Covert Game (GhostWalkers #14)

“If that’s what it takes to stop the bullshit, I’m all for kidnapping. What in the hell was she saying that was upsetting you?”

She needed to get weight off her buttocks. She turned onto her side gingerly, still not taking her eyes from his face. “We were always so close. It was Shylah, Bellisia and me. We trusted one another implicitly, which believe me, where we were raised, that was huge to have. I guess I thought it would be the same here. I didn’t consider that it would be natural for her to include her husband.”

He didn’t blink. Those dark, intense eyes never left hers. “You mean you told her something in confidence and she indicated she would tell Zeke?”

Her heart did a strange stuttering that told her she was either afraid of him or very attracted—maybe both. His voice was strictly neutral, but she had the feeling he wasn’t happy.

“I’m just not as sure of her as I was.”

“Did you talk to her about Zhu?”

“A little.” She propped her head up on her hand. “Not about the things he did to me. She didn’t ask, and I didn’t want to talk about him. She wanted to know if I really thought Cheng and Zhu were brothers, and I do.”

“You need to talk about what he did, Zara.”

Now his voice was gentle and that got to her. She shook her head. “I want him to go away. Out of my mind. Just for a little while.”

“You going to tell me what you’re hiding from me?”

“I’m thinking about it. I’m afraid to. I don’t know the right thing to do.”

He sank down onto the mattress beside her. “You’re going to have to sit up for a few more minutes. I need to tame your hair. It’s going wild on us.”

She rolled over and sat up without thinking why it was so easy to do whatever he asked. Bellisia was so wrong about him. She couldn’t understand why Bellisia saw one thing and she saw something completely different in him.

He unpinned her hair, shifted around behind her and took the brush from the nightstand where he’d obviously put it waiting for her to get out of the bathtub. Bellisia didn’t see him—how thoughtful he was anticipating her needs. Zara scooted between his thighs, uncaring that she was only wearing a towel and her back was bare. His fingers skimmed over the stripes of bruises down her back.

“You’re healing fast,” he told her. “Nonny assures me that her concoction is going to facilitate healing even faster.”

“I hope so. I hate that you have to take care of me all the time, Gino. I’ll bet you weren’t aware of what you’d signed up for.”

“I knew exactly what I signed up for, Zara,” he contradicted. “Maybe I didn’t know the exact extent of what Zhu did, but I knew you were mine.”

The brush never stopped moving through her hair, and over her scalp. If he encountered a tangle, he patiently used a comb to smooth the knot before once again using the brush. She’d never had that kind of care before and it was almost too much. Almost. She kept quiet so he wouldn’t stop.

“Whatever it is you’re worried about, princess, I’m on your side. If you need me to take that off you, give it to me and let me figure it out.”

It was an offer, not an order. Gino might have been hurt earlier thinking she didn’t trust him, but once she’d said she did, he’d gotten over it fast. She wanted to let him decide what to do with the information she had. She couldn’t protect the world from Whitney. If he ended up with the information after what she was doing to try to keep it from him, that wouldn’t be on her.

“It would be so easy to hand the responsibility off to you, but I’m not certain it’s right. I haven’t lived outside the compound ever. I was allowed out to go to school, but I always knew I was watched. There was no real freedom. I didn’t make decisions for myself and certainly not moral ones. I followed Whitney’s dictates. If he said I had to steal information, I did it.”

She tried to tell him without stating it. She was a thief. She stole data and took it back to Whitney so he could leap out in front of everyone and be the best at everything.

“Zara, I asked for the responsibility. There’s a difference. You’re not handing me something I didn’t want. I’m just saying, if you don’t know who you can trust, take a look at the man standing with you. I promised you I wasn’t going anywhere and I haven’t. I’m with you for as long as you want me.”

He braided her hair and secured it with a small tie and then pulled her back until she was resting against his chest. His arms slid around her and held her to him. She rested her head on him, feeling secure. That was something no one else had ever given her.

“If I tell you something important, do you have to share it with the other GhostWalkers? Or take it up the chain of command?”

He nuzzled the top of her head. “I’m supposed to, but I don’t always do everything I’m supposed to do.”

“Could you give me your word of honor you just wouldn’t tell everyone without my permission?”

“I’d like to tell you yes, but honestly, princess? I tend to make up my own mind. I would tell you first what I’m going to do. I’d talk it over with you. I wouldn’t do anything until you understood I had your best interests in mind, but I can’t promise to get your permission.”

She sighed and rubbed her chin on her drawn-up knees. “That doesn’t help.”

“Would it help if I swore to you that I’d only do something if it was in your best interests? Any decision I make is to make your life easier. I can definitely promise you that. It won’t be to further my career or blindly follow the chain of command. I’m not that man, and just so you know, neither is Zeke.”

Zara looked over her shoulder at him. “I don’t know what to do.”

“What does your gut say? You have good instincts.”

She was terrified that Bellisia would tell Ezekiel before she told Gino. Gino was her choice. In her heart, she knew she’d already made up her mind about him. She might lie to herself and say she didn’t want a man, but she wanted him. For herself. She never felt alone when she was with him and she hated letting him down.

“It’s in my head.” She blurted it out. Her secret. “Whitney planted a carbon nanotube SSD in my brain. The storage unit is made of PEEK-carbon so it can’t be seen with X-ray, MRI or CT scans.”

“You downloaded all of Cheng’s files into that storage unit?”

She glanced at him over her shoulder. Her eyes met his. He gave nothing away, his face a mask of indifference. She nodded.

“You’d need a battery. Power.”

She turned back so she could rest her head again, thankful he wasn’t jumping around the room at the disclosure, excited to know what she had in her head. “Movements of the body power it. Like some pacemakers.”

“What about a generator? You’d need something to send the power to the storage unit.”

She nodded. “From what I understand, it’s made of the PEEK-carbon as well and sits on a flat piece of PEEK-carbon right next to the storage unit so it’s undetectable as well.”

“Of course. Whitney is a master at coming up with technology that he needs.”

“He is,” she agreed. “Because he piggybacks on others’ technology. That’s why he always sent me out to those businesses involving research. He wanted what they had. Cheng collects information on people, really nasty information that allows him to blackmail them. If Whitney gets that material, he would use it for his own gain. If I could get it out of my head, I’d like to just destroy it all, but there’s also information on various terrorist cells, things that could save lives. If I give it to the government, all of the data would most likely will fall back into Whitney’s hands anyway and I haven’t saved anyone.”

“You can upload it, can you download it yourself?”

“I should be able to, I can always talk to machines, but he’s done something to block me once the information is in the unit. That prevents me from turning it over to someone else.”

“How does he get the information out?”

“I don’t know. I’m always asleep when he takes it out.”

“Under anesthesia?”