Harmony's Way

CHAPTER 19

The back entrance to the Sheriff’s Department swung open the minute Lance pulled the Raider to a hard stop in the parking slot, no more than ten feet from the door.

Protestors and journalists were surging around the side of the building as Harmony followed him and moved quickly into the building.

“They have a permit, Sheriff.” Lenny was sweating as frustration lined his rounded face. “Somehow they got the mayor to sign it.”

“Weasel,” Lance snarled as he placed his hand at Harmony’s back and led her to his office. “Keep them out of the damned department. Are Wyatt and his crew here?”

“In your office. With their lawyer.” Lenny nodded.

Harmony tensed, her hand falling to her weapon. The fact that Jonas had brought his lawyer couldn’t mean anything good. Jess Warden was a barracuda; Harmony had seen that when Jonas held her in the cells at Sanctuary. She knew Breed Law like the back of her hand and had become well acquainted in working it.

“Let’s get this the hell over with,” Lance snapped as they moved to the door.

At the last second, he pushed her behind him and threw the door open.

Jonas was waiting for them. Merc, Rule and Lawe carried their short automatic rifles with casual readiness. They were dressed in the black enforcer mission uniforms, their expressions hard, emotionless. Harmony’s hand tightened on her weapon as she stepped into the office behind Lance.

This was it. Jonas had found what he needed. It wouldn’t matter that he knew she hadn’t made those kills. He could use them. That would be enough for him.

“I need your weapons, Harmony.” Jonas’s voice was a warning rumble as Lance closed the door behind them. “We need you at Sanctuary for questioning in the death of Tommy Mason.”

“Jonas, you don’t want to do this,” Lance warned him as Harmony felt tension rising in the room. “You know I’m not going to let you take her.”

Harmony snorted. “The alpha stuff is really cute,” she drawled. “And this standoff is so testosterone-laden I’m about to have overload. Could we get past it, please?”

She loosened her body, consciously relaxing her muscles as she considered her options. The door was next to her; getting free wouldn’t be a hardship. Running would be a tad more difficult.

The lawyer, Jess Warden, was possibly the only one to give her words much notice. Jess’s lips tilted in amused agreement as she lounged against the front of Lance’s desk.

“Harmony, remember when I warned you that Jonas wanted something?” Lance reminded her quietly.

“Yeah? So?” Of course he wanted something. Everyone wanted something from her.

“Ask him what he wants.”

She watched as Jonas lifted a brow, his gaze reflecting admiration.

“Your sheriff is quick,” he murmured as he inhaled deeply. “In more ways than one.”

“Jonas!” Lance’s voice was a commanding whip. “Don’t burn your bridges here, man.”

Jonas’s lips tilted in mocking amusement.

“Fine, we’ll see if we can make this easy.” He shrugged in unconcern. “I want your shadow. You’ll follow the mission plan we’ve put together and help us capture the team that repeatedly rescues you. I want them both.”

Dane? He wanted Dane and Ryan? Not the information she had stolen from the labs? She stared back at him in confusion.

“Why?”

“That doesn’t concern you, Harmony,” he said. “Give me what I want, and your little indiscretions here will be ignored. You’ll receive clear status and freedom. Freedom to stay with Lance.”

“And if I don’t?”

“If you don’t, I’m taking you with me, and Breed Law will be enforced. You’re a wanted assassin, not just by the Bureau but by regular law enforcement channels as well. As Death, you have a hefty price on your head in several countries. Give me what I want, and I’ll ensure, personally, that everyone believes Death is dead. Harmony can live her life in peace.”

“This isn’t going to happen, Jonas.” Lance’s voice surprised her. What surprised her more was how easily his hand dropped to the weapon at his side. “Harmony has upheld her end of the deal. I will personally attest to it.”

“Can you save Death as easily?” Jonas asked, his voice soft, almost gentle. “She’s a wanted killer.”

Harmony gauged her chances of making the door. Dane and Ryan would find her; all she had to do was get out of there. She felt agony well deep inside her at the thought of leaving Lance. The warmth, the pleasure of his touch.

“Breed Law will do that for me.” She stilled at Lance’s voice. “Breed Law cancels when a child is involved. The moment she conceived she was exonerated until and unless she kills again. And she has conceived. You can’t take her, Jonas.”

