Stygian's Honor (24 page)

Audi Johnson’s gaze narrowed as the Navajo president slowly followed suit and rose to his feet as well.

“My daughter lies with a fever high enough to kill another child.” His tone was so harsh, so grating, Johnson and Martinez flinched. Stygian stared back at him, surprised to see him laying his cards so clearly on the table. An unheard-of move for Jonas. “My child lies in pain and stares up at me, gentlemen, and asks, as only a two-year-old can, why it hurts so bad and why Daddy can’t fix this.” For a second unheard-of occurrence that Stygian knew would never be mentioned, Jonas’s gaze gleamed with the dampness of an emotion that went far beyond tears. “So don’t think for one moment that I won’t be here, taking over where I can, testing your weaknesses and betraying whoever I have to betray to save my child. Just as you would. So let us not misunderstand each other now, nor in the future. That child is more important to me than your entire fucking Nation, and your lack of cooperation is something I find not only reprehensible but immoral.”

Stygian felt his chest tighten. He’d seen it himself. Seen the pain and fear in the little girl’s eyes when the feverish episodes descended on her. And he knew, if that child were his and Liza’s—his by adoption or by blood would make no
difference—he would do whatever it took, however he had to do it, to ensure that pain was never felt again.

“There’s nothing we can do.” Ray Martinez’s voice rang with the truth as a sudden angry conflict seemed to battle inside him. Understanding gleamed in his gaze, was emphasized by the clench of his fists and the frustration in his voice. “We’ve made the request of the people and none have come back with an agreement. I don’t have the access codes into the database, Director Wyatt. I cannot access it for you.”

“I want Honor Roberts and Fawn Corrigan.” The kid gloves were off as Jonas made the demand. “Fuck your database, Mr. President. I couldn’t care less about it, any more than Gideon Cross could. He’s here for the same thing, and by God, if I don’t find those girls first, then he may kill them once he does find them.” He leaned against the desk, palms flat, his expression savage. “Is that what you want?”

Both Johnson’s and Martinez’s gazes flashed with fear before they could hide it.

There was no way Jonas missed it. And Stygian had no doubt the director wasn’t certain exactly what that fear was. What Stygian did know was that, somehow, the pair was hiding something.

Liza’s father straightened his shoulders. “Twelve years ago,” he stated heavily, “there was a crash in the desert several nights before our daughters crashed into a high ravine in the desert. Two girls died in that first crash.”

Jonas’s growl was rife with violence. “There was no report of it.”

“A young Breed was traveling with them. He told us the girls were running from the Genetics Council and begged us not to report it. No one else knew of the crash or the deaths. We elected to follow the Breed’s request to give him time to run. When no one came looking for them, we decided to keep it out of the reports. Until you arrived, Director Wyatt, no one seemed to care.”

Stygian narrowed his gaze.

They weren’t lying. There was the scent of truth and overwhelming sadness, almost of grief, as though they had
known the girls. But there was no reason to believe they were lying.

Jonas stared between the two men; both Rule and Cavalier watched them closely as well.

“What did you do with the bodies?” Jonas’s voice sounded strangled.

“They were incinerated in the desert, presumably to hide their existence there,” Audi stated. “The young Breed walked away that night and stated that even his own past was gone. We assumed the two girls were Breeds as well, and from the same lab as he.”

“And you are only now telling me this, why?” Jonas asked.

“Because you’re only now telling us the truth of why you’re here,” President Martinez stated implacably. “Had you been honest to begin with, Director Wyatt, perhaps you would have been told sooner.”

“I want to see the area where the bodies were burned,” Jonas informed them, his tone implying he wouldn’t be denied. “We’ll leave at first light in the morning.” He turned to Stygian. “I’ll need you there, but to ensure Ms. Johnson’s protection, perhaps you should bring her as well.”

“There’s no need for that,” Audi Johnson rejected the idea instantly. “I’ll take care of her while he’s gone.”

Jonas’s smile was cold. “You’ll be with us. And so will she.”

With that, he turned, motioned to the two Breeds with him and stalked from the room.

