Tonight, after she’d met with Honor’s parents, following through with one of the promises she’d made to herself the night of that ritual, she and Graeme would have to fight this out. If she had to give him an ultimatum, then she would do it. He would come up with answers or she would leave.
Where had he been for the four months before he’d arranged for her and Judd’s transfer, and what had happened to him when he’d been returned to the research center several years later? She knew why he’d lashed out at her as he did. She would have never stopped searching for him if he hadn’t hurt her so deeply. Nothing Judd had said or done would have convinced her to leave without searching for Graeme the next morning if she hadn’t believed she was hated by the Breed that meant so much to her.
Perhaps she’d known that then as well.
Moving from the desk to the glass door that opened to a private patio, she stood in the entrance and inhaled the scents of the desert around her.
She hadn’t offered to give General Roberts the location of his daughter for free. She’d demanded all information on the two Breeds confined with her and Honor during the time they’d been at the research center, as well as the complete file on the reacquisition of the Bengal Breed Gideon.
She hadn’t dared ask Jonas for it, but General Roberts was another story. His connections while his daughter had been in the research center had been strong. Afterward, she knew he’d stayed in contact with one of the few lead research techs Graeme had left alive after his rampage. That tech remained alive because he’d been in Washington delivering evidence against the center to the Bureau of Breed Affairs. Jonas still had him in hiding for fear Gideon would strike out at him.
“You know Graeme’s completely pouting again.” Khi Langer, Lobo’s stepdaughter, stepped around the side of the house, her vivid blue eyes not nearly as amused as she would have had Cat believe.
Dressed in riding pants and a snug sleeveless white silk shirt and knee-high black boots, she looked as though she would be more at home on an English estate than at the Reevers’ desert home.
“I wondered how long it would take you to visit.” Cat sighed. “Ashley’s already given her warning, I don’t need another from you.”
She’d known Khi was Graeme’s little sidekick for months.
The bastard. He’d allowed this woman to aid him, yet he’d never given Cat that option, even now. She knew of his little midnight sorties into the desert each night as he patrolled for Council soldiers in the area. But had he invited her to patrol at his side?
Hell no, he hadn’t.
“Ashley’s been a little intense since she tried to stop that bullet with her heart,” she snorted with a slight edge of anger. “Not that she was ever less than intense, she’s just more so now.”
Strolling along the short walk from the pool area to the little shaded, brick-lined patio off the office, Khi kept her eyes on Cat. What was she searching for? Cat wondered curiously.
“I’m not here to warn you, anyway,” the other woman assured her when Cat remained silent. “I wanted to make certain you didn’t need anything. A shoulder to cry on, perhaps, or a willing ear to listen to you curse that arrogant mate of yours. Of course, we could sit and diss men in general.” Smiling, Khi plopped into one of the overstuffed chairs placed beneath the covered pergola. “I always enjoy that.”
She wasn’t lying, Cat observed silently, but there was an air of secrets that surrounded Khi that had always made her wary.
“If I start, I might not stop,” Cat admitted with a shrug.
She remained at the entrance to the office, though she leaned against the door frame, one hand propped on her hip, the other relaxed at her side, rather than taking the other chair across from Khi.
“Yeah, I know that one,” Khi admitted as she flicked something from the knee of her pants, her gaze remaining on that area for long moments before she lifted her head again and flashed Cat another of her bright smiles. A smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
“Why are you here, Khi?” Tilting her head, a small frown pulled at her brow. “Does Graeme know you’re visiting?”
Khi gave a light laugh at the question. “I don’t ask Graeme Parker’s permission to go anywhere on the Reever property.” She gave a little roll of her eyes. “I don’t even extend that courtesy to Lobo.”
Cat lifted her brows at the statement. “Quite an accomplishment. I envy you,” she snorted. “I imagine Lobo’s arrogance more than matches Graeme’s. And he seems just as domineering.”
“Just as much an ass, you mean?” This time, Khi’s smile was a bit tight. “I imagine he can be. I try to stay out of the way of his arrogance and he avoids my bitchiness. It works for us.”
Interesting. At one time, Khi had been rumored to be quite close to her stepfather. Of course, that was before her mother tried to kill him.