Ghostwalker 08 - Street Game

attention, he caught everything, the smallest nuance. When he appeared to be wholly focused on her, he was completely aware of his surroundings.
    “I don’t know,” she said, and there was no keeping the uneasiness from her voice.

    86

    We go to red. Mack sent out the order without hesitation. “Let’s abort, Jaimie.”
    She flashed him a quick look. “I’m not on a mission. We’re buying a bed. I could be picking up a threat to anyone. Someone thinking about going postal. It’s faint and I can’t identify it yet. It happens all the time. You know that.”
    “I don’t want to take chances with your life,” he said.
    “I thought you said the two men Javier took down were going to kidnap me,” she pointed out. “That doesn’t necessarily read that my life was in danger.”
    They were nearly to the furniture store. She kept moving forward, her gaze on the entrance, but her heart was beating fast now. Mack was protective, but to take them all to the highest risk when she couldn’t even sort out a bad feeling was not like him.
    “The tranq wasn’t a tranq. It was truth serum. They were going to question you, Jaimie, and they’d brought a few instruments with them.”
    Her mouth went dry. “Torture?” She looked up at him then. And then at Kane’s carefully averted face. A muscle ticked in his jaw and his eyelid flickered. “They were going to torture me?”
    “Damn it, Jaimie.”
    Mack shielded her as a group of unruly teenagers on skateboards rushed past.
    Javier did a series of showy tricks to the whistles and admiration of the kids, shot her a jaunty grin, and kept going, skating through the crowd, laughing at the curses and snarls as people moved out of the way. He scattered everyone behind them, answering the obscene gestures with one of his own.
    “He could be crazy, you know,” Jaimie said.
    “I have no doubt he is.”
    “I want to buy the beds today, Mack. I don’t want to spend today terrified and locked up in a room alone.”
    He didn’t point out she wouldn’t be alone. You see anything? He sent the call out to them all, his men, his family, moving in and out of the crowd. Gideon up on the rooftops, following their every move, his rifle an extension of him.
    Not a thing, boss. The reports came back, all assuring him.
    Do we abort, Top? Marc was at the door, ready to go inside.
    They were almost on top of the shop. “Let’s just order the beds,” Jaimie said.
    “We’re already here and I don’t have a strong feeling one way or the other right now.
    Please, Mack.”
    We’ll proceed, but be careful, Marc. You’re my eyes.

    87

    Mack recognized it was important to her to be as normal as possible. She probably hadn’t been out in public in weeks. Joe had done her shopping, or she’d had everything delivered. He knew her routines. She preferred working alone or in the dead of night in empty buildings where the psychic overload didn’t sicken her to the point of brain bleeds. He’d seen it happen before. “Let’s just get this done fast. You tell me the first sign of uneasiness. We’ll get you out, Jaimie. No one’s going to get their hands on you.”
    She had a bad taste in her mouth. She’d brought the storm down on her own head.
    None of this was Mack’s fault and she was actually grateful he was there. She had no doubt she would have had a good chance of getting away before the two men had gotten to her, but she would have lost everything she’d worked for and would have had to run for the rest of her life.
    “Would you have come back to me?” Mack asked, guessing her thoughts.
    She took a breath. “No.” She would never have brought danger to him. He should have known that without making her say it.
    She was looking at his face and caught the flash of anger quickly hidden behind his mask. For a moment her stomach shifted, but then he pushed open the door and Kane moved through, his larger body blocking hers. Mack fell into step behind her.
    She could feel Mack, and she moved in step with him as she followed Kane without hesitation. She’d never be foolish enough to put them in danger. She loved them, whether Mack understood her or not.
    Do your thing, Jaimie, Kane said.
    In here? With all these people? It would hurt like hell, opening herself up that way. She glanced at Mack. He obviously hadn’t heard Kane’s request, which meant he wouldn’t condone it. She bit her lip, took a breath, and expanded her mind, realizing Kane didn’t want any of the men