“I’m sorry.”
“Not as sorry as I’m going to be over the years,” he said, meaning it. She might not like pain. She might not like to go out into the world, traveling everywhere. She might think of herself as a coward, but she would never hesitate to protect the people she loved—including him. That was in her nature. The truth was, he’d known it all along. He knew it the moment he saw what Zhu had done to her, especially her feet, and he’d found out she hadn’t given up any information. That knowledge had been reinforced when she’d revealed she had a lethal venom.
“What does that mean?”
Her breasts were heaving with every ragged breath she drew in. He had to cover her up because he wasn’t such a dick that he’d take her in the bathroom with Joe right outside the door.
“We need clothes.” He raised his voice, because Joe was still out there. He knew it because the man had always been as stubborn as hell and he wasn’t going to go away without answers.
Gino pulled the towel around her again, just in case Joe decided to walk in. “It means, Zara, that you’re no coward and I’d better not everhear you say you are again.”
She opened her mouth to protest, thought better of it and closed it. “Over the years,” she echoed.
He sent her look. “You’re my fucking woman, Zara. What the hell do you think it means? And we’re getting married as soon as I can arrange it.”
She pressed her lips together and then swallowed. “You don’t have to sound angry.”
“I amangry. They nearly took you from me. I’m going hunting the minute I have you safe. It isn’t going to happen again.”
“Do I have a choice in this?”
“In what? Marrying me immediately? Or me going hunting?”
“Both.”
“No to both.” Abruptly he turned away from her when Joe knocked on the door. Stalking across the room, he glanced over his shoulder to make certain she was covered up and to see how she took that particular bit of news.
“Okay then. But are you really angry with me?”
A few of the knots in his gut relaxed a little. He took the clothes from Joe, shut the door and turned back to regard her. She looked beautiful sitting there on the sink, holding the towel to her. It wasn’t difficult to see his marks on the upper curves of her breasts, and he liked seeing them a hell of a lot more than he liked seeing the faint whip marks still marring her skin. Most were closed, leaving only long red marks. Nonny’s concoctions and the antibiotics had helped tremendously, along with the fact that most GhostWalkers healed injuries fast.
“Are you, Gino?”
She sounded and looked upset at the idea that he would be angry with her. He was across the room again, this time to cup her face gently in his hands. “Baby, I’m angry at anyone who puts their hands on you. Anyone who hurts you. Anything that hurts you. Not you. You might get into trouble, Zara, but I’m not going to be angry.”
He bent down so he could brush his mouth across hers. She’d been through enough and he didn’t want her to be upset. Certainly not because he wanted to go hunting. The more he was with her, the more he saw who she really was, the tighter those ties were around his heart. He didn’t even care that she’d wrapped him up like that. He hadn’t expected it. He’d been an idiot thinking he could claim her and then she would fall like a ton of brick for him, not the other way around.
“What does getting in trouble entail?”
He dragged a T-shirt over her head. “Don’t think that cute tone is going to get you off the hook, princess.”
She licked her bottom lip, her eyes on him as he pulled up a pair of jeans. It wasn’t the easiest adjusting his cock when she was looking at him, and that particular part of him refused to stand down even when he told it to.
He pulled on his tee and reached for her. “I need to see to your feet, and we can talk to Joe at the same time.”
“Joe? As in the head of your team Joe?”
“The one you’ve avoided since you’ve been here,” Gino said. He pulled open the door and jerked his chin toward his room where his medical supplies were so Joe would follow them there and not think Gino was avoiding him.
“Whitney is still after her, Gino. You want to tell me what’s going on? You, Trap, Wyatt and Zeke are all up to something. I let it go, but once it affects the team and the women here, you don’t get to keep your secrets.”
“It’s not my secret, Joe, or you would have been the first to know.” Gino put Zara on the bed and reached for his medical bag, pulling it to him while he sat, dragging her feet into his lap.
Joe switched his gaze to Zara’s face. She was looking at the sheets. “You’re on my home turf, Zara. I want to know exactly why Whitney wants you back so much that he’s made two tries for you. He lost a hell of a lot of men he can’t afford to lose. My guess is he’s got another wave of them coming at us soon. Spill it now.”
Zara looked up at Gino, searching his face for a sign. He wanted to tell her that Joe was his brother, and trustworthy as hell, but it had to be her decision. She’d given him her secret and then allowed him to tell Trap and Wyatt. Bellisia had told Zeke. She was very scared that if they couldn’t get the information out of her head, she would be taken forcibly from the team by someone Whitney was friends with. The worst of it was, her fear very well could turn into a reality. Gino would have no choice but to go AWOL and get her back if that happened.
“Don’t look at him, Zara,” Joe said. “Look at me. I’m the head of this GhostWalker team, not Gino.”
“I’m not under your orders,” Zara said.
That shocked the hell out of Gino. She was usually very passive. She would state her point, but then she refused to argue. She was shutting down Joe’s authority over her. Gino stroked ointment on the soles of her feet and then over the bruised muscles.
“No, you’re not, but Whitney just made a grab for you. I’ve got women and children to protect here. If you aren’t willing to tell me why he keeps coming after you, then you aren’t staying here.”
Gino very slowly put Zara’s feet back on the mattress. He stood up, feeling the familiar surge of adrenaline flooding his body. Heat coiled. “Joe. Just so you know, she leaves, I leave.”
They stood toe to toe. It was rare for Gino to ever go against Joe. Ever. Gino protected him and had since he was very young. Gino followed him into the service and then the GhostWalker program for that very reason. There was no going back from this.
“Zara,” Joe said very softly, not taking his eyes from Gino. “I never thought I’d see the day when my brother chose to put a woman before me. You must be very, very special. I’m asking, as his brother, that you tell me why Whitney won’t let you go.”
There was a small silence. Gino didn’t drop his gaze from Joe’s. He wasn’t backing down. Behind him, Zara shifted her weight and then her hand was slipping into his. So small, her fingers delicate. She had such a grip on him, not with those small fingers, but with whatever it was that was between them. Gino broke the eye contact to look down at his woman. He nodded to her, and she took a deep breath before she gave Joe everything.
“Whitney knows I stole Cheng’s information. All of it. Everything he collected over the last few years. Names of agents, weapons development by various countries, who is selling out their country, who is drug running, gun running, human trafficking, all of it. Whitney sends me in as an industrial spy. I give a lecture and collect data from whatever company he needs the information from. Cheng had the GhostWalker program. All of it had to be destroyed. I was capable of doing both, collecting the data and destroying everything he had so he couldn’t recover it. Whitney sent me in. Unfortunately, if you tell your commanding officer, they will come for me, and eventually Whitney will get me and the information anyway.”