"And Whitney had Tansy for five years."
Don nodded. "He'd enhanced her psychic abilities. Apparently the girl, her mother, was psychic and Peter wanted to see what he could do with the baby. She wasn't the only one he had. He told me they were orphans he'd collected, unwanted children. He had nurses for them and said he was getting rid of them, adopting them out. He told me I could take Tansy on the condition he continued to be her doctor so he could see her progression."
"And you balked."
"Hell yes. The son of a bitch. He had my daughter. He'd set me up. And when he produced the video, I realized he had to have been the one behind the camera, that all those years earlier, he'd been a party to what I'd done." He sighed heavily and leaned back against the headboard, still stroking Sharon's hand. "He wasn't always a madman. I saw the signs, but didn't want to. He was my friend and I didn't have too many of them."
"And he opened doors for you," Kadan wasn't going to let him off the hook. Don Meadows was an intelligent man. He also was ambitious. He wanted the respect, contacts, and money that came from his association with Whitney.
"I can't deny that."
"So he came to you with his proposal. He wanted you to adopt your own daughter. And if you didn't play ball with him, he was going to destroy the life you'd so carefully built."
"He would show the video to Sharon and her family. He said he'd go public with it. That video is sick," Don said. "It would have destroyed all of us."
"And the other children he had in his laboratory. He was experimenting on them and you knew it."
"He was adopting them out. They all had problems, just as Tansy did. He promised he'd give anyone who took them enough money to take care of their special needs."
"And you wanted to believe that."
"I had to believe it, for my own sanity. She was my daughter. My own child. I wanted her living with us any way I could get her. And I knew Sharon would take a damaged child, no matter how bad she was. Sharon desperately wanted children."
"You're a selfish son of a bitch, aren't you?" Kadan said, his tone mild.
CHAPTER 13
"Damn it! I'm a victim here too," Don insisted. "You have no idea what it was like."
"You didn't want to face up to the music. Whether or not Whitney drugged you, and it is probable he did, you still participated in the rape of a thirteen-year-old girl and you got her pregnant."
"She had no one. Whitney told me she was a street girl there that night to try to steal from us."
"I believe she probably didn't have anyone to protect her. Whitney wanted her genes. The rest of her was an inconvenience. He must have found her on another trip, recognized that she had psychic ability and 'bought' her, just like he did the others. He probably offered her money to stay in a nice warm room and she waited there, thinking she had a good gig, a place to stay and food to eat. Hell. For the first time in her life, she wasn't on the street. And then Whitney brought you to her."
"I don't remember."
"You didn't want to remember. And you may have put out a few feelers to try to satisfy your guilt about what happened to her, but you have enough money and enough contacts to find anyone in the world. You didn't want anyone to ask questions about why that girl was important to you."
"She's dead. Whitney told me she was dead."
"And you wanted to believe that."
Don glared at him. "I don't think someone like you has a right to judge me. Do you think I can't take one look at you and know you're a killer?"
If he meant to make Kadan wince, he was mistaken. Kadan knew exactly what he was; cold as ice and willing to get the job done. "Then we understand each other," he said, his voice pitched low. "There is a difference though. I know I'm a bastard and I don't deserve Tansy. I fully admit it to myself and to her. I'm taking her anyway because I'm selfish and I'll work every day of my life to make her happy, and at the end of our days, I hope she'll have no cause for regret. You pretend you're a good guy. You deceive yourself and your family. And you left those little girls with a madman so you could continue your life just the way you wanted."
"I'm telling you, he was putting them up for adoption. The damage to them had already been done."
"He didn't put most of them up for adoption. He's using them in his breeding program."
There was another shocked silence. Kadan could tell by the man's expression that the shock wasn't feigned.
"Are you certain of your information?"
"Yes. And there were other girls as well."
Ryland stirred for the first time. "What about Lily? You had to have known he kept Lily." His voice was very low, almost a whisper, but his tone was pure menace.
