Rule Breaker

CHAPTER 30

FOUR HOURS LATER

The cavern was dark, shadowed. It had obviously been used for more than simply holding one gutless bastard beneath the glare of an uncovered bulb. It worked for that, though. Very well actually.

Gypsy stepped toward the light slowly, aware of Rule, Lawe and Diane at her back, ensuring her protection.

Was it the same, she wondered, not bothering to censor her thoughts as she felt Rule’s presence inside her. Was it the same as the hunt, the heady rush of adrenaline once he would have been caught?

He wouldn’t have run.

No, she thought as a whisper of certainty touched her mind. He wouldn’t have run. He would have lied. He would have turned to Thea and her parents and they would have believed him, no doubt.

“That’s far enough.” The voice came from the darkness, drawing her to a hard stop as her gaze jerked to the darkness behind the light.

Gideon.

“He’s not at his most presentable.” The voice was amused and filled with disgust, the primal rasp of sound had Jason Harte flinching, a whimper leaving his throat as the scent of urine became decidedly stronger.

A heavy sigh sounded from the disembodied voice a second before broad fingers curved over his shoulders. Where his nails should have been, strong, sharp claws stained with dried blood extended instead.

“He doesn’t hold his water very well,” Gideon drawled then. “I remember when we were in the labs fighting for the fucking Council. The bastards they sent us up against didn’t piss themselves so easily, did they, Commander?”

“No, they didn’t,” Rule agreed as Gypsy felt the heavy weight of sorrow, remnants of remembered fury and pain echoing from him as she tried to find a way to comfort him as he did her.

She reached for him with her hand, feeling his fingers enclose hers as she continued to stare at the terrified Jason.

His brown eyes were bloodshot, pupils enlarged with terror. The tanned flesh of his face was strikingly pale, the once immaculate shirt and slacks hanging on his frame, torn, smeared with dirt and blood.

“Mark was brave when he died,” she whispered, seeing none of that quality in the friend he’d so trusted. “He wasn’t afraid for himself, just for me.”

She remembered that. Remembered the pain and regret, the sorrow and how his gaze had been so heavy with the lack of hope.

The hand on his shoulder moved.

Another whimper left Jason’s throat, filtering through the gag tied across his lips just before it was released.

“Gypsy?” Frantic, terrified, he searched the shadows where she stood. “God, Gypsy, honey, what are you doing here?”

He tried so hard to seem sincere, confused. He wasn’t confused, not in the least.

“Mark always told me to cry when I needed to,” she mused, feeling a heavy, dark fury filling her. “He said it would heal my heart. He said I didn’t have to be brave, that was what big brothers were for. And he never gave me nicknames. But you always laughed at me. Told me to be a big girl when you caught me crying over something. You always jeered at me because you said I wasn’t brave. And I fucking hated being called Peanut,” she spat out at him. “It’s over, Jason. I remembered what Mark was trying to tell me when he told me to be brave, not to cry, and called me Peanut. But even more, I remember what I saw when I watched Grody whisper the name of the friend who betrayed him in his ear. The pain.” It tore through her, ripping at her soul. “He loved you like a brother.”

Jason’s nostrils flared as he stared back at her, despite the darkness surrounding her. His gaze searched the darkness for some sign of weakness, for a way out. She recognized that look. The look of guilt, calculation and pure fear.

“Gypsy, you’re wrong—”

“Save it,” Rule snapped. “She’s not alone, Harte, and the stink of your lies makes me want to rip your throat out myself.”

“Gypsy, please . . .” Jason cried, only to whimper as that claw-tipped hand landed on his shoulder again.

“I have a better idea,” Gideon rasped, amused despite the anger she could feel pulsing from him. “You want the truth, but this man will never give you such a thing without a little help. And with men like this, they never give such things willingly.”

“No,” Jason whispered, shuddering, whimpering as the claws bit into his shoulder.

Blood seeped into the shirt from the points where the sharpened nails bit into his flesh.

Gypsy inhaled, fury beating at the edges of her brain despite the shield she felt Rule throwing between her senses and the ragged, raging emotions clawing at it.

“Stop,” she whispered to him. “Don’t make me hide from it.”

“Gypsy, you don’t have to hurt like this,” he growled, the sound powerful, commanding.

“Me and my emotions are old friends, Rule,” she told him then. “I’ve waited nine years for this moment. I don’t want to lose a single emotion, a single second of it.”

Lawe murmured something to him, and though the shield was suddenly gone, she felt Rule with her more strongly than ever.

