Ghostwalker 09 - Ruthless Game

He would have felt an adrenaline rush at the first sign of danger. Even an eagerness to go meet it, but now he had so much to lose. Rose. Sebastian. He wanted to wrap them up and keep them safe forever.
    “You’re not going to be ready for action for another couple of weeks, soldier,” Rose said.
    He had to grin at her. Damn. Nothing got by the woman. “So how bad is the threat, and how credible is it?”
    Jaimie threw Rose an apologetic look. “I didn’t want you to worry, Rose. You’ve been through so much.”
    Rose shrugged. “This is my life, Jaimie. I chose to come here. Kane and I have Sebastian, and we know they’re going to keep coming at us to get to him. I’m prepared mental y for that. You don’t have to try to protect me.”
    Jaimie nodded. “Whitney knows Rose is here.”
    Kane reached down and rubbed the tattoo on Rose’s ankle. “We knew he’d track us here. We’re hoping you and Javier can do something about his little homing device.”
    “We’ve got that covered already,” Jaimie said. “But Mack says no matter when we disrupted the satel ite transmission, he would have known you would bring her back here. He just can’t track her movements anymore.”
    “He won’t be happy about that.”
    Jaimie shrugged. “It’s Whitney. He’s strange. He gets al excited when the GhostWalkers are able to outwit him or foil his little attempts to retrieve them.
    I think he pats himself on the back, and it just reinforces how clever and bril iant he is. We are, after al , his creations.”
    Kane scowled at her. Jaimie held up her hand. “Hey. That’s a quote from one of his reports. I don’t hack into his computer often, but Flame found a way in, and she passed it on to me. We’re careful, but we monitor him. We just give him a lot of room. We’re lucky he doesn’t trust anyone, so he does al his own computer work. He’s just not as good as he thinks he is with security. He doesn’t keep up on the latest and greatest because his entire world has become DNA and psychic research.”
    “So did your warning come from his computer?”
    “He’s very anxious to get his hands on the baby. He sent his ‘representative’ to ‘acquire’ him. I kid you not. It’s right there on his computer. He was furious that Rose and the baby escaped him. He’s determined. Apparently he feels we’re far more vulnerable here. The stronghold in the Wyoming mountains has become nearly impenetrable, and he doubts if he wil be able to acquire the children kept there. Once again, he seemed pleased that the teams banding together had managed to not only keep themselves but their women and children safe from not only him, but al outside threats. Again, that’s pretty much a quote, Kane.”
    “We’re doing the same thing here.”
    “True, but we’re more exposed because we don’t have the ability at this time to clean things up as fast should there be an attack on us.”
    “But we’re getting to that point,” Kane said hastily. “We’ve managed to purchase five of the seven buildings we need to secure the entire area. Rose, if you want to take Sebastian and go to the stronghold in Wyoming, I can arrange it. The teams settling there are excel ent. This building is secure, but we haven’t set up for street surveil ance ...”
    Jaimie looked smug. “Bite your tongue, Kane. Javier and I have been working night and day. We’ve got the street covered down two ful blocks, the roof on three of the buildings as wel as this one, and the water side.”
    “I’m fine with you,” Rose said. “I’l help out here. I can work.”
    “Mack’s got weapons and ammo stashed everywhere. We could take on an army. We’ve got a helipad on the roof of this building, and it’s got al the necessary permits. That’s how we managed to transport you directly here after your surgery,” Jaimie added.
    “I knew that was in the works, but didn’t know it had come through.”
    “Where is al the money coming from?” Rose demanded.
    Jaimie glanced a little apprehensively at Kane. “Lily Whitney-Mil er. She inherited bil ions, and she shares with al the GhostWalkers.”
    Tell me. It was a demand, nothing less. Rose was natural y suspicious of such generosity.
    “She’s Dr. Whitney’s adopted daughter,” Kane explained. “He experimented on her as wel . She was raised with quite a few of the girls.”
    Jaimie leaned forward, staring into Rose’s eyes. “Do you remember her? She was with you in the beginning,