Ruthless Game (GhostWalkers 9)

Kane almost crushed the note in his hand. Tire of her? As if Rose had little worth beyond giving birth to a child. Did Whitney despise and loathe women so much? He certainly enjoyed seeing them suffer. He had enjoyed Rose being forced to accept a man.

"Damn you, Whitney," he muttered aloud. He looked down at the last paragraph.

I warned McKinley about Javier Enderman, but he refused to listen. Enderman is a psychopath. If you all continue to trust him, he will be your downfall. Kill him now before he destroys you all. I should never have enhanced him, but his loyalty and protective instincts fooled me into believing he could be useful. He is not. I am not infallible, it seems. I have chosen the best, the absolute best of the genetic pool I could find for my mission. Weed him out so that he doesn't poison it. He has one weakness that will bring you all down. He can be bought ...

Javier was looking over Kane's shoulder, reading the letter. He looked at Kane with flat, cold eyes and shrugged. "He's right, you know. I do have a weakness."

Kane shook his head. "Don't let him throw you."

"It isn't the first time I've been called a psychopath."

"Don't let him throw you," Kane repeated. "You don't break. I've known you since you were a child, Javier, and you're no psychopath." He knew Javier had been called that on more than one occasion. It had hurt, whether Javier admitted it did or not. He was very careful not to appear sympathetic. "We all have a weakness. Mine is Rose and now the boy. Whitney profiled each of us, and what he perceives as our weaknesses are actually our strengths. He's never understood loyalty. He tries to separate us, because he thinks we make one another weak. He's alone, and he thinks he's greater and stronger than all of us. He doesn't understand, and he never will, that together we're unbreakable."

"Fuck him. I could care less what that monster calls me."

"Rhianna is back, Javier." If Javier had one weakness, one thing that could make him lose the ice water running in his veins, it was Rhianna.

Something dangerous moved behind those dark eyes. "When?"

"I just heard. She has an apartment in this building."

Javier shook his head and turned away. "We'll need a cleaner up here."

"What the hell am I supposed to do with this deed?"

"Is it legal?"

"Looks like. Jaimie can find out for us," Kane replied.

"We've wanted the building. Jaimie said she was pretty certain Whitney was responsible for the quick sale of the building out from under us."

Kane flashed a small grin. "We've got it now, don't we?" But he didn't want any part of Whitney's gift. It made him feel he was being rewarded for taking Rose's choices from her. He glanced at Javier's set face. "I'm signing the damn thing over to you. You can figure it out."

"What?" Javier stepped back. "You can't give me the building."

"I own the warehouse with Jaimie and Mack. I don't want this from him, but we need it to secure the entire two blocks. We'll have the bay on two sides of us, and we'll only be vulnerable to the city side. We can set up security."

"I'll think about it." A slow smile took some of the shadows from his eyes. "I could kick Rhianna's little ass out onto the street."

"Don't start a war with her again," Kane cautioned. Before Javier could answer, he indicated a sweep of the room. "Look for anything else the bastard might have left behind. He's gone and we're not going to find him tonight, but we've gained more than we lost. He just doesn't know it yet."

CHAPTER 18

Rhianna Bonds was nothing at all like Rose expected her to be. She was incredibly beautiful, not at all the tough chick everyone implied that she was. Average height maybe, but there was nothing else average about her. She was stunning with her large, impossibly blue eyes and thick, curly black hair. There was so much hair that her braid was as thick as her shapely arms. She was not conventionally thin but had a figure one couldn't ignore, with curving hips, rounded breasts, and an extremely small waist.

She was hugged and kissed and greeted as a long-lost sister. Rose noticed Javier was conspicuously missing. Rhianna didn't ask where he was. She took Sebastian in her arms and looked at him with such love in her eyes, Rose wanted to cry. This was a woman who felt deeply. Again, Rose expected her to be like Javier, a cold, female version of the man. She radiated warmth. She was the kind of woman who would walk into a room and be noticed instantly. She wasn't spy material; she was too striking.

Rose found out the hard way that Rhianna was not all looks. Training began almost right away, and Rhianna was a big part of that. It was grueling and unrelenting. Rose found out quickly that there was no reasonable way to nurse Sebastian and train with the hours she was putting in. Instead of quitting altogether, wanting the best start for him, she opted for pumping her breasts. It was a nightmare, but better that than the alternative of not training. She needed to become part of the team, needed them to know what she could do and that she was good at it. And she was. Soldiering was something she'd done since she was a child, and there was nothing too rough, too dangerous, or too difficult for her. She had discipline and a sense of duty. She discovered Rhianna did as well.

Jaimie sat and watched sometimes, feeding Sebastian his bottle as they ran through the urban techniques, the one thing Rose hadn't trained in. Each man took his turn working with her. They often broke into smaller teams and pitted themselves against each other. The work was satisfying, and at night, she had Kane.

Kane's body was always wrapped around her, protective, loving, and he woke her often, sometimes twice a night, as if he could never quite get enough of her. She loved lying in bed just listening to him sleep. Sometimes he fed the baby a bottle, watching as she climbed the sides of buildings and ran along the rooftops. Other times she fed the baby while he massaged her neck and gave her pointers.

She soaked up the training like a thirsty sponge. It felt so good to be active again, to feel like she belonged somewhere. This had been her world since she was a child, and she savored every minute she could be active. She found herself laughing more, talking animatedly with the team members, listening to them, and occasionally sharing some of her own knowledge.

Eventually, after nearly a month of nonstop training, it didn't matter that she loved every second of her life; she still felt the need to walk down the street and breathe in the air. From the rooftops she found herself watching people going about their lives, envying them their freedom. It was Jaimie who suggested the three women go out shopping. Such a simple idea, yet Rose had to brace herself to ask--no tell--Kane that she was going to go out that afternoon.

"What is it, sweetheart?" he asked her, as if he already knew there was something wrong just by her silence.

Rose forced a smile. "Jamie, Rhianna, and I

are going shopping. Just the three of us." She stole a look at his face, those hard angles and planes, and her nerve nearly broke, but she persisted, trying to sound casual. He looked like she'd dropped a bomb. "I need to really get acquainted with the neighborhood, so it will be both fun as well as educational."

"Fun?" He sounded like he'd never heard of the word. "Rose. There's a price on your head."

She dismissed that with a wave of her hand. "I need to do this, Kane."

She'd forgotten that several of the team members as well as the two women had just finished working out. They appeared quite curious. Paul winked at her. Rose looked around the room. Every member of the team had arrived, as if Kane had put out some kind of SOS call--which he probably had. The men were looking at the three women--at her in particular--as if she'd lost her mind.

"You want to go where?" Kane asked through clenched teeth.

No, he definitely wasn't happy. Rose sighed. He'd heard her, he wasn't deaf, but she obligingly repeated herself, knowing he was asking for the benefit of the team members who might not have heard. "The three of us want to go shopping. Maybe to the market and a couple of the boutiques. Not far, Kane, it's only a few blocks down."

"If you're really insisting on going, then we have to go with you." He glared at Jaimie and Rhianna, as if they were to blame for her wanting to leave. "Jaimie knows she doesn't go out without an escort."

Rose refrained from rolling her eyes. "I'm not a two-year-old, Kane. I want to go shopping. It isn't like Whitney's going to have a team out there again. He's been quiet. I believe him when he said to you that you 'won' the game. He's not going to come after me, especially after losing so many of his men."

"Fine, we'll go."

"You have to stay here and watch Sebastian so I don't worry about him," Rose objected.

Something dangerous flickered in the depths of his eyes. "Paul can watch him. Right, Paul?" His tone suggested Paul give the right answer.