Meiling moved up to the side of the house in stealthy silence. The blinds swayed with the wind as she examined the window for alarms. Finding none on the window, which Gedeon found quite shocking, Meiling slid through the window.
“Lilith.” She whispered the child’s name. “Lilith, don’t stop crying or act startled. Your father sent me to bring you home. The bad man is just outside the door. He can’t know I’m here yet. My partner will make sure he can’t get to you again.”
Lilith flipped over onto her back and sat up, her eyes wild as she looked around the room. Gedeon, watching from the window, could see the leopard staring out from the child’s eyes. There was no question that Fredrick Atwater’s daughter was a shifter, and she had a leopard already looking out for her.
Meiling looked soft and gentle as she slowly approached Lilith, extending one hand toward her. “Honey, you should be able to hear lies. When you listen to people, you know if they are good people or bad, right? Lola wasn’t a good person, was she?”
Lilith shook her head. “I told Daddy, but he wouldn’t listen. Lola said I was bad for telling him. She called me a brat too.”
“You’re not a brat, Lilith. You were trying to save your daddy. That makes you smart and courageous. I’m sorry she and her friends have been so mean to you.”
“They said my daddy doesn’t want me back.”
“You know that isn’t true. You could hear their lies, couldn’t you?” Meiling insisted softly. She was close to the child now. Sitting on the edge of the bed with her. Not yet touching her. Not forcing acceptance from the little girl.
Gedeon could see the leopard in the child yielding to Meiling’s sovereignty. There was no demand in Meiling. No impatience. She listened attentively to everything the child had to say, leaning toward her with a little half-smile on her face and nodding as though everything Lilith had to say was invaluable. It wasn’t very long before the child crawled into Meiling’s lap and wound her arms around his partner’s neck. For some reason the sight of that caused a curious melting sensation in the region of his heart.
Meiling signaled him, a small movement of her fingers as she flung herself somersaulting backward over the side of the bed, Lilith in her arms, tucked in tight against her body to protect the child. Simultaneously, Gedeon dove through the window, his speed making him a blur as Georgi Chaban slammed open the door to the bedroom, using his fist and a boot. He had a gun out and shot into the room without actually seeing a target. The door crashed into the wall and started to bounce closed.
Gedeon went in low, beneath the gun, hitting him at the knees and taking him down, his knife sinking into his belly several times and then his groin, severing arteries while Meiling covered Lilith’s eyes and murmured reassurances to her.
9
GEDEONprepared for the meeting with Elijah Lospostos and Fyodor Amurov by packing up everything in their hotel rooms and checking out. He wanted to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice. They had airline tickets, but that wasn’t the only way they could escape. In fact, he wasn’t counting on that being their way out of San Antonio.
He didn’t trust easily. Fyodor and Elijah clearly had a long-standing relationship. Lola Morales was dead. She was the daughter of Pedro Morales, a lieutenant for Elijah whose family had worked for Elijah’s family for generations. No doubt he was demanding answers and wanted revenge.
Alan Cano had also died, a young man from one of Elijah Lospostos’s long-standing families that had also served for generations. His people would be seeking explanations and demanding Elijah go after whoever had killed their child.
Caleb Basco was also dead. His family knew he hadhad a hot temper. They also knew he had believed no one would ever notice when he drew a knife in a fight, yet he had been seen by two police officers as he pulled a knife on a witness who was telling the policemen that theothervehicle was at fault, not Caleb’s, but for some reason, Caleb had attacked him. The witness had been faster and had killed Caleb with Caleb’s own knife.
Georgi Chaban was slain in his own home, stabbed several times. There was evidence that he had been involved in a kidnapping. There had been a child living in the bedroom where he had been killed. Evidence had been left that he had been holding the child prisoner there. His parents didn’t believe it and wanted Elijah to investigate and exact retribution.
Four members of Elijah Lospostos’s extended family were killed without his prior knowledge. At the very least, even if he accepted that they were all guilty and deserved death, he wouldn’t be happy that he hadn’t been informed of what was going on in his own lair. He was a powerful man and would make a dangerous enemy.
Gedeon had run up against many of Lospostos’s kind in his career. One had to walk a very fine line between fear and respect. He could never back down, and he could never fully trust anyone. Now he had Meiling to protect.
They approached the bakery, where they would meet with Lospostos as promised. It was dark and after hours, so the bakery was closed. Gedeon and Meiling had scouted carefully. Timur, as expected, had his men on rooftops and patrolling the streets in anticipation of the meeting. Gedeon wanted to know the exact position of each of them.
Timur’s man Rodion let them in and indicated the empty tables. “Fyodor and Timur are running a little late but will be here any minute. Make yourselves at home.” He dropped the dark privacy screens in place over the windows, blocking out views of the streets. “Nice job getting that kid back,” he added.
Gedeon was fully aware that Rodion’s gaze continually swept over Meiling. Had he stepped closer to her? Did he sniff the air near her? She did have an unbelievable fragrance to her. Gedeon did his best to clamp down on what he had to consider were jealous traits. He hadn’t known he even had them. He went through women all the time. He made it known he wasn’t looking for a relationship, that there was no hope of one. He rarely saw the same woman twice, even if he had sex more than once in an evening. He didn’t kiss or share intimacies such as breakfast or coffee or “going out.” There were no dates. He was very honest with the women he had sex with. He didn’t do innocents. He was careful to ensure the women knew the rules up front before they had sex with him. The sex was never satisfying, and it was getting less so since he’d met Meiling. He felt as if he’d lost so much more between the two of them, yet he didn’t know how to stop the endless cycle with women that had begun so many years earlier.
Meiling smiled sweetly at Rodion. “Saving the little girl was a joint effort. You and your friends certainly helped us to get her home safely. Seeing her reunited with her family was such a gift. Thank you for that.”
Gedeon forced himself not to step between them when Rodion stepped closer to her, almost close enough to brush his body against hers.
“Are you hungry? Evangeline left some fruit and baked goods in the kitchen just in case,” the shifter said. “I could get you something to eat.”
“That’s so thoughtful,” Meiling said. She turned toward Gedeon. “Are you hungry? We didn’t have a chance to eat dinner.”
He took the opportunity to be alone with her. It might be the only one they had before the others began to arrive. “Did she leave any of her ham and cheese pastries?”
“I think she did,” Rodion said. He raised an eyebrow at Meiling. “The same for you?”
She shook her head. “I was considering one of her fruit bowls. She has the best fruit and berry bowls.”
“I’ll be right back. Just give me a minute. I have to heat up the ham and cheese pastry in the kitchen oven.”
