Rule Breaker: A Novel of the Breeds (40 page)

“Mark adored you, Whisper.”

Her head jerked up, her gaze meeting the emerald depths of Dane Vanderale’s quiet, compassionate one as he leaned against the far wall, his arms crossed over his broad chest negligently.

“I know he did.” She nodded before glancing around, realizing that the Breed guarding the door had quietly disappeared.

“I have in my possession a video taken from your home the night your brother died,” he told her as she blinked back at him. “He was actually on the phone with me that night as I ordered forces to his location. As Jonas told you, the Breeds were unaware of his location. Until he learned you were in danger. He called me just before you left the house and told me how he intended to get you to Lobo Reever’s ranch by speaking so cruelly to you. I advised him to take you and run instead, but he was far too certain he would be unable to protect you long enough for my forces to reach you.”

One shock after another, Gypsy thought. Would she be able to bear many more surprises?

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked him, unaware that the words were even a thought. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

Breathing in deeply, he lowered his head for long moments, the tension she’d never seen around this man shimmering in the air for but a moment before he once again became the lazy slouch he pretended to be.

“Would it have made a difference?” His gaze lifted to hers quickly, no doubt catching her answer before she was aware of it herself.

“He was my brother . . .”

“He told me once he was the father he’d always imagined he would be,” he broke in, his tone soft, gentle as a reminiscent smile tugged at his lips. “He told me of the young girl he’d taken as a babe, bathed and powdered her, comforted and held her when he was but a child himself. Ten, I believe.”

She nodded. “He was ten when I was born.”

“And he took one look at the tiny scrap you were and cherished you from that first look,” he told her. “We talked many times. I may not have known where he was, or who he was exactly, but I knew many things about him.”

“Did you know who had betrayed him?”

Had this man allowed Jason to live after Mark had died?

A flame lit in his eyes then, only to disappear a second later. But she saw it, the rage that flared for that briefest moment.

“Had I known who betrayed Mark McQuade, I promise you that I, Dog, and Cullen Maverick would have torn him apart, piece by bloody piece.” The South African accent deepened, thickened with the fury he didn’t bother to hide now. “There would have been no hole, no crevice he could have hidden within, Gypsy. I swear this to you.”

She nodded.

“Tell me who it was.”

She almost answered. At the last second, the words locked in her throat as determination tightened inside her, overwhelming her.

“He’s mine,” she swore flatly. “He owes me far more than he owes you.”

Dane’s eyes narrowed on her, the green flickering eerily as she stared back at him, her fingers curling at her sides as she fought to rein in the pulsing fury, the lancing pain . . .

Suddenly, the sweeping emotions threatening her control calmed, eased, and she felt Rule.

God, she felt him. Right there in her heart, wrapping himself around her, somehow aware of the struggle playing out within her soul.

Dane’s lips twitched as though aware of what was occurring. Could he know, she wondered? “He won’t let you go alone. You know that, don’t you, Gypsy? Vengeance will be diluted by a mate who will refuse to allow you to kill. One who will push you back and shed that blood himself.”

“How do you think this will convince me to let you shed it instead, Dane?” Quizzically, she watched him, seeing the calculation, the gentle manipulations the Breed used as others would use a weapon. Efficiently, unmercifully.

“I was merely hoping.” He shrugged.

“Strangely,” she told him, “I really don’t give a fuck who cuts his throat, as long as someone does. And as long as they wait until I get the answers I want. Then I don’t care how he’s sent to hell.”

“Understandable,” he agreed before breathing in deeply and straightening against the wall. “Do me a favor, dear, don’t tell anyone but your mate I was here, if you don’t mind. I rather enjoy my American family, and learning who you saw the night your contact met with Dog and me could endanger our slowly merging bonds.” His grin was mocking. Too mocking.

“None of my business, Dane,” she promised him. “As long as Jonas gets what he wants and my parents walk away from this, then it’s really none of my business.”

“And they deserve to walk away?” he asked as she turned to leave.

Gypsy lowered her head, all too aware of the fact that she’d linked her fingers in front of herself nervously.

“They don’t deserve it,” she answered honestly. “But no one was hurt, Dane. No harm was done. And I don’t think I could survive seeing them punished when I should have known what was happening. When I should have remembered what Mark was trying to tell me.”