Harmony almost smiled. Lance surely knew this wouldn’t work. Jonas would know better.

Instead, Jonas nodded. “I scented that the moment she walked in the door. But think about this, Lance. Will she ever be safe with you?”

“I’m not pregnant.” The rest of the conversation dissolved as her world narrowed to that single piece of information. “That’s not possible.”

Her gaze swept around the room, taking in the compassion, sympathy and knowledge in the expressions staring back at her.

“It’s not possible,” she repeated.

“Harmony, you are pregnant,” Jonas stated softly. “You and I both know that once your shadow learns of this, he’ll take you. He will take you himself, because his single most important goal is protecting you. And that child will weaken you.”

“No one captures me unless I want to be captured,” she hissed back at him. “You managed it, because fool that I was, I still called you brother.” The knowledge of that tore through her soul. “I couldn’t harm your men, I couldn’t get free without killing them, so I let them take me.”

She couldn’t breathe. Pulling air into her lungs hurt; the implication of what they were saying was destroying her. How could she have not realized she was pregnant? It was her body, her child. Surely she would know.

For a moment, Jonas’s expression seemed to gentle.

“Breed females can rarely scent their own conception. But it’s there, Harmony. I can smell it, and the winds have whispered it to Lance. You can’t run from it. You’re here. And you’re pregnant. The man protecting you won’t let you stay. Help me capture him before he takes you from Lance anyway.”

“Stop it, Jonas,” Lance warned, his voice hard.

“He won’t take me, because I won’t let him.” She was pregnant. Lance’s child rested inside her. She could feel herself weakening, options she’d thought she had dissolving beneath the knowledge.

“You’re weak now, Harmony. And you know he will take you. You’re important to him because of the information you stole from those labs. He won’t allow anyone else to possess that information. There was no chance of you sharing what you had. Mated, pregnant, you’re weak and therefore a threat. He won’t allow that. He won’t allow you to turn that evidence over to anyone else.”

“How do you know?”

“Because he’s the first Leo. The first created, Harmony. His genetic typing is the blueprint for every Breed that came after him. And Madame LaRue possessed the last evidence of his existence in the papers and files you stole. You are his weakness.”

Shock raced through her. Shock that he knew the information the files contained—but that first Leo couldn’t be Dane.

She shook her head slowly. “He’s too young. There’s no scent of a Breed…”

“There’s no scent at all. You forget, he mated one of the Genetic Council’s foremost experts on Breed genetics at the time. If he found a way to cover his scent, then the Breed community can use that knowledge as well.”

“He’s too young.”

“Aging halts between a Breed and his mate once mating heat occurs,” he answered. “We have no idea how long mates can live. We need that knowledge.”

“Then why hasn’t he taken the information?” she snarled. “If this were true, then he would have told me. He would have demanded what I had and I would have easily turned it over to him. This makes no sense, Jonas. You’re lying.”

“I don’t know why he hasn’t tried to secure the information himself,” he said. “And this was why I brought you here, knowing you would mate with Lance, knowing you would conceive and that the need to protect your mate and your child would supersede your friendship with this man. Harmony, listen to me.” His voice roughened as he stared back at her, his quicksilver eyes softer than before. “You are my sister. I know what LaRue was. But I knew you would never believe me, never trust me so easily. We have to have the answers on the mating that the first Leo and his mate hold.”

“I’ll give him a message…” she argued.

“Do you think I didn’t try that?” Jonas asked. “Do you think I haven’t tried everything before involving you in this way?”

She stepped closer to the door, aware of Lance shielding her despite the sudden readiness of Jonas’s enforcers.

“Don’t try to run, Harmony. I have men outside the department. Don’t make me do this to you.”

“You son of a bitch!” Lance’s voice echoed with violence. “Do you think I’m going to let you get away with this, Jonas? Do you really think I’ll let you use her like this?”

“You can’t stop him,” she whispered. “Look at him; he knows you can’t stop him.”

“Like hell I can’t.” He gripped her wrist before she could run, before she could move the precious inches to the door.

