Lawe's Justice

*CHAPTER 10*

“Diane, you know this isn’t going to work.”

Lawe watched as Diane cleaned her weapons. Efficiently, smoothly, and with an ease that bespoke far too many years of practice.

“How long have you been breaking down and cleaning your own weapons?” he asked when she didn’t comment on the previous statement.

Her expression softened then. The look was one filled with longing and memories she often cherished.

“Since I was barely seven and staying with Uncle Colt while my parents were out of the country on their various business trips,” she remembered with a gentle laugh. “They were spies you know. CIA agents. They met while they were both at Langley, just after they joined while in college. And they died together.”

“There’s a lot of missing information regarding Raymond and Esmerelda Broen’s lives,” he stated as he watched her double-check the cleanliness of the barrel of one of the weapons. “Their deaths and what they were chasing are two of those missing links. Did Colt tell you what happened?”

She looked up for a second, her expression stilling somberly.

“He told me.” She sighed heavily. “We had a deal. Once I managed to successfully command my first mission, then he would give me the information. Just after I did so, he told the others we were celebrating family-style. His idea of family-style was to take me to the mountain in Kandahar where my parents died. They were ambushed and killed while tracking the identity of a man rumored to head a network secretly transporting files, genetic material, Breed DNA formulas, cryogenic embryos and possibly many of the infants and young Breeds that were missing at the time.”

His brows arched. “I was unaware the CIA was working on the behalf of the Breeds. The last records we had, many of their agents were actually involved in the training and information control of the various labs.”

“My mother left a diary,” she said, “several of them, actually. She knew many of the agents who were working in just such capacities, but they were also slipping information out to those they knew were working to reveal the brutality the Breeds lived under. There were opposing interests in the CIA, according to her. Only a few substations were actually involved with the Genetics Council. Langley was actually trying to verify the rumors, track down the labs, and aid the Breeds’ escape. I gave Rachel the diary last year and I believe she turned it over to Jonas.”

Lawe nodded. “Yes, I read it. From what I read, your parents were far too reckless for a couple with two children depending upon them.”

It was a trait they tragically shared with her uncle, Colt Broen. As a mercenary, Colt had been in the perfect position to funnel information back to the States or to ensure that U.S. interests, as well as the CIA’s, were preserved.

Raymond and Esmeralda Broen had coordinated their trips with their missions, ensuring that if they weren’t home to protect their young children, then Raymond’s brother would be. Still, they had died while their children were young, and according to the reports Diane turned over after she came into the Bureau, their parents’ enemies had immediately gone after the uncle, as well as the children.

She didn’t comment on his criticism, nor could Lawe detect any emotion other than regret. There was no anger toward her parents or her uncle, and no resentment for the life she had led.

But then, he had no doubt she was able to, and definitely would, hide any emotion she didn’t want him to see.

The Breeds who had been a part of her group until the past months had taught her how to bury and conceal her emotions. As they had explained to Lawe, it had become a game between them and their “commander” to detect her moods, her emotions or other various states of being that she experienced.

In the end, Diane had become far more adept at it than either of them had imagined she would.

“Are they the reason you followed your uncle into war?” he asked her finally.

“Their enemies took care of that,” she stated, her voice hardening as she glanced up at him. “They attacked children, Lawe. They came after us like a plague and refused to give up for years. As though they would tell children any secrets they had kept from their superiors over the years.”

“If they manage to capture you again, and kill you without the information they’re looking for, do you think they would then go after Rachel and Amber?” he asked her.

Diane wanted to roll her eyes. He obviously believed he was making a point. It was a point she had no intention to acknowledge. He never lost an opportunity, never allowed a relaxed moment to be preserved.

“Ignoring me isn’t going to solve the problem facing us,” he finally warned her as Diane fought to keep from clenching her teeth.

“I’m not trying to ignore you,” she assured him as she finished reassembling the small, handheld, laser-powered personal defense weapon she usually carried strapped to her thigh.

She was lying through her teeth and he knew it. He didn’t need to smell it.

“Do you think I’m going to allow you to continue this search, Diane? To risk you against a rogue we know so little about, as well as whatever assassins have been sent out to eliminate Brandenmore’s research projects? If they’re even still alive.” It was the wrong way to go about it, and Lawe knew it, but he was damned if he could figure out a better alternative.

