by Lora Leigh
erred to use, with the exception of several tubes of colored lipstick.
She’d bought them to use at Halloween with the Goth costume she’d intended to wear on Trick or Treat night. Instead, she, Claire, Chelsea and Isabelle had been called out by the Navajo warriors who fought for the Breed Underground.
The job hadn’t been dangerous. It had been more a training mission; they provided distraction while the warriors spirited a young Breed they had helped escape years before, from beneath the noses of the Genetics Council agents sent to find her.
The Breeds and humans targeted by the Genetics Council needing rescue or aid were much fewer now than they had been in past decades. Those the warriors had hidden over the years though, sometimes needed additional help if the Bureau of Breed Affairs or the Genetics Council managed to track them down.
The young female they had moved in the fall had been such a Breed—one the Navajo warriors had hidden, along with her mother, when she was just a babe.
Where the girl had been taken, neither she, her friends nor the warriors who moved her would ever know. She was passed to another team and, Liza knew, would be passed several more times before she was relocated to ensure the secrecy of her final location.
Picking up the tube of lipstick and uncapping it, she stared at the berry-colored hue, like a fully ripe dark raspberry. Turning her gaze to the mirror, she applied the color, rubbed her lips together then stared back at herself.
The color made her eyes seem brighter, her complexion creamier. It brought a luster to the naturalizing effect of the makeup she wore and made her lips appear just a bit lusher, with a hint of sensual poutiness.
Taking a deep breath, she smoothed her hands over the snug fit of the apple green skirt and eyed it as well as the white silk shell she wore with it.
That was as good as it got, she told herself before turning and striding out of the bathroom.
Her briefcase sat next to the bed, her laptop securely zipped inside.
Grabbing it, she made a mental note to turn it over to her father when she arrived at the office. That flicker in the screen was about to drive her crazy. Not to mention what it was doing to her eyes. While she was there, she intended to get to the truth of her past as well.
Ray had all but fired her and Claire the last time she had seen him, but hell, he’d fired them before. At least once a year he disagreed with something they said or did, then after a day or so, he’d get over it. He’d never really fired them. He loved Claire. Her father loved her. They wouldn’t take their livelihood from them.
Walking from the bedroom, she met Stygian and Flint in the sitting room as they waited to escort her to the office.
“I’m going to be late,” she told them as she walked toward the door.
“You always think you’re going to be late,” Stygian growled, opening the door and escorting her into the hall as Flint followed.
The edge of tension that had existed between them over the weekend hadn’t abated, just as the edge of panic attempting to overtake her hadn’t abated.
She fought off the panic with the same single-minded determination with which she fought back the emotions that threatened to overtake her. And there lay the crux of the problem.
Stygian wanted the emotion. He wanted every part of her, because as he stated, she had every part of him.
And that was what mates did. They gave each other every part of themselves.
And Liza was terrified of it.
Because she had no idea who, or what, was every part of herself.
Flanked by the two Breeds as she left the hotel, Liza wondered what life would be like if the danger was ever over? Would it ever be possible to return to the life she had once had?
Did she want to?
Stepping into the back of the SUV while Flint took the driver’s seat and Stygian the front passenger, Liza sat back and closed her eyes.
She should have been on the sat-phone checking e-mail and messages. Her job didn’t begin when she clocked in. It often ran over well into the night as well as her weekends.
This weekend, Stygian had commanded her attention though.
Each time he touched her, each time he kissed her, she had burned for him. Even after the Breed doctor’s exam and the hormonal treatment she had given Liza, the arousal had still been there.
It was just deniable at times with the help of the hormone, while without the hormone, denying it was impossible.
Thankfully, the office wasn’t far from the hotel. It was only a matter of minutes in light traffic before Flint pulled up to the front entrance of the Navajo Nation headquarters. The Navajo Nation Chamber and headquarters held the main offices of all the branches of government as well as the presidential and vice president’s offices.
Gripping her briefcase, she allowed Stygian to help her from the SUV, the four-inch heels she wore making the height of the vehicle harder to navigate than her smaller car.
“President Martinez has several meetings throughout the building today,” she told Stygian as they entered the reception area. “This afternoon he has lunch in Window Rock and several meetings with casino owners regarding new legislation concerning the casinos. Try not to scare anyone off.”
“I’ll do my best,” he murmured as they reached the security desk.
Placing her palm on the biometric scanner, she moved to push through the security bars that enforced security to the rest of the building.
The flash of red and the low, strident buzz of denial had her stopping in shock and staring down at the display. ACCESS DENIED.
She felt Stygian move in closer in response to the two security guards who closed ranks in front of her. Liza stared around the spacious entrance as she fought to make sense of the denial.
As she looked up, Ronnie Shiloby, the Navajo president’s chief of staff was moving rapidly from the elevators to the security desk.
