She might as well have given birth to Ginger. She couldn’t have loved her any more than a birth mother. He knew the baby had been born to a surrogate, a woman who had carried the mixed cocktail for Whitney or Braden, whichever had ordered the experiment, but when he studied Pepper’s face and Ginger’s, his mind tricked him into seeing similarities.

This child really was conceived in a test tube?

It was difficult to think that even from birth Ginger had never had a parent who cared. It was even worse to go all the way back to when she was first conceived, realizing she didn’t have two people who loved her coming together. That knowledge somehow made him feel as if a monster in a lab from a horror movie had thrown ingredients together to concoct her.

Yes. Pepper reached out with one hand, sliding it along the bed until she caught Ginger’s fingers in her own.

Wyatt’s heart performed a curious somersault in his chest when he saw the tiny little fingers curling around Pepper’s. The hand was so small and perfect lying in Pepper’s palm. His heart actually ached. That was the healer side of him, that sentimental idiot who had believed in happy-ever-after endings.

He didn’t want to feel that way about these two females. He wanted to see them as nothing but problems – preferably someone else’s. He couldn’t get over the resemblance between Ginger and Pepper. Ginger’s hair was dark and wavy, a baby’s hair. She had a small dimple that appeared occasionally on the right side of her mouth. Pepper didn’t, but her mouth was Pepper’s mouth. They had the same high cheekbones and oval face. He looked into her dark eyes, so dark, yet he could see the beginnings of a faint amber ring, surrounding the darkness, much like Pepper’s eyes.

Wyatt continued to stare down at them, his mind suddenly putting pieces together. Pepper had an immunity to cobra bites. Cobras couldn’t kill one another. She’d said the doctors were trying to build her immunity to snakebites and develop an antivenom that could be used for the soldiers. She hadn’t specified which snakebite though. She was already immune to the cobra bite. It had been the viper venom that had made her so ill.

“She’s your daughter,” he said aloud.

Pepper frowned at him. “I consider her my daughter, but I’ve never given birth, which is required for what I think you’re talking about. I’d claim her if she was mine.”

He shook his head. “Not if they used your eggs, which, believe me, honey, if Whitney is involved, he collects such things from anythin’ or anyone GhostWalker.”

Wyatt couldn’t keep the note of bitterness out of his voice. He’d been deceived when he’d gone into the program. Whitney was supposed to have been long gone, on the run, a man wanted by the military to answer for the crimes he’d committed. That wasn’t exactly the case. Someone high up was protecting him and aiding him in his experiments. Whitney still worked for the government, he was just far more covert.

Pepper studied Ginger’s face, the little hands and the mop of hair. There was no horror on her face, if anything, she examined the baby with a hint of eagerness. “Maybe a little. It would be absolutely wonderful, a miracle, if that were the case, because I intend to take care of all three of them, to be their mother. They need one. But you might take another good look at her, Wyatt. She looks more like you than she does me.”

Wyatt stared down at the child.

“Not to mention, you’re the genius,” Pepper pointed out.

His eyebrow shot up. “And you’re not? I guess babies all look alike.” He shrugged. “Does she need to be changed?”

“She uses the bathroom like a big girl. She’ll sign like this.” Pepper closed her fist and shook it. “If you give her a little step, she can make it on her own.”

“How did she break into the room when it was locked?” Wyatt asked.

“All three acquired the skill of picking locks at a very early age.”

He laughed and teased one of the waves on Ginger’s hair into a corkscrew curl. “We did that too, when we were little. All of us. Gator was the instigator. He taught us, I think. I don’ really remember, but Nonny said we were barely walkin’ when we started gettin’ into trouble.”

He kept his mind as blank as possible, which took a tremendous amount of discipline considering the thoughts running through his head. He could feel Pepper’s pain beating at him. She was worried too, probably about the other two babies left behind in the laboratory. He found it strange that they were still so connected that without merging his mind or using telepathic communication, he could feel her emotions – and if he could feel hers, did that mean she could feel his?

He used telepathic communication with the other GhostWalkers often, and never once had he been able to feel their emotions – he could guess, maybe, but not actually feel them. His body ached everywhere. His muscles and joints screamed at him and always, in the back of his mind was the pressing worry that they were running out of time. That was all Pepper – not him.

The last thing he wanted at that moment was for her to catch one single thought swirling around in his brain. He kept his expression as pleasant and calm as possible. He was a doctor and a GhostWalker. He could be stone if needed.

“You need more painkillers this mornin’, Pepper,” he said.

She shook her head. “I have to have a clear mind. I need to get on my feet.”

“No, you need to stay right where you are. I’m the doctor, remember? Ginger can look after you while I help Nonny with breakfast, and then you can give us a detailed layout of the laboratory along with how many guards and where they are. You must have studied their routine.”