Rule Breaker: A Novel of the Breeds (17 page)

Lawe shook his head as the director lifted the decanter of whiskey in his direction.

“I actually expected Gypsy to have the device rather than her mother.” Lawe shook his head in surprise. “Greta McQuade is no spy. Especially for the Unknown.”

“And Gypsy is no traitor to her friends,” Jonas sighed. “Especially those who saved her life. Her mother, though, was nervous as hell, according to Thor, when she was asked to turn over her purse.”

Rule growled, turning to face him. “She knew what was in that damned bag. Just as she knew it would backlash on Gypsy.”

The hard, chiseled lines and angles of his features appeared more savage than normal, his anger tightening them and causing his blue eyes to brighten marginally. In times of fury, his eyes practically glowed.

Lawe turned to Jonas. “Are you rescinding the contract?”

Surprisingly, Jonas shook his head thoughtfully. “Seth was inclined to, but Dane seemed hesitant. He wants to wait and see what happens from here.”

“They’re image consultants,” Lawe retorted. “They could destroy Rule’s chances of successfully settling into the enforcement bureau if they’re of a mind to do so.”

“Gypsy wouldn’t allow it,” Rule snapped, his jaw tightening as he glared back at his brother.

“What makes you think she wouldn’t allow it?” Lawe moved to the back of the couch that faced him, his hands gripping it, fingers digging in as he stared at his brother in disbelief. “For God’s sake, Rule, we already know she’s involved with the Unknown up to her pretty little neck and doing everything she can to hide it, despite her knowledge that we have to find Judd and Gideon to help Amber. What’s that if not a betrayal?” Lawe glanced at Jonas as well as he made the statement.

“Trust,” Rule snarled. “She’s worked with them for nine years. They protect the nation and its people. She knows that. If they told her they couldn’t help Amber, then she would believe them until she’s shown otherwise.”

“I actually agree with him for a change.” Diane, not exactly the gentlest of women when it came to traitors, moved next to Lawe, laying her hand against his arm comfortingly as Lawe watched his brother in disbelief. “Gypsy’s a wild card, but she’s damned loyal to friends, Lawe. Even I know that. Besides, she wouldn’t allow her parents to destroy their own reputations in such a way. I think she should be told about the device, though.”

All eyes turned to her. Jonas hadn’t lost that grave, thoughtful look in his eyes, nor had Rule lost his temper. Yet.

“Why?” Rule questioned, his tone harsh. “What good would it do to cause her to question her loyalty to her parents? Especially if we can find a way to neutralize the threat Mrs. McQuade could represent.”

Lawe stared down at the seat of the couch to hide his shock. Rule was concerned about the woman rather than Jonas’s security, or any threat the McQuades could pose to the Breeds in general? Who had kidnapped his brother and left this lunatic standing before him instead?

“Rule, I highly advise against hiding this from Gypsy,” Diane stated. “If she learns of it the wrong way, it could destroy the foundations of her life. She hasn’t had a lot to hold on to since her brother’s death.”

Lawe stared at his mate and his brother now. They were discussing this as though Gypsy McQuade shouldn’t be brought up on charges of breaking half a dozen statutes of Breed Law? She was a spy for an unknown sect of warriors that no one could identify.

Since when did that garner trust?

“Exactly. So why tear down her belief in all she has left?” Rule snarled.

Diane was shaking her head.

“Rule.” Rachel moved into the living area from the bedroom, clearly aware of the discussion. “Her parents aren’t the foundation of Gypsy’s life. They haven’t been since she was fifteen and stood alone in that desert while her parents stood apart from her. You forget, it was Jonas who gave her the acceptance she needed to survive when her parents were unable, or perhaps even unwilling, to do so. Gypsy’s foundation is the code she lives by. It’s her job, her friends and her determination to further her brother’s work that ensure that she pulls herself out of her bed each morning. By withholding this information from her, you’re taking away her ability to protect her parents and to learn more than we can as to why her mother attempted such a thing.”

...

Rule stared back at the group in disbelief before shaking his head in amazement, anger churning in his gut at the very thought of the pain that information would cause Gypsy. “Those are her parents. If she learns that they were attempting to betray the Breeds, then you’ll strip them from her and that will destroy her.”

