Rule Breaker

CHAPTER 3

Pulling into the parking lot behind the store an hour later, Gypsy watched in surprise as her sister’s short-wheelbase four-by-four black pickup pulled in beside her.

Sliding from the Jeep, she set the roof into operation again, waiting as Kandy slid from her truck, closed the door and locked the vehicle before meeting her at the front of the Jeep.

“You’re out late.” Gypsy lifted her brows suggestively as she watched her younger sister.

Kandy was even more delicate than Gypsy. At five four, she sometimes looked far too tiny to even be a McQuade.

“Look who’s talking,” Kandy laughed back a bit nervously, her turquoise eyes gleaming back at Gypsy as they moved toward the downstairs apartment her sister had moved into the year before.

“Not so late for me,” Gypsy murmured as Kandy unlocked the door, then followed her sister into the cool interior.

Flipping on the lights, Kandy instantly dispelled the shadows that filled the roomy, inviting openness of the apartment.

As in Gypsy’s upstairs apartment, the door opened into a wide entryway that flowed into the open kitchen, dining area and living room. The rooms were divided by a long counter, inset with a chef’s dream of a stove and oven.

Fall colors and dark wood gave the apartment an inviting warmth that Gypsy’s didn’t have, while the scent of various baked sweets still filled the interior. Her sister could make a cake that would melt in the mouth and send the senses into orgasmic bliss.

Yet Gypsy knew, despite her parents’ dreams, it wasn’t a life Kandy really wanted for herself.

Unfortunately, Gypsy didn’t think her sister knew what she did want instead.

“Did you check in with your guard dogs tonight?” Kandy set her purse on a table just inside the door as she slid her keys into it and glanced back at Gypsy. “Commander Breaker and his sidekick were convinced you’d been kidnapped, had run off to Fiji with a lover or were lying dead in the desert somewhere when they couldn’t find you.”

Gypsy rolled her eyes as she strode to the bar and sat down on one of the high stools as Kandy moved to the fridge.

“They finally caught up with me at the Crooked Toe,” she drawled. “What is with those two anyway?”

Kandy paused as she set a covered pie dish on the counter and stared back at her sister in surprised amusement. “You haven’t figured it out yet?”

The knowingness of her tone had Gypsy grimacing at her sister’s knowledge that Rule Breaker’s intent was no more than to get her into his bed.

“Don’t start on me, Kandy,” Gypsy ordered her, pointing an accusing finger at her with a fierce glare. “We’re not going there tonight.”

“He wants your body,” Kandy announced, her lashes lowering as she gave her sister a quick wink. “Really bad.”

“He can want on.” She rolled her eyes before folding her arms on the counter and watching as her sister dished up apple pie, set it in the warmer, then moved to make coffee.

Kandy didn’t ask if she wanted it, but then, it was rare for Gypsy to visit with her like this too.

Watching her sister as she moved about the kitchen, Gypsy felt the guilt and grief that filled her whenever she spent much time with the other girl.

Kandy had been ten when Mark had died. She had never known the brother Gypsy had known. The smart, incredibly funny, and always intensely protective young man who had given his sister her freedom while standing by carefully to ensure no one dared to hurt her as she tried out her teenage wings.

Her sister had seen the danger of slipping out, the parties, and the truth that monsters really did exist in the world. And it changed her life almost as much as it had changed the lives of Gypsy, their parents, his best friend, Jason, and Mark’s former fiancée, Thea Lacey.

All of their lives had been scarred because of Gypsy’s carelessness.

They ate the pie and Gypsy drank her coffee as the tension slowly began to build between them, just as it always did.

“Time for me to go to bed,” Gypsy announced as she slid back her saucer and cup and rose from the stool before Kandy’s nervous tension ended up affecting her further. “Catch you in the morning.”

Throwing her sister a quick smile, she turned to head for the door.

“You didn’t ask me why I was out so late tonight, Gypsy.” Kandy’s observation had her pausing and turning back to her.

Blue-green eyes watched her, the delicate, almost elfin features far too serious and, Gypsy realized, maturing when she hadn’t been looking.

