Everything inside Ken went still as her fingers traced the pattern of his scars. She left tiny pinpoints of fire burning on his face, when he couldn't feel his own touch. He didn't have sensation on most of his body, yet he could feel her beneath his skin, sparking damaged nerve endings to jump and sizzle with electric current. The sensation spread from his face to his chest, a heat so thick it felt like lava pouring through his veins and tissue, gliding like hot silk over muscle to burn him from the inside out. The fire settled in his groin, bringing him to hard, painful life.
He had always been a large man, well endowed, and Ekabela's men had had a field day with him. One had been a master of torture, and he had inflicted those small, deep cuts in a precise pattern over every inch of Ken's body. He had lovingly called it art, and the men around him admired and encouraged those neat cuts, cuts designed to inflict the most pain while never allowing the victim to lose consciousness. Cuts designed to ruin a man should he happen to escape. They had skinned his back, but it hadn't been as bad--nothing had been as bad as that knife slicing into his most intimate, private part.
He could still feel agony flooding his body, the urge to beg them to kill him. The need to mete out justice to someone--anyone. He had known when he woke up in the hospital and saw the nurses' faces that the monster living and breathing inside of him had been revealed. And he had known he would never function as a normal man again. The raised ridges left him with little sensation, and if he wanted to feel again, feel any pleasure at all, stimulation would have to be rough enough to reach beyond the damage.
"Son of a bitch." He bit the curse out between his teeth, his voice harsh.
His pounding blood flowed hotly to settle in his groin, and he clenched his teeth against the inevitable pain as rigid tissue reluctantly stretched, swelling into a long, thick bulge he hadn't known still possible. His breath rushed from his lungs and sweat beaded on his forehead. He gripped the edge of the bed and forced himself to breathe through the pain. All the while his gaze never once left hers. She'd done, with one stroke of her fingers on his face, what he thought no one could ever do for him again.
"Son of a bitch," he repeated, fighting for air, fighting not to let the pain and pleasure, now mingling together, become the same.
"Ken?" Mari tried to push herself into a sitting position. "What is it?"
He was hunched over, and whether he wanted to admit it or not, he needed help. She couldn't sit up; her leg was held tight, and movement threatened her precarious control, so she did the only thing she could think of. "Jack! Jack! Get in here!"
Ken's hand clapped tightly over her mouth, and he bent closer until his lips were directly over hers, with only his hand separating them. "I don't need him."
The sound of the helicopter was loud outside, and she was fairly certain Jack hadn't heard her call. Ken had been so fast he'd muffled most of what she'd said.
A drop of sweat fell on her face and her eyes widened. She caught his wrist with her one good hand and tugged. When he reluctantly lifted his hand only inches from her mouth, she touched the droplet. "Tell me what's wrong with you."
"Every now and then I feel a few residuals from my little vacation in the Congo." He shrugged. "It's nothing to worry Jack over."
"You don't worry Jack much at all, do you?" she guessed.
"There's no need. Stop squirming around before you hurt yourself." He tested himself, straightening his body just a little, trying to ignore the way her lips had been so soft against his palm. He could feel sensation with her, every sense heightened beyond normal until he could almost taste her in his mouth. "How well do you know Whitney?"
"No one knows Whitney, not even his friends. He's like a chameleon; he changes his skin when he feels like it. He presents one face, one personality, one day, and the next he's totally different. Personally I think he's a lunatic, drunk on his own power. The government gave him too much authority without anyone to answer to, and he has too much money, so he's like the number one megalomaniac of the world. And I told him so on several occasions recently."
"Are you aware he does very accurate profiling? I mean dead-on, Mari."
She knew he was leading up to something, and she was already there. "He has to have some kind of psychic ability. Otherwise, how could he have managed to choose the right infants in an orphanage? He knew we all had talents. He touched us, or was drawn in some way to us, because of our psychic abilities. That would have been impossible unless he was psychic himself. It's how he knows things about us."
