He was Mack’s right-hand man. Married to Rose and father to Sebastian. Admittedly, he had the most to lose. Still, just the way he put it set Gideon’s teeth on edge.
“She’s telling the truth.” He kept his tone low, but the challenge was there.
Mack’s gaze hit him hard. Gideon felt those burning eyes strike at him, but he didn’t answer the summons. He kept his predator’s stare on Kane.
Kane straightened slowly, his shoulders stiffening. “I meant no offense. This is a complicated issue, and it’s put you in a bad position.”
“I’m selling her out. That’s more than a bad position. I’m doing it for Rose, Jaimie, Rhianna and Sebastian. The rest of us can take care of ourselves.”
“Uh, Gideon. I’m quite capable of taking care of myself,” Rhianna Bonds protested. “But I love you for including me.”
Rhianna had also grown up on the streets with them. She was every bit as lethal as any of them. Gideon didn’t care. None of them did. As far as they were concerned, she was their little sister and under their protection.
He pushed his hands through his hair and then forced himself to be still. Even with his family, he rarely allowed his agitation to show. “I don’t want to lose her. She doesn’t have anyone and hasn’t had anyone. She’s letting me in and I’m going behind her back. If she did that to me, I wouldn’t be very forgiving. I doubt if any of you would be.”
There was a small silence because, damn it all, he was right. They wouldn’t be forgiving. They were a tight-knit group, and they were very careful of who they were around.
“What were you going to say, Kane?” Mack asked.
“Is it possible Whitney removed her memories? If he did, what would have been his purpose?”
“Her past is real enough,” Javier said. “Meaning the various places she’s worked. I’ve verified all of them. I can’t imagine he took her memories and sent her out on the off chance he could use her to kidnap a baby. I think there must be another reason.”
“You said she has bad lungs,” Rhianna mused aloud. “Could it be as simple as she didn’t measure up to Whitney’s idea of what a GhostWalker should be, so he kicked her out?”
“He tends to end things permanently with anyone not measuring up,” Mack pointed out, “especially girls or women.” He turned to his wife. “Babe, would you see what you can find on her? When she disappeared. Who remembers her as a child. Who grew upwith her. Anything at all. Don’t say why, just make inquiries. If they ask, say you’re working on something.”
Jaimie nodded. “I believe she was one of the original twelve Whitney took at the same time he acquired Rose, so she would have known her. I don’t know for how long. He often moved the girls around so they wouldn’t bond with one another. He didn’t do it at first. He didn’t have any understanding of what happened when he enhanced their psychic abilities and they didn’t have any filters. He had no idea of the pain he caused. Once he did understand, he didn’t really care. Those first girls were all throwaways to him.”
Gideon could feel the tension in the room rise. No one liked the idea that Rose and Rory had known one another as children. Was that simply another coincidence? The world was a big place. How was it that Rory had ended up not just in San Francisco but on the harbor where they had established their compound? Whitney certainly knew they lived there. It felt to Gideon as if things were getting worse by the minute.
“She would have been there when he gifted them with the tattoos,” Javier pointed out. “How old were they? I assumed they were older, but we don’t know that. Kane, did Rose ever say how old she was when Whitney brought in the tattoo artist?”
“She talked about the puppies they raised and how he brought in fighting dogs. They were traumatized when their puppies were killed in front of them. It was sometime after that,” Kane answered.
“They couldn’t have been that old when he gave them puppies,” Mack said. “Rose told us Whitney wanted them to learn a lesson about survival. They had taught their dogs everything but how to fight for survival. Of course, he hadn’t revealed that he would put them in a fighting ring with experienced fighting dogs when the puppies turned a year old.”
“He’s such a bastard,” Rhianna said. “I’ve tried dozens of times to find him.”
Gideon turned sharp eyes on her. He wasn’t alone. Every man in the room looked at her.
“What the hell, Rhianna?” Javier snapped. “Without backup? What if you found him?”
“That was the plan,” she said calmly. “I would have killed him.”
“I’ve warned you countless times, Ree,” Mack interrupted before Javier continued. “You gave me your word you would stop going rogue.”
“I’ve kept my word, Mack. I was referring to the times I tried to find himpriorto promising you I wouldn’t go off alone.” She flashed a little mocking grin at her street brothers. “I’m trying to learn some Mack-sense, whatever that is.”
Jaimie laughed. “Mack doesn’t have any sense, Rhianna. Don’t let him fool you. He just pretends so all of you will think he’s a wise man and you’ll keep following him.”
“If I wasn’t so lazy, I’d strangle you, Jaimie,” Mack said. “In the meantime, cancel asking anyone outside our circle any questions yet. Let’s keep this to ourselves.”
Gideon was grateful for that small reprieve. The minute Jaimie asked any of the other women any questions—particularly Lily Whitney-Miller, Peter Whitney’s adopted daughter—they would get a visit. Lily would come immediately. She was brilliant. There was no fooling or misleading her. She was actively looking for the women she had been raised with—the ones her father had experimented on over and over. She was determined to right as many wrongs as possible.
Gideon knew Lily. Her father’s guilt weighed heavily on her shoulders. She was innocent, but that didn’t matter. She still felt that weight. She was aggressive in looking for solutions for the women. She shared with the GhostWalkers the money she’dinherited from an ongoing, very sizable trust. Gideon couldn’t fault her for her tireless work ethic, but he didn’t want or need her interference when he was desperate to save his relationship with Rory.
He had felt, for a brief moment, real happiness. He’d never had that. He’d never felt hope or a sense of looking forward to waking up. There was no anticipation. Now, there had been Rory. The brightness of her. The reality of her. He knew she was genuine, whether the others believed it or not.
