“What do we do?” she asked him.
He breathed out roughly. “I have two choices, neither are secure. We could leave the country and disappear, but that’s not a guarantee they won’t find us. We’ll never be truly safe and neither will our children be safe. Or I could trust your family and do as you came to ask me to do, but still, no guarantee. Both choices are rife with danger, Merinus. There will be no peace for us, whichever way we go.”
Hope filled her expression. She had such belief in her brothers and her father that she thought they could solve any problem. He wondered what it would have been like to be raised in such a secure, protective environment. To have such faith in someone other than yourself.
“Kane knows what he’s doing, so do the others, Callan,” she promised him desperately. “I have seven brothers, each one of them has been working on this for over six months now. Gray is with the FBI, Caleb is a private investigator, Kane has all kinds of contacts in the C.I.A. and across seas. They have boxes of proof, but need you to back it up. You can do this, Callan. We can do it together.”
Her expression was beseeching, her eyes wide and so filled with confidence. This time in him. She watched him as though he could solve this problem by his will alone. He wanted to curse her innocence, but found himself desperate to believe in it as well. Surely, it couldn’t be so simple. After years of running, decades of doubt and hopelessness, could it really be so easy? Of course it couldn’t, but what choice did he have left?
“We will wait one more day,” he finally sighed, glancing back at the computer, the emails he had received bothering him more than he wanted to admit. Tanner and Taber had done a copy of theirs to each of the others of the Pride. Sherra had not. The email had come singly and carefully coded. She trusted no one now, except Kane Tyler and himself.
“I believe Dayan has betrayed me,” he finally told her softly. “His scent was in the cave and on the soldiers within it. He knew of the mating and has been furious over it. His instability may have driven him
over the edge.”
He hid his rage, his pain. If Dayan had betrayed the Pride, then it would fall to Callan to kill him. Dayan would become the hunted, something Callan swore the others would never be again.
“Callan.” Merinus came to her feet, her expression bleak, filled with pain for him. He shook his head, moving away from her. He didn’t want her tenderness right now, not while he was filled with this rage.
“I took them out and covered their escapes with the deaths of scientists, soldiers and doctors,” he whispered. “The screams of the dying still echo in my ears, the deaths of the babes incubating in their tubes still tear at my conscience.” He dragged his hands through his hair, fighting the years-old horror and regret.
“You did what you had to do, Callan.” She gave him total acceptance, when he didn’t even have that for himself.
“I swore they would never be hunted again,” he whispered, fighting the ragged wound opening up in his soul. “I would not like to hunt my brother, Merinus. To know that the beast overcame him does not give hope for the rest of us.”
“Are you serious?” Incredulous anger colored her tone. He turned to her in surprise. Her hands were propped on her hips, her brows drawn into a frown as she stared at him as though he had lost his mind.
“In what way?” he asked her carefully. Damn, she could be mercurial.
“The beast overcoming him?” She snorted in a less than ladylike fashion. He could likely blame Kane for that habit. “More likely his human nature coming out. Dammit, Callan, animals do not betray each other. Check out the Discovery Channel a little more often. You need to research, hon. Only humans sell each other out, only humans kill for no reason. It would say that perhaps Dayan got a little more human coding than the rest of you did.”
She crossed her arms over her br**sts, staring him down as though he were a child in need of a lecture. Where was this woman’s fear? Her respect? Even the scientists had shown him greater fear. He lifted a brow at her. She didn’t understand what the scientists had created, how they had attempted to train them. He could forgive her the ignorance, he decided.
“Oh, look at that brow arching,” she said mockingly. “Lion-O thinks he knows better.”
Callan clenched his teeth.
Merinus threw her hands up in defeat.
“Fine, believe what you want to,” she bit out. “Just like a man, you will anyway. But I’m telling you right now, and you’ll find out I’m right, Callan Lyons, Dayan is a typical psychopath. It’s there in those beady little eyes of his. I never did trust him.”
“There is such a thing as a typical psychopath? Did you see this on the Discovery Channel as well, darling?”
Her eyes widened at the little dig, her head tilting, considering.
“I’m sure it aired and I’m certain I’m right. I have a brother that’s into pop psychology, he would know all about it and I’m sure he would agree with me.”
Figured. Was there anything those brothers of hers didn’t do? And did they ever disagree with the little imp standing across from him? It occurred to him that she might be just a bit spoiled by those brothers of hers.
“So what are you going to do?” There went those hands on those slender h*ps again. Her br**sts pushed out against the T-shirt, the hard ni**les like a beacon to his eyes. How was a man supposed to think when confronted with such a sight?
“I told you, I will decide by tomorrow,” he growled, fighting a lust that had nothing to do with any scent of need coming from her body. For a change, the lava hot scent was barely present. What he detected now though, was much more destructive. A woman irritated, angry, and just plain, pure aroused. His c**k throbbed.
“Well, you know what I think. Now I’m going to go take a bath and you can sit here and brood all you want to. Then I’ll fix dinner. I make a great pasta salad.”
She swept from the room before he could snarl. Pasta salad? He didn’t think so.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO