Rule Breaker: A Novel of the Breeds (35 page)

And Gypsy’s parents had been caught, not just once, but twice, attempting to get a device into Jonas’s suite. The second such attempt had included one of the dangerous little nits, which placed Gypsy in a tenuous position, that of being forced to watch her parents arrested, tried and sentenced for breaking Breed Law, for which there were no extenuating circumstances. Or bargaining with Jonas. Either of which, Rule knew, would destroy the fragile trust and love for him that he knew his mate was already fighting.

But it also had the potential to destroy his mate.

CHAPTER 24

Gypsy paced the living area of the suite, biting at a fingernail as a strange, imperative restlessness gripped her. It had been building since Rule’s abrupt departure, demanding that she do something.

God, if she only knew what.

Along with the restlessness was an overwhelming sense of dread, and an inner need for him that she realized had haunted her since she’d first seen him two months before. From across the noisy, too-crowded bar their eyes had met, and she’d felt something she hadn’t felt for so long that she’d forgotten the lack of it.

Security and warmth.

It had tugged at her senses, urging her to cross the distance, to accept the silent invitation that had filled his too-blue eyes and the savage features of his face. To rest her head against his chest, to let him hold back the nightmares for a while.

Rather than acknowledging the sensation, though, she’d run from it. Just as she was still running from him. Like a frightened child, afraid of the feelings rising inside her and the unfamiliar responsibility it had entailed, she had run.

Just as she was getting ready to run again, she knew.

She knew who and what she was running from, but she couldn’t explain who or what she was running to.

“Be brave, Peanut.” And her brother had never expected her to be brave. That was what brothers were for, he’d always told her. “Be brave, Peanut . . .”

And if he couldn’t protect her, then—

The thought suddenly vanished as a firm knock interrupted the memory, pulling her quickly from the thoughts that had begun to drag her into the hell of the cavern.

That had never happened outside a nightmare, she thought, dazed as the knock repeated sharply, causing her to flinch at the sound.

Shoving the past back into the darkness where it couldn’t destroy her again, Gypsy turned and moved quickly to the door, throwing it open without caring who was on the other side. If it was someone intent on attacking her, then right now they’d have a fight on their hands, she decided.

She stood, blinking in shock at the visitor, though, almost unable to believe who stood there glaring at her.

“Well, at least you’re alive,” Kandy announced, irritation lacing her voice as she pushed into the room. “And evidently Mom and Dad haven’t killed you yet for scaring the life out of them.”

Turning, she closed the door, watching as Kandy came to a stop in the middle of the room before staring around with a frown. “Where are they anyway?”

“Who?” Gypsy shook her head, uncertain what to make of her sister’s arrival. “What are you doing here?”

“What do you mean who?” Kandy demanded rather than answering her. “Mom and Dad, of course. They came on up to meet with Jonas Wyatt to see why everyone was so certain Commander Breaker had kidnapped you—without your permission, that is—from the bar the other night. Everyone’s talking about it, you know? Mom’s livid and swears it’s going to totally compromise McQuade Consulting.” Kandy rolled her eyes at the thought. “They were certain you were being held in chains here. Arrested or being seduced?” Kandy’s brows wagged suggestively. “They wouldn’t wait on me when Loki stopped me in the lobby to find out why I was there. They came on up while we were talking.”

That sense of panic rose sharply inside her now, tightening her chest and filling her with such dread that she could barely breathe.

“I haven’t seen Mom and Dad,” she told her sister.

Kandy stared at her as though she were suddenly speaking in a foreign language.

“What do you mean, you haven’t seen them? They came up the elevator with Thor about . . .” Kandy checked the watch on her wrist. “Hell, almost an hour ago to meet with Wyatt. I was certain you would be there.”

Gypsy’s gaze swung to the digital clock on the wall across from her. Rule had left nearly an hour ago.

“As a matter of fact, the clock over the elevator read one thirty-three,” her sister announced. “I noticed that because Loki said he only had a few minutes to talk before he was due for a meeting at one forty-five. But it was canceled—” Her sister stared around the room again. “Where could they have gone?”

The breath seemed to become trapped in her chest, threatening to smother her as Gypsy suddenly knew exactly where they were.

