Lawe's Justice (21 page)

Diane watched, silently, feeling the tears that would have fallen if she hadn’t had so many years of practice holding them back.

“Her life was a living nightmare, yet she brought us joy whenever she could. And because the Coyote commander found joy in her and mated her, they died in the most horrifying way possible.”

He had seen the nightmares he feared she would face. It was no wonder he was so determined to lock her away in cotton batting. If only she could survive it.

He and his brother, Rule, had been forced to watch, as though uncaring, forced to watch as though unconcerned as their mother was murdered in just such a way.

“It would kill me.” She knew she lost the battle to hide the emotions tearing her apart inside when Lawe’s head jerked back, his nostrils flaring as he drew in her scent. “To know I was the cause of such a fate for you, Lawe. It would destroy any part of my soul that was left at the second I faced death.”

Yes, she hurt. She had nightmares about the lives she knew the Breeds had endured. The very thought of what they had gone through was often more than she could bear contemplating at length.

“Then don’t do this,” he snarled, his canines flashing as his lips pulled back from his teeth furiously. “Give this up, Diane, and let the Bureau’s Enforcers track her down instead.”

“It would kill me,” she said again. “But being locked away, unable to be me, would make me hate you, Lawe. I would hate you and any Breed I ever came in contact with again.”

She had fought too long, endured too much. Her freedom, her existence and the reason she followed in her parents’ and in her uncle’s footsteps and followed war was too deeply ingrained inside her.

“Why?” Fury, pain, they raged inside him like a volcano threatening to erupt.

“Because I won’t be powerless again,” she whispered. “When my parents died I was just that, Lawe. I was powerless. When my parents’ murderers beat my uncle to our home, Rachel and I were alone with our babysitter.” She shuddered, the memory tearing through her with a force that never eased. “I didn’t watch my mother die, but I heard the screams of the person Rachel and I considered more than just a babysitter. Uncle Colt’s fiancée died swearing to them we weren’t there while I ran with Rachel and hid. I had to listen to her screams as she did the only thing she could do to protect us because no one, no one,” she cried out furiously, “had taught her how to fight. How to survive. And if you lock me away, then every time I hear of a Breed death, every time I hear of a mate being murdered so savagely, I will blame you!”

Because her parents had fought for the Breeds. Her uncle had fought for them. And the secret they had all died to keep was still one Diane knew had to be preserved. She had information even Lawe didn’t have. Something she knew that Leo feared she would reveal each time he caught her gaze.

She didn’t expect her answer to cause such a reaction in Lawe, though. Before she could avoid him he displayed the incredible speed of his feline DNA and crossed the room to grip her arm and jerk her to him again.

His arms were like steel bands around her, holding her in place and keeping her against his chest despite her initial attempt to place distance between them.

Staring up at him, eyes wide, her senses churning with both anger and an arousal that felt as though it were burning out of control, she glimpsed the torment that raged in his blue eyes.

“Better your hatred than your death. Or the horror of watching you taken apart piece by fucking piece.” He spat his words.

There was no fear at the display of dominance.

Anyone who was around Breeds very often learned to live with such displays and such arrogance. The torment that burned in his gaze did affect her, though. It struck through her heart, tightened it, and left her throat thick with the unshed tears she refused to free.

“You could trust my abilities as I trust yours,” she yelled back at him, her emotions driven by her anger, both for him and against him, as he displayed his complete inability to ever consider her a worthy partner. “Tell me, Lawe, does your life go on hold with this mating too, or just mine?”

She knew the answer to her question. It wasn’t hard to guess exactly who the mating affected and who it wouldn’t.

His expression did no more than confirm her suspicions. She gave a bark of scornful laughter. “Don’t bother answering, because I can see it in your face. It doesn’t. You’ll still fight, you’ll still risk yourself and you’ll still expect me to sit in the little cage the Breeds have made for their mates and play the dutiful wife. Should I be barefoot and pregnant too?”

The flicker of his eyes, the glimpse of the sudden longing that crossed his expression before he could hide it, had her stomach tightening. With longing, or with pure rage, she wasn’t certain.

“So you’ll just go out, have your fun, then return home to fuck me before you pat me on the head and ride off into the sunset again.” Oh, she so didn’t think that was going to happen.

She wouldn’t allow it. Not even for a second.

She had never allowed herself to play any man’s doormat and she wouldn’t start now. She would be his equal partner, or she would be nothing. Nothing less was acceptable.

“At least you’ll be alive,” he bit out, the icy storm in his gaze almost frightening as he stared down at her.

“The hell I will.” Pushing against his chest she tried to escape his hold, only to become aware of just how firmly he held her without appearing to. “No, Lawe, I won’t be alive. I’ll just exist, and I’ll hate you for it. I will not be there waiting for you. I’ll be doing as I’ve trained to do all my life and I’ll do it alone if that’s what I have to do. I won’t let you cage me!”

“I won’t allow it.” One hand moved from her back to push into the hair at the back of her head as the vow slipped past his lips.

He wouldn’t
allow
it? As though she would ever let him have any say in the matter as long as he was doing so in such a manner. As though he owned her.

The pain of that realization had her body tightening until she was on the verge of shaking, the pain, anger, and incredibly, the fear racing through her to mix with an arousal she couldn’t force away.

She wanted him. She wanted him to touch her, to hold her, to share his kiss and the incredible taste of spiced pears that filled it. She wanted him to accept her. To stand beside her. To allow her the happiness she needed to make that decision for herself.

And she wanted to kick his ass for ever imagining she would allow him to make such a decision for her.

“Sorry, Lawe, I won’t allow you to kill her as surely as the Council would.”