“Liza.” His smile was tight, his gaze concerned as he stepped past the security guards and waved them away. “Didn’t you get your father’s message, dear? I know he called first thing this morning.”
Only a few inches taller than Liza, Ronnie’s expressive blue eyes were concerned, his expression tense as he tugged at the blue silk of his jacket.
“What message?” She felt dazed as she wondered what message could possibly have explained the electronic refusal to allow her past the security desk.
“Come with me.” Indicating the front entrance she’d just entered, Ronnie led the way, holding the door open as she and Stygian stepped outside once again.
“Over here.” Indicating the deep curve of the building that then branched into a set of offices, Ronnie led the way to a small, shrub-enclosed patio off the cafeteria where several umbrella-shaded tables and matching chairs were arranged.
“I want to see my father,” Liza demanded as he stopped just inside the patio entrance. “I want to know what’s going on.”
“I don’t know what’s going on, dear,” he breathed out roughly before raking his fingers through graying black hair.
Frown lines deepened in his forehead as he watched her intently. “I know he called and left a message for you, Claire, Chelsea and Isabelle. Since you and Claire were at the hotel, he asked the others to meet there as well.” He checked his watch. “He should be there any minute.”
Liza turned on her heel and strode quickly back to the SUV.
“Liza, you know there has to be a reasonable explanation,” Ronnie stated as she strode away from him, his tone worried now as Stygian opened the door to the SUV for the second time that morning.
Turning, she faced the chief of staff furiously. “No, Ronnie, there is no explanation for canceling my access before discussing it with me,” she answered, her voice shaking as she let Stygian help her into the backseat before swinging her head around to face Ronnie once again. “I guess I can assume I’ve been fired?”
Her throat was tightening with tears and anger at the knowledge that everything she had worked for wa
s being taken away with no explanation whatsoever.
Ronnie shook his head, raking his fingers through his hair once more as he stared back at her in abject apology. “I’m really sorry, Liza.”
They knew each other well. This was Ray’s second term, and though Liza had only just moved into the position of personal assistant from her former job as the president’s scheduler when his former assistant, Isabelle, had taken a position in the office of the chiefs of the Six Tribes, she knew Ronnie well.
Besides the fact that they had worked together for over six years, they’d also known each other for years before that. Her father had worked with Ray for over twelve years, since his early retirement from the military where he and Ray and met.
Before Ray had become president, he had been a delegate for more than eight years. He had hired Audi Johnson right out of the military as head of security for the Navajo Nation Chambers, but Liza and her mother had already moved to the Nation when Liza was barely ten.
As the SUV pulled into the hotel parking lot once again, Liza dug into her purse, searching for her sat-phone.
She was on the verge of emptying the bag when she remembered leaving the device on her bedside table before showering.
No calls had come through before she left the hotel, though, not quite an hour before. If he had called, he had done so right before leaving for the hotel.
He could have called her before he canceled her clearance. That would have been the fatherly thing to do, wouldn’t it?
The minute the SUV door opened and Stygian reached in for her, Liza was out of the vehicle and striding into the hotel. She didn’t stop at the registration desk to see if her father had arrived.
Flint had been on the phone with Jonas as he pulled into the hotel, and no doubt he would let her know soon.
“Why would your father cancel your security?” Stygian asked as they entered the elevator alone and pressed the fifth floor button.
“Security risk, layoff, termination.” She shrugged. “Either of the three means I’m out of a job.”
“Has he called?”
“I left my phone in the suite.” She grimaced as she gripped the straps of her purse and briefcase in a tight grip. “I never do that. But we’ve not been gone long, right? If he had called before I left, I would have heard the phone ring.”
“Your father’s waiting in the adjoining suite next to our room,” he told her before murmuring an affirmative to Flint that he had given her the message.
Those damned earbud communicators. Jonas wouldn’t let her have one.
“Should I tell him you’ll be a while?” he asked her, his voice gentle as the elevator came to a smooth stop.
“No. Facing him now is just as good as later. Preferable, even.”
His hand settled at the small of her back. The touch was surprisingly comforting, and far too pleasurable. For a second, a moment out of time, she could feel his cock pushing inside her, his lips on hers. She could taste his kiss, feel his touch.
“Now you’re just making me horny,” he drawled as they reached the suite next to theirs.
Liza remained silent.
Stygian’s hard knock was answered quickly by Dog.
A scowl covered his face while his light gray eyes were the color of hard, cold steel.
“Join the party,” he invited, his voice low. “We’re just all getting ready to have fun.”
Liza stepped inside and looked around the room.
Her father stood with Ray Martinez on the far side of the room. Ray leaned against the desk behind him, his arms crossed over his chest, a heavy frown pulling at his brow as his dark eyes flashed in anger.
