Bonds of Justice (17 page)

“No one realized I was pregnant,” Sascha said, rising to move around the table, “not even Marsha. She thought I’d put on weight because of my unregimented existence.” Her hand curved over his cheek. “I needed to talk to her.”

“Why?” He thought he knew, but he wanted to be certain after she’d sucker punched him with this stunt. “And sit.” Pulling out a chair for her, he took one to her right.

Placing one hand on his thigh in that way she had, his mate took another deep breath. “I wanted . . .” Her voice shook, and he could no more stop from reaching out to kiss her, pet her, than he could stop breathing.

“Kitten, you know you can tell me anything,
anything
.” Why had she felt the need to hide this? That was what had him so lost.

“I planned to tell you as soon as I got back,” she said at once, her fingers tightening on his thigh, “but you were so busy I thought I’d wait till tonight.”

“You’re supposed to tell me things like this
before
.” The panther snarled in agreement.

“I knew you wouldn’t let me see Marsha on my own,” she said, a stubborn angle to her jaw. “And I didn’t want you to worry—you do so much of it already.”

“Of course I do. You’re pregnant with our child—I have the right to go nuts looking after you.”

“And I love you for it.” An affectionate wave of emotion down the mating bond tied them together on the level of the soul. “But this, I needed to do alone.”

His panther caught the vulnerability beneath the steely will. Reaching out, he curved one hand behind her nape in a hold as protective as it was proprietary. “I still haven’t heard what you went to do.”

“Marsha’s been my mother’s advisor since before Nikita became a Councilor, since before she had me.”

The tenderness he felt for her made his soul hurt. “You went to ask her what Nikita was like during her pregnancy and when you were born.” His mate was so scared she wouldn’t be a good mother—when everyone around her knew she’d be an amazing one.

“Yes.” Her eyes were almost starless when she looked up. “But I couldn’t make myself ask any of those questions. I guess part of me was afraid of what she would say—that Nikita never loved me, not even when I was in her womb.”

It tore him apart to see her hurting. “Kitten.”

A reassuring squeeze of his thigh. “It hurts, but it won’t ever break me again like it almost did once. Not when I can feel you loving me every moment of every day.” Eyes shiny with emotion, she reached up to stroke her fingers through his hair. “Mostly, I think I need to hear the answers from Nikita herself.”

Lucas shifted closer, so she could more easily pet him with those hands he adored. “I’ll call her, organize a meeting.” He’d dance with the devil himself if that was what it took to ensure his mate’s happiness.

“Marsha missed my pregnancy because she’s so focused on work she’s oblivious to anything else,” she said, playing her fingers over his jaw and along his neck. “Nikita won’t.”

Lucas laid his hand over the curved mound of her stomach, knowing that if he pressed his ear to that same spot, he’d be able to sense the heartbeat of their unborn child. “We’ve managed to keep it quiet this far, but I think unless you plan to stay in seclusion, the jig is up. Max knew you were pregnant the instant he looked at you.” At five months along, she was gorgeously, radiantly beautiful—any man with a working heart would realize she carried a life in her womb.

“Are you calling me fat?”

He caught the gleam of laughter in those stunning cardinal eyes and knew his Sascha was more than tough enough to handle the woman who’d given birth to her. “According to Dev
should mind his own business
Santos, I should be feeding you more.” She’d gained little extra weight through the pregnancy. “Are you sure you’re eating enough?”

“Lucas, did you or did you not go out at three a.m. to get me a pizza with all the fixings?”

“Did you say thank you for that yet?” He leaned forward to speak with his lips against her ear.

Making a small, pleased sound, she nuzzled into his neck. “I seem to remember you purring.”

“Even though all I got was a single measly slice.”

“I rest my case.” A kiss pressed to the beat of his pulse.

“I eat like the proverbial horse.” Sascha patted her hand over the one Lucas had placed on her abdomen. “We’re both doing more than fine according to the doctor and Tamsyn.” The DarkRiver healer had examined her only yesterday.

A shift inside her, a strange, beautiful thing, then a tiny foot slamming into her with a strength that surely came from the baby’s father. “Oof.”

Lucas beamed with pride. “That’s my girl.”

