Finding Trust (Centre Games) (22 page)

“If she’s not ovulating, then what’s the problem?” Quade asked, still missing something.

“Equine sperm can last for up to a week inside the female body and it’s also magnified because of all the other animal help it gets. It’s about the strongest of all our kooky DNA combos when it comes to the lifespan of sperm,” Rory clarified for him.

“Shit, I didn’t know that. How come you knew that?” Quade demanded of Rory, clearly unhappy Rory knew something he didn’t.

“Because I was paying attention in biology all those years ago, dumb ass,” Rory tossed at Quade. “So is she worried?”

“No, because she thinks the chances are minimal, given ovulation is a few days off and human sperm usually doesn’t last more than a few hours inside a female. It can last a lot longer but it’s unlikely unless it has perfect conditions.” He paused, gathering himself again. “Being the scientist she is, she’s disregarded it as a very low possibility.”

“But you don’t think that possibility is so low?” Rory questioned.

“No, I don’t. I’d say the chances are much higher.”

“Well, keeping with tonight’s therapy session theme, how do you feel about that, Pony Boy?”

“I don’t know, Rory. Part of me is excited at the thought of having my own family. Part of me is terrified of what it means and what Rihanna would think. She’d have to be told about us if she was pregnant.” He looked away. “I can’t help but think she’ll look at me as some type of freak if she found out. I’m not sure I could stand that.”

“So what’re you going to do?”

“Nothing I can do yet. I’m going to wait and see what happens. I promised her one day at a time and I meant it. No way am I letting her go.”

The determination in Brayden’s voice was evident. Their animal DNA tended to make them all far more territorial than normal humans. Bray was marking his territory and making it known to the rest of his family. His position was now crystal clear to his team members.

Something had just shifted in all their lives and they all felt it in one way or another. It was significant. For the first time, there was the very real possibility that a human would need to be brought into the inner circle and given the details of the circle they all kept.

One thing they were all very good at was adapting.

They had to all their lives. They would again.

“I’m not happy about this. But you know we’ll support you and do everything to keep her safe. And if there’s a baby, him or her as well.” Quade’s unquestioning support was not lost on Brayden. He knew how much that would have cost Quade.

“Thanks, mate; you don’t know how much that means to me.” He meant it, every word.

“I do, because I know you’d do exactly the same for me, no questions.”

“What about you, Rory? How do you feel?” Brayden had to ask even though he had a very good idea.

“As I said last night, mate, goin’ to be interesting watching.” Rory laughed again at his own humour.

Something was clearly bothering Quade. “Are you going to tell the boss?”

“I don’t think so. If it turns out to be a false alarm, then I don’t fancy being caught in a shit storm for nothing. If it is a something, then a couple of weeks really aren’t going to matter.”

“You can’t talk about your kid as a ‘something’, Bray,” Rory chastised.

“I’m not even sure what a kid from a hybrid and a human would result in. God, it’s terrifying.” Sweat broke out on his brow just at the thought. Reproduction hadn’t been in their collective life plans.

“Stop buying trouble. We function as humans with a set of kick-ass other cool features. Why wouldn’t your kid be the same?” Rory suggested logically.

“Probably because it would be too much to hope for,” Bray said philosophically.

“Man, the universe wouldn’t dare fuck this up. It’s too in debt to us as it is. We spend our lives taking care of all the scum that keeps rising to the surface to keep the human inhabitants from destroying themselves. Yeah, the universe wouldn’t do this,” Rory declared confidently.

“Well, I’m glad you’re so confident. You’ve got no idea how much I hope you’re right.” Rory had an uncanny track record of being correct. He hoped it wasn’t about to change now.

“I’ve got a pretty good idea, mate, because I’d be fighting with everything I had if I had an opportunity with a woman like Rihanna.” For once there was not a hint of humour in Rory’s voice, only sincerity.

“We got your back on this, mate.” Quade’s words were definitive. Subject closed, nothing more to be said.

