Christine Feehan - Deadly Game

"Like hell. Get in the damned tunnel, Mari, where I don't have to worry about you while I take care of this bastard."

"I'm going to stay with you."

Strobes went off in the house. A soft alarm buzzed. Jack and Ken sent Logan a quick, hard look. "An hour?" Jack said.

"I don't have time for this," Ken snapped, his voice icy cold. "You'll do what I say. This is about safety, and when it comes to safety, you get in line, no arguments."

"No one controls me. No one . Whitney couldn't control me and I'll be damned if you do. I'm not hiding while you take the risks."

Ken stepped closer to her. his eyes glacier-cold. "You'll do exactly what I say when I say it, Mari. I'm not fucking around here. I'm not about to let you get shot so that you can prove a point. This isn't about freedom or whatever else you think it is. Sean wants you any way he can have you. He's got to go through me to get to you. If I fail, and Jack fails and Logan fails, you're welcome to blow him away."

Mari's face paled and she took a step back.

"Don't you dare look at me like you're afraid I'll hit you!" Ken caught her arm and jerked her toward him.

Mari's hands came up in a defensive lighting position. "Get off of me."

"That was really sensitive of you," Jack declared. "Sheesh, Ken, can you be any dumber?"

Ken ignored his brother and pulled Mari tight against his body. "Last night I was so deep inside you we were sharing the same skin. And today you're going to look at me like I'm some kind of fucking monster." He looked down at his fingers biting deep into her arm, abruptly let go, and looked to his brother for help.

Jack took great care not to glance at Briony. Baby, you're the brains of the outfit. Do something fast .

Without hesitation. Briony made a small sound of distress. Instantly everyone looked at her. She wrapped her arms protectively around her large stomach. "Jack. I'm so afraid. Last time…" She trailed off.

Instinctively Mari went to her. "Sean isn't going to get close to you. There's no way that will happen."

"They came last time. Mari, with helicopters, and we barely escaped. I can't climb the cliff now. I can't run. The doctor put me on bed rest because I've had a few contractions. I can't fight this time."

"Mari's a damn good soldier. Briony," Ken said. "She's a hell of a shot and I've seen her fight. She isn't about to allow anyone to get near you."

Mari shot him a quelling look, but smiled with reassurance at her sister. "I won't let anything happen to you or the babies. I promise. Why don't you lead the way to the tunnel?"

"Mari…" Ken had no idea what he was going to say. but he didn't want to leave it like this. She was wavering about her decision to stay with him, and ever since he'd brought her into the house she'd been different.

"Go. Get it done. I need another gun and a couple of clips of ammo, just to be on the safe side."

"I can show you where everything is," Briony said, slipping her hand into Mari's.

Ken shook his head and followed Jack out of the house, checking his rifle and guns automatically as they cached weapons throughout the yard.

"Keep your mind on what's going on here," Jack said. "Otherwise you're a dead man. She's not going anywhere."

"How would you know?"

"I see the way she looks at you. Any fool can see."

"She isn't like Briony, Jack. No matter how you cut it, in the bedroom or out of it, I'm going to be rough on her. Sooner or later she's going to hightail it out of here fast. I don't know what the hell I'll do then." And he didn't. He couldn't think about her leaving him because he knew she was contemplating just that. His mind went numb-blank.

"Ken." Jack put his hand on his brother's shoulder. "Sean is a trained killer. This isn't going to be easy. You have to keep your mind on what you're doing. Why don't you let me switch places with you? He won't know the difference."

Ken shook his head. "I'll be fine. This is my war, Jack. You just watch yourself up there. If he sees you climbing and thinks you're me, he could very well go after you or try to take you out with a nice, well-placed shot."

Jack shrugged. "Then you'd better be in position covering me."

Ken nodded and went into the shop, emerging a few minutes later with a blond wig on his head. He hunched, trying to make himself smaller, staying to the thicker foliage so anyone watching would only catch glimpses of him. Sean needed to see Jack, to believe it was Ken climbing the rock face. It would further the illusion that Man was hiking in the woods by herself. Ken took up a position, sitting on a boulder near the spring, lacy fern fronds covering most of his body as he waited for Sean to spot him. All the while his gaze searched the ridges to make certain the enemy wasn't lying in wait to get a shot off at Jack.

Minutes passed. Fifteen. He could see Jack moving up the sheer face of the rock to his favorite lookout spot. To an outsider he appeared to be engaging in a little recreational rock climbing. Ken knew that once Jack was at the top, he would slide into the shadow of the cliff, right into a neat little depression where no one could spot him, and he would have a bird's-eye view of the surrounding region.

Twenty minutes. Ken bent, picked up a few small pebbles, and idly tossed them into the spring. The back of his neck prickled. He felt an itch between his shoulder blades. There was the whisper of leaves brushing against clothing. It would all be on instinct now. and Ken had survival instincts honed from his childhood, when his father entered the house drunk, intent on inflicting as much pain and damage as he could on his sons. He knew when he was in danger. He was being stalked.

Ken bent down again as though picking up more pebbles. He stayed low, sweeping the area with a casual glance around. He made a great show of selecting fiat stones for throwing. A twig snapped off to his left on the narrow deer trail that crisscrossed the hills. The deer had a favorite spot to lie in the shade near the spring. Ken glanced toward the area where the grasses were perpetually trampled and saw part of a pant leg. He palmed the knife in his boot as he straightened, taking care to stay in the middle of the overgrown ferns.

"Hello Mari." Sean greeted. "If you stay very, very quiet, I might let everyone but your lover live. If you give me trouble, the first person I kill is your whoring sister."

Ken turned slowly, concealing the knife along his wrist. "Watch your mouth when you talk about my sister-in-law."

"You!" Sean scowled, anger flitting across his face; then his mouth pulled tight in a snarling grin. "Just the bastard I wanted to meet."

"You're not very smart, are you?" Ken asked, taking a step to his right to see if Sean would follow. "Did you think I wouldn't protect her?"

Sean circled Ken. eyes restlessly searching the area around them, measuring the distance separating them. "I saw you on the mountain, climbing." he said conversationally. "How the hell could you be up here?"

"My brother, Jack," Ken replied without emotion. All rage had disappeared, and he felt the inevitable ice flowing in his veins, slowing down time, tunneling so that all he saw was a man with targets painted on his body.

"You can't have her. I know you took her from me."

"She was never yours. She's her own person, Sean. You can't treat her like a possession. She has her own mind and her own will." Even as Ken said the words aloud, his heart sank. He was as bad as Sean, trying to hold her to him when he knew she needed to fly free. He couldn't change his nature any more than Sean could undo whatever he had allowed Whitney to do to him.

Sean palmed his knife. "It's going to be a pleasure to kill you."

"Do you really think it's going to be that easy? You sold out, asshole, and you didn't even do it gracefully. You must have loved her once, loved her enough to decide you could just take her-own her."