“My leg hurts and this conversation is making me feel sick. I shouldn’t be giving out information to you. We’re enemies.”
Jack shook his head. “I don’t think we are. If you were really ordered to protect the senator, as we were, then we’re on the same side. You have the GhostWalker crest tattooed on your upper back.” He shoved up his sleeve. “We’re a member of an elite unit of the Special Forces and we all work for the United States. We’re on the same side, Mari. I don’t know how the wires are getting crossed, but I suspect Whitney has something to do with it.”
“You think Whitney has gone rogue.”
“We all thought he was dead—murdered,” Jack replied. “He disappeared about eighteen months ago, and his daughter ‘saw’ his death, saw him murdered.”
“I can assure you, he’s very much alive.”
“No one has seen or heard from him. Only recently, we began to suspect he faked his own death.”
Mari frowned, shifting slightly to ease the soreness in her hips. Nothing could stop the pain in her leg, so she ignored it, the way she’d been taught. It bothered her that Jack was doing all the talking, as if Ken was still dwelling on other things—things she didn’t want him to be thinking about. “It’s possible he faked his own death so he wouldn’t be killed. If the government, or his friends, decided he was a liability, or a lunatic, they might have decided to get rid of him, or at the least have him locked up in an institution.” She risked a quick glance at Ken, but he was looking at her leg.
“What friends?” Jack asked.
“He has a couple of people visit every now and then. The compound is under heavy guard when they come, and they’re surrounded by bodyguards. Most of the time we’re moved to the back of the compound and only catch glimpses of them. Sean works with Whitney now, so a few times he’s told us about the arguments between them.”
Ken stepped away from her, folding his arms across his chest and regarding her with cold eyes. “It didn’t occur to you that killing a woman because someone didn’t return might be a little out of the ordinary?”
Mari noticed his body was still slightly between hers and his brother. Something about his deceptively casual stance and his tone sent a chill down her spine. “What’s ordinary? I was raised in the barracks with other girls. We were soldiers, trained as soldiers, ran missions even as young as twelve. None of us have ever been away except on a mission or training exercise. Normal was whatever Whitney told us it was.”
“And now?” Jack prompted, shooting his twin a warning glance.
Mari shrugged. “Whitney is getting worse. When I was a child, he just seemed mean, and remote, but over the years, he’s really deteriorated, especially the last year or two. For a while, he seemed like he had a human side. I thought maybe his daughter, Lily, was keeping him grounded, but—”
“You know about Lily?” Jack interrupted.
Mari nodded, trying not to flinch as Ken cleaned her leg. More blood had seeped out. “He talked about her often, and it seemed like he really might love her, although, to be honest, I couldn’t imagine that he was capable of real love. He didn’t see any of us as human beings. Over the last two years he’s become fanatical. Even his friends seem to be having trouble holding him in check.”
“Tell us about his friends,” Jack encouraged, taking another step forward.
Mari tried to keep her gaze from straying to the gun at his waist, or the two other weapons in the twin harnesses beneath his arms. He was close enough that she might be able to snag one of the guns if she was fast—very fast.
“Is there something about my brother’s face you find fascinating?” Ken asked.
The low tone made her shiver. He could sound so utterly menacing at times. “Actually, no,” she brazened, determined not to be intimidated. “I was wondering if he was deliberately tempting me to make a try for his guns or whether he was so into the conversation he forgot I was his prisoner.”
“Do you really think you’re that fast?” Jack asked.
“Ordinarily, but I’m hurting a little bit right now, so my timing might be off. In any case, you’re double-teaming me. Ken is waiting for me to jump you, and frankly, it’s a really uninspiring trap. Neither of you put much thought into it.”
“Sorry, it was spur of the moment, just to see where we stood,” Jack said. “You thought about going for a gun.”
“I have to escape. I don’t have a choice. As much as I’m enjoying your company, I really, really have to get back—everyone’s waiting for me.”
“And all this time I thought we were getting to be friends. Didn’t we agree we were on the same side?”
Ken ignored both of them and once more took up a position by her head. He wiped her face with a cool cloth. “Put off trying to escape just a little longer. Your leg isn’t up to it yet.”
“I wish I could, but even if we were on the same side, they’re going to come looking for me and someone will end up hurt. I may be able to sneak back into the compound before Whitney realizes I’ve ever been gone. My people are going to try to make that happen.”
“Just give us the location of the compound, and we’ll be happy to escort you home,” Jack suggested.
“And you’d bring a few of your friends just to make it fun,” Mari said. She waved him away. “I’m tired. You can interrogate me later, okay?”
“Take another drink of water.” Ken slipped his arm behind her back again. “We can’t risk you getting dehydrated.”
“Did she do much damage to her leg?” Jack asked.
Mari closed her eyes and turned her face away from them. She liked them. She even understood them. They were soldiers. She respected that. They were doing their job and they very well could be on the same side—she was fairly certain they were—but she couldn’t chance risking everyone’s life to find out.
She inhaled, dragging Ken’s masculine scent into her lungs. She’d been more stimulated, more humiliated, and more exhilarated than she’d ever been in her life. She had to escape. Nothing she said or did was going to convince them to let her go.
“Mari, drink the water.”
The steel in Ken’s voice set her teeth on edge. She knew the ripple of anger going through her body tipped him off. She had a stubborn streak a mile wide, and it was the one thing that had gotten her through her separation from Briony—through her unusual childhood—and through the degradation of Whitney’s insane breeding program.