Conspiracy Game (48 page)

“You mean Ken would have.”

“No, I mean all of them would have, orders or not.” He grinned at her. “But Ken would have been leading the pack.”

She flashed a small answering smile. “I really like your brother. He’s a good man. He worries about it too, you know, about being like your father. He doesn’t like being around people any more than you do.”

“He’s the best man I know, Briony, and he sure as hell isn’t like our father.”

“You look at me as if I’m your equal, Jack—your partner. Luther looked at me as I was his possession. You’re nothing like your father, Jack. Nothing at all—and neither is Ken. If we don’t get out of this, I want you to know I’m not sorry for one minute I’ve been able to have with you.”

He groaned softly. “That’s a hell of thing for you to say with my brother only a few feet away.”

She laid her head on his shoulder. “It wasn’t meant to be sexual, you nut; I was being emotional.”

“Just looking at you is sexual, let alone you saying something like that.”

“Shut the hell up, Jack,” Ken said without opening his eyes. “I feel like I’m at a porn movie. It’s just wrong.”

Briony laughed. “Are you both really going to go to sleep? Aren’t we surrounded?”

“Ken is; he should be asleep already,” Jack said. “We’ll take turns. If the troops try to move into the canyon, we’ll know. I’ll just mosey on up to the top of that ridge and discourage them. They’ll most likely wait until nightfall—just like we’re waiting.”

Briony stared up at the heavy canopy of branches and leaves. The air was cool and the last of the smoke had drifted away. They could have been out camping instead of hiding from a lethal military group. Neither man seemed stressed at all. Within a matter of minutes, she was certain Ken had actually gone to sleep.

Jack’s hand found hers, tangling their fingers together. “You always want to conserve energy if possible, baby,” he advised, bringing her hand to his mouth. His teeth nipped her finger. “You’ll learn. If you can, go to sleep.” He pulled a light blanket over her body to protect her from the colder temperatures.

“Talk to me. Tell me about you and Ken. How old were you when you lost your mother?” She didn’t want to say
killed your father
, but somehow the words were there between them.

“Nine. We were nine years old.”

“What happened to you?”

“They took us both to the hospital and then tried various foster homes. Sometimes they split us up, but it was never a good idea. We’d break out and each track the other down. If either of us was mistreated, there was always retaliation. We spent a lot of time on the streets. Eventually, after earning a bad reputation, no one would take us, so for a while we were in a state-run home. That didn’t work out very well either.”

“I can imagine.”

“Neither of us is very good following rules. Somewhere along the line we met Miss Judith.”

“Miss Judith?” There was a wealth of affection in Jack’s voice.

“She would come to the home as a volunteer and was the only person Ken and I would listen to. There was something about her, something very distinct and real. She genuinely wanted to help—she cared. Eventually she fostered us. We were nearly seventeen then, and twice her size, but she took us in against the advice of all the other workers. She had a ranch up in the hills and she gave us plenty of room to run free. In return, we excelled in schoolwork.” He grinned at her. “Notice I didn’t say anything about school. She took over our education and homeschooled us because no regular school wanted anything to do with us. We worked hard for her, and she gave us our first real taste of a home.”

“Is she still alive?”

Jack hesitated. “Yes. But we don’t let anyone know that. She could become… ”

Briony lifted her head and narrowed her eyes at him. “A liability?”

Jack groaned. “I’m never going to live that down, am I? And no, Miss Judith needs protection so anyone coming after us won’t be able to use our feelings for her against us. I don’t want her vulnerable.”

“Did you fake her death?” Briony asked curiously.

“Too easily disproved. No, we simply manufactured a very heated public argument and she disowned us. After several months she moved to another state and then, a year later, returned to her hometown, back to her family ranch. We’re never seen near the place and she certainly doesn’t come here. We never call her, so there is never a paper trail to follow. Most people have forgotten we were ever with her.”

“I see.” Briony frowned and turned her face up to the sky. “What about me, Jack—and the babies? What are we going to do after they’re born?”

“You’re going to marry me before they’re born, and we’re going to live together right here on this mountain. Ken will help me protect you and the kids, and we’ll be fine. I think I can send a loud enough message to any enemy that if they dared mess with my family, I’d never stop until they were dead.”

“I wouldn’t want you to do that, Jack. Revenge isn’t the way to live life,” Briony said gently.

He tunneled his fingers in her hair. “You’re not going to change who—or what—I am, baby. Ken and I tried that a long time ago. We know what we can and can’t live with. No one is going to take you away from me.”

She was silent for a long time, staring up at the clouds, her swollen eye watering and aching, but fire in her side was slowly going away. She rubbed her hand over her stomach soothingly. “I’ve changed your life so much already, Jack.”

“That’s a good thing, Briony.”

“And Ken said I can’t marry you.”

Jack felt his heart jump in his chest. He glanced at his sleeping brother. “Did he say why?”

“Yes.” She kept her voice sober. “He said you have to ask me properly.”