If she had, then she would never have spent nine years believing in a guilt she hadn’t owned. And maybe, just maybe, her mother wouldn’t have ended up hating her.

With that, she turned and moved along the short hall to the main room of the facility where her parents were being held. There, Lawe and Diane waited along with half a dozen Breeds to escort her back to the hotel.

“Ready?” Lawe came to his feet, his expression concerned.

“I’m ready.” She nodded before turning to Diane. “Has my sister been found?”

“She’s still at the hotel.” Diane nodded. “She’s refusing to see them.”

Gypsy understood that one. She wished she had stayed at the hotel herself now.

“Has anyone contacted Jonas yet?” she asked Lawe then, knowing Dane had been there for a reason.

Lawe grimaced. “Sorry, Gypsy, not yet. Are you sure they will?”

She nodded shortly, remembering the look in Dane’s eyes as she turned away from him.

He was a calculating son of a bitch, she suspected, but his compassion, the empathy she sensed he felt and his love for not just his species, but also the family he spoke of, had been like a flame refusing to be quenched.

“They will,” she stated resolutely. “Someone will. They can’t afford not to.” Then, squaring her shoulders, she moved for the door. “I need to leave now, there are things I have to do.”

She had to see a man about a betrayal and the blood he owed her. But first, she had to find the man stroking her senses from a distance that should have made such a thing impossible.

The Breed who owned her heart.

...

Rule stepped into Jonas’s suite, finding the director instantly where he stood, staring through the tall windows onto the desert below.

“I should fucking kill you.” The animalistic growl in Jonas’s voice should have filled him with wariness. It was a sign, a signal that Jonas could be making a trip to a hungry volcano very soon.

He wasn’t a fit meal for Madame Lava, though, Rule assured himself as he stared at the stiff set of the other Breed’s shoulders.

“You have all the information he has, Jonas,” Rule assured him. “I’m certain of it. There’s nothing the Unknown, or the Bengal Judd has, that can help Amber or the Bureau.”

“And you know this as a fact, how?” Jonas turned then, the pupils of his eyes obliterated by the dark, stormy swirls of color flickering there.

Freaky as shit, Rule had always thought, but he was used to it.

“I made sure of it,” he reminded the director. “It’s all in my report. Nine years’ worth of notes as well as everything Judd stole from those labs. He was never a threat or a link back to Gideon. He was a tool, nothing more. He drew Gideon here but you and I both know that Judd can’t force Gideon to show himself. If Gideon wanted him dead, then no doubt, he’d be dead.”

Aristocratic nostrils flared as Jonas’s features seemed to tighten further. Rule couldn’t detect any emotion, tension or intent in the Breed. It was rare that Jonas let anything free with anyone except his mate and his child.

“Do you know what Gideon was in those labs?” Jonas asked then.

“A guinea pig?” Rule had a feeling he was not far from the actual answer, though.

Jonas inclined his head in agreement. “Of sorts,” he revealed before stepping forward and moving to his desk.

Not that the danger was past, Rule knew better than that. The animal Jonas was lurked far too close to the skin.

Moving to the comfortable desk chair, Jonas took a seat and stared up at him for long moments before nodding to the chair across from him.

Rule sat down slowly.

“Gideon, like many Breeds actually, was simply exceptional in his creation. What made Gideon unique, though, was the fact that rather than living up to his killer genetics, his mind took a far different route.”

Jonas paused, his lips pursing for long moments before he relaxed back in the chair and turned slowly to stare back at the windows. Rule glanced that way, wondering what drew the director’s attention.

“Do you feel him watching?” Jonas asked quietly then.

“Gideon?” Rule asked.

The Breed nodded. “He watches, waits, and I suspect he listens as well.” Turning back, Jonas glared back at Rule. “He wants Judd bad, Rule. He thinks Judd took something that belongs to him. He would draw him out.”

Rule shook his head. “Gideon’s been here for a while now, Jonas. If he wanted Judd, then he would have had him. Now what are you trying to decide to tell me where Gideon is concerned?”

