He still heard his mother’s screams in his nightmares. He could still here the certainty in her voice that her father would have his vengeance, that her family would punish them all. And just as he had silently predicted, no one had struck out at the Council to make them pay for her death.
Or had they?
It was days later when the Breeds in that lab had been liberated. The force sent in to free them had reached the Breed labs hidden in the mountains just outside New York City, and the Breeds had been released from the harsh captivity and inhuman training they were subjected to.
Tightening his fingers at his hips for long moments, he forced himself to turn around and confront Diane once again.
“There are no Bengal Breeds in Window Rock,” he told her. “The chief of the Navajo Nation is Ray Martinez, Diane. My birth mother’s older brother. I keep up with them. I would know if there were any Bengal Breeds there.”
Diane’s gaze was somber. Lawe could feel the comforting warmth of her compassion reaching out to him. He almost wished she had maintained her anger because without that it was damned hard to maintain his.
Of course, she would know the facts of his history. The Breeds who had fought with her before Jonas had mated her sister had most likely answered any questions she asked. Her men had a hard time telling her no, it seemed. And they had seemed particularly enamored with her.
“Judd’s Breed genetics were recessing before his escape,” Diane reminded him. “It was the reason he was slated for termination. Somehow the drugs they were giving him had begun to have the appearance of reversing the Breed DNA.”
Lawe frowned at the information. “Where the hell did you hear this?”
Her lips quirked. “Argentina, Lawe. Several of the scientists and researchers working with Brandenmore escaped there when they received word the FBI and the Bureau of Breed Affairs were preparing to serve a search warrant on the facility and to enact Breed Law against anyone found there.”
Lawe nodded tightly. “Argentina revoked their agreement of extradition against Breed researchers and participating individuals with the United Nations for crimes against genetically altered beings. We suspect they receive quite a hefty yearly payment in return.”
Diane suddenly rubbed at her upper arms as though chilled as she nodded in agreement. “I was there for three weeks. Several of the research assistants I talked to were informants for the U.S. on the group of scientists living there. One of my contacts managed to set up a meeting with several of them. Once they knew I had no intention of giving the Bureau their names, they were very cooperative.”
And Lawe had no doubt he knew who several of those informants were. They may play at wanting assurance that the Breeds were unaware of them, but the truth was, they were only still living because they were giving the Bureau the same information or more than they were giving the U.S. government.
The knowledge that she had talked to them gave birth to another suspicion, though, one that had his shoulders tightening.
His gaze shifted to Thor as he remained silently at the door, his arms crossed over his broad chest, his expression brooding as he listened to the conversation.
The knowledge that Diane had gone out without him obviously didn’t set well with the other man.
“Do your men know who you talked to?” The Bureau couldn’t afford to lose any of their informants in Argentina. If the spy in her group knew who she had talked to—
The look she gave him was filled with disdain, but she slid a silent apology to Thor. “I had already received the warning from Gideon. Though at the time, he called himself the Executioner. I didn’t risk it. I slipped out at night and met with them. Give me credit for knowing how to protect my contacts.”
“I give you credit for far more than that, but whoever’s betraying you is damned effective at it. And having him out there makes this situation much too explosive, especially considering the mating heat. We’re going to be too distracted by its symptoms to be effective in either the search or the protection of whoever we find there. If we find anyone. We can’t continue this.” He sighed, knowing he was wasting his time.
She would never return to Sanctuary with him until this was finished and he knew that accepting anything less could mean her death. He knew it, and the knowledge burned in his gut like acid. That was an option he couldn’t face.
“Once the mating heat eases,” he began, forcing the words past his clenched teeth, hating the fact that he was lying to her now. “Once we can think again, we can revisit the option of returning here and finding them.”
Her lips lifted slowly, the shallow curve of a smile filled with pain as she watched him too closely.
“By then they’ll be fucking dead or locked in research cells,” Thor muttered as Lawe flashed him a quelling look.
That won’t happen, Lawe promised silently. He would send a team after them, a team he knew would ensure any of the three still living survived and arrived at Sanctuary safely.
“I won’t let that happen,” Lawe growled.
Thor’s brow arched in mock amazement.
The bastard had no intention of standing down, and he wasn’t a Breed. There was no way Lawe could enforce any order he gave.
“Do you think I’m stupid, Lawe?” Diane asked him softly. “You’ll send someone after them and then they’ll run the second your team enters the reservation and they get suspicious.”
“And they won’t run when you arrive?” he scoffed. “They’ll run just as fast, Diane, if not faster.”
“She knows what she’s doing, Breed,” Thor broke in as though she needed a protector. She has a fucking protector, Lawe thought furiously. “And she knows how to find people without making them feel like prey. If she didn’t, the team would be broke.”
“Dammit, Thorsson, you’re talking like a man who wants to see his commander dead rather than showing your loyalty and seeing to her best interests,” he snapped at the other man.
Thor smiled, his expression icy and cutting. “It’s a good thing for you that my commander would go crazy without you, Breed. Otherwise, we’d discuss those words. Violently. I’ve always had her back, and I always will.”
“It’s your place to protect her, not endanger her further by encouraging her to continue this search under the present circumstances,” Lawe snapped again.
Thor laughed as Diane frowned and crossed her arms over her breasts as she watched them.
“You mean, while she’s in mating heat?” Thor asked with an amused snort. “When she was sixteen she broke two of my fingers to win a fight she had to win in order to travel to Nicaragua with the team to oversee communications. Brick still carries a scar on his wrist where she sliced it open to participate in a hostage rescue in California, and her uncle’s former second-in-command found himself bouncing on his ass at least weekly whenever he made the mistake of suggesting she stay out of a mission. She’s won all the battles she needs to win in my eyes. She’s my commander. I follow her orders and I watch her back as she watches mine. You mating her won’t change that.”
When Thor said she had won all the battles she needed to, Lawe knew he was referring to the battles to secure his loyalty.
There was no scent of a lie coming from the other man, but then again, like Diane, Thor had probably learned from the two Breeds who had been a part of the team how to control certain scents. A lie being the most important.
Diane had proven herself in battle to her men, there was no doubt of it, or they would have killed her themselves for trying to take command. She had proven she could protect her men and herself. She had proven her ability to plot, plan and guide them through any number of situations where her ability to lead exceeded theirs. She still had a traitor in her group, though. A traitor who meant to harm her. The question was, was that traitor Thor?