Tanner's Scheme (24 page)

“I had no idea Chaz was paying him for anything.” She forced herself to retreat mentally, emotionally. She couldn’t afford to feel shame or pain at this point. “All I knew was that he was a friend of Chaz’s.”

“Man, the men in your life managed to keep some hellacious secrets from you.” He clucked in mock sympathy. “Were you just too stupid to see how you were being used? Or did you enjoy it?”

“I enjoyed it,” she crooned, burying the flash of pain deep enough inside the dark little corner she reserved just for such occasions. For the times when the knowledge of her own stupidity cut into her like a hot blade. “Maybe Tanner should have let you watch. The two of you could have jacked off together while you played your little spy games.”

Cabal grimaced sarcastically. “Now, that’s just sick. You do have a twisted little mind, don’t you, Schemer?”

A knife slammed into the table in front of Cabal, point first, vibrating with an innate violence as Scheme’s gaze flew to Tanner.

“Keep it up, Cabal, and we’ll have words,” Tanner warned him. “Is that what you really want?”

“No, what I want is to figure out why the hell we have enforcers and Council soldiers jacking around in this mountain. How did they figure out who has her and where you’re hidden?” Cabal jerked the dagger from the table and stared back at his brother angrily.

“You’re a big boy,” Tanner informed him. “You’ll survive not getting exactly what you want. They’ll leave when they realize they’re not going to get what they want.”

“And both of you are beginning to get on my nerves,” she snapped as she turned to Tanner. “We need to talk. Get rid of Mr. Hyde here so we can do that. I believe your vacation is nearly up. We don’t have all year.”

“Does that make you Dr. Jekyll?” Cabal mused mockingly as he glanced at Tanner.

“Shut up, Cabal,” Tanner rasped again.

Scheme stared back at him, miserably aware that he was holding himself distant from her now. He hadn’t touched her since they entered the caverns, and now that Cabal was here, she could feel the chill in the air.

The sense of safety was rapidly evaporating.

“Tanner, please,” she whispered. “We need to talk.”

“Is that one of those hidden female messages for fuck me?” Cabal broke in. “Do I get to stay and play?”

Tanner stared back at him warningly.

Cabal grinned. “I think he’s waiting on permission from you, gorgeous. Can’t I play too?”

He was already playing, or attempting to play her by making her angry. Cabal wasn’t the joking sort. The only question was, was Tanner playing the game with him?

Of course he was. These two didn’t play alone, no matter the game. She should have expected Cabal to show up. Should have known he would be there. She was slipping bad, trusting a man, a Breed, when she knew better than to trust anyone.

“You two can play together all you like,” she informed them both coldly. “I’m not up for more games myself though, so you’ll have to count me out.”

Cabal’s grin widened, while Tanner stared back at her thoughtfully.

She turned and moved to the couch, lifted the remote for the television and pushed the power button. She flipped to the History Channel and settled back with her water, her mind running, plotting.

Tanner would make him leave soon, she told herself. Wouldn’t he? Surely he didn’t seriously mean to attempt to share her with him. Not now. Not when she needed to tell Tanner the truth, when she needed to accept everything he had been trying to give her for the past week.

Uncapping the water, she sipped at it as she focused her gaze on a documentary rerun on the marines, and her mind tried to deal with this new, surprising development. Her life was, quite literally, going to hell, and as of yet she had found no way to stop it.

Tanner had finally brought his brother in. Surprisingly, she hadn’t thought of that. As though some part of her had actually believed that he would consider her exclusively his. That he would maybe suggest using the mating clause in the Breed bylaws to protect her. If he claimed her as his woman, he could have taken her to Sanctuary and placed her under the Breeds’ protection rather than Breed Law.

She mentally kicked herself. What had ever made her even halfway believe such a thing would happen? She was hated. She was Cyrus Tallant’s daughter, his assistant, part of the organization that had created and tortured the Breeds for decades.

It didn’t matter that she had nearly given her life a dozen times over to save them. That on at least one occasion she had actually died from the torture her father had inflicted on her.

She blinked back the dampness in her eyes.

