Murder Game (GhostWalkers, #7)(96)

“I am shielding. She’s very sensitive to vibrations.” Kadan reached out and shackled Tansy’s wrist, pulling her beneath his shoulder so he could circle her waist with one arm. Don’t threaten me like that. You try to walk out and see what happens. He didn’t give a damn if all three GhostWalkers knew he was talking telepathically. Her threat had shaken him more than he wanted to admit. In place of ice, there was suddenly a cauldron of fire roaring in his belly.

“We wanted to protect you, chère,” Gator added in his thick Cajun drawl.

Tansy shoved at the wall of Kadan’s chest, not even rocking him. That took her temper up another notch. “I’m putting myself on the line too. If you have something to say, just tell me. I don’t break so easily, and I don’t need to be wrapped up in cotton like a doll.”

“Settle down, Tansy,” Kadan said without looking at her. He couldn’t look at her. She thought she was going to walk out of the house? What the hell did that mean? His grip on her waist tightened. “You need coffee, Ryland?”

“I’m not sure we have time for coffee. How well guarded is this place? You have an escape route?”

“Of course. We can defend fairly easily, that’s why I chose it. We have a way to the roof and another below-ground if need be. If the bastards want to come for us, they’ll get more than they bargained for.”

Gator and Nico were already moving to the windows, checking alarms and drawing the drapes. Gator flicked off the lights and went to the next room to do the same there.

“Who’s after us?” Kadan asked.

“Our friend in Washington.”

“The same one who sent the first team after Tansy?”

Ryland nodded. “They know where she is.”

Kadan felt the breath slam out of Tansy’s body, but she stayed still, waiting for Ryland’s explanation. “Here? They know she’s here? How?” He drew her closer, his arm going to an iron band of protection.

“I spent some time with the reporter who broke the story on the murders and how they might be connected.” Ryland didn’t go into how he’d spent the time with the reporter, but Kadan knew his friend and his patience when it came to getting information. “He was also the one who wrote about Tansy’s whereabouts in the Sierras. It seems he was tipped off by a friend of his, a secretary to Senator Freeman’s wife, Violet.”

“Violet Freeman. She just keeps turning up. You’d think she’d have enough to do with her husband on life support.” Kadan shook his head. “We should have capped her when we had the chance.”

“Are you talking about Violet Smythe-Freeman? What does she have to do with this? She and the senator are good friends with my parents. I’ve been to their home any number of times,” Tansy said. “Her husband was a presidential candidate and someone shot him in the head, leaving him on life support. It’s a terrible tragedy.”

“Yeah, a real tragedy,” Kadan said. “We all held a candlelight vigil for him.”

Tansy frowned. “He was a friend.”

“He was a slimebag. He sold out his country, Tansy. He sent a team of GhostWalkers to the Congo, where a particularly vicious rebel leader was waiting to ambush them. The torture a couple of them endured was immeasurable. He then toured Whitney’s breeding facility with Violet—yes, she not only knows about Whitney, she’s one of his enhanced girls, and she allows his work to continue so that she and her husband can get into the White House. He was shot at Whitney’s compound, not as the newspapers reported.”

Tansy sank onto the couch. “Are you certain? They’ve been at my house. Violet and my mother go shopping together. They play cards. They . . .” She trailed off and looked up at Ryland. “What else? Just tell me.”

Kadan stood behind the couch, dropping his hands to her shoulders, fingers easing the tension from her. He ached for her. Her world was turning upside down.

“Whitney put a tracking device in all the girls. He surgically implants it in their hips.”

Tansy gasped and looked up and back at Kadan, her eyes locking with his.

It’s okay, baby. We’ll deal with it. He wanted to hold her, rock her, take her somewhere else where all the ugliness was out of her life. Unfortunately, this was their lives and always would be. He had no choice. He was enhanced and so was Tansy. He couldn’t change that.

“Your father apparently found out about the tracking device when you were about fifteen or sixteen and had it removed. He told Violet about it. According to the secretary—”

“You talked to the secretary?” Tansy asked.

Ryland shrugged. “We had a little meeting. It seems she enjoys knowing secrets, so she often listens in to Violet’s conversations with her guests. She claims Violet initiated the topic of tracking children with your father.”

“She’s taking a huge risk, spying on Violet,” Kadan said. “Violet would have no hesitation killing her.”

Ryland nodded. “I did suggest that Ms. Harris get a different job immediately and destroy any tapes she may have. Whether she listens or not is up to her. Meadows knows Violet was one of Whitney’s experiments. My guess is she confided in him to gain his trust.”

“And then when Whitney lost his tracking device, he sent Violet to find out why,” Kadan guessed. “That would be like him. She’s playing both sides.”