Stygian's Honor (30 page)

And she wouldn’t allow it to, she promised herself, not ever again.

Never would she be weak again.

CHAPTER 14

Claire was waiting with her parents, as well as Liza’s, in the Presidential Suite, sitting still and silent, her hands folded in her lap as she stared down at them.

Entering the room, Liza stared at the assembled Breeds and parents, their expressions quiet, savage or just emotionless.

“Good, we’re all here.” Jonas Wyatt moved to the center of the room as Liza sat slowly in the wingback loveseat next to the matching chair her friend had taken.

Glancing at her father, she was taken aback by the anger that glittered in his eyes, and the barely hidden fear in her mother’s.

“What’s going on?” she questioned the director.

She’d rather hear any bad news from someone she wasn’t certain she liked than to hear it from anyone else.

“Gideon Cross, the fourth member of the Brandenmore Omega experiments, has arrived in Window Rock, and he’s asking specifically about the two of you. What, Ms. Johnson, do you and Ms. Martinez have to do with all this?”

He wasn’t questioning her, he was interrogating her.

Liza shook her head. “Nothing. I don’t know why he’s asking about us, or what he wants, any more than we know why the Genetics Council has targeted us.”

But a part of her did know—

“Are you aware that the county health department was broken into several weeks ago and only your and Claire’s childhood files are missing?” Jonas asked then.

No, she hadn’t known that.

“Dad?” She turned to her father questioningly. “Did you know?”

The health department would surely have informed him of the situation if they had been unable to reach her.

Of course, there was no reason why they couldn’t have reached her other than the fact that Ray Martinez’s cousin was the director there. If he had asked that she make him aware of any problems before Liza and his daughter were told, then that was exactly what would happen.

“There was no sense in worrying you,” her father stated as though it were of no importance at all.

She could only blink back at him.

She wasn’t going to berate her father in front of strangers, but there was a sense of disbelief and even a sense of betrayal that he had withheld something so important.

“We can discuss it later, Liza,” he promised her, as though he had sensed her feeling of betrayal. “I wasn’t intentionally keeping it from you.”

Yes, he had been, but once again, she wasn’t going to confront him here and now. Not when so many interested eyes were watching, suspicious, analyzing every move, every look, every word spoken.

Not when Stygian was keeping her from retreating, from hiding within herself by the invisible bonds of a mating she still didn’t understand.

She turned back to Jonas, determined to hold on to the anger building inside her.

“I want to know why the Genetics Council and Gideon Cross have targeted us just as much as you do,” she informed Jonas. “We’re nobodies, Mr. Wyatt. An assistant and a receptionist?” She all but laughed at the absurdity of it. “Why target us because of two girls no one has seen in over twelve years?”

“Evidently, for some reason they believe the two of you
are those girls, or can lead them to the girls, as I’ve already explained.”

“Then explain it again, Mr. Wyatt.” With her gaze locked on the eerie silver eyes of the director, she stared back at him confrontationally. “I’m sick of hearing about these two girls and all the reasons why all these assholes think we can lead them to them. We don’t know them. We haven’t met them. And we sure as hell can’t help anyone find them. So tell me why the hell they keep coming after us?”

She’d had enough.

“If none of the above applies, Ms. Johnson, then I have no idea.”

“And you’re a liar,” she accused him roughly as she came to her feet, her gaze slipping to Wyatt’s wife, Rachel.

She noticed the other woman was not jumping instantly to her husband’s defense.

Let another woman call Stygian a liar and see how fast Liza could get up in their face.

Instead, Rachel Broen-Wyatt glanced at her husband with somber concern.

Wyatt’s brows arched with curious mockery. “And how would you know if I were lying?” he asked. “Unless you know something that you’re not revealing.”

Liza stared back at him, holding on to the sense of mist and memories that seemed determined to overtake her.

Not now. Not even a hint of self-doubt could be allowed to escape or every Breed here would be on her like a pack of wild animals.

“Stop with the games, Jonas.” It was Stygian, rather than her father, or Claire’s, who stepped from the side of the room.

Except Stygian.

He would stand between her and hell, she suddenly realized. A part of her could actually feel—feel him as though he were an integral part of her being—determined to protect her.

Liza felt his hand settle at the small of her back, a warm weight that pulled her back from the slight distance she’d managed to achieve without realizing it.

A distance she desperately needed right now. She had been deliberately receding from reality, hiding from the world or from whatever truths or knowledge she didn’t want to see until Stygian had come into her life. Now, she realized not just what a relief those retreats had been, but also how easy it would be to hide from any truth she might not want to accept. As well as the nightmares. Those hazy, terrifying dreams that had haunted her for so many years. The ones she never remembered, and hadn’t wanted to remember.

Had she always done this? Was it because she didn’t want it to be real? That she didn’t want to face what she was beginning to suspect was the truth?

“I don’t think I’m the one playing games.” Jonas sighed as the mockery eased from his expression, leaving a sort of weary acceptance. “And I don’t think your mate is either, Stygian. Whatever she knew has obviously either been stolen, or it’s a knowledge she’s unaware she even has.”

The look the director shot her father and Ray was telling. He believed they knew the truth, and Liza was certain they did.

“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” Her father stepped forward, anger echoing in his tone even as Liza glimpsed a flash of guilt. “Do you think I wouldn’t know my own daughter? That I wouldn’t know if she had been replaced by another?” Heavy mockery filled his tone and marked his expression.

