Christine Feehan - Conspiracy Game

Jack’s hand tightened around her wrist. “I like that you’re telepathic.” He loved the intimacy of communicating with her. It was familiar to him. Jack and Ken had been using telepathy as long as he could remember and it meant family to him.

She twisted her hand, a subtle attempt at getting him to release her. He didn’t appear to notice. “I’m a lot of things,” she said. “Right now, tired is the number one thing I am. I need to rest.” She needed desperately to be alone.

He turned back toward the house, tugging at her wrist to get her to follow him. “Stay on this path.”

“You have your property booby-trapped?”

He shrugged. “I don’t like visitors.”

“That’s ridiculous. Some camper could accidentally stumble onto your land not realizing it isn’t part of the national forest.”

“Because they wouldn’t notice the two hundred signs Ken put up everywhere?”

There was a hint of humor in his voice, but his features remained expressionless.

She flashed a small smile up at him. “A lost child?”

“If a parent loses their child all the way up here, the kid’s better off without them.”

“Better off dead ?” She stood absolutely still, studying his face, her heart beating too fast. If he really believed that…

Amusement might have crept into his eyes briefly, but it was gone so quickly she wasn’t certain she’d seen it. “Nothing lethal. Just some fun ones to sound the alarm and slow down any neighbor wanting to borrow tools.”

Relief swept over her. “I’m sure that happens often. Don’t tease me like that.”

Other than Ken, he hadn’t ever teased anyone that he could remember, but it felt good. Just having her there felt good.

“Jebediah told me Ken is your identical twin. Is he much like you?”

“No.” Jack’s voice turned gruff. It was almost as if she could read his mind even with his barriers up. “He’s much nicer. You’ll like him.” His gut twisted again. He spoke the truth. Ken was tough, but he’d always been the social twin, the one who was thoughtful and kind. People naturally gravitated toward Ken, and he was much more sensitive than Jack. Jack respected and admired few people; Ken was at the top of his list. He just hadn’t considered that Briony might put Ken at the top of her list.

He actually hesitated, stopping abruptly on the trail leading up to the house. He couldn’t feel jealous of his own brother. He couldn’t conceive of such a thing. Briony was messing up his thinking if he was that far gone.

What is it? Ken reached out to him the way he’d done since they were in diapers. When one was in trouble, the other knew it immediately.

I don’t know. I’ve got some things to work out.

You upset over the baby? Are you absolutely certain it’s yours?

Jack looked at Briony’s face. She looked far too young. Too innocent. She hadn’t been with another man any more than he’d been with another woman-and now it wasn’t ever going to happen for her, because he couldn’t allow it, even if it was the right thing to let her and the child go. It’s my baby. There was utter satisfaction in his voice. It resonated in his mind so strong his twin couldn’t fail to feel it. “Can you feel what I’m feeling?” he asked Briony aloud.

“If I try.”

“Don’t try.” He detested the clipped way he had of talking, so abrupt as to be rude. Funny, he’d never considered that before. Most of the time, he left the niceties to Ken. People avoided Jack just as he avoided them. “And, Briony, if this chemistry thing is the same between you and Ken, stay the hell away from him.”

“It won’t be.”

“How do you know that?”

“It was in the file. They used him as bait to get you in the Congo. The order was to capture him at all costs.”

“That was in the file?” His voice was tight. “Did it say something about skinning him alive? Cutting him into tiny pieces?”

She glanced up at him. There was no expression on his hard features, but she shivered all the same. “Is that what they did to him?”

She sounded sympathetic. Compassionate. “Like I said, don’t get interested in him. He’s not in the market for a woman.”

“Like you? There’s no need to warn me. You don’t have to worry that I’m going to get silly and romantic,” Briony assured him as she pulled away from all contact, straightening her shoulders. “You made it perfectly clear we had nothing but sex. No emotional attachments. I’m a big girl. I can handle things myself. It’s my choice to keep the baby, and I really do feel bad that I’ve had to ask you for protection for us. I’m not stupid enough to fall for your brother and compound the mistake.”

His eyes were dark and fathomless. She couldn’t read his expression, but there was something almost predatory about him, something cold and dark and very dangerous. She could feel it emanating off of him in waves. He stared at her without blinking, and she knew he missed nothing at all. Her heart was pounding almost out of control. Every breath she took. The beads of sweat forming on her forehead, the ones trickling down between her breasts. The way her lips were dry and her palms sweaty. There was no hiding from his heightened senses, and she didn’t try. She wouldn’t apologize for her fear.

“Stay right behind me.”

The moment his back was turned, she tugged on the tails of the shirt, making certain it adequately covered her. With anyone else, she might have thought he was forcing her to dress in his shirt to make her feel more vulnerable, but Jack was already too aware of her sexually. He didn’t need her naked beneath the shirt to be aware of her as a woman. He was matter-of-fact about it, almost too much so.

Briony cleared her throat. “I’d prefer not to meet your brother until I have clothes on. I’m very uncomfortable.”

“I’d prefer it that way as well,” he said, without glancing over his shoulder. “I’ll get you clothes right away.” Stay out of sight, Ken, until I get her clothes. She has Whitney’s new army after her and I didn’t want to take a chance on bugs.

Whitney? I thought he was dead.

So did I. Ken. Jack hesitated.

I’m here.

Don’t be too charming. I don’t want her falling for you.

There was dead silence. Jack cursed under his breath. Ken was the type of man all the ladies fell for. Few women gave Jack a second glance, and if they did, they moved away quickly. Never once, in all their years together, had he warned Ken off of a woman.

You okay with her here?

I don’t want her anywhere else.

That wasn’t what I asked. You know how you are. Is it safe for her to be here? Ken persisted.

Damn it, Ken, how the hell would I know. She’s here. She isn’t going to leave, so we all have to find a way to live with it.

She doesn’t want to leave or you aren’t letting her leave?

That was Ken, going right to the heart of the matter. Ken knew him, knew every black mark on his soul. Jack didn’t answer, taking Briony through the trees to the front yard. She stopped abruptly when she saw the house.

“It’s beautiful. It never occurred to me that there would be a real house way out here. It’s perfect.”

Secretly pleased at the appreciative awe in her voice, he gave a casual shrug. “Ken and I built it together. We own a little over twenty-four hundred acres, and the property is completely self-sufficient. We have acres of tamarack and fir trees, and if we ever need to make a little money, we can harvest some of them. We also have a gold mine. The water supply to the property is gravity-fed. We don’t need power to get it into the house. The hydroelectrical system powers the batteries, and we only use a small amount of the power available to us.”