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“Then we all need to see it.” Her lips trembled for a brief second as Stygian sensed the slow, deepening fear inside her. “Please, Dad,” her voice lowered, uncertainty filling her then. “This is something I need you to do.” She looked to Ray then. “I need both of you to do it.”
Audi glanced away from her a second as though shoring his strength to deny her request.
That was his intention, Stygian could see it in his shuttered gaze when his eyes met Liza’s again. Then, within a heartbeat, what determination he’d been able to muster shattered. A grimace twisted his expression before he gave a slow, resigned nod. “We’ll be there, sweetheart.”
Stygian caught Ray’s expression too. Audi may be unable to deny his daughter, but Stygian was certain Ray wouldn’t have a problem with it. He had no intentions of showing up.
“Good.” Liza drew in a long, almost weary breath. “I’ll go to
work then.”
She moved toward her father rather than the door, though. Audi met her at the side of Ray’s desk, his arms opening for her as he accepted his daughter’s embrace. Her arms wrapped around his neck and for a second, she held on to him with a desperation born of a young woman’s fears and a daughter’s uncertainties.
Kissing her forehead, Audi released her a moment later, then watched silently as she turned and left the room. Quiet, thoughtful, Stygian could feel the woman and the daughter battling inside her and the need she was fighting to hide, the fears she refused to reveal.
She didn’t speak as she neared him. Stepping to her enough to force her to pause, he gripped her shoulders and bent his head to her ear. “I’ll let Jonas know they’re coming.”
She nodded shakily, and the scent of her tears almost did him in. “And I’m leaving early,” she informed him. “Just after lunch, if that’s possible.”
“Whatever you want is possible.” Releasing her, he let his hands linger against her shoulders for a moment before releasing her and watching her leave the room.
As the door closed behind her, he turned to the two men watching silently.
Her father didn’t remain silent for long.
“I know what you’re after,” Audi Johnson rasped furiously, careful to keep his voice low. “Stay out of my daughter’s bed, Breed. She deserves better than the likes of you.”
“Better than a Breed?” He gave a short, mocking laugh as he was now forced to face the reason for the man’s dislike. “Well, now, doesn’t that just suck, because I’m exactly what she’s going to get. And keep.”
“Don’t bet on it,” Audi snapped. “She has better sense than to allow herself to be fooled by you for long.”
Stygian stared at the two men then, sensing their determination to see him out of Liza’s life, forever.
It wasn’t going to happen.
“For Liza, I’ll ensure she’s unaware of the fact that you disapprove of the man she’s chosen, because it would destroy her should she ever learn that you believe she’s too inept not to allow herself to be fooled, or that you believe the man she’s falling in love with is somehow inferior,” he growled. “But never doubt, Mr. Johnson, should you ever attempt to destroy what I’m building with your daughter, I will make certain I take her so fucking far away that you’ll never have the chance to hurt her again. Do I make myself clear?”
Audi’s lips curled in disgust. “She would never go.”
“Yeah, she would,” Stygian assured him. “Her confidence as a woman and a warrior has stemmed from your belief in her. If she finds out you’ve lied to her, that your belief in her was an illusion, then you’ll destroy her. When you destroy the young girl that still lives and breathes in her soul, then you’ll destroy the ties that have held her to this area so firmly. And when you do that, I promise you, she will leave with me.”
He didn’t give them a chance to retaliate before he turned and pulled the door open. Stepping into the outer office, he faced the knowing sadness in Liza’s gaze and the worry and fear in her mother’s.
The animal inside him rose with predatory awareness.
She knew. A part of her was aware that more had been going on in the office than he or her father would want her to know.
Taking a seat in the outer office, close to the door, Stygian sat back, determined to bottle the anger and pretend it didn’t exist.
He should have expected it, he realized. It was a common problem to those Breeds who had mated human women. Even those who professed a lack of prejudice suddenly found it in surfeit whenever their daughters, or close female relatives, found themselves mated to one. As she worked, her father came and went, moving about the offices and taking care of business as head of security for the Nations headquarters and the president of the Navajo Nation. Audi maintained the illusion of politeness, and Stygian followed suit. But hell, Liza was no fool, and she was so damned intuitive that he swore she would have made an excellent Breed.
It was just after lunch and her determination to work through it, that she closed down her computer and straightened the papers on her desk before lifting her gaze to him.
“I’m ready to go,” she told him. “I e-mailed Ray and asked for half days for a while, and he’s agreed.”
“Besides, he and her father both know Liza needs to concentrate on her safety now,” Jane stated gently as she followed her daughter and rose to her feet from the couch across from Liza’s desk.
Stygian had little doubt that the change of hours had been the mother’s idea. She’d been nervous, antsy, each time the elevator pinged an arrival, and Stygian knew each time the doors slid open that Jane had braced herself for trouble.
