Ghostwalker 09 - Ruthless Game

everyone. Her eyes went wide and shocked, and he grinned at her before brushing a kiss on top of Sebastian’s head. “They may as wel know I’m crazy about you,” he whispered overly loud in her ear, watching her blush with rising satisfaction.
    He loved that slightly bemused, flustered look she got when he was publicly affectionate.
    I have no idea what to do when you put on public displays.
    Manly displays, he corrected. That’s me beating my chest and claiming you.
    She frowned at him, and he was tempted al over again to kiss her fantasy mouth. Just how long are you going to keep that up?
    “Forever, sweetheart. For always. And that’s the damned truth, Rose,” he said and turned abruptly to uncover the escape door situated close to the bank of computers where Jaimie always had a fast exit, should one become necessary. The opening revealed a very narrow entrance with a built-in slide that took him straight down to the wharf side of the warehouse. He pushed open the door to exit into the al ey in front of the wharf itself.
    The wind blew in from the ocean, and fingers of fog stretched greedily toward the buildings. Sheets of mist blew in rapidly, a thick veil difficult to penetrate. The cover would help the team members as they spread out and went into the building across the street by several different entrances. Ethan and Gideon, the spotters on the rooftops, however, would have a much more difficult time.
    Kane, Gideon spotted movement in three of the apartments. Are you in a position to see into the apartments?
    Give me three, Top. I’m coming to the corner now. Javier, we’ll need your boys.
    Roger that. They’re already on their way. Someone just told them about the SUV parked on the street with the keys still in it.
    Kane stayed close to the wal , his clothes blending into the wal s of the warehouse as he rounded the corner. It was three steps to the shadowed alcove.
    They’d taken advantage whenever an apartment had been vacant to study the vulnerabilities of their own warehouses, finding each blind spot from the windows and marking them for future use.
    Negotiations so far had proved to be nearly impossible in acquiring the apartment house. The corporation owning the building steadfastly refused to sel . Jaimie was peeling away the layers in an effort to find who actual y owned the corporation. The fact that the building had recently been sold quietly, without advertisement, along with the property managers being deliberately evasive had raised suspicions that either Whitney or another enemy had bought up the building.
    Kane waited in the alcove, hearing the crowd of boys coming up the walkway, trash-talking loudly. They shoved one another, leapt over a fire hydrant, and threw several rocks at a stop sign. The sound, much like a series of gunshots, was loud despite the blanket of fog.
    Movement at the window on second floor, Gideon reported.
    One of the boys kicked the SUV as they surrounded it. The others laughed. Swaggering up to the passenger windows, the boys peered in. More fog poured into the street, swirling around the buildings, a moving, living veil.
    Kane stepped into the darkened doorway that was one of the best blind spots available. Set back from the street, the deeper recesses al owed someone able to blend into shadows to disappear. Kane did so, steeling himself to use his particular talent. It was wrenching to use his vision, seeing through the wal s inside the actual rooms.
    The buildup of energy radiated heat in the smal confines of the doorway. The building across from him shimmered, the thick wal s undulating as if not real, the solid matter no longer solid. He felt the wrenching in his gut, the lurching of his stomach, and fought down the bile. Pain sliced into his head. He ruthlessly pushed the side effects down. Each time was different, but he had noticed some time ago that the salt air and fog seemed to make the initial penetration a little more difficult.
    He took a breath and swung his gaze up toward the second floor. The wal s fel away, giving him a dizzying moment, but he rode it out, setting his teeth, ignoring the commotion in the streets as the boys tried to enter the bloodstained SUV to steal it. They’d found the pool of blood and had exited fast, yel ing. The world dropped away until there was nothing left between Kane and the occupants of Room 224.
    Someone sitting in a chair facing the window. He isn’t moving, just staring out. No woman. No children. He’s