“Turn the data over to the team and Whitney won’t care about reacquiring you,” Bellisia said.
“You aren’t thinking it through,” Zara said gently. “I’ve had plenty of time to think about what information I have and what damage it could do if it is in the wrong hands. We have allies, Bellisia. They have agents in the field just like we do. If Whitney gets his hands on this material, he could blackmail our own allies. You and I both know, when it comes to politics, everyone is willing to sell everyone else down the river, and Whitney always wants something.”
“Leave out the things you think are potentially a threat,” Bellisia said.
Zara took a breath and let it out. “You have no idea the scope of this. I can’t leave out things. I downloaded everything. Thousands of files, a lifetime of compiling dirt on governments and individuals. There’s no way I could go through the files to determine what is safe to pass on and what isn’t. Bellisia, I don’t even know if I can actually get them out of my head, which makes me a huge target for everyone the moment it gets out I have this information.”
Bellisia scooted back to the wall and drew up her own knees. When they were girls, they’d learned to sit like that and tap out code to one another. “What you’re telling me without saying it is that what you’ve got could potentially start World War Three.”
“That’s about it.”
“Can you destroy it?”
Zara shook her head. “I can’t even get it out by myself. Whitney planted what is essentially a storage unit in my brain. It’s really an integrated circuit for the sole purpose of storage. It’s made from PEEK-carbon so it’s virtually undetectable. I’m an industrial spy. Mostly, Whitney wanted to know about the experiments in medical research he was interested in. He sent me in, I downloaded files and got out. No one ever suspected. I didn’t touch their equipment so it was impossible to trace me. The companies I stole from didn’t even know their research was taken.”
“You came home and Whitney removed the information from your head.”
She shrugged. “Just that easy, but I don’t know how. Then suddenly Violet decides to sell Whitney’s prized GhostWalker program to Cheng, and Whitney can’t stand it. He sends me in, but he wants Cheng’s entire network wiped clean. When the alarms started to go off, I was the only stranger on the premises. Of course Cheng suspects me. How could he not?”
There was bitterness in her voice and she didn’t try to hide it from Bellisia. Whitney was the only father figure the girls had. He was cold and unfeeling. He made it clear to all of them that they were expendable and to Zara in particular.
“Does Cheng know you have his information?”
Zara shook her head. “Nope. He has no way of knowing that. I wasn’t anywhere near his computers.” She rubbed her chin on her knees. “I have to figure out what the GhostWalkers would do with the information before I say anything.”
“They’re soldiers, Zara. They would turn it over to their commanding officer.”
“And he would move it up along the chain of command, right? Whitney has a lot of friends higher up that chain. He’d get it.”
“Maybe,” Bellisia conceded.
“I don’t know who to trust.”
“Ezekiel,” Bellisia said immediately. “You can trust him.”
“Are you saying he wouldn’t go up the chain of command? He was running the rescue.”
Bellisia’s gaze slid away. “I don’t know what he would do, but we have to tell him. I tell him everything. That’s the way it works between us. If I know it, then so does he.”
“Are you saying he tells you the covert missions he goes on?” Zara asked. She suspected that if she and Gino were together, in an actual relationship, he still wouldn’t be able to tell her when he went off on some missions.
“Well, no, but that’s different,” Bellisia hedged.
“So is this.” Zara didn’t know if she was still very hurt by Bellisia going to Ezekiel first or whether she was jealous because it was no longer Bellisia, Shylah and Zara. She only knew she was reluctant to tell Ezekiel, especially before she told Gino.
If she really was going into a relationship with Gino, if she trusted him with her heart, then she needed to trust him with this information. Still, she’d known Bellisia and trusted her all of her life. That didn’t mean that confidence extended to Ezekiel. Gino didn’t seem as if he was a by the book kind of soldier. Ezekiel did, even for a GhostWalker.
“No, it really isn’t,” Bellisia denied. “I wouldn’t be able to look my husband in the eye if I didn’t tell him about this.”
Zara’s heart jumped. It felt like a betrayal to her. She knew Bellisia, knew her well enough to know she’d never betray her, but it still felt that way. It wasn’t the three women any longer. It was Bellisia and Ezekiel first. Maybe that was the way relationships were between men and women. Zara didn’t know enough about them, but it felt as if she’d been abandoned and was alone. She didn’t know what she’d been looking for, but having Ezekiel be part of the equation wasn’t it.
“You just said Ezekiel wouldn’t tell you about a covert mission he was running. That’s what this is, Bellisia, my covert mission.”
“It’s not the same and you know it,” Bellisia denied. “You need help, and Zeke could help you. I have to tell him.”
She took a deep breath. “I think I have to tell Gino first, before I decide on anything else, including you telling your husband.”
There was a small silence. Zara lifted her gaze to her friend’s. She was frowning. “What’s up with you and Gino?”
Zara’s heart missed a beat. She shrugged.
“No, honey, you have to tell me. Gino is a cool guy. I can see the appeal for you. I really can. He’s hot as hell. Dangerous. Very protective. He certainly can look after you and make you feel safe, but he isn’t at all the kind of man you need.”
“Why do you say that? You have Ezekiel. He’s a soldier.”
“He’s a soldier who has evolved. Gino hasn’t, and he never will. No matter how much you want him to have moved into this century, he hasn’t. He will always feel his woman’s place is at home having his babies and sitting at his feet worshipping him. He’s intelligent, but he’s archaic. You’re off the charts intelligent and have so much to give to the world. You need to travel and give lectures, lead the way in artificial intelligence the way you’ve been doing. He wouldn’t want you to do that for one minute. He’s the type who would be possessive and probably jealous. He’d keep you under his thumb, and you’ve had that all your life.”
“You make him sound like he’d make a woman his prisoner.”
“He would, Zara. I know him. I know what he expects from his wife. He would never be happy with someone like you.”
Zara ducked her head to keep Bellisia from seeing that her assessment was shattering her. “You can’t know that.”
“I do know it. Absolutely I know it. This is your chance at freedom, and Gino would take that away from you as surely as if you were back in the compound. You might be happy for a year or two, but Zara, you’re made to set the world on fire and he won’t like it. You’d eventually fight him to get free. Men like Gino don’t give up their women.”
“He’s intelligent. I hate that you think I’m so much smarter, Bellisia. You’re selling him short.” There was a hint of belligerence in her voice, but she couldn’t get it out.
“That isn’t what I’m saying at all,” Bellisia corrected. “I’m saying he doesn’t want his woman out in the world. I can go out and fight with Ezekiel, and he believes in my abilities to help defend the triplets or Nonny. Gino would tuck you somewhere safe and expect you to hide with the triplets and Nonny.”
“Maybe that’s where I want to be.”