“Someone is paranoid,” Dash said softly. “Hard copy rather than e-message. I’d suspect Breyer found this note in his room rather than having it passed to him.”
Tell Seth now. Tell Seth what? Dawn rose to her feet beside Dash as he had the note stored in an evidence bag, then tucked it easily into the inside, hidden pocket of his military-style shirt.
“Dash, Callan just contacted. He’ll have four additional agents flying in within the hour.” Merc’s leonine features were harsh, the dark, gold brown eyes flat and cold. “Satellite also pinpoints a large vessel anchored within line of sight of this room, for four hours prior to the shooting. It pulled anchor and moved out just after the shots fired at Seth and Dawn. We have no reports of the vessel docking at any of the
nearby harbors, and all indications are it was stealth equipped. It wasn’t on our radar.”
“Not a tour ship but close to it,” Dawn snapped, furious. “Son of a bitch, how were they able to stealth equip such a large vessel?”
“They couldn’t, unless it was military,” Mercury rasped. “We almost missed it with the satellites, and identification of it is going to be impossible.”
“Council.” Dawn pushed her fingers roughly through her hair as fear began to brew in her stomach. The Genetics Council still had ties to the military in every section of the world.
“Why would the Council target Seth?” she growled, looking back at Dash. “He isn’t the only one funding Sanctuary. Why him and not others?”
Dash’s eyes were narrowed as he stared around the room.
“Merc, Dane Vanderale is in residence. See if you can convince him to get his people to loan us one of the Vanderale sats. If we combine it with the Lawrence sat we’re using, then we can possibly keep this from happening again.”
“They’ll find a way onto the island next,” Dawn muttered. “This didn’t work, so they’ll be pissed. They’ll come in closer.”
“And when they do, we’ll have them.” Dash’s smile was cold. Hard. “I want this suite secured, doors and windows shielded at all times. And you’re off the team now.” He turned to Dawn as she blinked back at him, shock and anger slicing through her.
“Not because of performance, Dawn,” he snarled quietly. “I want you close to Seth at all times. I want your attention on him, your focus on him. Besides the fact you’re now in full heat and that compromises your focus, I know if you’re with him his chances of surviving this increase. You’re at his back, watching every breath he takes. Is that understood?”
She swallowed tightly. He was right. Her focus was compromised and she knew it. Already she could feel her insides shaking, her need for Seth’s touch, his smell beginning to undermine her strength. She nodded tightly before she sighed in agreement and looked around the room again, searching for Seth. She was furious with him. He had not only lied to her about being hit, but once dressed and armed he had joined the team to search for the shooter. And he had ignored her objections, only staring at her with those cold, steel gray eyes before turning away and doing as he pleased.
“Civilian authorities are flying in,” Moira reported through the comm link. “We have two official helis with six heat contacts inside.”
“Direct them to the private heli-pads,” Dash ordered through the link. “Sanctuary is due in approximately eight hours. Contain and secure until reinforcements arrive.”
“Contained and secured.” Noble came through. “We have visual, four points. No other air traffic, and all water traffic is being redirected for the next three hours only.”
Dash blew out a hard breath and stared back at Dawn. “Time to dance, Cougar. Let me do the talking; you smile and be pretty.”
She stared at him in surprise. “Excuse me?”
“Civilian forces are fascinated with the female Breeds. Hopefully, these will be too. Let’s not show how slick our women are if we can get by with it.”
Dawn’s lips almost twitched in amusement. Even the Council had never known what they had created when they stepped into creating the female Breeds. The females’ delicate builds, at times preternatural beauty, and air of delicacy had been a disappointment in the labs. The females were naturally cunning though, in ways the males weren’t. Instinct had perfected that ability. So few of the females had survived though. The males numbered in the hundreds, the females only a few dozen. But those who had survived were more dangerous than even the male Breeds wanted to admit. And were filled with such fury, such hatred, that even Sanctuary worried about their survival. Like Dawn, the torture the females had endured had scarred them psychologically in ways the males hadn’t been. It had created killers that even the Breed Cabinet didn’t understand, in ways that the females never shared with any but their own kind.
Like the Lionesses Dawn had commanded at Sanctuary. They had formed groups. They hunted in groups and they killed with deadly efficiency.
Women were supposed to be the gentler sex, but the Council had ensured that all the gentleness was raped, maimed and tortured out of their females before they ever reached maturity. It was another secret the Breed community kept closely guarded. They kept their females as tightly within the compound as possible, protected them when they no longer needed protection, and fought to preserve the belief in the civilian population that their females were no more dangerous than any civilian-trained female.
There were times it was laughable. Because the females that had come from those labs were more feral than any human woman Dawn had ever encountered.
She played her role. She stood back, watched the men and few women investigating and used shy looks and a soft voice. She fooled the men, but she knew the women suspected. Instinct to instinct, she felt that connection and let it pass.
Her demeanor and unthreatening air allowed her and Dash to negotiate for information and concessions. What they wouldn’t give Dash, they were more willing to agree to with her. As she worked, she was aware of Seth watching her, his eyes narrowed on her and the scent of his arousal and his jealousy flowing around her. He didn’t like seeing her in the midst of these men, working their ignorance and their superiority. And that was too damned bad. Because this was his life. If it wasn’t, she would have left Dash to deal with the species-superior bastards who stank of their prejudice and their hatred.
They didn’t care why Breyer had been murdered. As one of the detectives stated, “Play with fire and someone will try to burn you.”
Seth was playing with the Breeds, and evidently that was reason enough to die in the eyes of these men.
By the time the body had been bagged, the evidence collected and the statements taken, the sun was rising over the island and the guests were wandering slowly to their beds. Dawn stood beneath the shelter just past the heli-pad the authorities had used to land, and she watched their heli-jets lift slowly into the air, bank and head back to the mainland with the body and Breyer’s family.
“They’ve been corrupted by the Council.” Mercury stepped from the darker shadows of the small radar and control room used to bring the jets in.