AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Stygian felt his mate tense, felt to the bottom of his soul the sudden suspicion and anger that invaded her delicate body, and he knew she was remembering the night she had overheard Jonas attempting to convince him to betray her—to bug her phone and laptop for the access code into the Navajo database.
“I think it’s time you leave, Dad,” Liza stated then, the scent of her pain slicing through his soul. “We need to get ready and go job hunting, it seems. Since we no longer have jobs.”
She couldn’t describe the hurt flowing through her or the sense of betrayal she felt.
“Liza, we couldn’t risk the possibility that whoever was using the phones and laptops to hack into the database could actually manage to slip through the final layers of security,” her father argued as frustration tightened his expression. “Surely you understand that.”
“I understand that you live less than twenty minutes from this hotel,” she burst out furiously. “Twenty minutes, Dad. And rather than driving over here to tell me what was going on, you let me walk into the offices only to be stopped by security as though I were some criminal myself.”
Grimacing, he turned his head away for a second. He folded his arms over his chest, braced his feet apart and just stared back at her silently.
“So now I just get your military face,” she accused him, her voice thick. “As far as you’re concerned, the subject’s closed, right?”
“I apologized, Liza,” he stated firmly. “Once I had my information together, I came here, but you had already left.”
“You called my phone, knowing it was compromised and a call wouldn’t go through. You couldn’t call Stygian or Jonas, but you obviously got hold of the others.”
“Dad called me,” Claire stated with a hard, cold anger Liza considered uncharacteristic of her as she let Liza know that her father hadn’t tried to stop the humiliation she had suffered earlier.
“Claire, that’s enough,” her father warned her, his tone harsh, harsher than Liza had heard him speak to her since they had awakened from the wreck they were in as teenagers.
“God, this is incredible,” Isabelle stared at the two men, confusion creasing her face. “Claire and Liza have always behaved above reproach. They have never done anything to shame either of you, and this is the only way you can treat them now that they aren’t following your orders?”
“Isabelle, that isn’t true,” Audi argued. Liza noticed his voice was even sincere. “This has nothing to do with the mistakes you girls are making in your current lovers—”
“Oh, excuse me!” Isabelle demanded then. “Our mistakes in our lovers? You can go to hell! As for you, Uncle Ray, you can jump and accuse Claire of doing drugs because she had the nerve to argue with you? And you can’t go out of your way to warn your daughter not to arrive at the office after you’ve canceled her clearance? I’m sorry, Audi, but that’s exactly what it sounds like.”
“Isabelle.” It was Terran who stepped in at that point. “There are things you don’t understand, swee
theart.”
“They why not explain it, Dad?” Chelsea rose slowly from her seat as well. “Because it’s obvious the two of them”—she nodded toward Liza’s and Claire’s fathers—“aren’t going to explain a damned thing.”
Terran grimaced, his hand lifting to rub at the back of his neck as he glanced at the other two men, his expression uncertain. Finally, he gave a brief shake of his head as his expression turned resigned.
“I’m out of here,” Chelsea bit out, the fact that she was at the end of her patience more than obvious. “I’ve had it to my back teeth with the half-truths and manipulations going on here.” She turned to Liza. “When our parents decide to be honest with us and tell us what the hell is going on, I hope someone lets me know.” She stalked from the room, the door slamming closed behind her.
“Is she safe?” Liza asked Stygian softly as her friend slammed out of the room.
“She’s safe.” The growl in his voice sent a chill racing up her spine.
She didn’t dare glance back at his expression, not while she was watching the trepidation in her father’s eyes as he glanced behind her.
“Gentlemen.” Stygian stepped forward then. “Leave.”
The order was given in such a primal, furious tone of voice that Liza flinched.
Liza’s father glowered back at him. “This meeting isn’t over.”
“It’s over.” As he spoke, the door opened and Flint entered with Dog, Mutt, Mongrel and Loki. Behind them walked in Jonas Wyatt.
“What’s going on here?” Liza asked Stygian, her voice low.
“This room is tied into Breed security.” Lowering his head, he answered her in a tone that she doubted anyone but she could hear. “Jonas has been watching.”
“Did you bug my laptop, Stygian?” While she had his attention, had him close enough to ask where no one else could hear, she took the opportunity.
“I would never betray my mate.” The forbidding tone of his voice was almost enough to make her nervous.