Just because she hadn’t questioned Kandy’s whereabouts didn’t mean she wasn’t well aware of where her sister had been. Like Mark, Gypsy took her sister’s safety seriously. Unlike Mark, she didn’t let Kandy know she did; that way, if anyone, especially the Council’s Breeds, was looking for a weakness and found Kandy, they’d be convinced that the younger girl couldn’t force Gypsy into giving her life for her.

Even though she knew she would do for Kandy just as Mark had done for her.

Die for her.

“You’re nineteen, Kandy,” she finally answered, swallowing against the sudden tightness in her throat. “I guess I thought you’d tell me if you wanted me to know.”

A flash of hurt gleamed in the younger girl’s eyes before she turned away.

“That’s how it works, then?” Kandy picked up the dishcloth on the counter beside her, more to have something to hold on to than to actually clean the counter, Gypsy thought.

“I guess.” She had no idea what was going on now. Her sister rarely, hell, had actually never questioned her about anything other than how her day was going.

“Then if I want to know anything about you, I should just wait for you to think to tell me because it’s really none of my business, right?” Kandy questioned her softly, though Gypsy could see a gleam of determination in Kandy’s eyes that didn’t make sense.

“I don’t want to fight with you tonight, Kandy,” Gypsy breathed out roughly, reaching back to release the elastic band holding her hair back. “I’m really tired, and I just want to—”

“Go home and stare into the dark until dawn like you did while you were at home?” Kandy questioned suddenly, the quickness of the question catching her off guard, reminding her of why she stayed out so late most nights.

Gypsy flinched.

“Exactly. Good night.” She moved to the door.

“Do you know what, Gypsy?” Kandy’s harsh question stopped her as she opened the door and started through it.

“I’m sure I don’t want to know,” Gypsy sighed, keeping her back to her sister, aching at the bitterness churning inside her now.

“I didn’t just lose my brother that night in the desert, I lost my entire family,” Kandy whispered, the words, the grief in her sister’s voice driving a brutal, sharp-edged stake straight into Gypsy’s soul. “I became an orphan, and none of you ever realized it. Or maybe you just fucking didn’t care.”

Shock held her for long seconds, stealing her breath before she swung around to face her sister. But she wasn’t there. Disappearing into her bedroom on the other side of the room, her door closing quietly, Kandy had evidently said all she had to say.

Gypsy shook her head.

Kandy was wrong.

Their parents had held on to the younger child desperately after Mark’s death, terrified of losing their last, remaining favorite child.

They hadn’t objected as Gypsy drew further and further away emotionally. Sometimes they had watched her helplessly, but they had loved Kandy.

Giving her head a hard shake, Gypsy left the apartment, closing the door behind her and listening carefully for the locks to engage. When they did, she forced herself to move to the stairs that led to her own apartment, and the darkness that couldn’t be dispelled no matter how many lights she turned on.

She knew where her sister went on the rare occasions she stayed out late. Kandy liked to play poker and over the years, several of Mark’s friends had taught her how to play it with deadly skill. The small amusement had begun when Kandy turned twelve and Mark’s best friend, Jason, had arrived at the house to speak to her parents about the image consulting business that had been floundering sharply since Mark’s death.

Kandy had been playing poker with a dummy hand at the small card table where Mark had taught them both to play. From there, as she’d grown older, he’d sometimes taken her with him to his card games when her parents were busy. Her parents had never, not even once, asked Gypsy to watch her little sister.

Not that she blamed them after she’d failed her older brother.

Jason and his friends got together monthly now and had been known to play for entire weekends.

And they always invited Kandy.

Stepping into her apartment, she made a mental note to call Jason—maybe he would know what the hell was going on with her sister.

Because Gypsy couldn’t allow herself to figure it out on her own. If she did, she would have to admit that Kandy might not be an orphan, but in all the ways that mattered, she had definitely become an only child.

And the guilt of that would only open her to the nightmares she’d fought to put behind her so long ago.

...

The next two days were relatively free of Rule and his sidekick, as Dane Vanderale was being dubbed. Rumor was that Jonas Wyatt had flown with his fiancée and child to D.C. to attend a Senate hearing that had been called regarding the reorganization of the Bureau of Breed Affairs that was being speculated on.

According to the press, despite the fact that there was no official announcement or details regarding the rumor, the Bureau of Breed Affairs and the Breed Ruling Cabinet were already in the process of expanding the offices when the Senate Oversight Committee on Breed Affairs had caught wind of it and called the immediate, private hearing.