Sascha made a face. “Why are you so convinced it’s a girl?” They’d made the decision not to ask the doctor or healer to confirm gender, though Sascha couldn’t help but know—her baby’s mind was developing day by day, becoming a stronger and stronger psychic warmth inside of her. Still, she liked to play with Lucas. He’d ordered her not to tell him.

“I just know.” Bending his head, he pressed a kiss to the top of her abdomen, much as he had a habit of doing late at night, saying good night to their babe.

She ran her fingers through his hair. “I love you so much, Lucas.” Her eyes teared, her voice got thick.

“Hey now.” Raising his head, he touched his forehead to hers. “Pregnancy hormones strike again?”

A jerky nod as she melted into his embrace. “I should’ve told you about visiting Marsha, but I swear I wasn’t in any danger.”

Lucas went predator-still. “Who went with you?”

“I’m not telling you if you’re going to go snarl at them.”

“I’m their alpha—they should’ve told me.”

She thumped a fist against his chest. “I’m their alpha’s mate.”

And, Lucas thought, she’d earned her packmates’ loyalty in her own right. “Dorian,” he said, knowing the sentinel had a mile-wide soft spot for Sascha. “Why wasn’t he on Max’s surveillance?”

“He was less than thirty seconds away, in the emergency stairwell, monitoring the corridor with his superduper high-tech gee-whizz surveillance equipment, while I had the meeting. He even had me wired in case Martha suddenly went insane and tried to kill me by throwing her organizer at my head.” A theatrical gasp.

Lucas nipped her lower lip in punishment for the smartaleck response—and because he was proud of his mate’s strength, no matter that he hadn’t gotten his own way. “Come on then, let’s go see what Blondie has to say.”

“Lucas, did you notice?”

“What?”

“Max and his J.”

Lucas leaned one arm against the table, scowling. “No, I didn’t notice.”

“Sophia Russo’s almost impossibly good at hiding her disintegration,” Sascha said. “I only picked it up because of my empathy. So much pain, so
much
.” She closed her hand into a fist, rubbed it over her heart. “I wanted to reach across and tell her it was alright, that she was safe, that we’d help her.”

Lucas was used to his mate’s empathic nature. But he was also an alpha, pledged to protect his people. “She’s in the Net, Sascha. No way to know if she can be trusted.”

“
I
know.” A stubborn look. “And if she decides to call me one day, I won’t say no to any request she makes.”

“Were you this hardheaded when I mated with you?” A growl formed low in his throat.

“No. I think I’m maturing with age.”

“Well, stop it.” In spite of his teasing words, her responses, he caught the edge of fear in her eyes. “Don’t worry, kitten. The cop knows what he’s doing.” Max Shannon, Lucas thought, might appear nonthreatening with that easy smile of his, but it was deceptive—the cat had sensed the truth, sensed the hunter that lurked beneath the human skin. “He won’t stop until he brings down his prey.”

Making it back to the Duncan building by five, Max and Sophia managed to round up the other four people who’d appeared on the surveillance footage.

The intern, Ryan Asquith, was unable to provide any useful information, but Marsha Langholm was far more forthcoming. “Detective,” she said. “I’ll get straight to the point. While I did see Edward for a brief period this morning so he could sign a contract, I was in a private meeting at the time of his murder, and I’d rather not—”

Max held up a hand. “Sascha told us she was with you.”

A slight nod. “In that case, you’ll understand the need for discretion.”

“The Councilor wasn’t aware Sascha was in the building?”

“I have no way of knowing that.”

An artful dodge, but Langholm’s loyalty to the Duncans—even to the extent of protecting one who had defected—was clear. “You’re one of Nikita’s highest-ranking people,” Max said. “Is there anything you can tell us that might help with tracking down the person or people behind these murders?”

The woman didn’t pretend not to understand. “I knew Vale didn’t commit suicide—it was simply not in his psychological profile.” A pause. “I can’t give you names or any concrete details, but there have been ongoing . . . ripples from Sascha’s defection.”

Tapping Max’s foot beneath the table in a silent signal, Sophia put down her organizer. “Surely no one holds the Councilor responsible for her daughter’s so-called flaw? In any case, I thought it was common knowledge that Nikita severed all familial ties with Sascha.”

