Ghostwalker 03 - Night Game

stare straight at him and there was fire in her eyes. “Don’t you tell me what I can or can’t do.”

    Whatever drugs they’d been giving her to keep her knocked out still lingered in her system. She felt slow, her mind a little hazy. And obviously Lily had started a chemotherapy treatment. Flame wasn’t one of the lucky ones. Chemo treatments often made her violently ill. Her stomach was heaving again and she turned her face away from Raoul so he couldn’t see her gagging. “Nonny. Please cover your ears for me.”

    “Are you going to blast my boy?”

    “I should, but I’m not.”

    Nonny covered her ears.

    Flame glared at Raoul. “When my hair falls out I’m going to shave your balls with a rusty knife.”

    He flinched visibly. There wasn’t much he could say to that and the warning made his cock jerk with fear. The woman was more than capable of carrying out the threat. He studied her expression. Proud. Defiant. Hurt. Scared. His heart sank. When her hair fell out. Not if, but when. She’d been through this before, knew what was coming and she was going to lose that mass of beautiful red hair. He wanted to hold her, tell her it didn’t matter, that her hair didn’t define who she was, that it would be all right, but she held herself away from him and there was no way to bridge the gap. Still, he tried.

    “Look, Flame, you told me you wouldn’t allow Saunders to kill you any more than you would Whitney. If you die of cancer, you’re letting Whitney kill you. You’d be letting him win.”

    She ignored his logic. “I’ll need my weapons.”

    “You think I’m going to arm you when you’re so pissed off you want to shave my balls?
    You’re a powder keg right now.”

    “Give them to me.” Flame reached out and tapped Nonny’s arm. “You can put your hands down now, I’m not talking to him anymore.”

    Nonny patted her hand again and leaned very close. “When you get to feelin’ better, I might have to wash out your mouth with soap.” It hadn’t done much good to press her hands over her ears.

    “That should be an experience,” Raoul muttered under his breath.

    Flame flicked him a quick glance, meant to wither him on the spot, but her voice was gentle, compliant even, when she spoke to Nonny. “I’ll work on it.”

    “Good girl. We can’t have you talking that way in front of the babies.”

    Flame’s heart twisted in her chest. “There won’t be any babies, Nonny.”

    “Sure there will. Raoul is one potent Cajun. All the Fontenot men are.”

    “I’m sterile.”

    “But Lily said…”

    “Grand-mere!”

    Raoul’s harsh tone set Flame’s teeth on edge. She slid out of bed, gripping the handrail to prevent falling. “By all means, keep whatever Lily said a secret, Raoul. That will keep me from…” She turned her head and sent her voice directly to him. Slitting your throat.

    The walls of the room expanded and contracted as if breathing. Oh, yeah. There was the rage she’d expected earlier. It swept over her like a tidal wave. She clenched her teeth and fought it back, afraid of hurting Nonny.

    Damn you for that, for allowing your grandmother to place herself in danger.

    You mean I should have taken charge and acted in her best interests?

    She forced air through her lungs, watching the walls as they undulated, as they slowly became still. “Just tell me what Lily said and cut the crap.”

    “Lily found eggs and sperm stored from each of us. The eggs were frozen in a cryoprotectant, which is a special formula that protects the eggs from damage during freezing and thawing and then they were stored in the Whitney Trust Laboratory right here in this compound in liquid nitrogen tanks.”

    “Why would Whitney do that?”

    He cleared his throat. “Lily said she feared Whitney is exploring a second-generation experiment.”

    “Exploring a second-generation experiment?” Flame repeated. “Is that how she put it to you? My God.” She pressed her fingertips to her throbbing temples. “So very scientific of her to notice.”

    “You’re angry with me, not her,” he reminded quietly. Her head snapped around. “Don’t think for one moment I don’t know that.”

    A chill went down Gator’s spine. She wasn’t going to forgive betrayal. She’d never see what he did as an act of love—of desperation. He had done to her exactly what Lily had done. He’d known all along he could lose her, but he had held out hope that she’d get better and