He sat in the corner of the seat, one elbow propped on the padded armrest he had lowered, the other arm braced along the back of the seat.
She glanced to the driver's section and caught a glimpse of Lawe's lips twitching as his icy blue eyes flicked to the rearview mirror.
"So, Ms. Rodriquez, what put a burr in the Leo's tail that he sent you out here only weeks after rushing to his son's side at the hospital?"
Rather, two months, Ria thought. And unfortunately, if the Leo found out what she was doing and where she was doing it, he was liable to skin her and hang her up to dry. That wasn't a pleasant thought.
"The Leo is a businessman, Mr. Warrant," she informed him, following the line Dane had taken. "Sanctuary and its Breeds profit greatly by Vanderale's largesse. The recent attacks against Sanctuary and the weaknesses within it concern him. Both professionally as well as personally. He would enjoy visiting his son and grandson. He's spoken of attending when his daughter-in-law gives birth to her second child. He can't do this as long as there's a risk of the world discovering who and what he is."
His lips curled mockingly. The sight of it had her restraining the urge to lick her own lips. Damn him, he made her feel weak-kneed and too much like a woman. She realized that weakness could threaten her job. She was looking for another spy, and the consequences of information possibly leaking out of Sanctuary could destroy the Breed community as a whole. On a different note, allowing herself to get involved with Mercury also had the potential to hurt her personally.
She never got personally involved, she reminded herself. That path led to nothing but disaster, and she really didn't need more disaster in her life.
"Ms. Rodriquez"
She invited him to use her name. "Ria please." Ms. Rodriquez just made her feel old.
"Ria." His brow arched. "Why do I have a feeling there's much more to you than meets the eye?"
Her eyes widened as though she couldn't imagine. Dowdy clothes, no makeup. She did a damned fine job of being the little nobody everyone expected.
"Trust me, Mr. Warrant, what you see is what you get." She smiled back softly. "Of course, I can be rather ill natured when the situation calls for it. I'm not always nice."
He stared back at her silently, and she had a feeling he was seeing more than she wanted him to. He was definitely seeing more than anyone else had bothered to look for.
For the first time in her life Ria wondered if she had run up against a man she couldn't continue hiding from. His eyes urged her to share her secrets; the swirl of ambers, the curiosity, the interest, invited her to reach for things she knew she should never reach for.
Play with fire and you'll get burned. She remembered, long ago, too long ago, how her mother had laughingly advised her to always watch out for people.
They'll deceive you, my little Ria, she had always said. They'll lie and they'll smile, and when they've taken all you have to give, they'll find someone else to use up.
She couldn't have been very old, but she remembered those words.
The memory of it had her turning her head from Mercury, shifting her gaze to the mountains they were winding their way through as she pushed back the loneliness that filled her whenever she allowed it.
Her mother had died before she was six. Ria had spent three days alone in their apartment, crying for her mother, and her mother had been lying in a cold morgue.
She might have stayed there forever if a neighbor hadn't realized that no one had mentioned the child of Leo Vanderale's secretary. Her child hadn't even been listed in her personnel files. The people she had worked with hadn't even known about the daughter Mary Rodriquez had borne. Until Mary's death.
Until Ria had been left alone.
She pushed back the memories. They had no place here. She hadn't even let herself think about it for years. She was who she was, and she owed the Vanderales for her life after her mother's death.
And here she was, still running errands for Dane, and still doing his bidding. Still joining in his little games because he flashed that devil's smile of his and dared her to be courageous when they both knew she really wasn't courageous at all.
* * *
She was being courageous now all right, and this time, Leo just might hang them both out to dry for it. Sanctuary was Leo's baby, so to speak. Callan Lyons was the son he hadn't known of until the revelation of the Breeds broke across the world. He was the son Leo hadn't been able to reach out to.
Dane was his heir, and Leo had always doted on Dane, to a point. He respected Dane but knew his son well enough to know Dane lived a much wilder, much more reckless life than made Leo happy.
Leo was a family man. He was a prime pride leader and he had proven it with the Breeds he protected on his African estate. And he ached for the sons he knew the Council had created from the se**n and eggs they had stolen from him and his mate. And he ached for his grandchildren. Grandchildren Dane seemed in no hurry to provide him with.
"I hope you've been honest with Jonas concerning your reasons to be here, Ria," Mercury drawled then. "He can be a bastard when you lie to him."
Yeah yeah, like father like son. Jonas Wyatt was Leo's son as well and was more like him than any other, Ria thought.
She turned back to him with a smile. "I know his father, Mr. Warrant, and the apple didn't fall far from the tree as you would say here. Don't worry, being honest and straightforward are but a few of my faults."
Dane would have laughed his rear off at that comment, and she knew it.
But Mercury nodded and said nothing more. But he still watched her. His gaze stayed on her, and she swore the flush mounting beneath her clothing was sinking into her bones.
Damn, she was glad his sense of smell wasn't as good as most Breeds, but from the way his eyes were narrowing and his nostrils were flaring, she suspected he sensed the arousal she could feel building in her.
She was a woman. And damn if he wasn't a fine specimen of a man and a Breed. She wasn't mated, and she wasn't dead. She had all the instincts other women had, and all those instincts were rioting for a taste of tall, dangerous and delicious over there.
That didn't mean she had to act on them.
The window rose between the driver's section and the passenger's. Ria turned and gave Mercury a questioning look.
"Lawe likes to open his window. It might be too cold for you," he stated, but his eyes said something entirely different. Something that had her ducking her head and turning to stare out the window next to her.