She should have known better. To claim her, he would have to love her. And that wasn’t going to happen. Ever. And no matter how hard her heart ached, no matter the regret that twisted through her and made her throat tighten, love wasn’t going to happen for her.

Her hand flattened on the warmth in her abdomen, an uncomfortable sting that didn’t make sense any more than the arousal building inside her did. Or the pain in her soul.

She was tired, she realized. Not weary, not exhausted, but so mentally and emotionally tired that she wondered if she could push herself to survive until Jonas found her.

He would find her. Alive or dead. He was the most determined, stubborn Breed she had ever known or heard of. He would have known when she requested the meeting that she was ready to come in, that she would need protection. Just as she had known for years that it would take pretty important information to gain that protection.

She had what she needed now. The names of every purist and supremist group working with the Council as well as the names of the heads of the organizations. The proposed plots to systematically take out the Breed community and the spies working within the government to aid the Council’s plans.

The only thing she didn’t have was the identity of the spy working within Sanctuary, plotting to destroy the freedom the Breed community had found.

She could have made it to Jonas and had her freedom by now. If her father hadn’t somehow learned that she had betrayed him.

“She knows how to be quiet, Tanner,” Cabal observed mockingly long minutes after she had sat down. “She surprises me.”

Tanner murmured something she didn’t catch. Something she wasn’t certain she wanted to hear. All she could feel was her own rioting pain. Suddenly, she felt lost, alone. More alone than she had ever been in her life.

———

Cabal was pushing and he knew it. He wanted Tanner pissed. He wanted that superhuman control his brother possessed to break. He wanted the animal inside the man to claim his mate. Because it had obviously not happened yet.

It would have been laughable if it weren’t so serious.

And if the cold steel blade of a butcher knife weren’t lying at his throat. Not exactly a comfortable position for the sharp weapon in his estimation.

Tanner was enraged. His eyes were brilliant with it, his expression savage.

“Back off, bro,” Cabal warned him. “We’re not going to fight here.”

“Leave her the hell alone,” Tanner growled, his voice too low for the girl to hear where she sat across the room, on the couch that was turned away from them, but the dangerous demand was clear to Cabal.

He sighed. The poor bastard. The scent of the woman’s pain was making
him
crazy. God only knew what it was doing to Tanner. It was their curse. They could smell emotion like other men could smell bacon frying or coffee brewing. Emotions other Breeds missed, the soul-destroying emotions that scarred and crippled the mind, they could pinpoint with amazing accuracy.

Some scents were subtle, he thought, as Tanner slowly removed the knife. Like Scheme’s. A part of her was so dark with pain, with a hunger to be free, that it swamped his senses. He was certain it shredded Tanner’s. Cabal was hoping that by pushing it, he could shred his brother’s control as well and force the animal he could sense lurking beneath the surface free.

It was one of the reasons Cabal had used every means at his disposal to keep Tanner away from her over the years. The first time Cabal had gotten close enough to draw her scent in, he had known several things.

First and foremost, she was Tanner’s mate. And that should have spurred him then and there to contact his brother and tell him. Tanner searched constantly for the woman who would bind his soul, while Cabal prayed to never meet such a creature. His soul was bound enough.

But Tanner. Tanner would have killed to take her. Or died. And at the time, she had been carrying another man’s child. And later. Hell, later it had become more dangerous than ever. The time had to be right. And when it was, luckily, the opportunity had presented itself for Tanner to take her.

“We need to talk,” Cabal nearly whispered as his gaze met Tanner’s again. “Jonas is going nuts searching for her, Tanner. Every team available has been pulled in to help on this.”

Tanner glanced back at Scheme, his jaw flexing spasmodically.

“Bring her in, man,” Cabal growled. “Call Jonas. He’ll send the helo in. Get her to Sanctuary.”

“And have her jerked into Breed Law?” Tanner snarled. “Why the fuck do you think I have her here? The only way to save her is if she’s my mate. She’s not.”

Bitterness filled the air, as did the scent of mating heat.

Cabal shook his head. “I smell the scent of it.”

“And I thought I did.” Tanner swallowed tightly. “Our DNA is so close…” He paused, his jaw working spasmodically. “I smell the scent of heat, but maybe not because she’s my mate.”