It gave Gypsy the chance she needed to get a few jobs finished that she’d left hanging because of the distraction he represented. But she admitted, at least to herself, that some spark that had come into life when he began “harassing” her was no longer there.

Pulling the Jeep into the small parking area of her apartment that night after completing the final chore, she stared into the brilliance of the desert moon.

For the briefest moment terror raced through her, struck at her senses and reminded her of the danger she faced each time she entered the nightlife and moved among the Breeds and their enemies.

Especially the enemies. The animals. The monsters that murdered, that raped . . .

A horror that had almost destroyed her once before.

A hard shake of her head pushed it back, her heart rate lowering once again as she activated the control that had the tough, flexible shell of the Jeep top rolling into place and locking securely.

This time, she pulled the remote fob from her jeans, and as she stepped from the Jeep and closed the door behind her, she automatically locked it before moving quickly for the comfort of the secure apartment.

She had a few hours to rest before her alarm reminded her that she was due at the Covert Law Enforcement Agency, where she manned the phones several nights a week in case any of the agents in the field called in for immediate help.

Once she returned home, she turned into just another party girl, just another woman on the hunt for her next dance, her next drink or her next potential lover.

Before she became the opposite of who she was, and what she always wanted to be.

As that thought drifted through her mind, the short knock on her front door had a frown creasing her brows. Stepping from the kitchen to the short wide entryway, she pressed the door camera, restraining a sigh at the sight of the man standing patiently on the other side.

“Come on in, Jase.” Deactivating the locks, she watched as the man her brother had called his best friend stepped into the apartment.

Jase wasn’t as tall as Mark had been, and he wasn’t as handsome, but he was cute in his own way with short brown hair, deep brown eyes and a stocky rather than lean body. Dressed in dark slacks, black dress boots and a white shirt open at the collar, he’d obviously discarded his tie after leaving the office.

If it hadn’t been for Jase, Gypsy didn’t know how her parents would have survived after Mark’s death. He’d taken over Mark’s job at the image consulting firm, did all the things Mark had done to help her parents and Mark’s fiancée, Thea.

He and Thea had married several years before, when Thea had been promoted to assistant DA in Window Rock.

“Hey, sweetheart.” His smile wasn’t as open and filled with love as Mark’s had always been, but it was familiar even if she’d never stopped seeing a shadow of an accusation buried in the dark depths.

“Hey, Jase,” she greeted him, allowing the brief hug he always insisted on. He was one of the few people who had refused to allow her to just disappear inside herself after Mark’s death. “I was wondering when you would get around to a visit.”

He shot her a chastising look as she moved away from him. “If you would come in to work occasionally instead of waiting for assignments, then you wouldn’t have to wonder when you would see me.”

She leaned against the counter as he took a seat on one of the stools on the opposite side.

“I’ve been busy.” She shrugged. “I do have other jobs, you know.”

He snorted at that, frowning. “How many times have I tried to get you to take full time at the office, Gypsy?”

McQuade Image Consulting was growing slowly, she knew, thanks to the way her parents had thrown themselves into the business after their eldest child’s death and Jason’s steady determination.

“I like the variety.” She liked not seeing the pain in her parents’ eyes whenever Mark’s name came up.

Crossing his arms and bracing them on the counter as she busied herself straightening what didn’t need straightening, he watched her closely for long seconds.

“Your mother called you earlier,” he reminded her gently. “You didn’t return her call.”

No, she hadn’t.

Lifting her gaze, she stared back at Jason quietly, coolly.

She didn’t discuss her parents with anyone, even Jason.

“I need you to come in to the office in the morning,” he said, concern filling his dark brown eyes. “We have a potential contract coming in and I’m going to need you and possibly Kandy both on this if I can get it to pan out.” His expression hardened. “And don’t even think about refusing, Gypsy, because your father has busted his ass to pull this job in and I won’t have the fact that we’re short a hand causing us to lose it.”

Her father had taken on the business that had first been Mark’s dream and steadily pushed it until it was a money-making enterprise.

“I’ll be there,” she promised, though her job as image consultant was one she tried to ignore whenever possible.

