Power Game (GhostWalkers 13)

He didn't press. "Tell me the rest. Obviously you made your way here."

"It wasn't hard to get money or an ID. I knew, once I was out of water, Whitney would track me. He would know the moment I got on a plane. It was difficult finding you here at first because I didn't know any names and I didn't have a place to start. Then someone mentioned the Fontenots and all the building going on, that it looked as if fortresses were going up. They also mentioned a lot of the Fontenots' friends were buying up the land all around them and putting up places. Did I mention they said 'hot' friends? That was enough to guide me right here."

"Why didn't you just come forward, say who you were and warn us that someone might be coming this way to hurt one or more of us?"

She shrugged and looked him right in the eye. "I didn't know you. Any of you. For all I knew, you took orders from Whitney. Quite a few of his men are really awful. That is a very mild way of describing them. I was on the run, and I'm sure he'd pay a great deal of money for me, or even news of me. I had to know before I took a chance."

He nodded. "I will admit that sounds reasonable. I wouldn't be so eager to put myself in harm's way again if I just managed to escape Whitney."

"I found Donny's island. I'd been swimming around in the river and it looked remote and difficult to get to from anywhere other than his main pier. There were No Trespassing signs everywhere, but I knew as long as I stayed near the river, I would be okay, so I moved into one of his cabins. It was right near the water's edge, above it of course, but there was an open porch and I felt safe there."

"Donny's a bit strange, Bellisia. A good man, but you don't want to cross him. You're lucky he decided not to shoot you."

"He left me food and some blankets. I was really happy for both and left him a note saying I would pay him back as soon as I could. Then I found a job in New Orleans at a restaurant there. When I returned, Donny had written me a note saying not to bother paying him back, just get some supplies for myself with the money. He continued to leave food on and off, and I knew he was keeping an eye on me. Whenever I didn't have a shift to work, I was here, in the water, watching everyone. When I saw those three little girls, my heart nearly stopped. I was so afraid for them."

She had been. She'd been terrified that Whitney had an experiment going. Even when she first saw Nonny, she hadn't believed what she was seeing.

"We protect them from Whitney--or anyone else wanting to do them harm. They were scheduled for termination when we first found out about them. Cayenne was as well. When we went in to get them, Trap allowed Cayenne to escape. Apparently Cayenne was considered too dangerous, and no one could handle the girls. They're off the chart smart. And they have tempers, so right now, their little teeth are a problem."

She nodded. "Talking with them is like talking to someone much, much older."

"They grasp complicated concepts."

"Not so much idioms," she said. "I have to say I'm a little worried about staying here. Now that you're here, maybe I should find an abandoned camp. Whitney's men will be back here soon and I still have a chip in me. I tried taking it out once, when I first escaped, but nearly bled to death."

"I can take it out," Joe said. "I'm a surgeon. We've got a scanner so we'll be able to pinpoint its exact location. Once we have the chip we can take it far from here, lead them away from us. And, honey, seriously? You don't think I'm up to handling a couple of Whitney's new boys? Don't let my looks fool you."

It was the first time she even caught a glimpse of humor in him. She let herself smile. "Well, okay then. The sooner you take out the chip, the sooner I'll feel as if I'm not putting everyone in jeopardy. You do realize, Gerald and Adam will take one look at you men and realize what you are."

"Not me. I don't give off enough energy. You don't either, by the way. You must have been part of the experiment to see if he could stop GhostWalkers from identifying one another."

"If I am, I wasn't told."

Joe stood up and waved her toward the door. "Diego, can you scan while I prep? Hop up on the table in the little room off to your right. Is Gerald the one claiming to be your husband?"

When the others had filled him in about everything that had happened in his absence, they weren't joking around, they'd left nothing out. She walked in front of him, following the silent Diego out. She was excited that she might actually be free of the last part of Whitney. That horrible chip that meant he knew where she was, unless she stayed in the water.

"So Donny says."

