"It's dark out there and light in here. A sniper might be able to shoot you." She really did sound like an idiot, but she was too afraid for him.
Gino stepped forward, and she caught his gaze dropping to her hands. She hadn't realized she was twisting her fingers together, a habit Whitney detested. Spies didn't do things like that.
He came to the edge of the bed and reached down to push the tangled strands of hair from her face. "The windows are shaded on the outside and fitted with bulletproof glass. It obviously isn't one hundred percent safe, so you're right. It isn't smart to stand in front of them with a light to my back. Thanks for the worry."
Relief almost made her giddy, but luckily, Nonny and Bellisia came in with dinner.
10
T
he bathwater was soothingly hot on Zara's tortured skin, and she just let Gino immerse her body in the heat with only a towel wrapped around her. Bellisia and Nonny washed her hair and rinsed it. When the water turned red from the dried blood, they pulled out the stopper, rinsed the tub and refilled it.
"I know why you're so obsessed with water, Bellisia." Zara offered her friend a tentative smile. She still wore the soaking wet towel, but it didn't matter, it was coming off the moment Gino left the room. He wanted to make certain her bruised and aching buttocks could take sitting on the hard surface.
"Gino," Nonny said, pouring authority into her voice. "Give us some privacy so we can get to work on this girl."
Zara wanted to throw her arms around Nonny and hug her. For once, she didn't want Gino close. She was desperate to talk to Bellisia. She would have to let Nonny do her swamp healing, and then she could talk freely.
"You okay with me leaving, princess?" Gino crouched down beside the tub. "Because if you're not, I'll risk the wrath of the women to stay with you."
"It's indecent," Nonny said.
Something in her voice made Zara look up at her. Wyatt's grandmother didn't look shocked or at all uncomfortable with Gino in the bathroom while Zara was taking a bath. Her statement wasn't her opinion, merely a ploy to allow her to get Gino out of the room. She seemed to know Bellisia wanted some time alone with Zara.
"Sorry, ma'am. You know I have the highest respect for you, but if Zara needs me, I'm not leaving."
That made her feel good. Zara couldn't help it. Something about Gino had her heart stuttering and butterflies winging their way through her stomach. There might have been more of a reaction other places, but she was ignoring that. She was naked in a bathtub, a towel wrapped around her for modesty, but it didn't matter because he made her feel as if his entire focus was on her. He would stay, risking everyone's wrath if she wanted him.
"I'll have Bellisia or Nonny call you when I need to get out," she assured. "Thank you, Gino. I appreciate everything you've done for me. And just so you know, I do trust you. One hundred percent." That wasn't about her heart, but her safety. She did trust him. How could she not? But Bellisia was her sister. It had always been Bellisia, Shylah and Zara. She had to talk her dilemma out with her first.
Gino leaned down and brushed a kiss across the top of her head. "Thank you, Zara, that means a lot to me." He nodded toward Bellisia and Nonny. "Ladies." He sauntered out.
Zara watched him go, appreciating the way his muscles rippled beneath the tight tee. When she turned her head, Bellisia was frowning at her. Nonny was all business, not giving her time to figure out why Bellisia had that particular look on her face. The older woman pinned Zara's clean, wet hair up on top of her head and then poured a dark-colored liquid into the bath water.
"You'll need to soak in that for a half an hour. Then you can rinse off and get out. I'll make a paste for your feet and we'll wrap them before you go to bed."
Zara tried to wiggle her toes but stop when pain shot through her. She was uncertain she wanted paste and wraps on her feet while she slept, but she was willing to try anything in order to heal them. She wanted desperately to walk on her own so Gino wouldn't think he had to carry her everywhere.
She'd never thought much about trying to attract a man. Whitney had made it clear before he sent her off to school that if she wasted her time looking at men, he'd pull her back to the compound fast. Leaving the compound made Bellisia and Shylah so proud of her, and she could contribute to the other women's comfort with contraband and stories. It made her feel like a giving member of their group.
Nonny left the room after lighting an odd-smelling candle, leaving her with Bellisia. The two stared at each other and then both burst into tears, then laughter.
"Did you see Shylah before you left?" Bellisia asked.
Zara shook her head. "Whitney was very closemouthed about Shylah and what he had her doing, but I had a terrible feeling it had something to do with Cheng. He's obsessed with the idea that Cheng was going to sell the GhostWalker program to other governments."
Bellisia studied her face. "But you don't think that."
Zara drew her knees up and rested her chin on top of them. "No. I think Cheng wants his own army. We read about him in the files they compiled for us, but he's far more than what's in those reports. He's far more ambitious. He reminds me a little of Whitney in that he believes he's the smartest man in the room and that he can control lives. He wants that kind of power, just like Whitney does. Turning the GhostWalker program over to other governments doesn't leave Cheng with the firepower he craves. He would want to keep it for himself, develop his own soldiers and send them out if others didn't comply with whatever he wanted. He wants the world to fear him."
"Cheng? Or Zhu?" Bellisia asked.