“No,” she whispered, the knowledge that her mother must have done something incredibly stupid again blaring out at her senses, screaming at her to do something, to protect them. “Oh God, no.”

Before the words were past her lips she turned, threw open the door as she ignored her sister’s startled cry and began racing down the hall, heading for Jonas’s suite.

Rule had been called away, the summons evidently imperative enough that he had left a confrontation she knew he’d had no intention of breaking off. He’d been enraged with her, and intent on convincing her of something she knew wasn’t true when he’d been called away. At the same time her parents should have been knocking at the door of Rule’s suite.

Rounding the corner, she nearly barreled into Loki, surprising the Coyote who had obviously been rushing through the hall himself in the direction of Rule’s suite. He reached out for her, his expression startled, and the knowledge that flashed across his face caused her to duck, executing a slide that kept her well out of his reach before she shot back to her feet and sprinted to the end of the next hall.

“Gypsy, no. Wait,” he called out, anger vibrating in his voice as she heard Kandy call out his name in confusion.

Adrenaline was racing through her now, dread a close companion as she whipped around the next corner, racing full stride for the Breeds now blocking Jonas’s door.

She came to a hard stop, realizing that the seven Breed males had no intention of moving as they had previously whenever she arrived.

“Get out my way, Flint,” she ordered the one she knew best, glaring into his dark eyes as he watched her grimly.

“I can’t do that, Gypsy.” He shook his head, his expression never softening as he kept a careful eye on her. “Just be patient . . .”

“Patient?” she cried out, enraged now, knowing she didn’t have time to be patient. “Get the hell out of my way before I move you myself.”

How she was going to accomplish that one, she had no idea, but she knew she would sure as hell try if he didn’t let her through.

...

The nano-nit technology was ingenious, Rule thought as he surveyed the device the McQuades had attempted to bring in, inspecting it from beneath the microscope set within a secure, impenetrable shell just for such dangerous electronics or minute robotic devices.

The nano-nit was attached to a microscopic line leading to a nano-reader pad inside the shell. Access to the technology was through a set of ports protected by sealed latex that adhered to the user’s hands as they entered and ensured that an air-free, no-exit environment surrounded the nit and the reader.

“Storage capacity exceeds previous known standards,” he murmured as he finally managed to crack the encryption set on the nano-nit’s technology. That security wasn’t really strong. The nit could bypass almost all known security measures, but it couldn’t prevent access to its own programming. “Programming consists of activation upon a remote signal, whereby it would detach from the host device and make its way to the nearest electrical source before boring inside and making its way to the designated receiver signal to begin storing audio and video. In twelve hours it would then travel along the electrical current to the next floor, to the nearest device capable of transmitting, including satellite or the lesser used cellular phones.”

Straightening from the microscope’s electronic eye, he faced Jonas; Lawe; the Prime Alpha of packs and prides, Callan Lyons; the Lupine of the Wolf packs, Wolfe Gunnar; and the Coye of the Coyote packs, Del Rey Delgado, as well as one of the strongest pack leaders, Dash Sinclair, who had arrived late the night before for meetings scheduled that week concerning the new Bureau division in Window Rock.

The presence of the Breed hierarchy wasn’t a good sign for the McQuades, who were still being held in a secure room lacking any electronics, digital or otherwise, or electrical access. Blackout, as it was referred to, was standard in all hotel conference rooms since news of the nano-nit had been announced several years before.

So far, there was no encryption or security that had been invented that could keep even the weakest nano-nit from accessing secured files or even network systems. If the nit managed to get in place, then the system was completely compromised with no way to destroy or even track the tiny bot once it was inside.

Only the director’s paranoia and his habit of placing the strongest audio and video detecting technology in place outside secured areas had allowed the nit to be found.

For all its advanced ability to access a system, the nit was weakened by the fact that it could only be attached to certain devices. The simpler the device, the easier it was for the nit to detach and obey its programming without becoming confused by the programming already in place in the host device it rode in on. The only way to find the nano-nit was to detect the host; then, by using the digital microscope and attaching a nano-reader, it could be detected. The expense in technology and manpower to scan each and every device that could be used to host the nano would be astronomical for most companies.

Thankfully, the Breeds were a hell of a lot more experienced than any company and had a nearly unlimited source of ready, expert manpower.