She laughed at him, though the sound carried no amusement. What it did carry was disillusionment and a sense of pain. He could feel her pain as though it were his own. And for the first time in his life, Lawe ached for more than his own inability to be anything or anyone other than what his past had shaped him into.

“Do I act as though I need your permission to do anything?” she asked as she repacked the weapon and turned back to him, disdain reflected clearly in her gaze. “Really, Lawe, I’m a big girl now. I don’t need your permission to stay out after dark.”

Technically, she was right since she reported directly to Jonas.

“I’m quite certain Rachel was smart enough to warn you about the effects of mating heat,” he stated instead of tying and gagging her as he wanted to and forcing her back to Sanctuary. “You can’t just return to the same life as before. It doesn’t work that way.”

He couldn’t let her continue this mission either. She wasn’t just facing a rabid Breed in what was suspected to be the throes of a medically induced feral fever but also a team of Council-loyal Coyote soldiers searching for the same prey. And if the Breeds who once fought with her were right, she was also dealing with a traitor within her own ranks.

None would hesitate to kill her if she dared to attempt to interfere with their acquisition of the Bengal Breed Judd, Fawn Corrigan, or Honor Roberts. And they knew she was doing just that, as was evidenced by the attempt on her life before she slipped away from him in D.C. And if they didn’t kill her, the Council scientists would surely love to get their hands on a female experiencing mating heat.

“I can damned near do anything I want to do, Lawe.” Getting to her feet, she packed away the cleaning materials before storing them in her ammo bag and securing it firmly.

She kept her back to him, which was something else he hated. Diane was fairly skilled at lying with her lips and keeping the scent of it covered, but she hadn’t yet perfected lying with her eyes.

It was the only way he would have of detecting her emotions for now.

While she was able to hide certain emotions and their scents, she couldn’t use it as a reliable shield against Breeds for long. Especially not from Lawe.

“Any Coyote who detects the scent of your heat will make it his job to kidnap you and turn you over to the Council and their scientists,” he argued. “That’s not a pleasant place to be, nor is it a pleasant way to die.”

He was restraining himself and the effort to do so was about to snap his back teeth as he clenched them so tight his jaws ached. If he were human, he had no doubt they would have already been ground to the gums.

He had never clenched his teeth so often or as tightly as he did whenever he and Diane faced off in a disagreement, which was pretty much every time they came in contact.

“You should have stayed in D.C. rather than following me,” she told him as she lifted one of her duffel bags to the bed.

Disillusionment covered her. As though there had been some glimmer of hope that he would allow her to continue? The sad part was he had tried. Hell, he was still trying, yet all he saw each time he tried to formulate a plan to allow her to complete the mission, was her blood. Her screams. Her death.

Pulling down the heavy tab of the zipper, she opened the luggage and began packing the few items she had used the night before into the bulging interior. It was evident she had no intention of listening to him.

Which only left Lawe with that idea of tying and gagging her.

“Don’t push me like this, Diane.” Anger had the mating heat boiling inside him. Strong emotion, especially anger, had the effect of intensifying the rush of the sexual hormones and sending them surging through the body. “You won’t win.”

At that point, she did turn and face him, her gaze clashing with his as he got a glimpse of the burning emotions she was still keeping tightly reined.

He was amazed at her ability to do so. The deep brown of her eyes held a darker, almost burgundy tint. Rage had to be eating her alive for her eyes to have turned such a startling color. Yet not so much as a hint of the scent drifted to him.

“What will you do to force me to obey you, Lawe?” Her head tilted to the side as he watched her visibly struggle to keep the emotions reined in. “Will you beat me? Tie and gag me before dragging me back to Sanctuary? Because those are your only options.”

“I would never harm you,” he managed, fighting the urge to snarl in outrage. His fingers tensed, the desire to clench them almost overwhelming as he faced her and the suspicion in her gaze. “And you know I would never strike you.”

“Then that leaves tying and gagging me.” Her hip cocked, a delicate hand resting on it, and the scent of her fury finally drifted to him for the briefest second.

It was viciously hot, nearly searing him and making him want to take a step back from it as the edge of pain slapped his senses. God, what emotions did she hold back on a normal basis for such intensity of feelings to slip past her careful control?

The animal side of him flinched at the thought that he could be the one hurting her. That his need to protect her, to ensure her life could possibly have created such a well of agony.

“Those are your only options,” she stated. “Because I refuse to return to Sanctuary to be kept locked away like a favored pet.”

