Tanner's Scheme (28 page)

“How did Jonas react to her disappearance?” The answer was there somewhere; he could feel it.

“Every available Breed Enforcer as well as recruits are searching for her,” Cabal said softly. “He’s pulled Breeds off imperative missions and sent them looking for this woman instead.”

“How did he know she was here?” Tanner narrowed his eyes on his brother.

Cabal grunted mockingly. “With Jonas, who the hell knows? I followed the second half of Alpha Team out here as fast as I could. It just took me a while to shake a few shadows I had before coming here.”

Tanner stared back at him questioningly.

“Callan refuses to tell Jonas where you’re at. I think he suspects where you are, but he’s possessive of the knowledge of these caves.”

Callan would be. It was their last sanctuary if things went from sugar to shit for the Breeds and the children born of matings needed to be concealed. The information was so closely guarded that besides Cabal and a Wolf Breed—Dash Sinclair—no one outside Callan’s original pride knew of it.

“Have you talked to Callan?” Tanner asked.

“Let’s say Callan talked to me,” Cabal snorted. “He’s worried, Tanner. Her death is being placed at the door of the Breeds. You can’t keep her here forever and you know it.”

“I will protect her,” Tanner snapped with a primal rasp. “Nothing can happen to her.” The animal rose to the surface, beating at his brain with the imperative demand.

“Do you have a plan?” Cabal asked.

Tanner’s sharp laugh was mocking. “Plan? Since I pulled her out of D.C. I haven’t been able to figure out anything except how many different ways I need to fuck her.”

He swiped his fingers through his hair again in frustration.

“If we take her to Sanctuary, then the spy Tallant has there will stop at nothing to kill her,” Tanner said. “I can’t keep her locked up forever.”

“It could be the only way to flush Tallant’s spy out,” Cabal pointed out.

Tanner growled. For once, the animal didn’t have to push to the surface; the man was there and he wasn’t pleased with that suggestion.

“You said you can’t keep her locked up forever, Tanner,” Cabal bit out. “What other choice do we have here? The only way to ensure her safety is to get her to Sanctuary and flush that bastard out.”

“We have no idea the direction he would take in attacking her,” Tanner snapped. “Every Breed on the place is armed to the teeth. I won’t take that chance. Even if she had something we could use to take Tallant out, it wouldn’t be enough. His spy wouldn’t stop until Scheme was dead.”

“We need that spy, Tanner,” Cabal growled.

Tanner’s hand flashed out, wrapping around his brother’s throat, tightening as Cabal stilled.

“You will not risk my mate,” he snarled, leaning closer for emphasis. “Not now. Not ever.”

Cabal never broke his gaze. “Do you think I would risk your mate unduly?” he retorted. “No more than you would mine. But keeping her here forever won’t work. You know that as well as I do. Use your head here instead of your heart.”

Tanner jerked his hand back before rising abruptly and pacing the room. He couldn’t do it. If he took her to Sanctuary, he couldn’t protect her. There was no way to protect her.

“Tanner, there’s no other choice.” Cabal rose, facing him. “If we don’t show proof that she’s alive, everyone will suspect the Breeds of having killed her. Bringing her to Sanctuary and holding a press conference we can control, assuring the world of her safety and her protection against the monster that tortured her, will only aid our cause. Striking against your
wife
will afford Tallant the same consequences as striking against you.”

The world loved Tanner Reynolds. It was set in stone. He was the face of the Breeds, the laughing, easygoing playboy. Would it protect his mate, to the world, his wife?

They knew orders had gone through the Council as well as Tallant’s organization that due to public sentiment for him, no strikes were to be made against him. It was amusing sometimes, watching the Council agents that often trailed him, the hatred on their faces, their need for blood restrained.

“It wouldn’t stop them,” he said softly. “They would kill her. She knows too much.”

“Do you have a choice?” Cabal asked.

“I’ll find my own choices, dammit,” he snarled, his fists clenching as pain raged through him. “I won’t let them take her from me. Not now. Not knowing what that bastard has done to her over the years.”

It tormented him, tortured him. The thought of being buried alive, her slender fingers clawing at a narrow casket, it sent rage pulsing through him, ripping at his control and sending a growl rumbling from his throat.

“Tanner. I would stand in front of her,” Cabal told him imperatively. “As God is my witness, I will protect your mate as though she were my own. It’s the only choice we have.”