She could handle that, though. It kept her moored, kept the agonizing rage from poisoning every particle of her being as a low, enraged cry parted her lips.

“Dammit, Gypsy, I loved Mark like a brother . . .”

Grody leaned to Mark, but his gaze was on her as he whispered the words. She watched his lips, saw the words form and her gaze jerked to her brother’s eyes.

Resigned sorrow and rage had filled her brother’s eyes.

“When Grody whispered the name of the friend who’d betrayed him, Mark had one last minute to tell me something in a way that if Grody were to have mercy, he’d never know what Mark told me. ‘Be brave. Don’t cry, Peanut,’” she spat back at him. “You miserable bastard. Only you ever told me that. Only you.”

His jaw clenched, fury gleaming in his gaze as his lip curled in disgust. “He treated you like you were his fucking child . . .”

“He treated you like a fucking brother,” she charged furiously. “You had him killed, Jason. You tried to steal his family, you stole his fiancée, were you really that jealous of him?”

“You’re crazy,” he yelled back at her. “I tried to help your family . . .”

“He’s lying,” Gideon stated with an air of boredom. “I have a wonderful little drug that will ensure he tells you the truth, though.”

“You fucker!” Jason screamed, spittle flying from his lips as the Breed chuckled behind him.

“Tell her the truth or I give you the drug. It will make you certifiably insane, but we’ll get the truth. And it is rather painful. Agonizing, from what I remember myself. You choose.”

“Fuck you.”

“I’d rather not. You stink of piss.”

Jason dropped his head.

“I can be merciful, Mr. Harte,” Gideon said softly. “Especially when I really have no desire to compound one tender young woman’s nightmares. But I’m also rather selfish. I want the truth, as does she. However bad it hurts her, or you, I’ll get it.”

Gypsy took a step forward. “Why did you betray him, Jason?”

He shook his head, his breath hitching as Gideon growled.

“I was working with the Council,” he whispered. “The Genetics Council. I was one of their spies in the Nation, had helped them identify several breeders with certain traits they were looking for, along with one of the Nation’s leaders. Mark was getting too close to me, but he was also getting very close to identifying the more important political contact within the Nation. I planted the video and audio devices at his workstations because you couldn’t put shit on that fucking computer of his without him knowing. When I saw him hacking into another spy’s cell phone records, I knew it was just a matter of time.”

“You knew what he was doing? That he was hacking the Council’s records and hadn’t turned him in before that?” she scoffed.

“God, Gypsy, he was my fucking friend,” he cried, his voice torn now, ragged. “I loved him like a brother. But he would have found out I was working with them. He would have learned things I couldn’t afford for anyone to learn.” He was crying now. It made her sick to see his tears, to see what she knew had to be false sincerity.

“You didn’t love Mark,” she whispered. “Mark benefited you, nothing more.”

“No.” He shook his head, his expression creased with pain now. “I did love him, Gypsy. But I loved my father, my life, and I loved Thea.” He inhaled raggedly. “My father worked with them as well, that’s how I ended up working for them. Dad was the one who chose Morningstar Martinez to be taken by them as well as several other young girls from other parts of the Nation. He and whoever his friend was within the Navajo Tribal Council.” His head lowered again, tears dripping to the urine stain on his pants. “I was assigned to gather information on any Breeds coming into the Nation. Just before he hacked into that covert agency officer’s cell phone files, Mark was tracking two teenage girls and two Bengals being slipped in by the Unknown. He worked with them a lot. Once I learned that, I knew I would have to keep an eye on him, so I set the audio and video at the two places I knew he worked most often.”

“How did you know who he was helping?” She had to grip Rule’s hand with all her strength to hold back, to keep from killing him now, before she ever learned the full truth.

“When I found out Mark was hacking Council files,” he said roughly. “The Council was searching for a hacker and had heard rumors of the Unknown. They were searching for him for years.” His head jerked back up. “I knew for over two years what he was doing and I never breathed a word of it,” he cried out. “Not once, Gypsy.”

“Grody’s orders were to kill both of us.” The tears didn’t faze her. He was going to die. As Gideon said, it was just a matter of how.

“I knew how close he was to you,” he said roughly, his head still lowered. “I didn’t know what you knew, and I couldn’t risk you suspecting it was me. When the Council sent out the order to take him, you weren’t included in it, even though I told them how close the two of you were. You weren’t considered a threat. I called Grody myself and gave the order.”

“Then you moved right in, took over his life, his company, his parents and his fiancée,” she laughed mockingly. “Was it worth it, Jason? Did you get what you wanted?”

He shook his head. “She never forgot him. She never loved me like she loved Mark.”

