Spider Game (50 page)

“You knew that. You knew he had a breeding program and some of these men were forcing the women to have sex with them. You
knew
and you turned your backs on them,” Wyatt accused.

She nodded. “For Ed. I had no choice if I wanted to keep him alive.”

“They were raped repeatedly,” Wyatt said.

“I know.” She lifted her head. “I
know
. Do you think I sleep at night knowing what I let happen in order to try to protect my husband? I don’t. I hate what I became. What I’ve become. Still, if I could have him back…” She broke off.

Wyatt leapt out of his chair and paced across the floor, fury riding him. “You knew my children and my grandmother were in that house. My
wife
. The woman I love the way you loved your husband, and you still sent a full team of soldiers – a
full
team and two helicopters.”

“
His
helicopters.
His
soldiers,” Violet hissed. “How else can I bring him down? You’re soldiers. Trained. An elite force. You did your jobs. And you wiped out an entire
full
team. But you left one. The man you interrogated went running back to Whitney and he would have blown everything. I had to kill him before he connected with Whitney and make it look like he’d died because of wounds he’d sustained. Fortunately, Whitney trusts me just about as much as he could ever trust anyone.” She sounded scathing, as if they were guilty of not doing their jobs.

She’s lying about that man going to Whitney. He went to her,
Cayenne said.

Wyatt suddenly flung his body in front of Violet’s, hands slamming down on the arms of her chair, leaning in close to her. “You
bitch
. Did you not hear me? Do you not understand? You sent those
trained
soldiers after my wife. My children.
Ma
grand-mere.
Nonny would have been killed if Cayenne hadn’t jumped in front of her. Their deaths are not acceptable for your revenge. They aren’t expendable.”

Violet didn’t flinch. “It didn’t occur to me that Whitney’s soldiers had a chance to kill anyone, let alone your family. I presumed that you had protection in place for them.”

“Cayenne was shot. Twice.” Trap took up the attack when Wyatt, clearly disgusted, prowled across the room to keep from strangling the woman.

Violet’s gaze swept up and down Cayenne. “She looks alive to me.”

Trap’s breath hissed out. The air shimmered. Turned opaque. The shimmer drifted in a circle around Violet’s chair, wrapping her up in a soft, incandescent veil. She coughed. Once. Twice.

Trap stared at her, not breaking eye contact, watching as she began to choke. To change color. He didn’t blink. Didn’t move. Stared at her as any lethal predator might his prey.

CHAPTER 20

W
hat the hell are you doing, Trap?
Joe snapped.
What’s going on in there?

I’m killing this fucking bitch,
Trap replied.
She allowed women to be raped repeatedly, held prisoner and experimented on for her own gain. She knew Whitney was giving Flame cancer and she didn’t care. She sent a full team of trained soldiers to Wyatt’s home where his children and wife were. She couldn’t care less that Cayenne was shot. She’s not worth it, Joe. She’s the enemy, and we take out the enemy. Can you imagine what she’ll do if she becomes the VP?

I am ordering you to stand down. Right now. You stand down.
Joe poured command into his voice. Trap wasn’t a man to accept commands unless he totally respected the man heading his team. He’d always given Joe respect. He’d never once disobeyed his order. Joe, and the team, had covered for him more than once when he’d ignored a directive coming from above Joe.

I overheard those soldiers talking about Cayenne, calling her names, acting like she was filth, an abomination to be stamped out. Those soldiers were loyal to Violet, not Whitney, no matter what she says. So screw her, Joe.
 

Stand. The fuck. Down. That’s an order.
 

Cayenne very gently brushed her hand over Trap’s face, her fingers lingering along the seam of his lips. “Honey. Let it go.”

Trap stood up so fast his chair rocked. He stepped away from the group, but before he did, he blew air into the center of the opaque mass. Turning his back on Violet he paced across the room to stand beside Draden.

Violet fell out of her chair onto the floor, her hands around her throat, her body spasming. None of the men moved to help her. It was Cayenne who went to her knees beside the senator.

“There’s a pitcher of water and glasses over there on the sideboard,” she said quietly. “Trap, I need a glass of water now.”

“This is fucking bullshit and you know it, Cayenne. She’s a lying bitch who will do anything to get her way. She’ll lie and kill and watch women she was raised with be raped and tortured in order to get what she wants.” He poured water into a glass and brought it to her. “She’ll let children die, put them in danger, if it serves her purpose. I don’t want you fucking touching her.”

Violet sat up, coughing heavily, dragging clean air into her lungs, her body trembling. She took the glass of water Cayenne held out to her and drank deeply. Cayenne stood and leaned down to take her elbow. Violet drew back as if contact with Cayenne might contaminate her.

“I would prefer not to be touched,” Violet said, her voice haughty in spite of her coughing. “I have an aversion to…” Her gaze swept up and down Cayenne’s body. “Insects,” she finished, clearly meaning to insult.

“
Fucking
bitch.” Trap reached down, caught Cayenne’s arm and yanked her up and to him. He enfolded her in his arms, sheltering her against his body, against his heart.

“Actually, Senator,” Cayenne said, turning in Trap’s arms to face the woman. Trap locked both arms just under her breasts, holding her in place so she couldn’t help Violet up. “A spider is not an insect. It’s an arachnid. I’m neither. But then you know that. You were striking out because Trap scared you to death, although I know you’re telling the truth when you state you have an aversion to me – to what I am. I suggest you tell us why we’re here so we can leave before someone gets hurt.”

Violet struggled to get to her feet. She had to use the chair to pull herself up. Her breasts were heaving, nearly coming out of the tight bodice of her gown as she continued to struggle for air. She collapsed back into her chair and gulped more water from the glass she’d refused to relinquish while she fought to get up.

