Mercury shrugged. "He's a murdering bastard, but nothing matters to him but the tests and the results. He's a scientist, Jonas. The worse sort. But he'll follow through on whatever he finds."
Jeffery Amburg, Ria knew, had been one of the scientists assigned to Mercury's lab. He'd also been the scientist that helped develop the drug to control the feral displacement when Mercury had gone insane with rage at the news of Alaiya's death. He had also been the scientist researching the hormone that showed up in Mercury, which was known to be the precursor to mating heat.
She was surprised by the hard pinch of pain that brought to her chest. She should have grown accustomed to the situation as it stood by now.
"He doesn't touch her." Mercury jerked his head toward Ria. "A Breed can take the blood and saliva samples. Nothing more."
Jonas's jaw clenched.
"Wouldn't that be my decision, Mercury?" Not that she wanted those tests, but the arrogance in his voice raised the hairs at the back of her neck in both primal warning and irritation.
He shot her a glare. "Do you want Amburg to come out of there alive, Ria? If I saw his hands on you, knowing the blood that coats them, I wouldn't be able to restrain myself."
She ignored the declaration and turned back to Jonas.
"Is Alaiya being tested?"
His gaze moved to Mercury again.
"I didn't ask Mercury, I asked you."
He nodded shortly. "One of our enforcers escorted her to the lower-level labs we have Amburg in now. Her samples were taken several hours ago."
"And was she showing signs of mating heat?"
Jonas didn't speak. Ria felt her heart tighten, felt it burn like a live coal in her chest.
"I see." She leaned forward, straightened the papers on her desk and stared sightlessly at the screen. "Let me know when you need me to give you the blood and saliva. I'll be working until then."
Silence filled the room for long moments.
"I'll send Amburg's tech up when I leave. She's a young Breed; she worked in another of the labs, assisting the scientists there, before the rescues. She'll take care of you."
Ria nodded and moved another transmission into place.
She focused on work. She had always focused on work. It didn't betray, it didn't consume, it didn't eat away at her emotions. "By the way, your transmission last night came from the Breed barracks, rather than the estate house as you assumed. Low-level, it piggybacked on an outgoing transmission and ended at the hotel in Buffalo Gap."
She pushed her chair back from the computer as Jonas edged from the desk. Rising from it, she gave him the seat and moved around the desk as he sat down. He stared at the transmission display she'd had running within a tracking program she'd downloaded from the Breed satellite once the computer in the office had been linked directly to it.
"How did you find it?" Jonas's fingers were moving across the keyboard. "We don't have this program."
"Sanctuary's security level hasn't been raised sufficiently to allow use of the program," she told him. "I had clearance to use it personally, granted by Leo himself when I awoke this morning and checked my messages."
Which meant Dane had come clean with him. For some reason, that had made her feel less like an outsider. Dane had called Leo when the situation had grown out of her control. He had been ready to face Leo's rage to bring her back to South Africa.
She crossed her arms over her br**sts, pushing that knowledge aside as she frowned at the other information she had found.
"Why is Ely ordering codeine from one of Brandenmore's subsidiaries?" she asked. "I would have thought all medications and research supplies ordered outside Vanderale or Lawrence Industries would go through Engalls."
Jonas paused and lifted his gaze, his eyes sharp, deadly.
"Breeds don't take codeine," he told her. "It doesn't work as well with our systems as it does with non-Breeds."
Ria shrugged. "Check her order transmissions, the ones with the attached coding on them. She's made several orders over the past six to eight months, with increasing frequency. She's also ordering pain medications of increasing strength. Morphine was added to the list last month."
"There haven't been any requisitions or payments for those drugs," he told her. "I'd know if there were."
"Then maybe she's paying for them another way."