Audi Johnson stood to the side of the desk, hands braced on hips, lips thin with obvious impatience. To the other side of the Nation president, his legal advisor and Isabelle and Chelsea’s father, Terran Martinez, stood, leaning against the wall rather than the desk.
“Did you show up at work too before you realized you’d been fired?” Chelsea sat on the couch next to Claire, who had her head down, concentrating on her fingers.
“Pretty much,” Liza agreed, moving to the couch to join her friends, always aware of Stygian close to her. On the love seat across from Claire and Chelsea, Isabelle and Malachi sat silently as well. Isabelle was obviously upset; Malachi appeared furious.
She turned to her father. “You didn’t call, Dad. You let security deny me access.”
Her father’s lips thinned. “I did call, Liza, the call didn’t go through. I’ve tried to contact you since three in the morning. I learned at about six that your sat-phone signal had somehow been hijacked and your phone was connected to another source and uploading data to it.”
She blinked back at him. “I wasn’t uploading anything.”
“No, you weren’t,” he agreed. “Any more than you were uploading from your laptop, but both were in the process of a large upload. I managed to sever the upload and the connection, but your phone and laptop Wi-Fi chips have been permanently disabled.”
“The laptop screen was flickering again this weekend,” she stated, moving to set the briefcase on the floor as though it would somehow incriminate her. “Just like it did last month.”
Her father nodded. “There’s a serious security breach with each of your electronics,” he told them. “The Breeds obviously are not included in that statement.” There was a vein of animosity in his tone now.
“Is there any way the Breeds can help, Mr. Johnson?” Malachi offered cordially.
“Oh, there sure is—”
“Dad, don’t—” Liza knew that tone of voice, the look in his eyes.
“You and your buddies can pack the hell up and get off Navajo land. And take those God be-damned Genetics Council agents with you.”
Isabelle’s expression flared with fury as she made it halfway out of her seat in defense of her lover.
Malachi caught her instantly, pulling her back to his side as he leaned close, his head over hers as he whispered something intently at her ear.
“That’s enough!” Liza stepped forward, overwhelmed by the sheer disbelief that her father had said such a thing. “That’s unfair, Dad, and you know it.”
No matter any of their personal feelings, her father still considered Isabelle a favored niece. To say such a thing to the man she loved was horrendous.
“This is none of your business, Liza.” He used that cool, firm tone that assured her he still considered her a child and just as easy to control.
“Oh, well now, I just have to beg to disagree.” He’d taught her to stand her ground and to fight for what she believed in.
She’d never imagined it would one day be her father she was having to defend a friend to, though.
“Trust me, Liza, it has nothing to do with you,” he repeated, his gaze brooding and filled with anger.
“When my lover is one of the Breeds you’re trying to run off Navajo land, then yes, I do believe it is my business.”
Her father’s shock was surprising. “There’s no way I heard you correctly.” His gaze was colder, harder now than before, shocking her.
Surely he had already guessed?
“Why are you so surprised?” Her arms crossed over her breasts once again. “You knew we were sharing a suite. You knew he had been at the house when we were attacked. As for Malachi, you seem to be forgetting what Holden Mayhew would have done to Isabelle if Malachi hadn’t been there.”
“What he did wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for him.” Audi’s finger jabbed in Malachi’s direction. The Breed followed his mate as she jumped from the love seat again.
“Because rather than trying to give her to the Genetics Council, he would have just raped her himself.” Claire surprised them all as she stood, fury flushing her face.
“Claire, what is wrong with you?” her father snapped, his gaze suspicious. “Son of a bitch, are you on something?”
The accusation had silence suddenly filling the room as all eyes turned on the Nation’s p
resident.
Liza couldn’t believe the words had left his lips. That he had dared to say something so horrible to Claire, especially in front of so many people.
The look on Claire’s face was so rife with tortured pain, Liza could only stare back at her miserably before turning to her own father again.
“So if we stand up to either of you then we obviously have to be on something? We can’t possibly be adults who are simply sick and damned tired of being treated like children, could we?” Liza asked them as her chest tightened with pain.
Ray had always aggressively fought Claire’s independence with every weapon he could come up with. This was one of them. Accusing her of doing drugs as past friends did, or not caring about her family, whatever it took to get her to back down and obey his demands rather than living as she longed to do.
Behind her, Stygian let his hand grip her hip as he moved closer.
She was certain no one heard it, even she didn’t, but she felt the growl rumbling in his chest.
“I didn’t say that,” Ray snapped back at her.
“Neither of us did.” Her father stared back at her as though he didn’t know her, though.
