Yet, that was the only explanation. It didn't matter that the explanation sucked. The fact was, when he awoke, that was where he sat, beside her door. And he felt as though he hadn't slept a wink. Weariness tugged at him, leaving him frustrated and fraying the edges of his control. Mercury prided himself on his control at all times.
But as he stood in the office Ria insisted on returning to several hours later, he found himself frowning more often, and found the scent of her tempting him further.
He checked his tongue again. He couldn't stop doing that. There was no sensitivity, no swelling of the glands, none of the signs of mating heat except the inability to think of anything but f**king her.
"You don't have to stand in here glowering at me all morning," she informed him as she kept her gaze on the file she had opened before her. "I'm perfectly capable of working alone, you know."
"I assumed you were." He wasn't going anywhere without her.
She lifted her eyes, staring at him without raising her head, her expression less than friendly.
"If you don't stop glaring, Mercury, I'm going to kick you outside."
"You can try." He would actually have preferred it if she had. He was dying to find a reason to get his hands on her.
She blew out an exasperated breath before turning her attention back to the file she was going through. She was too intent on it. He could literally feel her mind working as she read, feel her searching for something.
A frown furrowed her brow and her fingers rubbed at the corner of a page. As though she were working through a puzzle, stroking the paper in an attempt to coax it into giving her the secrets she needed.
Mercury glanced down at the paper, seeing one of the new reports that had been faxed to the Bureau in Washington the week before concerning an attempt to hack into the communications equipment the previous month. It was pretty straightforward, if detailed.
The hacker had managed to infiltrate the government-backed satellite the Breeds used. Sanctuary's communications experts had traced the link as far as Germany before the hacker ended the connection and disappeared.
"This would have never happened with a Vanderale satellite," she sighed as she ran her fingers over the first lines of the report. "You would think your government would have a few protocols that actually work."
Her voice was disparaging.
"The satellite's an older one. We hadn't had problems until the hacker managed to get past the first defense by inputting the correct pass code on the first try."
She shook her head slowly. "That shouldn't have been possible unless someone gave them the code."
She continued to stare at the paper as she bit her lip thoughtfully.
"The pass code changes daily," she murmured.
Her finger ran over another line of printed words.
"Odd," she said before shaking her head and turning to the next page. "You need a more advanced program."
"We need funding to pay for it."
He met her gaze as her eyes lifted slowly, her expression pensive as she watched him.
"You need to update your systems," she pointed out. "You have millions of dollars' worth of Vanderale equipment that isn't even on the market yet. That makes you a security risk. Therefore, a financial risk to the company. Unless there's something in these files to convince me otherwise, then I can't in all good conscience suggest a reversal of the decision to halt funding, Mercury."
Jonas was going to love hearing that.
"Keep looking then," he grunted. "We've managed to counter every attempt at breaking into our files. We'll catch them soon."
"It's been a year since the attempted hacks began," she pointed out. "So far, you've lost several enforcers due to the leaks, and security is breached along the perimeters of Sanctuary at least monthly. Their rate of success in doing so is worrisome. I'm wondering if there's a chance you have another spy operating inside Sanctuary."
They had caught one only months before, a trusted, loved member of the pride who had been attempting to destroy them from the beginning.
"Not possible." Was it?
Hell, he had been investigating this himself for over six months. There was no way information was getting past the compound's perimeters, yet their enemies were finding a way in anyway. And information was getting out.
"Anything is possible," she murmured before turning her attention back to the file for long moments.