She shook her head. "I can keep pulling out more."
"We're done. You're going to get a brain bleed and then we'll be in trouble. I've got a lot to go on. I think with what you've given me, I might be able to find Frog. Ex-military, or still in it, a security company with his teammates, and an affinity for water."
She leaned her head into her hand again, rubbing. "Don't go in the water with him, Kadan. I can feel that's what you're thinking of doing, making him lead you to his underground colony, but he's at home in the water."
He took her swollen hand and brought it to his mouth. "Don't you worry about me, honey. I know how to take care of myself."
CHAPTER 16
"What's wrong?" Tansy asked as Ryland, Gator, and Nico entered the house.
The sun had gone down, leaving shadows over the windows. She'd had to sleep on and off throughout the day, waiting for her headache to let up. Without the glare of light, her eyes felt better and she was beginning to feel alive again.
The three men collectively winced at her question and then exchanged a long look with one another.
For men who were normally inscrutable, Kadan found it surprisingly easy to recognize trouble the moment he saw the faces of the three GhostWalkers. They looked grim, angry, and very upset that Tansy was in the room with him. There was nothing wrong with Tansy's radar. She picked up the signal almost at the same moment he did.
Kadan. She won't like hearing what we have to say. Her father's involved, Ryland warned. She's in immediate danger.
Kadan felt the blow to his gut, but stayed outwardly impassive. Immediate danger. How?
"Don't!" Tansy said sharply. "If you think you can cut me out of this now, Kadan, I swear I'll walk out of this house. I deserve better than that."
"I thought you were shielding," Ryland said a little sheepishly. "Sorry, Tansy."
"I am shielding. She's very sensitive to vibrations." Kadan reached out and shackled Tansy's wrist, pulling her beneath his shoulder so he could circle her waist with one arm. Don't threaten me like that. You try to walk out and see what happens. He didn't give a damn if all three GhostWalkers knew he was talking telepathically. Her threat had shaken him more than he wanted to admit. In place of ice, there was suddenly a cauldron of fire roaring in his belly.
"We wanted to protect you, chere," Gator added in his thick Cajun drawl.
Tansy shoved at the wall of Kadan's chest, not even rocking him. That took her temper up another notch. "I'm putting myself on the line too. If you have something to say, just tell me. I don't break so easily, and I don't need to be wrapped up in cotton like a doll."
"Settle down, Tansy," Kadan said without looking at her. He couldn't look at her. She thought she was going to walk out of the house? What the hell did that mean? His grip on her waist tightened. "You need coffee, Ryland?"
"I'm not sure we have time for coffee. How well guarded is this place? You have an escape route?"
"Of course. We can defend fairly easily, that's why I chose it. We have a way to the roof and another below-ground if need be. If the bastards want to come for us, they'll get more than they bargained for."
Gator and Nico were already moving to the windows, checking alarms and drawing the drapes. Gator flicked off the lights and went to the next room to do the same there.
"Who's after us?" Kadan asked.
"Our friend in Washington."
"The same one who sent the first team after Tansy?"
Ryland nodded. "They know where she is."
Kadan felt the breath slam out of Tansy's body, but she stayed still, waiting for Ryland's explanation. "Here? They know she's here? How?" He drew her closer, his arm going to an iron band of protection.
"I spent some time with the reporter who broke the story on the murders and how they might be connected." Ryland didn't go into how he'd spent the time with the reporter, but Kadan knew his friend and his patience when it came to getting information. "He was also the one who wrote about Tansy's whereabouts in the Sierras. It seems he was tipped off by a friend of his, a secretary to Senator Freeman's wife, Violet."
"Violet Freeman. She just keeps turning up. You'd think she'd have enough to do with her husband on life support." Kadan shook his head. "We should have capped her when we had the chance."
"Are you talking about Violet Smythe-Freeman? What does she have to do with this? She and the senator are good friends with my parents. I've been to their home any number of times," Tansy said. "Her husband was a presidential candidate and someone shot him in the head, leaving him on life support. It's a terrible tragedy."
