Her lips twitched as he turned his gaze from the Vanderale pilots back to her.
“They were at the hospital with the first Leo,” he commented. “They’re Breeds.”
She nodded as he reached out and opened the door for her.
“They are.” She slid into the sumptuous leather, sliding to the other side as Mercury bent and moved in with her, sitting in the seat across from her.
She glanced to the driver’s section to see Lawe Justice. She almost chuckled at his name. She loved some of the names the Breeds had chosen for themselves when given the chance. Lawe Justice, Rule Breaker, two of Jonas Wyatt’s main security force, and Mercury Warrant.
Mercury, the messenger of the gods. It should have been Ares. How apt that name might have been if the scientists that created him hadn’t completely annihilated the primal instincts he had possessed. According to his file, he may have been one of the greatest Breeds to have ever been created.
“Breeds the Leo worked to rescue over the years,” Mercury pointed out coolly. “Rather than working to ensure we were all free.”
She had known there was an edge of anger in the Breeds who had been at the hospital and sworn to silence concerning the first Leo, who had arrived to oversee his son’s well-being.
Callan Lyons, pride leader and the bane of the first Leo’s existence. Leo didn’t share his son’s belief that the Breeds should carve out their place in the world. The only protection they could be certain of, he believed, was in hiding among the non-Breeds until their numbers were greater. And Ria wasn’t certain which side of the argument she felt was right. But for now, both sides still existed.
“I refuse to debate Leo’s choices; they’re his own,” she pointed out, staring back at him.
“But you’re part of his family,” Mercury argued, calmly. He always argued calmly, she had read. “You’ve known what he was all along.”
She smiled at that. “Surprisingly, Mr. Warrant, I’m not a Breed. I’m simply a lowly little clerk that does the Vanderale bidding. Nothing more. I’m very human and I’m a reasonably healthy twenty-eight years old, rather than however old Dane or Leo are. I try really hard not to do the math there.”
They were older than they appeared. Far older. And the secrecy of their existence as Breeds was paramount. And it was at risk if the information Dane had received was right.
“A clerk?” Mercury’s gaze raked over her, and she was glad she had donned her jacket before leaving the plane, because she swore her nipples were hardening beneath the thin blouse she wore. “Why do I have trouble believing that?”
He was suspicious. His gaze was direct, and she almost thought she detected the faintest hint of blue in his eyes.
She almost shook her head when she looked closer and saw only the dark amber shades of the pupil.
“My charming personality?” She arched her brow.
His lips twitched. “I’ve seen your communiquйs with Jonas, Ms. Rodriquez. Trust me, charming isn’t an adjective I would apply to them.”
“Firmly enchanting then?” she suggested.
He cleared his throat. “I thought the reaction they produced from our director was interesting. And amusing.”
Ria let her own amusement tug at her lips and wished he would release all that thick, multihued hair from the strip of leather confining it behind his neck.
She wanted to see it flowing around his shoulders, the dark russets, browns and blacks merging together to create a heavy, lionlike mane that made her fingers itch to touch.
Strange, Leo had similar hair and she had never wanted to touch his. Of course, his wife Elizabeth might have cut her hand off if she’d attempted it.
For the most part, Leo used a temporary color on his hair when he was required to be out in public. And like Mercury, he kept it tied back behind his neck.
Leo was considered a rogue, a mercenary and a bastard businessman. But no one had ever breathed the word Breed with his name.
The owner of the multinational Vanderale Industries that his father had left him, Leo Vanderale was a law unto himself. And unto the Breeds that knew him.
“I’ll settle for amusing,” she finally stated.
“You might have to.”
He sat in the corner of the seat, one elbow propped on the padded armrest he had lowered, the other arm braced along the back of the seat.
She glanced to the driver’s section and caught a glimpse of Lawe’s lips twitching as his icy blue eyes flicked to the rearview mirror.
“So, Ms. Rodriquez, what put a burr in the Leo’s tail that he sent you out here only weeks after rushing to his son’s side at the hospital?”
Rather, two months, Ria thought. And unfortunately, if the Leo found out what she was doing and where she was doing it, he was liable to skin her and hang her up to dry. That wasn’t a pleasant thought.
“The Leo is a businessman, Mr. Warrant,” she informed him, following the line Dane had taken. “Sanctuary and its Breeds profit greatly by Vanderale’s largesse. The recent attacks against Sanctuary and the weaknesses within it concern him. Both professionally as well as personally. He would enjoy visiting his son and grandson. He’s spoken of attending when his daughter-in-law gives birth to her second child. He can’t do this as long as there’s a risk of the world discovering who and what he is.”
His lips curled mockingly. The sight of it had her restraining the urge to lick her own lips. Damn him, he made her feel weak-kneed and too much like a woman. She realized that weakness could threaten her job. She was looking for another spy, and the consequences of information possibly leaking out of Sanctuary could destroy the Breed community as a whole. On a different note, allowing herself to get involved with Mercury also had the potential to hurt her personally.
She never got personally involved, she reminded herself. That path led to nothing but disaster, and she really didn’t need more disaster in her life.
“Ms. Rodriquez-”
She invited him to use her name. “Ria please.” Ms. Rodriquez just made her feel old.
“Ria.” His brow arched. “Why do I have a feeling there’s much more to you than meets the eye?”
Her eyes widened as though she couldn’t imagine. Dowdy clothes, no makeup. She did a damned fine job of being the little nobody everyone expected.
“Trust me, Mr. Warrant, what you see is what you get.” She smiled back softly. “Of course, I can be rather ill natured when the situation calls for it. I’m not always nice.”
He stared back at her silently, and she had a feeling he was seeing more than she wanted him to. He was definitely seeing more than anyone else had bothered to look for.
For the first time in her life Ria wondered if she had run up against a man she couldn’t continue hiding from. His eyes urged her to share her secrets; the swirl of ambers, the curiosity, the interest, invited her to reach for things she knew she should never reach for.
Play with fire and you’ll get burned. She remembered, long ago, too long ago, how her mother had laughingly advised her to always watch out for people.
They’ll deceive you, my little Ria, she had always said. They’ll lie and they’ll smile, and when they’ve taken all you have to give, they’ll find someone else to use up.
She couldn’t have been very old, but she remembered those words.
The memory of it had her turning her head from Mercury, shifting her gaze to the mountains they were winding their way through as she pushed back the loneliness that filled her whenever she allowed it.
Her mother had died before she was six. Ria had spent three days alone in their apartment, crying for her mother, and her mother had been lying in a cold morgue.
She might have stayed there forever if a neighbor hadn’t realized that no one had mentioned the child of Leo Vanderale’s secretary. Her child hadn’t even been listed in her personnel files. The people she had worked with hadn’t even known about the daughter Mary Rodriquez had borne. Until Mary’s death.