Christine Feehan - Conspiracy Game

Jack wrapped his arms around her and dragged her into the protection of his body, looking a little helplessly at his brother. “Nothing is going to happen to them, Briony.” He lifted her shirt again to reveal the wound on her hip.

“We’ve got to move or we’ll be trapped, Jack,” Ken cautioned, watching their back trail. “We aren’t going to fool them for long. They’ll know we left, and they’ll come running. And Luther or one of the other enhanced soldiers is bound to be telepathic. He’s pinned down in the mine, but the others will be running to cut us off.”

Jack lowered her shirt with a slight frown and tucked her beneath his shoulder. The two men began to jog with her in between them, through the woods away from the house and away from the mine. Briony pressed her hand to her side to try to still the constant throbbing.

“What happened?” Jack repeated.

“The doctor planted a tracking device in my hip. I cut it out so they couldn’t follow us.”

Jack glared at her. “You did what?”

“Jack,” Ken cautioned.

“What would you have done?” she demanded. He couldn’t yell at her, or she was going to be sick all over him. Her eye throbbed with every step she took, shooting pain through her head, and her stomach kept lurching uncomfortably. She was worried about the babies with Luther sitting on them, in spite of the assurances Jack had given her. “Do we know where we’re going?”

“We’re heading for the pass. We’ll take the canyon route. It looks like a dead end and we can draw them in,” Ken explained. “They’ll think we’re trapped, but we have our own way through the pass.”

“The sun’s up and we’ll need a good start on them,” Jack added. “We should stop and fix your hip and eye. There’s a grove just ahead that has a nice slope to it. We’ll be a little safer there. You’ll need to drink water. If you get tired and need to rest, don’t be stupid-say so.”

“They’re going to hit us with everything they’ve got once we’re in the canyon. You know they still have a helicopter, and they’re going to be using it to track us as well. We have to stay in the trees as much as possible.” Ken took the lead as the trail narrowed. “Watch the low branches, Briony.”

“They’ll be able to see where we go, Jack,” Briony said fearfully.

“We always expected a helicopter,” Jack assured Briony. “We can deal with it. The shrubbery is going to start getting dense. If you need to slow down, we can. The helicopter can’t get in here.”

“We’re leaving tracks,” Briony pointed out.

“We want them coming after us, baby,” Jack said. “No worries. We have an escape route. Ken, did you call in reinforcements?”

Ken shook his head. “Thought about it, but we don’t know, other than our team, who we can trust. If I contact our commander, the admiral, and he’s in on this, we’re screwed.”

Jack glanced down at Briony, assessing the strain on her face. She’d been through quite a bit, and they still had several miles up a steep mountainside to go. She flashed him a wan grin.

“I’m good, Jack. I want to put distance between them and us.”

She didn’t look good to him, and if he took her to a hospital-which he intended to do to check the babies-he was bound to be arrested for domestic violence. She looked as if she’d been in a war. He slowed the pace over several ground-eating strides. Ken glanced sharply at him then looked at Briony’s bent head and kept his mouth shut, but he began to drop back where he could protect his brother and Briony should one of the enhanced soldiers come up on them from behind.

Briony ran for another mile, uphill, her lungs burning and her side cramping. Blood trickled down her hip in a steady stream, and she supported her stomach with one hand. Fear was uppermost in her mind, fear that she would slow Jack and Ken down and they wouldn’t be able to escape the men following them. The helicopter had retreated for a little over an hour to get fuel she presumed, but was back, flying low along the trees in search of them.

Bile rose continually, and she tried desperately to suppress it, but eventually she had no choice. Tears blurring her vision, she halted and bent over, stomach heaving. “Morning sickness. I didn’t eat anything. Sorry.”

Jack’s rifle went to his shoulder and he watched the surrounding trees. Ken kept his back to her, doing the same, their bodies still while their eyes were restless. The next hour passed with a similar pattern. Briony ran as long as she was able before vomiting, the twins running with her and both instantly protecting her while she was sick. She caught the glint of humor in Jack’s mind and glanced suspiciously at his face and then at Ken. Both looked grim, but she wasn’t buying it.

“You’re laughing,” she accused.

“It’s either laugh or cry, baby.” Jack glanced at her. “You have to admit, the situation is different from what we normally do. We should have thought to bring you some crackers.”

“You probably would have thought of it too.” Briony groused, stopping once again to bend over.

Jack knocked into her sideways, sending her flying. She hit the ground hard and lay still while bullets rained down around them. Ken calmly knelt down and sited in on the helicopter, taking his time to locate his target. Jack did the same. There was no wild shooting. It was obvious they believed in making every shot count. Ken fired first, and the man at the machine gun disappeared into the interior of the helicopter, knocked back by the bullet. The second soldier with an automatic crumbled straight to the floor, falling half-in and half-out of the copter.

The pilot veered off quickly, heading out over the canopy of trees to get away from the sharpshooters.

Jack helped Briony to her feet. “Are you all right?”

“I need to rest.”

He glanced at his brother. Ken shook his head.

Jack handed her the canteen. “We can rest in a few minutes, in a place with more cover. Can you make it a few more miles, baby? We’ll slow down and take a few minutes along the way, but we need to get into dense cover. If you don’t think you can, we’ll find a place to make a stand.”

“I’m just worried.” Briony rubbed her hand over her stomach. “I don’t want to lose them.”

Jack placed his hand over hers. “We’re not losing the babies, Briony. They’re tough, just like we are. They’ll hang in there and trust us to get them to safety.”

She touched his face, a light brush of her fingertips, but Jack felt it all the way to his toes. His stomach knotted and his heart did some sort of curious melting thing he didn’t want to identify too closely. He glanced at his brother helplessly.

Damn it, Ken. I’m so fucking in love with her. This isn’t part of Whitney’s experiment; he couldn’t make me feel like this no matter what he planted between us.

I could have told you that. You’ve got it bad, bro. She’s going to wrap you around her little finger, and you’re going to make a bigger jackass of yourself than normal.

Jack sent Ken a repressing glare, but it didn’t stop the grin spreading across his twin’s face. “Let’s go. The helicopter is circling back.”

Briony nodded and fell into step beside him. Jack still pushed their speed, but he’d slowed it enough that she could keep up, forcing one foot in front of the other, counting her steps to keep her mind away from the pain flashing through her side and head.

Sporadic shooting left them in no doubt they were being followed, but the twins’ confidence never wavered. They moved through the forest as if it were their backyard, taking narrow animal trails, once walking behind a small waterfall. They climbed up boulders and sprinted over bare ground back into the protective canopy of the trees.