Diego opened the door to the room and she got up on the table. Nerves took over. She hated to be examined. She'd spent far too much of her life on tables with eyes staring at her, with needles poking her and blood being drawn.

"What's your blood type?" Diego asked as he gestured for her to lie down so he could pass the scanner over her body.

Well maybe they hadn't been as thorough in their information as she thought. Her gaze jumped to his face. She wanted to see his expression when she told him. "RH-null." She didn't even smirk, that was how disciplined she was.

Diego's eyes widened and his movements jerked to a stop, the scanner hovering over her. "What did you just say?"

"RH-null."

"Oh. My. God. There's like forty known people on the entire planet with your blood type. You're like blood royalty." He glanced over his shoulder and raised his voice. "Are you listening, Joe? She's RH-null."

"I heard." Joe couldn't quite keep the suppressed excitement out of his voice. "You're a gold mine. What the hell was he doing sending you out on dangerous missions?"

Instantly she started to sit up. "Should he have used me for more experiments than he already did? Is that what you think I'm good for?"

"No, honey. Settle down. Has anyone told you before that you have a hair-trigger temper? I'm warning Zeke that his woman is like a little powder keg ready to blow at any little thing."

"Right here, Joe, along her ribs. It isn't just floating around. He embedded it on purpose. And there's a second one." Diego hovered the scanner over her left side. "This looks trickier, Doc. She may need to be put out for this."

Two? She had two chips in her? Even if she'd managed to get the first one, she never would have known about the second. "Put out? As in anesthesia?"

Diego grinned at her. "Don't be a little p--um . . . chicken. I'm trained for this."

Bellisia thought quickly. "Does Cayenne faint easily? At the sight of blood?"

Both men burst out laughing. "Cayenne doesn't faint at anything."

"I'd like her to be here. And I want to talk to her before I agree to go under." She'd rather leave, break her word to Ezekiel, than put herself in a position of trusting someone and then regretting it.

"I'll call her in," Diego said and stepped out of the room.

"Whitney does like people with high IQs," Joe commented. "Pepper and Cayenne both are brilliant. Cayenne has to be to keep up with Trap, and same thing with Pepper and Wyatt. He paired them and that can't be a coincidence. Do you suppose that's his gift?"

"He has more than one," Bellisia said. "He does make mistakes though, because he's so arrogant. His ego is so large it never occurs to him that one of us might outsmart him. He doesn't make sense half the time. He allows us to plan missions. He trained us to carry them out, yet he doesn't think we're smart enough to figure out ways to escape."

"Because most of the time, you don't."

There was a question in there. She heard it in his voice. "When one of us leaves, the others are punished. Sometimes it's severe. There were ten of us in the compound. Three died. One was killed on a mission and two were killed during an experiment. Whitney acts as if they were heroines choosing to die for the greater good. The rest of us, Scarlet, Blue, Cat, Amaryllis, Shylah and Zara, talked hundreds of times about escaping, but the threat to one of us was unthinkable. Never seeing them or talking with them is difficult."

"But you still did it." He reached a hand out.

She took the offer, slowly sitting up. "Yes.

We had all talked about it the night before I left to go to China. We're pretty valuable to him. We knew he wouldn't kill us unless it was the only option. We made a pact that if given the opportunity to escape, we'd take it."

"So I get the name Bellisia, as a flower. Zara?"

"Means 'desert blossom.'"

"And Shylah?"

"Quite a few of us called her Shyshy and the other half called her Lahlah. We put it together and now all of us call her Shylah, just not in front of Whitney. He named her Peony and said it was the name of a shy flower. Can you imagine being called Peony? We all just started with Shy and then"--she shrugged--"it kind of went from there. I guess he could have numbered us. He really likes numbers. It's his thing."

"What do you mean by that?"

"He practically talks in numbers. His codes are complex because he loves numbers, and he likes making up codes and then adding to them. Makes it really hard to figure out what he's doing next. It takes time to break down his codes. His private office is always guarded. We have to go in at night. Zara, Shylah and I can get in and out without too much trouble because of our size. They're built like me."

