Christine Feehan - Deadly Game

"What is everything?" Mari asked, trying desperately to ignore the way Ken's individual fingertips were bringing points of fire to her ankle.

"Jack, it has nothing to do with that. He probably did read the files, but he knows. He set this up because he wants to see how I'll react and how Mari will react, and now that you have Briony to protect, he wants to see how you'll react." Ken's fingers dug into Mari's ankle, and he suddenly turned his glacier-cold gaze on her. "My father was an insanely jealous man. He brutally murdered our mother and tried to kill both of us. Whitney knows it and he set this up. You. Me. Jack. Briony. It's all one big game to him."

"Well he's playing a deadly game then," Jack said. "Because no one controls us, Ken. We do what we've always done; we make our own rules and we stick together."

"What about her?" Ken's reply was so low Mari barely caught the words.

Jack sighed. "You know it's impossible to leave her behind, so we're going to have to work through it. It wasn't that easy for me with Briony, but we managed."

"I'm not you, Jack. I'm telling you, I'm like he was."

"No, you're not." Mari was firm, startling both men into noticing her. "If Whitney saw that information in a file somewhere, yes, he'd use it against you. He's very good at twisting people into knots, exploring their weaknesses, but if he has psychic abilities and he touched you, he didn't read that in you."

"How do you know that?" Ken's fingers continued that gentle brushing along her toes, his grip as strong as ever, but the touch had lost its warning and had become an involuntary caress.

"Because I touched you."

Ken blinked. It was his only movement. There was no change of expression on his face, but she knew he'd reacted.

Jack edged closer. "You have that kind of ability? To read people when you touch them?"

"She doesn't," Ken denied. "She's lying to try to ease my mind."

"You wish. I don't even like you. Why would I want to ease your mind? The worse you feel, the happier I am." His eyes had gone to cold steel, but she held his gaze and shrugged with feigned casualness. "I couldn't care less whether you believe me or not."

"Do you?" Jack asked.

Mari studied their faces. There were definite chinks in their armor, whether they wanted to admit it or not. "Not strong, but strong enough to know Ken isn't a flat-out murderer, especially not of women. He would carry out an order, but he wouldn't just go around killing someone for no real reason."

"Good to know." Ken let go of her foot and took away the warmth. "If you're so good at all of this, why don't you tell me who this man is and we can let it go?"

She frowned. "You know it was Sean."

"And he'll come after you."

"Whitney will send him, yes, but if you're right that this is an experiment, why would he do that? Why would he send someone to bring me back to him? Wouldn't he want to see what happens between us?"

"He's sending Brett first," Ken replied. "That's all part of his happy little plan. And then he'll send the other one because there's a bond between you and Whitney knows it-and he knows I know it and he knows I'll kill them."

There was an edge to his voice that alarmed her, his tone low and mean and without mercy. She wanted to say it shouldn't matter, but she already knew the power of Whitney's experiments, and she had enhanced scent, just as Ken did, just as Jack did. That made the pheromone response all the more potent. Whitney had created a powerful sexual attraction that transcended common restraint and threatened the discipline of even the strongest soldier-just as the doctor had planned.

If Ken was really like his father, as he evidently feared, she could be in more trouble than she'd ever dreamed. She doubted if she could resist Ken Norton if he made sexual advances toward her, but she would try. What she hadn't counted on was caring one way or the other about the man. She was drawn to him. not just sexually, but emotionally, and that made no sense to her and almost scared her more than the physical attraction.

"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."