Jonas gathered the photos together before replacing them in the file.
“They grew up,” he stated. “The one with her parents is Honor Roberts. The leukemia she had was diagnosed as a particularly fast-growing and fatal illness. There is no known cure or procedure for remission, even now.”
“The other girl was Fawn Corrigan. At two months of age she was near death, diagnosed with infant AIDS and given only weeks to live. As you saw in the photo, at age ten, she was still alive.”
“But still ill,” she stated.
“Not necessarily,” he said. “Did you recognize any of them?”
“Why would I?” Her gaze jerked back to his with a hard frown. “The two girls were with two immature Breed males. There are no Breed males of that age in Window Rock that I’m aware of.”
Tightening her stomach, she refused to allow herself to think about them—or her reaction to the photos.
“Those pictures were taken more than a decade ago.” The obvious impatience in his voice was reflected in the darkening swirls of gray in his eyes.
“Then why would I know them?” She glanced around the room at the Breeds gathered there before turning her gaze back to the director. “Why don’t you just tell me what the hell is going on here, Director Wyatt? That would be a hell of a lot easier than the games you seem to so enjoy.”
If she wasn’t mistaken, he didn’t particularly care for the fact that she called him on his habit of deliberately manipulating anyone and everyone he came in contact with.
Megan Fields Arness stepped forward. “Liza, the point is that we’re searching for the two girls. Finding them is of the highest importance to the Breeds, to ensure the Genetics Council doesn’t acquire them for whatever research purposes they have in mind. There’s nothing nefarious in the least in the Breeds’ wish to find them.”
The knowledge that Megan would lie to her—probably was lying to her—had her fighting back the sting of tears.
She had known Megan most of her life.
Megan’s grandfather and Isabelle, Chelsea, and Claire’s were both part of the chiefs of the Six Tribes. Besides that, the Martinez family was a very close unit and socialized together often.
They were friends—or so she had thought. Friends weren’t supposed to lie to each other to this extent.
“Well, there’s nothing nefarious in the least about the fact that I haven’t seen or heard of them. But I would like to know what the hell they have to do with me?” Liza stared back at Megan, meeting her gaze and wishing she could find that sense of calm that Megan seemed to hold in her dark brown eyes.
“Those girls are currently the focus of a search by the Genetics Council as well as the Breeds,” Megan told her. “They were part of an experiment that lasted for more than a decade. The two girls and the two Breeds all survived but disappeared about ten years ago. We have to find them before the Genetics Council does.”
And if the four had disappeared and never come forward, then it was apparent they didn’t want to be found.
“Why?” Liza questioned her. “Why would you believe you have the right either to find them or to acquire them?”
Damn, she felt sorry for the former kids now being hunted by two such powerful, merciless forces.
“If we don’t,” Stygian said, stepping forward, his voice dark and rough, rasping over her senses like velvet, “then trust me, Ms. Johnson, the Genetics Council will make damned sure they regret the fact that the Council found them rather than the Breeds.”
She had to physically restrain the shiver that wanted to race across her flesh at the sound of his voice caressing her senses. It reminded her of dark, wicked sex.
Of sinning in the most pleasurable of ways.
Every cell in her body tingled at the sound. Her breasts became swollen and heavy, her nipples taut and eager for touch. And between her thighs, her clit throbbed in heightened alert as she suddenly became aware of the emptiness in her vagina.
Damn.
No man had the right to make a woman so aware of the fact that a male wasn’t possessing her.
“Well, if I could help you, I would,” she assured, stepping back carefully as he moved just behind Jonas Wyatt. “The fact is, though, that I can’t. As I stated, I don’t know them, nor do I know who they are.”
Jonas pulled another file free.
Opening it, he drew two photos free. The first was of one of the Breed boys in the former pictures. The second was obviously an “after” version.
Nothing could hold back the shudder that rushed up her spine at the changes in the boy to the man.