Deadly Game

who needed a crutch. There was no such thing as God. or a savior, or even a way of life that was about anything other than discipline and duty. She'd been indoctrinated since she was a baby into the belief that those who had mercy and compassion were soft-sheep, people waiting for someone with the intelligence and power to guide them.

For most of her life, she'd thought herself a failure because she didn't strictly adhere to Whitney's teachings. She loved her sisters, and most of what she did was out of a desire to protect them and stay with them-not her tremendous sense of duty. She'd never believed in anything but her sisters, but now. just in case, she prayed. And then, as if someone really had listened to her plea-there was no sound, nothing to warn her-she nearly jumped out of her skin when the door slid open and a man slipped through.

'Ken?' She croaked his name, still unable to lift her pounding head from the pillow. It was him, his shoulders wide, his arms like steel sliding around her, gathering her close. She turned her tear-wet face against his chest. He collapsed on the bed, and she realized he was trembling with weakness. 'How did you manage to get here? I can't even move.'

'You don't have to move; I'm just going to join you. My head feels like it's about to explode.' He stretched out onto the bed beside her, hands running over her body to assure himself she was in one piece. 'Your courage terrifies me.' In truth she humbled him. To endure the things she'd endured her entire life, to stand there and face Sean and what he meant to do to her, to give herself up so fully to Ken, a man she knew to be every bit as dangerous-maybe more-it was almost more than he could comprehend.

He suddenly stiffened. 'Oh, God, baby, you're crying. You going to break my heart. He's gone now. You're safe. You're safe with me.'

He wrapped his body protectively around hers, feeling her tremors, the tear-wet face against his chest. His fingers tunneled in her thick hair as he dragged her as close as he could get her, trying to shield her from any further harm. 'I'm sorry, sweetheart. I tried to get here as fast as possible. They put you through hell and I wasn't here.'

He couldn't breathe with her crying. His chest felt tight, his throat raw, and panic rose. 'Stop now.' His hands stroked caresses in her hair. He rained kisses over her face and licked at the tears in an effort to stop them. 'I tried. I swear I tried.'

'You were here, Ken, you were; you saved me when I didn't think it was possible.' Now that he was with her, alive and well, she should have been able to stop crying, but somehow, the floodgates opened and she was worse, alternating between hiccupping and sobbing, clinging to him like a child. Mari knew she would be ashamed in the morning, but the cover of darkness gave her the courage to be honest. 'I was so afraid for you.'

'Afraid for me?' Ken brushed more kisses over the top of her head and down her face. His teeth scraped her chin, and then he was kissing the corners of her mouth. 'I was safe. You were the one in danger. I thought I might go out of my mind.' His thumbs brushed at her tears.

Mari tried hard to regain control. He wasn't joking; he was very shaken up by her tears. She took several deep breaths to calm down. 'Will Sean realize you used mind control on him? Because if he does, Whitney will know I couldn't possibly have done it and he could go berserk and kill all of us.'

'No, he won't have any idea. You knew because I stopped before I gave you the command to forget what had happened to you. I can implant memories.'

'Did you with Sean?'

'To protect you, yes. He believes the two of you had sex. He believes you cooperated with him. I didn't want him coming back in the morning.'

'How could you make him believe that?'

'It was easy enough. His desires were very powerful, and the pictures of you naked in his mind were vivid. It wasn't difficult to manipulate them once I was wired to him. I didn't want to, Mari, but I felt I had no choice. It was the only way I could think of. besides killing him, to protect you. And if I killed him, Whitney would discover we'd broken into his stronghold. I did set Sean up and if we're lucky, he'll be taken care of when he makes a try at Whitney.'

'Are you apologizing to me?' She tilted her head enough to look up at him. shocked that he would be upset when what he'd done had cost him so dearly.

'I'm sorry, baby. He's a powerful enemy, and I should have found a better way to remove him permanently, but we only had a few seconds to make a decision and that was ail that came to mind if we wanted your family safe.' And he had agonized and cursed over that decision every moment since. He wanted Sean dead. He needed Sean dead, but he had to live with the fact that he'd left the bastard alive and Mari wasn't safe.

'I have no idea what I would have done if you hadn't helped me.' she said. Her nervous fingers stroked his hair, an unconscious caress. She buried her face against the warmth of his neck. 'Whitney said the senator is coming here, that he specifically asked to talk to me. I don't have any idea how he would know to ask for me, but Whitney was really angry. I'm certain that's why he had Sean come to me tonight.'

It took effort not to keep the hot surge of fury from spilling over where she might feel it. He brushed a kiss against the soft strands of hair at the top of her head. He'd never been so choked up in his life. It was terrifying how this woman made him feel so much. He had been careful all of his life never to get emotionally involved, and yet she'd wrapped him up so tight he could barely breathe-and he had no idea how it happened, or even when.

'Senator Freeman is coming here?'

'That's what Whitney said. I don't think it's a good idea. Whitney seems really angry with him. Freeman isn't enhanced in any way.'

'But his wife is.'

'Yes. Whitney and the senator's father, Andrew Freeman, go way back. Andrew Freeman is in shipping. Violet told us she was being groomed to a be a senator's wife-that Whitney wanted Senator Freeman to run for vice president and that they would have a man in office they could control.'

'So Violet is one of Whitney's GhostWalkers. He has a small army of them.'

'No!' Mari pulled back her head to look at him. 'Violet would never betray us, no matter what Whitney offered. I think she genuinely loves her husband, but she still wouldn't sell us out. Whitney has access to a team of genuine GhostWalkers. Violet was part of that group and so was I. Whitney has another unit comprised of supersoldiers. They're not quite the same. They're enhanced, but their psychic abilities aren't as strong and most of them are very violent. I know Violet isn't a part of that; she wouldn't betray us.'

'Sean did.'

There was a silence and he cursed himself for hurting her. His arms tightened even more, as if by crushing her to him and nuzzling the top of her head he could somehow make up for his blunder.

'Yes, he did,' Mari said. 'He blamed it on me.'

'That's bullshit and you know it. He made his choices; we all do. He can take his own responsibility. If I screw up with you, Mari, it's on me.'

She reached up to trace his lips with the pad of her finger, hearing the ache in his voice. 'Why do you persist in thinking you're some kind of monster?'

'I don't want you getting the wrong idea about me.' His voice sounded raw even to his own ears.

She smiled in the darkness. 'I've been in your mind. I know you're bossy and you like everything your own way. You think you're jealous…'

'I am jealous. The thought of another man touching you makes me crazy.' He squeezed his eyes shut. 'My father was so jealous, Mari. he couldn't stand my mother talking and laughing with her own sons. He beat her every time a man glanced her way, which was often. She was a beautiful woman. I feel very possessive of you already. The idea of some man holding you in his arms, kissing you, sharing your body, just the thought alone, makes me feel violent. I don't honestly know what I'd do.'

Ashamed, he wrapped his arm around her head, pressing her face into his chest so she couldn't look at him. He couldn't look her in the eye. 'I could feel your emotions when Sean was fighting Brett. It sickened you to be the cause of that. I could do much worse, Mari, I know I'm capable. I was hoping I could hold you at arm's length and I wouldn't feel so strongly, but it happened and I can't stop it.'

'You're not your father. Ken. You've led a completely different life. You've been shaped by your own experiences.'

He gave a small, humorless laugh. 'Exactly. Mari. Wonderful experiences. Witnessing my father kill my mother. Trying to do the old man in myself-hell, I wasn't even in my teens. I plotted a thousand ways to murder him. I beat