No, she didn’t. She knew men like Ken, and they didn’t have that glacier-cold burn in their eyes because they were nice. I’m counting on you following me. I don’t want to get trapped there ever again.
Then you’re both clear.
Relief swept through her. Sean put on a burst of speed, seeing the trees close, and she fell back a couple of steps to help block his body just in case Ken changed his mind. With every step she took, relief turned to dread. Even though it was her choice to go back, and she knew Ken had her back, the idea of being trapped again in Whitney’s nightmare world sickened her. The other women were as desperate to escape as she was, going so far as to plan it, but even their allies within the compound were afraid of Whitney and his bodyguards. The men were cruel and brutal. Brett had been one of them. All had seen plenty of combat and all were enhanced.
You think I’d let you go there alone, honey? Jack and I are right on your hot little tail. We can follow a ghost.
His voice brushed along the walls of her mind like a physical caress, steadying her. She could go back and get the others out. Whitney seemed invincible, but that was only because he’d been the authority figure from her childhood. He had stood watching them all with that dispassionate look on his face, so unemotional no matter what happened, his terrible half smile on his face as he forced obedience.
Ken, most of the people at the compound are good people, following orders and struggling to make sense of it all.
I’m not the devil. But maybe he was. Ken watched Mari disappear into the trees with Sean and reluctantly dropped the rifle from his shoulder. He wanted to pull the trigger. The moment he saw Sean—and he knew the big man was Mari’s Sean—Ken had wanted him dead. The shot he’d taken had been a kill shot, and Mari had to have known that. If she hadn’t punched the bastard and dropped him to the ground, the son of a bitch would be dead.
And why the hell did they need him alive? Mari needed to return to Whitney’s secret compound, and that went against every instinct Ken had, but hell—he was in her head and knew she wouldn’t stop trying until she’d done this. Short of locking her up—and he’d contemplated that very thing—he had to let her go back.
He rolled over, wiping his brow on his sleeve. Jack came up behind him. “How the hell do men do this? Because, let me tell you, bro, it’s f**ked. She’s asking for something I don’t think I can give her.”
“Let’s go,” Jack said, his face grim. “You made the decision to let her go and we’ve got it to do now. We can’t lose her.”
“Lily make certain the tracking device is in her bloodstream?”
“Yes. She didn’t like it, but she did it.”
“How is she?”
“Ryland took her to the hospital to make sure the baby is okay. Everyone’s in place. Let’s do this and get Mari out of there as fast as we can,” Jack insisted.
Ken rose to his feet and followed Jack from their vantage point. “No matter what, we had to put that tracking device in place. You have one in Briony and Lily has one. If Whitney takes them, we can get them back.”
“They wouldn’t like it if they knew, especially Mari.”
“Who gives a damn?” Ken asked. “Mari can f**king well live with it. Asking me to let her do this is bullshit and she knows it.”
“Women don’t go for the word ‘allow’ anymore, bro. It’s not politically correct.” Jack kept his back turned as he listened to his brother spit out curses. Mari might look like Briony, but she wasn’t ever going to act like her. Ken had his hands full.
“I am surprised you didn’t chain her up inside a cave somewhere.”
“Like you’ve done with Briony? Bri has the brains to listen to you. Mari would fight me every inch of the way.”
The tension in Ken’s voice made Jack glance at him sharply. “Ken, I know you’re struggling here . . .”
Ken shook his head. “Don’t even go there. I wanted to kill that man for just being near her. It wasn’t that he hit her. He was a dead man the moment he did that, we both know that, but I wanted it before he was that stupid.”
Jack sent a small, tight smile in his brother’s general direction. “I wanted to kill him too, Ken. That doesn’t mean either of us is like our father. It means we might need psychiatric help, but it doesn’t mean what you think it does.”
“She makes me crazy.”
“She’s supposed to make you crazy.”
Ken shook his head in disgust. “You don’t know, Jack. I have this driving need to keep her in a little cocoon, wrap her up in bubble wrap and force her to do every single thing I say. What the hell kind of man thinks that way?”
Jack snorted. “Pretty much all of them. We aren’t that far from swinging in the trees, Ken.” One eyebrow rose in inquiry. “So, if you want to force her to do what you say, why don’t you?”
Ken shrugged, muttering under his breath as they reached their vehicle. “Mari’s smart, you know. She’s fast and she’s efficient and she doesn’t f**k around. Man, she put me out so fast I didn’t know what she was doing until it was too late.” He rubbed the back of his neck, but there was admiration in his voice. “Trying to control someone like that is like trying to hold water in your hand. It just makes a man insane.”
“So, basically, if you locked her up, she might kick your balls right up into your stomach and then smile at you as you’re lying on the floor.”
“Basically.”
Jack shot him a grin. “Good for her.”
“Yeah, you can say that. She’s not your woman. She was going back to that compound no matter what anyone said, but Jack, she doesn’t know me. She only thinks she does. If they hurt her—if they touch her—they’re dead men. I won’t be able to stop myself. It won’t matter if she thinks the women are in danger. Nothing is going to matter.”
“That’s not a big surprise, Ken,” Jack said. “We both are fairly one dimensional in our approach to solving problems. Freud would have a field day with us.”
Ken sighed. Mari was smart and sexy, far too independent, and as tough as they came. She was highly skilled, well trained, and unflinching in battle. She hadn’t even hesitated to punch Sean, dropping him like a stone. And she’d known her team was there before he had, even though he’d f**ked her brains out and he lay like a limp dishrag, unable to hear anything but his own heartbeat.