“Good.” He nodded before his jaw tensed and he glanced at the bank of windows, carefully covered by heavy drapes. When he moved his gaze back to her, it was concerned once again. “I got your message earlier. You talked to Kandy the other night?”

“She was upset with me for some reason,” she admitted, though she rarely did more than ask Jase what her sister’s problem was whenever Kandy seemed out of sorts. Which wasn’t often.

“I think she’s upset with the world lately,” he sighed heavily. “That damned Coyote, Loki, sniffing around her isn’t helping matters either. Hell, I’m convinced he’s making it worse.”

The anger that filled his voice as he mentioned Loki didn’t surprise Gypsy. Jason hated Coyotes. Hated them to the point that he was well known for it. His resentment toward Breeds in general wasn’t hidden either.

“Loki’s okay, Jase,” she warned him. “You can’t blame all Coyotes any more than you can blame all men for one serial killer, murderer, or—”

“Rapist?” he snapped.

Gypsy flinched.

“God, Gypsy, I’m sorry.” Regret thickened his voice as he pushed his fingers restlessly through his hair before staring back at her in self-disgust. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay, Jase.” Moving to the refrigerator and pulling out a bottle of wine, she poured herself a glass before lifting it in his direction questioningly.

“Might as well,” he nodded. “Then I’ll head out of here.”

She set the wine on the counter in front of him before sipping at her own and pushing her emotions, her equilibrium back into place. No, Jase hadn’t meant to hurt her, she knew, but it had hurt all the same.

“So tell me,” she suggested, leaning against the counter once again. “Taking Loki out of the equation, exactly what is Kandy’s problem?”

Jase snorted again. “Can you ever take the Breed out of the problem if one is near? If you want my opinion, Loki is her problem. But she has no intentions of getting rid of him, so I guess we’re just stuck until he leaves and she gets her heart broken.” He shook his head wearily. “God, Gypsy, none of us have healed, have we? Even nine years later. Does Kandy really think this Breed is going to exorcise those ghosts for her?”

He finished his wine when Gypsy didn’t comment, only ducking her head to stare at the floor, the tip of her boot, anywhere but at him. She didn’t want to talk about Breeds. That wasn’t Kandy’s problem. She didn’t know what was wrong with her sister, but she knew Loki wasn’t the “wrong” in Kandy’s life.

“Thea still has nightmares,” he said when the silence became uncomfortable. “She still cries out for him in her sleep.”

Her brother’s fiancée had been attacked by a Coyote and nearly kidnapped as well the night Mark died. Thea had lost far more than her fiancée that night, though. Gypsy doubted the other woman would ever be completely over it.

“The attack she suffered that night nearly killed her, Jase,” she reminded him. “It’s the reason why she went into law rather than getting a business degree.”

He shook his head slowly. “She always loved law. She was taking business because she wanted to be Mark’s partner.”

Jason stared off into space as Gypsy watched him sadly. He had loved Thea even before Mark had proposed to her, but Gypsy knew Mark had always been the other woman’s first love. Likely, her only love.

“I’ll see if I can get a minute to talk to Kandy tomorrow,” he said, turning his gaze back to her and giving her a warm, tired grin. “I hear you’re just driving all the men crazy as usual. Especially some Lion Breed commander that you’re not giving the time of day to.” Approval lit his brown eyes.

Gypsy shrugged. “The Breeds are okay, Jase, I just don’t want their problems.” It was her standard excuse.

“Thank God,” he sighed. “Now, if I could just get Kandy to take the same stand, then I wouldn’t have to worry about the two of you near as often, Peanut.”

She forced herself to smile back at him even though she nearly flinched at the pet name. She hated it. It made her sick to her stomach every time she heard it. Yet she could never seem to tell him . . .

Don’t cry, be brave, Peanut . . .

No, she wouldn’t remember.

She busied herself putting away the wine, cleaning the glasses, chatting with Jason about Thea’s long hours and anything and everything that would put distance between her and her memories.

Long minutes later, Jase said his good-byes and left. Hearing his car pull from the drive, Gypsy moved to the window and lifted the curtain cautiously to check for Kandy’s truck.

It still wasn’t there.

Where the hell was her sister and what was she up to?

It was time, Gypsy decided, that she figured out the answer to that question. And she had a feeling she’d better do it quickly.