As the door closed rather loudly behind him, both men turned to Stygian, their gazes accusing, as though it were his fault they had been forced to face the director.

He gave a quick shake of his head. “I rarely agree with him, but I wouldn’t go head-to-head with him, so I rather doubt the two of you would have any luck with it.”

Only Jonas’s mate was known to have been able to outargue or outyell him when the situation warranted it.

“Then you should talk to him,” Audi announced. “Number one, there’s no reason for Liza to be in the desert at first light in the morning. And there’s no reason for Director
Wyatt and his entourage to remain here in Window Rock. He has the information he needs, now he can leave. And I believe you should discuss this with him.”

Stygian’s brows lifted as a chuckle escaped him. “Why would I do that?”

The very idea was ludicrous. Judd and Gideon were still out there, and the information they held could still be of use to them.

He lifted his hand before the two men could say anything more. “Let me tell the two of you something,” he growled. “It offends me on a level I can barely understand that the two of you, who nearly lost your daughters at one point, would even consider asking that man to give up the battle he’s fighting.” A snarl slipped free. “Get your fucking asses over to that hotel and see that child. See her laboring for breath, the damned fever burning her alive from the inside out, so painful she struggles to just breathe. Fuck you two. Get the fuck over there and see what you’re asking him to turn his back on.” The thought of Amber’s pain, her tears, was enraging. “You’re asking him to walk away before he knows in his soul there’s nothing left to search for. You’re asking him to give up on that child’s life. And let me tell you something right now, gentlemen. He’d die and see your godforsaken asses in hell first.”

“Why are you yelling over something Dad would never do?”

Stygian swung around.

The awareness that Audi Johnson and Ray Martinez wanted Liza in that room no more than he did almost slapped Stygian against the side of the head. The fact that it was his own damned fault didn’t sit well with him.

Raking his fingers through his hair, he stared back at her, more irritated with himself than anyone, and just pure pissed off at the two men behind him.

Damn, and she loved her dad. Hell, he knew that look in her eyes. Daddy could do no wrong and he wasn’t going to disabuse her of the idea. Because he
could
do wrong. He was doing it right now, standing there demanding that Jonas Wyatt leave Window Rock before he knew there was no way in hell he could save his daughter.

“You would go to see Amber, wouldn’t you, Dad? If you knew anything that would save her, you would tell him.” She stood in the doorway, and for the first time since Stygian had met her, he saw complete trust in her eyes.

Son of a bitch. Why couldn’t she look at him like that?

She was his mate. His woman, and she stared at him with such suspicion that it ate into his soul.

Turning, he stared back at the bastard she put so much faith in and, before he could stop himself, he said, “I’m sure Director Wyatt would be more than happy to allow the visit, Mr. Johnson, should you and President Martinez have a mind to accept the invitation.”

Both men stared back at him with dark, hostile gazes.

“We can set that appointment up on our own,” the president said smoothly as he threw Liza a reassuring smile. “We’ll let you know once it’s been set, dear.”

“Of course, Uncle Ray,” she stated, her voice soft but with a glimmer of doubt that Stygian knew her father had to have heard.

Her gaze turned to his then, the soft gray filled with somber doubt.

“Can I go home now?”

She hadn’t asked her father or her boss. She wasn’t asking permission to leave, she was asking if it was okay to return to her home rather than the suite they had taken.

Stygian started to shake his head.

“I think it best you return to the house with your mother and me, Liza.” Audi moved from behind the Nation president’s desk, walking slowly to the door as Liza tensed.

“That wouldn’t work, Dad.” Her hands clasped in front of her as Stygian glimpsed the shaking in her fingers and the uncertainty in her gaze as she watched her father now.

Seeing it tore at his heart. For possibly the first time in her life, she was seeing the human her father was rather than the superhero he had always been to her.

“Liza, your life is in danger.” He paused several feet from her, suddenly aware of the distance she had placed around herself.

Stygian hated sensing it. He hated how she suddenly
retreated within herself, watching, waiting, while another part of her seemed to be considering whatever it was that was suddenly so painful for her.

