The others were all waiting for her to answer. “Rose and Dave, if they’re okay with it. And Janelle.”
Rose had a whispered conversation with Dave, who nodded. “We’re in,” Rose said.
“Are you sure Janelle’s a good choice?” Kane asked. He turned to the other woman. “No offense, but you don’t have field experience.”
“Offense taken. And I can shoot better than you.”
“Hopefully, it won’t come to shooting,” Jake added. “If she’s happy to go, let her.”
Kane still didn’t look happy.
“Asshole,”Janelle muttered.
“Hey, that’s your brother you’re talking about.”
“Yeah.”
Kane’s eyes had narrowed. He was obviously picking up the conversation—at least Janelle’s side of it.
“Okay, Rose, Dave, and Janelle. And me.” He said the last almost as a challenge, no doubt expecting her to argue. But she just smiled serenely.
She had a flashback to last night. She’d woken briefly as Kane had laid her down on the bed. And in that sleepy moment, when her defenses were down, she’d slipped into his mind. And she’d been suffused with a sensation of warmth and...love.
Kane loved her.
She’d been too tired and emotionally exhausted to fight the feelings, and they had wrapped around her. For the first time in an age, maybe in her entire life, she’d felt safe, and she’d fallen asleep again.
She’d half-woken in the night and for a moment she’d thought it must have been a dream, brought on by reliving the horrors inflicted on Sam. Then she’d spotted Kane—asleep in the chair by the bed. He looked softer in sleep. Which made her realize how intractable he appeared normally. So controlled.
And he loved her.
That didn’t mean she was ready to forgive the fucker.
Ha! Likely, he didn’t even know what love was.Sheknew. It was putting another’s wants and needs above your own. Above anything else. Let him put her above his stupid mission and then she might believe he loved her.
Until then...
Chapter 13
Snow swirled in the air as Kaitlin found Jake in the walled garden at the back of the house. She wanted to speak to him before they left for London. He had been with her that day when Sam had died. Okay, when she had killed Sam. Time to be brutally honest with herself.
He was alone, deep in thought, and she watched him for a moment.
He’d grown up here on the Rayleigh estate. Sometimes she forgot that. Apart from her and Sam, all the Kindred had been fostered until the age of sixteen when they’d moved to the compound that had been her home all her life. Martin Rayleighhad fostered Jake, though it had turned out that Martin was actually his genetic father—well, one of them.
When the government—in the form of the colonel—had first contacted Martin about the possibility of using the old tribe’s unique talents, Martin had told him that they were unsuitable. Too passive. The colonel had met with them and agreed. But that was the era when genetic engineering was just beginning, and they’d started a long-term project mixing DNA from humans with the tribe. Jake had been the first success. Most of the Kindred had two parents, one from the original tribe and one from a normal human. But Jake, like her, had three genetic parents, two tribe and one human. Martin had provided the human DNA, though that had only come to light recently. Growing up, they hadn’t known who their parents were.
She still didn’t. And to be honest, she had no desire to meet her genetic parents. They were here somewhere—would have been in the meeting—but, as far as she was concerned, they had given up all rights to her when they had handed her and Sam over to a ruthless government and agreed to have no contact.
They were nothing to her.
The Kindred was her family.
Bitter and twisted? Her?
Hell, yes.
She took a step toward Jake, whispered in his mind and he glanced up and smiled.
