by Lora Leigh
Dane grunted. “Would you like to call him and tell him what we’re investigating? Go ahead, split his loyalties between Sanctuary and the twins my mother just gave birth to before flying out to save her older son. I’m certain those babes don’t need her, even if they do appear to be ill at the moment.” Disgust laced his voice. “Why the bloody hell do you think he doesn’t know about it now?”
That wouldn’t stop Leo from blasting her and Dane both with his anger, though, once he learned about it.
“Callan.” Ria stepped forward, ignoring Mercury’s warning growl as Callan turned, his head lowered, those dangerous eyes watching her closely, the rage burning in him so close to the surface that it washed from him in waves. “Any coup needs an event to give it momentum. You were nearly killed and you’ve been recovering from it. Your senses aren’t back to peak, Sanctuary is ripe for a takeover. Someone is moving to destroy you from the inside out. If the information Dane uncovered is correct, then it’s only a matter of weeks before those secrets are completely shifted to the researchers. We can’t risk that. My job was to uncover the culprit or culprits. And there were very few people we were certain weren’t involved in this, until I had spent some time with those files myself.”
“We knew you weren’t involved,” Dane told him, his voice harsh. “But other than that, we couldn’t be certain. Whoever is moving on you and getting this information out is a strong enough force that other Breeds, enough of them, may back him.”
“There are very few Breeds strong enough to do that,” Callan snapped.
“Exactly,” Dane agreed. “We couldn’t risk the information being leaked, and you trust your inner circle with your life. We had to make certain no one in that inner circle was involved before coming to you.”
Callan turned to Mercury then. “There was no order to relieve you of your rank,” he told him. “And there was no order to confiscate your weapon, your uniform or to force you into testing.”
“You have interoffice memos being falsified?” Dane’s eyes narrowed. “Are you using the tracking equipment we sent you last year?
The caustic look Callan shot him was thick with disgust.
“So you are.” Dane grimaced. “Have you traced them yet?”
“We’re still working on it.”
“Many of the memos coming from Sanctuary to the research institute and subsidiary contacts have come from one office,” Ria informed them then. “I’ve traced the information piggy-backing memos as well as scientific purchases to three locations directly connected to Brandenmore Research.”
“Who?” Callan’s voice was dangerous, savage, the enraged primal male just beneath the surface rising to the fore once more.
“From the Breed labs,” she said softly. “Dr. Elyiana Morrey’s office. And from Pride Leader Lyons’s personal computer.”
Mercury braced his hands on the table and stared at the proof Ria had managed to slip from the files and electronic messages she had duplicated from the office she worked in at Sanctuary. Proof that their safeguards weren’t worth shit, because under the watchful eye of the security cameras she had managed to slip the most incriminating evidence against Ely from the labs. The evidence was pretty damned incriminating against Callan as well.
“I’m not entirely convinced, either way in regards to Dr. Morrey’s involvement,” she stated. “But my suspicions against her have risen by the day. Her aggression when I refused to submit myself to her testing procedures upon my arrival. Her determination to induce the feral adrenaline in Mercury’s system, and her insistence that he be confined. Mercury was trained in a variety of highly sensitive and exacting areas before the feral displacement showed itself. And even after, many of the areas he excelled in still carried high ratings.”
“How the hell do you know that?” Jonas snapped. “Most of the Breed records from his lab were destroyed.”
“Vanderale Industries was hacking labs while you were still in nappies,” Dane sneered back at him. “We’ve had those files for years. Leo was arranging an op against that particular lab to rescue several of the Breeds when news hit that the labs were being hit. Mercury was one of the Breeds he was most concerned about.”
Mercury glanced up at him silently.
Dane sighed. “You’re trained in code, Mercury. Don’t bother denying it. We’ve seen your files. You’re trained to both create and crack sensitive coding. It was part of several of your missions.”
