Murder Game (GhostWalkers, #7)(78)

“I know he’s a bastard, but he would have kept her safe.”

“He would have forced her to have sex with a man she didn’t want to have sex with, just like he forced that little teenage girl to have sex with you.” Kadan remained absolutely still, a statue carved in stone. Even his stillness seemed a threat.

Don’s face crumbled. “Damn you, you’re leaving me with nothing.”

“You would have given her up.” Kadan’s voice was as cold as ice.

Kadan, Ryland warned softly, clearly fearing what his friend might do.

Kadan didn’t know himself. The thought of Don Meadows even contemplating turning his daughter over to a man like Whitney after he’d seen the experiments, the rape of a teenage girl, his wife hit by Fredrickson . . .

“All for what?” Kadan asked softly. “To keep your image and your money, your cushy little life. You would have traded Tansy into a lifetime of slavery.”

“No! Damn you, no!” Don denied the accusation. “I wanted her safe from the coalition. They’re much stronger. They’ve established themselves and are trying to kill every soldier and woman known to have been enhanced.”

“And you know this how?” Kadan’s voice was still cold, still remote, as if the jury was still out on whether or not he was going to reach across the bed and rip out Don’s throat.

“Whitney has friends who tip him off, and he told me Tansy needed to be in a safe house. We had a terrible fight about it. I told him I could protect my daughter.”

“That’s when you hired the mercs.”

Don scowled. “Fredrickson found Watson for me, and they hired men who could keep her safe.”

“They were Whitney’s men. When Tansy asked the wrong question, they did as Whitney ordered them. They were to secure her immediately and bring her to him. They were willing to torture your wife to get her there.”

“Fredrickson told us there was a hit out on her.” Don looked Kadan straight in the eye. “He said an assassin was sent to kill her.”

“Two men showed up in the mountains. I thought they were after me. How would anyone know Tansy was enhanced?”

“She worked with the police and the FBI solving serial murders. There’s been a series of murders that a reporter speculated were all connected, and her name was brought up. We didn’t tell her because we didn’t want to upset her, but the reporter knew she was a photographer and suggested she was in the Sierras. He implied she was helping the FBI with the murders. The article even gave a report about her being hospitalized and that she might taint the evidence.”

A chill went through Kadan’s body. If someone had dug up information on Tansy and reported it, the elite tracker she had accidently run across would have her identity. He took a deep breath. “Give me a name and a newspaper.”

“What? Are you going to kill him too?” Don asked, a hint of bitterness, mixed with sarcasm, creeping into his voice.

Kadan’s hand snaked out so fast it was a blur. He grasped Don by the throat, cutting off oxygen and nearly lifting the man off the bed. Don choked, gasped, turned red and then purple, desperately prying at Kadan’s fingers to release him. He stared into impassive eyes.

“Kadan.” Ryland said his name. Low. Firm. No inflection. Lily will get all the information we need on the reporter. Let it go.

Kadan dropped Don in disgust and turned away from him, pacing across the room, while the man coughed and dragged air into his lungs.

“I’m glad you find this amusing,” Kadan accused through clenched teeth. “I find it distasteful.”

Don used his heels to push himself back against the bed to prop himself up. “Damn you,” he choked. “You don’t know what you would have done in my shoes.”

Kadan crouched down beside the man, looking him straight in the eye. “I would have killed Whitney the moment he showed me that tape. He had you rape a child. He stole your child. He tortured her, experimented on her, and continued to do so to other children. He had a man strike your wife, and believe me, Fredrickson would have gone to any lengths, including killing Sharon. Watson certainly tried to put a bullet in her head . . .”

Don covered his face with his hands. “I don’t kill people.”

“Maybe not, Meadows, but you’re willing to leave a monster loose in the world so you can keep your precious world intact.” Kadan was nearly choking on his disgust. “And you hired killers and let them stay in your home.”

He’s weak, Kadan, not malicious.

Fuck that. He would have turned Tansy over to Whitney to protect his world. Kadan abruptly stood again and put distance between himself and Don. He didn’t trust himself anymore. He wanted to break the man’s neck. “Where’s Whitney? And don’t tell me you don’t know every one of his hidey-holes, because you’ve had twenty years to gather intel on him. A man like you has files on people.”

“Whitney has places all over the world. He has more money and more connections than you can imagine. You can’t beat him. And at least he isn’t trying to kill you. Your enemy is his enemy. And he’s the only man capable of protecting Tansy. I couldn’t do it, and I don’t think you can either.”

“We’ll see. I want your file on Whitney.”

Don shrugged. “It won’t do you any good.”