A favored pet?

Lawe felt his jaw bunch and his dick jerk with an imperative demand as she confronted him. He would fuck her into exhaustion if it weren’t for the fact he’d be doing the same to himself. Throughout the night she had proven she was more than a match for his sexuality, and his hunger.

Just as she was more than able to keep up with him in other ways.

“Better a favored pet than a mate tortured to death. Do you know what the Council scientists, Brandenmore’s research monsters or even the government’s so-called Breed geneticists would do if they got their hands on you? Do you have any idea of their preferred means of learning how mating heat changes the body? How horrifying a vivisection is? What it would do to me to be forced to watch such a thing happen to you?” he questioned, hearing the harshness, the guttural quality of his own voice. “And you. Could you bear to hear my screams as they dissect me alive? Perhaps more than once? Over and over again? Because, baby, I would sure as hell scream. Even the strongest of us eventually break when they lay the knife to our guts.”

Diane wanted to turn from him. She wanted to hide the painful, horrifying knowledge that she was very well aware of what any scientist would do to either of them now.

“I’ve seen it.” Agony raged in his eyes as he crossed to her, his fingers curling around her arm as he pulled her to him. “I watched, Diane. Forced to pretend disinterest. Forced to show no fucking reaction.” Animalistic, filled with horror, his voice rasped with the words. “I watched as they first cut into the Coyote commander who made the mistake of mating one of the breeders in the lab where Rule and I were confined. Then, I watched as they cut into his mate. My mother. The woman Rule and I fought to find freedom for since we were barely old enough to realize we were captives. I couldn’t roar in rage. I couldn’t beg them to cease, because if I did”—his expression was filled with tormented memories, dragging a muffled sob from her lips—“if I did, then three others in that lab would have died. It could have been Rule. Or the young Cheetah female they kept separated from us. Or another of the young that Morningstar Martinez reached out to in their dreams.”

Her lips parted in surprise. “In their dreams?”

Lawe released her slowly and stepped back. Pushing his fingers through his hair he drew in a hard, painful breath. “In our dreams. As far back as we could remember. Morningstar came to the children she was fertilized with in vitro. She rocked them. She sang to them. She painted pictures of the place she called home, the family she was certain was searching for her, and all the joys she had known as a child.”

Diane watched, silently, feeling the tears that would have fallen if she hadn’t had so many years of practice holding them back.

“Her life was a living nightmare, yet she brought us joy whenever she could. And because the Coyote commander found joy in her and mated her, they died in the most horrifying way possible.”

He had seen the nightmares he feared she would face. It was no wonder he was so determined to lock her away in cotton batting. If only she could survive it.

He and his brother, Rule, had been forced to watch, as though uncaring, forced to watch as though unconcerned as their mother was murdered in just such a way.

“It would kill me.” She knew she lost the battle to hide the emotions tearing her apart inside when Lawe’s head jerked back, his nostrils flaring as he drew in her scent. “To know I was the cause of such a fate for you, Lawe. It would destroy any part of my soul that was left at the second I faced death.”

Yes, she hurt. She had nightmares about the lives she knew the Breeds had endured. The very thought of what they had gone through was often more than she could bear contemplating at length.

“Then don’t do this,” he snarled, his canines flashing as his lips pulled back from his teeth furiously. “Give this up, Diane, and let the Bureau’s Enforcers track her down instead.”

“It would kill me,” she said again. “But being locked away, unable to be me, would make me hate you, Lawe. I would hate you and any Breed I ever came in contact with again.”

She had fought too long, endured too much. Her freedom, her existence and the reason she followed in her parents’ and in her uncle’s footsteps and followed war was too deeply ingrained inside her.

“Why?” Fury, pain, they raged inside him like a volcano threatening to erupt.

“Because I won’t be powerless again,” she whispered. “When my parents died I was just that, Lawe. I was powerless. When my parents’ murderers beat my uncle to our home, Rachel and I were alone with our babysitter.” She shuddered, the memory tearing through her with a force that never eased. “I didn’t watch my mother die, but I heard the screams of the person Rachel and I considered more than just a babysitter. Uncle Colt’s fiancée died swearing to them we weren’t there while I ran with Rachel and hid. I had to listen to her screams as she did the only thing she could do to protect us because no one, no one,” she cried out furiously, “had taught her how to fight. How to survive. And if you lock me away, then every time I hear of a Breed death, every time I hear of a mate being murdered so savagely, I will blame you!”

