Ghostwalker 04 - Conspiracy Game

people here can’t tell them anything if they don’t know anything.”
    “His name is Luther.” Briony’s hand fluttered to her throat. “Do you think he was going to shoot me?”

    “No, hon, he was going to shoot me.”
    Briony’s eyes widened with shock. “Jeb, I can’t stay with you—any of you. One of you could be hurt, or worse, dead like Mom and Dad.”
    “Don’t get dumb on us, Bri,” Ruben said. “Whoever these people are, we’ll sort it out.”
    He threw files into a duffel bag and held it out. “Throw some clothes in here and let’s go.”
    “She can’t be carrying anything heavy,” Jebediah objected. “She’s pregnant.”
    “How?” Seth demanded.
    “Who?” Ruben roared.
    “Oh for heaven’s sake.” Briony rolled her eyes. “I’ll get my clothes.”
    “Hurry,” Jebediah urged.
    She hurried to her bedroom, ignoring Ruben shouting questions after her. As she stuffed clothes into a small bag, she heard her brothers arguing over where to go. Rain fell in a steady rhythm, adding to the dark gray of her world. No matter what, her brothers would protect her, and she had a terrible feeling that if Whitney really wanted her back, he wouldn’t stop until he had her—that he’d go right through every member of her family.
    Screams pierced the night, and the tigers roared a challenge. Briony stiffened, adrenaline flooding her body. The rain beat down with hard strength, and the tigers continued, a constant unrest, their voices menacing, carrying through the circus town. Shrill screams grew louder, galvanizing her into action. She ran for the door.
    Jebediah stopped her. “You stay here. Let us find out what’s going on. Tyrel’s making a sweep around the houses.”
    Her brothers raced toward the animal cages to help with whatever emergency there was.
    As soon as they were out of sight, the back door crashed open. Briony didn’t wait to see what happened or who was there. She ran out the front after her brothers. She refused to call out, not wanting to draw Tyrel into possible danger. She was very fast and she had a good chance of catching Jebediah.
    Rain poured down on her, drenching her hair and clothes as she sprinted toward the sounds of disaster. As she flashed past the wind-lashed shrubs, a huge man emerged from the bushes, streaking toward her. Luther . And he wasn’t alone.
    Briony nearly ran into a second man, switched directions to avoid him, and found herself trapped between the men and the next trailer. She stopped moving and turned to face them, resolve on her face. She kept her feet beneath her shoulders, standing sideways to present the smallest target, one hand held loosely across her waist and the other up gesturing as she spoke. “What do you want, Luther?” She looked at her hands. They were beginning to shake and her head felt crushed, as if in a vise. The pain was too severe to be just the emotions of the two men, but she could feel the backlash from the crowd over near the tiger cages.
    “You. Just come with us now and no one else has to get hurt.”
    There was something vaguely familiar about him, something just out of her reach. “What did you do?” Her stomach cramped, and she pressed her hand protectively to the baby.
    “Your boyfriend wasn’t feeling too good so we gave him a place to sleep it off,” Luther said. He rubbed his shoulder where she’d slammed the needle into him. “He isn’t going to be helping you with the baby, so you’d better make up your mind to come with us or you won’t have any of your so-called brothers alive either.”
    She took a deep breath and glanced toward the animal cages where the crowd had converged. “You hurt Tony?” They had to have, or she wouldn’t be so violently ill. Blood began to trickle from her right ear.
    “Worthless piece of trash. You could have had the pick of a dozen men to father your baby. Men worth something. Why the hell you picked that gigolo is beyond me. He screamed like a girl.”
    Briony’s mouth went dry. “Why would you hurt him?”
    “He had no right to touch you.”
    “He—” She broke off abruptly. She didn’t dare tell them Jack Norton was the father of her child. They might decide to kill him. “This is crazy. I don’t understand any of this.” She wiped at the small trail of blood at her ear.
    “Come on. You don’t want your brothers hurt,” the other man said, a trace of sympathy in his voice. “Just come with us and no one else is going to die. We’ll