“Enough, Audi,” her mother protested as she laid a hand on his arm, her fingers trembling as she caught Liza’s gaze. “This is only upsetting Liza. Let’s see what we can do to help her, rather than upsetting her.”

The love she had always seen in her mother’s face was there. There was also all the love and acceptance she had always known. Her life, until now, had been charmed. Loving parents, an uneventful past, a good job.

She had everything but the husband, kids and white picket fence.

“Mr. Wyatt,” she said softly, never taking her gaze from her mother’s. “If I were who you and the Genetics Council wanted me to be, wouldn’t I know it?” She turned to the
director, shaking her head at the solemn look on his face. “I wish I were Honor Roberts or Fawn Corrigan, and if I thought for a minute I could help your child, then I would. But I’ve grown tired of assuring you I’m not either of those girls, nor do I know them, know where they are, who they are, or what happened to them.”

Breathing in roughly, she turned to Stygian. “Could we go to whatever little box of a room he’s assigned us this time? It’s nearly midnight, I’m tired and I have to be at work in the morning.” She turned to Claire. “Claire, if you’re staying here at the hotel, then I’d like to talk to you at breakfast.”

“Claire won’t be staying,” Ray Martinez spoke up, his voice low and for the first time since they were teenagers, lacking any emotion when it came to her and Claire.

Liza turned to her friend slowly.

Claire’s head was down, her gaze hidden. Liza knew that look. She’d almost forgotten it. Seeing Claire so silent and still, her attention focused entirely on her hands, was a sight she hadn’t seen since before the accident.

For the briefest second, it wasn’t Claire she saw sitting there. The girl she saw was much younger, her hair several shades darker, her body just a bit stockier.

Blinking, the image receded, disappearing as quickly as the memories that tormented her.

“Mr. Martinez, your daughter will be safer here.” Command naturally hardened Jonas’s tone.

“She’s going with me.” Ray was at the point of belligerence.

Liza had to agree with Jonas for a change. If Gideon Cross was indeed in Window Rock and asking about her and Claire, then at least for the moment, the hotel was the safest place.

Liza turned to her father.

Her parents were silent, her father’s gaze apologetic while Ray and Maria Martinez stood stiff, unemotional.

“You could let her stay tonight,” she whispered to the Nation’s president. “Give the Breeds a chance to catch this Gideon Cross rather than giving him a chance to strike out at her.”

A heavy frown filled Ray’s expression then. “I didn’t ask for your advice.”

Liza knew that tone well. Ray was furious at the situation, and she feared that he would blame Claire, just as he did when she and Claire were children.

She turned back to her friend.

Claire was shaking her head, silently pleading with Liza not to begin a confrontation that would only result in additional trouble for her.

“I’ve had enough.” Liza sighed wearily as she turned to Stygian, refusing to glance again at her father or Claire’s. “I’m tired. I want to go to bed.”

“We have two suites reserved here for you,” Jonas informed her as he stepped forward once again. “Claire will be across the hall from you with Ashley and Emma Truing, if she decides to stay. Rule, Mordecai and Dog’s team will have the rooms on each side of the two of you. You’ll be protected.”

“From what?” Liza snorted, shaking her head. “You know, Director Wyatt, you have to figure out why we’re in danger before you can eliminate the danger. Good luck with that one, by the way. Because I’ll be damned if I can figure it out.”

She moved for the door, aware, surprisingly, of Claire moving behind her, silent, too damned silent, refusing to bid her parents farewell.

“Liza.” It was her father who stepped forward before she could leave the room.

As he’d done when she was a child, he stood before her, staring down at her, his expression filled with guilt. “I’ll fix it, baby girl,” he promised.

How many times had he promised her that? He would fix it. And he always had before.

She was terribly afraid there was no fixing this one.

“I know you’ll try, Dad.” She nodded, her chest tight with the knowledge that he couldn’t fix the danger she was in, no matter how much he wanted to.

“I won’t let them hurt you,” he promised her, and in his eyes she saw his determination to ensure her safety.

“Tell me,” she demanded hoarsely. “Did you see Amber?”

From her peripheral vision she saw Rachel’s gaze jerk to her as Jonas’s eyes narrowed on her.

Regret and guilt flickered in his expression as he looked away from her.

“I bet Jonas swore he would never let anyone or anything hurt Amber again after he got her away from Brandenmore.” Tears burned her eyes as one slipped her control and eased down her cheek. “And now, she’s still suffering because of something he can’t control. Something he’s being given no help, or even the slightest honesty to combat.”

Audi’s jaw clenched spasmodically as his gaze swung back to her. “I don’t have what he’s here for,” he bit out angrily.

“Then it won’t hurt you to see the child none of us can help, will it? To understand, Dad, rather than meeting him in antagonism. The Navajo made the Breeds a vow. That vow was to extend to them all that was needed to aid their battle for freedom, safety and welfare that they could provide. There was no addendum that excluded anything, at any time. It was all they could do, when they could do it. And perhaps that’s something both you and Ray are forgetting.”

When her father said nothing more, Liza could only shake her head. Turning and walking to the door, she paused as Stygian opened it and stepped out ahead of her. She turned back to Claire’s parents slowly. “I used to think you were so funny and so kind, Ray. Claire used to laugh all the time, and she knew how to have fun. And you knew how to be a father, but now, you just want to push her and the danger she’s in aside. I guess politics really doesn’t know any other loyalty or love besides itself.”