“Harmony.” Jonas’s voice had gentled further, reminding her of the brother who had once brushed her hair, of the young man who fought to find an escape for those he led. “We’ve made every attempt to convince the first Leo to contact us. To help us. We’re within months, perhaps a year, of the world learning the truth about the mating heat. You’re smart, sweetheart. You know what will happen when that news breaks. Compulsive sexual heat, forced bonding. We’ll be exterminated.”

Sweetheart. That voice. The edge of aching warmth in his tone. Tears filled her eyes as she blinked furiously and swallowed at the tight ball of emotion lodging in her throat.

She shook her head, feeling the darkness that edged at her mind, the sense of betrayal that tore through her.

“You used me,” she whispered painfully, staring back at him as daggers of knowledge ripped through her. “You weren’t trying to help me. You were using me.”

“I was trying to do both, dammit.” He grimaced. “You were going to get caught or killed. You couldn’t go on the way you were.”

“How did you know I was her mate?” Lance asked, his voice sharp.

“It doesn’t matter how I knew,” Jonas snapped. “Nothing else matters except what we face right now. She’s pregnant. That’s your child she’s carrying, Lance. A child of the earth. Will you let that be taken from you? Either by me or by the man who protects her?”

“If he could help you, he would have,” Harmony cried out.

She knew Dane. He was ruthless, yes. He could be stubborn and often too hard. But he would never turn away his own people in such a way if he were a Breed.

“The very fact that he’s alive would answer many of our questions, Harmony,” Jonas growled. “He’s not your savior. He’s protected you for a reason.”

“He was there when you weren’t,” she snarled, trying to push past Lance as he held her in place. “You sent your fucking Coyotes after me while you were still in the labs. You told them how to catch me. You wanted me dead!”

“I never wanted you dead. I wanted you safe.”

“You fucking liar!” The scream that left her throat tore through her chest.

“Enough!” Lance snapped between them. “Stick with the program here, Harmony.”

“What program?” she sneered as she turned to stare at Jonas once again. “He has your program all mapped out for you, Lance. Yours, mine and our child’s. What an interesting tale I’ll have for him when I reveal his safety was purchased with the blood of the only fucking person willing to risk his life to save me, besides you.”

“If he cared so much for you, he would help your people, as well as his,” Jonas growled.

“I wouldn’t spit on you if you were on fire,” she hissed. “No wonder he refuses to answer what is undoubtedly one of your infamous commands.”

Lance would have laughed at Jonas’s expression if the situation weren’t so dire. Harmony was so close to running. He could feel it in the air around him, hear her cry for freedom echoing in his head.

“Enough!” His voice rose as Jonas opened his lips to speak. “He’s a fucking asshole and we all know it, Harmony. But we can’t kill him. We deal with him.”

“I’ll be certain to extend my thank-yous later,” Jonas murmured.

“Stuff them,” Lance barked, wrapping his fingers around Harmony’s wrist to hold her in place. Her gun hand. Her fingers were twitching too close to her weapon.

Merc, Lawe and Rule were watching closely. Lance knew their entire focus was on Harmony and the attempt they believed she would make to run.

“I’ll give you the files I have on him,” Harmony said, bargaining then, surprising Lance. “I can get them quickly. You’ll have them.”

“They won’t have what we need, Harmony.” He shook his head firmly. “We need the Leo. And we need him now.”

Jonas was pushing her and Lance knew it. He was trying to make her run. He wanted her to run. It was one of the reasons Lance had stayed largely quiet to this point. There was information in what wasn’t said, in the emotions that whispered through the air.

“Sit.” He pushed Harmony into his seat as she stared back at him in surprise.

Leaning close, he stared into her oddly colored, furious eyes. “Silence,” he said softly, commandingly. “Now.”

Her lips pressed together as fire lit her gaze.

“I won’t—”

“Now!” Something snapped inside him. He would be damned if he would let her endanger her life. Not now. Not when she was close to freedom.

She jerked back in the seat, staring at him warily.

“Thank you.” He touched her cheek gently, running his fingertips down her jaw before straightening and turning back to Jonas.

The other man watched the exchange warily.

“Are you willing to burn this bridge?” Lance placed his hands on his desktop. “I hear Megan has become very close to your pride leader’s wife. She’s also not your best fan.”

Jonas crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m aware of that.”

