“Why did you kidnap my woman?”
Jonquille reacted, sitting up straighter, shocked that Rubin would put the question to Sean in such an abrupt manner when he’d been almost gentle about everything else.
Sean looked like he’d been slapped. He shook his head for the first time, his gaze sliding away. “That was wrong. I’m sorry, Jonquille. I think I let desperation take over and I lost my mind. I convinced myself that because I knew we weren’t going to harm you, that it would be okay. It wasn’t. None of this was okay. That old man, my men Rubin and Diego killed, all the ground crew, even Barry. Their deaths are on me.”
“Luther is alive and well. Barry and the ground crew planned to kill you. The pilot being taken prisoner, and the ones we killed, that’s a different story,” Rubin said. He couldn’t absolve him of those deaths.
Sean shook his head. “Barry? I just can’t wrap my head around the traitor being Barry. My men were using nonlethal bullets when they shot at you and your brother, sir, although you had no way of knowing that. When they blasted you with the lightning weapon, it was to give us a chance to get away with Jonquille, and they were careful to aim in front of both of you.”
“Why did you go to such lengths to acquire Jonquille?” Rubin forced himself to repeat the question in a gentler fashion. He still went back and forth between feeling sorry for the major and wanting to rip his head off.
Sean gave Rubin a little half smile. “You asked me if Chandler had gotten Whitney’s formula for creating perfect GhostWalkers. Evidently, he did not. He must have thought he was genius enough to fill in the blanks. He brought in teams from other countries who were experts, and they eagerly performed their miracle surgeries. Some of the men died. I guess Chandler thought that was an acceptable loss. Some had obvious ‘flaws.’ Those he deemed expendable. The rest of us, he called his elite team. He’d repeat that all the time, thinking we’d believe it.”
Rubin studied his face. There was anger there, but not in Sean’s voice. His eyes were alive with buried rage.
“He just dismissed those men as if their sacrifices meant nothing. He was willing to send them out to run missions for him. He put them in dicey situations, positions normal men wouldn’t survive, just to line his pockets, but he sneered at them behind their backs. He kept telling the rest of us how much better we were. He wanted us to feel superior to our brothers. That was … maddening to me. To the rest of us. Well, maybe not Barry. He must have believed the crap Chandler was handing out to him.”
“You thought Jonquille could help these men Chandler deemed expendable?”
“I hoped she could help all of us. All of us are flawed. Chandler just doesn’t know it. At least he didn’t seem aware of it. Maybe Barry told him. He brought in a second team to try again because he wanted more soldiers. We weren’t as cooperative as he liked. He didn’t like the questions we were asking him about the covert operations he was sending us on. When the second plane went down with an explosion, we knew he had rigged both planes.”
“You were unaware he had killed the first surgical team?”
“No, he seemed to be such good friends with them. At the time the plane went down, I was still recovering from surgery. In the beginning, we all liked him. He’s charming. Personable. It wasn’t until some time after I was enhanced that I realized he was an ass-kisser to get his way and his charm wasn’t genuine. He wasn’t interested in other people, only in furthering his own agenda.”
Rubin continued to look steadily at Sean. “How did you think Jonquille could help you?”
“She was researching psychic healing. We know we don’t have much time. Maybe Chandler has this new, improved crew, but if he does, he figured it out in record time. I thought he just wanted to add to his army—you know, look like a bigger man and have more soldiers to rent out to terrorists. If that’s the case, those soldiers are going to find themselves in the same boat we are. They’re already dying, they just don’t know it yet.”
“You went to a medic? Chandler must have one there for you.”
“He had no idea what to do with us.”
Quite frankly, Rubin wasn’t so certain what to do with them either. An entire unit of GhostWalkers in medical trouble. He couldn’t examine them there. He had only Diego, Jonquille and Luther to back him up. If he tried healing someone and he grew weak, they would be in a world of hurt. He needed to know just how bad the issue was if it was true.
“Do all of you have the same problem?”
“All of us have similar issues, although some have extreme medical side effects and psychic hiccups.” Sean gave Jonquille a faint smile. “That’s what we call them. Hiccups.”
“You mean like my lightning? Misdirecting it?”
“Yeah. Just a little hiccup.”
Her laughter did that same thing to Rubin, the notes feeling like a physical touch to him. He took a deep breath. Healer or predator. Always at war.
Don’t do it. That was Diego. Reading his mind. His need.
I need to know. We need to know. If he’s telling the truth, we have to help them. We have no choice. They’re GhostWalkers. We have to get them comfortable, safe, triage them so we know who is in the worst shape and start there. We don’t leave them behind.
He was serious about that. They were fellow soldiers if it came to that. He wasn’t going to lose them if they were in need.
I can do it. I can examine him, Jonquille offered.
Rubin turned his head to look at her. Her eyes met his. There was silver ringing the blue. Her otherworldly eyes. Those long lashes sweeping down and then back up, giving him that slow assault on his stomach. That mouth of hers. Lips pressing together and then her semiconfident nod. She wasn’t certain, but she was willing to try.
You can talk me through it, Rubin.
Great. Then both of you are concentrating on the major, and anyone can pull something unexpected. Just stay out of the way of my shot. I mean it. You try to step into my shot, I’ll move and take him out. I’m not playing games here. I can’t protect you from everyone, and you’re making it as difficult as you possibly can.
His brother was definitely against the idea. Rubin understood. They were out in the open with a dozen rifles aimed at them. There had to be a better way to do this. Diego would take the shot if one of them stepped into his line of fire, and when examining a patient, a healer easily lost themselves in what they were doing and forgot about their surroundings.
Not now, Jonquille.
“It’s possible I can help you. Or Jonquille can. Perhaps both of us. There is an entire unit of GhostWalkers ready to help if you are what you claim. I can’t take you to my home, but I’m willing to accompany you to your island and check you and the others out.”
The hell you will. Diego’s rage spread through the woods straight to them. The black emotions unsettled the birds in the trees so that the hawks rose into the air and screeched repeatedly, as if defending their territory. You are not going anywhere with these people without protection, Rubin. We have to know everything about them and we don’t know anything. How do we know he’s telling the truth? Get away from him. Back off now. You can wait for our unit.
Diego was really angry. He was throwing off so much powerful energy, it was coming across the little ravine straight to Jonquille, drawn like a magnet. Along the way, the dark emotion filled every crack, every nook, stuck to every blade of grass. Every man hiding with their weapon trained on the group was shaken by the force of that rage.