“Liza.” His smile was tight, his gaze concerned as he stepped past the security guards and waved them away. “Didn’t you get your father’s message, dear? I know he called first thing this morning.”
Only a few inches taller than Liza, Ronnie’s expressive blue eyes were concerned, his expression tense as he tugged at the blue silk of his jacket.
“What message?” She felt dazed as she wondered what message could possibly have explained the electronic refusal to allow her past the security desk.
“Come with me.” Indicating the front entrance she’d just entered, Ronnie led the way, holding the door open as she and Stygian stepped outside once again.
“Over here.” Indicating the deep curve of the building that then branched into a set of offices, Ronnie led the way to a small, shrub-enclosed patio off the cafeteria where several umbrella-shaded tables and matching chairs were arranged.
“I want to see my father,” Liza demanded as he stopped just inside the patio entrance. “I want to know what’s going on.”
“I don’t know what’s going on, dear,” he breathed out roughly before raking his fingers through graying black hair.
Frown lines deepened in his forehead as he watched her intently. “I know he called and left a message for you, Claire, Chelsea and Isabelle. Since you and Claire were at the hotel, he asked the others to meet there as well.” He checked his watch. “He should be there any minute.”
Liza turned on her heel and strode quickly back to the SUV.
“Liza, you know there has to be a reasonable explanation,” Ronnie stated as she strode away from him, his tone worried now as Stygian opened the door to the SUV for the second time that morning.
Turning, she faced the chief of staff furiously. “No, Ronnie, there is no explanation for canceling my access before discussing it with me,” she answered, her voice shaking as she let Stygian help her into the backseat before swinging her head around to face Ronnie once again. “I guess I can assume I’ve been fired?”
Her throat was tightening with tears and anger at the knowledge that everything she had worked for was being taken away with no explanation whatsoever.
Ronnie shook his head, raking his fingers through his hair once more as he stared back at her in abject apology. “I’m really sorry, Liza.”
They knew each other well. This was Ray’s second term, and though Liza had only just moved into the position of personal assistant from her former job as the president’s scheduler when his former assistant, Isabelle, had taken a position in the office of the chiefs of the Six Tribes, she knew Ronnie well.
Besides the fact that they had worked together for over six years, they’d also known each other for years before that. Her father had worked with Ray for over twelve years, since his early retirement from the military where he and Ray and met.
Before Ray had become president, he had been a delegate for more than eight years. He had hired Audi Johnson right out of the military as head of security for the Navajo Nation Chambers, but Liza and her mother had already moved to the Nation when Liza was barely ten.
As the SUV pulled into the hotel parking lot once again, Liza dug into her purse, searching for her sat-phone.
She was on the verge of emptying the bag when she remembered leaving the device on her bedside table before showering.
No calls had come through before she left the hotel, though, not quite an hour before. If he had called, he had done so right before leaving for the hotel.
He could have called her before he canceled her clearance. That would have been the fatherly thing to do, wouldn’t it?
The minute the SUV door opened and Stygian reached in for her, Liza was out of the vehicle and striding into the hotel. She didn’t stop at the registration desk to see if her father had arrived.
Flint had been on the phone with Jonas as he pulled into the hotel, and no doubt he would let her know soon.
“Why would your father cancel your security?” Stygian asked as they entered the elevator alone and pressed the fifth floor button.
“Security risk, layoff, termination.” She shrugged. “Either of the three means I’m out of a job.”
“Has he called?”
“I left my phone in the suite.” She grimaced as she gripped the straps of her purse and briefcase in a tight grip. “I never do that. But we’ve not been gone long, right? If he had called before I left, I would have heard the phone ring.”
“Your father’s waiting in the adjoining suite next to our room,” he told her before murmuring an affirmative to Flint that he had given her the message.
Those damned earbud communicators. Jonas wouldn’t let her have one.
“Should I tell him you’ll be a while?” he asked her, his voice gentle as the elevator came to a smooth stop.
“No. Facing him now is just as good as later. Preferable, even.”
His hand settled at the small of her back. The touch was surprisingly comforting, and far too pleasurable. For a second, a moment out of time, she could feel his cock pushing inside her, his lips on hers. She could taste his kiss, feel his touch.
“Now you’re just making me horny,” he drawled as they reached the suite next to theirs.
Liza remained silent.
Stygian’s hard knock was answered quickly by Dog.
A scowl covered his face while his light gray eyes were the color of hard, cold steel.
“Join the party,” he invited, his voice low. “We’re just all getting ready to have fun.”
Liza stepped inside and looked around the room.
Her father stood with Ray Martinez on the far side of the room. Ray leaned against the desk behind him, his arms crossed over his chest, a heavy frown pulling at his brow as his dark eyes flashed in anger.
Audi Johnson stood to the side of the desk, hands braced on hips, lips thin with obvious impatience. To the other side of the Nation president, his legal advisor and Isabelle and Chelsea’s father, Terran Martinez, stood, leaning against the wall rather than the desk.
“Did you show up at work too before you realized you’d been fired?” Chelsea sat on the couch next to Claire, who had her head down, concentrating on her fingers.
“Pretty much,” Liza agreed, moving to the couch to join her friends, always aware of Stygian close to her. On the love seat across from Claire and Chelsea, Isabelle and Malachi sat silently as well. Isabelle was obviously upset; Malachi appeared furious.
She turned to her father. “You didn’t call, Dad. You let security deny me access.”
Her father’s lips thinned. “I did call, Liza, the call didn’t go through. I’ve tried to contact you since three in the morning. I learned at about six that your sat-phone signal had somehow been hijacked and your phone was connected to another source and uploading data to it.”
She blinked back at him. “I wasn’t uploading anything.”
“No, you weren’t,” he agreed. “Any more than you were uploading from your laptop, but both were in the process of a large upload. I managed to sever the upload and the connection, but your phone and laptop Wi-Fi chips have been permanently disabled.”
“The laptop screen was flickering again this weekend,” she stated, moving to set the briefcase on the floor as though it would somehow incriminate her. “Just like it did last month.”
Her father nodded. “There’s a serious security breach with each of your electronics,” he told them. “The Breeds obviously are not included in that statement.” There was a vein of animosity in his tone now.
“Is there any way the Breeds can help, Mr. Johnson?” Malachi offered cordially.
“Oh, there sure is—”
“Dad, don’t—” Liza knew that tone of voice, the look in his eyes.
“You and your buddies can pack the hell up and get off Navajo land. And take those God be-damned Genetics Council agents with you.”