“We’re always given a shot of it before every mission, just in case we’re wounded. Isn’t everybody?”
“When?” Ken snapped, jumping to his feet, Mari in his arms. She had to grab his neck and hold on as he took off for the Escalade at a dead run. “Damn it, Mari, when did he give you the shot? Day and time. Tell me now.”
Fear put her heart into overdrive. Both of the Nortons were alarmed. “What do you know about Zenith that I don’t?”
“It can kill you, Mari. Tell me now, how long has it been in your system?”
Logan held the door open and Ken practically leapt inside, Jack after him. “Tell Lily to send a plane. Not military, private. One of her company planes.”
“We can’t risk that, Ken,” Logan protested. “What’s going on?”
“They shot her full of Zenith before they sent her out,” Ken replied. “We have to risk it.”
Neil put the vehicle in motion, racing down the road. “I can get us there by morning. We’re a few hours out. How much time does she have?”
Ken swore bitterly, his silver eyes glittering with far too much menace as he exchanged a long look with his brother.
“Have Lily send the plane, Logan. Tell her to meet us at one of the labs with a medical facility. Tell her we need the antidote for Zenith.”
“Ryland isn’t going to let her risk her life.” But he flipped open his radio and began talking into it.
Mari held herself very still. They weren’t joking around. The tension in the Escalade could have been cut with the proverbial knife. Zenith, the drug used to accelerate fast healing, was dangerous, and they all knew it. Why would Whitney pump all of his men full of it before he sent them out on a mission if he knew the drug was dangerous? And if these men knew it was dangerous, Whitney had to know. He was the inventor of Zenith.
“I should have known; you were healing way too fast even for a GhostWalker. Damn it.” Ken smashed his fist on the seat in front of him. “What the hell was I thinking?” But he knew. And Jack knew. He could see it in his brother’s eyes. He was so f**ked up thinking about sex, he hadn’t given much thought to anything else.
“There’s an airstrip about eighty miles from here. A small farmhouse with a crop-dusting plane. Lily says to make it there and she’ll have a pilot waiting, a friend of hers, not military. She’ll meet us at the underground laboratory where Ryland and his men were first imprisoned. It isn’t far from her house, and no one would think twice about her going there. She works there often. Kadan will be with her to protect her, along with most of Ryland’s crew, so no worries on that score,” Logan announced.
Ken leaned close to Mari, his breath warm against her ear. “You’re forgetting to breathe. We’ll get you there in time.”
“How long have you known about Zenith?”
“Lily found the compound in the laboratory with all the data on it. It clearly works to regenerate cells, but if left in the body too long, it begins to break down the cells and hemorrhaging occurs. And yes, Whitney is well aware of it. It’s his find, his results. Two men died in his laboratory as well as dozens of research animals,” Ken said. “We don’t even mess with the stuff short-term.”
Mari buried her face against Ken’s shoulder, uncaring that the others would see it as weakness. She wasn’t afraid of being a prisoner. She could endure torture if she had to, but Whitney’s continual betrayal was difficult to take. He’d raised her, had been her only source of information. He’d brought in teachers, but ultimately, she had followed his curriculum. She had learned languages, studied and mastered subjects quickly, and followed the training of a soldier. She was disciplined and proficient with weapons and in hand-to-hand combat, as well as being highly skilled in her psychic talents. Whitney should have been proud of her—of all of them—yet he continued to betray them in every way.
He was the closest thing any of them had to a parent, and he was cruel and cold, completely without emotion as he conducted his endless experiments. He had grown worse over the years, and now to find out it wasn’t just the women he’d betrayed. The men in the special ops unit had all been given Zenith before they went out.
Ken’s fingers tunneled in her hair, a slow massage that seemed more soothing than sexual. She was certain he brushed a kiss on the top of her head. “The unit was given orders to go out Monday evening. Whitney was gone, but he left the Zenith for the men to take before they left. His doctor gave the shot to everyone. Sean stole a syringe-full for me. We thought it was a good thing.”
She felt Ken’s reaction to the name. He took a deep breath and let it out. “This Sean, was he with the team?”
Mari shook her head. “Not anymore, not usually, but he knew I was going and he didn’t try to stop me. He could have. He guards Whitney and he didn’t want me to go. He said it was too dangerous, but he went along with it this time to protect me.”
“You’re a trained soldier, why would he say it’s too dangerous?” Ken asked.
She frowned. “I don’t know. We’re friends. I think he just worries about me.”
This Sean seems to be around her a lot. Do you think Whitney has paired her with him as well as with Brett and with me?
Jack glanced up sharply at the edge to Ken’s voice. Not unless he wanted Sean and Brett to kill each other. I wouldn’t share Briony with some other man, and anyone paired isn’t going to want to share either. More likely he’s someone she’s been around and is a friend.
She may think they’re friends, but old Sean has the hots for her.
Jack scowled at his brother. You could try to get that jealousy under control. I feel it when men look at Briony, but I have in under control.
This is me being controlled. I’m not hunting him down to put a f**king bullet in his head, now, am I? Because very soon he had to let Mari go and he wanted her to be happy.
Brett was going to die, and if he ever touched Mari again, Ken would tear the bastard apart with his bare hands. That was all there was to it. He was going to make certain of that, but Sean—now Sean might be someone Ken could respect—at least enough to let him live, as long as he never thought of Mari and Sean together.
He tried not to groan aloud and give his thoughts away. Mari was so tuned to him now that, like him, she could catch impressions of what he was thinking. He didn’t want her thinking worse of him than she already must.