Wild Cat (9 page)

She didn't fight him. What was the use? Right then she felt too raw and exposed, and truthfully, there was comfort in his closeness. She didn't want to feel that way, not when he was the cause of her total humiliation, but still, he made her feel as if she really were safe, and she hadn't felt that in a long while, not even as a child. Not since the kidnapping attempts.

There had always been rumors about her grandfather, but even the Feds hadn't found anything. His businesses all had appeared legitimate. Sometimes she'd been suspicious because the army of men who worked for him clearly carried guns and did little more, it seemed, than watch both her grandfather and her closely. She had come to believe they were bodyguards, there to protect them, and even if they completely ruined any chance of dating, or having friends, they gave her grandfather peace of mind. Now she knew none of that was the truth.

Nothing she had believed had been the truth. Elijah was a part of that world. In fact, the Feds had investigated his family business
numerous
times. He'd always managed to come out without them finding the evidence they were
certain was there, but everyone knew his family's reputation. She had made herself believe he was just like her grandfather, wealthy, an astute businessman who had made enemies on the way. Her grandfather was guilty, so there was no doubt in her mind that Elijah was guilty.

“I'm not pregnant.” She announced it firmly through her tears, into her clenched fist and the knuckles she'd bitten. Her hands were sore when she curled her fingers but she needed something to focus on.

“Okay, baby.” He pressed a kiss to her nape.

She closed her eyes. If he'd argued, there might have been a possibility he just threw that out there. She didn't know how many days had passed while the fever raged and she'd been in and out, but she knew some of the bruises had really faded and that meant some time had passed. Still, surely they couldn't know for certain, but he wasn't arguing with her. That was just plain scary.

“Elijah.” She said his name softly. A protest. “Please.” Fresh tears burned her eyes. He had to say he was lying. He just had to.

He held her closer, shifting so that her buttocks were pressed tightly against his front. She could feel him, the very male part of him. She should have felt threatened, but instead, something inside of her settled. It was all too much. She couldn't fight on every front, nor could she process everything that had happened to her. She just couldn't. If he'd just take it back, tell her it wasn't true, that she wasn't pregnant, she could cope—at least for the next few minutes.

“Siena, sweetheart, just stop thinking. Let it go. Drake Donovan is here and our team has you completely surrounded. No one can get to you. Your job is just to heal.”

She moistened her lips. She remembered something else he'd done. She'd surfaced a couple of times to the feel of his finger rubbing something soothing on her dry lips. He'd leaned into her and brushed a kiss across her forehead. Gently. She couldn't quite reconcile the two men. Elijah was rough
and demanding. Bossy. Arrogant. The man who braided her hair and applied a lip balm was gentle and sweet. She
had
to have been dreaming, but if so, why was he lying on the bed with her holding her so gently, so careful of her injuries? Why was he pressing a soft kiss onto her nape?

The door opened. She stiffened, her heart accelerating. She was turned away from the door out of necessity and it was truly frightening not to know who had entered, but Elijah didn't move.

“Relax, baby. It's just Drake.”

The man came around the bed to lean down toward her. He didn't make a sound. He had the hard, powerful look of the leopard she was coming to recognize, but his eyes were kind. Tender even. He smiled at her.

“I'm Drake Donovan.”

The moment she saw him, fresh tears started. She hadn't cried so much since the time she'd been kidnapped. She covered her face with her hand. “Thank you for coming.” But what was he doing there? Who had called him? “I want . . .” She sniffed. “To hire . . .” She couldn't stop the tears coursing down her cheeks so she gave up trying, accepting that she needed to cry. “You,” she managed to get out.

Elijah nuzzled her neck, his hands stroking her. His palm at her waist, his fingers splayed wide, feathering caresses and heat at her back, tracing along the path of each of the rake marks with the pads of his fingers as if that would erase the lacerations forever.

“You have to make him go away and stay away from me.”

“Who has to go away?” Drake asked.