"Both. They share the same vision." She chewed at her lip for a moment. "Cheng wants that recognition, but Zhu doesn't care about being recognized. He prefers to remain in the shadows. I think he would have wanted the enhancements for himself." A delicate shudder passed through Zara's body. She was afraid to close her eyes and sleep. She knew Zhu would be there looking at her. Reminding her he was coming for her--and he would, she had no doubt of that. "He's incredibly evil."
"You're safe here," Bellisia said, as if reading her thoughts.
She shook her head. "I'm not, and as long as I'm here, no one else is safe either."
"Whitney will give up. He let me stay. At first, he made a try for me, but then he just let the team keep me. I think if I left the safety of them, he might come after me, but ..."
"He isn't going to stop, Bellisia, neither of them will," Zara said. "Whitney will keep coming for me. If I'm dead, he'll come after my body."
Bellisia sank back on her heels. "You have something he wants."
Zara nodded. "He told me to steal all of Cheng's data. His files. He has secrets on terrorist cells, locations, movements, all that sort of thing. More, he's got dirt on governments, on agents, on presidents and their families. It's his business to know things. All of that was in his files, on his computers."
"And you have it."
"Yes. Whitney knows I have it. I destroyed Cheng's network, deleted everything so it would be impossible to recover it. I wouldn't have done that without first acquiring what was in the computers, and Whitney knows that. He had the GhostWalker file Violet gave him."
"Turn the data over to the team and Whitney won't care about reacquiring you," Bellisia said.
"You aren't thinking it through," Zara said gently. "I've had plenty of time to think about what information I have and what damage it could do if it is in the wrong hands. We have allies, Bellisia. They have agents in the field just like we do. If Whitney gets his hands on this material, he could blackmail our own allies. You and I both know, when it comes to politics, everyone is willing to sell everyone else down the river, and Whitney always wants something."
"Leave out the things you think are potentially a threat," Bellisia said.
Zara took a breath and let it out. "You have no idea the scope of this. I can't leave out things. I downloaded everything. Thousands of files, a lifetime of compiling dirt on governments and individuals. There's no way I could g
o through the files to determine what is safe to pass on and what isn't. Bellisia, I don't even know if I can actually get them out of my head, which makes me a huge target for everyone the moment it gets out I have this information."
Bellisia scooted back to the wall and drew up her own knees. When they were girls, they'd learned to sit like that and tap out code to one another. "What you're telling me without saying it is that what you've got could potentially start World War Three."
"That's about it."
"Can you destroy it?"
Zara shook her head. "I can't even get it out by myself. Whitney planted what is essentially a storage unit in my brain. It's really an integrated circuit for the sole purpose of storage. It's made from PEEK-carbon so it's virtually undetectable. I'm an industrial spy. Mostly, Whitney wanted to know about the experiments in medical research he was interested in. He sent me in, I downloaded files and got out. No one ever suspected. I didn't touch their equipment so it was impossible to trace me. The companies I stole from didn't even know their research was taken."
"You came home and Whitney removed the information from your head."
She shrugged. "Just that easy, but I don't know how. Then suddenly Violet decides to sell Whitney's prized GhostWalker program to Cheng, and Whitney can't stand it. He sends me in, but he wants Cheng's entire network wiped clean. When the alarms started to go off, I was the only stranger on the premises. Of course Cheng suspects me. How could he not?"
There was bitterness in her voice and she didn't try to hide it from Bellisia. Whitney was the only father figure the girls had. He was cold and unfeeling. He made it clear to all of them that they were expendable and to Zara in particular.
"Does Cheng know you have his information?"
Zara shook her head. "Nope. He has no way of knowing that. I wasn't anywhere near his computers." She rubbed her chin on her knees. "I have to figure out what the GhostWalkers would do with the information before I say anything."
"They're soldiers, Zara. They would turn it over to their commanding officer."
"And he would move it up along the chain of command, right? Whitney has a lot of friends higher up that chain. He'd get it."
"Maybe," Bellisia conceded.
"I don't know who to trust."
"Ezekiel," Bellisia said immediately. "You can trust him."
"Are you saying he wouldn't go up the chain of command? He was running the rescue."
Bellisia's gaze slid away. "I don't know what he would do, but we have to tell him. I tell him everything. That's the way it works between us. If I know it, then so does he."
"Are you saying he tells you the covert missions he goes on?" Zara asked. She suspected that if she and Gino were together, in an actual relationship, he still wouldn't be able to tell her when he went off on some missions.
"Well, no, but that's different," Bellisia hedged.
"So is this." Zara didn't know if she was still very hurt by Bellisia going to Ezekiel first or whether she was jealous because it was no longer Bellisia, Shylah and Zara. She only knew she was reluctant to tell Ezekiel, especially before she told Gino.
If she really was going into a relationship with Gino, if she trusted him with her heart, then she needed to trust him with this information. Still, she'd known Bellisia and trusted her all of her life. That didn't mean that confidence extended to Ezekiel. Gino didn't seem as if he was a by the book kind of soldier. Ezekiel did, even for a GhostWalker.
