by Lora Leigh
Page 30
She wouldn't forget that he hadn't believed her when she denied killing Mason. She had seen the suspicion in his eyes, and heard it in his response. No matter what he said now, he hadn't believed her then.
It's enough for me. As though it wouldn't be enough in the face of the evidence for anyone else.
"Harmony…" He drew her name out warningly.
"Hadn't we better head to the office?" she asked, keeping her voice cold. "As you said, Jonas will be arriving soon and I have a report to write. "
Frustration filled his expression as his hand tightened on the door frame. A muscle jumped in his jaw before he stepped back and slammed the door closed, then stalked around the Raider. Arrogant male. She didn't lie—well, except to Jonas, maybe. And sometimes Dane.
She pursed her lips. Okay, she wasn't above lying if it served her purpose. But not to Lance and not about this. For the first time in her life someone had wanted to be something with her, rather than just wanting something from her. She wouldn't betray that, no matter what he thought.
Dammit, she was making herself crazy over something she shouldn't even be worried with. After all, he was stuck with her, right? It wasn't like he could mate someone else, could he? If one followed the example in nature, lions only mated once. Maybe it was something she needed to find out about. Braden would know; she could ask him about it.
"Harmony, that look on your face…"
"Have you ever gone parking?" She was starting to burn with arousal. Not the mating heat arousal, but a need vastly different. This was more natural, freer. She could deny it, if she wanted to. The problem was, she didn't want to.
"Parking?" His expression was a bit confused.
"Yeah. Taking a woman out in the desert and parking and actually doing it in the Raider?"
He wiped his hand over his face.
"You're mad at me because I haven't taken you parking?" he asked carefully.
"No. I'm angry over something much more important. "
She waved the question aside. "I'm curious about the parking. "
"Curious how?" he asked as he pulled the Raider out onto the main road.
"Well, I've never gone parking. " She turned to him, crossing her legs as she stretched her arm between the seats and rested her hand at his nape. Her nails raked over the tough, weather-roughened flesh.
He shivered.
Harmony licked her lips at the response.
"One of these days," he sighed, "I swear, I'm going to spank you. " She let her fingers rake through the lower layer of his long hair.
"Would I like that?"
"Why are you angry at me, Harmony?" He glanced over at her, the gentleness in his eyes, the flush of arousal in his face, weakening her. "You're not curious about the parking or the spanking. Yet. You're hurt. How did I hurt you?" The knowledge that he had seen so easily into her ruse to distract him with his sexuality had her chest clenching in emotion.
"You didn't believe in me," she whispered, breathing in deeply as she fought back the hurt. "I needed you to believe in me. "
"Harmony…"
"Sheriff Jacobs, we have a situation here. " Lenny's voice came through the radio as Lance spoke her name. "Mr. Wyatt has just landed with three of his enforcers, demanding to see Deputy Lancaster, and Alonzo has a crowd gathered outside the entrance. You better get here fast. "
Lance's lip curled in fury as he activated the link on the steering wheel. "We're headed in. We'll pull to the back and use the entrance there. Escort the Bureau boys to my office and check for a protest permit on Alonzo's group. If they don't have one, arrest them. "
"Arrest them?" Lenny sounded less than certain that he had heard right.
"Arrest every damned one of them," Lance barked. "I'll deal with them when I get to them. Jacobs out. "
"Let the fun begin," Harmony murmured, turning back to face the front of the vehicle as Lance shot her a dark look.
"Son of a bitch!" he cursed under his breath. "I knew I shouldn't have answered the phone this morning. "
CHAPTER 19
The back entrance to the Sheriff's Department swung open the minute Lance pulled the Raider to a hard stop in the parking slot, no more than ten feet from the door. Protestors and journalists were surging around the side of the building as Harmony followed him and moved quickly into the building.
"They have a permit, Sheriff. " Lenny was sweating as frustration lined his rounded face.
"Somehow they got the mayor to sign it. "
"Weasel," Lance snarled as he placed his hand at Harmony's back and led her to his office. "Keep them out of the damned department. Are Wyatt and his crew here?"
"In your office. With their lawyer. " Lenny nodded.
Harmony tensed, her hand falling to her weapon. The fact that Jonas had brought his lawyer couldn't mean anything good. Jess Warden was a barracuda; Harmony had seen that when Jonas held her in the cells at Sanctuary. She knew Breed Law like the back of her hand and had become well acquainted in working it.
"Let's get this the hell over with," Lance snapped as they moved to the door. At the last second, he pushed her behind him and threw the door open. Jonas was waiting for them. Merc, Rule and Lawe carried their short automatic rifles with casual readiness. They were dressed in the black enforcer mission uniforms, their expressions hard, emotionless. Harmony's hand tightened on her weapon as she stepped into the office behind Lance.
This was it. Jonas had found what he needed. It wouldn't matter that he knew she hadn't made those kills. He could use them. That would be enough for him.