“Yes, I agree with you, Dad, it is.” She breathed in deeply as Stygian tried and failed to restrain the urge to go to her. “But as much as I love you and Mom—and as much as I respect your strength—even I know the Breeds are more qualified and better able to protect me.” And what he knew was left unsaid: that she would never be able to live with a reality where her father had died so she could live.

Going to her but not quite touching her, he could feel her fighting to maintain her distance even as she seemed to lean closer.

Stygian could feel the uncertainties in her, a determination slowly growing within her, and a fear and pain that she had buried so deep, buried so far within herself, that he wondered if she even knew the reason for it.

Johnson’s gaze narrowed on both of them, no doubt taking in the appearance of solidarity that mating always seemed to bring.

“Then your Breed force can come to the house as well.” Her father’s smile was tight, the hostility in his gaze barely hidden as he glanced at Stygian then.

Audi still saw his daughter, despite her place in the Breed underground or with the Navajo Law Enforcement Agency, as a vulnerable child rather than the woman he knew she was. He was a man fighting to deny that his daughter was a woman, which made little sense to Stygian.

Certainly, Liza was inexperienced where men were concerned, he could sense that, just as he could smell the untainted sexuality that assured him it had been quite a long while since she had had a lover. But as far as her father was concerned, she was as pure and unspoiled as a young virgin.

“No, Dad.” She shook her head again. “I know you’ll worry, but if I go home, leaving again will be harder on all of us than it was before. I’m safe. And as long as I stay where I am, under Breed protection, you’re safe as well.”

Taking those few steps to her father, she let him embrace
her before reaching up and placing a kiss to his cheek. “I love you, Daddy, and I love Mom, but I have to do this the way I feel is best. I’ve been making my own decisions far too long to be able to give up that freedom now.” As she stepped back from her father, she turned to Stygian. “Are you nearly finished?”

“Nearly,” he agreed. “A few minutes longer.”

“I’ll be outside. Don’t start yelling at them again. It upsets Ray’s secretary, and I imagine she gets enough of that from Ray himself.” She tried to smile at her father and the man she called an “uncle” before her expression became so femininely stubborn and commanding that he knew what was coming before it left her lips. “And I’ll see you and Ray this evening at the hotel. We’re all going to visit with Amber.”

“Liza, if she’s that ill—” Audi’s nostrils flared, his gaze becoming shuttered as he began to protest while Ray Martinez stiffened and the sudden scent of deceit hit Stygian so hard it was all he could do not to react to it.

“Then we all need to see it.” Her lips trembled for a brief second as Stygian sensed the slow, deepening fear inside her. “Please, Dad,” her voice lowered, uncertainty filling her then. “This is something I need you to do.” She looked to Ray then. “I need both of you to do it.”

Audi glanced away from her a second as though shoring his strength to deny her request.

That was his intention, Stygian could see it in his shuttered gaze when his eyes met Liza’s again. Then, within a heartbeat, what determination he’d been able to muster shattered. A grimace twisted his expression before he gave a slow, resigned nod. “We’ll be there, sweetheart.”

Stygian caught Ray’s expression too. Audi may be unable to deny his daughter, but Stygian was certain Ray wouldn’t have a problem with it. He had no intentions of showing up.

“Good.” Liza drew in a long, almost weary breath. “I’ll go to work then.”

She moved toward her father rather than the door, though. Audi met her at the side of Ray’s desk, his arms opening for her as he accepted his daughter’s embrace. Her arms wrapped
around his neck and for a second, she held on to him with a desperation born of a young woman’s fears and a daughter’s uncertainties.

Kissing her forehead, Audi released her a moment later, then watched silently as she turned and left the room. Quiet, thoughtful, Stygian could feel the woman and the daughter battling inside her and the need she was fighting to hide, the fears she refused to reveal.

She didn’t speak as she neared him. Stepping to her enough to force her to pause, he gripped her shoulders and bent his head to her ear. “I’ll let Jonas know they’re coming.”

She nodded shakily, and the scent of her tears almost did him in. “And I’m leaving early,” she informed him. “Just after lunch, if that’s possible.”

“Whatever you want is possible.” Releasing her, he let his hands linger against her shoulders for a moment before releasing her and watching her leave the room.