“Who did you see nosing around, Brady? What did he look like?”
“Big fella, talked real low like you do.”
“Did he want anything?”
Brady shrugged. “He just wanted to know about the elk. Said he was a hunter, but he wasn’t hunting elk.”
“How’d you know?”
“Tracks everywhere, but he didn’t even look at them. I think he took my supplies. Saw a partial track by the cave, and it was his all right. Damn thief.”
Supplies are in the usual drop.
“I’ll look into it, Brady. Meanwhile, you take what Ken gives you and go to your winter place. Ken left the bag for you in the usual place. If the big guy was looking to tell the Rangers where you are, they won’t be able to find you.”
Brady nodded and muttered to himself. They exchanged a few more pleasantries and Brady shuffled off. Jack followed him, careful to stay out of sight, while Ken retrieved Briony.
She jumped down from the branches of the tree, landing in a crouch, her gaze touching on the hard angles and planes of Ken’s face as she straightened. “You’re angry with me.”
He caught her wrist and began walking back to the house, taking her with him. “Damn right I am, but I’m angrier with jughead, so you can breathe easier, I won’t take your head off like you deserve.”
“You’re angry with Jack? But I did this, put us all in this position, not him.”
“No, he just has to make sure I’m tucked away where no one’s going to shoot me while he’s taking all the risks. It’s time he knocked that shit off.”
Her breath hitched in her throat. “I should have been more careful. I’m sorry, Ken. Neither of you should be in danger because I wanted to take a walk.”
Before Ken could respond, Jack came striding into the yard. He moved fast, fluidly, a muscular fighting machine, his face dark with anger.
To Briony’s horror, the men came together, faces hard, jaws set, gray eyes as turbulent as a lightning storm. In that moment they looked exactly alike-raw power-warriors of old, equally matched.
Ken swung his fist at Jack, a hard jab to the face. Jack barely slipped it and slammed both hands hard into his brother’s chest. The blow rocked Ken, but he stepped closer, not away, staring straight into Jack’s eyes.
“Back the hell off,” Jack snapped. “You don’t change procedure in the middle of a mission. We do what we’ve always done; it’s how we stay alive. You know that. Get your head out of your butt.”
“I’m not hiding behind you anymore, Jack. If anything had gone wrong… ”
“What kind of crap are you talking? You’ve been guarding my back my entire life, not hiding behind me. Is the entire world going to hell? And you!” Jack whirled around to face Briony, fury in every line of his body.
He advanced on her, his fingers settling around her upper arms like a vise. “You never forget you’re in a combat situation. Not for one minute. Do you understand me? You could have been killed, or you could have gotten someone else killed.” He punctuated each word with a hard shake. “This isn’t a game, Briony. Someone wants you in a lab where they can experiment, not only on you, but on our children.”
Waves of fear-not anger-rolled off of him. He didn’t even realize he was using his anger, whipping himself into a rage to keep from feeling the terror her disappearance had caused. She felt a shudder go through his body and saw that he was pale beneath his weathered tan; most of all she could see the terror for her behind the icy cold in his smoldering eyes.
“I know, I’m sorry,” she said, meeting his gaze steadily, wanting him to know she meant it. “And I’m sorry for scaring you. I’ll be more careful, Jack.”
He dropped his arms as if she’d burned him, stepped away from her, and shook his head. “Damn you, don’t you do that. Don’t you look at me like that.” He took two more steps away from her. She was looking at him with something far too close to love in her eyes-disarming him, making him feel na**d and vulnerable and without an outlet for the terrible fear she’d put in him.
Fear-it tasted like bile in his mouth, churned in his gut until his only recourse was action to remove it. He turned on his heel and left her, heading to the shop and his workout bag, something he could hit until his hands were bloody and he was too damned tired to think anymore.
“Why’d you hit him, Ken?” Briony asked.
“Because he values my life more than his.”
“And you don’t feel the same about him?”
“I don’t have you and the babies. He’s got to consider that now before he stands in the line of fire.”
“I don’t think that’s going to change. And I don’t understand. It was just an old man,” Briony said to Ken. “He shouldn’t be so upset.”
“Think, Briony, you always have to think. The old man comes here often for food or if he needs medical attention. We know him and we let him on the property. He’s not quite right anymore, been living alone too long, but he’s a decent man. If Whitney wants to find out where you are, what better way than to use Brady? He wouldn’t even know they were using him. Plant a vid camera on him and give him the idea he needs to see us, and they’ve got their spy in the enemy camp.”
Her hand went to her throat. “You don’t think they’d actually do that, do you?”
“Whitney’s seen our files, Briony. He isn’t stupid. Why risk sending his men in without insuring you’re here and getting the layout as well? You notice we didn’t bring him up to the house? We never bring him up to the house. We feed him meals and give him supplies, but not up at the house-but they wouldn’t know that.”
“How terrible to live that way. You don’t think it’s just a tiny bit paranoid?”
“We’ve taken out targets in nearly every country in the world, Briony, and no matter how top secret our status, our names have leaked out a couple of times in the past. Someone comes for us every now and then. It’s our way of life, and if you’re going to stay-it has to become your way of life as well.”
“And the baby?”
“Babies,” he corrected. “They’ll learn. We’ll teach them.”
“That’s what he meant when he said I’d be a liability.” She looked up at Ken. “He knew someone could use us to go after him, didn’t he? If they captured and tortured us, he’d do anything to get us back, wouldn’t he?”