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He could feel the ice battling against the mating heat to take over once again. To wrap around his soul, to freeze the emotional abyss waiting to spread through him and destroy him once and for all.
Window Rock, Arizona. A Native American who would be willing to help Breeds. One Lawe knew for a fact had been searching for a particular young woman who had been kidnapped decades before by the Council. Terran Martinez, his uncle. But neither Terran nor his father had been there for Morningstar Martinez. His sister.
Lawe’s mother.
“All the evidence we have verifies the termination,” Lawe pointed out.
“Because no one was left living to un-verify it,” she reminded.
“Remains were found in the cremation unit,” he argued. “Enough to prove there were at least two bodies.”
“And every guard in the building was dead,” she reminded him. “Did you find teeth? Bone matter? Anything to verify the DNA? Sex? I know how thorough Breeds are. There was nothing there or I would have known about it when Jonas gave me the file on Honor Roberts.”
“And how did you hear about this?” he asked, his tone grating. “That information hasn’t come up anywhere else.”
To which Diane smiled. “No one could verify their deaths, not even the Brandenmore scientists and research assistants I managed to talk to. I was probing into the suspicion of their escape when Gideon left his little note for me in my hotel room informing me that I had a traitor on my team and if I wanted to find who I was looking for, I should head to Window Rock and pay close attention to Terran Martinez.”
“And you trusted this information?” Thor asked, surprised.
She didn’t blame him; she was normally the most suspicious person she knew.
She breathed out heavily. “There had been too many accidents, Thor. I was already suspicious. And once I began checking into the information and Terran Martinez’s past, it began adding up.”
“Why didn’t you give Jonas this information in your report?” Lawe grated. “You didn’t tell me?”
Diane smiled back at him knowingly. “Because I didn’t trust the encryption for the digital files and I wanted to make certain the Martinez name or Window Rock didn’t get picked up by the wrong ears or listening devices. When I saw you had no intention of allowing me to complete the search for her, then I kept it to myself. This is my job, Lawe. Gideon Cross may be a killer as well as a feral Breed, but whatever caused him to give me that information kept me alive. Someone wants me out of the way so Amber or Rachel, possibly both, will be more vulnerable. Each “accident” has coincided with an event where Amber has been in danger. She needs all of us, not just Breeds, to protect her.”
“Have you considered the fact someone could be using you to draw your sister out?” Lawe demanded, his voice rough, tortured. “For pity’s sake, what in the hell makes you believe you can trust a Breed that’s carving up Brandenmore scientists like pork at a picnic?”
She rolled her eyes. Lawe had a tendency to become irritatingly caustic as he grew angrier.
“I didn’t say I trusted him. I said so far, he hasn’t lied to me,” she pointed out.
“Why tell you anything about the Roberts girl, or about the Breed?” Thor mused.
To which Diane stared at him then back to Lawe with knowing mockery. “Because he wants them too. For whatever reason, he’s after the same goal and he obviously believes I have a much better chance of drawing them out. He’ll shadow me. Watch me. He’ll try to get to them first once they’re identified. And I intend to keep that from happening.”
“How?” Lawe snapped. His patience was seriously wearing thin.
“I’ll let you know when I’ve figured that one out.” She shrugged in unconcern. “Until then, I’ll just do what I do best, Lawe. I’ll question, watch, listen, and pull my facts together. If all else fails, I’ll introduce myself to Mr. Martinez as his future niece-in-law and see if that helps.”
She was joking.
Unfortunately, Lawe wasn’t in a joking mood.
“Don’t even try it.” The growl in his voice sent shivers racing down her spine. “If you treasure that independence as highly as you claim to, Mate, don’t even fucking try it.”
She had a feeling facing the past was the last thing Lawe intended to do and the very thing that would end up happening before this mission was completed.
Just as she had a feeling, a very bad one, that before it was over with, her heart just might end up broken, or perhaps her neck instead.
•CHAPTER 11•
Lawe had to turn away from Diane. Drawing in a deep breath, he pushed his fingers through his hair and contemplated the cheap picture hanging on the wall in front of him.
Terran Martinez. Morningstar’s younger brother. The brother who had been searching for his sister, or proof of her death, for more than thirty years.
So what had happened to the proof of her location, which Lawe had sent to her father, Orin, the week before she was killed? Lawe had kept up with the family after his rescue but neither he nor Rule had ever approached them.
