“He escaped when the scientists and soldiers were preparing the lab, him and two other subjects for termination. He was recaptured again, ten years later. That was when the vivisections began. He escaped the last time just after Phillip Brandenmore’s death,” Jonas stated as he opened the file and stared into the face of the Breed that had endured two years of vicious, horrific testing.
Pale green eyes stared back from a hard, bronzed face bisected with a stripe. From his left eye, across his nose and right cheek, the flesh was a vibrant dark gold in the form of a Bengal’s stripe.
His teeth were clenched, his lips pulled back in an enraged snarl. Sharp canines dropped from the sides of his teeth, glistening white and savagely sharp.
The picture beneath showed large, broad hands chained to a gurney as a soldier held one of the powerful fingers. The nail was slightly rounded and from the soldier’s pressure against the pad of the finger the “claw” had been forced from the nail bed. Though it was filed to be less lethal, it was still harder than a normal human nail, its construction and almost bonelike hardness making it a formidable weapon.
“They named this one.” Lawe remarked on the Council scientists’ habit of giving the Breeds numbers rather than names.
“They’ve learned the power of a name.” Jonas sighed. “But they gave this one the wrong name I believe. If they intended to reinforce his submission, then they should have chosen a far less powerful name than Gideon.”
He watched as Lawe turned his attention back to the identical folder he held. Jonas could guess the thoughts, the torments going through his mind.
The memories.
Memories of the woman he had called mother and of forcing himself to remain still, with all apparent unconcern, as she died beneath a scalpel during a vivisection.
“Three times,” Lawe stated. “They cut him open three times.” His head shook briefly as he lifted the file once again. “And we’re going to punish him for doing the same to the bastards he’s hunting down?”
There was a vein of anger in Lawe’s voice, disapproval that Jonas might agree with silently but didn’t have the power to allow to continue.
“And once the news agencies catch wind that it’s a Breed committing these crimes rather than a serial killer?” Jonas questioned Lawe’s disapproval. “We’ve managed to cover this so far, Lawe, but we won’t be able to much longer. Once the truth is out there, we’ll be forced to terminate him or turn him over to the courts for their brand of justice versus ours. I’d much prefer to capture him, see if the damage to his mind can be reversed and save him. It seems no less than he deserves.”
“And once again Breeds are forced to bow down to their makers,” Lawe accused condemningly.
Despite the sneer in his tone, Jonas knew the intent behind it. It was the same intent he felt when he made similar comments. The injustice of being forced to turn the other cheek so many times was slowly building an aversion for the reality of their situation. And for humans in general.
Breeds had no choice but to garner the goodwill of society and of those untainted by the animal genetics Breeds carried. There were so many more of them, and so few Breeds, that if public opinion turned against them then they were screwed.
“Gideon’s search for the Roberts girl is intensifying,” Lawe said as he read further. “Three of the scientists involved in the testing she was a part of twenty years ago as well as two of the soldiers are dead. The single survivor, a female lab tech, reported that a man slipped into her bedroom, restrained her and questioned her extensively on the escape of the young male Bengal and the second human female as well as any friendship that may have developed between them and the Roberts girl while she was there.” His gaze lifted once again. “She was terrified but left alive. She was the only one he left alive.”
“And strangely enough, she didn’t call the police or her employers,” Jonas mused. “She contacted me instead.”
“Did she say why?” Lawe’s gaze narrowed as it lifted to Jonas’s.
“Public knowledge that she was part of the experiments and tortures against not just Breeds but also humans could potentially lead to charges being filed against her and a conviction that could send her to prison for up to six to ten years.” Jonas shrugged. “She was hoping I would be more lenient in exchange for the information concerning Gideon and what he’s searching for.
She’d had an insurance policy of sorts and Jonas had been in the mood to bargain, as she’d guessed he would be. After all, the injection Phillip Brandenmore had given his daughter was now public knowledge thanks to files Brandenmore had hidden before Jonas had managed to kidnap him. Some of those files, the authorities had found before Jonas could get to them.
“Did she remember anything more than she stated in her initial report about his visit?” Lawe asked as he glanced to the next page and slowly stiffened.
Jonas nodded, his gaze knowing as he ignored the commander’s reaction to what he had read while bringing it out into the open instead. “Diane Broen and her team are due back tonight with their report. They’ve questioned the female tech and completed an investigation into the Roberts girl’s disappearance twelve years ago—just after the other two escaped termination. There’s no doubt she ran away from her parents’ home. We’re simply uncertain why, where she would have gone, or how she disappeared so easily. From Brandenmore’s files, and based on their friendship in the labs, Gideon suspects that the three were together somewhere. He simply doesn’t know where. Diane’s been investigating her possible whereabouts for the past three months. I believe she knows where the three are located and that she’s withheld the information for some reason until she arrives here.”
Lawe’s head lifted slowly at Jonas’s admission that he had sent Diane Broen and her team into the line of fire. For years, the Breeds and her enemies had only known the female mercenary as Diana. The huntress. It was a cover even her sister had perpetuated when needed. Commanding four human males and, one at a time, two Breeds, she had hunted rogue Coyote Breeds as well as Council soldiers, trainers, scientists and backers.
In truth, her name was Diane Broen, Lawe’s mate. The woman Jonas had sent out in search of what was becoming one of the most dangerous rogue Breeds and the three research victims that could bring the full fury of the remaining Council down on Diane’s head.
Jonas had expected a reaction from Lawe, but the sight of the anger flaming in those normally icy, almost violet, blue eyes was surprising.
It was extremely rare to see Lawe pissed off. It was even rarer to see him pissed off over a woman.
Lawe was completely ignoring the fact that Jonas believed Diane may have the information they needed, of course. Nothing mattered at this moment; no one mattered but his mate. Whether he had completed that mating or not.
“Sending her was the wrong choice,” Lawe stated, his voice rumbling with savage undercurrents.
The underlying challenge in that tone had Jonas’s brows arching and he tensed at the deliberate questioning of his decision.
He refused to allow himself to react, at least for the moment. For Lawe. He forced himself to exercise restraint rather than immediate retaliation as he would have with any other Breed.