“And you think I would trade my brother’s life for my mate’s?” Tanner snapped, burningly aware of his limited choices. “Do you think I would ask that of you, Cabal?”

Cabal’s lips quirked in bitter knowledge. “You wouldn’t have to ask it of me. You saved my sanity after you rescued me. You made me live as a man instead of an animal, Tanner. Do you think I wouldn’t die for you or your mate?”

Tanner stilled, staring back at Cabal as he inhaled roughly. It was there, the scent of Cabal’s determination and something more. A hint of emotion, sadness, resignation, regret. They had always assumed they would mate the same woman. From the day Tanner had pulled him from that pit, the need to share the finer things in life with his brother has risen to the fore.

Food, wine, song and women. Playful teasing, a child’s laughter. Tanner had shared it all with him, and now they had found something Tanner couldn’t bear to share. And he couldn’t regret it. Nature had given him something that belonged to him alone, something he had marked, something he would give his soul for.

“I don’t want you to die for me or my mate,” Tanner said simply. “I want you to live to help protect my children.”

Cabal frowned. “She was sterilized.”

“So was Sherra,” Tanner pointed out, speaking of his pride sister.

Sherra had had herself sterilized after the loss of her first child, but once she had been reunited with her mate, somehow nature had repaired the separation of her fallopian tubes and her pregnancy had resulted.

“You believe the hormones are forcing her body to repair it as they did Sherra’s?” Cabal asked.

“Something is going on,” Tanner sighed. “There’s a difference to her scent; there has been for days, as though something were changing inside her. I could smell this on Sherra when she was fighting the heat with her mate, Kane. The scent is the same, Cabal.”

“The healing process took much longer than a few weeks.” Cabal frowned heavily. “Dr. Jacobs guessed it had been in progress for more than a year, from the moment Kane reappeared in Sherra’s life. It won’t happen overnight.”

The mating heat and hormonal effects on the body were still unknown for the most part. There were too many anomalies for the Breed doctors and scientists to keep up with. It was one of the reasons they were so desperate to find the first Leo. Reports were that he existed, in his prime, still a strong, amazingly healthy male at nearly a century in age. And his mate was said to appear as young.

“What the hell am I going to do?” He sat down heavily in the couch, covering his face with his hands wearily. “How am I going to protect her?”

“We will protect her.” Cabal’s voice was cold, hard.

Lifting his head, Tanner stared back at his brother in surprise.

“Listen to me, Tanner,” he growled, his incisors flashing dangerously. “We know those who are most loyal to us. This damned spy is good, I’ll give you that, but we can protect her and flush him out at the same time. You don’t have a choice. And neither does she.”

“How?” The heat was messing with his mind now. All he could think about, all he could feel, was Scheme.

“We take her back to Sanctuary. We’ll place our enforcers around her, keep her under house protection and see who gets curious. Whatever she knows, once she knows she’s truly safe, she’ll reveal it. It will flush out Tallant’s spy.”

He would have to risk her to save her.

Tanner shook his head. “I don’t know if I can do it, Cabal.”

CHAPTER 22

“And I don’t know if it’s entirely your decision.”

Tanner jerked around, a growl rumbling in his throat as Jonas and three of his enforcers stepped into the room. How the fuck had they managed to sneak up on him?

Jonas’s lips tightened as he tested the air, his strange silver eyes flashing with anger.

“You should have smelled us coming the moment we dropped into the tunnels,” he snapped. “Mating heat is making you weak, Tanner.”

Tanner lifted his lip in a sneer. “Not so weak that I can’t take your throat out, Director,” he snarled. “Why the hell are you here?”

Jonas snorted at the question. “Callan did a good job of hiding you, but you forget, I hold my position for a reason. Tracking you wasn’t as hard as you would have imagined. It’s a goddamned wonder the Council hasn’t already found this place.”

“It’s a goddamned wonder a Breed hasn’t killed you yet,” Tanner growled.

“Several have tried.” Jonas shrugged, staring around the room. “Where is she? Don’t make me go looking for her.”

“Touch her, cause so much as a flicker of fear to ignite inside her, and I’ll kill you.” Murderous rage brewed in Tanner’s gut as he stared back at the director of Breed affairs.

