"Kane." She looked up at him, her eyes going wide. "Why didn't they know you were close by?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Whitney's men. They didn't know you were here," Rose said.
"That was the point."
She shook her head. "I always know when GhostWalkers are close. I'll bet you do as well. They walked right by you, and they didn't have a clue."
"You're a GhostWalker. They probably thought they were feeling you."
She shook her head. "Not after I went into the house. You were only a few feet from them, Kane. They should have felt the surge of energy around you, but they didn't."
"Or they didn't notice because they weren't paying attention." But he didn't think that likely. Two men left out in the desert alone? They'd been on alert. They may have dropped their guard a little when Rose went into the house, feeling as though she was trapped there and they had the upper hand. But she was right--Whitney's two men should have felt the buildup of energy emanating around them.
"These men," Rose said, nuzzling his hand with her cheek, "they flunked the psychological evaluation but not the psychic testing, right?"
Kane was certain she didn't realize she was rubbing her cheek against him much like a cat. He laid his hand against her face, loving the feel of intimate contact with her. "Not only did they bomb on the psych eval, but their psychic abilities were extremely low."
Her eyebrow shot up. "How did you know that?"
He grinned at her. "We have this really savvy techie who can hack just about anything. She hooked up with another woman who escaped Whitney, and between the two of them, they manage to snoop into almost anything Whitney has documented."
Her hands covered his over the baby. "Who? What are their names?"
She looked so eager for news, he was sorry he knew he would be disappointing her. "Jaimie is married to Mack, the leader of our unit. I should have shot them both for eloping like that too. She's been with us since she was a little kid. We all grew up together on the streets of Chicago. Jaimie's psychic, and she was enhanced by Whitney, but he never was around her when she was a child."
"And the other woman?"
He could tell she was holding her breath. "Whitney bought her from an orphanage somewhere in Europe. They call her Flame. She's married to a Cajun GhostWalker we all call Gator. Flame wasn't raised in the compound with you, sweetheart. She escaped from a different facility."
Tears filled Rose's eyes and she blinked them away, turning her head, allowing the silky cap of hair to fall around her face. "How many women did he do this to?" Her voice was very low, and it trembled.
He sank down onto the bed beside her and pulled her into his arms. It was awkward trying to hug her, so he simply lifted her onto his lap. Modesty be damned. If she gave him a hard-on all the time and he had to walk around with the damned thing, she could just deal with it.
Holding her against his chest, he rocked her gently. "Jaimie and Flame have been monitoring Whitney's computer as often as they dare. There's been no mention that any of the women who escaped with you have been recaptured. I think he concentrated mainly on you because he suspected you were pregnant. Mari found her sister, Briony. They're both married to GhostWalkers, who just happen to be twin brothers as well. I believe Mari's sister just had twins."
He nuzzled the top of her head with his chin. "When we're out of this, I'll take you to see her. They're very well protected where they are."
"But they still have to live in a virtual prison to stay that way, don't they?" Rose said. She burrowed closer to him, as if trying to hide from the truth of their lives.
"He made certain it would never be easy to live on the outside for any of you," Kane replied, choosing his words carefully. What she'd said was the truth. The women--and any children they had--would always have to look over their shoulders. There was no entirely safe place, but there was safety in numbers and preparation. "We're banding together, Rose, the four teams, finding places we can protect so our women and children can lead as normal a life as possible."
"We don't even know what normal is," she pointed out, closing her eyes as another wave rolled over her body, tightening her belly and pressing down hard on the baby. She took long, slow breaths like the books told her, trying to get on top of the contraction.
Kane tried not to swear. He held her, automatically breathing with her. He felt the way her belly was gripped with a tight band. There was no ordering her to stop. No logic was going to dictate when the baby was coming. He tried to push down his own mounting fear. There was no doctor and no way to get her to a doctor. He'd thrown their link to his team down into the ravine. He couldn't leave her to go try to find it, which would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. But they would come. His team would come for them. He had absolute faith in them.
When the contraction had let up, he set her on her feet. "Let's get you back in bed."
"Would you get me a glass of water?"
He didn't know if she was getting rid of him so she could cry while she undressed, or if she really wanted the water, but he obediently went into the kitchen to get her a drink. He leaned for a moment against the sink, head down, breathing deeply, trying to steel himself for the possibility of delivering a baby. He'd never really considered that he might have no choice.
Not one for inactivity, he went through to the pantry, grateful she had stored books on actual delivery. He thumbed through a book to see what to do with a baby once it was born. The more he read, the more alarmed he became. He had no business trying to deliver his own baby. His blood roared in his ears, his heart hammered hard. If he could have, he would have just hyperventilated and gotten it over with, but his body refused to panic. His lungs kept breathing and his head kept assessing the information, even when his mind screamed at him that he was insane to try something like delivering a baby.
"Kane, where are you?"
It was a good thing he wasn't panicking, because she sounded like she was. "I'll be right there," he called.
"Well, you might want to hurry. My water just broke."
CHAPTER 6
Kane took a deep breath and went into the room. Rose was dressed in a long
shirt she'd found in the closet and was trying to clean up the floor. He could hear her softly weeping, and it nearly broke his heart. "Rose. Come here, sweetheart. This isn't the end of the world. The baby's going to be fine." He injected as much firm belief as possible into his tone as he reached down to lift her to her feet.
Rose leaned into him, trembling, her arms sliding around his waist. "I'm so scared, Kane."
"I know. But we're in this together, and we make a great team. You were smart and provided all the right books for us. You've read them and I've skimmed them. Shouldn't you be in bed?"
Still clinging to him, she lifted her head and met his eyes, a small, wan smile on her face. "According to the books, once my water breaks, I have to deliver, and it should speed up the procedure. Staying on my feet as long as possible should help cut down the time. I don't want to be doing this one moment longer than I have to."
"I'll get the floor and then while you're resting in between--um--you know--I'll make something to keep the baby warm once he's born."
Rose didn't let go of his solid strength. There was something about Kane, something steady and absolute and calming. He wouldn't desert her. Her mouth was dry, her heart pounding, and she'd never been so scared in her life, but she wasn't alone.
At first, she had to admit, she had idiot girl feelings, not wanting to look like an elephant in front of him and certainly not wanting him to see her in such a vulnerable messy situation. Okay, maybe she still did have a little of that vanity, but it was only a tiny impractical part of her; the rest of her was so happy he was with her she wanted to weep forever. "I don't want the baby to die, Kane," she admitted in a low voice. "Do you think I aggravated the situation by climbing on the chair?"
His fingers were soothing on the nape of her neck. It seemed every time he touched her, he brought her calm. She could fall in love with him for that alone.
"Of course not. I think you've been having the real thing all along, and we're just getting to the good part. We'll do this, Rose. You have to believe that."
She looked up at him. Looked into his eyes, searching for--yes--there it was. This man would stand with her no matter how bad it got. She let out her breath, relaxing just a little. "I believe in you, Kane."