Don started, his gaze jumping to the man he couldn't quite make out in the shadows. "He was good to Lily."
"He experimented on Lily. What do you think it did to her when she found out about him? When he let her believe someone murdered him? You knew, didn't you, that he was alive?"
Don nodded. "Someone high up, someone really connected wanted him dead. They knew he was enhancing Special Forces soldiers and they thought it was an abomination. Peter wanted superweapons for his country. He didn't know who it was, but they'd made several attempts to kill him and they'd hit at his soldiers. He told me they'd murdered at least one of them and he was afraid for the others. He had to disappear until he knew who his friends were."
Ryland shifted again, as if he might pursue the subject of his wife, but he let it go. He'd been the man targeted for murder by the faction who thought Whitney's experiments were abominations. He'd seen several of his men die and he'd barely escaped with his own life.
He knows more than he's telling us, he sent silently to Kadan.
"We were locked in cages," Kadan said, "in Whitney's research center. We were the men Lily helped escape."
"Her father wanted her to help them escape. He told me he maneuvered her into the position with the hope that she could do what he couldn't," Don said hastily. "For all of his sins, he wanted all of the soldiers he'd worked on to survive and serve their country."
"Did he know who wanted him dead?" Kadan asked.
"Someone very high up in the food chain. Whoever it is works in the White House and Whitney couldn't touch him. Fortunately, Peter has a lot of friends who covered for him and helped him carry on his work . . ."
"His breeding program," Kadan said. "The one he wants Tansy to participate in."
Don shook his head. "He doesn't want any harm to come to her. I know that. When he got word that his enemy was forming a coalition to wipe out his soldiers, he insisted I hire Fredrickson to guard Tansy. Someone got to Fredrickson."
"Fredrickson worked for Whitney," Kadan pointed out. "No matter how you spin this, you aren't going to make Whitney into a saint just so you can condone the fact that you let him get away with experimenting on children. He experimented on your own child, and kept it up as she grew. You allowed it. And you hired Fredrickson at his command. His orders were to take Tansy if she ever discovered what was going on. She asked you the wrong question and Fredrickson did his job. He was going to take her to Whitney."
"I know he's a bastard, but he would have kept her safe."
"He would have forced her to have sex with a man she didn't want to have sex with, just like he forced that little teenage girl to have sex with you." Kadan remained absolutely still, a statue carved in stone. Even his stillness seemed a threat.
Don's face crumbled. "Damn you, you're leaving me with nothing."
"You would have given her up." Kadan's voice was as cold as ice.
Kadan, Ryland warned softly, clearly fearing what his friend might do.
Kadan didn't know himself. The thought of Don Meadows even contemplating turning his daughter over to a man like Whitney after he'd seen the experiments, the rape of a teenage girl, his wife hit by Fredrickson . . .
"All for what?" Kadan asked softly. "To keep your image and your money, your cushy little life. You would have traded Tansy into
a lifetime of slavery."
"No! Damn you, no!" Don denied the accusation. "I wanted her safe from the coalition. They're much stronger. They've established themselves and are trying to kill every soldier and woman known to have been enhanced."
"And you know this how?" Kadan's voice was still cold, still remote, as if the jury was still out on whether or not he was going to reach across the bed and rip out Don's throat.
"Whitney has friends who tip him off, and he told me Tansy needed to be in a safe house. We had a terrible fight about it. I told him I could protect my daughter."
"That's when you hired the mercs."
Don scowled. "Fredrickson found Watson for me, and they hired men who could keep her safe."
"They were Whitney's men. When Tansy asked the wrong question, they did as Whitney ordered them. They were to secure her immediately and bring her to him. They were willing to torture your wife to get her there."
"Fredrickson told us there was a hit out on her." Don looked Kadan straight in the eye. "He said an assassin was sent to kill her."
