I mentally cursed him, but turned around and crossed my arms. Tension coiled through every muscle as I readied for action, readied to fight. Fight who, I had no idea, because Dia herself was offering no threat. No physical threat, anyway. "Why do you think I"m this Riley?"
"I touched your hand last night. It told me many secrets." She smiled. "You can drop the pretense. I know the truth."
How, when she hadn"t actually read my mind? Did that mean her gift was some form of precognition that came online whenever she touched someone? "So why not mention something then?"
"Because I had to make sure I was right, that I didn"t have the wrong name."
Meaning not all her predictions came true? That admission had to be first in the world of psychics. "And this is important because?""Because Riley Jenson is the only person known to have either escaped or frustrated Deshon Starr"s plans."
Her words did little to ease the tension running through my limbs, and if wasn"t for the fact that I could sense or smell no one else in the house, I might have run. Yes, I wanted an end to the madness, but that wasn"t going to happen when I was standing here, far away from Starr.
"Ask her what she wants," Jack said.
If he"d been standing next to me rather than jabbering in my ear, I would have been tempted to kick him, boss or not. There were more important worries-like how much she might have told Starr, and whether or not Rhoan was in danger of discovery.
"And what have you done with this knowledge?"
"Not gone to my would-be master, you can be sure of that." Her voice was dry, but there was something in the way her blind eyes flashed that had me believing her.
Which might just mean I was nothing more than a fool, and easily taken in by a bit of sincerity combined with contempt and anger.
"And why wouldn"t you do that? He killed Misha for attempting to double-cross him. He"d do the same to you without a second thought."
"I know. But things cannot remain the way they are."
"What things?"
She gave me a cool smile. "Before we go into details, I need to know if the Directorate would be willing to deal."
"Yes," Jack and I said together. He added in my ear, "Depending, of course, on what she wants."
She raised a pale eyebrow. "You don"t need to speak to your boss first?"
"I don"t have to. I can hear him in my head." I was tempted to add, "and no, I"m not mad," but restrained the impulse. A, because she"d "seen" me in action last night, and B, because I actually think insanity had a lot to do with my current situation.
After all, no one sane would willingly step into h.e.l.l"s den with the intent of f.u.c.king his lieutenants for information, no matter how p.i.s.sed off and in need of revenge they were.
"Telepathy." She nodded. "A handy tool for those in your line of work, though I"m surprised they haven"t taught you more control."
"We would have if we"d known it was needed." Jack"s voice was sarcastic. "But someone forgot to mention an apparent increase in power since our last lesson."
I ignored him. Anything I said was only going to count against me, anyway. "What sort of deal would you like to broker?"
She smiled and waved a hand to the sofa. "Please, come and sit down."
"I"m fine, thanks." Flight or fight mode was far easier standing up.
She raised her eyebrows again. "I sense distrust."
"That"s because there is."
"Honest. I like that.""And I"d like for you to quit f.u.c.king around and just get to the point."
She crossed one elegant leg over the other, and clasped her hands around her knees. "Okay. I want immunity from everything I have done on behalf of Starr."
"That depends greatly on what she wants to give us in return," Jack said.
"And?" I asked, sensing there was more to Dia"s list of demands.
"He cannot know that I am helping you. Which means I will never testify against him."
She was more than a little naive if she thought Starr was ever going to reach the courts. The Directorate had the power to be judge, jury, and executioner, and it was a power they regularly abused. In my time with them, I"d seen a total of five cases make it to the human justice system-and only because those behind the deeds were partially human. Those with an ounce of human blood could claim the full protection of the courts and the law.
Nonhumans had no such rights. Which pretty much smacked of a legal form of racism, I"d always thought.
"Those terms I can live with," Jack said.
"Anything else?" I asked.
She paused. "I wish to continue living here. I want this house exempt when the Government sells off Starr"s a.s.sets."
"No guarantee on that one," Jack said.
I repeated his statement, and she nodded. "I guess I can deal with that if it happens."
"And what do we get in return?"
She smiled, and waved at the sofa again. "Please. It is uncomfortable talking like this."
Why? Because her senses couldn"t pinpoint me accurately from such a distance? I suspected that might be the case, which meant I was better off staying where I was.
"Go sit," Jack said, as if he was reading my mind. Which he wasn"t, because I"d have at least felt it. Whether I could have actually stopped it was another matter entirely. Jack was not someone I ever wanted to test myself against for real. Though until yesterday, I"d never have thought I"d have the power to blow through Quinn"s shields, either-even with the advantage of surprise.
I blew out a breath that did nothing to release the tension still riding my limbs, but did as I was told and walked across to the sofa.
"I gather from the profile set up for you that the Directorate knows about my recruitment drives for Starr?"
"Yes." I took off the backpack, and once again perched on the edge of the sofa.
"How?"
"Don"t tell her about Gautier," Jack said. "Just in case."
Just in case? Just in case of what? Things go a.s.s up? G.o.d, wasn"t that a confidence builder! Not that I was expecting it all to go to plan-I mean, nothing else had over the last four months, so why would things change now? I shrugged. "They didn"t actually tell me. I just know you managed to catch their attention."
She nodded. Whether that meant she believed me or not was anyone"s guess. "And they planned to get you into the mansion via this method?"
"Obviously."
"Then what?"
I studied her for a moment, still wary about providing information to someone who had yet to prove her worth. Or reliability.
