Murder Game (GhostWalkers, #7)(95)

He tugged her shirt down and leaned over the table to kiss her. “Do you want more tea before we do this?”

“No. Do you have a recorder?”

“It’s on the sink. I knew you weren’t going to let this go.” A ghost of a grin touched his mouth.

She wadded up a paper towel and threw it at him. “I can’t believe you.”

He placed the recorder on the table and turned it on. “Why was the puppet master thinking about Frog instead of Blade when he carved the knife for Blade?”

“He despises Blade and men like him. He thinks Blade is a bag of hot air and dismisses him even though he runs the team.” Triumphantly she glanced at Kadan. That was a confirmation that she’d been correct and Blade was the leader of the East Coast team. “If you can track Frog, using the water business, scuba gear, and being able to hold his breath for phenomenal amounts of time, you should be able to find Blade. They work together.”

“In the military.”

“I believe they are, or they were. They might have another business, something to do with security.” She caught her breath. “Yes. They all run a security company together. That was the puppet master’s idea. He made them think it was their idea. He’s good at manipulating people. He manipulated Whitney. How? How did you do that? I’m so on you,” she whispered. “And you’re not going to get away from me.”

Kadan stayed in her mind, intrigued by the speed with which she gathered pieces of information from images and thoughts and put them together with amazing accuracy. Her brain amazed him.

“He handpicked these men. For his own purpose. He duped Whitney. Whitney the all powerful.” Her eyes lit up and she stabbed a finger toward Kadan. “He worked for Whitney during the testing process, Kadan. Can you track him that way? There have to be records. Whitney couldn’t have run the testing. He had to interview only those who got through the first few rounds. And he was testing for psychic ability at that point, not whether or not these men were psychologically suited to be enhanced.”

“We believe Whitney enhanced a few men who were screened out of the program for his own personal army. A group of men who were tested were listed as missing or dead over the next couple of years, but we found one or two of them very much alive and enhanced. Could these men be part of Whitney’s army?”

She shook her head. “No. They had nothing to do with Whitney after he enhanced them. These men belong to the puppet master. He got them through the screening and then somehow through the interview with Whitney. He did it for his own personal gain, no other reason. He had a plan from the beginning. Can you track him?”

“Lily might be able to find out who he is through Whitney’s records. Almost all documentation the military had on us was destroyed. What is there is behind a million flags. Whitney experimented on us at his research lab, not on a military base, and only a few people knew.”

“You’ll have to find those people if you want the puppet master. He’s good. Really good if he can slip past Whitney’s guard.”

“What does he want with the killers? Does he get his kicks out of planning the murders?”

She frowned and rubbed her temples. “He doesn’t plan them. The teams do.”

Kadan reached across the table and erased a trickle of blood from her nose with the pad of his thumb. “We’re done here, baby.”

She shook her head. “I can keep pulling out more.”

“We’re done. You’re going to get a brain bleed and then we’ll be in trouble. I’ve got a lot to go on. I think with what you’ve given me, I might be able to find Frog. Ex-military, or still in it, a security company with his teammates, and an affinity for water.”

She leaned her head into her hand again, rubbing. “Don’t go in the water with him, Kadan. I can feel that’s what you’re thinking of doing, making him lead you to his underground colony, but he’s at home in the water.”

He took her swollen hand and brought it to his mouth. “Don’t you worry about me, honey. I know how to take care of myself.”





CHAPTER 16


“What’s wrong?” Tansy asked as Ryland, Gator, and Nico entered the house.

The sun had gone down, leaving shadows over the windows. She’d had to sleep on and off throughout the day, waiting for her headache to let up. Without the glare of light, her eyes felt better and she was beginning to feel alive again.

The three men collectively winced at her question and then exchanged a long look with one another.

For men who were normally inscrutable, Kadan found it surprisingly easy to recognize trouble the moment he saw the faces of the three GhostWalkers. They looked grim, angry, and very upset that Tansy was in the room with him. There was nothing wrong with Tansy’s radar. She picked up the signal almost at the same moment he did.

Kadan. She won’t like hearing what we have to say. Her father’s involved, Ryland warned. She’s in immediate danger.

Kadan felt the blow to his gut, but stayed outwardly impassive. Immediate danger. How?

“Don’t!” Tansy said sharply. “If you think you can cut me out of this now, Kadan, I swear I’ll walk out of this house. I deserve better than that.”

“I thought you were shielding,” Ryland said a little sheepishly. “Sorry, Tansy.”