“Not like this.” Mercury waved his hands to the printouts of the information spread out over the kitchen table. I was trained in military code, not in whatever they’re doing here.”
But he could see the threads of it. If he had been going through the transmissions himself, he would have caught it, even if he couldn’t decipher it.
“You were one of the most successful creations the Council had attained. You’re the strongest of the enforcers and you command incredible loyalty. The only reason you don’t head your own command is because you turned it down.” Dane shook his head. “Humble doesn’t become you.”
Mercury shot him a scorching glare. “Humble has never been a concern of mine either. I don’t command because what I do is better served working alone. It’s that simple.”
“And it hides from those who may tell the tale the fact that you’ve been experiencing the feral adrenaline,” Dane pointed out mockingly. “You’ve known the feral displacement could be returning.”
“I handle it.” He shrugged. He had been handling it for years, and he had informed Jonas of his suspicions. That was all he had been required to do.
“Mercury’s loyalty or his ability to handle himself has never come under question,” Callan informed them, his voice cold now.
The rage had solidified to icy determination. Mercury glanced up at his pride leader, meeting his gaze across the table, and felt the certainty of Callan’s trust. It eased the anger that had built at the thought that his pride leader, the man he had sworn his loyalty to, could have distrusted him.
“How many know you didn’t send those communiqués out?” Dane asked him.
Callan’s nostrils flared. “Kane and Jonas. Kane’s running the diagnostics on the orders that went out, using Vanderale equipment. Neither Ely nor the security tech is aware I didn’t send those orders.”
Dane nodded at that as he crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at the various information Ria had slipped from her office.
“The information was piggybacked on these electronic memos and purchases.” She slid them free and lined them up. “I ran a diagnostic on each message, and you can see the code that was inserted within it. It was attached to individual letters within words. That technology is so new that Vanderale is even still playing with it. Brandenmore Research has their own electronics branch, though, and they could have refined the program for limited use such as this.” She tapped her fingers against the code that had generated once she printed out the messages using the program Vanderale had invented to display it. “It’s taken most of a week to track this down, and from the looks of it, the rumors that the information is being sent in stages with a deadline appear correct.”
“This came from my office.” Callan slid one of the messages free. “An order for office electronics. It’s an order I sent,” he snarled.
“It is. And it’s a duplicate.” She slid free of the pile another memo that included the coding. “This one is from your computer.” She tapped his. “This one is the one that actually went out in transmission.”
He looked up at her slowly. “Someone is managing to intercept the transmissions before they go out and attach this coding?”
She inhaled slowly as she nodded. “That’s the beauty of this particular technology, and the danger of it.”
Callan’s fists clenched, his expression tightening further.
“How many departments at Sanctuary have been compromised?”
“So far, I’ve found it in nearly every department,” she told him quietly. “The main deliveries
are coming from the labs though. Part of my transmission to Dane earlier in the day was a request for the beta program to detect the coding as it goes out. When I asked for the heli-jet, it was actually a request for that.”
Mercury glanced at her, pride filling him at the thought of just how intelligent she truly was. He was still uncertain of the anger he could feel pulsing just below the surface, and he had no idea how she was going to handle what she had seen when Dane slipped into the bedroom.
But she stood beside him now, allowing him the ease he needed in knowing she was safe.
Damn the Council scientists. This woman should have been his, completely his. Not just his woman but his mate. Every instinct inside him reached out to her, held on to her. And he knew the lack of mating heat hurt her.
She had no idea how much it hurt him as well.
“How soon can it be installed?” Callan questioned her.
“How well do you trust the people overseeing the outgoing transmissions?” she asked him. “This can’t be used or installed without their knowledge, Callan.”
“All communications, outbound as well as in, go through one secured office in the communications bunker,” Callan informed her. “That office is overseen by my sister Sherra. She has four Lionesses working beneath her, each that she’s trained herself.”
“How well can she trust her assistants then?” Ria asked.
