From the corner of her eye she glimpsed Jason rising quickly from the table and her younger sister at the front counter, head down, her expression saddened.
Of course Kandy had heard the last of that conversation.
The door hadn’t been closed.
Rushing past her, Gypsy jerked the door open and strode into the brilliant heat and sunshine that enveloped Window Rock before moving quickly to where she’d parked her Jeep across the street in front of the store.
She wasn’t going to discuss her brother, or listen to another of her parents’ attempts to excuse what had happened. They tried, she gave them credit. They tried so hard to pretend that it wasn’t her fault that their son, their only son, had been killed because of their elder daughter. And for the most part, she let them. But more and more often her father was berating her for her evening activities, concern and suspicion filling his gaze each time he did so.
He didn’t know what she was doing. She knew he and her mother suspected she was drinking too much, perhaps worried she was into more than just a few beers. After all, what more could they expect? Her determination to go to a party at fifteen had been the reason her brother was murdered by Coyote Breeds. The reason all their lives had been torn apart.
She couldn’t reassure them. She couldn’t tell them what she was doing. But she wouldn’t have, even if she could. Let them think she was far less than what she was; it would only protect them if the unthinkable happened and the Breeds or the Unknown’s enemies ever suspected her.
And protecting them was all that mattered.
Which was why she intended to have a nice little conversation with Commander Rule Breaker concerning his part in the contract her parents believed they were being offered.
He needed to understand, now, before it went any further. There wasn’t a chance in hell that she was going to become his lover. Losing her virginity meant losing her last link to her brother, and she didn’t think she could bear the guilt of it if she did so.
She’d lived so many years alone, without allowing anyone close enough to her to be harmed that she had no idea how to let anyone in anymore.
Even Khileen, once her best friend, rarely attempted to continue their friendship anymore. The Coyote Breed females Ashley and Emma had come closest to her, and nearly losing Ashley had given her more nightmares than she wanted to consider.
She didn’t need anyone—
She couldn’t finish the thought.
She escaped instead and assured herself she was strong enough to do this. She could resist Commander Breaker and any desire he filled her with.
Yet the taste of chocolate and peppermint lingered in her senses and left her craving more of the Breed’s kiss.
Craving it enough that she began to worry . . .
CHAPTER 7
She found Rule several hours later, after missing the appointment with Connie and her mother, spending precious time hunting him down rather than preparing for that damned meeting.
He was on duty, she’d been told by several sources, no doubt in town someplace overseeing the enforcers under his command.
She found his Dragoon parked behind a small stand of cottonwood trees outside town where the new division headquarters were rumored to be located.
Not that he was alone.
Dane Vanderale was of course with him, as were Dog, Loki, Mutt and another Coyote she’d only seen a few times who answered to Mongrel.
Pulling the Jeep to a hard stop mere feet from the arrogant commander who of course refused to so much as step back an inch, she watched his eyes, intent, somber as he met her gaze through the windshield.