Ghostwalker 09 - Ruthless Game

might kil her, and she was a vicious fighter. More than one man had been in the infirmary after a round with her.
    “ Our baby,” he corrected, and the rightness of it took some of the knots out of his bel y. “You want to tel me why you didn’t look pregnant? How did you manage that?”
    “I’m not without my own skil s. I can camouflage when I need to. I felt al of you the moment you got close. Whitney isn’t getting my baby. He doesn’t know for certain yet that I’m pregnant, and I’m keeping it that way.”
    “Whitney didn’t send me after you. I don’t take orders from him. We reported his experiments, and he’s gone into hiding. I’ve searched for you ever since you disappeared.”
    She had begun to relax, but at his words she tensed again.
    “To help you, Rose,” he explained hastily. “I was the one who helped you escape, remember? I’m not about to hand you over to the enemy.”
    Kane didn’t make the mistake of letting go of her. He knew Gideon had a high-powered rifle on her and was al too aware that Gideon would protect him first. He wanted her away from the window, but that might trigger Mack to send in Javier. It was a very fragile line they were al walking, and one wrong move could result in disaster.
    “Then let’s just get this over with,” Rose said. She kept her gaze trained upward, right out the window, as if daring the marksmen to kil her. “I assume you are part of the team sent in to handle the hostages. For them to warrant a GhostWalker extraction, they must be pretty important.”
    “If I sit you down in the chair, wil you stay put? Not do anything stupid?”
    She turned her head for the first time to look up at him over her shoulder. His heart jumped when her dark gaze met his. Steady as ever. Cool under fire.
    That was Rose. But he was shocked at the exhaustion marking her face. He was equal y shocked at how not just his body but everything in him responded to her. His every protective instinct, his animalistic side, the alpha male in him— everything male.
    He forced his voice under control. “You’ve been sick.”
    She nodded. “I haven’t been able to keep much food down,” she admitted, al the while searching his expression, trying to decide whether to trust him.
    “That’s made me fairly weak, and staying below Whitney’s radar means moving al the time.” She sent him a humorless smile, just a flash of her white teeth, but it was enough to act as a warning. “I wil get the baby to safety, and anyone in my way isn’t going to live very long.”
    Kane knew her quiet statement was more than an idle threat. Rose would fight if necessary, and as smal as she was, she had psychic abilities and survival skil s that made up for her size. He had come to know her in the brief time they’d been forced together. Dr. Whitney, head of the psychic experimental program, had gone rogue, determined to breed supersoldiers. Rose had been forced into his breeding program, but that brief time in his breeding program hadn’t stopped any of the women there from training daily. The men tended to forget the women had undergone training almost since birth, while they had joined the military later. The women actual y had an edge, although they were smal er in stature.
    “I said I’d get you out of here safely, Rose, and I meant it.” He tried not to sound aggressive or commanding, when he felt a little of both. He tamped down his take-charge nature. Rose wasn’t getting away again, not with danger surrounding her and their child every moment of every day. She needed protection, no matter how independent she was. Kane understood her aversion to him, but her safety took precedence over everything else.
    She didn’t acknowledge his statement, and with Rose, he had no idea what she was thinking. She appeared fragile, but she had a core of steel and a wil of iron. Even Whitney hadn’t been able to get what he’d wanted from her. She’d chosen her partner, refusing to accept any of the others Whitney had sent to her, despite the fact that his punishments were horrible.
    Kane clamped down hard on those memories. It was difficult to stay cool and disciplined when fury raged through him. Very gently he urged her toward the chair away from the window.
    She’s out of my line of sight, Gideon warned. She’ll know that, Kane.

    Damn it, don’t you fuck with me on this, Kane, Mack snapped. I’ll send Javier in after the both of you.
    Go to hell, Mack, Kane snapped back.