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“Daddy.” Soft, a daughter’s gentle tone with a hint of reprimand.
Audi turned to her. “I have to make certain they know what they’re doing, sweetheart. That’s my job.”
And she didn’t believe him for a moment.
“Trust me,” she said softly, but even Stygian heard the edge of steel in her tone.
Slowly, her father’s demeanor softened, but only slightly. Giving his daughter a quick nod, he glanced back at Stygian and indicated the Navajo president’s office.
With a last glance to Liza’s concerned expression, he gave her a reassuring smile before following her father.
With a brief knock on the president’s office door, Audi Johnson opened it before leading the way inside.
The tension inside the room was thick enough to cut with a knife, as the saying went.
Nation president Ray Running Wolf Martinez wasn’t alone. Sitting behind the heavy walnut desk, he was glaring at the man sitting before it.
Jonas Wyatt.
Standing to the side of the room, between two wide, tall windows, stood Rule Breaker and the Russian Breed known only as Cavalier. The Lion and Coyote Breeds didn’t always get along, unless they were working with Jonas. And they only worked together with Jonas when the situation was likely to become explosive.
Stygian nodded to the two high-level enforcers before staring back at Jonas with silent demand.
“Your boss lied to us,” Audi stated as he moved to stand behind Ray Martinez as he cast a short glare to Jonas. “He attempted to downplay the danger that our daughters are facing, as well as the reasons for it.”
“You should have expected that.” Stygian suspected that was exactly the reason they were all there now.
Jonas hadn’t expected Johnson’s return, Stygian knew. He’d clearly believed Liza’s father would bow to his wisdom and stay put in New York where he couldn’t interfere or begin calling in his own contacts or instigating his own investigation.
“I returned for a reason,” Audi grunted.
Jonas, as arrogant as always, sat u
ncharacteristically silent, his expression curious as he watched the two men behind the desk.
“This is not a situation I appreciate,” Audi Johnson stated, his gaze encompassing them all.
“Liza needed your return for the sake of her heart, not for her safety,” Stygian inserted, wondering if the other man intended to try to pull his daughter from Breed protection. And he could, Stygian feared. Liza trusted her parents above anyone and everyone, and it would be a stupid man that doubted that. “My life stands before her and any danger that could stalk her, Mr. Johnson.”
He wasn’t certain what to say or how to say it. He was a Breed trained to kill in silence, not to seduce or to trick. He wasn’t given to flowery statements nor was he given to reassuring anyone in any way. All he had was his strength and the truth. The pure determination to ensure his mate survived, no matter the obstacles.
Both Ray and Audi watched him carefully, though they said nothing.
In Liza’s father’s eyes, Stygian saw an easing, slight though it was, of the antagonism that had gleamed there.
“Very pretty,” Jonas murmured, though his words lacked his customary mockery, before he turned to the other two men. “Are we finished now, gentlemen?”
The president glared back at him. “Director Wyatt, this Nation is not your personal playground,” he stated with icy disdain. “And I resent your attitude that it is.”
Jonas rose slowly to his feet.
Tension increased tenfold as his expression tightened. Expressionless, his mercury gaze lacking emotion, he was the Breed he had been created to be: merciless, powerful, expertly engineered manipulator with a full agenda where the Navajo were concerned.
These two men had every right not only to distrust him, but also to be highly suspicious of any and all motives Jonas may present. He was a man fighting for more than his own life, or the survival of the Breeds now. And he had been dangerous enough with those agendas. Now, he was fighting for the life of his child, and that child was more precious to him than even his own soul.
Audi Johnson’s gaze narrowed as the Navajo president slowly followed suit and rose to his feet as well.
“My daughter lies with a fever high enough to kill another child.” His tone was so harsh, so grating, Johnson and Martinez flinched. Stygian stared back at him, surprised to see him laying his cards so clearly on the table. An unheard-of move for Jonas. “My child lies in pain and stares up at me, gentlemen, and asks, as only a two-year-old can, why it hurts so bad and why Daddy can’t fix this.” For a second unheard-of occurrence that Stygian knew would never be mentioned, Jonas’s gaze gleamed with the dampness of an emotion that went far beyond tears. “So don’t think for one moment that I won’t be here, taking over where I can, testing your weaknesses and betraying whoever I have to betray to save my child. Just as you would. So let us not misunderstand each other now, nor in the future. That child is more important to me than your entire fucking Nation, and your lack of cooperation is something I find not only reprehensible but immoral.”
