Murder Game (GhostWalkers, #7)(13)

They were on the edge of her camp, her space, her sanctuary. He couldn’t come here, couldn’t be allowed to take it away from her.

“I want to go,” he said quietly. “I would if I could, but too many people will die if I do.”

Tansy shook her head in despair, glanced at the radio and then away. She could call her father and he might be able to put a stop to this. If he had known the military was sending someone with a request, he would have warned her—or would he have? In one revelation, this stranger had changed her entire world all over again.

She drank from a bottle of water, keeping her back to him, trying to sort out the things he’d told her. “Does my father know you’re here?”

“Only the general. This mission is classified.”

“I’m not in the military.” Tansy sank down into the one lawn chair she’d brought and forced her gaze to meet his.

He spread his hands out. “Do you think I want to come here and upset you like this? People are dying . . .”

She sighed. “People are always dying, Mr. Montague.”

“Kadan,” he corrected. “And not like this.”

She closed her eyes. “I can’t do it anymore. Yes, I do have some special gifts. I can leap high and I have fast reflexes, I can feel violent or threatening energy, but I fried my talent, or short-circuited it, or something, when I fell while I was climbing. Maybe it happened when I went to the hospital. I honestly don’t know, but when I touch things, nothing happens. And I’m grateful for that. I wish I could help you, but I can’t.”

Kadan shrugged out of his pack and stretched, loosening his muscles as he surveyed the campsite. She knew what she was doing; sheltered from prying eyes even from above, the camp was comfortable, protected, but could catch the breezes coming in.

“I have a gift for sound, Tansy, and you’re lying. I can hear it in your voice.”

She shrugged. “You can think whatever you like, but I can’t help you. There are a few others I’ve heard of, psychics that can track killers. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? You need me to go after a killer.”

“Not just an ordinary killer, a GhostWalker. I’ve got an enhanced Special Forces-trained killer on the loose, and I need to track him down and eliminate him immediately.” Kadan reached for the coffeepot, dumped out the old liquid, and began filling the pot with water.

Tansy flicked him a glance from under long lashes. He moved with fluid grace, at home in the wilderness, completely confident in his abilities. He scanned the surrounding area several times, and she knew that if she asked he could tell her where everything in the camp was positioned and the best escape route available to them should they need one. She’d worked with men like him, cool under fire, dangerous as hell, yet he had something different, something even more. Power clung to him.

“I can’t help you.”

“The GhostWalkers are like you, Tansy. Their lives have been changed forever. They have the same headaches, the nosebleeds, the seizures. They’re good men and women and they are under fire every minute of the day. They carry out missions no one else could touch. They put their lives on the line every day. You’re one of us.”

She shook her head, keeping her voice calm and firm. “I wish I could help you, I really do, but I lost the one talent you need.”

He sighed softly. “I swear to you, Tansy, I don’t want to do this the hard way. I want you to understand how important it is so that you at least comprehend why I had to come up here to get you. The GhostWalkers are considered too dangerous to be under suspicion like this. I’m under orders not to trust any of them. I can’t confide in them or ask for help or even tell them that their lives are in jeopardy just because of what they can do. These are my friends, my teammates. Men I’ve trained with and gone into combat with, men who have had my back and saved my life. Some of them have families.”

She recognized that he was a man of few words, that he rarely explained himself, but that he was going out of his way to do so for her. I don’t want to do this the hard way. Her heart jumped, but she kept her face composed.

“Were you given orders to bring me back?” Men like Kadan Montague carried out their missions no matter the cost to them—or to anyone else. She waited. Holding her breath.

“Yes.”

“Whether I agree or not.” She made it a statement, but there was a breathless plea in her voice she couldn’t stop.





CHAPTER 3


Kadan sighed. “Let’s just take one thing at a time. What do you have for dinner? I’m a fairly good cook.”

Tansy’s mouth went dry. She couldn’t sit still with the rush of adrenaline. He was going to force her to go back with him. Tansy leapt from her chair and paced across the ground to where she kept her food supplies, needing the action to hide her thoughts. There had to be a way to escape. She knew the mountain like the back of her hand. If she got out of his sight, she could get away and hide. If he really had a tight timetable, he wouldn’t have the time to look for her. But she had to keep it together and not panic.

She turned from the crisp cooler and found him inches from her body. He was so silent she hadn’t heard him approach. Worse, she hadn’t sensed him either. She was used to feeling the energy that radiated from people, but with him, there was nothing at all to warn her he was close. She realized she was holding her breath. She inhaled and took the scent of him into her lungs. Deep inside, her body sizzled and burned in an unfamiliar way. Fear shimmered through her, not at the prospect of this man attempting to force her compliance, but because as rough and scarred as he was, he filled her senses and mind with a sensual heat she couldn’t ignore.