AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He drove off as Cassa turned and lifted a brow in the sheriff’s direction.
Sheriff Lacey grinned at the look. “Patty’s my cousin,” she stated. “She’s been having a hard time lately. I didn’t want rumor circulating that Myron was seen having a nice little visit with a strange woman.”
At least the sheriff was honest.
“Cassa Hawkins.” Cassa extended her hand to the other woman. “I’m a fellow reporter. Myron and I went to college together.”
“He’s mentioned you actually.” The sheriff nodded with a smile. “You were there with him during the first interview with Callan Lyons, when he revealed the existence of the Breeds.”
That historic occasion was one that Cassa had nearly missed. s.” ssed The notice had gone across the nation that a breaking story in Ashland, Kentucky, was going to blow the top off a top secret private and military experiment that had been over a century in the making.
Cassa and Myron had met up in West Virginia and driven in at near breakneck speed. They had questioned Lyons, gone over the medical evidence and seen the truth for themselves, along with dozens of other reporters.
“I was there,” Cassa admitted.
That had been more than a decade ago. Hell, it was probably closer to twelve years before. So much time had passed. So many lives had been lost as well as created in that time.
So many years, and still the Genetics Council that had created the Breeds, then tried to destroy their creations, was hampering their freedom.
The Council funded pure blood societies, incited those groups against the Breeds and, in some cases, recaptured their creations and finished the destruction.
“There were a lot of us that threw a party the day Lyons revealed what was going on.” Danna nodded. “I was part of the Breed Freedom Society,” she revealed. “The battle isn’t over, but reporters such as yourself and Myron have definitely made the world safer for them.”
The Breed Freedom Society had disbanded a few years after Sanctuary, the Feline Breed compound, had been created.
They had created themselves as a group dedicated to the lives of the Breeds who managed to escape and to finding them. They hid them in the mountains and in their own homes, or smuggled them to other states. Whatever it had taken to protect them.
“Lyons coming forward made it much easier to protect them,” Cassa agreed. “The battle isn’t over yet though.”
“No, not quite,” the sheriff agreed as Cassa fought back a cold shiver.
The temperature felt as though it had dropped on the outside, while on the inside she was beginning to burn with disastrous results.
“The Breed Freedom Society is almost as legendary as Lyons himself,” Cassa told her. “Your group was together for more than two decades trying to protect the Breeds that came here. You did a wonderful job.”
“Did we?” The somber curve to the sheriff’s lips couldn’t be called a smile. “We did our bes
t, but it was rarely enough.” She turned and stared at Myron’s vehicle as it turned back to the main road. “He was married to a Breed, you know.”
She hadn’t known.
Cassa turned her head quickly to the rapidly disappearing car before turning back to the sheriff.
“I had no idea.”
Had Myron mated his Breed?
“She was killed a few years before Lyons came forward,” the sheriff said. “An entire group of Breeds was killed that night. It was Valentine’s night. She was pregnant at the time with their first child. David Banks was part of the group that hunted them down, though we couldn’t prove it.”
Good God. David Banks had been part of the Deadly Dozen, she had known that, or at least her informant had claimed he was, and Cassa hadn’t doubted it. But to hear this, to know he had killed so indiscriminately, for the fun of it, still had the power to shock her to the core of her soul.
“I’ve known Myron a lot of years,” Cassa said. “I had no idea.”
Danna shrugged. “It’s fairly common knowledge here in Glen Ferris. For a while, we didn’t think Myron would survive her death. He was in bad shape.” The sheriff shook her head in concern. “When he finally pulled himself out of it, he just wasn’t the same anymore. A few years later he married Patricia, but she knows Myron never forgot his first wife, Illandra.”
Which explained why Myron’s wife was so possessive and jealous. She had a man who she knew belonged to another woman. It wouldn’t matter if that woman had died, or if she was living, in her heart Patricia knew that his heart belonged to another.
“You talk to enough folks and you’ll hear about Illandra,” Danna sighed. “We all loved her, especially those of us who were part of the Freedom Society. If we’d known who the men were in that hunting party, we would have done a little hunting of our own.”
