Ghostwalker 06 - Predatory Game

ones—like you.”
    She raised her chin and took another step back. “You’ll have to kill me, Brian, because I’m not going back.”
    His eyebrow shot up. “If I’d wanted to take you back, I would have knocked you out at work and gotten the job done.”
    “I liked you, Brian. You’re very good at what you do.”
    “You don’t have to stop liking me. I’m no different from you. I do a job. My job was to look out for you and I’ve done it. The next time you have a maggot on the ground, Saber, kill it. You’ve been taught right. Just because you don’t want to work as an assassin anymore doesn’t mean all of your training should be thrown out. You should be able to keep yourself alive.”
    Brian glanced over at Brady. “I’ve got to go. There are a couple of people I want to see before I take off.”
    She took a step toward him. “Not Jess.”
    “Of course not Jess. Back off, Saber. I wouldn’t want to have to knock you out. I don’t like seeing bruises on you. I’m going to see Patsy, just to make certain she’s all right. I’m not going after Jess.”
    “She has guards on her,” Saber felt compelled to point out. She liked Brian. She thought of him as a friend. And she was stunned that she had worked with him night after night and never once caught on to the fact that he was a GhostWalker working for Whitney.
    “He’s evil, Brian. You have to know that.”
    “I’m a soldier, Saber. Just like you. I take orders.”
    “You’re not in his breeding program?”

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    “That’s a rumor, nothing more.”
    She shook her head. “You’re lying to yourself because you don’t want it to be true. Why do you think he let me go? He wants Jess and me to have a baby.”
    In the distance they heard the wail of sirens. Brian didn’t look away from her. In his eyes, on his face, she saw respect—the respect of a fellow soldier—admiration for what she could do.
    “I do my job, Saber. Go where they tell me and carry out orders. I’m going to see Patsy and then I’ll be gone. You stay out of trouble.”
    “Brian, get another assignment. Anyone but Whitney. Ask for a transfer to one of the other GhostWalker teams. Someone is out to kill all of us and we have no idea who. Not Whitney, but someone high enough up that they can mess with assignments. Some of the GhostWalkers have been sent out on suicide missions. You need to know that and all the men on your team need to be aware of it as well.” She talked fast, keeping her voice low, aware of the janitor and two other security guards hesitantly coming toward them.
    He smiled at her. “You take care of yourself. I have to get out before the cops arrive. Be safe, Saber.
    And don’t let your guard down.”
    She was going to miss him. She watched him walk over to Brady and held her breath as he crouched down, took a pressure bandage out of his jacket, and handed it and Brady’s gun back to the ex-SEAL.
    Brian went over the side of the mountain, using the exact escape route Saber had scoped out months earlier.He would have a car and a pack stashed close by.
    She ran over to Brady and knelt down beside him. He tore open the packaging with his teeth. She ripped at the material of his trousers. His thigh was soaked with blood.
    “Here, give it to me. The paramedics will be here any minute.”
    “Brian’s military,” Brady said. “Man, I didn’t catch that. He blended so perfectly.”
    That was what a GhostWalker like Brian did. A chameleon, becoming who and what everyone expected. She shook her head. She’d heard of them, of course, but Brian was the first one she’d encountered. They could become anyone.
    “Yeah, he’s military.”
    “He executed that man.”
    She didn’t reply, but sat back, rubbing her hand over her face, exhausted. Without Brian to pull the energy from her, she felt the aftereffects, although most of it was already dispersed. She held out her hand. “You have a cell phone.” Because all she wanted to do was talk to Jess—hear the comfort of his voice.
    Brady lay back in the grass beside her. “My pocket.”
    She glanced at him sharply. He was gray, with beads of sweat on his face. “Hey! You’d better not be thinking of dying on me.”

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    Alarmed, she bent over him and pressed her fingers to his pulse. At once she felt the rhythm of his body.
    She could read it