Her life had become pure hell after that, Whitney taunting her, demanding to know why she thought Beverly would ever care for her. For any of the girls. Reminding her they were worthless—nothing. That Beverly wouldn’t even be there if he weren’t paying so well.
Jonas snarled, low and loud. The spine-chilling sound of a lethal predator issuing a challenge.
Camellia surprised him by moving up beside him and putting her hand on his arm. She just stood there, not speaking, her palm resting on his forearm. He hadn’t even realized he’d stopped walking toward Jeff and Kyle. He knew they had to have heard the warning of the leopard, and they would know it was Jonas. It wasn’t as if actual leopards inhabited the Lolo National Forest. He should probably double-time it down to them before they got worried and came looking. Still, he didn’t move. This was the first time Camellia had voluntarily touched him other than when he’d kissed her.
“Whitney gets away with his bullshit because he has the backing of too many people in Washington.” He made the statement in a low tone, leaning slightly so he could nuzzle the top of her head with his chin. Her soft hair caught in the rough bristles along his jaw. For some reason, he liked that, feeling as if those strands bound them together.
“If it were just a few people in Washington, Jonas, he wouldn’t get away with so much, but he has the backing of people muchmore powerful than that. He made certain of that before he ever started out.”
Camellia didn’t pull away from him. If anything, she leaned closer, as if she needed comfort. He took a chance and swept an arm around her. No one wanted to be alone. He had an entire team around him. Brothers he could count on, and yet he still often felt alone. Shewasalone. She didn’t trust anyone for good reason. He knew it was only because of those two very strong and intimate networks they shared that he had a chance with her at all.
“You know a lot about him.”
There was the briefest of hesitations, as if she didn’t know what to do or say with him drawing her under his shoulder. She stood as if frozen, and then, very slowly, her body began to relax into his. He called that a huge triumph. Huge. He wasn’t going to push his luck beyond that. He just wanted to give her a little bit of comfort.
“After what he did to Ivy, I tried to learn as much as I could. I was beginning to get the warnings from the mycelium, and I realized he had enhanced me with more than he had told me. That was one of the reasons he had watched me so closely and continued to ask me so many questions. I reviewed all the questions he asked me. I rarely forget anything. Once I realized I was tapping into the underground network, I remembered all the research I’d done on mycelium. I always thought it was very cool anyway. Then I compared it to the human brain and the way our brains work.”
Jonas could see that she was very methodical. She took things one step at a time.
“After that, I looked into all the ways our bodies could possibly work the same as mycelium, so if I’m somehow picking up warnings, what sorts of information could it send me and how could I best utilize the entire network? Because mycelium is an enormous network. I have a good imagination, and I considered all the ways I could use such a vast network against Whitney. Listening in onhis business meetings. Finding out where he would be so I could kill him. Little things like that.”
She turned her face up to his, clearly expecting condemnation, but he had none to give her. If anything, he understood more than most would.
“You didn’t tell anyone about the network, not even Marigold.” He brought the conversation full circle. He tried to think how he would feel if he discovered that Ryland or Jeff had completely betrayed him. Or withheld something vital, something as important as having a twin, from him for twenty years. Why would Marigold do such a thing? That didn’t make sense. She had to have known she could trust Camellia.
Camellia shook her head. “By that time, there was this little tiny doubt in my mind. I didn’t want it there, but Whitney had succeeded in planting that seed. Out of the blue, after taunting me about Beverly, he suddenly switched tactics and said maybe I was a fool for trusting all the other women. He would say it occasionally, implying there was someone who had their own agenda, just like Violet did.”
She was looking down at the ground, wearing such an expression. As if merely voicing doubt about Marigold—or any of the other women—at Whitney’s say-so was blasphemy.
“I swore to myself he would never get to me with his accusations. Marigold and I even discussed it at night with the other women. We used telepathic communication, but as my strength began to grow, I found myself afraid to use it. I didn’t trust it. Anything coming from Whitney was suspect, especially when he watched me so closely. So, at night, when we talked about our futures and the fears we had of Whitney’s breeding program, it was easy enough to keep my doubts to myself. I didn’t have to do much talking.”
