"Protecting it." Dane surged to his feet as well, drawing Callan's focus from Ria to him. "Remember, mate, she's my employee. You have a problem with that, you'll take it up with me."
Callan swung back to Ria, the look on his face so filled with anger that for a moment she swore she was facing the Leo.
"Back down, Callan," Mercury growled, trying to push her behind his larger body again. "Let's see what she has to say first."
"What she has to say?" Callan's voice boomed through the cabin as Jonas moved warily to his feet. "You want me to hear what she has to say? She came into my home on a lie? Under this little bastard's orders." He shoved his finger toward Dane.
"I should point out, Leo and Elizabeth were wed before my conception."
Callan turned and snarled in his face. Nose to nose. The rage emanating from him was a terrible thing to see.
"See why he brings me bribes," Ria murmured to Callan. "This is what I have to put up with when Leo finds out I've helped him in one of his games. But it's usually my face Leo's screaming into."
She moved to Mercury's side, pushing at his restraining arm to no avail as Callan swung on her. He took one look at Mercury's face before growling furiously and pacing to the other side of the room.
"That's what Leo does when Elizabeth gets in front of him," she whispered to Mercury. Almost amused. If it had been Leo, she might have been amused, but who knew which way Callan's genetics had actually swung?
He turned back to them and glared at her. "I can hear every word out of your mouth," he snapped.
"Keep snarling at me." She watched him warily though her tone was airy. "I'll get half a dozen perfect pearls next week rather than the few scrawny ones he would have brought me otherwise." She shrugged, burying her fear. When one dealt with Breeds, one never admitted to fear. Even to oneself.
"What have you been doing in my home?" His tone sliced through the room, and Ria swallowed tightly. Even Dane appeared a bit wary.
"Tracking the person or persons responsible for slipping information about Breed mating heat and age depression to a pharmaceutical company researching a drug to exploit its ability to work on the human body. Three non-Breeds have already died and one is missing due to that research, and scientific information regarding it is leaking from your home, Pride Leader Lyons."
"Impossible," he snarled furiously. "Every transmission, every fax, every breath taken in that compound is monitored. There's no way to slip that information out. Not without being caught."
"There is, though," she told him softly. "If you're trained in creating a code to carry it, then you can slip anything out. Unless someone trained to break that code finds it. I found the code, Mr. Lyons; now I just have to break it."
Silence filled the room. Jonas, Callan and Dane all stared at her in suspended disbelief.
"You can pay up when we get back to the office," Rye commented to Dane from his position on the couch. "I told you she'd do it in less than a month."
"Are you telling me someone within the estate house has been giving secrets to some f**king bastard Council researchers? And he knew about it?" His finger pointed imperiously to Dane.
She breathed in slowly. "No, Pride Leader. Someone is selling secrets concerning mating heat to a drug manufacturer who is now experimenting on non-Breeds. And they're doing it for money."
The roar of rage that shook the cabin had her flinching, and this time she stepped behind Mercury willingly. Because in over twenty years of dealing with the Leo, she had never, not even once, seen the rage in him that now filled his son.
And Leo had never, in all the years Dane had been an adult, jumped for Dane as Callan did. It took Jonas, Rye and Mercury to pull him back, as Dane rose slowly to his feet and Ria watched the compassion flicker across his features.
The moment he was pulled back, Callan jerked from the others' hold, stalked to the other side of the room and fought for control.
She watched his shoulders bunching, tensing, as Mercury moved back to her, obviously protecting her.
"Perhaps we should have been a bit more delicate," Dane commented with a snort. "It seems the pride leader has a bit of a temper."
"Ms. Rodriquez, is the Leo's number on your speed dial?" Jonas asked carefully.
Ria remained silent.
"He's on mine, whelp," Dane grunted. "Would you like to call him and tell him what we're investigating? Go ahead, split his loyalties between Sanctuary and the twins my mother just gave birth to before flying out to save her older son. I'm certain those babes don't need her, even if they do appear to be ill at the moment." Disgust laced his voice. "Why the bloody hell do you think he doesn't know about it now?"
That wouldn't stop Leo from blasting her and Dane both with his anger, though, once he learned about it.
"Callan." Ria stepped forward, ignoring Mercury's warning growl as Callan turned, his head lowered, those dangerous eyes watching her closely, the rage burning in him so close to the surface that it washed from him in waves. "Any coup needs an event to give it momentum. You were nearly killed and you've been recovering from it. Your senses aren't back to peak, Sanctuary is ripe for a takeover. Someone is moving to destroy you from the inside out. If the information Dane uncovered is correct, then it's only a matter of weeks before those secrets are completely shifted to the researchers. We can't risk that. My job was to uncover the culprit or culprits. And there were very few people we were certain weren't involved in this, until I had spent some time with those files myself."
"We knew you weren't involved," Dane told him, his voice harsh. "But other than that, we couldn't be certain. Whoever is moving on you and getting this information out is a strong enough force that other Breeds, enough of them, may back him."