Ghostwalker 09 - Ruthless Game

her in particular—as if she’d lost her mind.
    “You want to go where?” Kane asked through clenched teeth.
    No, he definitely wasn’t happy. Rose sighed. He’d heard her, he wasn’t deaf, but she obligingly repeated herself, knowing he was asking for the benefit of the team members who might not have heard. “The three of us want to go shopping. Maybe to the market and a couple of the boutiques. Not far, Kane, it’s only a few blocks down.”
    “If you’re real y insisting on going, then we have to go with you.” He glared at Jaimie and Rhianna, as if they were to blame for her wanting to leave.
    “Jaimie knows she doesn’t go out without an escort.”
    Rose refrained from rol ing her eyes. “I’m not a two-year-old, Kane. I want to go shopping. It isn’t like Whitney’s going to have a team out there again.
    He’s been quiet. I believe him when he said to you that you ‘won’ the game. He’s not going to come after me, especial y after losing so many of his men.”
    “Fine, we’l go.”
    “You have to stay here and watch Sebastian so I don’t worry about him,” Rose objected.
    Something dangerous flickered in the depths of his eyes. “Paul can watch him. Right, Paul?” His tone suggested Paul give the right answer.
    “No problem,” Paul said instantly, ignoring the way the three women glared at him.
    “That’s not the point,” Jaimie said. “We want to do the woman thing. We’ve been cooped up with men long enough. We need some woman time.”
    “I don’t like this one bit,” Kane groused. “Why the sudden need to bond?”
    Jaimie laughed. “You’re becoming one of those very annoying males, like Mack. You don’t want to be like Mack, do you?”
    “Hey!” Mack objected. “I think he’s showing good sense. The three of you ought to be locked up somewhere.”
    “A padded cel ,” Gideon suggested under his breath.
    Jaimie glared at him. “You’re not helping the cause.”
    Rose noticed that Rhianna didn’t say a single word. She kept her eyes on Javier’s face. He was in the shadows as usual, barely able to be seen. His face was a carved mask, inscrutable. He said nothing at al , but his fingers tapped his thigh, and the movement was mesmerizing, as if al his pent-up emotion was control ed only by those rhythmic taps.
    Rose could feel the burning heat from Kane’s piercing eyes. She sighed and held up her hand. “I realize that al of you are just trying to protect us, but we have to be able to live our lives. I haven’t been out of here in six weeks. That’s a long time. Yes, I’ve been active, but while I enjoy the company, I’d like to experience freedom. I’ve been a prisoner my entire life, and walking through a marketplace is an amazing treat for me.”
    She kept her gaze locked with Kane’s. In the end, his opinion was al that mattered to her. He shook his head, and she could see fear there—and determination.
    “Damn it, Rose. If something happens to you ...” He trailed off and turned away from her, but not before she saw the burst of emotion cross his face.
    “Nothing wil happen.” Javier stood up abruptly.
    “Damn it,” Kane said again without looking at her. “Gideon, you and Ethan have the rooftops. Stay inside the marketplace. We can cover them easily there.”
    “I wanted to go into the little boutique and look at clothes. It’s two blocks down,” Rose insisted. “Kane, I have to feel like I can breathe.”

    Kane closed his eyes briefly and swept his arm around her, dragging her close to him. “I know, Rose. I don’t want you to feel as if you’re a prisoner here. I didn’t know you were feeling that way. Jaimie goes out, yes, but she doesn’t have a price on her head.”
    “It’s been quiet for weeks; Jaimie said so,” Rose pointed out. “She’s got al the information pouring in. They stopped talking about me.”
    She hated the tension between them. Kane’s easy smile was gone, and his fingers dug into her hip as though he could tie them together through sheer physical contact. She didn’t try to pul away from him, afraid he would think she wasn’t happy. She was. She loved her life with him, everything about it, but she had to take the next step and go out into the world. If she couldn’t, then how could Sebastian?
    Kane shook his head again. Rose laid her palm over his chest, right over his thundering heart. She looked up at him, wil ing him to look down at her, into her eyes, and see that she loved him beyond al