“No, it’s the same accusation he used when she tried to leave and go to college in California, and the same one he used when she tried to take a job at the casino rather than the receptionist at the Navajo Nation headquarters. For God’s sake, she’s his daughter and didn’t even get the assistant’s job. She was pushed down to a damned receptionist as though she were some lowly distant cousin he felt responsible for,” she accused Ray. “And he used the same tone of derision and disgust when she announced she was moving into the house with me too.”
“What other reason would she have to treat me so disrespectfully?” Ray charged.
“There was no disrespect, Father.” Claire straightened her shoulders as she battled her tears. The sight of it broke Liza’s heart. “You can’t bear the truth now, any more than you could bear it when I was younger. I’m starting to wonder if you wouldn’t have preferred to see Isabelle raped or murdered than to see her with a Breed. Just as I wonder if you wouldn’t have preferred I died in that crash.”
“Enough of this.” Terran stepped forward, his dark eyes blazing with anger as he glanced at Ray and Audi. “I’ll be damned if I’ll stand here and listen to you insult my child as well as your own. We’re not here to discuss who our adult children have taken as lovers. We’re here to discuss their safety and the fact that the security we placed on their phones and laptops has been broken.” He turned to Liza. “That, my dear, is the reason your, Chelsea’s, Claire’s and Isabelle’s security clearance was denied so quickly. The signal we tracked moved from your phone to your laptop, slid past the encryption and began sending files to a location we’ve yet to track.”
Liza stalked from Stygian into the next room. She moved across the sitting room to the bedroom and grabbed her phone off the bedside table.
Returning, she slapped it on the desk beside her father before moving to the couch, collecting her laptop and dropping it at his feet. “There you go. If you had listened to me last month, when I told you it was acting strange, perhaps you would have found the problem before now.”
Her father watched her with a hard scowl as she moved back to Stygian.
His arm slid around her, pulling her to his side as she stared back at her father challengingly. “Are we still fired?”
“Until we determine what’s going on, yes, you are.” It was Ray Martinez who stated the obvious. No doubt, he was the one who gave the order to rescind their security as well.
Liza nodded slowly, her gaze never leaving her father’s.
“Liza, I know you’re hurt and angry,” he said. “But, rather than blaming us, you and Isabelle should look to your new friends.” His gaze moved to Malachi and Stygian. “We couldn’t track it, but we know damned good and well that signal didn’t leave this hotel.”
Stygian felt his mate tense, felt to the bottom of his soul the sudden suspicion and anger that invaded her delicate body, and he knew she was remembering the night she had overheard Jonas attempting to convince him to betray her—to bug her phone and laptop for the access code into the Navajo database.
“I think it’s time you leave, Dad,” Liza stated then, the scent of her pain slicing through his soul. “We need to get ready and go job hunting, it seems. Since we no longer have jobs.”
She couldn’t describe the hurt flowing through her or the sense of betrayal she felt.
“Liza, we couldn’t risk the possibility that whoever was using the phones and laptops to hack into the database could actually manage to slip through the final layers of security,” her father argued as frustration tightened his expression. “Surely you understand that.”
“I understand that you live less than twenty minutes from this hotel,” she burst out furiously. “Twenty minutes, Dad. And rather than driving over here to tell me what was going on, you let me walk into the offices only to be stopped by security as though I were some criminal myself.”
Grimacing, he turned his head away for a second. He folded his arms over his chest, braced his feet apart and just stared back at her silently.
“So now I just get your military face,” she accused him, her voice thick. “As far as you’re concerned, the subject’s closed, right?”
“I apologized, Liza,” he stated firmly. “Once I had my information together, I came here, but you had already left.”
“You called my phone, knowing it was compromised and a call wouldn’t go through. You couldn’t call Stygian or Jonas, but you obviously got hold of the others.”
“Dad called me,” Claire stated with a hard, cold anger Liza considered uncharacteristic of her as she let Liza know that her father hadn’t tried to stop the humiliation she had suffered earlier.
“Claire, that’s enough,” her father warned her, his tone harsh, harsher than Liza had heard him speak to her since they had awakened from the wreck they were in as teenagers.
“God, this is incredible,” Isabelle stared at the two men, confusion creasing her face. “Claire and Liza have always behaved above reproach. They have never done anything to shame either of you, and this is the only way you can treat them now that they aren’t following your orders?”
“Isabelle, that isn’t true,” Audi argued. Liza noticed his voice was even sincere. “This has nothing to do with the mistakes you girls are making in your current lovers—”
“Oh, excuse me!” Isabelle demanded then. “Our mistakes in our lovers? You can go to hell! As for you, Uncle Ray, you can jump and accuse Claire of doing drugs because she had the nerve to argue with you? And you can’t go out of your way to warn your daughter not to arrive at the office after you’ve canceled her clearance? I’m sorry, Audi, but that’s exactly what it sounds like.”
“Isabelle.” It was Terran who stepped in at that point. “There are things you don’t understand, swee