"Are you saying you can break his code?"

"Not just me. It takes three of us. Usually. When we're together, we're really fast at it. Well," she hedged, wanting to be strictly truthful. "Fast for actually breaking code. It takes days, sometimes weeks, depending upon how complex. Keeps our minds working though, and he doesn't have a clue, because Shy is great with computers."

"We've got two other women like that. Flame, her name is officially Iris, and she's married to Raul Fontenot. He's part of the GhostWalker Army Ranger Unit. Jaimie is married to a GhostWalker Marine, Mack McKinley. Both are very good on the computer, especially Jaimie, but I think they use programs to help crack codes."

"We don't have much else to do but train and screw with Whitney. I told you he had a weakness, right? His arrogance." She walked over to the window and stared longingly at the water. Her skin felt too tight. "He also has a thing for rare flowers. Who knew, right? He's moved us a couple of times, and he always brings certain plants with him. He has a greenhouse every place we've gone." She turned to look at him over her shoulder. "If I use that bathroom, will you lock me in?"

"No."

She took a breath. Her skin felt like it was cracking. It actually hurt. She'd taken a long bath that morning. The night before she'd filled the old, very deep claw-foot tub four times before she finally got out. She'd fallen asleep twice and only woke up when the water was very cold.

"I just need to run water over my skin. Sometimes when I'm stressed my skin is painful. One of my weaknesses. Whitney hates that and thinks I'm flawed. He detests that I can't stop that sensation when it doesn't show on my skin, and he really detests the fact that I can't control the amount of venom, just as you pointed out. I don't think it's a matter of control so much as the type of venom."

Bellisia crossed the room to the cage and stood just outside of it summoning up her courage. Diego was already on his way to get Cayenne. If Bellisia was wrong about trusting Joe--which she didn't entirely--then hopefully Cayenne would get her out.

"You belong to Ezekiel, honey," Joe said quietly. "He made that very, very clear to everyone. Zeke isn't a man anyone--man or woman--wants to cross. He'll protect you, Bellisia. More, he'll kill for you. That man is relentless. He's a born hunter and enhanced, there's only a couple equal to him, and I'm being generous. We've got Gino, so I know someone else is that good, but seriously, Zeke would hunt me down and kill me, friend or not, if I harmed you in any way."

She had that impression from Ezekiel. She saw a flash of that, just for a moment at the restaurant when she'd told him that she'd seen him with the little girls. She'd been on a fishing expedition, trying to find out if Pepper was his wife and the triplets his children. She didn't think so, but she wanted to be certain. When she told him she'd seen him with the triplets, his eyes had gone scary hard. She knew she'd made a mistake, one that could possibly be fatal. She'd hastily added seeing him at the store getting snowballs for the girls. Anyone might have seen him there.

She stepped into the cage, half expecting the door to slam closed on her, but she didn't so much as glance over her shoulder at him. She walked with her head up as she went into the small bathroom. She left the door open and simply turned on the water, letting it run over her arms.

The relief was tremendous. She hadn't realized just how stressed she was, or how tight her skin felt until she felt the water pouring over it. It was cool and wet and she absorbed it fast.

"That's amazing," Joe said from behind her. "You look almost luminous, yet at the same time, you're disappearing right into the sink. If it wasn't for your clothes, I'm not certain I could spot you if I didn't know you were there. That must come in handy."

"In the water, I'm gone. I've never had anyone find me when I didn't want to be found in water. Even a pool. The hooks did a number on me though. I still have faint lines on my arm, thigh and back where they nailed me."

"That had to have put blood in the water."

She shrugged and reluctantly turned off the tap. She didn't bother to dry off her arms, they would absorb the water and it felt so refreshing to have the drops beading on her skin. "I didn't let it. That took a lot of control, and I think because I was under so much stress that allowed the virus to work faster."

She went back to the examination room and hopped up on the table. The table gave her a little more height.

"How the hell can you control bleeding, especially underwater and at more than one site at once?"

