Cross Breed (Breeds 23)

“You put too much faith in them,” he warned her, wondering what the hell that look on her face was all about.

It was the same look she’d gotten when Rhyzan had asked about that kid who didn’t exist. Haunted, almost fearful.

He narrowed his eyes on her, poured himself another drink and considered her for long moments.

He’d always known Cassie kept a lot of secrets locked inside her. It showed sometimes in the weariness of her expression, the haunted shadows in her eyes. He had a feeling that this time, though, the secret Cassie was keeping could burn both of them.

“Where’s the kid, Cassie?” He asked the question, wondering if she would lie to him.

She froze for a second, then with a heavy sigh, shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t know where she is.”

At least she was honest with him.

“But there was a kid, wasn’t there? When that transport landed, Kenzi wasn’t alone.” He stalked across the room as she faced him, glowering down at her.

“I don’t know.” The barely smothered cry was filled with pain, with confusion. “All I knew then, and now, was if she wasn’t there when Kenzi was found, then she was safe, and where she was supposed to be. I don’t know anything else.”

As she pushed past him, the scent of all those bottled emotions, fears, unshed tears and pain lashed at his senses. Turning, he watched as she faced him again, her lips tight, her exotic eyes gleaming with moisture.

“How did you know about her and Kenzi to begin with? Who came to you?” Which spirit, ghost of whoever, whatever the hell it was?

When she turned back to him, he could see the torment on her face. “I’ve felt Kenzi for a couple of years, felt this coming. I didn’t know who she was, not until the night I contacted you. For years events have interconnected, always drawing me toward her. And I knew she was important. ” Her fists clenched as emotion tightened her face. “I didn’t know it was my sister.”

Cassie stared back at Dog as he stood near the window, watched his expression, the almost calculated look in his narrowed eyes.

“How did you know those events were connected? Walk me through this, Cassie. Make me understand it before Rhyzan hangs me out to dry here.”

And the assistant would do it too. Whatever he wanted, whatever he was after, he was more than willing to use her and Dog however he had to, to get to it.

When had it begun?

That summer on Seth Lawrence’s island, she realized. It was that first knowledge that the successful mating of Seth Lawrence and the cougar Breed Dawn Daniels was so integral to her future.

From there, smaller events, people who had come into her life, events and odd occurrences, until she’d found herself in Window Rock the year before accepting Jonas’s offer that she head the Breed Underground Information Network. The division of the Bureau was created to pull in information and track the movements of Genetics Council sympathizers and supporters and those groups that followed them.

Odd flashes of knowledge, a feeling of connection, of knowledge that someone so integral to her own freedom was waiting for her, that they needed her.

As she spoke, trying to find the words to make Dog understand that it hadn’t been a matter of something telling her, or even showing her. It was that connection. It was a sudden flash of intuition, a meeting, looking into someone’s eyes and knowing where they should be.

“The night you contacted me, you knew where that transport would be and when,” he reminded her. “How did you know?”

She licked her dry lips, knowing he’d ask that question. She’d known that question was coming.

“Chelsea Martinez, mate to Graeme’s brother Cullen was part of the Breed Underground Network,” she said faintly. “The day I met her, the year before, I knew who her mate was, and I knew she was integral to my freedom. When the emergency alert her bodyguard, Tobias, managed to activate the night I contacted you, sounded in the Network’s central command, I felt Kenzi slam into my senses, begging me for help.”

That sudden connection had nearly taken her to her knees. Cassie barely remembered rushing to her office, fumbling, fighting to find Dog’s contact information on her phone and send that message.

She’d been on the verge of sobbing in terror when suddenly the connection to her sister had severed just as quickly as it had come to her.

“The kid was there with her?” Dog was watching her closely.

Cassie nodded as her gaze slipped, drawn to the window behind him. Why her attention moved, she wasn’t certain. The sun-drenched desert was always beautiful, but it wasn’t the beauty that had her glancing from his eyes to the scene beyond. And it wasn’t the beauty of that tranquil scene that had the window popping, a baseball-sized fault suddenly appearing.

She heard Dog curse, felt him slam into her and take her to the floor as a steady pop-pop-pop could be heard just below the alarms suddenly screeching through the Bureau’s intercom system. Dog’s curses were ringing in her ears as they hit the floor, close to the door as it exploded o

pen.

“Move!” the shouted order came as Dog dragged her through the door at the same time that the sound of the window shattering behind them could be heard.