“Did you know those three children are my children?” He watched her face carefully. If she had known, she was a damned good actress. Her face was a total mask of shock. “This mornin’, right on that bed, you casually said Ginger looked more like me than you.”
“Yes, but that’s because you asked if she was mine. You said she looked like me and I just pointed out that she looked like both of us…” She trailed off, inhaling deeply. Her face went pale, more than pale; stark white.
Pepper felt her heart go crazy. Hammering. Hard. Her lungs burned, refused to draw in air properly. He stood over her, intimidating when men didn’t intimidate her. Tempting when men didn’t tempt her. Beautiful when men shouldn’t be beautiful, and he was telling her the three little girls she loved so dearly could very well be their children. His. Hers. Theirs. A tidal wave rolled over her stomach and she shook her head.
“I don’t understand. Why would they create children in a laboratory and then have me watch them if I’m their biological mother? Why not just tell me? I love them as if they’re mine, but when you said Ginger looked like me, I have to admit, I had a few suspicions over the last year, but then I just…” She broke off, reaching for the needle in her arm. “I have to get up.”
She had to do something. Anything. Not lie here like a lump while the world around her shifted yet again. She was tired of being exhausted and afraid. She needed to find some kind of balance, and nothing was making sense. Nothing at all. She could only blame her sluggish mind on the snake venom and her own raging hormones. Wyatt Fontenot was messing with her mind. He had to be.
He moved fast, pinning her hand, preventing her from removing the needle. At the touch of his hand on her bare skin, little tongues of fire flickered over her. The breath hissed out of her and her gaze jumped to his face.
“Don’ be touchin’ that, honey.”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” she snapped, and felt childish for lashing out at him when it was only because she was beginning to panic.
“Get used to it. I’m like that. Bossy. I like things my way. Right now, the number one priority is to get those children out of that prison. To do that, I need you to be one hundred percent healthy. I know they’re mine. I believe you’re their biological mother, but I know they’re mine and I’m not leavin’ them there. You’re goin’ with me to get them.”
She stared into his eyes, her heart beating fast. Even being a dominating jerk he was horribly handsome. She really detested that she was so drawn to him. If she wasn’t, she could be in complete control of him in two seconds flat, but she didn’t dare go that route with him. She would lose. She knew she could seduce him, that wouldn’t be a problem, but she would lose. “You think I’m setting you up for them, don’t you?”
“It crossed my mind. If you are, know this: I have three brothers and some powerful friends. They’ll hunt you down, and eventually they’ll find you and they’ll kill you if you’re a part of this and something happens to me. It won’ matter how fast you are, or how lethal you can be. They’ll get the job done.”
“A part of what?” Pepper struggled not to cry, forcing back the burning tears. She didn’t so much as whimper. Her lips didn’t even tremble. She struggled to understand what he was conveying to her. She was intelligent. She was quick. But she just wasn’t getting this. “Are you saying those three babies who have been through hell already are being used for some purpose? That they were given termination orders to draw you into this?”
She searched his face, trying to get past the masculine perfection and her attraction to him to see if he really believed what he said.
“Whitney knows our family. He knows we know just about everythin’ happenin’ in the bayou. The moment those men touched Grand-mere, he knew one of us would be comin’ to read those men from the good book. Almost three weeks ago, I was in a firefight and was shot. We were ambushed, called to a location on a rescue mission that wasn’t that at all. It was a setup. They attacked us, and our chopper went down. We had to fight our way out of there.”
“Where were you?” The thought of him in a firefight, his helicopter going down left her weak. Shocked. Frightened.
“That doesn’t matter. The point of this is, I was wounded and had leave comin’. Nonny suddenly contacted me and told me what happened to her.”
“So you think because you were wounded and Nonny happened to call you home that this is some scheme, an elaborate setup. Do you have any idea what it would take to orchestrate something this complicated? To make all the pieces come together?” Pepper said. “Now you’re just being paranoid.”
It would take a brilliant man who loved games. Games like chess where people are being used as pawns.