"No, it really isn't," Bellisia denied. "I wouldn't be able to look my husband in the eye if I didn't tell him about this."
Zara's heart jumped. It felt like a betrayal to her. She knew Bellisia, knew her well enough to know she'd never betray her, but it still felt that way. It wasn't the three women any longer. It was Bellisia and Ezekiel first. Maybe that was the way relationships were between men and women. Zara didn't know enough about them, but it felt as if she'd been abandoned and was alone. She didn't know what she'd been looking for, but having Ezekiel be part of the equation wasn't it.
"You just said Ezekiel wouldn't tell you about a covert mission he was running. That's what this is, Bellisia, my covert mission."
"It's not the same and you know it," Bellisia denied. "You need help, and Zeke could help you. I have to tell him."
She took a deep breath. "I think I have to tell Gino first, before I decide on anything else, including you telling your husband."
There was a small silence. Zara lifted her gaze to her friend's. She was frowning. "What's up with you and Gino?"
Zara's heart missed a beat. She shrugged.
"No, honey, you have to tell me. Gino is a cool guy. I can see the appeal for you. I really can. He's hot as hell. Dangerous. Very protective. He certainly can look after you and make you feel safe, but he isn't at all the kind of man you need."
"Why do you say that? You have Ezekiel. He's a soldier."
"He's a soldier who has evolved. Gino hasn't, and he never will. No matter how much you want him to have moved into this century, he hasn't. He will always feel his woman's place is at home having his babies and sitting at his feet worshipping him. He's intelligent, but he's archaic. You're off the charts intelligent and have so much to give to the world. You need to travel and give lectures, lead the way in artificial intelligence the way you've been doing. He wouldn't want you to do that for one minute. He's the type who would be possessive and probably jealous. He'd keep you under his thumb, and you've had that all your life."
"You make him sound like he'd make a woman his prisoner."
"He would, Zara. I know him. I know what he expects from his wife. He would never be happy with someone like you."
Zara ducked her head to keep Bellisia from seeing that her assessment was shattering her. "You can't know that."
"I do know it. Absolutely I know it. This is your chance at freedom, and Gino would take that away from you as surely as if you were back in the compound. You might be happy for a year or two, but Zara, you're made to set the world on fire and he won't like it. You'd eventually fight him to get free. Men like Gino don't give up their women."
"He's intelligent. I hate that you think I'm so much smarter, Bellisia. You're selling him short." There was a hint of belligerence in her voice, but she couldn't get it out.
"That isn't what I'm saying at all," Bellisia corrected. "I'm saying he doesn't want his woman out in the world. I can go out and fight with Ezekiel, and he believes in my abilities to help defend the triplets or Nonny. Gino would tuck you somewhere safe and expect you to hide with the triplets and Nonny."
"Maybe that's where I want to be."
Bellisia shook her head. "I don't think so, beautiful. You're too smart to want only to be someone's wife and the mother of his children. You want to make an impact on the world. That's your true destiny, and everyone knows it but Whitney. He always wanted you to feel like you can't make it on your own. You don't want to trade him for Gino."
"You're not being very nice. Gino's a good man."
"That has nothing to do with it. You've got a great gift and you were born to change the world. You owe it to the world, but he won't understand that. He would selfishly want to keep you to himself and make all your decisions for you as if you didn't have a brain in your head. He'd insist you be his little submissive in the house and in the bedroom."
"Bellisia, you can't talk about him like that. There's no way you know him that well." Zara's heart was dipping, skipping beats. Hurting. She didn't want to owe the world her gift. She wanted her own little work space with no one around. She knew she was responsible for Bellisia thinking she wanted to set the world on fire. She'd lied since she'd first gone off to school. How could Bellisia and Shylah ever forgive her? She had wanted them to be proud of her, so she'd pretended to love what she did. Worse, she didn't think having Gino make decisions when she didn't want to sounded all that bad.
"Do you know that he comes from one of the wealthiest families in the world?" Bellisia leaned close to the tub. "I'm not talk
ing millionaire here. Trap and Wyatt are wealthy, but they make strides in the medical world. They have patents. They contribute. What do you think he does with all that money? Absolutely nothing, Zara. It just grows and grows for him."
Zara rubbed her temples. Her head was beginning to pound all over again. "You're saying he has no interest in money. Is that so bad?"
"He has no interest in anything," Bellisia countered.
Zara wanted to throw something. "When I was upset with you for not even seeing me when we came back, he defended you, Bellisia. You're tearing him apart, and he defended you."
Bellisia sighed. "I'm sorry. I wish I could tell you something different, but if I had to assess Gino's character, I'd say he was more like Bolan Zhu than any of the GhostWalkers. I'm sorry if that hurts, but I need to be honest so you don't make a very big mistake. I can see you're already falling for him, but it's just the fact that he rescued you. It could have been any of them."
Zara knew that wasn't the truth. She felt nothing when she was near any of the others. She hadn't looked at them when they were trying to help Gino with her. She'd felt a connection with him right from the start and that connection had only grown the more time she spent with him, which was twenty-four seven.