“Do you really want to make enemies of my entire family, Jonas?” he asked him carefully. “Did you consider that when you were having your little science project conducted in whether Harmony and I would match as mates? That you would not only gain my hatred, but also that of my families?”

Jonas’s silver eyes narrowed, burning in his dark face.

“I will do whatever is necessary to save the Breeds, Lance,” he growled. “I will fight whoever or whatever I have to. She wouldn’t trust me; that is evident. And until the mating and conception had occurred, I couldn’t trust you. Now it’s up to you and Harmony. Do you help me capture Leo, or do you risk the world learning about mating heat, and possibly destroying your wife, child and your cousin Megan in the process?”

“And if she doesn’t do it, then you won’t lift your hand to help her?” Lance prodded.

Jonas stared back at Harmony for long, silent moments.

“I would die for my sister. But once the truth about mating heat becomes known, if we’re not prepared for it, if we don’t have the answers we need to give the public, then I won’t be able to save anyone. Not myself, my people or my sister.”

Dane chewed on the end of his cigar as he watched H. R. Alonzo move among the protestors in front of the Sheriff’s Department. It was really hard to imagine the man as a distant uncle. The heavy jowls, short stature and beady little eyes didn’t lend much to the Vanderale name. He wasn’t a Vanderale though, he was the son of a Vanderale daughter, and it was apparent the genetics hadn’t made a successful crossover. Too bad actually. A true Vanderale, though mercenary at heart and too determined to have his way, did have a small measure of decency. It was obvious that the genetics Henry Richard Alonzo had been given were missing that component.

He was an uncle, though. He was the grandson of the man whose sperm had created the first Leo. Elijah Vanderale Demarcy and his wife had given birth to a daughter, then Elijah had turned his attention to the Genetics Council and creating his vision of the perfect son. After all, his wife had refused to bear more children, and as old Vanderale Demarcy had told Leo, a son meant everything. Elijah had been determined to sire a son unlike any other. No matter what it took.

His arrogance and sense of superiority had never been in question. His determination to have a son stronger, more intelligent and unique than any other, could have defined him as mad.

Elijah’s seed, genetically altered though it had been, had begun the process. Then he had set about creating an empire for his son. Vanderale Enterprises. A conglomerate of corporations headed by a supposed distant relative. His vision had been remarkably insightful toward the future. Electronics, weapons and specialized vehicles.

Dane shook his head at the old man’s vision. He had died not long after Leo’s escape from the labs, but he had died knowing he’d given his son freedom and that his son would always know security.

That had been more than sixty years before. Vanderale Enterprises was a thriving, worldwide force now, though the man behind it had always been careful to stay hidden.

Unfortunately, somehow the Alonzos had learned of old Elijah’s contribution to the Genetics Council, and his kinship to the Breeds. Poor gents, they were rather upset over it all.

“Leo is getting antsy,” Ryan murmured as he moved into the cafe booth across from him. “He wants an update on her. Now.”

Great. The old man wanted an update. That usually meant he was roaring from one end of the estate to the other and threatening to head to Broken Butte himself.

This was his fault, Dane admitted. The first time he had found Harmony, wounded, nearly broken, out of her mind with fever, he had taken her to his mother. Hell, he was no doctor. His mother had at one time been the foremost authority on Breed genetics and ailments. She had been the perfect answer.

Except, as Harmony lay in a fevered haze and cried as the child she was, it had been Leo who sat with her. Who cried with her. Now the old man thought of her as his own. And no one threatened what belonged to Leo Vanderale. If such a person lived, it was only so he could regret it.

He stared back at Ryan silently, narrowing his eyes chastisingly as he read the guilt on his friend’s face. Amusement lurked in Rye’s dark eyes as he pushed darker hair back from his forehead.

Ryan was considered quite attractive by the females. His features were well sculpted and slightly rough-hewn. His lips were a bit full, his blue eyes most often filled with laughter. And he had a horrible crush on the Leo’s fair mate, Dane’s mother.

Dane’s mother had called earlier, and rather than facing her inquisition, he had given Rye the phone to offer explanations instead. Bad choice. Ryan was so infatuated with the woman that it was all he could do not to stutter when he talked to her. He was always spilling their plans to the deceptively gentle, soft-spoken mate to the first Leo.

