Dabbing at her tears and cursing Gideon more, she considered the things he’d told her about Whitney’s punishments. His way of making the girls feel bad about themselves. Training them to be military assets. She couldn’t run. Her lungs were terrible. Had she been experimented on? Could Whitney have done something to make her lungs the way they were? Did she have asthma, or was it something he had done to her?
Was she beginning to believe the story Gideon had told her? That she was one of those orphaned girls Whitney had taken? Ifthat was true, was she a threat to the people around her? Her lungs burned for air, and she had to stop and find her inhaler. She had a terrible feeling the things Gideon told her were true.
Rory had always loved the tattoo on her ankle. She often rubbed the berries and leaves when she sat in the evenings after work, just relaxing. Now the tattoo felt like a brand of evil, marking her as something deadly to others. She even wondered if she should be around her friends at the apartment. Was she a danger to Lydia and Ellen and the others?
A headache was rapidly developing. Along with it, her warning system was signaling there might be danger coming her way. She couldn’t tell which direction it was coming from. Her gut feeling was weak, but she wasn’t ignoring it. She’d done that too many times with Gideon, and look where that had gotten her.
Rory pulled a very small knife from the inside of her jacket. The blade was no more than two inches, but it was incredibly sharp. Wrapping her fist around the handle, she flattened the blade out of sight along her wrist and continued to walk along the trail, all senses scanning for trouble.
She had acute hearing. The sound of birds filled the air, calling back and forth to one another. Some wooed partners. Some were angrily running others away from nests and eggs or the best feeding spots. Others sang merrily in the early morning hour. Squirrels raced up and down trees. Lizards skittered under leaves and vegetation on the ground.
She paced herself a little slower and stayed to the middle of the trail. How would it work if Whitney had programmed her to hurt others? She had moved from place to place bartending. Never once had she even considered hurting another individual, not unless they tried to assault her; then she did defend herself. But she’d never considered staying in a city. She’d never believed she couldbe in a relationship with anyone. Was that part of the programming? Would finding another GhostWalker somehow activate the program? Seek out and destroy?
Another light moan escaped. She pressed her free hand to her head, where the ache was becoming much more pronounced. Damn Gideon anyway. She would have been better off never knowing any of this. She wouldn’t worry about hurting her friends. If she hadn’t met him, if he hadn’t lied to her and told her he wanted to be with her, she wouldn’t have to worry she might have a bomb in her head.
What was the point in telling her he wanted a relationship? Why not just talk to her up front about his concerns? That would have been the right thing to do instead of pretending she meant something to him. He wanted to have sex with her. His body couldn’t lie. The chemistry between them was crazy hot.
Her warning radar blared loudly at her. She gripped the handle of the small knife in her palm with the blade lying along her wrist, out of sight. Keeping her arm swinging along her thigh as she walked, Rory kept her head up, looking around. Danger was definitely close. At least someone was close; whether they meant her harm remained to be seen.
Harvey Matters stepped out of the brush ahead of her, one hand up as if in surrender. “Don’t mean to startle you, Rory. Just want to talk.”
She halted abruptly, keeping a safe distance between them. “The feeling isn’t mutual.” Plunging her hand into her inside pocket, she came up with the envelope Scott Tinsdale had given her. She held it out to him, keeping a distance, making him take the step forward. Her knife hand was held loosely ready. She was confident he couldn’t see she was armed.
He took the envelope and stepped back. “Thank you.”
“Don’t ever use me again. I won’t deliver any more messages. Imean it. I’ll tear it up. You tell your associate that. I’m leaving San Francisco as soon as my two-week notice is up. I don’t want anything to do with you or your people.”
He tilted his head to one side, studying her face. “I heard about the break-ins at the apartments.”
“I thought you might be behind that.” She knew she didn’t sound accusing, only wary. She didn’t want to make him angry. She was alone on the trail, and as far as she knew, no one was close by. She didn’t want to have to kill him, but she would if she had no other choice.
He shook his head. “No. I don’t know who did it or why.”
He looked and sounded sincere enough that she believed him despite everything Gideon had told her about him.
“They didn’t take anything from any of us, and they didn’t bother to make it look like a robbery.”
“That’s what’s worrisome.” He even sounded worried. “I didn’t kill that cop. They’re trying to pin his death on me. I’m hearing rumors that they’re trying to say it was my gun. I didn’t have a gun. And I didn’t kill Ret or Dustin. They were my friends and had been for years. Jarrod is missing. If he were alive, I would know it, but he hasn’t contacted me or any of our trusted allies.”
“Is it possible Jarrod killed Ramsey, Dustin and Ret, and is trying to frame you? He could have been the one to break into our apartments. He would have known which ones we occupied.”
Harvey scratched the bridge of his nose. “I’ve known Jarrod since we were kids.”
That wasn’t an answer. People betrayed friends. Lovers. They broke hearts. Grief nearly overwhelmed her.
“Why were you at the apartments, Harvey?”
She shouldn’t ask. She had no business asking. It was stupid. She’d just told him she wanted nothing to do with him, but sheasked anyway. What was the old saying? Curiosity killed the cat? If what Gideon told her about him was the truth, it made no sense that Harvey would be in the lower-rent apartments. He supposedly owned estates worth millions.
“Someone’s been methodically killing key people in our organizations. We never meet in person, and we thought if we did meet somewhere no one would ever consider we would go, we could figure it out. We didn’t want to use phones or email. Nothing traceable. Nowhere we could be overheard.”
“Were you able to figure out who was killing off your people?”
“Not who was doing the killing. But we began to suspect who was providing the information where our people were going to be so they could be killed. Movement was always a closely guarded secret, and few people knew.”
“Someone close had to betray all of you.”
He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Usually a woman. Someone close. Someone you love and trust.” He looked sad. “That’s why I told the others not to take that chance. Not to fall. Betrayal is the worst pill to swallow.”