“Keeping her in the dark is what will destroy her, Rule,” Rachel assured him as she moved to Jonas, allowing his arm to wrap around her and pull her close to his side. “Yes, she loves her family, very much. But even I, a mere human, could sense the wall between them. A wall she placed there, I’m afraid. One that has ensured her parents have never really had a chance to get to know her. They had no idea she socializes with any of us. Her knowledge of individual Breeds shocked them. Our respect and liking for her simply amazed them, and even caused a bit of resentment perhaps. They have no idea of the woman their daughter has become in the past nine years, yet they could see that we do. That’s why I say she has to know about that recording device. She has to know so she can feel she had the chance to protect them. If something happens to one of them. If one of them makes a mistake or God forbid does something so horrible that they’re brought before Breed Law, then our knowledge of that device will be revealed. If that happens and her friends didn’t give her a chance to save her family, then she’ll see it as her failure to protect them, just as she believes she’s guilty of her brother’s death. And we’ll all be just as guilty in her eyes, as she will believe she herself is.”

Rule could feel his senses, hell, the fucking animal he was inside, pacing within the confines of his flesh and ready to roar out in rage.

He’d be damned if he’d allow her to take that guilt onto her already burdened shoulders. If she took much more upon herself, then he feared she might well collapse beneath the grief.

“Something happened since I saw her last,” he stated, remembering the pain he had felt throbbing just beneath her serene exterior. “Something that’s hurt her.”

“Her parents,” Jonas stated softly. “I would imagine, knowing human nature as I do, that in their resentment they feel they lost their daughter that night as well; they likely remind her often of the son. Her pain was edged with an incredible amount of guilt today. Just as her mother’s disapproval even before they walked into the suite could be detected by every Breed they passed.”

And the misty, barely-there image of her brother as he stood sadly behind her had touched Jonas’s heart.

The brother, whose dedication and loyalty to Breeds and the Unknown alike could never be questioned, had turned to Jonas, staring at him demandingly before reaching out as though to touch his sister’s hair.

A vision none could see but him.

A vision that convinced him of her innocence as nothing else could.

...

Rule barely stopped the growl that would have vibrated in his chest.

Damn, his senses were far too agitated since coming to Window Rock.

Turning to Jonas, he met those eerie eyes for long moments. He might not trust Jonas when it came to his promise not to pair him up with his mate, should Jonas ever find her, but he did trust the other man’s opinion.

With his free hand, the director rubbed at the back of his neck as the tension tightening through his body caused the rest of them to watch him expectantly.

He had the last word. Whatever decision he made, Seth Lawrence of Lawrence Industries, and Dane Vanderale, heir to the Vanderale dynasty, would accept without argument.

“Jonas, you said yourself she’s riding a very thin line,” Rachel said softly, obviously reminding him of an earlier conversation.

He gave his head a hard shake.

“Yes, I did,” he finally admitted as his gaze connected with Rule’s, then Lawe’s. Finally, he nodded slowly, turning back to Rule. “I agree with Rachel and Diane, Rule. She needs to know about this. The debt we owe her brother can never be repaid, and turning against the sister at this point would only betray his sacrifices as well. But I understand your concerns. How do you want to proceed?”

“Me?” Rule snapped, restraining himself from hitting something as he forced himself to keep his arms crossed over his chest. “My suggestion was to not tell her at all.”

“And now the—forget it.” Lifting the whiskey to his lips, Jonas finished his drink before setting the glass on the bar. “She’ll be here tomorrow with Amber’s cake, I believe. I’ll discuss it with her before she leaves.”

“I’ll take care of it myself,” Rule snarled.

Like hell.

Where did that come from?

Rule almost blinked in surprise.

The words had jumped out of his mouth before he’d even realized what he was actually saying.

But Jonas didn’t seem to realize how out of character his commander was behaving. Perhaps it was just him, Rule thought, watching the others closely for any sign that they noticed anything different about him.

They didn’t appear to be.

Perhaps it
was
just him.

The irritation, the feeling that the animal inside him was somehow caged and pacing in fury, must be really whacking his mind.

“Rule, watch yourself with this,” Jonas warned him. “This could be a ruse by the Unknown to use her parents to throw our suspicions off Gypsy, or an attempt to deflect our interest by pulling her parents into a potentially threatening situation. I want to know why Greta McQuade had that device in her purse and who put it there. And why she agreed to help them. We don’t have unlimited time here. Gypsy can find out why it happened, or I will.” His voice hardened. “Which do you believe she would prefer?”

Rule’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t give me ultimatums, Jonas,” he growled. “You know that won’t work with me.”

