Lawe's Justice - Lora Leigh [94]
So even he had to agree she wasn’t an idiot, because she was obviously still alive.
“Diane.” He wiped his hand over his face.
Diane laughed aloud at the reaction. It would have been endearing if not for the fact that it showed a complete lack of faith in her abilities to do her job and to protect herself.
“Diane, he’s a male Breed suspected to have been forced into feral fever,” he growled. “If even half of what I know is true, then we are well aware of the fact that he’s not completely sane, at the very least. Whatever his agenda is, he has no intention of helping anyone except himself to whatever goal he has in mind.”
“And, of course, I couldn’t possibly be intelligent enough to use him as well,” she pointed out reasonably.
“That wasn’t what I meant,” he snapped back at her. “Gideon is a master strategist, Diane. You’ll think you’re pulling him in until he has his bullet buried in your brain or his scalpel peeling your flesh from your body. It’s a little late to consider the error of your beliefs then.”
It was enough to make a woman want to gnash her teeth in irritation. Hell, she was grinding hers. His arrogance just pissed her off.
“Whatever you want to believe.” It hurt more than words could ever describe that he hadn’t extended the same faith to her that he would have extended to any other Breed who may have given him the same explanation. Or any other man period. Gideon thought he was playing her, she was aware of that. She had her own plan as well.
He hadn’t given her the possible location of Brandenmore’s former victims for nothing. He knew where they were, or where they might be, what he wouldn’t know, despite the time he had spent in the labs with them, is what they looked like now. Twelve years was a lot of time. The girls would be twenty-four or twenty-five. Judd would be in his thirties. Maturity could have, and most likely had, drastically changed their looks.
“This isn’t personal, Diane.” Lawe’s expression was tormented as he watched her, and he probably did sense how much his lack of faith hurt.
“Fine, Lawe.” She was too tired to argue with him, too disillusioned to attempt to justify or explain her own intentions. “I need to pack . . .”
“I’d prefer to wait to leave, Diane.”
She turned back to him slowly, suspicion rising inside her. “Why?
His lips thinned. “I sent Rule and Malachi to Window Rock to request permission from the Navajo Council to conduct the search for a rogue Breed in their territory,” he revealed. “That doesn’t happen overnight.”
How stupid did he believe she was?
“Bullshit, Lawe,” she said wearily. “You sent a team to Window Rock to find Gideon or to lay a trap, didn’t you?”
“No, I did not.” Anger tightened his expression as he came out of the bed, his blue eyes icy as he pushed himself from the bed. “I did exactly as I said I did. I sent a team into Window Rock when I realized where you were headed and what you were doing.”
“When I told you where I was headed you sent a team ahead of us to capture Gideon,” she accused him knowingly. Hell, she wasn’t even surprised. “Is that what this is going to be, Lawe? A series of games you play to keep me one step behind you and always under your thumb?”
She should be angry. She should be raging. But, surprisingly, she was more amused. Too amused to really be hurt, though she was certain that would come soon. The very fact that he thought he had to notify the Navajo Nation Council astounded her.
“Had I thought I wouldn’t irreparably damage the mating relationship I want to build with you, then that’s exactly what I would have done,” he snapped back at her. “Instead, I’m trying to clear the way for you. It wasn’t that hard to trace the calls on your sat phone to the reservation. Especially after you made your reservations with the Navajo Suites just before I arrived here. You didn’t have to tell me where you were going, I knew. How you had tracked the Roberts girl to this area was