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He shot her a glare. “Do you want Amburg to come out of there alive, Ria? If I saw his hands on you, knowing the blood that coats them, I wouldn’t be able to restrain myself.”
She ignored the declaration and turned back to Jonas.
“Is Alaiya being tested?”
His gaze moved to Mercury again.
“I didn’t ask Mercury, I asked you.”
He nodded shortly. “One of our enforcers escorted her to the lower-level labs we have Amburg in now. Her samples were taken several hours ago.”
“And was she showing signs of mating heat?”
Jonas didn’t speak. Ria felt her heart tighten, felt it burn like a live coal in her chest.
“I see.” She leaned forward, straightened the papers on her desk and stared sightlessly at the screen. “Let me know when you need me to give you the blood and saliva. I’ll be working until then.”
Silence filled the room for long moments.
“I’ll send Amburg’s tech up when I leave. She’s a young Breed; she worked in another of the labs, assisting the scientists there, before the rescues. She’ll take care of you.”
Ria nodded and moved another transmission into place.
She focused on work. She had always focused on work. It didn’t betray, it didn’t consume, it didn’t eat away at her emotions. “By the way, your transmission last night came from the Breed barracks, rather than the estate house as you assumed. Low-level, it piggybacked on an outgoing transmission and ended at the hotel in Buffalo Gap.”
She pushed her chair back from the computer as Jonas edged from the desk. Rising from it, she gave him the seat and moved around the desk as he sat down. He stared at the transmission display she’d had running within a tracking program she’d downloaded from the Breed satellite once the computer in the office had been linked directly to it.
“How did you find it?” Jonas’s fingers were moving across the keyboard. “We don’t have this program.”
“Sanctuary’s security level hasn’t been raised sufficiently to allow use of the program,” she told him. “I had clearance to use it personally, granted by Leo himself when I awoke this morning and checked my messages.”
Which meant Dane had come clean with him. For some reason, that had made her feel less like an outsider. Dane had called Leo when the situation had grown out of her control. He had been ready to face Leo’s rage to bring her back to South Africa.
She crossed her arms over her breasts, pushing that knowledge aside as she frowned at the other information she had found.
“Why is Ely ordering codeine from one of Brandenmore’s subsidiaries?” she asked. “I would have thought all medications and research supplies ordered outside Vanderale or Lawrence Industries would go through Engalls.”
Jonas paused and lifted his gaze, his eyes sharp, deadly.
“Breeds don’t take codeine,” he told her. “It doesn’t work as well with our systems as it does with non-Breeds.”
Ria shrugged. “Check her order transmissions, the ones with the attached coding on them. She’s made several orders over the past six to eight months, with increasing frequency. She’s also ordering pain medications of increasing strength. Morphine was added to the list last month.”
“There haven’t been any requisitions or payments for those drugs,” he told her. “I’d know if there were.”
“Then maybe she’s paying for them another way.”
The silence, the heavy, dangerous tension, that filled the room had the hairs along her arms and her neck lifting in response.
Jonas pulled a communicator from the side of his belt, attached it to his head and pulled the mic to his cheek.
“Jackal? Secure Dr. Morrey’s office and place enforcers Blade, Noble and Mordecai within the labs until all computers can be confiscated. I want Ely confined to her quarters, and inform Callan and Dane I’m on my way to Callan’s office for an emergency meeting.”
He disconnected the link, pulled the headset off and stared at Ria, fury swirling in his eyes.
“When did you find this?”
“Just before you came in.” She shrugged. “But I’d be careful, Jonas. It was too easy to find and I don’t like that.”