Brayden nodded his appreciation. He daren’t speak another word just now. His brothers had given him a very precious gift and he was dying inside with the myriad emotions he was feeling. If he said anything further, he’d be crying like a baby any second.

Rory, sensing Bray’s discomfort, leapt on to the business at hand.

“So can you and Rihanna check out a few leads tomorrow?”

“Course we can; I was just messing with you before. Only rider is if the boss has other plans for us.”

“Goes without saying,” Rory agreed.

“What time’s briefing?”

“Oh seven hundred. Think you can drag your ass out of bed by then, lover boy?” Rory was back to jokes.

“You’re just jealous, asshole.”

“Abso-fucking-lutely, and not too proud to admit it.” That was the great thing about Rory: he was so open and honest and a frickin’ hoot to boot. He could be deadly serious and still take the piss out of any situation. “Go make her a happy girl, mate.”

God, he was lucky to have these guys as his friends and brothers.

Chapter Seventeen

They’d spent the last three days checking out a heap of leads. More like the guys had done a heap of “checking out.” Which Rihanna concluded was really a whole lot of driving around, asking questions, getting bits and pieces of something they called intel and then relaying it back to some mystical place they called the Centre. She was beginning to be sceptical that it really existed. Except these three seemed to think so.

They had at least two, sometimes three, “briefings” a day. “Briefings” sounded so important and mysterious. What she’d actually discovered was they were really just conference calls. This was where the guys reported in on their “assignments.” Assignment was just another fancy ass name for tasks in a project plan. The boss, or Tom as she called him, gave them more assignments, patted them on the head and sent them on their merry way like good little soldiers.

Through this little process of “put the jigsaw puzzle” together, the Centre had been able to deduce that they were actually now looking for two groups: The original East Europeans that had abducted her father and tried to abduct her. And it seemed a group of extremist Chinese guys. But to date no one knew much about these creeps, only that they wanted the virus and anyone that had expertise in it.

Well, it seemed that was what everyone wanted these days, for some reason or another. At last count there was five groups involved, although one or more of these parties had joined forces.

The East Europeans appeared to be working for the Chinese now, in some capacity. The Centre had effectively swallowed up her father and herself, forming one new united group, and Sullivan, it seemed, had been fucked over by Matthews. Matthews had disappeared the afternoon that Bray and Rihanna had spent at the Brisbane lab. What a stinking mess.

It was getting old fast. Not the being with Bray part, but this virus thing was really starting to suck. It made her tense. It made her anxious. She hated knowing that a bunch of lunatics had made a weapon with a virus that was already lethal by accident in its original form.

As it was now…fuck, every day could be their last. Oh, correct that…last
healthy
day before a week if you were lucky—or three months if you weren’t—of knowing you were going to die a slow and agonising death. Nuh, no, no, no, no.

This situation sucked on so many levels.

She needed some normality; she needed to see Jazz. She’d spoken to her briefly yesterday and they had shared a few more texts. But it wasn’t the same. She needed to feel a bit more connected to her old life than what she’d felt for the last couple of days.

Rihanna did a mental double take. What the hell had she just thought? Back up the bus, she’d just mentally thought of pre New Year’s Eve as her old life and post as her new life. Oh, my God! That was just too weird. She needed Jazz and she needed her now. How was she going to make that happen?

She couldn’t just jump in her car and head over to Jazz’s. In fact, she didn’t even have her car here. Brayden was her lifeline for everything. She had to admit, he was one damn fine lifeline, but she hated relying on anybody. Least of all someone she was in totally two minds about.

Every day, he got just a little more under her skin. He was always there and they were becoming more and more attuned. In fact, just this morning he looked at her in a way that she was certain was him reading her mind. Because the next second, he finished her sentence for her. But this craziness seemed to be his life. Maybe it wouldn’t be that weird if she wasn’t part of it like she was with the virus. Ahhhhh, she didn’t know. Just didn’t know.

What she did know was that just one look from him and she became instant mush. He affected her like no man ever had and the need to be close to him was getting stronger, if anything. If it was only all about lust, didn’t it wear off quickly? What if she was really falling for him? Oh fuck, now she was really freaking herself out.

