Lawe's Justice - Lora Leigh [95]
“And that was all you did—you just tracked my phone?” She was highly suspicious.
“That’s all I did.” There went the hand over the face again.
“And you thought you would achieve what by waylaying me here?” Pulling her jeans and shirt from the floor, Diane dressed quickly, aware of the feeling of being at a distinct disadvantage with him by standing before him naked. “How did delaying me benefit you, Lawe?”
It was hard to attempt to make him see that she was more than able to complete her mission, hell, to get him to even give her the chance to prove she could complete it, without the feeling of vulnerability that being naked gave her. Besides, he was still hard, his cock still very interested in a little mating sex.
It was impossible to deny her own renewed interest in the sexual pleasure found in his arms as well. Fortunately, the interest was tempered, the mating heat sated for now, leaving only the natural desire they shared between them, which was strong enough without adding a hormonal, pheromonal, biological and whatever else it was reaction to each other.
“I wasn’t trying to achieve anything, Diane.” He sighed as he pulled his pants over his hips and zipped them casually. “I was trying to give us a bit of time together as Rule cleared the way for our investigation in the area. The Breeds count the Navajo as one of our greatest proponents and supporters. We can’t do anything to jeopardize that. Conducting a secret investigation in their territory could only piss them off and I’m not enough of an optimist to think we can do it and get away with it.”
“And I don’t need your damned help,” she told him. “I already had permission to be in the territory from the Bureau’s base office in the Nation. That’s all I needed.”
The base office was manned by three Breeds and a member of the Navajo Nation Law Enforcement. “As long as I had permission from base, I was fine.”
“Base can’t give you permission to investigate Breeds or Genetics,” he gritted out.
“No, they can give me permission to investigate other areas though. Areas such as the peaceful resolution of the casino conflict outside Window Rock. For God’s sake, Lawe, didn’t you even consider the fact that I had laid my own fucking ground work? Once I was here, I could have used that to explain to anyone and everyone I spoke to. And then I could fall back on it to explain how I may have stumbled upon the identities of the girls. I’m good like that.” Frustration roughened and colored her voice as complete disbelief flooded her senses. “You took the confrontational route, I took the effective one. One of the differences between me and you.”
Here they went again, arguing over whether or not she knew how to do her job. She had known eventually he would go behind her back and when he did, she had known it would be in a way that would completely drive her crazy.
At this point, there wasn’t even any sense in getting angry. Pulling her own hair out was an option though. Or his.
She wasn’t arguing over it any longer. She was tired of pointing it out, tired of begging him to give her a chance to prove it. She didn’t have to prove a damned thing, she had already proven it with five years of command and the fact that she had survived this world since before she had graduated high school.
“I’m heading to Window Rock,” she informed him as she tucked her shirt into the band of her jeans before sitting down to pull on her socks. “You can stay or you can go, I really don’t give a damn which.”
She could feel his gaze narrowing on her as she pushed the last few items into her bag and zipped it with a furious jerk of her wrist.
“Diane, we’re a government agency of sorts,” he stated with obvious forced patience. “We don’t just waltz in on their land and begin conducting an investigation, especially against a Breed that could possibly carry the genetics of one of their own. Even Jonas doesn’t fuck with the Navajo Nation, for good reason.”
“And it could have nothing to do with the fact that you’re desperate to make certain I’m wrapped in cotton batting and protected