Because her parents had fought for the Breeds. Her uncle had fought for them. And the secret they had all died to keep was still one Diane knew had to be preserved. She had information even Lawe didn’t have. Something she knew that Leo feared she would reveal each time he caught her gaze.

She didn’t expect her answer to cause such a reaction in Lawe, though. Before she could avoid him he displayed the incredible speed of his feline DNA and crossed the room to grip her arm and jerk her to him again.

His arms were like steel bands around her, holding her in place and keeping her against his chest despite her initial attempt to place distance between them.

Staring up at him, eyes wide, her senses churning with both anger and an arousal that felt as though it were burning out of control, she glimpsed the torment that raged in his blue eyes.

“Better your hatred than your death. Or the horror of watching you taken apart piece by fucking piece.” He spat his words.

There was no fear at the display of dominance.

Anyone who was around Breeds very often learned to live with such displays and such arrogance. The torment that burned in his gaze did affect her, though. It struck through her heart, tightened it, and left her throat thick with the unshed tears she refused to free.

“You could trust my abilities as I trust yours,” she yelled back at him, her emotions driven by her anger, both for him and against him, as he displayed his complete inability to ever consider her a worthy partner. “Tell me, Lawe, does your life go on hold with this mating too, or just mine?”

She knew the answer to her question. It wasn’t hard to guess exactly who the mating affected and who it wouldn’t.

His expression did no more than confirm her suspicions. She gave a bark of scornful laughter. “Don’t bother answering, because I can see it in your face. It doesn’t. You’ll still fight, you’ll still risk yourself and you’ll still expect me to sit in the little cage the Breeds have made for their mates and play the dutiful wife. Should I be barefoot and pregnant too?”

The flicker of his eyes, the glimpse of the sudden longing that crossed his expression before he could hide it, had her stomach tightening. With longing, or with pure rage, she wasn’t certain.

“So you’ll just go out, have your fun, then return home to fuck me before you pat me on the head and ride off into the sunset again.” Oh, she so didn’t think that was going to happen.

She wouldn’t allow it. Not even for a second.

She had never allowed herself to play any man’s doormat and she wouldn’t start now. She would be his equal partner, or she would be nothing. Nothing less was acceptable.

“At least you’ll be alive,” he bit out, the icy storm in his gaze almost frightening as he stared down at her.

“The hell I will.” Pushing against his chest she tried to escape his hold, only to become aware of just how firmly he held her without appearing to. “No, Lawe, I won’t be alive. I’ll just exist, and I’ll hate you for it. I will not be there waiting for you. I’ll be doing as I’ve trained to do all my life and I’ll do it alone if that’s what I have to do. I won’t let you cage me!”

“I won’t allow it.” One hand moved from her back to push into the hair at the back of her head as the vow slipped past his lips.

He wouldn’t allow it? As though she would ever let him have any say in the matter as long as he was doing so in such a manner. As though he owned her.

The pain of that realization had her body tightening until she was on the verge of shaking, the pain, anger, and incredibly, the fear racing through her to mix with an arousal she couldn’t force away.

She wanted him. She wanted him to touch her, to hold her, to share his kiss and the incredible taste of spiced pears that filled it. She wanted him to accept her. To stand beside her. To allow her the happiness she needed to make that decision for herself.

And she wanted to kick his ass for ever imagining she would allow him to make such a decision for her.

“Sorry, Lawe, I won’t allow you to kill her as surely as the Council would.”

The shock of the words coming from the deep, normally booming voice of her second-in-command had Lawe moving. Before Diane could stop him, he had thrown her behind him as Thor stepped into the room, twirling the key between his fingers as he stared at them, a tic of anger throbbing at the side of his jaw. “Having fun alone again, boss?” he asked. “I thought we agreed that wouldn’t be happening this time.”

He was pissed.

Lawe’s blue eyes were icy. His broad, masculine features looked carved from stone and anger had his normally full lips tightening as she knew he held back every smart-assed, purely male arrogant insult he could have thrown her way.

Thor completely ignored the fact that Lawe had one of the snub-nosed, laser-powered, rapid-burst hand guns trained on him, his finger riding the activation lever a little too firmly. But he wasn’t ignoring the fact that Lawe was attempting to shield her. The action earned Lawe one of Thor’s famous, sarcastic sneers. A lifting of his lip at one side as disgust filled his gaze.

