“So, when exactly are we supposed to be meeting with Mr. Wyatt and his commander?” she asked carefully.
“We’re meeting this evening at the hotel, in Mr. Wyatt’s suite. He’ll be there, along with his wife, Rachel.” Her mother frowned then. “I hadn’t heard of their ceremony being performed as other Breeds have. Why do you think they didn’t have one?”
Her mother was the queen of distracting questions, and she could see the desperation in her mother’s gaze to distract her quickly.
“Their daughter’s been too ill. They haven’t married yet, though they rarely correct the assumption that a Breed ceremony was performed privately.” Gypsy supplied the answer absently even as she quickly began processing information. “What time this evening? And isn’t this a little short notice, especially considering the fact that I have no idea who I’m working with?”
“A bit, perhaps.” It was Jason who spoke up as Greta watched Gypsy closely. “But as Director Wyatt has been quite concerned with information on the new offices opening on the reservation without an assigned division director and key staff, it’s perfectly understandable. And his concern is very well placed. As are his plans to announce the new office and its DD at a welcoming ball that the president and chiefs of the Six Tribes are throwing in honor of the Breeds.”
The look her parents shared, one of such pride and excitement, had her nearly rolling her eyes in disgust.
“What party?” No one had mentioned a party to her, and that was something she needed plenty of advance notice for. Notice that she knew she just was not going to get.
Her mother turned back to her, practically glowing again despite Gypsy’s lack of excitement and her knowledge that she had just been distracted by her mother again. “We’ve been invited, as a family, to a welcoming ball being thrown in honor of the Breeds and the agreement between the Nation and the Breed Ruling Cabinet to locate the offices on reservation land. Mr. Wyatt wants to introduce you, as well as his selection as division director, to the press the day after the ball. It’s an incredible opportunity for us as well as the Breeds. This could be what we’ve needed to pull in the larger contracts that other firms have gotten because of their greater visibility.”
Gypsy nodded slowly, so certain of exactly what was going on that she had to grit her teeth to keep from informing her parents. This was no more than a heavy-handed attempt by Commander Breaker to ensure that she couldn’t continue to ignore him as she had since the night he’d ambushed her outside her apartment.
There wasn’t an image consulting business in the world that could do more for the Breeds’ image than the Breeds themselves managed, one way or the other, to do for themselves.
They didn’t need McQuade Image Consulting, they needed damned magicians to hide the machinations of the new division director, Rule Breaker. And while they were at it, it sure as hell wouldn’t hurt to put a leash on the reigning director of the Bureau of Breed Affairs, Jonas Wyatt.
Wyatt was known as a man who kept his business promises, though; hopefully that meant he wouldn’t destroy her parents’ dreams when his commander didn’t get the bed bunny he was hoping for.
And wouldn’t her contact within the Unknown be jumping for joy at the prospect of her working so closely with the very enforcer they suspected was investigating them? The one they feared had found evidence to identify one of them?
“This is just what we needed.” Her father was all but walking on air.
“This contract will definitely up the office’s prestige.” Jason was all but crowing like a cocky little bantam rooster, she thought in disgust.
“So, when is this little party?” she asked them, barely able to muster a false smile, let alone any excitement at all.