“But you listened to everyone else. The new networks helped you hear lies, didn’t they?”
She nodded reluctantly. “Lies registered as a jarring note thatjangled along the nerve endings when someone was talking. It could be a small jolt or a really big sizzling one, like a bolt of electricity running through me. Not at all pleasant. It was all new, so I was just learning what each reaction meant.”
Jonas heard the note of reluctance that was still in her voice. Still in her mind. She didn’t want to know if Marigold had been the one to betray Camellia when she was attempting to escape. Camellia had already accepted Beverly as the guilty party. She wanted that betrayal to be the damning one, the ultimate. If Mari had known about her twin and chosen to keep her existence a secret, eventually Camellia could come to accept that. But would she ever be able to forgive a betrayal that caused the death of a fellow sister?
Jonas sent a silent prayer to the universe that no one interrupted them. Camellia needed to get it all out. To let herself speak of her fears. She had to have one person she could talk to without fear of recrimination. He wanted to be that person for her.
Camellia sighed. “Marigold never brought up the subject of Ivy or Beverly, and when someone else did, she was very quiet as a rule. There was only one time...”
She fell quiet, swallowing hard. When she looked up at him, her eyes meeting his, she looked all woman, no sign of her cat. Her eyes had gone as liquid blue as the sea, making his heart ache. “Marigold said we knew who had betrayed us and we could never allow Whitney to drive a wedge between us. We had to stay strong together, that there was no sense in talking about it any longer. That was when she brought up the idea of talking to Senator Freeman and putting together an escape plan for all of us.”
The wind tugged at their clothing, growing stronger. He felt that vague threat growing closer. Whatever—or whoever—was on the move. He had to talk with Jeff and Kyle and make a decision. Ryland and the others had to be warned. He didn’t have a lot of information, but he knew for certain there was an actual threat.The team had to go on high alert. That meant getting the children under lockdown. Daniel was a handful, and if there was one thing the boy didn’t like, it was to be restrained in any way. Jonas had hoped to know exactly what they were dealing with before he sent a report back to Ryland, but he couldn’t wait. He couldn’t risk something happening to him before he alerted the team and their families to the approaching threat.
Through the shared networks, Jonas examined the memory in Camellia’s mind, noting every nuance, every inflection of Marigold’s tone as she spoke to the other women about betrayal, trust and plans for escape. He did so dispassionately. He wasn’t a man who ever made judgments about fellow GhostWalkers. Enhancements were difficult to live with. The things Whitney had done to them made it nearly impossible to get through a day at times.
Camellia’s mind was a wonder. Each memory stored in vivid detail, down to the smallest aspect. Whether consciously or not, she had noted everything, from what the temperature was to the exact measurements of the room she was in. She had even counted the rotations per minute of the fan above her head.
Yeah, he was going to have to go with Camellia on this one—Marigold hadn’t been telling the exact truth about something. She had successfully shut down the conversation about Ivy, Beverly and Whitney’s intimation that someone else might have been the one to alert the guards to Camellia’s absence. As she had volunteered to try to go out with her former unit to be on the protection team for Senator Freeman and Violet, she clearly believed she might be able to help all of them, including herself. That led him to the conclusion that she knew more about the night Ivy was killed than she let on. That didn’t make her guilty. It only meant that, like Camellia, Jonas didn’t altogether trust her.
“You don’t believe her either, do you?” Camellia came right out and asked him.
“That’s a tough one, honey. I don’t know her. I’m not the kind of man to hang with the women from the other teams. In the old days, before the enhancements, I might have been considered a player, but not anymore. I make everyone nervous when I walk into a room. Whitney put too much of every predatory animal he could in me. Makes for an ugly mix. So I tend to keep to myself. I avoid trouble with the others that way.”
Camellia spun around to look at him. “Wait a minute. When you say this, I’m getting a feeling that I don’t like.Yourteam members accept you, and you don’t make them nervous, right? Because you go on missions with them all the time and probably have saved their asses.”
He tried not to smile. “Just as they’ve saved mine.”