Colonel Joe Spagnola was looking at her with respect. It was the first time he'd really shown emotion. He hadn't even commented too much on her unusual blood. She couldn't help but feel good about that.

"The same way I change the texture of my skin. I have a set of muscles that help change the surface shape and make me look different. It's difficult to do or hold for any length of time. I had to train for years in order to be able to actually will the muscles to comply with what I needed."

"That's extraordinary. Does Ezekiel know?"

She shook her head, feeling as if she'd done something wrong. Conversations with others were difficult, like walking through a minefield. She hadn't had time to talk to Ezekiel, and now she felt as if she might have made a mistake. He should know everything about her first.

Cayenne walked in, Diego trailing behind her. "What's up, Bella?"

Bellisia liked that Cayenne didn't look to either man first. Cayenne made her own alliances, and acted on her own judgment. She wasn't in the least intimidated by the men. Bellisia was more comfortable with her there. She slid off the table. Both men towered over her, but with Cayenne in the room, even without water close, she felt empowered.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to talk to Cayenne for just a minute. Alone."

Joe cocked an eyebrow at her but he shrugged and indicated for Diego to go out. He followed and politely shut the door.

"I've got two chips in me. They appear to be embedded in my ribs on either side. Joe says he can go in and take them out but I'd have to be put under anesthesia. I'm a little uncomfortable with that. I don't know them. They just arrived, and I'm still pretty nervous around men. If I don't have it done, I'll have to leave before Ezekiel returns."

Cayenne shook her head. "Don't do that. Just let them take the chips out. Joe's a good doctor. They fly all over the world, sometimes performing surgery with bullets flying all around them. He's got a steady hand."

"It isn't that. I'm just . . . uncertain he'll do what he says. I've been experimented on so many times. I just want you to . . ." She trailed off again. She couldn't very well ask another woman--one she'd only just met--to kill someone on her behalf if he was really an enemy. Why should she trust that Cayenne would really do it?

Cayenne touched her shoulder. Just touched her with gentle fingers, a brush, no more. Bellisia realized Cayenne didn't touch others very often. It felt like the

sealing of their friendship.

"They're afraid of me with good reason," Cayenne said. "I'm beginning to care for them, but like you, I'm not so good with men. I'm not much better with women, but Nonny, Pepper and the girls are teaching me. I'll get there and if you stay with us, you will too. I know you can trust Joe and Diego, but if you feel better with me watching out for you, I promise, I will."

That had to be good enough. She had to trust someone if she was really going to have any kind of a life. She trusted Ezekiel and Nonny. They claimed these people as their family, so she had to make that leap of faith once again. She nodded and before she could change her mind, yanked open the door and told them she was ready.

12

Ezekiel detested paperwork. He would much rather go into a hot zone and pull out a dozen SEALs with mortars flying than sit at a desk and do reports. He preferred when Joe Spagnola was with them on a mission and it was his job to fill out one million pieces of paper that no one ever looked at. Okay, maybe that was going too far. Major General Tennessee Milton looked at anything that had to do with the GhostWalkers. All orders came directly from him, and he definitely looked at the paperwork. Ezekiel knew that for a fact because he'd been called to the man's office on more than one occasion for more detailed information.

He sighed as he continued working, bent over the desk, hearing the hideous teasing from the GhostWalkers emerging through the door. He wished he didn't have such acute hearing, although if he was being strictly honest with himself, he could turn it down, but he needed to hear every word his about-to-die brother and his friends were saying. He'd had them call the moment they were finished with their probably only two-page report, to find out if Bellisia was still there at the Fontenot compound. What they told him instead was that Joe was there. Of all people, Joe. It just had to be him.

An overly loud pounding came on the door, making him wince. "Stop daydreaming about getting laid and do your damn work, Hunter," Draden called, using the nickname given to him a long time ago.

The eruption of loud, taunting laughter had him gritting his teeth. "Get the hell home and check on my girl," he yelled back. Murder wasn't good enough for any of them right now. Slow torture would work. He could get behind that.