Marsha responded directly to Sophia. “There were questions after Sascha left the Net, but they calmed once it became clear the Councilor was going about her business as normal. Eventually, Nikita’s business association with the changelings began to be considered an asset because they are an unusually difficult market to capture.”

Max sat back—it was clear Sophia knew precisely the right questions to ask. But he couldn’t resist tapping at her foot in playful response. She put the high heel of her pump over the front of his leather shoe in silent reproof.

“What’s changed?” In sharp contrast to her foot, Sophia’s fingers lay unmoving on the glass-topped table.

He remembered those same fingers weaving through Morpheus’s fur, remembered, too, the expression of discovery on her face, as if she’d never before petted a living creature. He wanted to share a thousand other pieces of his world with her—but to do so, he’d have to plumb her secrets, discover everything the Justice Corps kept hidden. Because he wasn’t letting this J disappear into the dark.

“The Councilor hasn’t changed her business practices.” Marsha Langholm’s voice broke into his thoughts. “However, there have been certain subtle changes in the PsyNet.”

“The political winds are shifting,” Sophia murmured.

“No,” Marsha Langholm said to Max’s surprise. “I’d say it’s more of a split. The lines are very, very fine, but the division is starting to take form. Nikita stands on one side, those who support Pure Psy on the other.”

Max decided to reenter the conversation. “Explain Pure Psy to me.” Sophia had told him what she knew about the group—including the extra intelligence Nikita had sent her, but this was an opportunity to get the perspective of another powerful Psy.

“Of course you wouldn’t have heard of it,” Marsha said, and it was—no doubt about it—condescending. “Pure Psy’s guiding aim is to strengthen and preserve the integrity of Silence, a concept they term Purity. They’ve come to believe that contact with the other races is contaminating us—and that that contamination is a direct cause of the rise in defections and whispers of rebellion.”

“So Nikita is considered a problem—because of her increasingly strong ties with the changelings.” Sophia’s tone was as pragmatic as Marsha’s. “How about other businesses? Are they pulling back from their non-Psy connections?”

“Some are considering it—while Nikita has recently entered into another construction deal in partnership with DarkRiver and SnowDancer.”

“If it is Pure Psy,” Max said, telling himself to behave when he got the urge to ruffle Sophia, sneak under that prim composure of hers by tap-dancing his fingers along her thigh, “why single out Nikita? She’s one of seven Councilors.”

Marsha Langholm touched the screen of her organizer where it lay on the table in front of her, not a restless motion—fully conditioned Psy never made those—but an indication. “I looked you up, Detective Shannon. For a man with such a high solve rate, you’re a rare presence in the news media.”

Max shrugged, let it rest at that.

“It makes me willing to share this information. I’ve heard murmurs that Henry Scott has aligned himself fully with Pure Psy, and that Shoshanna, as his wife, is aligned with him.”

Max made a mental note to ask Sophie how that worked—the Scotts couldn’t truly be husband and wife, not in the emotional sense. “That still leaves Anthony Kyriakus, Tatiana Rika-Smythe, Ming LeBon, and Kaleb Krychek.”

“All four have undeclared political loyalties,” Marsha Langholm said. “Pure Psy might be suspicious that Anthony doesn’t stand on their side of the line, but then again, his action in subcontracting foreseeing work to his daughter is an understandable business decision, given Faith NightStar’s sheer value. And, the NightStar clan has little contact with changelings beyond that subcontracting arrangement.”

Sophia spoke again, her voice a stroke against Max’s senses. “Do you have any idea where the other Councilors might stand?”

“Tatiana Rika-Smythe recently bought significant amounts of shares in human companies. If she continues on that track, it will by default put her on the other side of the line from Pure Psy. Ming LeBon and Kaleb Krychek are unknowns. They’ve done nothing that could be considered either for or against the group.”

“I don’t get one thing,” Max said, tipping back his chair. “Psy are all about logic, right?”

“Correct, Detective.”

“Then Pure Psy makes no rational sense.” A pointed tap on his foot. Hiding his grin, he put his chair back down on all four legs. “If they succeed, they’ll isolate the Psy, cut off huge sources of revenue.”