“Elijah.” There. She'd done it. She'd sent him away, and she wouldn't be touched or soothed or humiliated by him ever again. She wouldn't be pregnant. She wouldn't remember
the worst I ever had
every time she saw him or heard his voice. She wouldn't remember being a part of murder.

Elijah didn't so much as shift position. His hands didn't pause, not even for a moment.

“He's one of them. Like my grandfather.” Now, she'd even betrayed him. There would be no going back from there.

Elijah pressed his lips into the nape of her neck. His teeth scraped along her skin, and instead of scaring her, it felt erotic.
That
scared her.

“He has to go,” she blurted. She sounded desperate.

“Elijah is a big part of my team, Siena. He is not like your grandfather.” Drake's voice was impossibly gentle. “He walks a very fine line, half in our world and half in the underbelly, but I can assure you, he is on your side. If you trusted me enough to come looking for me and to hire me, you have to trust my judgment.”

Elijah couldn't stay. She shook her head, her gaze jumping to Drake's face, eyes pleading.

“Baby,” Elijah whispered softly against her bare neck, his lips leaving a trail of kisses. “I'm not going anywhere. Not now when you need me to protect you. Not ever. Get that through your head.
I'm
your security. I'm part of Drake's team, and that means all of his men. All the men who work for me. Paolo and Alonzo will never come near you again.”

A shudder went through her body at the thought of Paolo getting close to her. She couldn't think about him, so she pushed him out of her mind. She couldn't think about her grandfather or Elijah or anything else. She closed her eyes, pulled the sheet up to her face and hid from the two men. Hid from the world. Hid from herself.

S
IENA
stood shakily by the side of the car, her legs feeling like rubber. Any minute she was going to collapse in a little heap onto the ground. No one listened to her. Not at all. No matter what she said. How much she protested. She was
not
going back into that house. Not ever. She didn't care what any of them said.

Elijah had announced he wasn't leaving her
ever
and he'd said it in his low, firm voice, with his
bossy
, commanding tone, but she hadn't considered even for a minute that he might mean that literally. He barely had left her hospital room during her stay—and that stay had been lengthy, Doc insisting she stay for over two weeks. The doctor and nurses addressed him instead of her when discussing her progress or care. Drake deliberated security details with him. It was her life, but everyone had the very false impression that she belonged to Elijah—even Elijah.

She realized her mistake now. She'd let him take control
in the hospital because she was in too much pain, both mentally and physically, to cope or process. It was easier to let Elijah take her over. She didn't have to think about anything. Her mind felt numb most of the time and she just seemed to drift. She thought a lot about her grandfather, and to her shame, she found herself angry at him.
Really
angry. He'd deceived her her entire life. He'd kept her shifter heritage from her. He'd used her. Antonio had been her only family and he'd betrayed her. He'd promised her to a man like Paolo, and when Paolo beat her, he had condoned it, calling her a whore.

Siena stood, staring in horror up at the huge house, tucked into Elijah's side, swaying and weak, shaking her head. Her life had been taken out of her hands and now she was surrounded by another army of men, most of whom she didn't know. She had gone along with everything, staying silent, withdrawn, but not this time. Not over this. No way was she setting one foot in that house.

“I'm not staying here,” she declared.

“Siena.”

Her name. A soft reprimand. So gentle her heart turned over. She tried to pull away. Elijah seemed to control her with his voice, but not this time.

“I mean it. I will not go in there.” Humiliation stained her tone. She knew it. She couldn't help reliving that moment when he'd looked at her with such contempt, said horrible, brain-searing things to tear down her self-esteem as a woman and then shoved her out of his home as if she were a piece of garbage.

A small sound escaped—a whimper of pain—and that embarrassed her further. Her face flushed red, the color creeping up her neck. She knew he was reliving the same moment right along with her and that made it so much worse. More than she could bear.

Siena tried to pull away from him, but his arm tightened around her waist and he bent his head toward hers.

“Look at me.”

She shook her head and continued to strain against his arm, which had somehow turned into a steel band.

“Siena, look at me. Right. Fucking. Now.” He bit out the last three words between his teeth.