Ken swallowed the sudden bile rising in his throat. He'd had a bad feeling, ever since he'd taken Jack's mission in the Congo and been captured, that it had all been orchestrated. Even down to Jack's delay in Colombia so he couldn't lead the rescue team when the senator's plane went down.
He cleared his throat. "You said Whitney wasn't exactly friends with the senator. Did Whitney know the senator's plane had been shot down in the Congo by the rebels a few months back?"
"Yes. We were told."
"And did you know the first rescue mission was successful but that a man was left behind? Did Whitney know?"
"I overheard Sean telling him the news."
"And how did Whitney react?" His chest hurt. His lungs burned for air.
"He seemed excited. I thought he was excited the senator was rescued, but then he said something about it being too bad that Freeman had to survive."
Ken kept his face carefully blank as his world crashed around him. He should have known. Dr. Peter Whitney found great joy in using human beings in his experiments. He went to extraordinary lengths to manipulate people into position so he could record the events and trigger reactions he had predicted. He had done so with Jack and Briony, and now, Ken was certain, he was doing so by sending out Mari to guard the senator.
"Who gave the order for you to protect Senator Freeman?"
Mari hesitated, but it was clear to her that Ken was on to something--and it was entirely possible that they were on the same side. What could it hurt? As he probed her for information, she was collecting data of her own. "I was no longer part of the protection team. I'd been moved over to another program. Whitney was gone, and with a little help from some others, I convinced my old team to let me go so I could get the opportunity to speak to the senator on another matter."
Ken inhaled sharply. "Is Whitney enhanced?"
She shook her head. She had loyalty to her unit, but certainly not to Whitney, and if this was a trap set by Whitney, he already knew her views on him and his despicable experiments. "I tested him a couple of times, just to see. His bodyguards had to pull me off of him. I'm sure he isn't. Probably too chicken."
"You attacked him?"
"I was hoping I'd get lucky and break his neck, but he has one guard, Sean, who is really, really good."
The admiration in her voice triggered something vicious and ugly deep inside of him that he always took great pains to keep hidden. He turned away from her abruptly, keeping his back to her until he could bring himself back under control. His fingers curled into two tight fists and his gut clenched hard. A black shadow moved in his mind.
"How did he react when you attacked him?"
"He smiled. He likes to smile just before he does something really nasty. That's when I was pulled off of my unit and moved to another program."
"His breeding program."
She forced herself to maintain control, neither flinching nor looking away. "He sent Brett to me."
Ken's gut knotted and the shadow in his mind grew larger. He could hear the thud of his heart pounding in his ears like the roar of a wounded animal. "And just what did Brett do?"
"Brett is part of his new breeding program, and he's paired with me."
The roaring reached a crescendo. His sight went to heat imaging, glowing shades of yellow and red, flashing like a warning signal as he spun back to her, his hand spanning her throat. "What exactly did Brett do you? Touch you like this?" His palm slid from her throat to the swell of her breas
ts, stroking caresses. He shoved the blanket back, exposing her body, the smooth firm lines and the lush curves. "This?" He bent his head to flick her nipple with his tongue.
Mari went rigid as sensations burst through her. She should be screaming, fighting, doing anything but what she wanted to do. She knew what this was. She knew he was taking advantage of her injuries and that he was deliberately using sex against her, but she had never felt the bright burst of pleasure that the mere touch of his tongue had brought her. Her fingers fisted in his hair, but instead of jerking him away, she held him to her, closing her eyes and savoring the feel of his tongue, his teeth, the heat of his mouth as he suckled.
He wasn't gentle; she could feel that the scrape of his teeth and his mouth was more ruthless than sensual, as if he was angry with her, but her body reacted with such urgency she nearly sobbed. One of his hands traveled across her stomach, slid lower, stroking once, twice, and then his finger was deep inside her welcoming body, her muscles clenching around it, wanting to hold him to her. Her body threatened to implode, the orgasm rushing over her when there was no reason for it other than that one single plunge of his finger. She cried out as the sensations overtook her, shaking her, shaking her faith in herself and her ability to resist anything he did to her.