“For God’s sake, Lawe, get the hell off me!” She pushed at the back of his shoulders as he continued to hold her behind him with the seemingly effortless strength of one arm.

Dammit, she could kick the asses of men that were twice his size and pure muscle. But she couldn’t budge him.

“What is he doing here?” Lawe’s voice was an animal’s growl.

“Move!” She finally managed to lever a few inches between them before he slowly, very damned slowly, allowed her her freedom.

She shot him a look filled with the promise of retribution.

She was not going to put up with this. “This is the number one reason most partners involved in any kind of military or covert work end up divorced,” she snapped furiously.

“Mates don’t divorce.”

“Be careful, Lawe,” she suggested, her voice raspy with the sheer depth of her anger. “You’ll be the first.”

“I get to sell the tickets.” Thor’s smile lacked any amusement or warmth.

“You’re supposed to be on vacation,” she snapped at the oversized Swede that stood in front of the now-closed door.

“And you’re supposed to be visiting your sister before you head to Sanctuary with her.” Thor’s brow arched with mocking curiosity. “I guess we both lied, huh?”

Yes, she had lied. Something she had never done to Thor as long as she had known him.

“And I had a very good reason for it,” she informed him as she moved to go around Lawe, only to have him catch her arm and hold her back silently.

He hadn’t said a word. He stared back at Thor with lowered brows and narrowed eyes, his entire body tense and ready for action.

For God’s sake, his very demeanor, so dominant and forceful had her pussy creaming furiously despite the disgusted irritation the action earned him.

She decided she hated Breeds.

“Reasons don’t matter.” Thor shrugged. “Just the action.”

Diane grunted at his standard no-forgiveness stance.

“Were you following me?” Suspicion suddenly rose inside her, dark and ugly.

Thor had been the one who had arrived with her uncle to tell her of her parents’ deaths. He had held her when her lover, her uncle’s second-in-command, had been killed, and he’d been the one who had sat and prayed at her hospital bed after her rescue from that Syrian hellhole.

Suspecting him of anything seemed nothing short of a sin.

Yet there it was.

“I wasn’t following you,” he stated with a bite to his voice. “I’ve actually been tracking your shadow. I just wanted to see who he was tracking when I caught sight of him sneaking around the hotel the night before you left. I didn’t know you were his quarry until I heard you and the Lion here arguing inside. It makes sense, though, considering the fact I warned you someone was out to kill you.” He turned to Lawe as he crossed his arms over his wide chest. “Your Breeds are falling down on the job, prick. They weren’t at the door as they should have been.”

“For a reason,” Lawe snapped irritably. “We knew you were following her. The only reason you got to the door was because you’re not considered a threat.”

Diane was more concerned with Thor’s revelation than the argument between him and Lawe. She had left before daylight. Gideon Cross had been watching for her and she had known it. Just as she had known he was tailing her, despite the fact that she hadn’t been able to catch sight of him.

One of these days, perhaps she could catch up with him and convince him to teach her that little trick.

Keeping one step ahead of her mate as well as her enemies might well be in her future. He didn’t appear to be out to kill her. She just hadn’t figured out exactly what it was he did want. Evidently, Lawe was paying close attention to Thor, especially the part about Gideon shadowing her and the rumor that there was a price on her head. Just what she needed, for Lawe to become more protective than he already was. “Let me go before I have to kick your ass,” she muttered, her fury downgrading to simple kick-his-ass anger as he slowly released her.

“That threat is getting old,” he told her quietly. “Either kick it or find another part of my anatomy to consider abusing.”

She almost rolled her eyes. She wasn’t even going to touch that one.

Pushing her fingers through her hair, she stared back at the window beside the door. The curtains were still carefully closed and tucked in close to the wall to ensure not even a shadow could be revealed.

She had known last night that a weapon was trained on her. Right between her eyes as she sat in the chair that she had thankfully moved this morning. If Thor was unaware of who the tracker was following, then he couldn’t have seen her the night before making herself a willing target.

“Did you catch sight of him?” she asked Thor.

