Rachel could feel the anger mounting inside her now. For too many months, she had overheard or been forced to watch the confrontations between Jonas and Leo, and for just as long she'd thought how cold and unfeeling Leo could be while his son was watching.
Let Jonas turn his back though. Once he did, Leo's gaze would darken with regret, anger and sadness. He kept a facade, a cold, unfeeling attitude whenever Jonas watched, only to become a regretful father later.
Leo glared back at her. "Think Sanctuary can survive without Vanderale Industries, do you, young lady?"
Did Jonas truly think they couldn't?
Her brow arched. "I have no doubt they could survive, Leo. It may not be as easy, but they would do better than survive. They would thrive with or without your help."
"All because of Jonas?" Leo snapped.
Her eyes narrowed as she took note of Elizabeth laying her hand on her mate's arm in warning. "I never said that, Leo."
"You're his mate. Like all his women, you think the man has no faults."
She turned to Elizabeth. "Your mate is out of control, Dr. Vanderale. When he can be the rational man I know he's capable of, please place a notice on his chest; otherwise, the rest of us may never know." She shot Leo a tight smile. "Excuse me, but I'm sure my daughter needs to be fed soon."
"You should be breast-feeding," Leo snarled as she turned away. "That sissy formula you're giving her isn't nutritious."
Rachel clenched her teeth and continued to the door. Her temper wasn't in the best of states. Whatever mating heat wasn't doing, she appreciated, but it seemed it was triggering reactions in her that she sure as hell wasn't expecting. One of those reactions was the temper she had mastered years ago, when she was far younger.
"There's no way that child will be a fitting mate for a Breed if you're not feeding her properly."
Rachel swung around. Elizabeth was glaring at her mate as Leo crossed his arms and stared at Rachel with that chilling intensity.
"I certainly hope she isn't a fitting mate as far as you're concerned." She advanced a step, temper slowly getting the best of her. "Because your opinion is one I would fully distrust, Mr. Vanderale. And coming from you, any opinion on parenting you would have would be completely hypocritical."
His brows creased into a heavy frown. "I have never been a hypocrite."
"You're definitely a lousy father," she retorted furiously.
"I'm sorry, Leo, but if it weren't for your wife, I'd pity your babes."
Fire lit his gaze. "There is nothing more important to me than my children."
"Nothing except your secrecy, your pride and your own ideas of right and right," she stated caustically. "Poor Dane, it's no wonder he's such a manipulator. He has to be to stay under your radar and to keep your love. He's probably had nightmares about losing your regard and suffering the hell of your disinterest as Jonas has."
"Do you have any idea who you're talking to?" he growled, his head lowering, his lips pulling back in what she was certain was intended to be an intimidating snarl.
"An asshole, just to start with," she informed him. "Shall I go on?"
"I've destroyed lesser little upstarts than you pretend to be," he warned her, his expression shifting, turning calculating--just as Jonas's gaze shifted whenever he was playing one of his interminable games. She'd already picked up on this particular game though, as well as the reason for it.
She shook her head, smiling mockingly. "You don't scare me, Leo. You do no more than amuse me."
Surprise almost got the best of him. Rachel watched his eyes widen in surprise, his lips thin as he nearly snarled in frustration.
"Does it work often, Leo?" she drawled politely. "Pissing off your sons' mates to see how they'll respond? To see if they're worthy to be a mate to a Vanderale 'get'?" She sneered. "I don't just feel sorry for your children. I feel sorry for your wife, too. And I must say, she has amazing sons, despite the bastard who sired them."
She turned on her heel, her spine ramrod straight, and stalked back to the door.
"I love all my children, Ms. Broen." Leo's voice stopped her at the door. "And you are more than a worthy mate for my son."
"You're still a lousy fucking father." She jerked the door open and stalked from the lab, her entire body shaking with the anger surging through her.
Manipulating bastard. Jonas had come by it honestly, she had to say, but he was by far kinder about it. He manipulated for the good of his Enforcers. He manipulated and calculated for the good of the Breed community as a whole. Never, at any time, had she seen an edge of cruelty in him.
The Breeds had refined themselves from their beginnings. Leo was still the animal the scientists had tried to create. Jonas was the Breed who gave an air of mystery and romanticism to this savage new race of humans.