"Fuck." Ken spat the word at her, jerking his finger from her body, his hand wrapping around her throat a second time. "Did he make you feel like this? Did you get wet for him? Did you come for him like that? Damn you, did he make you come apart for him?"
"Ken! What the fuck are you doing?" Jack demanded.
Ken went rigid, his face going completely white, eyes wide with shock and horror. He stumbled away from her, looking helplessly at his twin, one hand reaching out to him. There was utter and complete despair on his face, in the bleakness of his eyes, in the way he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand as if her taste disgusted him.
Jack took a step toward his brother, shaking his head.
Time slowed. Mari knew. She saw it all happening in her head as if somehow, that brief moment of connection had left part of her inside of Ken to read his mind. She knew exactly, as if the entire scene had been rehearsed.
Ken pulled his weapon in one smooth movement and turned to her. "I'm sorry, Mari," he said quietly and put the gun to his head.
CHAPTER 5
The thunder in Ken's head grew louder. He would never get Mari's taste or scent out of his mind; he would never stop needing to reach for her, touch her, own her. Eventually, as surely as he lived and breathed, he would go to her, take her, make her his own. And once that happened, both of them would be lost. He had shown her--and himself--he could not be trusted. He would destroy her the way his father had destroyed his mother. First the jealousy and then the punishments, and finally madness would overcome love, and murder would be swift and brutal. And then Jack would be forced to hunt and kill him.
He sent his brother a small, sad smile and lifted his other hand to shield Mari's eyes. I've always loved you, Jack. I don't want you to have to do this. His finger tightened on the trigger.
"No!" There was fear, agony, in Jack's voice. "Damn you, no, Ken!" He leapt forward, a hundred years too late; even with his enhanced strength and speed, he could never get there in time.
The way Ken had drawn the gun was smooth and practiced. There was no hesitation, only resolve, as if he had known someday he would have to use that last line of defense for his brother. Even as he lifted the gun, Mari was already in motion. She threw herself off the bed, every move carefully calculated. Her head rammed Ken's arm. She felt the heat of the explosion as the bullet left the gun, far too close to her face. The sound was deafening next to her ear, but she latched on to his wrist and took both of them to the floor. She landed hard, unable to protect her leg.
She heard herself scream, the cry torn from her throat, but she hung on grimly to Ken's arm, pinning it with her body weight when she was seeing stars, afraid she'd pass out before Jack got to his twin.
Ken didn't struggle. Instead he wrapped his arm around her and put his mouth against her ear. "I tried to save you. Whitney has my profile too. He knows me inside, where no one else does, and he thought it would be fun to pair you with the devil."
She turned her head to stare into his strange-colored eyes. "The devil wouldn't have tried to take his own life in order to keep me safe."
There was a moment, one small heartbeat, when she glimpsed raw emotion in those silver eyes and her heart jumped in response.
"You'll never be safe again, Mari, not while I'm alive."
Jack kicked the gun across the floor away from Ken and sank down beside them, his trembling hand going to his brother's shoulder. Mari hadn't thought he could be so shaken.
"What were you thinking? Ken, you should have let me help you."
Ken shook his head, gathering Mari closer to him, reaching for the sheet to once again cover her body. His hands were impersonal, as if his mouth had never tasted her flesh, brought her to a fever pitch of sensual pleasure without even trying. "There's no way to help me, Jack, and you know it. You can only help her. You know what you have to do to keep her safe."
"This is bullshit, Ken. I can put a bullet in her head and be done with it."
Mari raised her hand. "Do I get a vote?"
"You're bleeding all over the place again," Ken said. He stood, lifting her into his arms, the pain driving the air from her lungs. "You can't kill her, Jack. You have to protect her from everyone--even me."
Mari tried desperately to cling to consciousness. The movement wrenched her leg, made her stomach protest with a violent heave, but she refused to faint, needing to hear every word.
