Ruthless Game (GhostWalkers, #9)(73)

Rose shrugged. “This is my life, Jaimie. I chose to come here. Kane and I have Sebastian, and we know they’re going to keep coming at us to get to him. I’m prepared mentally for that. You don’t have to try to protect me.”

Jaimie nodded. “Whitney knows Rose is here.”

Kane reached down and rubbed the tattoo on Rose’s ankle. “We knew he’d track us here. We’re hoping you and Javier can do something about his little homing device.”

“We’ve got that covered already,” Jaimie said. “But Mack says no matter when we disrupted the satellite transmission, he would have known you would bring her back here. He just can’t track her movements anymore.”

“He won’t be happy about that.”

Jaimie shrugged. “It’s Whitney. He’s strange. He gets all excited when the GhostWalkers are able to outwit him or foil his little attempts to retrieve them. I think he pats himself on the back, and it just reinforces how clever and brilliant he is. We are, after all, his creations.”

Kane scowled at her. Jaimie held up her hand. “Hey. That’s a quote from one of his reports. I don’t hack into his computer often, but Flame found a way in, and she passed it on to me. We’re careful, but we monitor him. We just give him a lot of room. We’re lucky he doesn’t trust anyone, so he does all his own computer work. He’s just not as good as he thinks he is with security. He doesn’t keep up on the latest and greatest because his entire world has become DNA and psychic research.”

“So did your warning come from his computer?”

“He’s very anxious to get his hands on the baby. He sent his ‘representative’ to ‘acquire’ him. I kid you not. It’s right there on his computer. He was furious that Rose and the baby escaped him. He’s determined. Apparently he feels we’re far more vulnerable here. The stronghold in the

Wyoming mountains has become nearly impenetrable, and he doubts if he will be able to acquire the children kept there. Once again, he seemed pleased that the teams banding together had managed to not only keep themselves but their women and children safe from not only him, but all outside threats. Again, that’s pretty much a quote, Kane.”

“We’re doing the same thing here.”

“True, but we’re more exposed because we don’t have the ability at this time to clean things up as fast should there be an attack on us.”

“But we’re getting to that point,” Kane said hastily. “We’ve managed to purchase five of the seven buildings we need to secure the entire area. Rose, if you want to take Sebastian and go to the stronghold in Wyoming, I can arrange it. The teams settling there are excellent. This building is secure, but we haven’t set up for street surveillance ...”

Jaimie looked smug. “Bite your tongue, Kane. Javier and I have been working night and day. We’ve got the street covered down two full blocks, the roof on three of the buildings as well as this one, and the water side.”

“I’m fine with you,” Rose said. “I’ll help out here. I can work.”

“Mack’s got weapons and ammo stashed everywhere. We could take on an army. We’ve got a helipad on the roof of this building, and it’s got all the necessary permits. That’s how we managed to transport you directly here after your surgery,” Jaimie added.

“I knew that was in the works, but didn’t know it had come through.”

“Where is all the money coming from?” Rose demanded.

Jaimie glanced a little apprehensively at Kane. “Lily Whitney-Miller. She inherited billions, and she shares with all the GhostWalkers.”

Tell me. It was a demand, nothing less. Rose was naturally suspicious of such generosity.

“She’s Dr. Whitney’s adopted daughter,” Kane explained. “He experimented on her as well. She was raised with quite a few of the girls.”

Jaimie leaned forward, staring into Rose’s eyes. “Do you remember her? She was with you in the beginning, when Whitney first took you all. You were in a big house, and he kept you in a dormitory. You were never allowed out of the laboratory.”

Rose nodded. “It’s impossible to forget that time. Lily was always like a mother to the rest of us. He treated her better, and she tried to get privileges for us.”

“She put aside money for each of the other women she was raised with as well. You’ve got that money, Rose,” Kane said. There was a hard knot in the pit of his stomach. Money could change things. She might decide to take the money and vanish.

Rose moistened her lips, her little pixie face very sober. “Do you trust her completely?”

“Yes,” Kane said. “She’s done too much for all of us to be anything but the real deal, Rose. She just had a baby. And Jack Norton and his woman had twins. They have three babies up there in the mountains. Sebastian isn’t the only child at risk.”

“Do you trust Eric completely?”

Kane almost nodded and then stopped himself. Did he trust the doctor the same way he trusted Lily? Eric was the official GhostWalker surgeon, and he always came through when needed. Why hesitate? What was the difference between Eric and Lily? Was he prejudiced simply because Eric wasn’t a GhostWalker and had no real idea of what they went through? Kane didn’t like the idea that he might in any way be prejudiced, but the truth was, there was a hesitation for whatever reason.