Conspiracy Game(23)

“I could jar you.”

“I doubt it.” He let his fingers slide over her tear-wet face. “Don’t be doing this.”

“What? Crying? Every time I close my eyes I see that man dead. Or I see someone cutting you into little pieces.” She pressed her fingertips to her temple. “I’m afraid to go to sleep.”

“You have a headache. Did you take anything for it?”

“My headache is rather insignificant next to what the rebels did to you. I can’t believe you were running around the forest. You should be dead.”

“I wasn’t going to die and give them the satisfaction.” He took another sip of water, his fingers tangling in her hair. It was softer than he’d first imagined. “They would have done better just to put a bullet in my head.”

“Why didn’t they?”

Jack set the bottle of water on the small nightstand beside the bed and used both hands to massage her temples. Her body felt small and soft next to his, and he actually had a reaction to her, disconcerting when he was trying to be comforting. She was too innocent for a man like him to ever have sex with her. He’d shock the holy hell out of her, be too rough, too demanding, too everything. His body hardened even more and he shut the door on that line of thinking. There was no way he was going to allow it to happen. How could his body react when he was beat up all to hell? Nothing about the situation made sense to him and that made him leery. He was always distrustful, but his reactions to Briony were completely out of character.

“The general wants people to be afraid of him. The crueler he is, the more everyone fears him and he gets what he wants. Torture and genocide and rape are good ways to intimidate people.”

Briony was silent for a long time. She sighed. “My brothers won’t listen to me. They think I’m paranoid, but the music festival offered us an enormous sum of money to perform here. It didn’t make sense to me then and even less since I’ve been here. The festival doesn’t have that kind of money and we weren’t going to be that big of a draw. You served with my brother and we’re both enhanced psychically and physically. I’ve never met anyone like me before. In fact, this is the first time in my life I’ve ever been able to be near another human being without feeling their emotions and being sick. Don’t you think it’s all too much of a coincidence?”

“If you’re paranoid, Briony, I am too.”

“Tyrel told me there’s a rumor that rebel soldiers are sneaking into town. If they aren’t here for the music festival, my guess is they’re looking for you.”

“I’d have to say when they find the bodies on the outskirts of the city, they’ll definitely come looking.”

“Jebediah’s going to be really, really angry with me.”

“Don’t worry about your brother. He knows me.” Jebediah knew him all right, and he sure as hell wouldn’t want Jack Norton lying in the same bed with his sister. Jack lay staring up at the cracked ceiling, one hand in her hair, the other over the gun, listening to her soft, even breathing and wondering why he already felt like she belonged to him.





CHAPTER 4





Pounding on the door jarred Jack and Briony from their sleep. The gun was already in Jack’s fist and he waved her to the safety of the bathroom.

“Open the door, Bri!” Jebediah yelled. “I’m standing out here with coffee and you’re still asleep. Get a move on.”

“It’s my brother,” Briony said unnecessarily, but she wanted Jack to put the gun away. She deliberately moved in front of him, blocking his sight to the door, pressing her hand to his head to check for fever. She raised her voice. “Just a minute, Jebediah. Have a little patience.”

Jack swept her out of the way with his arm. “Stay to the side of the door when you let him in. Someone could be standing behind him with a gun to his head.”

“He would have warned me,” Briony objected. “Don’t shoot my brother.”

“Stand to the side of the door.” When she remained frowning at him, he clenched his teeth. “Damn it, do what I tell you.”

Briony huffed out a breath just to show him he annoyed her, although it didn’t seem to faze him. She told herself she obeyed to keep Jack from getting upset as she unlocked and opened the door, not because he was downright scary at times.

“Here.” Jebediah handed her a cup of coffee as he leaned in to kiss her cheek. As he did, his gaze jumped beyond her to the bed where Jack lay on his side beneath the sheet, the gun steady in his hand, aimed straight at Jebediah’s heart. “What the hell are you doing here, Norton?” Jebediah jumped to place his body between the gun and Briony.