“There’s a hierarchy in place, but I like to know most of those in my employ,” Elijah said. “At least the key people. As I said, these four were not employed by me and never were.”
Meiling pushed at loose strands of her shiny hair escaping. “We couldn’t take the chance that you were involved. The child’s life was at stake. Everything pointed your way, and we only had a very short window of opportunity to rescue her. Gedeon and I believed they were going to kill her in the end rather than return her. She knew who took her and Lola was too bitter.”
“You were right about that,” Timur said. “Jeremiah managed to retrieve the orders Lola had given to Georgi. He tore them up and tossed them into the garbage cans, remember? You marked the cans, Meiling. The moment the okay was given, he searched the cans and was able to retrieve the scraps. We put the scraps together for evidence. Lola instructed him to take pictures, and as soon as they were sent to her father, he was to kill the girl and dispose of her body.”
There was a small silence. Gedeon gripped Meiling’s thigh with hard fingers. “At least she told him to make certain the photographs got to Lilith’s father before Georgi was to kill her. We might have been too late.”
Meiling shook her head. “We would have saved her. It would have been messier, more traumatic for her, but we would have taken her from him.”
“This was supposed to be a simple case of finding whowas stealing money,” Gedeon said. “We weren’t told about Lilith until we arrived late at night and were escorted into a private meeting. We found the room bugged. Our client had been systematically drugged. Then the case took a very sinister turn when we discovered Lilith had been taken and her father had paid the ransom more than once.”
“Atwater must have been certain that I was involved,” Elijah said. “I can’t blame him for that. I would have thought the same thing. Did he suspect Lola?”
“No, but Harold did,” Gedeon said. “Female leopards are just as passionate and capable of fury as males are. She believed Atwater was exclusive with her. She believed they were a mated couple, and he would marry her. He selfishly didn’t disabuse her of that notion, because it suited him to have her at his beck and call, until she caught him with a couple of his other women. The passion she felt for him turned completely to hate. She wanted revenge and she planned it out very carefully.”
Timur looked around the room at the unmated shifters. “We should have talks with our men, Fyodor. You’re head of the lair and they follow your lead.”
“I never led a woman on in my life,” Fyodor declared. “My leopard wouldn’t have allowed it even if I was that kind of man.”
“But the men don’t know that. You never talked about that with them. The only talk you ever had with them was that you would never tolerate the abuse of women in this lair. You never wanted what went on in our home lairs to happen here. What happened to Atwater, or nearly happened to him, is a lesson for all of us,” Timur pushed. “We don’t want any woman to suffer what Lola suffered or to carry out a murderous plot of revenge because we didn’t want to have an uncomfortable talk with our males.”
“It isn’t just the males who should be talked to,” Meiling spoke up. “You’re head of your lair, Fyodor. That means you or Evangeline should speak to every female beforethere is a chance her leopard goes into heat, so the female knows what to expect and no male has the opportunity to trick her.” She switched her gaze to Elijah.
“Siena is sweet, but getting anything past her is nearly impossible. She has built-in radar for bullshit. And if I opt not to say anything about what is going on, she suddenly asks me. If there were a woman somewhere, she’d know in a heartbeat. I think it would be intuitive with her.”
“She doesn’t even bother to try to hide the way she feels about you. If you betrayed her, how would she react? She’s passionate. Her leopard is passionate, what would happen if she caught you betraying her?” Timur persisted.
Elijah looked as if he paled under his olive skin. “I wouldn’t want to think about that too much. She isn’t the kind to plot out something like Lola did, and she wouldn’t involve her friends in something illegal, but there would be consequences.”
“Ashe would cut off Timur’s balls,” Fyodor announced. There was some satisfaction in his voice when he made the announcement.
Elijah and Timur both nodded in agreement. “No doubt she would,” Timur added, real curiosity in his voice. “What about Evangeline, Fyodor? There isn’t anyone sweeter. As much as I’d like to say I know her, I honestly have no idea how she would react to betrayal of that type.”
Fyodor sighed and shook his head, both hands going up to rake his fingers through his hair in a continual motion, betraying agitation. “It wouldn’t happen. I would never hurt her like that. I just wouldn’t. My leopard would go insane if I didn’t first.”
“Everyone knows that,” Timur persisted, waving his brother’s obvious discomfort away. “This isn’t about your reaction. We’re talking a woman’s reaction to betrayal. What would someone as sweet as Evangeline do if she caught you red-handed going at it with another woman?”
Gedeon thought about the woman he’d met multipletimes over the last few years when he’d visited San Antonio. He always made a point of making his presence known to the heads of the crime families in the area if he wasn’t investigating anything to do with them. He’d stumbled across the little bakery before it had become so wildly popular. Evangeline was just getting started. There wasn’t so much space back then—but she’d always been the same welcoming, warm, kind, considerate person. It was impossible not to be drawn to her. He hadn’t known she was leopard when he first met her. He honestly couldn’t imagine Evangeline’s reaction to betrayal. He could imagine his.
Gedeon’s gaze slid to the woman beside him. He would strangle her with his bare hands, but not before he tore apart the man she betrayed him with right in front of her. Could he kill her? To his shock, his heart accelerated, rejecting the idea. Every cell in his body rejected the idea.
Meiling suddenly turned her head, those dark chocolate eyes drifting over him. He swore he felt her touching him, almost like a physical caress. She rubbed her palm over the back of his hand, reminding him that he was still gripping her thigh—hanging on to her—maybe a little too tight. Still, he didn’t let loose, turning his attention back to the conversation about Evangeline.
“Fyodor?” Timur prompted.
Fyodor shook his head. “I have no idea what Evangeline would do. She’s a fierce protector when she feels her family is threatened, and that includes my brother and Ashe. Also my cousins.” He rubbed his chin in the palm of his hand. “Her leopard is a fierce little thing. I don’t know what she would do—anything to protect Evangeline, including killing me.”
He raised his head to look directly at Timur. “You’re right, we need to talk to the men. Being head of a lair sucks. I much prefer to be an enforcer. No talking, just cracking heads.”
Everyone at the table nodded in agreement except forMeiling. She started to laugh again. “Seriously? If you don’t want to crack heads tonight, you might want to break out the decks of playing cards you have stashed somewhere under the tables. I think the cops are about to pay us a visit.”
Annoyance flickered across Fyodor’s face. “I know it’s that damned Brice Addler hoping to catch us at something illegal.”
“One of these days he’s going to set you up,” Timur warned.
“Even if he managed to send me to prison, Evangeline would never desert me,” Fyodor assured them. “If there’s one thing I can count on, it’s that my wife would never leave me while I was in prison. She isn’t that kind of woman.”
“I didn’t mean for prison,” Timur said. “I think eventually he’ll set you up to be killed.”