Dane turned his head and stared back out the window at the protestors in front of the Sheriff’s Department. Leo would never countenance taking Harmony from her mate. It was a good idea, and a workable one, but Dane knew his father. The old man would rupture a blood vessel.

Old man. He almost snorted at the thought. At ninety, Leo was still in his prime, as was his wife. And there was the crux of this little nightmare.

“Jonas has made his move,” Dane murmured. “He’ll try to bargain with her now. He may well accept the information she has if she refuses what he truly wants.”

He should have forced her to give it to him years ago, Dane thought. But protecting it, the thought of what would happen to the first Leo if the Council found him, had kept Harmony fighting to live. Her survival depended on her believing she was the only one who knew of Leo’s existence. Dane trusted her—even more, he knew her, as no one but her mate knew her. She had fought like a wildcat to hide and preserve what she had stolen from those labs. She had fought to live, and he had wanted to help. He had needed Harmony to live.

“He wants you,” Ryan reminded him.

Ahh yes. Elyiana’s report that Jonas was after the shadow that kept saving Harmony’s life. The old boy was biting off more than he could chew there. If by chance Jonas managed to capture Dane, he wouldn’t keep him long. If Leo was possessive over Harmony, then his feelings were downright obsessive where his only son was concerned.

Not that Dane intended to let himself get caught.

“He’s going to accuse her of the killings. He’ll pull Breed Law on her and pull her out any minute. Leo’s going to have a cow,” Rye reminded him.

Dane shook his head. “He’ll have an aneurysm. Not a cow.”

Ryan’s lips quirked.

As a partner, Ryan DeSalvo was the best a Breed could ask for. Especially a hybrid breed with the secrets Dane had. Admitting he was well over fifty years old would have shocked most people. Rye had taken it in stride.

“What’s the plan?” Ryan asked as Dane watched the protestors absently.

“Must we have a plan?” Dane leaned back in his seat and placed the smoking cigar between his teeth as he smiled slowly. “Let’s wing this one, my friend. I’m interested to see how far Jonas will take this little plan of his. Let’s see what he’s made of.”

Ryan stared at him in slack-faced amazement. “You’re kidding.”

Dane grinned. “Not hardly. I think it’s time I learned what my little half brother is made of, don’t you? The seed the Council preserved from the old man created Jonas. Let’s see if he has the same steely determination.”

Harmony was a product of another patriarchal Breed line, thankfully. Otherwise, the feelings he had for her would have gotten him killed years before. Leo wasn’t very understanding about breaking certain rules. That was one of them. If Dane fucked a Breed female, then he better damned well be one hundred percent certain what her patriarchal line was. Which meant his mother did a thorough genetic typing. Not exactly conducive to a good sex life for a man when his mother was vetting the prospective lover.

It had been bad enough when Leo learned Dane had taken Harmony to his bed. The old man had raged for months, furious that Dane had dared to take her without a mating.

“And the information she has?”

“Unfortunately, we have to secure the files she stole. We can no longer allow her to keep them.” Dane removed the cigar from his lips and blew a stream of smoke past his lips as his gaze wandered to the little waitress working across the room. A delectable little thing she was, and he had a need to relieve the tension growing inside him.

As she glanced over at him, he winked slowly and watched her pretty little blush.

“And how do you intend to do that?” Ryan asked suspiciously.

“I won’t.” He shrugged. “Harmony will. We’ll just follow along and relieve her of her bounty. And of course, Jonas will follow to protect her, and possibly apprehend myself. The latter we’ll just have to disappoint him in.”

“God, you’ve lost your mind.” Rye sat back in his seat slowly. “The old man is going to blow a gasket if he learns of this, Dane. He doesn’t like these games you keep playing with the Council and Jonas.”

“Who says we have to tell him?” Dane grinned as he replaced his slim cigar between his teeth. “Ryan, I’m going to have to keep you away from my mother. That crush you have on her is going to get you killed, besides the fact it makes you too eager to spill all our secrets.”

Ryan grinned. “She’s a fine-looking woman, Dane.”

“She’s my mother.” The warning glare didn’t help much.

A sigh, one filled with regret, left Ryan. “There are days I wonder about that one…”