Covert Game (GhostWalkers #14)

“Gino? Could you just please not stand there,” she finally burst out, unable to keep quiet even though she knew it was the absolute worst thing to say.

He half turned, his face in the shadows so she couldn’t read his expression. “Why?”

“It’s dark out there and light in here. A sniper might be able to shoot you.” She really did sound like an idiot, but she was too afraid for him.

Gino stepped forward, and she caught his gaze dropping to her hands. She hadn’t realized she was twisting her fingers together, a habit Whitney detested. Spies didn’t do things like that.

He came to the edge of the bed and reached down to push the tangled strands of hair from her face. “The windows are shaded on the outside and fitted with bulletproof glass. It obviously isn’t one hundred percent safe, so you’re right. It isn’t smart to stand in front of them with a light to my back. Thanks for the worry.”

Relief almost made her giddy, but luckily, Nonny and Bellisia came in with dinner.

10

T

he bathwater was soothingly hot on Zara’s tortured skin, and she just let Gino immerse her body in the heat with only a towel wrapped around her. Bellisia and Nonny washed her hair and rinsed it. When the water turned red from the dried blood, they pulled out the stopper, rinsed the tub and refilled it.

“I know why you’re so obsessed with water, Bellisia.” Zara offered her friend a tentative smile. She still wore the soaking wet towel, but it didn’t matter, it was coming off the moment Gino left the room. He wanted to make certain her bruised and aching buttocks could take sitting on the hard surface.

“Gino,” Nonny said, pouring authority into her voice. “Give us some privacy so we can get to work on this girl.”

Zara wanted to throw her arms around Nonny and hug her. For once, she didn’t want Gino close. She was desperate to talk to Bellisia. She would have to let Nonny do her swamp healing, and then she could talk freely.

“You okay with me leaving, princess?” Gino crouched down beside the tub. “Because if you’re not, I’ll risk the wrath of the women to stay with you.”

“It’s indecent,” Nonny said.

Something in her voice made Zara look up at her. Wyatt’s grandmother didn’t look shocked or at all uncomfortable with Gino in the bathroom while Zara was taking a bath. Her statement wasn’t her opinion, merely a ploy to allow her to get Gino out of the room. She seemed to know Bellisia wanted some time alone with Zara.

“Sorry, ma’am. You know I have the highest respect for you, but if Zara needs me, I’m not leaving.”

That made her feel good. Zara couldn’t help it. Something about Gino had her heart stuttering and butterflies winging their way through her stomach. There might have been more of a reaction other places, but she was ignoring that. She was naked in a bathtub, a towel wrapped around her for modesty, but it didn’t matter because he made her feel as if his entire focus was on her. He would stay, risking everyone’s wrath if she wanted him.

“I’ll have Bellisia or Nonny call you when I need to get out,” she assured. “Thank you, Gino. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. And just so you know, I do trust you. One hundred percent.” That wasn’t about her heart, but her safety. She did trust him. How could she not? But Bellisia was her sister. It had always been Bellisia, Shylah and Zara. She had to talk her dilemma out with her first.

Gino leaned down and brushed a kiss across the top of her head. “Thank you, Zara, that means a lot to me.” He nodded toward Bellisia and Nonny. “Ladies.” He sauntered out.

Zara watched him go, appreciating the way his muscles rippled beneath the tight tee. When she turned her head, Bellisia was frowning at her. Nonny was all business, not giving her time to figure out why Bellisia had that particular look on her face. The older woman pinned Zara’s clean, wet hair up on top of her head and then poured a dark-colored liquid into the bath water.

“You’ll need to soak in that for a half an hour. Then you can rinse off and get out. I’ll make a paste for your feet and we’ll wrap them before you go to bed.”

Zara tried to wiggle her toes but stop when pain shot through her. She was uncertain she wanted paste and wraps on her feet while she slept, but she was willing to try anything in order to heal them. She wanted desperately to walk on her own so Gino wouldn’t think he had to carry her everywhere.

She’d never thought much about trying to attract a man. Whitney had made it clear before he sent her off to school that if she wasted her time looking at men, he’d pull her back to the compound fast. Leaving the compound made Bellisia and Shylah so proud of her, and she could contribute to the other women’s comfort with contraband and stories. It made her feel like a giving member of their group.

Nonny left the room after lighting an odd-smelling candle, leaving her with Bellisia. The two stared at each other and then both burst into tears, then laughter.

“Did you see Shylah before you left?” Bellisia asked.

Zara shook her head. “Whitney was very closemouthed about Shylah and what he had her doing, but I had a terrible feeling it had something to do with Cheng. He’s obsessed with the idea that Cheng was going to sell the GhostWalker program to other governments.”

Bellisia studied her face. “But you don’t think that.”

Zara drew her knees up and rested her chin on top of them. “No. I think Cheng wants his own army. We read about him in the files they compiled for us, but he’s far more than what’s in those reports. He’s far more ambitious. He reminds me a little of Whitney in that he believes he’s the smartest man in the room and that he can control lives. He wants that kind of power, just like Whitney does. Turning the GhostWalker program over to other governments doesn’t leave Cheng with the firepower he craves. He would want to keep it for himself, develop his own soldiers and send them out if others didn’t comply with whatever he wanted. He wants the world to fear him.”

“Cheng? Or Zhu?” Bellisia asked.

“Both. They share the same vision.” She chewed at her lip for a moment. “Cheng wants that recognition, but Zhu doesn’t care about being recognized. He prefers to remain in the shadows. I think he would have wanted the enhancements for himself.” A delicate shudder passed through Zara’s body. She was afraid to close her eyes and sleep. She knew Zhu would be there looking at her. Reminding her he was coming for her—and he would, she had no doubt of that. “He’s incredibly evil.”

“You’re safe here,” Bellisia said, as if reading her thoughts.

She shook her head. “I’m not, and as long as I’m here, no one else is safe either.”

“Whitney will give up. He let me stay. At first, he made a try for me, but then he just let the team keep me. I think if I left the safety of them, he might come after me, but …”

“He isn’t going to stop, Bellisia, neither of them will,” Zara said. “Whitney will keep coming for me. If I’m dead, he’ll come after my body.”

Bellisia sank back on her heels. “You have something he wants.”

Zara nodded. “He told me to steal all of Cheng’s data. His files. He has secrets on terrorist cells, locations, movements, all that sort of thing. More, he’s got dirt on governments, on agents, on presidents and their families. It’s his business to know things. All of that was in his files, on his computers.”

“And you have it.”

“Yes. Whitney knows I have it. I destroyed Cheng’s network, deleted everything so it would be impossible to recover it. I wouldn’t have done that without first acquiring what was in the computers, and Whitney knows that. He had the GhostWalker file Violet gave him.”