Turning, he stared back at the bastard she put so much faith in and, before he could stop himself, he said, “I’m sure Director Wyatt would be more than happy to allow the visit, Mr. Johnson, should you and President Martinez have a mind to accept the invitation.”
Both men stared back at him with dark, hostile gazes.
“We can set that appointment up on our own,” the president said smoothly as he threw Liza a reassuring smile. “We’ll let you know once it’s been set, dear.”
“Of course, Uncle Ray,” she stated, her voice soft but with a glimmer of doubt that Stygian knew her father had to have heard.
Her gaze turned to his then, the soft gray filled with somber doubt.
“Can I go home now?”
She hadn’t asked her father or her boss. She wasn’t asking permission to leave, she was asking if it was okay to return to her home rather than the suite they had taken.
Stygian started to shake his head.
“I think it best you return to the house with your mother and me, Liza.” Audi moved from behind the Nation president’s desk, walking slowly to the door as Liza tensed.
“That wouldn’t work, Dad.” Her hands clasped in front of her as Stygian glimpsed the shaking in her fingers and the uncertainty in her gaze as she watched her father now.
Seeing it tore at his heart. For possibly the first time in her life, she was seeing the human her father was rather than the superhero he had always been to her.
“Liza, your life is in danger.” He paused several feet from her, suddenly aware of the distance she had placed around herself.
Stygian hated sensing it. He hated how she suddenly retreated within herself, watching, waiting, while another part of her seemed to be considering whatever it was that was suddenly so painful for her.
“Yes, I agree with you, Dad, it is.” She breathed in deeply as Stygian tried and failed to restrain the urge to go to her. “But as much as I love you and Mom—and as much as I respect your strength—even I know the Breeds are more qualified and better able to protect me.” And what he knew was left unsaid: that she would never be able to live with a reality where her father had died so she could live.
Going to her but not quite touching her, he could feel her fighting to maintain her distance even as she seemed to lean closer.
Stygian could feel the uncertainties in her, a determination slowly growing within her, and a fear and pain that she had buried so deep, buried so far within herself, that he wondered if she even knew the reason for it.
Johnson’s gaze narrowed on both of them, no doubt taking in the appearance of solidarity that mating always seemed to bring.
“Then your Breed force can come to the house as well.” Her father’s smile was tight, the hostility in his gaze barely hidden as he glanced at Stygian then.
Audi still saw his daughter, despite her place in the Breed underground or with the Navajo Law Enforcement Agency, as a vulnerable child rather than the woman he knew she was. He was a man fighting to deny that his daughter was a woman, which made little sense to Stygian.
Certainly, Liza was inexperienced where men were concerned, he could sense that, just as he could smell the untainted sexuality that assured him it had been quite a long while since she had had a lover. But as far as her father was concerned, she was as pure and unspoiled as a young virgin.
“No, Dad.” She shook her head again. “I know you’ll worry, but if I go home, leaving again will be harder on all of us than it was before. I’m safe. And as long as I stay where I am, under Breed protection, you’re safe as well.”
Taking those few steps to her father, she let him embrace her before reaching up and placing a kiss to his cheek. “I love you, Daddy, and I love Mom, but I have to do this the way I feel is best. I’ve been making my own decisions far too long to be able to give up that freedom now.” As she stepped back from her father, she turned to Stygian. “Are you nearly finished?”
“Nearly,” he agreed. “A few minutes longer.”
“I’ll be outside. Don’t start yelling at them again. It upsets Ray’s secretary, and I imagine she gets enough of that from Ray himself.” She tried to smile at her father and the man she called an “uncle” before her expression became so femininely stubborn and commanding that he knew what was coming before it left her lips. “And I’ll see you and Ray this evening at the hotel. We’re all going to visit with Amber.”
“Liza, if she’s that ill—” Audi’s nostrils flared, his gaze becoming shuttered as he began to protest while Ray Martinez stiffened and the sudden scent of deceit hit Stygian so hard it was all he could do not to react to it.
“Then we all need to see it.” Her lips trembled for a brief second as Stygian sensed the slow, deepening fear inside her. “Please, Dad,” her voice lowered, uncertainty filling her then. “This is something I need you to do.” She looked to Ray then. “I need both of you to do it.”
Audi glanced away from her a second as though shoring his strength to deny her request.
That was his intention, Stygian could see it in his shuttered gaze when his eyes met Liza’s again. Then, within a heartbeat, what determination he’d been able to muster shattered. A grimace twisted his expression before he gave a slow, resigned nod. “We’ll be there, sweetheart.”
Stygian caught Ray’s expression too. Audi may be unable to deny his daughter, but Stygian was certain Ray wouldn’t have a problem with it. He had no intentions of showing up.
“Good.” Liza drew in a long, almost weary breath. “I’ll go to work then.”
She moved toward her father rather than the door, though. Audi met her at the side of Ray’s desk, his arms opening for her as he accepted his daughter’s embrace. Her arms wrapped around his neck and for a second, she held on to him with a desperation born of a young woman’s fears and a daughter’s uncertainties.
Kissing her forehead, Audi released her a moment later, then watched silently as she turned and left the room. Quiet, thoughtful, Stygian could feel the woman and the daughter battling inside her and the need she was fighting to hide, the fears she refused to reveal.
She didn’t speak as she neared him. Stepping to her enough to force her to pause, he gripped her shoulders and bent his head to her ear. “I’ll let Jonas know they’re coming.”