Ghostwalker 09 - Ruthless Game

on his impulsive reply. She laughed again, and he realized she was teasing him. He found himself laughing with her.
    He tugged a little on her ankle, his thumb sliding over the petals of the rose. “I think we can safely say this is the source of Whitney’s ability to track you.
    He’s using a satel ite, but only intermittently, which means he’s using it for something else, something more important, and can only spare it occasional y to check on you and the other women who escaped the compound.”
    “That’s if each of the tattoos actual y carries the same ability.”
    Kane shrugged. “Why bother giving the women a tattoo if it wasn’t useful to him?”
    She winced. “I know we should have been suspicious. We wanted to believe we meant something—anything—to him. He was the only constant in our lives, other than each other.”
    “I wasn’t passing judgment, Rose.” His heart ached for her when she looked so sad—a child desperate for the love of a parent—and finding out once again that parent had betrayed her.
    “It’s just that I know better than to ever give him the benefit of the doubt, and yet, there’s this part of me, so childish, that keeps hoping we meant something to him.
    He raised us. We did everything he wanted, no matter how frightened we were or how difficult or painful it was.” She shook her head and then kissed the baby. “I can’t let that happen to him.”
    “We won’t, sweetheart. And we’l find a way to disable the tracking device in the tattoo. Javier or Jaimie wil know what to do. They are practical y hardwired into their electronics.”
    “Won’t I lead them right to your unit?”
    “He won’t come after us with Mack and the others helping to protect you. And if he did send someone, they’l run into a wal .” He spoke with absolute confidence, believing it the truth. His unit would fight to the death to keep Rose and the baby from Whitney. He glanced out the windows at the gathering darkness. “It’s almost time for me to go check on our two friends.”
    Rose sat outside in the evening for an hour, giving the il usion of being heavy with child, just meditating in the night and seemingly oblivious to the two men watching her. Kane figured the act would buy them a little time. He went out before her each night hunting the two, getting close enough to listen to their conversations, gathering intel he hoped would let them know when Whitney planned to make his move. In truth, al they were doing was buying time for their son.
    “Let me put the baby down,” she said and immediately stood up.
    He hadn’t stepped back to give her room, and her body brushed against his. Her scent immediately enveloped him. She smel ed like warmth and sunlight. Like silk and satin. He couldn’t stop himself, although he knew better. His arms swept around her, and he just stood, holding the two of them, drawing a strange sort of peace from their very existence. Rose didn’t step away from him or stiffen as he expected her to. She held their son and leaned into Kane, resting her head against his chest.
    He curled his fingers around the nape of her neck. “We have to actual y choose a name,” Kane murmured above her head. “We can’t keep cal ing him
    ‘baby.’ When he’s fifteen he might resent it.” His fingers began a slow massage. Night was fal ing, casting muted purple shadows along the wal . Stars were beginning to scatter across the open sky. He would be going outside as soon as it was ful y dark, and tonight he was reluctant, wanting to linger with her. “It’s been seven days. That’s long enough to figure out what you want to cal him.”
    Rose seemed to burrow closer to him, relaxing beneath his touch. “You’re the one who won’t agree on a name.”
    “My son is not having some dumb name. I think you come up with the worst things you can possibly think of just to see my reaction.”
    Rose’s soft laughter told him that he’d guessed right. He bent his head and kissed the top of al that silky black hair. “You’re impossible.” Reluctantly he al owed his hands to drop away.
    Rose didn’t move immediately. She rubbed her face against his chest before she stepped away. “It’s not like I have tons of family to give me ideas, Kane. Al my sisters have flower names—which we’re not doing to him.”
    “Sebastian comes to mind. Has to do with soldiers and courage and looking out for us,” Kane suggested awkwardly. “Sebastian is considered the patron