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The health department would surely have informed him of the situation if they had been unable to reach her.
Of course, there was no reason why they couldn’t have reached her other than the fact that Ray Martinez’s cousin was the director there. If he had asked that she make him aware of any problems before Liza and his daughter were told, then that was exactly what would happen.
“There was no sense in worrying you,” her father stated as though it were of no importance at all.
She could only blink back at him.
She wasn’t going to berate her father in front of strangers, but there was a sense of disbelief and even a sense of betrayal that he had withheld something so important.
“We can discuss it later, Liza,” he promised her, as though he had sensed her feeling of betrayal. “I wasn’t intentionally keeping it from you.”
Yes, he had been, but once again, she wasn’t going to confront him here and now. Not when so many interested eyes were watching, suspicious, analyzing every move, every look, every word spoken.
Not when Stygian was keeping her from retreating, from hiding within herself by the invisible bonds of a mating she still didn’t understand.
She turned back to Jonas, determined to hold on to the anger building inside her.
“I want to know why the Genetics Council and Gideon Cross have targeted us just as much as you do,” she informed Jonas. “We’re nobodies, Mr. Wyatt. An assistant and a receptionist?” She all but laughed at the absurdity of it. “Why target us because of two girls no one has seen in over twelve years?”
“Evidently, for some reason they believe the two of you are those girls, or can lead them to the girls, as I’ve already explained.”
“Then explain it again, Mr. Wyatt.” With her gaze locked on the eerie silver eyes of the director, she stared back at him confrontationally. “I’m sick of hearing about these two girls and all the reasons why all these assholes think we can lead them to them. We don’t know them. We haven’t met them. And we sure as hell can’t help anyone find them. So tell me why the hell they keep coming after us?”
She’d had enough.
“If none of the above applies, Ms. Johnson, then I have no idea.”
“And you’re a liar,” she accused him roughly as she came to her feet, her gaze slipping to Wyatt’s wife, Rachel.
She noticed the other woman was not jumping instantly to her husband’s defense.
Let another woman call Stygian a liar and see how fast Liza could get up in their face.
Instead, Rachel Broen-Wyatt glanced at her husband with somber concern.
Wyatt’s brows arched with curious mockery. “And how would you know if I were lying?” he asked. “Unless you know something that you’re not revealing.”
Liza stared back at him, holding on to the sense of mist and memories that seemed determined to overtake her.
Not now. Not even a hint of self-doubt could be allowed to escape or every Breed here would be on her like a pack of wild animals.
“Stop with the games, Jonas.” It was Stygian, rather than her father, or Claire’s, who stepped from the side of the room.
Except Stygian.
He would stand between her and hell, she suddenly realized. A part of her could actually feel—feel him as though he were an integral part of her being—determined to protect her.
Liza felt his hand settle at the small of her back, a warm weight that pulled her back from the slight distance she’d managed to achieve without realizing it.
A distance she desperately needed right now. She had been deliberately receding from reality, hiding from the world or from whatever truths or knowledge she didn’t want to see until Stygian had come into her life. Now, she realized not just what a relief those retreats had been, but also how easy it would be to hide from any truth she might not want to accept. As well as the nightmares. Those hazy, terrifying dreams that had haunted her for so many years. The ones she never remembered, and hadn’t wanted to remember.
Had she always done this? Was it because s
he didn’t want it to be real? That she didn’t want to face what she was beginning to suspect was the truth?
“I don’t think I’m the one playing games.” Jonas sighed as the mockery eased from his expression, leaving a sort of weary acceptance. “And I don’t think your mate is either, Stygian. Whatever she knew has obviously either been stolen, or it’s a knowledge she’s unaware she even has.”
The look the director shot her father and Ray was telling. He believed they knew the truth, and Liza was certain they did.