Mercury glanced at her. Her attitude had always been respectful toward Callan, not once had she shown so much as a shred of disrespect. But she wasn’t backing down in what she knew, or in her suspicions.
“Ely can’t be behind any of this, nor is she involved.” Jonas had finally spoken up, and Mercury heard the certainty in his voice. It was a certainty he didn’t share.
“Ely’s running scared,” Ria said softly, compassion lacing her voice because, Mercury knew, she was aware that Ely was more than just a friend to all of them.
“Ely’s kept us sane.” Lawe moved in behind Jonas, staring at the evidence on the table before staring back at Ria bitterly. “She’s not capable of this.”
“How secure are the labs?” she asked then.
Jonas grimaced. “No one in or out without clearance, retinal scan and fingerprint authorization. They then pass the security post. Even Breeds coming in for testing are escorted in by the enforcer on duty.”
“Do you trust the enforcers on duty?” Ria asked.
“Fuck, are we allowed to trust anyone now?” Callan growled. “They’re Breeds. They’re men and women who survived hell and know the consequences should we ever lose public approval. I can’t imagine anyone in Sanctuary capable of this.” His finger stabbed into the papers lying before him.
“Yet you know yourself that even your most trusted personnel can be compromised,” she pointed out gently. “Taber proved that.”
Mercury looked back to Callan. They all remembered that. When Callan’s brother Tanner had brought his mate to Sanctuary, she had also brought with her information that an attempted kidnapping of Callan’s son was in the works. Taber, a Lioness entrusted with David’s care, had been the one to attempt to kidnap the child, as well as Tanner’s mate, Scheme.
“Yeah, Taber proved that.” Callan wiped his hand over his face and glanced at the watch on his wrist. “My mate and my children are alone at Sanctuary, and we have a greater risk now than we did then.”
“I contacted Jackal, Callan,” Jonas told him quietly. “He informed Kane, to let the others know to be on guard with their mates and their children. They’re safe.”
But for how much longer? Mercury lifted his gaze to Lawe and Rule before turning to Jonas.
“We need Rule and Lawe back at Sanctuary. The main family is of prime importance and only God knows what could happen if someone actually decided to attempt a coup right now. We have the party tomorrow night, as well as visiting dignitaries arriving the night after. We can’t take any chances with David or the unborn child’s life. We all know just how badly both Council and non-Council scientists would love to get their hands on a mate or child born of those matings.”
“It’s too late to cancel the parties,” Jonas murmured.
“And you don’t want to cancel them,” Ria said. “Horace Engalls of Engalls Pharmaceuticals will be there if I remember the guest list correctly. As well as the CEO of Brandenmore Research. Let’s see what we can detect during these parties. They have no idea we’re onto them,” she stated. “Let’s play them right back.”
“How?” Mercury could feel her mind working; he could feel the confidence and certainty pouring out of her.
“Put Lawe on Horace Engalls. Rule on Phillip Brandenmore. Close quarters. Have Lionesses on their guests. Make certain there’s no way to transfer information while they’re here.”
“Whoever’s transferring information will know we’re onto them,” Mercury pointed out before Jonas or Callan could. But he was thinking, moving through the security that had been designed for both parties and working it out in his head. “They’ll have to use the transmissions,” he said then. “We’ll have the program installed and ready to use. If they can’t transfer information face-to-face, they’ll have to use the transmissions quickly.”
“Exactly. We pinpoint the computers these memos originated from. The Vanderale program can do that, and it can intercept and toss the emails, personal chat messages or memos back to Callan’s program with no one being the wiser. Callan, Kane, Dane and Rye can set a schedule to monitor it without causing suspicion.”
“True.” Dane spoke up then. “We were invited to the party after all.”
Mercury couldn’t halt the growl that came to his throat as Dane moved closer to Ria. Dane grinned at the sound and backed away once again.
“You’re going to have to let me get back in her good graces, Mercury,” he told him with a chuckle. “Otherwise, she’ll end up costing me a fortune in jewels.”