Mmmm, she needed Jazz bad. Jazz would know what to do.

She dried off from her shower, threw on a T-shirt and shorts, and went looking for Bray. She needed to see Jazz.

Rihanna found the three of them sitting around the coffee table, peering at a laptop that Rory sat in front of.

“Can you believe these guys? Talk about backward thinkers. What century do they think it is?” Rory was clearly baffled and pissed off by whatever he was talking about.

“Hard to believe that one of the most industrialised and adapted nations can have pockets that are so backward. I guess that’s what makes the world go around,” Brayden added philosophically.

“I think we just need to find these fuckers and send them home with a one-way ticket; a body bag would work for me as well.” That was the blunt force approach she’d come to expect and was beginning to enjoy from Quade. He was Mister Black and White. It worked for him or it didn’t. He liked you or he didn’t. He had your back or he was your enemy.

She sat on the single lounge chair adjacent to the lounge they were all huddled on. “Care to fill me on what’s got you all so pissed?”

They all looked from one to another as if trying to decide if they should.

She decided for them. “Fine, don’t tell me. What do I care?”

“Rih, it’s not that we don’t want to tell you. It’s just that we’re not supposed to,” Bray responded gently.

“Fuck the rules, Bray; she has a point. She’s just as much a part of this as any of us, probably even more.” Mister Strong and Silent made the suggestion—or was it a statement? Yep, definitely a statement. She was beginning to like Quade more and more. She nodded her head at him in thanks.

He gave her a sly smiled and winked.

“Did I just catch you flirting with my girlfriend, asshole?” Bray demanded of Quade. Rihanna tensed; she wasn’t sure whether it was in jest or for real. Sometimes there was a blurry line with these guys.

“You better believe it, Stud. There’s no harm in trying. It’s been almost a week. Surely you must be boring her by now?”

Rihanna smiled slyly; Quade was just trying to get a rise out of him now and it was working oh too well.

“Did we sound bored to you last night?”

Rihanna felt her cheeks and neck get warm at Bray’s words. They’d been loud, they’d been hot and it was making her panties wet just thinking about what they had done last night. How he’d slipped his tongue…

“Just tell her already. She deserves to know. What’s more, she might be able to help figure out what these guys are after.” Quade’s voice dragged her thoughts back to the here and now.

She caught a glance at Rory. For once, he was quiet and glancing back and forth between Quade and Bray as if he were watching a tennis match.

“Okay.” Brayden turned and looked at her directly. “They’re an extremist Chinese group that are all for the mother country returning to a true communist regime. They are anti-everything capitalist and everything Western. Apparently, they are particularly pissed about the possibility of gambling in China, and have huge issues with the Western influence in Hong Kong. They see Hong Kong as the epitome of how the cultures have collided and not for the better.”

Rihanna was deep in thought, taking in the words Bray was saying.

“So that’s who we’re dealing with.”

“Have you confirmed that they have the virus?” she asked.

“To the best of our ability. Matthews is missing still, and all leads go back to these guys.”

“Just wonderful,” she bit out.

“Is that all you have to say?” He seemed disappointed; in what, she wasn’t sure. Oh, well. She had enough to worry about.

“Yes, it is,” she answered, feeling confused.

“You don’t have some clues perhaps about what these guys might be targeting?” Brayden asked hopefully.

“Nothing comes to me right now. Not that I can believe you expect me to have an answer, given that a minute ago you weren’t even going to tell me about these guys.”

He looked sheepish at her rebuke.

“What’s your theory, Stud?” It was the first time she’d used his nickname and his body noticeably stiffened at the way she said it. It wasn’t an endearment.

“I don’t have one yet,” he said sheepishly.

Rory burst out laughing. “Oh, give it up, guys. We need a break from this bullshit case. It’s starting to make everyone crazy.”

“Actually, now that you mention it, Rory, that’s exactly what I was thinking I needed.”