Jonas’s lips flattened. “Don’t sign her death warrant here, Tanner. Let’s protect her together.”

The animal awoke with a roar. Tanner could feel blood pumping through his body, tightening his muscles, sending a surge of adrenaline-laced rage to race through his head.

His head lifted as he stared back at the taller man, not in the least intimidated by Jonas’s six-six frame or the glowering menace in his expression.

“You signed yours,” Tanner rasped, “when you recruited her rather than rescuing her.”

“It was her decision,” Jonas refuted coolly. “I offered her safety; she chose revenge for the death of her child. You can’t fault her for that.”

“I don’t care how you’ve excused ignoring a woman’s torture,” he snarled contemptuously. “And neither will the Breed Cabinet when I request asylum for my
mate
.”

Jonas’s eyes flickered, his jaw hardening. “I ignored nothing,” he finally retorted. “She never reported it.”

“She gave her soul for the Breeds,” Tanner hissed. “How old was she when you recruited her, Jonas? Nineteen? Twenty?”

Jonas stared back at him coldly. “She was twenty-two.”

Tanner’s smile was savage. “A child. You recruited a child, Jonas. One likely already scarred by a father’s torture. A woman you should have sensed needed your help rather than your exploitation.”

Jonas’s expression never changed. “We do what we have to, Tanner, to survive.”

“You son of a bitch!” Tanner’s fist flashed out, connecting solidly with Jonas’s jaw and knocking him backward.

A hard lion’s roar left Jonas’s lips as he moved to counterattack, only to draw himself up short, his expression twisting with fury as the enforcers beside him tensed for action.

Cabal stood beside Tanner now, a warning growl echoing in the room as Jonas’s eyes flashed toward him.

“My mate”—restraining the killing rage surging inside him was nearly impossible—“is not a tool to survive.”

As the words left his throat, his senses exploded with the scent of Scheme, his gaze moving to the doorway as she stepped into it slowly.

She was pale, her dark eyes wide, tortured.

“Unfortunately, that’s exactly what I am,” she said as she faced the six Breed males that had turned to her. “First a tool against the Breeds and now one for them.”

Her voice sounded calm; her expression was stoic, but Tanner could smell the pain and the fear twisting inside her.

“Not any longer.” He pushed past Jonas and his enforcers, growling warningly as he tossed Jonas a furious glance.

Tanner pulled her into his arms, sheltering her against his chest as his hands tucked the sheet she had wrapped around herself more firmly about her body.

“You should be sleeping.” He didn’t want her here, didn’t want her facing Jonas’s cold, hard objectivity. It was the reason he made such an excellent director of a bureau created for the covert operations the Breeds were forced to use to survive.

“No, there will be time to sleep later.” Her words had his heart jerking in his chest. “It’s time to finish this now.”

———

“You’re late.” She felt the nervous smile trembling on her lips as she faced the director of Breed affairs, the man who had once saved her life, who offered her a chance to destroy the monster haunting her.

She watched as he breathed out heavily, regret flashing in his silver eyes.

“Finding the caves wasn’t easy,” he growled as Tanner’s arms tightened around her. “I knew who you were with. I thought we had time.”

“And what changed that?” Tanner snapped behind her.

He really was protective. It surprised her, the warning and fierce protectiveness in his voice.

Jonas’s silver eyes flicked to Tanner before returning to her. “And here we thought he was the calm Breed,” he commented. “Go figure.”

“Jonas, I’m going to kick your ass,” Tanner warned him.

“No.” Scheme tightened her hand on the arm surrounding her. “You don’t understand, Tanner.”

“Probably because you never explained it to me, Scheme,” he bit out mockingly.

“I tried. Right before you left me alone with Cabal.”

Silence filled the room.

“He saved my life,” she told Tanner then. “Right after I lost the baby. He found me.” She swallowed tightly, trying to dislodge the grief in her throat, the memories of the loss and of her own weakness.

“We were trying to get a few bugs in her home at that time. We thought she and St. Marks both were still at the Tallant estate. Scheme had returned.” Jonas began the explanation only to stop as Scheme shook her head harshly.

It was her weakness and it was time she faced it. “I was sitting in the dark, in the living room, staring at a handful of pain pills.” Her lips twisted in disgust. “I couldn’t run. I would have been found and punished. I knew that. And I needed to escape. I just wanted to escape.”