in place. Jack secured the medical gear and Nico took the pilot's seat. They waited for the doctor, who hurried after them carrying the rest of the supplies they needed. Eric Lambert was a good doctor and often aided the GhostWalker teams, although he wasn't physically or psychically enhanced. He knew a lot about gene therapy and was interested in Whitney's experiments and had a high clearance, so he was often the man Lily sent out into the field to protect the GhostWalkers. He was the surgeon who had saved Jesse Calhoun's life when he'd been shot several times deliberately in both his legs, and Jack and Ken had a soft spot for him, simply because Jesse was their friend and they had few real friends in the world.

Ken moved over to make room for him. 'Are you up for some excitement, Doc?'

'No. Don't shoot anybody.'

Jack snorted. 'See, it isn't just me. He knows you talk a lot of bull and in the end you shoot them anyway.'

Ken narrowed his eyes as Eric got up to check his patient. 'Her pulse is stronger than I thought it would be with the dose we gave her. I'd like to take some more blood samples. I think she heals a lot faster than we anticipated. Whitney included an extra pair of chromosomes when he was altering all of you and that gives him a lot of genetic code to work with. The more I study all of you, the more I realize we don't know a third of what you can do.'

'You took enough of her blood,' Ken objected. 'She's been used as a guinea pig for Whitney's experiments all of her life. I don't think it's necessary for us to do the same to her.'

As always. Ken sounded mild, but Eric heard the warning note in his voice and glanced at Jack, who simply shook his head. Eric settled back in his seat. 'We need to really understand what's going on with all of you,' he pointed out. 'If she heals faster and can push drugs through her system faster, we need to know. We wouldn't want to be in the middle of a complex operation and have one of you wake up on us.'