Tortured—it was the only way to describe Tanner’s expression and the pain that blended in with the scent of hunger and desire.

“Meaning?” Cabal was almost wary now. Oh hell, Tanner couldn’t mean what he thought he did. Could he?

“Maybe she’s your mate.” Tanner glanced back, keeping his voice so low that only Cabal could hear. “The heat could rise with my DNA. But perhaps that’s the reason for only the scent of heat. The barb shows itself with full mating. If she’s your mate, then that could explain it.”

Cabal glanced at the back of Scheme’s head, knowing Tanner’s explanation did not explain why the barb hadn’t shown itself for Tanner. Tanner would know his mate. He would never share his mate. It was something Cabal had known, but Tanner had always doubted.

It was almost amusing. Tanner, always so supremely confident, so sure of himself and his place in the world, now doubted his very nature. His own mate. But fixing this for his brother was going to be a bitch.

Cabal understood now why he had been born first. And it had been proven Cabal was the firstborn. He took that position seriously. It was his job to protect Tanner, no matter the cost to himself. No matter how much it sucked. No matter how much it hurt Scheme Tallant.

“And we should resolve this how?” He buried his amusement, knowing his brother would sense it if he weren’t very careful.

Sometimes, it wasn’t a good idea to let Tanner know that his big brother was better at deception games.

Tanner swallowed tightly. “I’ll walk away, give you some time alone with her. When you mate her, I’ll let her go.”

Let her go?

Cabal watched as Tanner’s eyes flared with an inner rage. Oh yes, this was funny as hell. Tanner share that pretty little thing? He looked back at Scheme. There wasn’t a chance in hell he would be given the chance to slide his dick into that hot little pussy.

But some things were worth fighting Tanner for. Once Cabal touched her, he had no doubt the animal Tanner kept so deeply hidden inside him would break free. It could get messy. Tanner would lose all control and try to destroy the man touching his woman. But it would be better than laughing in Tanner’s face at the very idea that Scheme wasn’t his mate.

“She seems unwilling to be shared, Tanner,” he pointed out. “How do you suggest we do it?”

“She’s your mate,” Tanner whispered bitterly. “She’ll want you. We won’t have to deceive her.”

Poor Tanner.

Cabal lowered his head to hide his knowledge. If the barb was taking its own time to show itself, then Cabal could understand the mistaken conclusions his brother had drawn. It didn’t change the facts though, facts that even Sanctuary would have to take into account. Tanner and Cabal might be brothers, but there were still distinctions to their scent and their DNA. Slight ones, he admitted, but there all the same.

Things such as the fact that for ten years Tanner had been consumed with fantasies and thoughts of Scheme Tallant. Cabal had been amused, but not in the least fascinated. She was pretty enough, but nothing exceptional.

Crossing his arms over his chest, he leaned back and met Tanner’s gaze directly.

“Okay.” He nodded easily. “I’ll accept her as my mate.”

He nearly flinched from the wave of savagery that swept from Tanner. His brother was perfectly calm. Neither his expression nor his gaze altered, but Cabal felt the animal inside. And to say it wasn’t pleased was an understatement.

Poor Tanner.

CHAPTER 19

Tanner meant to leave. He really did. He pulled himself through the opening at the top of the farthest tunnel and crouched in the back of another series of caverns that led to the small cliff-sheltered valley beyond, before forcing himself to move to the exit.

He couldn’t stay here. His hearing and sense of smell were too strong. He would hear Cabal taking her, smell the mating heat, and he feared for his own sanity if he did. The animal within was clawing for freedom, enraged, desperate to force him to return, to jerk her from Cabal’s touch.

How many women had he shared with his brother? Dozens. Neither of them had been monogamous in the least, and the sex games they played with their women had always been bold. Hot.

Yet he couldn’t stay in that damned cavern with Cabal and Scheme. He had forced himself to leave, ignoring her confused tone when she called out his name, forcing himself to leave as fast as he could go.

His and Cabal’s DNA was too closely linked. It was nearly identical. They were just short of clones of each other. It made sense that he would hunger so desperately for Cabal’s mate. That he would burn for her. Lose his mind for her.