"Mordecai is trailing Brandenmore." Callan leaned forward, laying his arms on the polished surface of the meeting table. "He had a heli-jet waiting several blocks from Ms. Broen's house. He flew immediately to Iran."
"He has a research facility there." Jonas nodded.
"And neither America nor the Breeds has an extradition treaty with them," Kane stated. "Our hands are tied unless Mordecai and his men can catch him outside the facility and manage to grab him without being seen."
If anyone could do it, Mordecai could.
"Dog was spotted in Iran just hours after Brandenmore landed," Rule reported. "He and his team were about a mile from the research facility and there's a rumor Brandenmore called them in."
Brandenmore had made a major mistake if he had thought to hire the mercenary Coyote unit Dog commanded. Dog might play the bad-assed mercenary, but Jonas and Dog knew whom he owed his loyalty to.
"I want Brandenmore." He turned to Callan. "This is Breed Law, Callan. It's no longer public. It's no longer a matter of bringing him to the humans' idea of justice. He's mine."
And he would suffer.
"Justice was your idea, Jonas," Callan reminded him as he sat back in his chair, his golden gaze somber. "You were right. The Breeds will gain more power, more approval, if Brandenmore is brought to justice publicly."
"He'll never be prosecuted." Jonas shook his head; that had been proven in the past year. "I once thought the political backing the Breeds had found would make us stronger. I agreed with that. But all they're doing is patting us on the fucking back and kissing the asses of men like Brandenmore. I'm not willing to see another Breed die by his hand."
"We knew it wouldn't be easy, Jonas." Kane Tyler leaned forward, his icy blue eyes concerned now. "We have the backing in the Senate, no matter how it appears. We have to have the proof. They can't move without it. And getting proof, when Brandenmore keeps acquiring Breed spies within Sanctuary, isn't going to be easy."
Breed spies. Select Breeds were turning against their own, destroying the tribe's home of freedom by selling information to their former jailors.
"Jonas, we could have an edge here. Let's use it." Lawe stepped forward, planted his hands on the top of the table and stared back at Jonas intently.
"And that edge is?" He had a very bad feeling he knew exactly what it was.
"Rachel and her child," Lawe stated quietly. "Brandenmore was taking that baby with him; that means he had plans for her. And Rachel can identify him and testify to his actions tonight. She has a solid reputation, just as her parents had before their deaths. She's proof that Brandenmore attempted to steal sensitive Breed information. She's your ace in the hole."
He was right, and Jonas knew exactly what Lawe considered an ace in the hole.
"You've learned too well, Lawe," he growled. "You expect me to use my mate."
"As you used Lance Jacobs to save your sister. Just as you've used every weapon, every asset you could find or steal in this battle we're fighting," Lawe agreed. "But Rachel has something no one else has: She has you, Jonas. The best strategist ever created to ensure her safety."
Jonas grunted at that. "Compliments will only piss me off, Lawe. Now I know how my Enforcers felt each time I used their mating heat to my own ends."
Not that he hadn't always sensed how they felt. Not that he hadn't regretted the choices he'd had to make, even before he'd put them in effect.
Breathing in deeply, he ran his hand over his hair, always aware, always sensing the tattoo hidden beneath his hair: F2.07.
&n
bsp; He was the only Breed to ever carry an F rating in his lab designation. Most Breeds were A, for Alpha designation. His was F, for the very fact that he had been created to breed. To father hybrid Breeds. It was a designation that had never worked for the scientists who had created him. His sperm had never been viable with the Breed females they had paired him with.
It was only in recent years that Ely had managed to figure out why his designation had been a failure. It wasn't a Breed female that would be compatible with the Breed sperm. Nature had twisted the genetics the scientists had used. His Breed sperm--the genetics programmed into it, the Breeds it would create--needed a human female to be viable.
And now he had the perfect female to create the hybrid Breed the scientists were so certain would be the most dangerous Breed ever created.
Turning away from the other men, he exhaled tiredly, finally feeling the bone-deep bruises he'd acquired in the explosion.
"He'll come after her," Jonas stated, knowing Brandenmore would put everything he had into killing Rachel now.
"The spies he still has here, in Sanctuary, will be activated," Lawe agreed. "He can't have many left. We watch, and we wait. Pretend we're unaware that we know he still has those ties here. We catch them, then we ensure their cooperation in providing proof against him."
They could do that. The Breeds weak enough to fall in with Brandenmore were easily intimidated. They could never be trusted again, but they could be used.
"Assemble Ghost Team." He turned back to the group as he gave Lawe the order. "You'll be in command. I want Rachel and the child completely covered. They are the team's main concern. No matter what, Lawe--especially if I can't control the mating heat. Nothing else matters."