“We didn’t want to put you in the position of having to lie to Major General Tennessee Milton,” Gino explained.
“Thank you for telling me, Zara. It can’t be easy to trust any of us,” Joe said gently.
“Gino trusts you,” she said.
Her fingers curled into Gino’s and he sank down onto the bed, knowing she needed reassurance. He was beginning to read her. She was nervous. She knew, just as well as Gino did, that Joe was in a bad position. The GhostWalkers might be handled differently than other military teams, but they had to answer to their commanding officer.
“So, Gino, what exactly have you geniuses decided to do about this?”
“Don’t lump me in with them,” Gino protested, tugging until Zara leaned into him. He brought her knuckles to his mouth and kissed them. “Trap, Wyatt and Zeke get that label, not me. I do the grunt work.”
“Bullshit. In any case, what have you decided is the best course of action, because we can’t have them coming at us like this.”
“No, but you could call Major General and let him know Whitney isn’t keeping his side of the bargain. We were told if we rescued her, we got to keep her.”
Zara tried to pull her hand away. Gino kept possession of it, holding it tighter, pressing her fist against his chest.
“That makes me sound like some kind of prisoner to be passed back and forth depending on who is in charge,” she protested.
“You are a prisoner,” Gino said. “Mine. And as far you’re concerned, I’m in charge.”
She rolled her eyes and flashed a faint smile at him. “You’re impossible.”
“True.” He was unrepentant. He’d been upfront with her about his personality, his character. She knew him and she knew he wasn’t joking.
“Let’s get back to the problem, because it isn’t going to go away, Gino,” Joe said. “If they keep coming at us, someone is going to get killed. None of us want that.”
“He’s right,” Zara said. “Maybe I should go, Gino. Whitney won’t have a reason to attack any of you if I’m gone.”
“That’s not a possibility,” Gino said. “You know that, so don’t even consider it. You try to leave, baby, and I won’t like it.”
“Have they come up with any ideas?” Joe persisted. “Can you just pass the information to us and let us decide what to do with it?”
“The files are in my head. I don’t know what’s in them, and I can’t get them out. Only Whitney could do that,” Zara explained.
“In her head?” Joe looked to Gino for an explanation.
Gino told him everything, and they looked at one another for a long time. Zara sat very still as if she was half expecting Joe to change his mind and kick her out.
“Solutions?” Joe prompted.
“We’re working on it,” Gino said.
“Then work faster. In the meantime …”
“In the meantime, I’m going hunting. Whitney has attacked us twice. He’s got another team somewhere close, probably the main one, waiting to attack. Most likely he thinks the first two softened us up, made us think he was finished. I’m pissed now, Joe. I need to take it to them.”
Joe nodded. “I was afraid you were going to say that. When are you heading out?”
“As soon as I know Zara’s covered. I’m talking to Bellisia and Cayenne. They’ll make sure nothing happens here while I’m gone.”
“Meaning you think they’ll stop me if I try to leave,” Zara said. “I don’t want you to go off looking for supersoldiers. I know you think they’re easy to kill, but they aren’t.”
“They are if you know how to kill them, Zara. I do. We all do. We work together to get it done. Whitney is going to run out of men.”
“I don’t want you to go,” she whispered. “I hate that everyone is in danger because of me.”
“Actually,” Joe contradicted, “they’re in danger because Whitney keeps coming at us. I’m going to talk to the three resident geniuses and tell them to step it up. You get your team together Gino, and I’ll call Major General and tell him his good friend Whitney needs to back off.”
Gino watched him go and then he turned to Zara. “Baby, don’t keep thinking in terms of leaving. I’ve got a house to build and you’ve got a home to make for us. We’ll get rid of the threat to you. It might take a little time, but we’ll do it. We’re building something here. Something important.”
He hadn’t thought he’d have a wife. Children. Now he needed that fortress the GhostWalkers were building around their women and children. He had something to protect other than Joe.
“I don’t like you putting yourself in danger.”
“Worry about the ones I’m going after, Zara, not about me. When I’m out there, I belong. I’m part of that swamp. I’ll come back to you. I’ll always come back to you.” He meant it. Now, he actually had a reason to survive.
16
G
ino moved through the swamp with ease. The night hid him, just as it did the other GhostWalkers, those moving in a loose line, spread out so they left no tracks and no evidence of their passing. There was no sound to give them away. They owned the night. When they moved in it, the darkness hid them, just as the swamp allowed them to become part of it.
He was known to his fellow GhostWalkers as the “Phantom Wind.” He’d gotten the name after a few battles when he moved through the darkness destroying the enemy and no one ever heard or saw anything but the wind. He had an idea of where Whitney might have managed to hide his soldiers. There were only a few places he could have gotten them in without the locals gossiping about them.
Up ahead. The camp belongs to the Comeaux family, Wyatt said, his voice soft in Gino’s head. We’ve had a running feud with them ever since I can remember. If there is one family that would be willing to take Whitney’s money and not get word to us, or anyone else that his soldiers are around, it would be the Comeaux family.
Gino was certain Wyatt was right. This would have been his choice, not because he was familiar with the family, but this was an entire section of the swamp where no one dared to go. Any other place, the locals would gossip, and Nonny would know about it. The Comeaux family was notorious for being unfriendly. They liked to shoot first and ask questions later. There were no trespassing signs up all along the waterway on both sides of the river and canal systems. He knew very little about the family, other than the men were big and mean, abused women and liked to fight.
The family bought up this land a hundred years ago, and the river has changed course since then, so that now, if you want to get near their property, you have to go off the main channel onto the much shallower stream. Boats can hang up there, making anyone caught in the shallows fair game. If you’re caught, you’re lucky to get off with a severe beating, robbed of course, and your boat confiscated, Wyatt added.
Do you really think they’d betray everyone in the swamp just to get at you, Wyatt? Mordichai asked. He was always cool under fire, with steady hands, scars and hair that was always that little bit too long and shaggy.
They’d betray their own father for money, Wyatt responded.
So yeah, without a doubt, Gino was certain they were on the right track. They were walking in. Even quieting the sound of their boats, something would have given them away. They could control frog and insect sound, dogs barking an alert, and they could muffle the sounds of a boat moving through the water, but that didn’t mean they could foresee everything that might happen and it was always that, the one thing not accounted for that got soldiers killed.