For long moments Thor stared back at her in mocking disbelief that she had even asked such a question. He indicated her window with a jerk of his head. “I managed to catch sight of him with the long-range binocs we procured from those Coyotes last year.” The binoculars were a hell of a lot more than long range, with night vision, heat sensing and several other tricks Diane hadn’t yet been able to try out. “He has a nice, powerful sniper rifle trained right in here is my guess. I saw the shadow and the rifle, but I couldn’t get close enough to glimpse his features or keep him from pulling the trigger.” The last was snapped out furiously. “What the fuck were you doing propped up in front of the window daring that fucker?”

She rolled her eyes at him, before her gaze turned wary at the sound of the rumble of pure displeasure she heard vibrating in Lawe’s chest.

“Stop that.” She hissed the order as her nerves went immediately on edge.

She did not like that sound.

“I’m ready to imitate him,” Thor bit out in irritation. “For God’s sake, Diane. You have no idea what you’re dealing with here.”

“Wonderful.” Diane propped her hands on her hips again and stared around the room as she said mockingly, “And here I was hoping he would settle for binoculars to watch my girlish figure.”

Not that either man took her mocking amusement for what it was.

“That assassin is still tracking you and you insist on remaining on this mission?” Lawe turned to Diane, incredulity shooting past any control he could have considered enforcing on his scent. “Have you lost your fucking mind?”

“Well, he hasn’t shot me yet.” She ignored the flash of a wicked incisor at her exclamation.

“Well, fucking give him time,” Lawe suddenly yelled at her. “He’s only made his first attempt. If at first you don’t succeed—right?”

Her eyes widened.

She had never heard Lawe yell, and she had seen him and Jonas go head-to-head on more than one occasion. Lawe was always calm, collected and cool. The three C’s. She’d always envied the hell out him.

All three of those C’s were gone this morning, though. That Breed standing before her was ready to blow with the force of the anger raging through him.

“You need Valium,” she stated in irritation. “If he wanted to kill me, then you would still be cleaning my brain matter from the side of that hotel in D.C. Get a clue, Lawe. He didn’t want to kill me. He wanted to get me away from my team to keep me from getting killed by whoever is betraying me. The best way to do that was make certain they couldn’t follow me.” She glanced at Thor. “It’s a damned good thing you’re the only one I know I can trust. But I want to know who it is. I was hoping to convince Gideon to join me long enough to tell me.”

She turned to her second-in-command. It was too late to hide anything from him now.

A sizzling curse slipped past Thor’s lips a second before his expression turned to stone.

“I’ll kill the bastard,” he swore, his voice rumbling with near Breed violence, and he was stone cold serious. “When I find out who he is, he’ll be dead fucking meat, Diane. He’ll only wish I had turned him over to your mate, because there’s no Breed on Earth that will make him suffer as I will.”

“Fine, you make him suffer,” Lawe snapped as he gripped Diane’s arm and pulled her around to face him. “What the fuck made you think you could trust anything a feral Breed had to say? And just when did he inform you of anything—”

“And why the hell didn’t I tell you about it when it happened?” she asked sweetly as she batted her lashes at him and affected a passable Southern Belle accent. “Why, Lawe, could it be because of all those raging Breed hormones going nuts inside your body right now? Or could it be the fact that little ole me could handle it just fine by myself?”

“Oh did you now?” All teeth. His smile was frankly disconcerting. “Well, Mate, let’s see how well you handle me, now that I know about it. And I promise you, it won’t be near as easy as you’ve had it the past. You can fucking bet on it.”

Gideon pulled the slim wireless receiver from his ear and tossed it to the table before wearily wiping his hand over his face. He almost smiled.

Damn, she was smarter than he had given her credit for. But, when it came to her mate, she wasn’t showing the most sensible manner in how she was handling him. Challenging a Breed was simple idiocy. Especially a Breed male. That was the height of idiocy. Especially when it came to their mates.

Hell, maybe he should have met with her before Commander Justice arrived. But it had been his intent to save the information for a more useful time. Perhaps when he needed to distract her after stepping between her and his prey. Well, their prey.

Truth was, he’d wanted to meet with her. He’d wanted to see if he could draw any information from her, perhaps trick her into telling him more than he already knew, but he had a feeling it wouldn’t happen. Useless effort had never appealed to him. It would have been amusing though, he thought as he held back a chuckle. They would have both been playing the same game. It would have been interesting to see if either of them had won or if it had only come out a draw, as he suspected it would. He actually respected her. Her strength and daring were almost legendary, her integrity unimpeachable. Like her uncle before her, Diane Broen led her men on missions that never harmed innocents, only saved them. She went after the monsters in the world and tried to make living just a little bit easier for those she helped.

