Street Game (GhostWalkers 8)

"And the fourth team?"

She shook her head. "They're shrouded in mystery. To get to their files, I have to peel layers and layers of protection away. I think they're hunting terrorist cells around the world. I think they assassinate them and melt back into the shadows. If I'm right, Javier, it would be easy for them to be eliminated."

"You think Whitney is doing this? Killing the soldiers he made?"

Jaimie shook her head, grateful someone she cared about was willing to listen to her. "Not Whitney. It doesn't fit his profile." She paced across the room and back, a small frown creasing her forehead. "It isn't him or his supporters. Those helping him know about his experiments with children and they're covering for him. And they sure know about his breeding program, but they don't want him dead. Or us. They believe his soldiers, all of you--me--are the answer for future soldiers." She shook her head. "No, it's someone else. Another group opposing Whitney's work and they don't mind murder to get rid of us."

"So different groups could be after you," Javier said.

She looked at him. "Probably." He kept looking at her, his gaze locking with hers. She sighed. "Okay. Yes. Two different factions. I think Whitney's supporters know about me and want me dead before I have a chance to expose them. The second group I don't believe has a clue I'm coming after them."

"Walk away from it, Jaimie."

"I can't. You're my family. I'm not letting them target you for elimination. I can't go with you, so this is the only way I have of protecting you."

Javier's smile was slow in coming. "That's so you, Jaimie. In your own way you think you can save the world."

"No, just my family. You and Mack and Kane save the world. I just care about saving you right now."

"Do you really believe you can't trust Mack?" His voice was quiet, not at all accusing.

She swallowed hard. What did she think? Kane had set Sergeant Major on her and what none of them seemed to realize was that he'd known she was digging for information. How had he known? "Mack protects all of us, Javier. He'd go up in flames if he saw I was setting myself up as a target in order to draw them away from you."

His breath hissed out. "You fucking tipped them off."

"I didn't have any other way to keep them from going after you. I know they were going to kill all of you. I can't prove it, not even to Mack. He wouldn't listen or believe me, Javier. What was I supposed to do? If Mack, who's known me most of my life and knows how intelligent I am, wouldn't listen to me, why should anyone else? I need proof and in the meantime, I had to take their attention from you and put it on me."

"Damn it, Jaimie. You should be kissing Kane's feet for sending someone to look after you."

"He brought Mack here. Mack wants to control every situation and he does insane things in the name of protecting us. Like pulling the plug just when I had the trace."

His eyebrow shot up. "You can bullshit the others, but not me, Jaimie. You saw where the trace originated. I know you did."

She studied his face. She'd never been all that good at poker, but she was brilliant when it came to dancing intrigue. "If it was there, Javier, then you're the only one who knows.

Tell me. I can get them. You know I can. This war isn't going to be fought with guns. It's all about the paper trail."

He shook his head. "Not me. I was following orders. Mack said to pull the plug and I was trying to shut it down fast."

"Not looking at the monitor?" There was disbelief in her voice.

"I wish I had so I could tell you what you wanted to know, although I'm with Mack on this, and I think it's too dangerous."

"It's too late, Javier. They already know or they wouldn't be trying to scare me by leaving dead bodies on my doorstep, or sending two goons after me, or putting a sniper on a rooftop. And I'm not about to hide in a little cocoon while my entire family is slaughtered out in the field."

"Talk to Mack about this."

"Mack should have trusted me. He's asking me to give him acceptance and trust, but he refuses to give the same to me. I'm not going to talk about this with him. I trust Mack with my life, but not with putting my life on the line."

"None of us want you to put your life on the line, not just Mack, Jaimie. We've got you and Rhianna." The name seemed to stick in his throat. He cleared it. "None of us want to give either of you up or put you in harm's way."

"You wanted me running missions with you."

"Because we could protect you. This is suicide and you know it. You put yourself right in front of a gun."

"You all do it every single day. I have the same training, Javier. I'm not a sacrificial lamb. I have a plan."

"What is it?"

"I'm going to expose them to the world. Once their names are splashed over every television network there is, they'll be too busy running to try to hunt any of us down."

Javier stared at her in stunned silence. "That's it? That's your big master plan? They're going to come at you with everything they have."

"Which is why I needed to get that trace."

Javier shook his head. "You're not invincible, Jaimie. You can't take on people that powerful. They have to be in Congress, or the White House itself."

"Someone has to do it. What's the alternative? They can't be above the law. If they are, there's no chance for any of you. Any day now, they could send you into another trap. Someone told the Doomsday unit exactly where you were going to be. They baited a trap and sent us out. It wasn't poor information, it was a deliberate attempt to eliminate all of us. Just like Team Two was sent to the Congo and the rebels were waiting for them."

"Do you have any idea how often assassination looks like a common accident? If we didn't know what you were doing, if Kane hadn't been alarmed and sent someone in to watch you, and you were killed in an accident, none of us would have been the wiser."

"And if you went out into the field and all of

you were ambushed, the world wouldn't even be told about it. You never would have existed in the first place. Well, you exist to me, Javier, and I'll be damned if I let them kill you. I'll find them and expose them."

Javier stood up slowly. "You need to find a way to talk to Mack, Jaimie."

She glared at him. "We're so back to the boy's club, aren't we, Javier? He threw me away, not the other way around. We aren't together anymore."

He shrugged, in no way shaken by her anger. "Maybe not, hon, but we're a family and Mack is the head. You and Rhianna are the heart. You've never seen Mack's tough side. He's gentle around you . . ."

She gave a snort of derision.

"He is, Jaimie. He's different. He jokes and laughs and is a completely different man than he is out in the field. Do you think someone like me would follow him if he wasn't? I'm lethal. You know that. Most of us are. Mack has to be strong to lead us all. He has to be reliable. That doesn't mean he can't make a few mistakes. If we're going to get through this, we have to be all together on it. And we have to trust one another."

Even as he said it he very casually, right in front of her, flicked at a switch on the control panel. Her breath caught in her throat. She brushed her hand over her face, realized she was trembling, and put her hands behind her back. "You have the intercom on, don't you?"

"Of course. We're in this together. I'm not holding back information that may save your life. You're just going to have to accept that we're here and we're going to protect you."

She bit down hard on her lower lip and shook her head. "I need to be alone for a little while. I'm not used to being around anyone anymore."

"Where are you going?"

"To the first floor." She looked at him with a mixture of despair and sadness. "I'm not stupid, Javier, and I don't have a death wish. I won't leave."

"I'm not going to say I'm sorry. Keeping you safe is too important."

"I don't expect you to."

She turned away from him. She didn't fit anywhere anymore. Maybe she never had. She'd been so much younger than the others all through school. They were intensely physical and she spent most of her time inside her brain. She'd been devastated when she'd broken up with Mack, worse than devastated. She'd broken apart inside. He hadn't trusted her. He hadn't believed in her. And he hadn't wanted to spend his life with her.