Each and every Breed was taught nano-technology before they reached their teens. Council minds had created it, and now the Breeds were working to make it obsolete.

Jonas had gone primal upon the realization of what the McQuades had attempted to bring into his suite. His claws had yet to retract from beneath his fingernails; the tips of the razor-sharp bonelike extensions were still bloodied from having broken through the thin flesh that healed rapidly once they retracted.

The silver of his eyes swirled and massed like living mercury while the pupil seemed to almost blend in with the color of his eyes. Eyes that bored into Rule’s demandingly, refusing to allow him to back down from the confrontation they both knew was coming.

A confrontation with not just the Breed who had stood at his back no matter the battle, but also the mate Rule refused to turn his back on.

“I won’t let this pass,” Jonas stated; the message he was sending Rule was clear. Gypsy’s parents would be charged with Breed Law. “They will be punished for attempting to betray the people that they’re well aware saved their daughter from a fate no child should have to suffer. Every Breed in the area has known she has personal favor with me for the past nine years, and they’ve treated her accordingly. Protected her accordingly. This act by them was unconscionable.”

And that would destroy Gypsy in ways Rule knew she would never recover from.

“Gypsy’s suffered enough, Jonas,” he stated quietly, knowing there wasn’t a chance in hell that the argument was going to hold any weight with the other Breed.

For once, his animalistic instincts were holding back, poised just as the man was, and waiting to see the danger his mate faced rather than letting rage overshadow what logic might be able to save.

“And Amber hasn’t?” The primal rasp of Jonas’s voice assured everyone listening that the man and the beast were in perfect accord at the moment in this particular Breed. “What of my mate, Rule? What of the child she’s forced to watch suffer each day, wondering how much more her tiny body can take? What would you risk? Who would you risk, to save your child?”

He would risk everything but his mate, even his honor, to save their child, and Rule knew it.

Amber might not be Jonas’s biological child, but that didn’t matter to the director. His bond with that child was as strong as any that Rule had sensed between a Breed male and his own babe.

Rule couldn’t fight Jonas’s argument.

Gypsy had suffered, but her suffering, all but emotional, had ended that night nine years before, after the Breeds had poured into the area.

Amber’s and Rachel’s continued with little hope that it would end in anything but the horrifying death Phillip Brandenmore had suffered seven months before.

“Let the parents go.” Dane spoke up then, his voice low, the demand firm as the South African accent seemed to deepen. “Ban them from all Breed facilities and ban all Breeds from interacting with the family or their businesses.” His gaze met Rule’s. “As well as any Breed mates, or their daughter. Sever all connection to them, and that would contain the threat they represent.”

Jonas snarled at the suggestion. “You believe that cutting them off from their daughter will convince them to tell us anything?” Fury tightened his expression. “Hell, you weren’t there the night their son was killed and their daughter nearly raped. They stared at her as though they didn’t know her while trying to warm their son’s hands. She stood in the fucking cold by herself, Dane, the scent of her pain and the rejection she felt running so deep it was enough to make me want to cry for her. She’s damned sure not cried for herself since, and I highly doubt they shed a fucking tear for her.”

Jonas turned away from his half brother as Dane’s fist clenched atop the table where he sat, a grimace pulling at his features while Jonas stalked to the heavily reinforced windows at the side of the room.

“I swore to her she would always be protected by the Breeds if her parents didn’t want her,” he sighed. “That she would always be safe with me.” Running the claw-tipped fingers around the back of his neck, Jonas breathed out wearily. “Then I left and never looked back. I didn’t check up on her, I didn’t send anyone out to watch over her. And I should have.” He turned back to them, his expression heavy. “As much as I regret their actions, though, I’m not responsible for her parents’ betrayal of her, then or now.” His voice hardened. “And I won’t be responsible for releasing them and giving them the chance to destroy the Breeds.” His gaze locked on Rule once again. “Or a friend, at a later date.”

Rule had always believed that the responsibility Jonas carried for the Breed community was one the director carried, perhaps not easily, but without regret. In this moment, he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the regret lay just as heavily upon him as the responsibility did. It was that he accepted both, knowing it was the only way to ensure the survival of the Breeds.