There wasn’t even a second of warning. Between one heartbeat and the next she went from holding herself back from killing him to being pulled backward, sheltered by Rule’s hard body as a gunshot rang out.

“Fuck!” Gideon cursed.

Lights flared, low, but dissipating many of the shadows as Gypsy struggled to gain enough purchase beneath Rule’s body and the recliner he’d taken shelter behind.

“Thea?” she whispered, shocked. “Let me go, Rule.”

Diane was moving toward the other woman as she stood still, silent, the handgun now held loosely in her hands as she stared at the man she’d married seven years before.

Rule let her rise slowly, holding on to her until Diane gripped the weapon and slid it slowly from Thea’s hand.

“Thea.” Gypsy rushed to the woman her brother had loved so deeply that he’d begun to try pulling back from the shadowy group he’d worked with.

“Thea?” she whispered again as the delicate blonde lifted her head, violet eyes staring back at her dully.

“The night Mark died,” Thea whispered. “I was attacked outside my dorm room.”

“I know.” Gypsy frowned back at her, hearing the ragged pain still echoing in her voice.

“I was carrying Mark’s baby.” Tears spilled from her eyes then, running in rivulets down her face as a cry tore past her lips. “I miscarried. I lost our baby and I always knew.” Thea’s fists clenched and pressed into her stomach as her expression collapsed in agony. “I knew whoever killed Mark sent someone to hurt me too.” Her gaze swung to where Jason sat limply in the chair he was tied to, the front of his shirt now soaked with blood from the bullet that had torn into his heart. “I knew, and I swore, if the chance came, I’d kill him.” Hatred filled her tone now. Her eyes were so dark they looked bruised, shattered. “He’s betrayed everything I’ve believed in my whole life and destroyed everyone I loved. If I could kill him again, I would.”

She wrapped her arms around the woman she’d always regretted had never been her sister-in-law and held her. Rule moved behind Thea, staring back at her, compassion, somber regret and a question in his eyes.

“It’s over,” she whispered, not just for Thea, but for Rule as well. “The monster’s dead now. It’s over.”

With that, Rule gave a sharp nod, and as Gypsy and Diane eased Thea to the lone recliner in the room, he and Lawe began the work of disposing of Jason’s body.

Gideon stood silently, watchfully.

Waiting.

Thank you, she mouthed silently, wondering if he would understand the gift he had given her in ensuring she wasn’t forced to battle Rule for the confrontation she’d been given with Jason.

He nodded once, his gaze returning to Rule and Lawe.

“Give us a hand, dammit,” Rule commanded him. “We need to have his body dumped—”

“Leave it,” Gideon growled, and she swore the stripes across his face weren’t as dark as they had been when she’d gotten her first glimpse of him. “I know what to do. Get these women the hell out of here and I’ll take care of it. Just get the scent of their pain the fuck away from me.”

Turning, he stalked to the far end of the cavern, crossed his arms over his chest and waited.

“Let’s go,” Rule decided, obviously more than willing to take him up on his offer. “I’ve had enough of that bastard’s stink for the night.”

Lawe lifted Thea into his arms as he and Diane moved toward the entrance of the cavern. Rule’s arm went around Gypsy, pulling her to his side and following quickly.

Jonas could never know about this, she knew. It was the deal Rule had made with the devil nine years before, the first time he betrayed his friend when he’d identified the Bengal Judd and struck a bargain. What was one more, he’d breathed out roughly after Gideon’s message had come through hours before. After all, the files the Bengal had left Jonas had given them everything they needed to ensure Amber’s health. She would live. Something she wouldn’t have done if it hadn’t been for Brandenmore.

Who could have known Amber had been only weeks away from being diagnosed with the same virulent leukemia that had nearly killed one of the young women Jonas had searched for, Honor Roberts?

But Brandenmore had taken the proof of it. Vials of blood he’d taken from the baby before giving her that first injection held the proof. Blood samples Gideon had left with the files, along with records of his own tests on it.

Her age, the disease and a small chromosome Gideon had identified and notated, and an observation he’d left that it needed to be studied, were the reasons the serum hadn’t killed the baby but would kill an adult every time.

The reason why Amber was slowly becoming a Breed as well.

...

Speeding away from the cavern and back to the hotel, she sat still, silent, a restlessness gripping her now that it was over. A restlessness she had no idea how to identify. She’d never felt it before. Never known it existed.

But it burned in her chest, wrapped around her heart, and urged her to . . .

She stared into the desert, closed her eyes and wondered how in the hell she was possibly going to be able to do it.