Deadly Game (GhostWalkers, #5)(31)

The throbbing in her head increased. She caught the exchange between Jack and Ken. A single look, no more, but it was enough. She took a deep calming breath and relaxed her mind and body. Sean? Anyone? Are you out there? Her head was hurting not because of the elbow, but because someone was out there, calling, using telepathy, and the Nortons had been alerted.

Ken’s hand slipped around her neck, his fingers sliding to her pressure point. She tried to stop him, but it was a lifetime too late. She could feel the waves of dizziness, the room spinning away from her, and everything went black.





CHAPTER 6




“ They’re coming, Ken, let’s get the hell out of here,” Jack said. He snapped open his radio. “What the hell is taking you so long, Logan? Another couple of minutes and we’re going to be in a firefight. Nico’s trying to lead them away, but if you don’t get here, all this is for nothing.”

“I’m about five minutes out, running without lights.”

Ken had already plunged the room into darkness before taking up a position beside Mari. He felt for her pulse, his fingertips sliding in a caress over her smooth skin. He was sick with fear for his brother and Mari. Ever since he had inhaled her scent, the monster so carefully locked away had grown stronger with each moment spent in her company. He was jealous of those men, Brett and Sean. It was ugly and sharp and cut with as much pain as the slice of the knife into his skin.

He knew Jack, knew Jack would do exactly as he warned and kill her should Ken try to take himself out of the equation. Jack had effectively removed Ken’s choices. And it was impossible to be alive in the world and know another man was holding Mari, kissing her, touching her. He nearly groaned aloud. She had brought his body painfully to life when Ken and the doctors had been certain he had been ruined. But even if she had, what did that mean for both of them? Hell, just because his cock was hard didn’t mean the damned thing could work anymore.

Jack pressed a hand to his head. “They’re calling for her and they aren’t being quiet about it.”

“They must be searching in grids and using more than one helicopter or they couldn’t cover so much territory so fast,” Ken added.

Telepathy could be quiet. Jack and Ken had been using it since they were toddlers, and they could send easily to each other without a lot of energy spilling over to give them away. The GhostWalkers trained in sending precise waves when communicating, because anyone familiar with the strange buzzing and head pounding recognized it for what it was, but it wasn’t an easy talent to master. Right now it didn’t appear as if Mari’s GhostWalker team cared one way or the other that anyone else might hear them. They were frantic to find her and being loud about calling her.

Her team wanted her back. Ken understood the creed of the GhostWalkers. They never left a man behind. If one was captured, they kept coming for him—or her. But he couldn’t help wonder if Brett or Sean were leading the rescue mission and if it was entirely personal. The team had been pressing them hard for two days, and they were definitely following Nico’s flight plans, filed with only a high security clearance access.

He swore softly to himself. There seemed to be no controlling jealousy. He had never allowed himself to care about anything or anyone other than Jack, so it had never come up. When Briony had entered their lives and Jack had fallen so hard for her, Ken had only worried about Jack losing the one good thing that had ever happened to him.

Ken touched Mari’s face, tracing her bone structure, imprinting it forever on his mind and into his skin and organs. He wanted her for himself. It was unexpected and shocking to him, even frightening, that he could want something so much, but he did. She was there. Inside of him. All the while she talked, he watched every expression, every gesture, and he had rested his palm on her body, absorbing what he could of her nature and character. It wasn’t one of his strongest gifts, but he caught impressions of her life, stark, sterile, and often unpleasant. She was the kind of woman he would have been drawn to without Whitney’s interference.

She was strong and opinionated, not easily intimidated. She was beautiful. He knew she wouldn’t think so; women never did. They always wanted to be thinner, or have a different hair color, or be taller or shorter, but he’d been the one to undress her, and her body was perfect for him. He wanted her with an almost savage, primitive need, and now that she’d awakened his cock, that too, had become a monster, raging for attention.

He’d always had tremendous stamina, a strong sex drive, and now that it was back, and he knew she was naked and receptive, it bordered on obsession. And what would it take to satisfy him? To stimulate him? He was fairly certain it would take a lot to stimulate him to orgasm, and a woman who had endured the kind of things Mari had would want no part of rough sex. He swore under his breath and turned away from her.

What the hell was he thinking? He couldn’t have her. He couldn’t think with his dick; he had to think with his brain—and he couldn’t have her. It was that simple. He couldn’t think about the way her eyes lit up when she smiled, or the sexy curve of her lips and how she would look . . . He groaned softly and rubbed the front of his jeans, swearing again when he had to use a hard pressure to even feel the wave of pleasure that edged far too close to pain.

“They’re two minutes out, Ken.”

Jack’s voice startled him, never a good sign when he had to be alert. It had just been so long since he’d felt sexual pleasure, and being close to her, feeling his body harden and fill with pounding need was a miracle—and a curse—he hadn’t expected.