Deadly Game

instrument. Not again-never again. Her throat felt raw and her eyes burned, but she stared up at Ken defiantly. Let him try to defeat her. Nobody, not even Whitney, with all his humiliations and his tricks, had defeated her.

Wouldn't you want Briony protected?

I don't want you to say her name. She's dead to me. She's not my sister. My sisters are back at the compound waiting for me, and believe me, I'll get back to them. There is no Briony. It was a trick, a fairly vicious one at that. I accepted her death a long time ago.

He wasn't going to use her sister to hurt her. She had to put everything out of her head except her desire to escape. If she didn't do it soon, before they arrived at their destination, it would be nearly impossible. They were going to a fortress; she'd heard Ken say so.

Ken knew better than to touch her, and yet, even without touching her, he knew what she was thinking. He was catching images, emotions, impressions she wouldn't want him aware of. Something is happening that I don't understand, Jack. I know what she's thinking and I don't have physical contact. And she can do the same with me. It isn't perfect, but we're picking up the gist of it as if there's some sort of silent transmitter between us. Do you have something similar with Briony?

Jack shook his head and shifted his weight slightly, leaving his gun in an easier position to pull out should he need it.

Mari shut out everything around her. The swaying vehicle. The pain. The fuzziness in her brain. The men. It was hardest to block out the image of Ken and the mask that was his face. Those eyes that always stared directly into hers. She forced her thoughts down a long, dark tunnel, bringing in waves of water to wash away random thoughts. She needed to focus on only one thing. The steering wheel. It was her only chance. She planned out every step carefully and then locked onto the wheel.

She couldn't actually see it, so she built the image in her mind. She could see it clearly, feel it in her hands, hard and smooth, ready to do her bidding. She tested it just once, a very small little movement to the right. The vehicle jerked to the right and then was back on track, running smoothly down the road. It wasn't a freeway, more of a back road. And that meant there would be foliage.

'Would you mind opening a window? I can't breathe.' Not too pitiful, just the right balance of neediness and defiance.

She didn't dare look at any of them; they were too skilled, so she kept her face averted, her fingers gripping the sheet.

Logan hit the button to bring in the night air. She inhaled, taking in the scents of the evening. Trees for certain. Lots of them. Grass. Animals. Oh, yeah, if they were heading for a city, they were taking the back road in. She could so deal with that!

Whatever you're thinking, Mari, don't.

She wasn't going to talk telepathically to him again. It was a shade too intimate for her liking. She had to find a way to break the mesmerizing sexual web he'd trapped her in. 'I have no way of knowing this isn't one of Whitney's traps. He loves to play with people's minds.'

'How so?'

'He knows what I think about his breeding program. It's common knowledge the other women are following my lead and resisting. It would be just like him to pair me with you, use my own body against me, to punish me, to force me to do his bidding.' She glanced at him, when she knew it was a bad idea. The night hid the mask covering his beautiful face, leaving him looking too handsome with his brilliant eyes. His eyes were like jewels, diamond hard and so intriguing. One moment so cold she felt burned by their touch, the next alive with some hidden pain she wanted to soothe away.

'I haven't seen Whitney in a couple of years and he certainly isn't pulling my strings.' I know you're upset about Briony, Mari, but if you really care about your sister, you would want to know she was getting the best protection we can give her.

She wouldn't be swayed by his looks or his voice. She concentrated on the road, utilizing every bit of information the air would provide. There was only the dim light from the moon, partially obscured by clouds. There were no sounds to indicate farms or ranches, or even the occasional house. She didn't even know what state she was in. She couldn't smell the ocean, so they had to be inland.

She focused on the brake, building the shape and feel of it in her mind, the cables and the way it worked. She tapped, just for a moment, and the car lurched and ran smooth. It was just a fraction of a second, barely noticeable, but she heard a man's voice, coming from the driver's seat, swearing. She immediately filled her mind with other things, puzzling out whether Whitney had paid these men to trick her.

It had to be a trap. She remembered Whitney, the last time she'd seen him, furious because not only the women were upset and uncooperative, but some of the men had become reluctant. He had locked them in their rooms, refusing to allow them to interact, blaming Mari for the mutiny. He had promised her retaliation if she didn't do as he wanted. She thought sending Brett had been what he meant, but evidently she was wrong. It was no wonder it had been so easy to convince her unit to allow her to go along to plead their case to Senator Freeman. Whitney had to have virtually orchestrated everything. And that meant these men were his men and her 'sisters' back at the compound were in danger.

'Talk to me. Mari.'

Her plan had to be carried out with precision and without hesitation. They had made the mistake of not securing her. To keep Ken off balance and from reading her plan, she kept images of Brett in her mind. Brett bent over her. Brett touching her. Brett tying her down to keep her from fighting him.

Ken clenched his teeth, a muscle ticking along his jaw. His fingers curled into fists. His eyes glittered in the night, twin swords of steel piercing through her body, seeing far more than she wanted him to see. He knew she was deliberately taunting him.

You're playing with fire, Mari.

He bit the words out between clenched teeth, the sound stabbing at the walls of her mind. Mari turned her face away from him, all too aware he could see clearly in the dark. She stared at the door straight across from her. The vehicle was slowing for a turn. She groaned and pushed herself up, leaning forward to clutch at her leg. The sheet slipped down, exposing her breasts. The men froze, staring at her. Ken growled deep in his throat, adding to their immobility. It gave her the precious second she needed.

She attacked, using her mind, applying pressure to the brake, wrenching the steering wheel from the driver and opening the door in front of her. Using enhanced strength, she dove out, hands in front of her, as if springing oil a board, prepared to break her fall in an aikido roll, even as she changed the color of her skin to match her surroundings.

She heard the squeal of the brakes as the driver tried to recover and stop. There was a burst of male voices swearing, but she had already landed, camouflaged by the thick foliage, smashing through a bush, the branches tearing up her hands and arms, as she rolled, trying to protect her leg.

Chapter 7

Fury swept through Ken. She had done it deliberately, exposing her breasts to every man there. Damn her to hell for that. Ken didn't wait for Neil to get the Rover under control: he dove out after her. breaking his fall the same way, rolling over leaves and fallen branches along the wet ground to lie still, staring up at the night sky. They were in a heavily wooded area. He could hear a stream running off to his left.

Now you've really pissed me off. I could strangle you for that. You didn't need to give them all a show.

He was afraid for her. She had a broken hand and leg. She had no weapons and no clothes. And he just might be angrier over the gripping fear for her than for her exposing herself to all the men. What if she had hit one of the trees and broken her neck? It could easily have happened. He couldn't imagine finding her dead body. Answer me, damn you.

Was that him? That near panic when he was always so cool under fire. He didn't mind dying, he never had, so it made it easy to run the covert missions all over the world, but this was something altogether different. She had gotten under his skin. He tried to tell himself it was simply Whitney's experiment and that once she was gone. Jack