"You realize that if you double-cross the Directorate, they"ll kill you as quickly and as surely as Starr."
"I have no intention of betraying the Directorate." Her bright gaze centered on mine briefly but oh so powerfully. "You are truly my only hope."
Even as goose b.u.mps trembled across my skin, her gaze dropped from mine. She rubbed a hand down her thigh, then sighed.
"Starr is not a fool. The women he brings in to service his men each month are strictly watched. They never move from the compound they are placed in. If it is your intention to gain enough information about Starr to bring him down, then you are tackling it from the wrong angle."
"All I need to do is catch his lieutenants in an unguarded moment and strip their minds of information."
It wasn"t going to be that easy-I knew that, and Jack knew that. For a start, the minute either man realized what I was doing, I was dead meat. And while I might have strong telepathy skills, I wasn"t as practiced in using them as I should be. Last night"s attacks had proven that.
"But Starr"s lieutenants do not use the women in the compound."
Well, s.h.i.t. "Why not?"
She smiled. "If the Directorate has been following me, then they would know not all the women I recruit are prost.i.tutes."
"Yeah, so?"
"So some of those who are not are recruited for the ring."
"The ring? As in, boxing ring?"
She shook her head. The chandelier"s light caught the silken strips of her hair, turning them a molten silver. And in that instant, I realized just how similar she was to Misha, right down to her angular features. Odd, considering how dissimilar all the other clones were to each other.
"It is more a wrestling ring. Starr and his people enjoy watching women fight. The lucky winner gets to share beds with his lieutenants, Alden and Leo."
"Misha told us Alden and Leo go through women like sharks-that s.e.x is a fix they must have everyday. Does that mean the fights are a feature every day?"
She nodded. "Every evening. But the women are merely the encore to the main fight-Starr, as I"m sure you know, is h.o.m.os.e.xual. He makes his security forces fight, and takes the winner."
Something in the way she said that had my eyebrows rising. "Takes?"
She grimaced. "He prefers force. He likes the taste of fear."If he tried to force my brother, Rhoan would have him for breakfast. He might not mind a bit of rough but force was not something he tolerated-on himself or on others.
"Then none of these fights are serious?"
"Oh, they"re serious. People do get hurt-broken bones and bleeding is something Starr insists on. Which is why most of those recruited for the ring are either shifters or weres. Healing is then not a problem."
Because shifters, like weres, were capable of healing when shifting. Of course, the fact that shifters generally thought themselves "superior" to weres in every way could make for some interesting times in the ring. Especially seeing most weres thought the same about shifters.
And really, the only real difference between any of us was the fact that weres were forced to shift with the full moon and shifters were not.
"You think this is the way I should go in?"
She nodded. "Those who fight in the ring have free run of the main house and grounds."
"And why would he give the fighters freedom and not the hookers? Surely he wouldn"t trust them more?"
"No. But as a general rule, I"ve done a more intense background check on the fighters. And his halls are monitored by security twenty-four hours a day. He trusts them to keep an eye on what is going on."
"So it"s just cameras?"
"And motion-sensing devices."
"Infrared?"
"Not yet in the house. There is infrared around the zoo, and I know he plans to install it elsewhere." She grimaced. "There was an attack by a rival recently that convinced him of the need. The vampire got very close."
"What happened to the vampire?" And was it perhaps my vampire? Though I guess that made no sense-if Quinn had known about Starr, he wouldn"t have tried to ferret the information from my mind.
"The vampire was staked and left to the sun."
Definitely not Quinn, then. "Starr has a zoo?"
"Starr keeps a collection of nonhuman freaks." She shrugged. "It amuses his human guests."
I just bet it did. And it was a brilliant way to hide a growing force of specially bred a.s.sa.s.sins. "Isn"t it a little dangerous to have humans around during the rising of the full moon?"
"Oh yes. But the moon dances provide good blackmail material, so Starr considers the risks well worth it." She smiled thinly.
"What politician"s family is going to raise a raucous if their loved one dies in such a compromising position? Few, let me tell you."
I raised my eyebrows. "So it has happened?"
"Of course."
"Ask her if she"d be willing to name names?" Jack said. "We need to check what they might have been forced into doing before their deaths."
I repeated the question, and Dia nodded. "I will provide a full list of everyone who goes to Starr"s dances."
I studied her for a moment, then said, "You"re being awfully helpful, and I"d like to know why."
Her smile was tight. "Because when Misha died, Starr did something to me he should never have done."
I raised my eyebrows at the low fury in her voice. "And that was?"
Her gaze came to mine, and a chill ran across my skin. I"d never really understood the phrase "if looks could kill," but it became all too clear as I stared into Dia"s unseeing eyes. The devil himself would have quailed at the depth of anger and hatred in her powerful gaze.
"Deshon Starr took my daughter away from me," she said softly. "And I will destroy him-and destroy his whole filthy organization-if it is the last thing I ever do."
"Has he killed her:" I asked, even as I wondered why I was feeling sorry for a woman who"d obviously allowed herself to be evil"s p.a.w.n for a very long time.
Or was that being unfair? Misha had once told me that he had no choice in some of the things he did, simply because Starr was far more powerful and could control them all. Misha had skirmished from the edges, but he"d never managed to break free of the leash. Why would Dia, for all her abilities, have any more luck?