Free Ghost Phoenix by Corrina Lawson Page B

done.”
    â€œForgive me if your threats mean nothing, coming as they are from someone who already needed rescuing today.”
    â€œOh, it’s not me you have to worry about.”
    Under other circumstances, Marian would like meeting a firestarter and a telepath. But not if they wanted to kill her.
    She stared out the window as they turned off the highway onto a suburban road. Getting caught by customs had been her worst fear before today. She should have quit as she’d intended, at the party last weekend.
    Oh, hell, stop complaining, Marian. You love that Richard keeps calling you angel in a voice that makes you swoon. What was she, fifteen again when it came to this guy, ready to go weak in the knees? Apparently.
    But when she was fifteen, she hadn’t dared show her power to anyone. Her grandfather’s insistence on using it just for family gain had changed her perception of her gift as a true gift and instead as something to be ashamed of.
    Richard made it feel like it was part of her.
    She looked down at her bloodstained hands. This Phoenix Institute wasn’t even the worst of all this. There was somebody out there who had shot Richard.
    â€œSo do you expect me to pick a side?” she asked Montoya.
    â€œLooks like you already did.”
    â€œBecause I helped bandage a man who was shot saving your life?” Of course, maybe Montoya had noticed her clinging to Richard.
    Richard squeezed her hand.
    â€œLast time we dealt with this guy’s brother, he was specializing in medical experiments and kidnapping pregnant women.”
    â€œWhy?” she asked.
    â€œSome sort of plan to create a specific psychic power.”
    That was similar to the reason why Richard wanted to use Rasputin’s DNA, assuming they could find the body. But Rasputin was hardly in a position to object. What harm could that do him? And just because Richard’s brother had done something wrong, it didn’t mean Richard was doing something wrong. God forbid she should be held accountable for something her grandfather did.
    â€œDo you always divide your world into those with you and those against you, Daz Montoya?” Richard asked. His voice sounded nearly normal now.
    Montoya pulled up to a locked steel gate with barbed wired around the top. Past the gate, she could only make out the distant outline of a building with a tower in the center.
    â€œAlec Farley’s my friend and my teammate, Genet,” Montoya answered after he spoke to someone via a speaker at the gate. “I divide the world into those who want to help him and those who want to hurt him.”
    â€œI helped you,” Richard said.
    â€œMaybe.”
    â€œIf I had died, would that have proved my intentions to you?”
    â€œYou didn’t die,” Montoya said.
    â€œI know. Very inconvenient for you.”
    Montoya, Marian finally realized, was a bit scared of Richard. Or maybe wary was a better term for it.
    The gate swung open and they drove through.
    The lawn surrounding the Phoenix Institute buildings was lush and well kept. To the right, she caught a glimpse of rose bushes and a garden beyond them. The main building resembled a large hotel and conference center.
    Huh. She expected something far more sinister.
    She looked over at Richard to see what he thought, but his expression was unreadable. What kind of man faced the people responsible for his brother’s death with no expression?
    A dangerous one.
    Montoya parked next to a line of vans that looked exactly the same as the one he was driving.
    â€œDid you get a bulk discount?” she asked.
    Montoya smiled for the first time. “Something like that.”
    He stepped out of the vehicle to walk around to the passenger door on their side. Marian reached to open it. Richard clamped his hand around her wrist. “Let him,” he whispered. “And let him think I’m weaker than I am.”
    She nodded.
    Montoya slid open the door and