“I’m not ordering you,” Jonas stated firmly. “I’m telling you. I won’t take any further risks with my daughter. Gypsy’s a friend, not just yours, but mine and Rachel’s, and even Amber’s as well, and because of that, you have until after the ball next week to find out what the hell is going on. Then I’ll find out myself.”

Turning, Jonas moved from the room and entered the private rooms he shared with his mate. Even Rule caught the scent of Amber’s pain and felt his chest tightening at the decisions Jonas was being forced to make to save her life. Decisions he knew kept the other Breed awake at night staring into the darkness as he searched for an answer.

“Rule.” Lawe sighed wearily, and Rule could feel his brother’s intent to try to dissuade him from the trust he felt for a woman he should have never trusted to begin with.

“Don’t even bother, Lawe,” Rule growled, determination hardening his jaw, tightening his body. “Everything inside me is screaming her innocence. I won’t turn on her without cause.”

With that, he left the suite, stalking down the hall and heading for his rooms. And, he hoped, a chance to figure out exactly what the hell was going on with the woman he hadn’t mated, yet the only woman he’d been unable to turn away from in his entire life.

CHAPTER 9

He was waiting on her that night.

Leaning against the bar, watching the doorway with a smug, self-satisfied smile—and didn’t he just look like the cat that ate the canary.

The man was positively sex served up with a side of luscious male muscles and sinful wicked looks. Something she preferred to admire from afar, if only her damned body and her Unknown boss would get with the program there.

Dane Vanderale stood with his back to her, and whatever he said to Rule had the Breed flashing him an irate look before his gaze turned back to her.

Was she supposed to be swooning? she wondered. Tearing her clothes off and spreading herself before him in thankfulness that he had persuaded the director of the Bureau of Breed Affairs to allow her parents to have that contract?

She didn’t think so.

The very fact that she was even there that evening had more to do with a call from friends asking her to show up than either her contact or Rule.

Kandy had left the shop before Gypsy could ask her to make the mousse cake for Amber. Gypsy had found herself in the Gingerbread House kitchen whipping up chocolate mousse as she watched the clock, certain she would be up most of the night with it.

Thankfully, Kandy had shown up as Gypsy set the mousse into the fridge to chill, and with an irate glare at the mess in the kitchen, her sister had urged her to go “do whatever it is you do every weekend and get the hell out of my kitchen.”

And Gypsy had done just that without argument.

She could bake, and she could bake well, but Gypsy was not all about the cleanup.

From the corner of her eye she watched as Rule narrowed his eyes on her where she lingered just inside the entrance. Her gaze moved over the crowd as though she weren’t debating stepping up to the bar and shooting him. She sure as hell wasn’t going to go panting after him like some bitch in heat.

The sight of a slender hand lifting into the air, waving enthusiastically, had her gaze turning to the owner, and a smile tugged at her lips. Hell, it had been too damned long since she had seen the Coyote Breed Ashley Truing and her sister, Emma, out having fun.

Two months before, Ashley had taken a bullet to her chest that the doctors had been certain she wouldn’t recover from. She was recovering, just as Emma had promised before the meeting with Jonas, but others had mentioned over the past weeks that Ashley was different in some way. That there was a part of Ashley that may not have returned when she’d died on the operating table after being shot.

Breed genetics ensured that Ashley had healed quickly, though. In less than six weeks the Breed female had been strong enough that she was moving around easily and training to regain the strength she had lost.

Moving across the bar, Gypsy ignored the feel of Rule’s eyes following her and the amusement she glimpsed curling on his lips as she made her way to the girls’ table.

They weren’t alone. The blonde with them, older by only a few years, was leaning back in a chair, watching the occupants of the bar broodingly as she nursed a bottle of beer that had been barely sipped from.

Sharone had been raised with Ashley and Emma, created first in the Russian labs, and often acted like the protective sibling she could very well be.

“Are the three of you having fun?” she grinned, her voice rising until she could be heard over the energetic tunes the band was pouring out to the crowd.

“Four,” Emma informed her, leaning close as Gypsy took a seat next to her. “We finally talked Jonas into letting Cassie come out and play with us.”

Gypsy looked around. “Where is she?”

Emma’s lips twisted in perplexed amusement. “She’s out there dancing with some guy. See all the Breeds congregated?” She pointed to what was indeed a mass congregation of Breeds next to the dance floor. “I bet her partner is pissing his pants.”

Oh hell.

Poor Cassie. She was surrounded by glowering Breed Enforcers whose unrelenting stares were trained on the hapless cowboy Cassie was dancing with.