"I need your weapons, Harmony. " Jonas's voice was a warning rumble as Lance closed the door behind them. "We need you at Sanctuary for questioning in the death of Tommy Mason. "
"Jonas, you don't want to do this," Lance warned him as Harmony felt tension rising in the room. "You know I'm not going to let you take her. "
Harmony snorted. "The alpha stuff is really cute," she drawled. "And this standoff is so testosterone-laden I'm about to have overload. Could we get past it, please?" She loosened her body, consciously relaxing her muscles as she considered her options. The door was next to her; getting free wouldn't be a hardship. Running would be a tad more difficult.
The lawyer, Jess Warden, was possibly the only one to give her words much notice. Jess's lips tilted in amused agreement as she lounged against the front of Lance's desk.
"Harmony, remember when I warned you that Jonas wanted something?" Lance reminded her quietly.
"Yeah? So?" Of course he wanted something. Everyone wanted something from her.
"Ask him what he wants. "
She watched as Jonas lifted a brow, his gaze reflecting admiration.
"Your sheriff is quick," he murmured as he inhaled deeply. "In more ways than one. "
"Jonas!" Lance's voice was a commanding whip. "Don't burn your bridges here, man. " Jonas's lips tilted in mocking amusement.
"Fine, we'll see if we can make this easy. " He shrugged in unconcern. "I want your shadow. You'll follow the mission plan we've put together and help us capture the team that repeatedly rescues you. I want them both. "
Dane? He wanted Dane and Ryan? Not the information she had stolen from the labs?
She stared back at him in confusion.
"Why?"
"That doesn't concern you, Harmony," he said. "Give me what I want, and your little indiscretions here will be ignored. You'll receive clear status and freedom. Freedom to stay with Lance. "
"And if I don't?"
"If you don't, I'm taking you with me, and Breed Law will be enforced. You're a wanted assassin, not just by the Bureau but by regular law enforcement channels as well. As Death, you have a hefty price on your head in several countries. Give me what I want, and I'll ensure, personally, that everyone believes Death is dead. Harmony can live her life in peace. "
"This isn't going to happen, Jonas. " Lance's voice surprised her.
What surprised her more was how easily his hand dropped to the weapon at his side. "Harmony has upheld her end of the deal. I will personally attest to it. "
"Can you save Death as easily?" Jonas asked, his voice soft, almost gentle. "She's a wanted killer. "
Harmony gauged her chances of making the door. Dane and Ryan would find her; all she had to do was get out of there. She felt agony well deep inside her at the thought of leaving Lance. The warmth, the pleasure of his touch.
"Breed Law will do that for me. " She stilled at Lance's voice. "Breed Law cancels when a child is involved. The moment she conceived she was exonerated until and unless she kills again. And she has conceived. You can't take her, Jonas. " Harmony almost smiled. Lance surely knew this wouldn't work. Jonas would know better.
Instead, Jonas nodded. "I scented that the moment she walked in the door. But think about this, Lance. Will she ever be safe with you?"
"I'm not pregnant. " The rest of the conversation dissolved as her world narrowed to that single piece of information. "That's not possible. "
Her gaze swept around the room, taking in the compassion, sympathy and knowledge in the expressions staring back at her.
"It's not possible," she repeated.
"Harmony, you are pregnant," Jonas stated softly. "You and I both know that once your shadow learns of this, he'll take you. He will take you himself, because his single most important goal is protecting you. And that child will weaken you. "
"No one captures me unless I want to be captured," she hissed back at him. "You managed it, because fool that I was, I still called you brother. " The knowledge of that tore through her soul. "I couldn't harm your men, I couldn't get free without killing them, so I let them take me. "
She couldn't breathe. Pulling air into her lungs hurt; the implication of what they were saying was destroying her. How could she have not realized she was pregnant? It was her body, her child. Surely she would know.
For a moment, Jonas's expression seemed to gentle.
"Breed females can rarely scent their own conception. But it's there, Harmony. I can smell it, and the winds have whispered it to Lance. You can't run from it. You're here. And you're pregnant. The man protecting you won't let you stay. Help me capture him before he takes you from Lance anyway. "
"Stop it, Jonas," Lance warned, his voice hard.
"He won't take me, because I won't let him. " She was pregnant. Lance's child rested inside her. She could feel herself weakening, options she'd thought she had dissolving beneath the knowledge.
"You're weak now, Harmony. And you know he will take you. You're important to him because of the information you stole from those labs. He won't allow anyone else to possess that information. There was no chance of you sharing what you had. Mated, pregnant, you're weak and therefore a threat. He won't allow that. He won't allow you to turn that evidence over to anyone else. "
"How do you know?"
"Because he's the first Leo. The first created, Harmony. His genetic typing is the blueprint for every Breed that came after him. And Madame LaRue possessed the last evidence of his existence in the papers and files you stole. You are his weakness. " __________
Shock raced through her. Shock that he knew the information the files contained—but that first Leo couldn't be Dane.
She shook her head slowly. "He's too young. There's no scent of a Breed…"
"There's no scent at all. You forget, he mated one of the Genetic Council's foremost experts on Breed genetics at the time. If he found a way to cover his scent, then the Breed community can use that knowledge as well. "