"Yeah, a real tragedy," Kadan said. "We all held a candlelight vigil for him."
Tansy frowned. "He was a friend."
"He was a slimebag. He sold out his country, Tansy. He sent a team of GhostWalkers to the Congo, where a particularly vicious rebel leader was waiting to ambush them. The torture a couple of them endured was immeasurable. He then toured Whitney's breeding facility with Violet--yes, she not only knows about Whitney, she's one of his enhanced girls, and she allows his work to continue so that she and her husband can get into the White House. He was shot at Whitney's compound, not as the newspapers reported."
Tansy sank onto the couch. "Are you certain? They've been at my house. Violet and my mother go shopping together. They play cards. They . . ." She trailed off and looked up at Ryland. "What else? Just tell me."
Kadan stood behind the couch, dropping his hands to her shoulders, fingers easing the tension from her. He ached for her. Her world was turning upside down.
"Whitney put a tracking device in all the girls. He surgically implants it in their hips."
Tansy gasped and looked up and back at Kadan, her eyes locking with his.
It's okay, baby. We'll deal with it. He wanted to hold her, rock her, take her somewhere else where all the ugliness was out of her life. Unfortunately, this was their lives and always would be. He had no choice. He was enhanced and so was Tansy. He couldn't change that.
"Your father apparently found out about the tracking device when you were about fifteen or sixteen and had it removed. He told Violet about it. According to the secretary--"
"You talked to the secretary?" Tansy asked.
Ryland shrugged. "We had a little meeting. It seems she enjoys knowing secrets, so she often listens in to Violet's conversations with her guests. She claims Violet initiated the topic of tracking children with your father."
"She's taking a huge risk, spying on Violet," Kadan said. "Violet would have no hesitation killing her."
Ryland nodded. "I did suggest that Ms. Harris get a different job immediately and destroy any tapes she ma
y have. Whether she listens or not is up to her. Meadows knows Violet was one of Whitney's experiments. My guess is she confided in him to gain his trust."
"And then when Whitney lost his tracking device, he sent Violet to find out why," Kadan guessed. "That would be like him. She's playing both sides."
Ryland nodded, avoiding looking at Tansy. "And Meadows planted one of his own when he had Whitney's removed."
"In me?" Tansy leapt off the couch and paced across the room, whirling around to face Ryland, her fingers closed into two tight fists. "My father planted a tracking device in me? They can actually use GPS to find me?"
Ryland nodded. "I'm sorry, but yes, that's what he told Violet. They apparently had a long conversation about how all parents should put them in at birth, and she was interested because the senator might want to bring this up and back the idea. Kidnapped children could be found easily. The conversation was all about what tracking devices could be used for, the good they could do. It also got a little technical on how they work. Violet knew how to find you." Ryland looked at Kadan. "I spent some time with Ms. Harris, and as it turns out, Violet wanted the information about the murders and Tansy given to the reporter. Violet had her secretary leak the information."
Tansy's hand was still over her mouth, her eyes wide. "And the secretary just gave you all this because of the generous good heart that she has?"
"I persuaded her that if she wanted to live a few minutes longer, she'd better tell me the truth," Ryland said without flinching away from her steady gaze.
Tansy glanced at Kadan's impassive face. "You all play for keeps, don't you?"
"Yes, ma'am," Ryland answered. "We've dealt with these people for a long time. Our friends end up dead or tortured. Sometimes both. Violet traded your location, and basically your life, for something big that she wants. What it is I don't know, but the reporter heard a rumor that Senator Freeman was going to undergo some kind of new, experimental brain operation. If that's true, I'm guessing your life is the price someone was asking in order for the senator to be a candidate for the surgery."
"So they're going to come here and kill me." She swallowed hard. "And all of you."
"I would think that was the plan," Ryland agreed. "But we have a few plans of our own."
"Great." Tansy swept a hand through her hair and looked at Kadan. "Can we get rid of the tracking device?"