Jack shook his head. "It doesn't have to be like this."
"What? You didn't see me acting like an animal? You know exactly what it's going to be like--a long drop into hell. I'm not doing that. I refuse to be him. I'd rather be dead." Ken placed Mari back on the gurney, careful to avoid jarring her leg. "Take a look, Jack, see how much damage she did." He stepped away from her side, not looking at her, not touching her, his voice as empty as his expression.
"You look." Jack reached down and snagged the gun. "Are you going to be stupid again?"
Ken refused to answer. Jack stepped closer to the gurney and suddenly jammed the weapon against Mari's head. "I swear to you, on our mother, if you even think about doing that again, I'll blow her brains out."
Ken instantly came to life, his face darkening, eyes narrowing to slashing silver slits. "Get the fuck away from her or we're going to have trouble, Jack."
"She can bleed out for all I care, Ken. Anything happens to you, anything, by your hand or someone else's, she's dead. You got that? I give you my fuckin' word on that. She's dead. You know me. You know I don't ever stop. You think long and hard about that before you try this shit with me again." Jack withdrew the weapon, threw it to Ken, and shoved past him to stalk over to the doorway.
Ken stood for a moment just holding the gun, staring after his twin. He said nothing, just stood in silence, his knuckles white where he gripped the butt of the gun. Finally, he shoved it inside the holster under his arm and took a deep, calming breath before looking at the blood seeping into the sheet.
Mari inhaled sharply, trying to find a way to ease the tension. "Well, that went well. I can see that he does have a bad habit of wanting to shoot people. He wasn't kidding."
"No, he wasn't." Ken pushed the sheet off her leg. "Did you have to land so hard? You really made a mess."
"It hurts," she admitted and reached out to catch his arm. "You didn't hurt me. I participated. It wasn't all your fault, you know. I could have said no."
He shook his head and she felt the tremor that ran through his body. "You have no way of understanding what's going on here."
"I have more understanding than you think I do," Mari said.
Jack leaned his hip in the doorway, glaring at both of them. "Then tell us."
She flicked him a quick glance. "This is about Whitney'
s breeding program of course. We're all caught up in it. This is one big experiment. Is Briony pregnant?"
Jack stiffened. "Why would you think that?"
"Because Whitney was desperate for me to get pregnant. He was furious with Brett for not getting the job done. Once I found out she was with you, it wasn't all that hard to realize he wanted her in the same condition."
Ken shook his head. "It's far more than that."
"We already knew what he was doing, Ken," Jack said. "We've known since he sent his team to retrieve Briony. He wants the babies."
"He did what?" Mari pushed at Ken, demanding an answer.
He ignored her, shaking his head at his brother. "Don't you understand? He knows. He did this. He knows about me."
"You aren't making sense," Jack said.
"He means Whitney," Mari interpreted.
Ken nodded, brushing his face with his hand, smearing Mari's blood along his jaw. "I've always suspected he was psychic. He knows about me. He knows what I'm like and he set this up. It can't be anything else, Jack. He knew if he sent her to me what I'd do."
"He thinks he knows you, just like he thought he knew me. I still have Briony. And I'm fine with her. You see us together; I might get a little jealous now and then, but I'm not like him and you aren't either."
Mari looked from one to the other. "Who is him? You're no longer talking about Whitney."
"I am," Ken said to Jack. His voice was a low, soft whisper of sound, but the impact it carried was lethal. "I am exactly like him."
"That isn't true, Ken," Jack denied.
"The hell it isn't," Ken snapped. "Do you know what I wanted to do to her when I knew another man had been inside of her? Touching her? Hell, Jack. I don't even know her. I don't know the first thing about her. I'm not in love. She's not in love with me; how could she be? But it didn't matter. I wanted to pound into her, make her forget anyone else, punish her for daring--daring--to allow another man to touch her that way. I wasn't gentle with her; I didn't want to be. I wanted her to know who she was with."