Ghostwalker 08 - Street Game

maybe. But quiet support? She knew what was at stake. What the hell had changed her mind? He would never understand women as long as he lived—at least not Jaimie.
    He took up his pacing again. He’d just been handed the biggest asset a GhostWalker team could have—a psychic surgeon—yet he’d been kept in the dark.
    Would the boy have come forward in combat if there was an injury? Paul had been antsy the moment Gideon had stepped into the room. His hands had begun a complicated and obsessive-compulsive pattern, as if his entire body was already psychically tuned to the suffering man. What would have happened if he’d been exposed to Jaimie after she used her talent? Why hadn’t Sergeant Major, or Paul, revealed his talent so he could be used when he clearly so needed to heal?
    Mack rubbed his forehead. He hated mysteries.

    176

CHAPTER 13

    It was late into the night before Jaimie and Javier were satisfied they could find nothing more from the letters. If there was a code, it was a brilliant one they couldn’t decipher, and Jaimie couldn’t accept that Paul or his father would be able to create anything she couldn’t at least get a glimmer of. Maybe it was arrogance, but she’d never failed to see a pattern, even a small one, and she couldn’t detect one now.
    She pushed back her chair and rubbed at her eyes. “I’ve got the computer analyzing the e-mails, searching for something we may have missed, but I think we’ve got everything we’re going to out of these letters.”
    Mack wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her body into his, letting his warmth seep into her shivering body. She hadn’t even realized the temperature was dropping in the room. “Are you both still going with the theory that Paul is Sergeant Major’s son?”
    Jaimie put her head back against his chest. “I say definitely. If not, Griffen raised him.”
    “I’m going with Jaimie on this one, boss,” Javier agreed. “There was no ‘dad’ or
    ‘son’ or outward sign of affection, but it was in the feel of it. And why the hell keep the letters at all? He’s a kid missing his family.”
    “His last name is Mangan, not Griffen. His mother is Shiobhan Mangan. She’s an ambassador’s daughter, a very diplomatic family. She’s the current Irish ambassador.
    He’s an American citizen and his file says he was raised here with an aunt. His father is Theodore Greystone. Not Griffen.”
    Mack snapped his fingers, irritated with himself. “Griffen comes from money,” he said. “Old money, some blueblood family from the South. I remember seeing a spread in a magazine once and his family had an old plantation dating back years. The name of the plantation was Greystone. I thought at the time that it fit. The columns were all made of huge gray stones and it made an impression on me.”
    “What are you going to do?” Jaimie asked.
    “Don’t either of you say anything to him.” He turned his head and pressed a kiss against her temple. “Thanks, Jaimie. I hope to God you’re right over this. I like the kid.”
    “You gonna kiss me too, boss?” Javier asked.
    “If you want. Right on the lips,” Mack offered.
    “I’ll pass just this once. Wouldn’t want Jaimie to get jealous.” Javier winked at him, kissed Jaimie’s cheek, and sauntered up the stairs as if he hadn’t been up half the night.

    177

    “You’re very fond of that man,” Mack said.
    “Very,” she acknowledged. “And so are you.”
    “He worries me,” Mack admitted. “They all do, but Javier is entirely unpredictable. There’s no way of knowing how he’ll react to any given situation.”
    “You saved his life, Mack. A long time ago, on the streets, he could have gone either way. You pulled him into your circle, and he made the decision to follow your lead. He would have been a criminal.”
    “He didn’t have much of a chance.”
    “He’s always been different. You gave him a moral code. He didn’t have that until you came along.” She turned her head and looked up at him. “When you talk to me, Mack, sometimes you make me crazy, but I want to try again. Read some books on communicating with women, that’s my only advice to you, because you suck at it.”
    A slow smile accompanied the slow burning deep in his groin. She was so beautiful to him. So sexy. She didn’t even have to try very hard. “Now’s not the time to give me good news, honey, not with all the boys camping out in our bedroom.”
    “Everything is not about