She couldn’t get to the derringer.
“How did you manage to knock out Hawke?” She hadn’t sensed a blow to his head, and surely she would have.
Todd grinned again. It was a smile of smug satisfaction and triumph. “The champagne I handed him at the party. It was drugged. A special little mix of cocktails that carries no scent, no taste, and takes several hours to react on the Breed senses. I took my chances on it.” He shrugged. “Look how well it paid off.”
And it had paid off well for him.
“You don’t want to do this, Todd,” she rasped, rising to her feet, swaying as though she were dizzy, as though the blows and the shock to her system were too much. “You can’t destroy the Breeds like this. It won’t work.”
“I’ll get away with it,” he assured her. “They will never know it was me.”
“You won’t listen any more than my father would,” she snapped back then, as though angry. “The way to destroy them isn’t through this sort of deception. It’s through the mating heat.” He paused. “The heat is a rumor.” There was an edge of suspicion in his voice though.
Jessica gave a light laugh as she held her hand to her ribs. “I’m going to forgive the bruises for just a moment,” she told him. “I’m even going to try to forget that you’re a moron acting outside of orders.” He frowned at the insult. “Imagine, if you will, that the mating heat does exist. How do you destroy the Breeds?”
His eyes narrowed on her. Oh yes, let that suspicion work through your teeny tiny little brain, she thought. She was the daughter of the man who had led the pure blood society he was obviously a part of. The daughter who had been imprisoned and betrayed her people. But he couldn’t be certain; not really. No one had heard from her in a year before her release.
“You prove mating heat,” he ventured softly.
“Father wouldn’t listen.” She shook her head furiously. “Killing the mates would only enrage them, but they’re too heavily backed by too many powerful political figures now. That’s not the way to take them down.”
Todd nodded slowly. “You have to make people fear them.”
She smiled in approval. “I didn’t betray my people or my country, Todd. You know I couldn’t do that. I loved my father. I love my country.”
“You pulled Gunnar and Arlington’s mates out of harm’s way,” he accused her furiously, but the gun leveled off and his attention was no longer on Jessica.
“I did what I had to do,” she snarled back at him. “Mating heat, Todd. Prove mating heat. How do you prove it?”
He licked his lips, staring at her like he was beginning to see her point of view.
“Let the heat run it’s course,” she suggested. “Then escape. Once I do that, and the heat is fully conditioned inside me, then we have what we need to destroy them. Proof.” There wasn’t a chance in hell.
“You’re fully mated?”
“Close.” She pushed her fingers through her hair as though frustrated. “Close, until you decided to play the moron. God, couldn’t you have given me just a few more days? That was all I needed.” Was it working? He was suspicious. He was still watching her as though he knew she was lying, knew she was playing him.
“How can I believe you?” He wanted to though, because the thought of finally proving the Breeds were a threat was irresistible.
“Don’t you ever pay attention to anything beyond your own inglorious little fantasies?” she scoffed.
“Tell me, Todd. Have you ever shaken hands with one of the Breeds’ wives? Didn’t you ever pay attention to how you are never allowed to touch one of them? How only certain members of any department are allowed around them? They told me about mating heat within my first year there, because the alpha’s wife, as well as the second-in-command’s, was becoming friends with me. I had to sign waivers to hell and back and swear on everything under the sun that I would never reveal it. To prove it, I had to ensure one of them mated me.” She glanced at Hawke as though in disgust and caught the barest flicker of his eyelashes.
Oh God, let him be waking up. Let him be okay. She had no idea how to get out of this other than running her mouth. Todd was too far away for her to jump him, and was too suspicious for her to get him out of the room.
“Hawke still has to die,” Todd told her as she turned her gaze back to him.
“Oh sure, kill the goose with the golden egg.” She rolled her eyes. “Where do you think the mating heat comes from? Don’t you read the papers? It’s a hormone, Todd. He has to do all these little ‘alive’
things, like kissing me, screwing me, trying to make little Breed babies with me. Do you understand yet?”
She was going to throw up. She couldn’t believe she was saying these things, that Hawke was listening, that he could hear her. She had fought for so long to make amends for what she had done unwillingly.
Now it would only appear as though she had willingly betrayed them.
She could see her future draining away before her eyes. She could see her happiness dying, her life becoming forfeit. But, if Hawke lived, if he managed to save himself, then it would be worth it.
Her Hawke was well worth dying for.