When she had her breathing under control and she could speak again, she waved toward the chairs. “Thank you, Cayenne, I appreciate you coming to my assistance.” Her voice was stiff and the senator didn’t look at her when she forced herself to be polite.

Cayenne nodded, but Trap didn’t allow her to move. He kept her at a distance, holding her, back to him, facing the senator.

Violet moistened her lips, took another drink of water, her hand shaking. She noticed the water moving in the glass, giving her away, and she put it down on the little table beside her chair.

“I thought you were paired with Whitney,” Wyatt said. “If that’s the case, why are you opposing him? Why aren’t you showing him the same devotion you did your husband?”

Violet’s gaze swept over him. “You know why.” Her voice was low. Still shaky.

“Because pairing gives a powerful physical attraction, not an emotional one,” Trap said. He felt Cayenne’s gaze burning into him, but he didn’t look at her. “Whitney can’t control that. He doesn’t understand the emotional because he doesn’t feel.”

“He feels other people’s pain,” she corrected, wiping her mouth, taking the last vestige of lipstick. “He knows that I know he is responsible for Ed’s death. He likes the idea that I’ll serve him all the while aware that he killed the man I love. He knows that it hurts me, but that’s his enjoyment. The only time he’s truly happy is when someone else is in pain. He prolongs it, so he can watch.”

“So these experiments of his are more self-serving than patriotic?” Wyatt asked.

Violet frowned, hesitating. Finally she shook her head. “I wouldn’t say that. He’s a patriot. He honestly believes he can cut down on the deaths of American soldiers. He absolutely wants to create soldiers who are elite and have far better chances of survival. His ultimate goal is that those soldiers will create the next generation of soldiers. He believes in what he’s doing.”

She was obviously reluctant to admit that. “Saying that, he despises women and feels they are disposable. The same with female children. Any girl in an orphanage is at risk if she has the slightest psychic ability. He ‘sees’ the ability. I don’t know how, but he knows. He also ‘sees’ what he calls a ‘true’ pairing. He thinks in terms of soldiers and what they can do together, but I think it is more like Dr. Fontenot suggests. The pairing is both emotional and physical as well as psychic. That’s why it’s so deep.”

She pressed her closed fist to her mouth. It was shaking. “Ed wasn’t psychic, but he loved me. He truly loved me. Whitney didn’t understand that bond. He isn’t capable of feeling it, so he can’t really understand it.”

“Your husband set up the Norton brothers, sending their team into the Congo, straight into an ambush. You knew about that, didn’t you?” Trap asked.

“You don’t understand. Whitney wanted a diamond. It was important to his research. In order to get what he wanted, he used my husband.”

“In order to get what your husband wanted, the two of you sent
our
soldiers into an ambush knowing the likelihood of their survival was very slim,” Trap snapped.

Violet sighed. “You deliberately don’t want to understand. Politics is a road of sheer treachery. You have to have allies. You have to tread carefully. It’s all about making the right connections, and in doing that, you often have to compromise your code of ethics. That’s the way the game is played. It’s been that way forever. I didn’t make up the rules. It could have been any senator Whitney approached with his offer.”

“You know,
Senator
, even though I think some of what you’re saying and how you’re acting is genuine, there isn’t any difference between you and Whitney,” Trap snapped. “He tortures little girls and forces them into sexual slavery in order to get what he wants. He believes the end justifies the means. You know that’s all going on and you let it, you betray those women and you send in soldiers with children around…”

“
Vipers.
Made in a petri dish. You know what he does. You know none of you, including the children, are truly human anymore.”

“There it is,” Trap said. “You didn’t give a damn whether or not the girls lived through the attack. All you cared about was making sure what you wanted happened.”

Wyatt leapt up and stood over Violet, his fingers curled into fists.

Stay calm, Wyatt. Trap’s already a hothead. I don’t need both of you to lose it in there. We have to find out what she wants.
Joe’s voice was devoid of all feeling.

Wyatt swore and turned on his heel, shoving the chair out of his way so he could stalk across the room.

“To take down
Whitney
,” Violet emphasized. “If we manage to rid this world of him, the girls will no longer be in danger. He has seven laboratories he uses for experiments. Laboratories where he and his people create genetic mutants. Disgusting, nonhuman beings. Creatures that kill without mercy.” There was sheer revulsion in her voice, in her mind. She actually shuddered, not even seeing Trap’s reaction. She was too busy trying to persuade them that she was right.

“Seven monsters just like Whitney oversee those labs for him. You took down Braden, but that leaves six more. I don’t have those locations, but I know they exist because I’ve heard Whitney talking to the men and giving them orders. I know he flies to them whenever he feels like it. He gets help from so many people in power. If I get to be vice president, I can find those people and get rid of them.”

Ask her who set our team up to be ambushed in Afghanistan,
Joe commanded. He was still feeling the effects of his injuries.

“Who sent our team into an ambush in Afghanistan?” Trap demanded. “And tell the fucking truth because we’ll know if you lie.”

She raised her chin. “He did that. Not me. He wanted Wyatt home.”

That’s a mixture of truth and lies,
Cayenne whispered into Trap’s mind.

“But you knew he was doing it, didn’t you?” Trap snapped.

Violet shrugged. “I couldn’t stop him.”

Cayenne hesitated for the first time.
I think it was Violet that did it and Whitney knew, but honestly, I don’t know for certain, only that she was very aware and feels no remorse. At. All.

“But you could have warned us all,” Wyatt said. “Just tell us why you brought us here so we can go. Being in your company offends me.”

“Is that so?” Violet’s gaze narrowed on him. “You live with a snake and your best friend lives with a spider. Your children are venomous creatures, and yet you can’t be in my presence because you say it offends you? Do you have any idea of the monsters he’s created?”