She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream and rage at the betrayal that was eating her alive.
It burned clear to her soul, making her sick to her stomach with the evidence that nothing or no one mattered to her friend but that damned Breed who held her hostage with his kiss.
“I warned them you were going to be pissed.” Isabelle sighed, her gaze concerned if not exactly sympathetic to Liza and Claire’s dilemma.
“Damn it, Isabelle, you know better than this,” she cried out, her fists clenching at her side as the need to strike out began to override every other impulse slamming through her system.
Isabelle, above all others, knew exactly what Liza was involved in.
“Liza, I know you’re upset, but honestly, this was all done very hastily by conference call as we made our way here. There was no secret meeting and no deliberate decision made without you.” Isabelle’s dark eyes glittered with pain as Malachi moved to her, his arm sliding around her as though he knew, as though he felt, her pain. As though whatever there was to the matings she’d read about, the Breed’s first impulse was still the welfare of his lover.
It was really too damned bad Stygian couldn’t feel the same.
“Well, that’s exactly how it sounds to me,” she snapped, furious with herself for even considering that she could want such support from such a corrupt concept. “It doesn’t matter if it was done in the lobby, on the elevator or in a f**king boardroom, it was still done and it was still done without my consent.” She turned on Stygian, hurting, aching to such a depth that she felt as though a ragged gash had been sliced into her soul. “As though I were a damned child without the ability to garner help if I need it.”
“The help you had was a bit ineffective,” Stygian snarled, the pinpoints of blue that filled his gaze glittering with rage. “They were unarmed and completely unaware of the danger until Claire cried out for help. The two of you would have been abducted or dead by the time they arrived.”
“Still not your choice.” Stabbing a shaking finger in Jonas’s direction, she barely restrained the need to scream out her rage.
“And as I said, the decision is the same that would have been made had we waited until we arrived in this room to discuss it,” Jonas growled. “Something along the lines of Stygian snarling rather heatedly that his team and no one else would be providing your protection. Should you disagree with the decision, then you have my leave to take it up with him.”
“And you were on the phone with my father while all this was going on?” She waved her arm toward Jonas furiously. “That’s a lot of talking, demanding and snarling in the space of the time it took to meet in the lobby, get on the elevator and make your way to this to room, Mr. Wyatt.” Glaring back at Isabelle and her family, Liza’s lips curled in disgust. “And you still managed to call in the president, his attorney, and the only member of Claire’s family that you knew would side with her. The cousin that your Breed managed to hypnotize.”
“Oh, Liza.” Isabelle sighed painfully. “It wasn’t like that.”
“The call was made to your father seconds after Claire’s father was informed of the attack and her arrival at the hospital,” Stygian stated, his tone grating. “If you would throttle your independence for the amount of time it would take to make explanations, perhaps you could save that adrenaline you have tearing you apart for when you might actually need it.”
She was shaking, trembling with the knowledge that her life was slowly being taken over and there wasn’t a damned thing she could do about it.
“And maybe you might stop trying to take my life over entirely. You and your friends,” she demanded angrily as she flicked a look to Jonas and the other Alphas. “You’re making me feel like a shrew, Stygian, when I know damned good and well you could have consulted me before making any such decision about my life, my protection or who would be protecting me.”
That was exactly what she felt like. A shrew who had no idea how to be grateful for the fact that they were trying to protect her.
It felt more like they were attempting to use her. That somehow, they had brought that danger to her.
She knew, knew in her soul that it was time to step back and let Cullen and his team, as well as the Breeds take over the search for whoever or whatever was stalking her. She wasn’t experienced enough, not yet, to handle the danger surrounding her and Claire both.
But God, they could have at least allowed her to have a say in her own life.
“And perhaps that’s true, Ms. Johnson,” Jonas spoke, his tone calm, smooth and pleasant as he just patronized the hell right out of her. “We were merely attempting to expedite an order to lay in as many safeguards as possible for not just yourself, but also your friends Claire and Chelsea.”
As though she needed to be reminded that her friends were in danger as well. Hadn’t she been there with them? Hadn’t she seen Claire, unconscious, the bodies of those Coyotes—
She had to swallow tightly.
“Is Claire okay? Was she hurt?” she whispered. Her friend wasn’t a fighter, but she had learned how to handle a weapon like it was no one’s business.
Her training had paid off, but it had paid off with a price, and Liza wasn’t certain of the price Claire had finally paid.
Jonas nodded. “She did. Both shots were kill shots and both were meant to do damage. She knew what she was doing.”
“That’s the interesting part, Liza.” Terran stepped forward, his bronze face lined with not just the grief of the past, but also the concern that shimmered in his gaze. “My niece took out two highly trained killer Coyotes with a weapon that’s been outlawed for more than a decade. I’d like to know where she acquired it, considering the fact that neither you, nor Claire, should even have the contacts to acquire such dangerous weapons.”
Her lips parted before she quickly shut them.
Oh boy. Claire had used the Glock. And hadn’t she just forgotten they weren’t still f**king ten and answerable to guardians who had no idea who they were any longer?
Liza breathed in deeply, fighting to force back a fury that Terran really didn’t deserve. He was sincerely concerned and truly unaware of the life his niece had chosen to live. “I’d prefer she have an illegal Glock to kill them with than the alternative,” she snapped defensively, knowing there was no way in hell to cover the fact that Claire had had that weapon.