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But she had tried. He had to give her give her credit for her persistence; she wasn’t a quitter. She was strong and courageous, passionate and sassy. And he loved her. God, he loved her until it broke his heart in half.
A couch, table and several comfortable chairs sat in a rounded corner of the room. Tanner threw himself in the couch, leaned forward and poured himself a healthy drink.
“Liquor affects the mating heat, Tanner,” Cabal reminded him softly as he took a seat in one of the chairs opposite the couch. “You know it makes it worse. ”
“It can’t get worse. ” Tanner wiped his hand over his face before tossing back the burning liquor, grimacing as it burnt its way to his gut.
Rubbing at his beard-stubbled chin, it suddenly struck him that for all the Breed males’ lack of body hair, none of them had a problem growing a beard. Sometimes he wondered about the genetic mix they were learning they were. Was the world truly better off without them?
Lifting his gaze to Cabal, he breathed out roughly. “You knew. ”
His brother had known Scheme was Tanner’s mate; there was no other explanation. Cabal would have never walked away from the woman his soul screamed out for.
Cabal leaned back in the chair and sipped at the whiskey, his gaze somber as he stared back.
“I’ve suspected it for years,” he said. “I caught a scent of her just after I’d healed from the pits. My first assignment under the new Bureau was to shadow her for a few weeks. Each time I caught a scent of her, I could sense a connection. It just took a while to figure it out. ”
“How long since you’ve figured it out?” Tanner growled.
Cabal’s gaze flickered. “Six, seven years maybe. ”
“And you didn’t tell me?” His jaw clenched in anger. “Why?”
Cabal leaned forward, lowering his head to stare into his glass before sighing deeply and lifting his head.
“Jonas,” he finally said as he lifted his gaze once again. “I went to Jonas. He convinced me that if you kidnapped her then, as I knew you would, it could be too dangerous. He had suspected himself, I think. He knew your fascination for her. He also knew how deep the hatred for Cyrus Tallant ran in our family. ”
“He thought I’d hurt her?” That surprised him. He had always controlled the animal inside him, had never killed rashly.
“I don’t know, Tanner. ” Cabal shook his head roughly. “Jonas was determined that we wait. I accepted that decision, because it felt right. ”
“Betraying me felt right?” Tanner asked him curiously, his expression twisting with his inner rage. “Do you know what her father did to her, Cabal? Did you have any idea the hell she was going through?”
Cabal’s eyes narrowed, the green gaze flickering. “She was his daughter,” he said slowly. “His right hand. But what she said earlier…”
Tanner leaned forward. “He buried her alive, Cabal, more than once, and unless my senses are wrong, after he killed her baby, he had her sterilized. ”
Cabal paled. “He buried her?”
“The power shut off to the lights the other day when I was checking the cabin. When I returned, she was nearly insane with hysteria and the fear of being buried alive. She hasn’t mentioned the sterilization, but my sense of smell doesn’t lie. She wouldn’t have done that to herself. ”
He couldn’t explain how he knew she wouldn’t, but he knew for a certainty.
“God. ” Cabal tossed back his own liquor before refilling his glass and downing it as well. “Jonas couldn’t have known. ” He shook his head jerkily. “He couldn’t have suspected. He would have done something. ”
“Would he?” Tanner leaned forward slowly. “He advanced to director of the Bureau because of the spy he managed to acquire inside Tallant’s organization. What if his spy was Scheme?”
It made sense. Instinct gathered inside him, laying the final pieces together in the puzzle that was Scheme.
“She was Tallant’s assistant,” he continued. “Closer to him than anyone else, able to access any file she needed. She knew the rumors in the Tallant ranks as well as the truths and the plans the bastard was creating to strike against the Breeds using the various racist groups. ”
“And Tallant suspected,” Cabal whispered. “He would have tortured her, tried to make her admit it; it’s his favorite game. ”
Exactly. Tallant always wanted proof if possible.
“He sent the assassin after her why?” Tanner asked then. “Why did he stop torturing her and decide to kill her instead?”
“Either he’s figured out he can’t break her, or she has something he can’t risk going further. Something he didn’t anticipate her finding out,” Cabal mused. “But what?”
