He sent his brother a small, sad smile and lifted his other hand to shield Mari’s eyes. I’ve always loved you, Jack. I don’t want you to have to do this. His finger tightened on the trigger.
“No!” There was fear, agony, in Jack’s voice. “Damn you, no, Ken!” He leapt forward, a hundred years too late; even with his enhanced strength and speed, he could never get there in time.
The way Ken had drawn the gun was smooth and practiced. There was no hesitation, only resolve, as if he had known someday he would have to use that last line of defense for his brother. Even as he lifted the gun, Mari was already in motion. She threw herself off the bed, every move carefully calculated. Her head rammed Ken’s arm. She felt the heat of the explosion as the bullet left the gun, far too close to her face. The sound was deafening next to her ear, but she latched on to his wrist and took both of them to the floor. She landed hard, unable to protect her leg.
She heard herself scream, the cry torn from her throat, but she hung on grimly to Ken’s arm, pinning it with her body weight when she was seeing stars, afraid she’d pass out before Jack got to his twin.
Ken didn’t struggle. Instead he wrapped his arm around her and put his mouth against her ear. “I tried to save you. Whitney has my profile too. He knows me inside, where no one else does, and he thought it would be fun to pair you with the devil.”
She turned her head to stare into his strange-colored eyes. “The devil wouldn’t have tried to take his own life in order to keep me safe.”
There was a moment, one small heartbeat, when she glimpsed raw emotion in those silver eyes and her heart jumped in response.
“You’ll never be safe again, Mari, not while I’m alive.”
Jack kicked the gun across the floor away from Ken and sank down beside them, his trembling hand going to his brother’s shoulder. Mari hadn’t thought he could be so shaken.
“What were you thinking? Ken, you should have let me help you.”
Ken shook his head, gathering Mari closer to him, reaching for the sheet to once again cover her body. His hands were impersonal, as if his mouth had never tasted her flesh, brought her to a fever pitch of sensual pleasure without even trying. “There’s no way to help me, Jack, and you know it. You can only help her. You know what you have to do to keep her safe.”
“This is bullshit, Ken. I can put a bullet in her head and be done with it.”
Mari raised her hand. “Do I get a vote?”
“You’re bleeding all over the place again,” Ken said. He stood, lifting her into his arms, the pain driving the air from her lungs. “You can’t kill her, Jack. You have to protect her from everyone—even me.”
Mari tried desperately to cling to consciousness. The movement wrenched her leg, made her stomach protest with a violent heave, but she refused to faint, needing to hear every word.
Jack shook his head. “It doesn’t have to be like this.”
“What? You didn’t see me acting like an animal? You know exactly what it’s going to be like—a long drop into hell. I’m not doing that. I refuse to be him. I’d rather be dead.” Ken placed Mari back on the gurney, careful to avoid jarring her leg. “Take a look, Jack, see how much damage she did.” He stepped away from her side, not looking at her, not touching her, his voice as empty as his expression.
“You look.” Jack reached down and snagged the gun. “Are you going to be stupid again?”
Ken refused to answer. Jack stepped closer to the gurney and suddenly jammed the weapon against Mari’s head. “I swear to you, on our mother, if you even think about doing that again, I’ll blow her brains out.”
Ken instantly came to life, his face darkening, eyes narrowing to slashing silver slits. “Get the f**k away from her or we’re going to have trouble, Jack.”
“She can bleed out for all I care, Ken. Anything happens to you, anything, by your hand or someone else’s, she’s dead. You got that? I give you my f**kin’ word on that. She’s dead. You know me. You know I don’t ever stop. You think long and hard about that before you try this shit with me again.” Jack withdrew the weapon, threw it to Ken, and shoved past him to stalk over to the doorway.
Ken stood for a moment just holding the gun, staring after his twin. He said nothing, just stood in silence, his knuckles white where he gripped the butt of the gun. Finally, he shoved it inside the holster under his arm and took a deep, calming breath before looking at the blood seeping into the sheet.
Mari inhaled sharply, trying to find a way to ease the tension. “Well, that went well. I can see that he does have a bad habit of wanting to shoot people. He wasn’t kidding.”
“No, he wasn’t.” Ken pushed the sheet off her leg. “Did you have to land so hard? You really made a mess.”
“It hurts,” she admitted and reached out to catch his arm. “You didn’t hurt me. I participated. It wasn’t all your fault, you know. I could have said no.”
He shook his head and she felt the tremor that ran through his body. “You have no way of understanding what’s going on here.”
“I have more understanding than you think I do,” Mari said.
Jack leaned his hip in the doorway, glaring at both of them. “Then tell us.”
She flicked him a quick glance. “This is about Whitney’s breeding program of course. We’re all caught up in it. This is one big experiment. Is Briony pregnant?”
Jack stiffened. “Why would you think that?”
“Because Whitney was desperate for me to get pregnant. He was furious with Brett for not getting the job done. Once I found out she was with you, it wasn’t all that hard to realize he wanted her in the same condition.”
Ken shook his head. “It’s far more than that.”
“We already knew what he was doing, Ken,” Jack said. “We’ve known since he sent his team to retrieve Briony. He wants the babies.”
“He did what?” Mari pushed at Ken, demanding an answer.
He ignored her, shaking his head at his brother. “Don’t you understand? He knows. He did this. He knows about me.”
“You aren’t making sense,” Jack said.
“He means Whitney,” Mari interpreted.
Ken nodded, brushing his face with his hand, smearing Mari’s blood along his jaw. “I’ve always suspected he was psychic. He knows about me. He knows what I’m like and he set this up. It can’t be anything else, Jack. He knew if he sent her to me what I’d do.”