Her mother’s smile dimmed partially as her father got that harried, worried look he always seemed to have whenever she was around.
“Mr. Wyatt wants to meet us to personally introduce the commander you’ll be working with.” Greta McQuade was watching her daughter anxiously now, though she was trying to maintain her excitement. “He even stated he’d run a full background check on the company as well as on you, and he’s extremely confident of your ability to do exactly what’s needed to ensure that the commander he’s chosen as division director receives the best reception and chances of building a strong community network. We’ll manage the two selected for the liaison positions, though we’ll begin with Malachi Morgan and his fiancée, Isabelle Martinez. And Isabelle is such a wonderful girl. Not that it will hurt that she’s the president’s niece and one of our tribal chief’s granddaughters, not to mention your second cousin.”
Oh no, that wouldn’t hurt at all, Gypsy agreed as she could feel the ax getting ready to fall.
Right across the back of her neck.
Her forced smile was completely lost on her parents and Jason. They were simply too damned happy with this contract to see that their daughter was less than enthused.
She wasn’t normally a paranoid person, she really wasn’t. But she didn’t believe in coincidence either. And the very fact that this was happening only days after Rule, a rumored potential candidate for the position of division director, had warned her of his intention to check her bed out wasn’t lost on her.
Her parents’ business was small, their reputation sterling, but their list of clients wasn’t exactly long. Even in Window Rock there were stronger image consulting firms than the McQuades’. Yet Jonas Wyatt had chosen her parents?
This was such a setup that it practically stank of being maneuvered. Then there was the fact that her parents hadn’t mentioned the Breed commander’s name. Probably because they had come into the store the day before to hear her raging about Commander Rule Breaker and his complete arrogance to Jason and Kandy.
They knew this was not going to be a smooth, seamless business relationship where she was concerned.
“So, when exactly are we supposed to be meeting with Mr. Wyatt and his commander?” she asked carefully.
“We’re meeting this evening at the hotel, in Mr. Wyatt’s suite. He’ll be there, along with his wife, Rachel.” Her mother frowned then. “I hadn’t heard of their ceremony being performed as other Breeds have. Why do you think they didn’t have one?”
Her mother was the queen of distracting questions, and she could see the desperation in her mother’s gaze to distract her quickly.
“Their daughter’s been too ill. They haven’t married yet, though they rarely correct the assumption that a Breed ceremony was performed privately.” Gypsy supplied the answer absently even as she quickly began processing information. “What time this evening? And isn’t this a little short notice, especially considering the fact that I have no idea who I’m working with?”
“A bit, perhaps.” It was Jason who spoke up as Greta watched Gypsy closely. “But as Director Wyatt has been quite concerned with information on the new offices opening on the reservation without an assigned division director and key staff, it’s perfectly understandable. And his concern is very well placed. As are his plans to announce the new office and its DD at a welcoming ball that the president and chiefs of the Six Tribes are throwing in honor of the Breeds.”
The look her parents shared, one of such pride and excitement, had her nearly rolling her eyes in disgust.
“What party?” No one had mentioned a party to her, and that was something she needed plenty of advance notice for. Notice that she knew she just was not going to get.
Her mother turned back to her, practically glowing again despite Gypsy’s lack of excitement and her knowledge that she had just been distracted by her mother again. “We’ve been invited, as a family, to a welcoming ball being thrown in honor of the Breeds and the agreement between the Nation and the Breed Ruling Cabinet to locate the offices on reservation land. Mr. Wyatt wants to introduce you, as well as his selection as division director, to the press the day after the ball. It’s an incredible opportunity for us as well as the Breeds. This could be what we’ve needed to pull in the larger contracts that other firms have gotten because of their greater visibility.”
Gypsy nodded slowly, so certain of exactly what was going on that she had to grit her teeth to keep from informing her parents. This was no more than a heavy-handed attempt by Commander Breaker to ensure that she couldn’t continue to ignore him as she had since the night he’d ambushed her outside her apartment.
There wasn’t an image consulting business in the world that could do more for the Breeds’ image than the Breeds themselves managed, one way or the other, to do for themselves.
They didn’t need McQuade Image Consulting, they needed damned magicians to hide the machinations of the new division director, Rule Breaker. And while they were at it, it sure as hell wouldn’t hurt to put a leash on the reigning director of the Bureau of Breed Affairs, Jonas Wyatt.
Wyatt was known as a man who kept his business promises, though; hopefully that meant he wouldn’t destroy her parents’ dreams when his commander didn’t get the bed bunny he was hoping for.
And wouldn’t her contact within the Unknown be jumping for joy at the prospect of her working so closely with the very enforcer they suspected was investigating them? The one they feared had found evidence to identify one of them?