Gideon despised treachery and traitors, and Diane had a traitor in her midst. Someone she trusted had been feeding her uncle’s enemies information until they had finally caught up with her in Syria and managed to kidnap her.

Gideon had been in the area tracking down one of Brandenmore’s clerical assistants when he’d caught wind of the abduction. He’d made certain Thor had the information and knew where he could find a Breed team that may be willing to help.

He’d owed her uncle that much.

Funny, how small the world could be. It had been her uncle, Colt, who had helped him during one of the few times he had managed to escape Brandenmore’s labs.

Gideon had been in Europe when he had run into the team of Coyotes searching for him. Colt Broen had been following the Coyotes on a rumor that they were after a very special research project. His curiosity had been dangerous. It had also ended up being the reason for his death.

At that time, though, the mercenary had helped Gideon and even allowed him to join the team and share in the payments. Hell, he should have stayed with them rather than believing he would find safety at Sanctuary at the time.

He hadn’t even made it to the small town of Buffalo Gap before he was ambushed, proving that even Sanctuary wasn’t safe. Because only he and the Breed he had talked to there had known he was coming and the route he was to take.

He had paid for that escape. It hadn’t stopped him from trying again, though. And again. And again. Except, Colt hadn’t been there to rescue his ass. Perhaps it was for the best, he thought. Not that Thor would recognize him now, nor did he know who he had met with the night Diane had fled D.C. Shadows were wonderful things sometimes, and Thor was just smart enough to be suspicious, and intuitive enough to put the information Gideon had given him together.

She would need the Swede, he was afraid. Gideon couldn’t protect her, and he was afraid Lawe would be too intent on forcing her to safety to watch for her little tricks when it came to slipping away from him.

The sound of voices raised in anger from the earpiece drew his attention back to the confrontation in the other room.

He knew what the outcome would be, though he was certain Commander Justice had no idea he was going to lose this round.

Diane wasn’t a woman any man or Breed could protect by locking her away from the world. She was a woman that would always feel the need to find a way to fight at her mate’s side. If the Breed had wanted a wallflower, then he should have mated some shy little miss and stayed the hell away from the warrior he’d found.

Because there was no doubt in his mind that the woman would find a way to freedom. And if she couldn’t find her own way out, then the men who were loyal to her would find it for her. Especially the one they called Thor.

Lawe pushed his fingers through his hair as he rounded on Diane once again. Disbelief spiked his blood pressure—who had ever heard of a Breed with high blood pressure—then mixed with the arousal already biting at his balls, to create a conflagration that threatened to explode within him.

He stared at his mate. She was as serious as hell when she stood and discussed a traitor in her group as though she hadn’t nearly died sixteen months before because of his betrayal.

And she was discussing it with one of the very men she should have been suspecting.

He was thirty-four years old and he’d never been so close to losing his control as he was now. Even as a babe, or cub as they were called in the labs, he hadn’t been so close to complete mindless rage as he was now.

He had watched friends and littermates die.

He’d been betrayed over and over by his trainers.

He’d been betrayed by Breeds he’d believed were his friends.

He’d watched his mother die by vivisection and had seen countless Breed children suffer until their deaths were a mercy.

And still, he’d maintained his control because he’d had no other choice. And now, when that control was even more imperative, he could feel himself losing his grip on it.

“There’s no way to set a trap when the last thing I need right now is to have any of them know what I’m doing.” Diane shook her head at Thor’s suggestion that they find a way to trap the traitor within their group. “Besides, it can wait. I want to concentrate on finding Brandenmore’s research subjects right now. As far as the others know, I’m at Sanctuary and Rachel will cover for me if by chance one of them attempts to contact me.”

“You know where she’s hiding then?” Thor asked as he leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest and watched his commander somberly.

Diane breathed in slowly. He could sense the battle she waged within herself for a moment before resignation settled in. Her shoulders straightened as her head lifted proudly at whatever decision she’d been silently contemplating.

“I know where they’re at.” She nodded. “Window Rock, Arizona. The night the Breed they called Judd and the young human girl, Fawn, were supposed to be terminated, Judd somehow managed to cause the guard to wreck the vehicle and took the girl and ran with a Native American who had been contacted by an anonymous source several days before. He found them, hid them for several days, and then took them to Window Rock.”