Brayden’s ears immediately pricked up at this. “Oh it was, was it? And what did you have in mind?” He looked hopeful.

“I want to go hang with Jazz for a bit.”

Brayden’s face fell.

“Sorry, too dangerous. Not till this is over,” he responded rapid fire.

“But I haven’t seen her in a week. And I need to see her.” Her voice had risen and she’d failed to hide her annoyance.

“Why do you need to see her?”

“I just do, okay?” she spat at him.

“So let me get this straight. You need to see her but you don’t know why.”

“That’s right, asshole. I just need to see her and last time I looked, there wasn’t a law that said I needed a reason to see my best friend.”

“But we’ve been through this. You know how dangerous it could be to both of you.”

She got up and yelled, “Fine, have it your way,” before she stormed from the room.

Rory turned and looked at Bray, shaking his head. “So what did you go and do that for, asshole?”

“Oh, don’t you start too, Rory.”

“Well, you are being an asshole,” Rory confirmed for him.

“It’s too dangerous. We all know that,” Bray responded sheepishly.

“Yeah, it probably is but you didn’t have to be such a shit about the way you delivered the message.”

Bray scrubbed his hand through his hair and rose from the lounge and started pacing back and forth. He’d fucked up royally. He was so scared of something happening to her. Of losing her to one of these extremist that he couldn’t think straight. What he’d just done was actually lose her at his own stupidity and hand. God, he could be so dumb sometimes. He needed to fix this but how?

Bray glanced over at Rory and realised the guy had a huge smirk across his face.

“Okay, so what do I do, smart ass?” Rory seemed to think he had a handle on this. Let’s hear it then.

“Fix it, moron.”

“How?” Bray shot back.

Rory turned to Quade. “If I ever get this dumb about a woman, just shoot me, please.”

“No problem,” Quade assured him, quietly chuckling.

Brayden was getting more and more frustrated by the second.

“Just tell him what you have in mind, Rory. The guy’s about to bust a gut,” Quade urged.

“Simple. Let her see Jazz.”

“But we haven’t checked out Jazz’s place and I hardly want her meeting with her out in the open.”

“So have Jazz come here.” It was a logical solution.

“Here? Are you serious?” Brayden guarded his privacy. Not only because of his connections to Steel but also because of what he was and what his work with the Centre involved. Could he risk letting someone else know about him, where he lived, how he lived?

“Oh well, looks like we were mistaken, Quade.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Rory?” Quade said, shaking his head.

“Well, if Stud here was so damned keen about Rihanna, surely he would have realised that sooner or later she was going to want to have friends over and that would mean they got to know where he-slash-they lived.”

Quade did something rare. He threw his head back and laughed and laughed. “Oh, he’s got you good there, mate.”

Brayden just looked at Rory. “Shit, I never thought of that.”

“I didn’t think so,” Rory said, sounding superior.

“So what am I going to do?”

“Well, are you cool with Jazz coming here?” Rory asked.

“I guess,” he said, not convincing anyone, himself included.

“Are you no longer serious about this girl?” Rory asked quietly but very seriously.

Brayden snapped back, “Of course I am.”

“Then you’re going to have to start making compromises. Including opening up your life a little to Rihanna’s friends.”

Bray continued pacing. Shit, Rory was right. How was it that this was always the way things went down? The class clown was really the one who had it all figured out.

“I guess I’d never thought about it. I’ve kind of had a few other things on my mind.”

“Sure, we get that, but you need to think about it now. You’ve just ripped her heart out and only you can fix it.”

“I fucked up big time, didn’t I?” he asked neither of them in particular, hoping somehow it wasn’t really as bad as he thought.

“Yep, you did. Never keep a girl from her bestie, bro. Haven’t you learnt anything over the years?”

He’d never really thought about it. The guys were his brothers, his friends—they were just always there. And with the boys from Steel, he could come and go from there whenever he liked. That was the sort of relationship that they had; they accepted that he had another job that was important to him, and they respected him enough never to ask about it.