“That’s okay,” Ria murmured absently as she continued to spread the papers around the table. “Bling is always nice.”
She didn’t sound particularly concerned about letting Dane back into her good graces or allowing him to distract her from whatever she was putting together.
Mercury moved behind her, staring over her shoulder, watching as she moved the pages, studied them, then moved them again. When she was finished, the code laid out began to look more familiar.
“Do you see it?” she asked him, shifting a page before turning it upside down. Another right side up.
“It’s a Council code,” Mercury realized as he narrowed his eyes at it. “Son of a bitch.”
Jonas and Callan both moved in closer.
“What are you looking at?” Jonas bit out.
Mercury looked down at Ria as she turned her head and stared at him.
“This is why they wanted you out of the way,” she whispered.
“I don’t see a damned thing that looks familiar, Mercury,” Jonas snapped. “And I know Council code as well as you.”
“It’s not just mating heat they’re after,” Mercury breathed out roughly. “This code was developed in one place only. The labs I was created in. This code,” Mercury tapped several lines of the attached transmissions, “it’s the code for feral displacement. They’re attempting to duplicate it.”
As he stared at the code, bits and pieces began to show a pattern. Numbers, glyphs, scientific formulas began to come together. He shook his head. Hell, it had been too damned long since he had done this. “It would take months to piece all this information together without the key to the code.”
“We don’t need the key to the code to stop them,” Ria told him, turning back to the papers before glancing back at Callan and Jonas. “Whoever’s behind this knows Mercury’s lab history, the tests he excelled in as well as the experimentation done on him in regards to the feral displacement. Adult Breeds were killed when they began showing it. Mercury is one of the few they allowed to live. Whoever’s doing this knows that.”
“And Ely kn
ows it,” Mercury said dispassionately.
Like Jonas, he found it hard to believe the doctor they had depended on would be the one to betray them. But unlike Jonas, he had firsthand experience in just how far Ely would go to prove he should be locked up, confined, drugged.
The drugs for the feral displacement had made him easier to control, had turned him into an automaton. By time the drug therapy had taken hold, he hadn’t even been certain which world he existed within, or rather which one he fought within. It was a world she would have returned him to.
“Can you slip Dane into the estate tonight to install the program?” Ria asked Callan. “He’ll also need access to the main security terminal in the communications bunker.”
“I can get him in,” Jonas stated.
“We have about eighteen hours to get installed and running,” she added.
Mercury was there when she turned to him. He backed up just enough to meet her eyes, to watch as her gaze moved from his just as quickly as she’d met it, then moved away again.
“You behave.” She pointed to Dane as she moved quickly from the living room back to the bedroom. Mercury let his gaze slide to Dane’s then.
Dane arched a tawny brow mockingly. “Feral displacement,” he murmured. “Interesting.”
Mercury glared back at him. “She’s not in any danger.”
“I never imagined she was.” He grinned. “You know, I have to admit, life has livened up a bit since the Leo revealed himself to this pride. I can see I’m going to have to pace the amusements or I may burn myself out.”
“Shut up, Vanderale,” Jonas ordered him as Mercury stared back at Dane, refusing to be baited by him.
“Invade her bedroom again and you’ll be more than burned out, you’ll be bled out,” he told him.
“Hmm,” Dane murmured. “Too bad you can’t mate though. She would have made a fine mate. A wonderful mother.”
Mercury’s chest clenched. He stared back at Dane, wishing he had killed him when he had the chance.
“Dane,” Jonas growled. “That’s enough.”
“Yes, it is.” Dane shot Mercury a caustic look. “No worries, my friend. When she’s had enough of the hardheaded Breeds here, she’ll return home.” His smile was smug, confident. “And when she does, I’ll be waiting.”
CHAPTER 14
Mercury closed the bedroom door, locked it, then attached the small, rectangular temporary alarm over the crevice between the door and the frame.