Relief made him weak. His pulse beat at his temples, throbbed in his neck. For one moment his fingers closed in her hair in a tight fist. “Properly? If I ask, you might say no, so I’m thinking we’ll just start off right and I’ll tell you and we’ll get the thing done.”

“Get the thing done?” Briony echoed.

Ken snorted aloud. “Jack, I’ll take over watch and you get some sleep. I think you fried your brain up there on the roof.”

“Pipe down over there,” Jack said. “You’re already stirring up trouble.”

“Get the thing done?” Briony repeated slowly. “The thing being what exactly?”

“The ceremony. The paperwork. Whatever the hell it takes to make it legal.”

Briony sat up and glared at him. “Take your ‘it’ and shove it, Jack.”

“There’s no need to be getting upset, Briony. We can’t exactly go around with a bunch of kids and not do whatever the hell it is one does to make it legal.”

“Whatever the hell it takes to make
what
legal?”

He shrugged. “How the hell would I know? I’ve never done this before. Sleeping together I guess.”

“So you’re going to marry me so it’s legal to sleep with me?”

“This isn’t coming out right.”

“You think?”

“Don’t get upset, baby. I don’t understand why you’re getting upset.”

“Don’t you ‘baby’ me, Jack,” she said, narrowing her eyes in warning. “Marriage might not be anything but a ceremony to you, but to me it’s something sacred. And you don’t have to worry, I’m not about to insist on marriage. I told you from the beginning I’m quite capable of raising a child by myself.”

“We’re not having one child, Briony,” he pointed out. “We’re having two. I guess that means you need me whether you like it or not.”

“I guess you’re not getting it, Jack. I have no intention of marrying you.” She half sat, glaring at him.

He raised an eyebrow. “Really? What are we going to tell all of our children? I don’t think we’ll be stopping at two, do you?”

Briony couldn’t help the sudden urge to laugh. Jack was impossible—would always be impossible. She leaned over and kissed the corner of his mouth. “Two is already scaring the hell out of me. I don’t think we’ll be talking about having more for a long, long time. Do you have any idea how small a baby actually is, Jack? Have you ever held one?”

“Nope. But I’m sure we can manage. There’s bound to be a book on the subject somewhere. And don’t think we’re finished talking about the marriage thing.”

“We’re definitely finished.”

She shivered beneath the thin blanket, and Jack reached out to pull her tight against the warmth of his body. “Come here. You’re going to get chilled if you don’t stay close to me,” he said invitingly. His hands slid up and down her arms to rub heat into her.

Ken rose and caught up his rifle. “I’m going to do a little recon while you catch some shut-eye, Jack.”

Be careful bro. They’ll have a sniper in the trees trying to catch a glimpse of one of us walking around.

Like I don’t know that. I think it best to give you a chance to redeem yourself. You’re such a jackass, and you can grovel better if I’m not around.
Ken flashed a grin at his brother and stalked off into heavier brush, back in the direction they’d come.

“Is he going to be all right?”

“He’s giving us a little privacy.” Jack turned onto his side, propping his head up with his hand to stare down at her face. “He thinks I’m making a jackass of myself.”

“He’s right.”

“I know. I know it’s too soon, Briony. There’s no way you could fall in love with me this fast, but I know how I feel about you. It has nothing to do with Whitney or pheromones or experiments. When I’m with you, I feel different—alive—happy—hell, even peaceful—even though you argue half the time.”

“I don’t argue.”

He smiled at her, his free hand sliding down her throat in a gentle caress to trace the swell of her breasts. “You make me happy, Briony. It doesn’t seem to matter where we are or what kind of hell we’re walking into, when I’m with you, there’s something inside of me that lights up. Tell me why you don’t want to marry me.”

Briony stared up at his face, so masculine—rough and weathered, with lines etched deep; his gray eyes that could ice up or go hot like the sun. He wasn’t a man who smiled often, but he was a man who took care of his own. She traced those lines with her fingertips. Emotion swept over her, shaking her, setting her pulse racing and her stomach fluttering. “I didn’t say I didn’t want to marry you, Jack Norton, only that you hadn’t asked me properly.”

The look on her face—in her eyes—set his heart pounding. No one had ever looked at him like that before. He could wake up to that look every morning. He shifted his weight again so he could frame her face with his hands, wincing a little as his thigh connected with the groundsheet. “You ever heard of a book on this crap, because I’m going to need something.”

Briony groaned and rolled onto her back, laughing helplessly. “You’re hopeless, Jack. Hopeless.”

“I love you, woman. What more is there to say?” Her laughter affected him more than he thought possible. To keep the overwhelming emotion at bay, he bent his head to hers and took possession of her mouth—a little desperately, a little wildly—mostly lovingly.

C
HAPTER 
19

B
riony
circled Jack’s neck with her arms and closed her eyes, opening her mouth to his, matching the fire in his kiss with her own. He had calluses on his hands and smelled of guns. She liked the roughness against her skin and knew that, no matter the danger, he would protect her and her children.