The shock of the words coming from the deep, normally booming voice of her second-in-command had Lawe moving. Before Diane could stop him, he had thrown her behind him as Thor stepped into the room, twirling the key between his fingers as he stared at them, a tic of anger throbbing at the side of his jaw. “Having fun alone again, boss?” he asked. “I thought we agreed that wouldn’t be happening this time.”

He was pissed.

Lawe’s blue eyes were icy. His broad, masculine features looked carved from stone and anger had his normally full lips tightening as she knew he held back every smart-assed, purely male arrogant insult he could have thrown her way.

Thor completely ignored the fact that Lawe had one of the snub-nosed, laser-powered, rapid-burst hand guns trained on him, his finger riding the activation lever a little too firmly. But he wasn’t ignoring the fact that Lawe was attempting to shield her. The action earned Lawe one of Thor’s famous, sarcastic sneers. A lifting of his lip at one side as disgust filled his gaze.

“For God’s sake, Lawe, get the hell off me!” She pushed at the back of his shoulders as he continued to hold her behind him with the seemingly effortless strength of one arm.

Dammit, she could kick the asses of men that were twice his size and pure muscle. But she couldn’t budge him.

“What is he doing here?” Lawe’s voice was an animal’s growl.

“Move!” She finally managed to lever a few inches between them before he slowly, very damned slowly, allowed her her freedom.

She shot him a look filled with the promise of retribution.

She was not going to put up with this. “This is the number one reason most partners involved in any kind of military or covert work end up divorced,” she snapped furiously.

“Mates don’t divorce.”

“Be careful, Lawe,” she suggested, her voice raspy with the sheer depth of her anger. “You’ll be the first.”

“I get to sell the tickets.” Thor’s smile lacked any amusement or warmth.

“You’re supposed to be on vacation,” she snapped at the oversized Swede that stood in front of the now-closed door.

“And you’re supposed to be visiting your sister before you head to Sanctuary with her.” Thor’s brow arched with mocking curiosity. “I guess we both lied, huh?”

Yes, she had lied. Something she had never done to Thor as long as she had known him.

“And I had a very good reason for it,” she informed him as she moved to go around Lawe, only to have him catch her arm and hold her back silently.

He hadn’t said a word. He stared back at Thor with lowered brows and narrowed eyes, his entire body tense and ready for action.

For God’s sake, his very demeanor, so dominant and forceful had her pussy creaming furiously despite the disgusted irritation the action earned him.

She decided she hated Breeds.

“Reasons don’t matter.” Thor shrugged. “Just the action.”

Diane grunted at his standard no-forgiveness stance.

“Were you following me?” Suspicion suddenly rose inside her, dark and ugly.

Thor had been the one who had arrived with her uncle to tell her of her parents’ deaths. He had held her when her lover, her uncle’s second-in-command, had been killed, and he’d been the one who had sat and prayed at her hospital bed after her rescue from that Syrian hellhole.

Suspecting him of anything seemed nothing short of a sin.

Yet there it was.

“I wasn’t following you,” he stated with a bite to his voice. “I’ve actually been tracking your shadow. I just wanted to see who he was tracking when I caught sight of him sneaking around the hotel the night before you left. I didn’t know you were his quarry until I heard you and the Lion here arguing inside. It makes sense, though, considering the fact I
warned you
someone was out to kill you.” He turned to Lawe as he crossed his arms over his wide chest. “Your Breeds are falling down on the job, prick. They weren’t at the door as they should have been.”

“For a reason,” Lawe snapped irritably. “We knew you were following her. The only reason you got to the door was because you’re not considered a threat.”

Diane was more concerned with Thor’s revelation than the argument between him and Lawe. She had left before daylight. Gideon Cross had been watching for her and she had known it. Just as she had known he was tailing her, despite the fact that she hadn’t been able to catch sight of him.

One of these days, perhaps she could catch up with him and convince him to teach her that little trick.

Keeping one step ahead of her mate as well as her enemies might well be in her future. He didn’t appear to be out to kill her. She just hadn’t figured out exactly what it was he did want. Evidently, Lawe was paying close attention to Thor, especially the part about Gideon shadowing her and the rumor that there was a price on her head. Just what she needed, for Lawe to become more protective than he already was. “Let me go before I have to kick your ass,” she muttered, her fury downgrading to simple kick-his-ass anger as he slowly released her.

“That threat is getting old,” he told her quietly. “Either kick it or find another part of my anatomy to consider abusing.”

She almost rolled her eyes. She wasn’t even going to touch that one.

Pushing her fingers through her hair, she stared back at the window beside the door. The curtains were still carefully closed and tucked in close to the wall to ensure not even a shadow could be revealed.

She had known last night that a weapon was trained on her. Right between her eyes as she sat in the chair that she had thankfully moved this morning. If Thor was unaware of who the tracker was following, then he couldn’t have seen her the night before making herself a willing target.

“Did you catch sight of him?” she asked Thor.

For long moments Thor stared back at her in mocking disbelief that she had even asked such a question. He indicated her window with a jerk of his head. “I managed to catch sight of him with the long-range binocs we procured from those Coyotes last year.” The binoculars were a hell of a lot more than long range, with night vision, heat sensing and several other tricks Diane hadn’t yet been able to try out. “He has a nice, powerful sniper rifle trained right in here is my guess. I saw the shadow and the rifle, but I couldn’t get close enough to glimpse his features or keep him from pulling the trigger.” The last was snapped out furiously. “What the fuck were you doing propped up in front of the window daring that fucker?”

She rolled her eyes at him, before her gaze turned wary at the sound of the rumble of pure displeasure she heard vibrating in Lawe’s chest.