Christine Feehan - Conspiracy Game

Briony smiled at the waiter and took between her palms the cup of coffee he placed in front of her, her mind racing with the things Kadan had said. There was no way she could trust her baby to a stranger, but she did have a choice. She stared into the black liquid, her stomach fluttering with fear. Could she do it? Was she strong enough?

“Where are you staying, Mr. Montague? We’ll talk it over and let you know what we’ve decided to do. I have to think about this.”

Kadan sighed. “Read the file. Whitney is a monster, and if he gets his hands on you-or the baby-your life is not going to be worth much. At this time we have no idea where he is, so there wouldn’t be a rescue team showing up to bail you out. Come back to the States with me. If you’re worried, your brothers are welcome. At least stay until the baby is born. You’re enhanced; you’ve had a great education. We can teach you survival skills, maybe enough to protect you and the baby.”

Survival skills. Don’t open the door. Stand to the side of it. Walk on my left side. Go up to the roof, not into the alley. The words played over and over in her head. Who better to learn from than the master?

“Why haven’t you gone to Mr. Norton and told him all of this?” Briony asked. “There must be more than one of you. Did you send someone to warn him?”

Kadan watched her with his unsettling direct stare. “Norton disappears, and when he doesn’t want to be found-no one finds him.”

Briony poured cream into her coffee and stirred it. “He’s missing? Then you did try to find him.”

“One of his team members was with us when we discovered this information. We left it to him to decide whether or not to try to contact Jack and tell him.”

Seth took the cream from Briony, dumping it into his coffee as he glanced at Kadan, a challenge in his eyes. “If they killed Tony thinking he’s the father, wouldn’t they go after this Norton character on the off chance he is?”

Briony glanced up when Jebediah groaned. He covered his eyes with one hand and whispered in her ear. “The thought of you having two partners is more than I can take.”

“They might go after Jack. They have a lot of intel. Whitney had a high-security clearance. He has access to files on Jack that few people have. In my opinion, he won’t go near Jack unless he has no other choice. He would be stirring up a hornet’s nest.”

“What does that mean, exactly?” Seth demanded. “Why would he kill Tony and not Jack?”

Kadan sat back in his chair. “Tony was an easy target. Jack’s not. Whitney has only so many men. We had a run-in with him recently and he lost a few. If he sent a team in after Jack, few of them, if any, would make it back alive. Jack isn’t alone up there. He’s got Ken with him, and his twin is every bit as lethal as he is. They’re an unstoppable team. They’ve worked together for years and each knows exactly what the other is going to do at any given moment. Whitney would have to be insane-or desperate-to go after Jack Norton-especially on his home turf.”

Briony looked at her brother, despair in her gaze. Resolve. She blinked away tears, and Jebediah swallowed hard, reaching for her hand.

“Briony’s right, Mr. Montague. We appreciate the warning and the information, but we need to talk this over as a family. Give us a few minutes.”

Kadan nodded. “I could use food. I’ll order while you all talk. Anything I can get for you?” He scooped up the file and put it in his briefcase.

Jebediah wanted breakfast, and the others followed suit. They waited for Kadan to go into the café.

“He wasn’t fooled,” Briony said. “He knows we’re going to leave. That’s why he took the file.”

“We are?” Seth asked.

“Ruben’s back with the car,” Jebediah said grimly. “Let’s go.”

Brionystared out the window at the wild scenery as they climbed higher and higher up the mountain in the Montana wilderness. At times the road seemed more of a faint, pitted track, overgrown with shrubs and grasses. The more she learned about Jack Norton, the more she could see him in this wild environment. He was a throwback to earlier times, a man who made his own rules and was as dangerous as the predatory animals surrounding him. He could disappear anytime he wanted and survive quite well off the land. She doubted anyone could find him, and that’s why she needed him. He could teach her those same skills and protect her while she was learning them.

It didn’t matter that he didn’t want her. Liability . The word echoed through her mind. She pressed her hands over her stomach, her mouth tightening with determination. Too bad for Jack. She was not only arriving on his doorstep, she was bringing a kid . Granted, it wasn’t born yet, but he was going to have to live with it. She couldn’t see him turning them away once she told him their child was in danger.

Her fingers curled around the window as she leaned out to look down to the valley floor. They were on the right track. She felt him, the same way she’d felt his presence long before she’d ever laid eyes on him. He was closer than she’d anticipated, and she tasted fear in her mouth. Her heartbeat accelerated, and slowly, involuntarily, her fingers curled around the window jamb until her knuckles turned white. She felt the heightened danger with each mile they traveled.

“Are you certain, Bri?” Jebediah asked, his voice tight with strain as night fell. “It’s becoming harder to see, even with the moonlight, and I don’t want to use the headlights unless we absolutely have to. We’ve managed this far without a tail, and if we tip off Norton we’re coming, he could slide away from us and we’d never find him.” He glanced at her. “Once we do this, there’s no turning back.”

“You feel the threat too, don’t you?” Few things worried Jebediah, but he definitely had a sixth sense when it came to danger.

“We are in danger, Bri. Jack could just as easily decide to shoot us for trespassing as listen to us. How many signs have we seen warning us away?”

“About ten.” Briony offered him a faint smile. “If he bothered to put up signs, he doesn’t want to kill anyone.”

“You can bet every cent you have his brother Ken put up those signs.”

“I hope I can trust the SEAL you contacted for Jack’s address.”

“Jess Calhoun was the closest thing to a friend Jack and Ken had.”

She shrugged. “Who knows if what I’m doing is right? I don’t trust anyone I don’t know. None of us can right now, but Jack Norton is the baby’s father. I’m not asking him to take responsibility. I’m not looking for a lifetime commitment, but if he’s the badass you keep saying he is, then, for certain, he’s my best chance of protecting our child. Even Kadan Montague said if he wanted to disappear, no one could find him. That means he can teach me.”

Jebediah shook his head. “He scares the hell out of me, Bri, and the thought of you with him… ” He stopped the SUV right in the middle of the narrow track and turned toward her. “Some men live by their own rules, and Jack is one of them. He’ll never be an easy man, won’t ever fit into society, and he’s dangerous as hell if you cross his sense of justice. The government uses men like him, trains them, hones their natural instincts, and calls them when they need them, but they don’t acknowledge them, because they’re killers. Jack is extremely intelligent, and he’s got more recorded kills than any sniper I know of-unless it’s his brother.” He tapped his fingers in agitation on the steering wheel. “I don’t know if he was born that way, or if Dr. Whitney’s enhancements made him that way; he doesn’t talk much, but didn’t you feel the danger when you were around him? Didn’t you look into his eyes?”