"Two men showed up in the mountains. I thought they were after me. How would anyone know Tansy was enhanced?"
"She worked with the police and the FBI solving serial murders. There's been a series of murders that a reporter speculated were all connected, and her name was brought up. We didn't tell her because we didn't want to upset her, but the reporter knew she was a photographer and suggested she was in the Sierras. He implied she was helping the FBI with the murders. The article even gave a report about her being hospitalized and that she might taint the evidence."
A chill went through Kadan's body. If someone had dug up information on Tansy and reported it, the elite tracker she had accidently run across would have her identity. He took a deep breath. "Give me a name and a newspaper."
"What? Are you going to kill him too?" Don asked, a hint of bitterness, mixed with sarcasm, creeping into his voice.
Kadan's hand snaked out so fast it was a blur. He grasped Don by the throat, cutting off oxygen and nearly lifting the man off the bed. Don choked, gasped, turned red and then purple, desperately prying at Kadan's fingers to release him. He stared into impassive eyes.
"Kadan." Ryland said his name. Low. Firm. No inflection. Lily will get all the information we need on the reporter. Let it go.
Kadan dropped Don in disgust and turned away from him, pacing across the room, while the man coughed and dragged air into his lungs.
"I'm glad you find this amusing," Kadan accused through clenched teeth. "I find it distasteful."
Don used his heels to push himself back against the bed to prop himself up. "Damn you," he choked. "You don't know what you would have done in my shoes."
Kadan crouched down beside the man, looking him straight in the eye. "I would have killed Whitney the moment he showed me that tape. He had you rape a child. He stole your child. He tortured her, experimented on her, and continued to do so to other children. He had a man strike your wife, and believe me, Fredrickson would have gone to any lengths, including killing Sharon. Watson certainly tried to put a bullet in her head . . ."
Don covered his face with his hands. "I don't kill people."
"Maybe not, Meadows, but you're willing to leave a monster loose in the world so you can keep your precious world intact." Kadan was nearly choking on his disgust. "And you hired killers and let them stay in your home."
He's weak, Kadan, not malicious.
Fuck that. He would have turned Tansy over to Whitney to protect his world. Kadan abruptly stood again and put distance between himself and Don. He didn't trust himself anymore. He wanted to break the man's neck. "Where's Whitney? And don't tell me you don't know every one of his hidey-holes, because you've had twenty years to gather intel on him. A man like you has files on people."
"Whitney has places all over the world. He has more money and more connections than you can imagine. You can't beat him. And at least he isn't trying to kill you. Your enemy is his enemy. And he's the only man capable of protecting Tansy. I couldn't do it, and I don't think you can either."
"We'll see. I want your file on Whitney."
Don shrugged. "It won't do you any good."
"I want it."
"It's in my house. I have a safe in my office under the floorboards where I keep it. The one on the wall is for thieves to think they're getting useful information."
Kadan was done. He couldn't bear to be in the man's presence for even another minute. Rye, take over. I can't look at him anymore. Send someone for the file. "I'm taking Tansy with me. You stay here with my men and don't be stupid enough to give them any trouble."
"Whitney will release the video."
Kadan turned cold eyes on the man, looked him up and down, and then shook his head. "You still don't get it, do you? He won't release the video. He has as much to lose as you do. The government and the military still consider him a good guy. He isn't going to risk jeopardizing that for a little payback. He got what he wanted from you. Your genes. Now he'll come at Tansy and he'll have to go through me to get to her."
"What about my wife?"
Kadan dropped the temperature by several degrees just staring at the man. "I have no wish to cause your wife pain, Mr. Meadows. You're free to continue lying to her, but I will tell your daughter everything. I have no intention of deceiving my wife."
"Are you going to tell her you threatened my life?"
Kadan smiled, and there was no humor at all in it. "Tansy has access to my mind. I don't think she's going to be very surprised at anything I ever do."