Jonas’s expression never changed. “Gideon’s genetics held a single ancestor known for his exceptional intelligence and driving curiosity in the world of science. It was Gideon who helped on each phase of the Brandenmore serum. He knows the code, the formulas, the encryption, and I suspect that if he wanted to, and likely he has, he could re-create it exactly from memory alone.”

Rule sat back, surprised. “This isn’t in his file.”

Disgust flickered in Jonas’s gaze. “Is that information I would allow free, Rule?”

“No, it isn’t,” Rule agreed. “But information I should have known. With the game you’re playing with Gideon, sending me against him without that information was stupid.”

Jonas’s brows lifted. “Do you think I wanted you to bring him in?”

Rule nearly chuckled. “No, Jonas, whatever game you’re playing has nothing to do with capturing Gideon. So why not tell me what you are after?”

“My daughter’s life.” Jonas straightened in his chair. “Nothing more, Rule, nothing less.”

And that was such a lie Rule swore he could nearly catch the scent of it. But he merely nodded. He had a feeling he knew what Jonas was after and if he was right, then the game the director was playing would be far more reaching than anyone imagined.

“I want Stygian to take two teams and head to the safe house we set up for his mate. I then want two teams to take Claire to the one we set up for her as well. I want it taken care of tonight.”

“Very well.” Rule nodded. “But tell me, when Gideon makes the move you’re after, Jonas, how will you ensure he survives?”

Jonas’s lips twitched. “Who says I mean for him to survive?”

Jonas suspected Gideon had ears into this room, which meant honesty wasn’t something he wanted at the moment. Damned good thing, Rule thought, because he had a feeling the chance of this backfiring on Jonas was growing by the day.

“I’ll take care of it,” Rule assured him.

Jonas was silent for long moments then, staring back at Rule, assessing, narrow eyed.

“You knew who Cullen was all along,” he said.

“So did you, Jonas,” Rule sighed. “And we both know you did.”

Jonas’s lips quirked. “Dane believes he’s hiding it from me, and Dog is so amused by the whole venture he nearly cackles whenever we’re all together. If the situation weren’t so fucking imperative where Amber’s life is concerned, I’d just tell them exactly how little they’re hiding.”

But it was imperative. For all the game playing and maneuverings, Rule knew Jonas took it more seriously than anything else he’d ever faced.

“The team you sent out for Jason Harte,” Rule asked. “Have they returned?”

Storms flickered in Jonas’s eyes. “Not yet. We’re still searching for him. When Gypsy returns, bring her to me and we’ll see if we can figure out where he’s gone.”

He would have known Gypsy’s mother would be caught, and he would have expected Gypsy or Kandy to come to him, Rule realized. When neither had, no doubt he had run. Now, he would have to be found.

And no doubt Jonas was somehow using that bastard too. He wondered if Jonas ever became confused concerning who was involved in which of his little games.

As he started to straighten, a blaring, shrieking alarm pierced the room; it was the hotel.

Swinging his gaze to Jonas, he watched the second the Breed realized where it was coming from and swore Jonas paled.

“Amber.” The growl was an animal’s roar of fury.

They moved at once.

Rule’s weapon cleared his holster as he slammed his body into the door, taking it to the floor, knowing Jonas would cover him as his weapon swept the room.

Amber’s room.

Rule didn’t dare fire his weapon as he found the target, no more than Jonas could.

“Da, ba’ ki’y,” Amber chortled as Gideon held her close to his chest, her tiny body appearing more delicate than normal against the broad chest.

Primal stripes darkened the Breed’s face like fire-scorched scars. Dark blond hair fell across his brow, the unusual dark strands of golden brown threading through it like a tiger’s stripes.

“Gideon.” The tension in Jonas’s voice was unmistakable now. “Where is my mate?”

Gideon’s gaze flickered to the corner of the room, where Rachel was slumped against the wall, her wealth of dark red hair lying over her face.

“She’s alive, and unharmed,” Gideon drawled as Jonas rushed to her, never taking his eyes from the Bengal as Rule became aware of more than a dozen Breed Enforcers suddenly filling the area behind him. They were breathing down his neck, all eyes on Gideon as the Bengal flicked them an amused glance over Rule’s shoulder.

“Let the baby go, Gideon,” Rule ordered softly as Amber played with the long strands of the Breed’s hair as her delightful baby talk seemed directed at Gideon.