Gypsy could see them now. The young man was positively miserable, and Cassie was glaring at the Breeds.

What hell her life must surely be. Always followed, never left alone, never able to truly have friends.

“She never makes it for long,” Emma revealed with a heavy sigh. “She talked Jonas into letting her go out while they were in Virginia last year. The Breeds he sent with her terrified anyone who even considered asking her to dance. She sat and got puke-faced drunk instead.”

“Yeah, then the Breeds who took her out got their asses kicked for letting her get drunk,” Ashley revealed with a slight smile. “I told her, she should have got hold of me before that bastard put a hole in my chest. Me and Em would have showed her a good time. We would have had to leave Sharone at home, though.” Ashley nodded to the blonde on the other side of Gypsy.

“I bet that would have just upset the hell out of you.” Gypsy laughed over at the disgusted look the other Breed female cast Ashley.

Sharone rarely got into trouble and was known to keep an eagle eye out for the other two girls. It often took both Sharone and Emma together to keep Ashley out of trouble, though.

“Why aren’t the three of you out there dancing too?” Gypsy nodded toward the dance floor.

“With all those Breed Enforcers in attendance?” Emma looked at her as though scandalized. “I really don’t want my alpha jerking me home and shortening my leash to the point that I strangle. None of us do.”

“Just for dancing?” Gypsy tugged at her ear in confusion as she frowned out at the dance floor and the smooth, sinuous flow of bodies that moved in beat to the music.

“Our alpha is convinced we’re pure and sweet with no sex drive and damned sure we know none of the moves we use while teasing those cowboys. If he even heard of us dancing as we do, he’d never let us out to play again.” Emma even looked properly horrified.

“Is your alpha here?” she asked, looking around suspiciously. She usually heard when there were any alphas in the area.

“No, not the alpha, just every Breed who would ever tell on us.” Emma grimaced. “Wherever Cassie goes, Jonas’s best enforcers go. That means our alpha would be told because one of those Breeds this month is one of the Citadel’s team commanders. He would tattle on us in a heartbeat.”

They had sacrificed their own fun to give Cassie what she wanted, even knowing the total lack of fun the other girl would have.

Looking up, she watched as Cassie Sinclair stalked back to the table, lifted a glass of amber liquid and tossed it back furiously before giving in to a rough, shocked bout of coughing.

“There, there,” Ashley murmured as she smacked the other girl on the back a few times. “That’s it. Fine whiskey just makes everything better. Would you like another shot, dear?”

That gleam in Emma’s eyes was positively devilish as she indicated to the waitress that she wanted another.

It wasn’t going to make it better, Gypsy thought as she watched Cassie sit back in her chair, her gaze slashing mutinously to the dozen Breeds who moved to the table.

“They even have two female enforcers to go into the bathroom with her.” Ashley leaned across the table as she indicated that Gypsy should move closer. “Or we would have just slipped her out the bathroom window.”

She glanced at Cassie, seeing the damp gleam in her eyes as the other girl quickly ducked her head to hide the tears she had to blink back.

Damn, to let her go, then to send a dozen bodyguards to make certain she was miserable, was just cruel.

“Why not just slip her out of the hotel?” Gypsy asked, her gaze flicking to the furious Cassie. “They can’t follow if they don’t know she’s leaving.”

“It’s hard to slip away from six Breeds parked on your ass every minute of the day,” Ashley answered with a twinge of sympathy. “Besides, there’s not a bar in a hundred-mile radius that doesn’t have at least one Breed who would report where she was.”

Oh, they so didn’t know the area, or the bars, as well as they thought they did.

“What about the underground bars?” Surely Ashley and Emma had been to a few of them. “The Breeds there would die and go to hell before they’d tell on her. If she was caught there, so would they be. If there were even any there, which is damned rare. They might watch out for her, but they’ll damned sure not ride her ass like a herd of ponies after a prized female.”

Ashley’s eyes narrowed as the others, even Sharone, laughed in surprise at the description. “You’re kidding me. They have those here?”

Gypsy had to laugh now. “At least a dozen that I know of. Come on, bars are still strictly banned except along the reservation’s borders. Even then, they’re not allowed within the city limits. Do you really think we always want to make that drive? Especially those who live much farther from here?”

She could see Ashley’s mind working now, the gears beginning to move, at first with a hesitancy that indicated she might still be recovering, then with enough strength to put that gleam she had lost back into her eyes.