"You self-righteous son of a bitch." Don scrambled to his feet, his face red and twisted with anger. "You tell my daughter she's the product of a brutal rape. You tell her that she's been deceived for years, destroy everything she loves and believes in, and then feel good about yourself because you're such a fine, upstanding man."
Kadan flung the chair that had been placed under the doorknob against the wall with enough force to smash it into several pieces. Jerking open the door, he stalked out of the room, afraid of the cold in his veins, in his mind. He needed to see Tansy. To touch her. To make certain she was okay. He just wanted to hold her and keep her safe. Damn her father and his weakness. Telling her everything would destroy her world. Not telling her would leave a huge chasm between them.
Tucker and Ian came running down the hall toward him, guns drawn. The crash of the chair had been loud enough to alert them to potential trouble. Kadan just shook his head and kept moving toward the other end of the house, where Tansy slept. He picked up the pace without even realizing he was doing so, shoving open the door and standing there, framed in the doorway, drinking in the sight of her as she lay sleeping.
The room was dark, with only a small bit of light spilling through the curtains at the windows. The air still held a hint of cinnamon, and his stomach tightened as he drew a deep breath. Her hair fanned across the pillow, a cascading fall of white gold silk that tore at his heart. She looked so young when she slept, innocent and sweet, as if all the bad things in life hadn't touched her yet. She sighed softly and turned, reaching--for him? He hoped it was for him. He hoped he represented something good in her life in spite of all that had happened.
He crossed the room on silent feet and crouched down beside her. "Baby. You need to wake up for me." He bent his head and trailed kisses over her face. His hands slipped beneath the blanket to find the curves of her warm satin skin. "Open your eyes."
She blinked, the twin crescents of thick lashes batting at him while beneath the covers her body stirred, moving more fully into his hands. "Hey you." Her smile shook him, filled with welcome. With something soft and inviting. "Is it morning already?"
She sounded so drowsy--so sexy. His body tightened more. He couldn't help cupping the soft weight of her warm, soft breasts in his hands, or sliding his thumbs over her responsive nipples. "We have to go."
"I need a couple more hours of sleep."
He nuzzled her throat, kissing
his way down the curve of her breast. "You can sleep in the car, honey. I need you to get up now."
She gave a soft little groan of protest. "It's dark."
"I know. Come on. Come with me." His fingers tugged the blankets down just a little more, exposing her breast to the cooler air. He licked her nipple, then drew her breast into his mouth and suckled, sliding his arm around her waist to pull her more fully to him. She felt soft and pliant in his arms, offering herself to him, the way she did.
Kadan closed his eyes, savoring the moment, the knowledge that she so completely gave herself to him. He kissed his way back up her throat to find her mouth, losing himself there for a few minutes. She gave him everything, with no hesitation, without reservation. There was no resisting her, not when she just opened herself up for him and took him in. He pressed his forehead to hers, sharing breath.
"I'm sorry to wake you, Tansy. I know you're tired, but we're running out of time on this thing. Your parents are safe here and we need to get back so we can get the job done."
"I thought I'd have time to visit with Mom and Dad. I haven't seen them for weeks," Tansy protested. "And after what happened . . ."
"I know. But I need you to come with me now."
She drew back and searched his face, looking for what, he didn't know. What could he say when he wanted to rip out her father's heart? Anything he said might shatter her.
Tansy studied Kadan's grim face. So tough. So rugged. So uncompromising. He looked dangerous, but when he touched her, his hands were gentle and his mouth loving her whether he knew it or not. Something was wrong. Not the murders. This wasn't about the murders. She took a deep breath and let it out, wrapping her arms around his neck so he could pull her into a sitting position.
"You're upset."
The love in her voice shook him. As if he mattered. As if it mattered that he might be upset. If he was, it was on her behalf, not his own. He lifted her into his arms. "I'm taking you out to the car. We're heading back to the other house."
"I'm naked. I can't ride naked in the car," she protested.