Gypsy took a step forward. “Why did you betray him, Jason?”
He shook his head, his breath hitching as Gideon growled.
“I was working with the Council,” he whispered. “The Genetics Council. I was one of their spies in the Nation, had helped them identify several breeders with certain traits they were looking for, along with one of the Nation’s leaders. Mark was getting too close to me, but he was also getting very close to identifying the more important political contact within the Nation. I planted the video and audio devices at his workstations because you couldn’t put shit on that fucking computer of his without him knowing. When I saw him hacking into another spy’s cell phone records, I knew it was just a matter of time.”
“You knew what he was doing? That he was hacking the Council’s records and hadn’t turned him in before that?” she scoffed.
“God, Gypsy, he was my fucking friend,” he cried, his voice torn now, ragged. “I loved him like a brother. But he would have found out I was working with them. He would have learned things I couldn’t afford for anyone to learn.” He was crying now. It made her sick to see his tears, to see what she knew had to be false sincerity.
“You didn’t love Mark,” she whispered. “Mark benefited you, nothing more.”
“No.” He shook his head, his expression creased with pain now. “I did love him, Gypsy. But I loved my father, my life, and I loved Thea.” He inhaled raggedly. “My father worked with them as well, that’s how I ended up working for them. Dad was the one who chose Morningstar Martinez to be taken by them as well as several other young girls from other parts of the Nation. He and whoever his friend was within the Navajo Tribal Council.” His head lowered again, tears dripping to the urine stain on his pants. “I was assigned to gather information on any Breeds coming into the Nation. Just before he hacked into that covert agency officer’s cell phone files, Mark was tracking two teenage girls and two Bengals being slipped in by the Unknown. He worked with them a lot. Once I learned that, I knew I would have to keep an eye on him, so I set the audio and video at the two places I knew he worked most often.”
“How did you know who he was helping?” She had to grip Rule’s hand with all her strength to hold back, to keep from killing him now, before she ever learned the full truth.
“When I found out Mark was hacking Council files,” he said roughly. “The Council was searching for a hacker and had heard rumors of the Unknown. They were searching for him for years.” His head jerked back up. “I knew for over two years what he was doing and I never breathed a word of it,” he cried out. “Not once, Gypsy.”
“Grody’s orders were to kill both of us.” The tears didn’t faze her. He was going to die. As Gideon said, it was just a matter of how.
“I knew how close he was to you,” he said roughly, his head still lowered. “I didn’t know what you knew, and I couldn’t risk you suspecting it was me. When the Council sent out the order to take him, you weren’t included in it, even though I told them how close the two of you were. You weren’t considered a threat. I called Grody myself and gave the order.”
“Then you moved right in, took over his life, his company, his parents and his fiancée,” she laughed mockingly. “Was it worth it, Jason? Did you get what you wanted?”
He shook his head. “She never forgot him. She never loved me like she loved Mark.”
There wasn’t even a second of warning. Between one heartbeat and the next she went from holding herself back from killing him to being pulled backward, sheltered by Rule’s hard body as a gunshot rang out.
“Fuck!” Gideon cursed.
Lights flared, low, but dissipating many of the shadows as Gypsy struggled to gain enough purchase beneath Rule’s body and the recliner he’d taken shelter behind.