“Here’s an interesting idea.” Paul Mangan spoke and immediately the room went silent.
Gideon could count on one hand the few times Paul had ever contributed to their free-for-all brainstorming meetings. Paul was the newest member of their team and also the youngest. He was the only nonfamily member, having been placed there by his father, Sergeant Major Theodore Griffen, who ran the team.
All of them protected him in much the same way as they tried to protect Rhianna. She tried to protect him too. He had gifts few had, and no one, especially Peter Whitney, could find out about them. Gideon could never understand why Paul didn’t give his opinion more. It wasn’t like they didn’t know he was the smartest man in a room already filled with extremely intelligent men.
“Have her join us. Introduce her to everyone. Express your concerns. Bring them right out into the open so you’re not going behind her back. Explain everything to her. Who we are. What we do. Tell her about Peter Whitney and the experiments he did on the orphan girls. Tell her she’s one of them. Drop a couple of names. See if she reacts or remembers. Let me examine her.”
Immediately, his suggestion was met with heads shaking in disagreement. Even Gideon, who had liked his idea up to that point, found himself reacting negatively.
“You can’t take a chance, Paul.”
“I can if Javier is sitting right next to her.”
Every cell in Gideon’s body rejected that suggestion. “Absolutely not. Even if I agreed to someone killing her, it won’t be Javier. I know Rory’s mine. There isn’t going to be another woman for me. I’ve been struggling for a long time now. Having just a small taste of what my life could be like with her, the drop will be severe. It will take a long time to get over her death, let alone someone in my own family killing her. I would have a difficult time forgiving them. I might even be dangerous.”
He had to be honest. He was a predator through and through. Whitney had made him that way. All of them were. They’d started out with the aggression already in them. If they hadn’t had it, they wouldn’t have survived on the streets. Those instincts had been honed as they’d grown, fighting for their needs and keeping human predators off them. Once Whitney had performed his experiments on them, they were exactly what he wanted: killing machines. Gideon had considered himself one long before Whitney had gotten his hands on him.
“Gideon.” Javier spoke quietly. “She wouldn’t feel a thing if it was me. She’d never see it coming. I would make certain she would never know.”
Gideon’s gut clenched and he couldn’t sit. He was up and pacing until his dangerous energy filled the room to overflowing. The walls trembled.
“Not you,” Gideon bit out. “It would be best if I took her away from here.”
“It would be best if you trusted your family.” Mack’s tone was mild. “It’s clear that she’s yours already. A part of you. That makes her ours and affords her the protection of every one of us. She’s family. We don’t let go of family, no matter what Whitney has devised.And, just to be clear, if there is a decision to be made on when someone in our family can’t be saved, it is myresponsibility alone to handle that.Imake that call andItake care of it—not Javier, not anyone else.”
Mack met Gideon’s stare unflinchingly from across the room. There was no backup in him. “Rory is your woman. That makes her family, so she will be saved. There isn’t going to be any other possibility. We start with that premise. Let’s all calm down and listen to Paul. His idea has merit.”
Gideon took a deep breath. Mack didn’t mince words and he meant what he said. He understood that Rory belonged with him. It didn’t matter that they’d only been together a couple of times. Mack was aware that Gideon’s mind and body recognized her. Sometimes, with GhostWalkers, that happened. For them, it was the one. The only. They didn’t know if some of the changes Whitney’s experiments had made in their DNA had contributed to that strange phenomenon. However it happened, they recognized that some of them became aware of their mates instinctively and the bond happened fast and irrevocably.
“What are you saying, Mack?” Kane objected. “Even if we’re all right there, if Whitney programmed her as a bomb, who would be fast enough to save Paul? Or for that matter, if we were here, Rose and Sebastian?”
“I’m either part of this team, or I’m not,” Paul said unexpectedly. “I go on the same missions. I see the same things all of you do, and I make sure to pull my weight, although you make that difficult for me, just as you’re suggesting now. I don’t like the fact that you continue to treat me like I’m an outsider simply because I didn’t grow up with the rest of you. If you don’t trust me, you need to say so, and I’ll ask for a transfer to another unit. I’m damn tired of always being put with the women and children instead of being treated like I’m part of the team.”
Gideon could hear the resolution in his voice. He might speaksoftly, but he meant every shocking word. The team exchanged long stunned looks. It might have taken them a little time to trust Paul when he’d first been assigned to them. He was young and didn’t seem to fit into their well-oiled team, but after getting to know him, they all felt differently. They’d grown fond of him. More than that. He was family to them. How was it that he didn’t feel that from them?
Gideon knew they all protected him. Paul wasn’t wrong about that. They tried to shield him from the worst of what they encountered, mostly because he was very sensitive. He had to be. He was a healer. His psychic talent was one of the rarest, if not the rarest. No one spoke of it. It wasn’t documented and it never could be.
“Paul, I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Mack said. “You’re considered a very valued member of our team. You’re trusted by everyone here. It isn’t that anyone doesn’t want you here because they don’t trust you; it’s because none of us wants to risk your life.”
Gideon had never seen such a stubborn look come over Paul’s face. “Each of you has an expertise. Gideon’s woman needs someone to seeinsideher. That’s my expertise. Why would you send me away when no one else can see if she’s programmed with a bomb inside her? I can see what’s wrong with her lungs. I can tell you if she has a second skin or a cloaking device of some kind. It’s ludicrous to have me slink away like a child and hide while all of you take the risk when you won’t find out anything at all. Gideon’s already questioned her. He can compel answers, and he didn’t get any satisfactory ones because she doesn’t know the answers.”
It was the most Gideon had ever heard Paul say at one time. He was asserting himself, challenging Mack to listen to him as a professional of his talent. He was right. There was no getting around the truth of what he was saying. None of them had to like it, but they had to listen to what he said.
“It isn’t just because we all have tremendous affection for you, Paul,” Mack said carefully. “You’ve managed to gain our respect and find your place in the family. You may not like the fact that you’re the youngest brother and everyone looks out for you in that regard. But your talent is needed. We guard you carefully for that as well. Those restraints, I’ll admit, sometimes are a bit too tight.”
“A bit?” Paul asked. But he asked with a hint of a smile. “I have to be here to examine her, Mack. And, Gideon, I believe if you’re up front with her right from the beginning, full disclosure, she’s going to forgive the fact that you didn’t tell her right away.”
Jaimie nodded. “She did have a panic attack and then a breathing problem. It would be natural not to put more on her. To wait. To want to protect her.”
Gideon flicked her a quick glance. Jaimie had a way of putting things that made sense. Was it possible to convince Rory it was in her best interest to talk to his team? He’d already spoken with them without her permission. That was one thing he couldn’t get around, but maybe he could find a way to make that work.
“We shouldn’t use this building,” Mack said. “Gideon, she’s already been to your home. We can do better damage control there. Up on your rooftop. We can contain any problems Whitney may have introduced.”
He was talking about bombs. Gideon knew they had to consider that possibility, but it still stung. He didn’t let it show, but few things got past Mack.
“She’ll be more comfortable there, Gideon. You’ve already told us that she’s the kind of woman who worries about everyone else. Do you think, after explaining to her what we are and what you think she is, that she would come here to my home and risk Jaimie and Rose and Sebastian?”
Gideon knew Rory wouldn’t. She would pack up everything she owned and leave immediately. She might anyway.
