Predatory Game (GhostWalkers, #6)(63)

“He’s never going to give you up.”

“You think I don’t know that? Do you think I don’t know the minute any government gets hold of that file that they’ll come after me too? I’m not stupid, Jesse, I’m just not willing to kill anymore.” Not for Whitney. Not for the government. She had almost killed his ex-girlfriend. How would he feel about that?

“You can’t run for the rest of your life.”

A small humorless smile twisted her mouth. “That’s exactly what I can do.”

“I want you to stay with me.”

Her eyes flashed at him. Hurt. Betrayal. Anger. “You’ve made that impossible. Whoever was on the other end of that connection knows about me. You shared the information. You sent my prints to them and asked questions, raised flags. You knew I was on the run but you did it anyway.”

He winced at the stark accusation in her voice. “Saber, you know damned well everything I do is classified. I’d be criminally negligent if I didn’t investigate a woman with no past who lived in my home.”

“I’ve lived here nearly a year, Jesse. Why now? Why all of a sudden?”

“I didn’t push it before because I thought you were a woman on the run from a husband who hurt you. But you spoke telepathically and I had no choice. Whitney has people everywhere. He’s so connected he can place anyone just about anywhere he wants—including the White House. I couldn’t take the chance that you might be working against us.”

“You know what? It doesn’t matter.” She had to get out before she began to cry. Once she started, she’d never be able to stop. Jess had represented hope. Home. Love. A chance. It was all gone in one single moment.

She backed out of the room, unable to bear looking at those photographs. Unable to bear that he had allowed someone else to see them. Unable to bear that they even existed in the first place.

“Of course it matters.” Jess followed her, tossing the file aside and pushing hard on the wheels of his chair to glide across the floor and keep pace with her. “We protect our own, Saber. No one else is going to have access to that file. There may even be a way to destroy Whitney’s data from his computer.”

She sent him one smoldering look over her shoulder. “He’s backed it up and I can guarantee your friend has as well. They’re going to want to study me, Jess. They’ll want to figure out how I do it and if it can be duplicated. I lived in hell and I’m not going back. Not for you and not for anyone else.”

She was moving faster, heading for the back of the house. She wasn’t going to take her things. If he let her leave, if he didn’t stop her, she would vanish into thin air.

“Saber, don’t do this.”

“You gave me no choice.” She took off running, cutting through the exercise room toward the back veranda.

He had one chance to stop her. She could outrun him in the wheelchair, but not if he used his legs. It was now or never, the most important moment in his life. He forced his body to his feet, his legs shaky, but he was determined. She glanced over her shoulder and her face went white. She skidded to a halt as he took a tentative step, then a second one. He went crashing to the floor, sprawling full length, his body hitting hard.

Jess cursed, fury edging his vision black as he sat up, smashing his fist into his useless legs. Across the room, Saber gasped and hurried back toward him. Then she slowed and stopped again, shaking her head.

“Damn it, Saber.”

He saw it on her face. She was going to leave him on the ground. She was really leaving. She spun away from him and started back across the room toward the door.

With every bit of determination in him, Jess pushed himself up, forcing his useless legs to work. He drew the map in his head exactly as his doctors had taught him and sent command after command to the nerves and muscles encasing his bionics. They would work. Work, damn you. I’m not losing her. He felt a burst of pinpricks up and down his legs, sparks burning holes through tissue. There was no tentative step this time. He ran after her.

Saber caught at the doorknob to yank open the door. It was torn from her hands and slammed shut, power swelling the room. The window slammed closed. She hadn’t known he could do that, move objects without touching them. What did she really know about him? She glanced over her shoulder and saw him coming. And then it registered. Jesse was on his feet.

He was big. Bigger than she’d realized. And strong. She knew his strength. He worked out daily and lifted his body weight over and over with his arms. She never thought she’d see him on his feet, and he was catching up fast, his longer strides eating up the distance between them. His gaze locked on her, fire in his eyes, a fury she’d never seen before, and there was ruthless determination on his face.

The shock of seeing him on his feet stole her breath. She opened her mouth but nothing came out.

You can walk. You miserable son of a bitch, you’ve been sitting in that chair the entire time making a fool of me and you could walk.

She could barely think with the betrayal. Sheer rage burst through her veins, spread through her like a wildfire. “You rotten bastard. You’re a worthless, miserable, manipulating liar, no better than Whitney.”

Before she could say anything else, Saber’s feet were swept out from under her, dropping her ruthlessly to the thick mat. Jess caught her before she landed and rolled so he took the brunt of the landing himself. She found herself on top of him, her body against his, her face inches from his. His arms closed tightly around her, holding her in place.