He moved to the window, attached another alarm and then turned to face her.
Ria resisted the urge to rub her hands over her arms as she stepped from the bathroom, once again in her gown, weariness dragging at her as she caught a glimpse of his face.
Primal and wild just didn’t do his expression justice. It was suffused with sensual lust, his eyes glowing with it, the flesh stretched taut over the hard planes and angles of his face.
The clean white silk gown she wore might as well not have been on her body. The way he was looking at her stripped it from her, revealed the hardened tips of her breasts and the dew she knew was accumulating on the curls between her thighs.
“Has Vanderale been your lover?” he asked her, his voice rough, grating with animalistic fervor.
Ria swallowed tightly. “Not in this lifetime. I grew up watching that man play more games than a chess master.”
She had no intentions of allowing him to play games with her heart or her emotions. And Dane wasn’t above it. He was a good man, but his focus was set on the protection of his parents and the Breeds rapidly making their mark in society. He would do whatever it took to protect both. And if that meant breaking her heart, he would apologize, he would regret it, but he would do it over and over again.
“And when you leave here?” He stripped his T-shirt off his body, before sitting down in the chair in the corner and unlacing his boots efficiently. “Will you take him to your bed after being with me?”
When she left here. She turned her back on him, straightening the laptop and files she had placed on the small table by the bed, trying not to let herself feel hurt at his easy acceptance that she would leave him. That things wouldn’t last between them.
She finally shrugged and said, “I have no intentions of going to bed with Dane.”
Could she allow any man in her bed now that she had been with Mercury? The thought of it sent a sharp, painful spike of denial racing through her mind.
She straightened and turned back to him, breathing in roughly at the sight of him naked, aroused. Damn, were all Breeds this sexual?
He moved to her, muscles rippling beneath the dark bronze flesh, the light in the room picking up the shimmer of that fine, silken pelt that covered them.
She loved the feel of those tiny hairs against her flesh, stroking over her, caressing her.
“Are you ready for me to leave already?” she whispered, trying to hold back the hurt as she couldn’t hold back the question.
She didn’t want to leave him. She never wanted to be without him.
“Can I kidnap you?” he asked her as his hands stroked over her shoulders, her fingers curling against his chest. “When this is over, I want to tie you to my bed and make certain Dane Vanderale can never bribe you away from my side.”
She stared up at him, feeling her heart melt. His eyes softened, filled with hunger and desire, and truth.
“You don’t want me to leave?”
“I want you in my bed, by my side, for as long as I can keep you, Ria.” His hand cupped her cheek. “But after what you saw tonight, can you stand to be there?”
Her lips parted.
“You were crying for him,” he growled down at her. “Tears were falling from your eyes and you knelt over him, naked, your hair stroking him.”
Jealousy throbbed in his voice. Complete primal male Breed jealousy. They were completely territorial over their women. Ria knew that, had seen it with Leo and Elizabeth several times over the years.
Ria felt herself tremble at the memory.
“I thought he was dead.” A frown snapped between her brows as she moved back from him. “He may not be my lover but he is my friend.”
“A friend that slipped into your bedroom while you lay naked in my arms. A friend that knew I lay there with you,” he pointed out. “The same friend who informed me that when this was over he would be waiting for you when you returned home.”
Surprise had her turning back to him, watching him closely. He was completely comfortable being aroused and nude.
“Dane is as adept at his little games as Jonas is.” She shrugged as she moved to straighten the bed. “But I’ll not defend myself over something that hasn’t happened or whether or not it will happen if you’re no longer a part of my life.”
“I will always be a part of your life.”
The sound of his voice, the large body suddenly behind her, the erection pressing between her thighs, rubbing against the slick, heated cleft there had the breath catching in his throat.
Just as he had over the desk in the office, he bent her over the bed now, his palms flat against the mattress, his larger, harder body holding her in place as her head snapped up in surpr