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“Close.” She pushed her fingers through her hair as though frustrated. “Close, until you decided to play the moron. God, couldn’t you have given me just a few more days? That was all I needed.”
Was it working? He was suspicious. He was still watching her as though he knew she was lying, knew she was playing him.
“How can I believe you?” He wanted to though, because the thought of finally proving the Breeds were a threat was irresistible.
“Don’t you ever pay attention to anything beyond your own inglorious little fantasies?” she scoffed. “Tell me, Todd. Have you ever shaken hands with one of the Breeds’ wives
? Didn’t you ever pay attention to how you are never allowed to touch one of them? How only certain members of any department are allowed around them? They told me about mating heat within my first year there, because the alpha’s wife, as well as the second-in-command’s, was becoming friends with me. I had to sign waivers to hell and back and swear on everything under the sun that I would never reveal it. To prove it, I had to ensure one of them mated me.” She glanced at Hawke as though in disgust and caught the barest flicker of his eyelashes.
Oh God, let him be waking up. Let him be okay. She had no idea how to get out of this other than running her mouth. Todd was too far away for her to jump him, and was too suspicious for her to get him out of the room.
“Hawke still has to die,” Todd told her as she turned her gaze back to him.
“Oh sure, kill the goose with the golden egg.” She rolled her eyes. “Where do you think the mating heat comes from? Don’t you read the papers? It’s a hormone, Todd. He has to do all these little ‘alive’ things, like kissing me, screwing me, trying to make little Breed babies with me. Do you understand yet?”
She was going to throw up. She couldn’t believe she was saying these things, that Hawke was listening, that he could hear her. She had fought for so long to make amends for what she had done unwillingly. Now it would only appear as though she had willingly betrayed them.
She could see her future draining away before her eyes. She could see her happiness dying, her life becoming forfeit. But, if Hawke lived, if he managed to save himself, then it would be worth it.
Her Hawke was well worth dying for.
TEN
Hawke could smell the lies coming off Jessica in waves. The desperation to make Todd Bennett believe her went clear to her soul. She sounded convincing, and when he snuck a brief look at her face, she looked convincing. His Jess was playing the role of her life and fighting to give him a chance to get his bearings.
The animal inside him was slowly coming awake. He could feel his senses sharpening, his strength returning. His unique Breed genetics were slowly pushing past the barrier that had clouded his mind.
What the fuck had happened? He felt like he had been hit by a two-by-four, but he knew there wasn’t a chance in hell anyone could have slipped up on him that easily.
“I can’t believe whoever gave you the order to try anything this insane,” Jessica continued with a disgusted sigh. “Really, Todd. Didn’t your little attempted assassin inform your group how many times I’ve been out in that forest trying to escape this place?”
There was a moment of silence.
“The group doesn’t know about that,” Todd finally admitted. “I was the one shooting at you.”
“Father would have had you killed if he were still alive,” she spat back at him. “Even he knew not to attempt to kill me. He knew what I was trying to do, he just didn’t agree with it. Do you think he would have risked drugging me if I had been truly totally against it? The drug was only there to give me a plausible escape, not because the damned thing actually worked. Use your brain for a change.”
Hawke felt her move away from the tree as he opened his eyes just enough to focus, to see if his vision had fully returned yet.
The first thing he saw was the porcelain figure on the floor, one tiny crystal wing lying in fragments against the hardwood.
He had to grit his teeth to keep from growling in fury. That had been his first gift to her, a reflection of what he saw in her. His angel. The beauty that could tame the beast inside him.
Todd Bennett was a dead man walking.
“I wish I could believe you, Jessica.” Todd’s voice was filled with regret, with hope. “The story is good, I’ll give that to you. It’s enough to make me want to believe.”
“Then kill me,” she laughed. “Go ahead, Todd. Make the worst mistake of your life. Because when you do, Uncle Craig will reach out from prison and snap your skinny little neck.”
Craig Raines. His arrest had been made so quietly that it hadn’t even hit the papers. Only a few people could have known of his arrest. Jess knew, because she had given the Breeds the information that her uncle and her father both had ties to the pure blood groups.
Hawke felt Todd pause then.
“Craig wasn’t caught,” he said, but Hawke could hear the fear in his voice then.
“Don’t be a fool,” Jessica snapped, and though the tone of her voice was confident, he could feel her fear increase. “Craig was the mastermind behind the plot to kill the Breeds at the Christmas party in Advert just before my release. He was also my contact.”
Hawke was almost ready to move. He could feel his muscles unlocking, adrenaline coursing through his body as he tensed to attack. Just another few seconds. If Jess could just hold on a little longer, distract Todd just a bit more . . .