Ashley hadn’t changed, perhaps, Gypsy thought. She was getting bored. And that was something Gypsy well understood, the boredom. But she had also managed to snag the attention of the other women as well.

“I want to go.” Cassie breathed out in sudden excitement. “Just one night, I want to be someone other than the crazy Breed Cassandra Sinclair.”

Cassie wanted to be anonymous. That was something else Gypsy could understand. But a discussion on how to accomplish it wasn’t going to happen here.

Suddenly, Cassie’s gaze jumped to hers, narrowed and appeared brighter, a sky blue, lighter than Rule’s, but so deep and pure it was almost mesmerizing before her gaze slid to Gypsy’s side.

Cassie frowned, grimaced, then shook her head.

Gypsy glanced beside her, saw nothing but Emma, who had lowered her head as though intensely interested in the top of the table.

“Is there a problem?” Gypsy asked as she turned back to Cassie, letting the other woman read her lips rather than hear her words over the loud pulse of the music.

“Probably.” The other girl could barely be heard. “But not yet.”

Oooh-kay.

Yeah, she’d heard the stories about Cassie, and whatever it was the other girl saw or heard, Gypsy simply didn’t want to know.

“Well, girls.” Lifting her beer, she finished the cold liquid quickly before placing the bottle on the table and giving them all an amused look. “My bodyguards aren’t here, if I even had any. And Daddy hasn’t worried about my dancing since I was fourteen because he was never aware of it to begin with.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about the bodyguards.” She read Cassie’s lips, as she seemed to have muttered the words to herself.

Whatever.

She hadn’t had a protector since Mark . . .

Rising to her feet, she tipped her fingers to the other girls, ignoring their glares, and moved to the dance floor.

She was there to dance, and in her teasing, playful movements and flirtations with several of the males on the dance floor, she gained bits and pieces of the information she would later give to her contact. The pass of information would be deliberate tonight, though.

Gypsy had let them know several nights before that she needed specific information concerning any odd questions any of the Breeds were asking lately. She’d allowed them to believe she was asking because of Rule’s interest in her when one of them had asked worriedly if she was being targeted, possibly, because of her brother’s death and information it was rumored he might have had at the time.

This game could become dangerous fast, though. Breeds had exceptional hearing, and she wasn’t the only one who was well aware of that. But she knew at least one of them had learned something.
SLAP HAPPY’S. BEFORE MIDNIGHT. XOXO.
The message she’d found tucked beneath the wiper blades of her Jeep that evening held the distinctive
XOXO
that she’d asked them to use.

Tonight, something was definitely going on. Even amid the loose-knit crowd where there were few real couples on the floor, getting a chance to get close enough to any of the four men became impossible.

A subtle wink by one of the older cowboys her brother had once been friends with identified the messenger, but getting close enough to get the information became hazardous. Each time they danced close to each other, one of the Breed Enforcers on the dance floor became noticeably nosy.

What the hell was going on?

Moving into step with the contact, James Herndon, she let his arm wrap around her waist. He pulled her to him, swaying, twirling her once, twice. She landed against his chest laughing as his lips moved directly to her ear. “Later.”

The word, a distinct warning that would have had her tensing if he hadn’t swung her around again, laughed at her as she caught herself against his chest, then glanced over her shoulder.

His expression stilled. All laughter, all humor wiping away.

Releasing her, he stepped back quickly.

Another arm came around her, twirled her around until she was staring into Rule’s brooding, narrowed gaze.

He didn’t look happy, and he didn’t look in the mood to be teased.

In that instant the music moved from the hard, pulsing throb she was used to, to a slow, sensuous ballad that crooned the singer’s hunger, her aching loss and need.

“You don’t want to do that,” he growled when she moved to push away from him. “Not here. Not now.”

The warning in his voice was firm, dominant, and pushed some feminine button she hadn’t known she possessed that urged her to just relent. To obey him, just this once, just in case he had a way of enforcing it in some erotic manner she couldn’t fight.

“I don’t slow dance,” she bit out from between her teeth, her body longing to relax and melt against him even as she fought to remain stiff and unyielding. “Slow dancing with you will imply a relationship that doesn’t exist.”

She didn’t want that. It would change the dynamic of who she was and the information to be gained in the circles she moved in.

“A relationship that doesn’t exist? Who are you lying to, Gypsy? Because I sure as hell know better and you do as well,” he informed her warningly as he moved against her, cajoling her, seducing her into sharing the dance, to share the intimacy he was inviting.