“And just how do you know this?” Lawe could feel himself tensing, the pit of his stomach tightening at the look in her eyes.

“Because I’m smart like that,” she drawled mockingly. “And once I had that bit of information I began investigating him. He’s known for disappearing regularly and he’s known for his habit of attempting to help Breeds. He was also near the area where Judd and Fawn Corrigan were being transported for termination the night they escaped.”

Lawe stared back at her.

He could feel the ice battling against the mating heat to take over once again. To wrap around his soul, to freeze the emotional abyss waiting to spread through him and destroy him once and for all.

Window Rock, Arizona. A Native American who would be willing to help Breeds. One Lawe knew for a fact had been searching for a particular young woman who had been kidnapped decades before by the Council. Terran Martinez, his uncle. But neither Terran nor his father had been there for Morningstar Martinez. His sister.

Lawe’s mother.

“All the evidence we have verifies the termination,” Lawe pointed out.

“Because no one was left living to un-verify it,” she reminded.

“Remains were found in the cremation unit,” he argued. “Enough to prove there were at least two bodies.”

“And every guard in the building was dead,” she reminded him. “Did you find teeth? Bone matter? Anything to verify the DNA? Sex? I know how thorough Breeds are. There was nothing there or I would have known about it when Jonas gave me the file on Honor Roberts.”

“And how did you hear about this?” he asked, his tone grating. “That information hasn’t come up anywhere else.”

To which Diane smiled. “No one could verify their deaths, not even the Brandenmore scientists and research assistants I managed to talk to. I was probing into the suspicion of their escape when Gideon left his little note for me in my hotel room informing me that I had a traitor on my team and if I wanted to find who I was looking for, I should head to Window Rock and pay close attention to Terran Martinez.”

“And you trusted this information?” Thor asked, surprised.

She didn’t blame him; she was normally the most suspicious person she knew.

She breathed out heavily. “There had been too many accidents, Thor. I was already suspicious. And once I began checking into the information and Terran Martinez’s past, it began adding up.”

“Why didn’t you give Jonas this information in your report?” Lawe grated. “You didn’t tell me?”

Diane smiled back at him knowingly. “Because I didn’t trust the encryption for the digital files and I wanted to make certain the Martinez name or Window Rock didn’t get picked up by the wrong ears or listening devices. When I saw you had no intention of allowing me to complete the search for her, then I kept it to myself. This is my job, Lawe. Gideon Cross may be a killer as well as a feral Breed, but whatever caused him to give me that information kept me alive. Someone wants me out of the way so Amber or Rachel, possibly both, will be more vulnerable. Each “accident” has coincided with an event where Amber has been in danger. She needs all of us, not just Breeds, to protect her.”

“Have you considered the fact someone could be using you to draw your sister out?” Lawe demanded, his voice rough, tortured. “For pity’s sake, what in the hell makes you believe you can trust a Breed that’s carving up Brandenmore scientists like pork at a picnic?”

She rolled her eyes. Lawe had a tendency to become irritatingly caustic as he grew angrier.

“I didn’t say I trusted him. I said so far, he hasn’t lied to me,” she pointed out.

“Why tell you anything about the Roberts girl, or about the Breed?” Thor mused.

To which Diane stared at him then back to Lawe with knowing mockery. “Because he wants them too. For whatever reason, he’s after the same goal and he obviously believes I have a much better chance of drawing them out. He’ll shadow me. Watch me. He’ll try to get to them first once they’re identified. And I intend to keep that from happening.”

“How?” Lawe snapped. His patience was seriously wearing thin.

“I’ll let you know when I’ve figured that one out.” She shrugged in unconcern. “Until then, I’ll just do what I do best, Lawe. I’ll question, watch, listen, and pull my facts together. If all else fails, I’ll introduce myself to Mr. Martinez as his future niece-in-law and see if that helps.”

She was joking.

Unfortunately, Lawe wasn’t in a joking mood.

“Don’t even try it.” The growl in his voice sent shivers racing down her spine. “If you treasure that independence as highly as you claim to, Mate, don’t even fucking try it.”

She had a feeling facing the past was the last thing Lawe intended to do and the very thing that would end up happening before this mission was completed.

Just as she had a feeling, a very bad one, that before it was over with, her heart just might end up broken, or perhaps her neck instead.