She stilled, her heart fluttering. There was a distinct warning in his voice. Almost of its own volition, her gaze jumped to meet his.

“Stop. I mean it. You're weak and about to fall down. If you don't stop, I'll be carrying you into the house.”

“I'm not staying here.” She forced herself to meet his steely gaze even though panic welled up as his eyes darkened and he scowled at her. She'd wondered when the real Elijah would come out. The mean, jerky Elijah who bossed her around and threw her naked out of his house. This house. The one he wanted her to go back into.

“I'm done arguing with you.” He swung her up into his arms, cradling her against his chest, forcing her to grab on to him.

“That wasn't an argument,” she protested, her panic becoming full blown.

Elijah ignored her and stalked up the walkway toward the front door. She buried her face against his neck, not wanting to see the foyer, her fingers clutching at his shoulders so hard her nails bit into him.

Holding her still with one arm, he began to slide his key into the lock. He went still. Unmoving. Inhaling. He left the key in the lock and turned toward the two men trailing behind them. Drake Donovan and a man named Joshua Tregre. He lifted his hand, fist closed, and both men halted abruptly.

Siena's heart began to pound. Something was wrong, but she didn't want to ask what. She didn't dare. Whatever it was, Elijah was backing slowly off the porch. Once he was down a couple of steps, he hurried away from the house with her.

“I smell a male leopard.” Elijah set Siena on her feet and
pushed her toward Drake. “Joshua and I will search for him or whatever he left behind. Keep her safe.”

“No.” She caught at his arm, suddenly terrified. Suddenly comprehending. She didn't want to be with him but she didn't want him dead either. Paolo had to have visited Elijah's home while he was in the hospital with her. “Let's just go away from here. Come away, Elijah, right now.”

He cupped her face in his hands, the pad of his thumb sliding over her lower lip. “It's going to be all right, baby. This isn't new to me—to any of us.”

“I'll stay with you, Elijah,” she offered, her hold on his shirt tightening. “I will. If you come away with me now, I'll stay with you.” Trying to save him. Desperate to save him, and she didn't know why.

His eyes darkened even more and he bent his head to brush his mouth gently over hers. “You'll stay with me anyway, Siena, but I appreciate the offer more than you'll ever know. Go with Drake. I'll take care of this and be with you in a few minutes. This is what we do, what you wanted to hire Drake for.”

She shook her head. “I wanted to hire him as a bodyguard.
Before.
Not now when I know Paolo wants war with you. With anyone who is helping me. With my grandfather dead there is going to be a fight for the businesses. Alonzo may be working with Paolo now, but believe me, he's looking to take over. That means he's looking at me.”

“
Mi corazon
, go with Drake.” Elijah gently pushed her toward the other man.

Drake immediately took charge as Elijah turned away, shepherding Siena back into the vehicle with its bulletproof glass and heavy armor on the body. Elijah wouldn't have trusted Siena to too many other men. He believed in Drake and knew the man would guard her with his life.

Joshua joined him. He'd done a quick search around the house, looking for scent and tracks. “Someone was here. The front and back doors are rigged to blow the moment you open
them. Whoever did this knows what they're doing. They didn't go into the house. The bomb is below the deck itself and wired to the door so that when it swings open, whoever is in the near vicinity scatters to the winds.”

Elijah nodded and went to investigate for himself. He'd met both Paolo and Alonzo on several occasions. He knew Paolo had been the male leopard attacking Siena at the Arnotto estate. He said as much to Joshua. “This doesn't smell like either of them.”

Joshua had followed him, slipping beneath the deck so they could both examine the device. “He knows what he's doing,” Joshua said. “It's going to take some work to remove this safely. Whoever put this here doesn't care if Siena dies as well.”

“Not necessarily. I doubt anyone would suspect she would come home with me. I was questioned in her grandfather's murder. It was all over the news,” Elijah pointed out. “It was only by coincidence that I had gone to Eli's that night.” To talk to him. To get drunk. To tell him how badly he'd fucked up.

Eli Perez's land bordered both his and Jake's properties. Eli was an ex–DEA agent. The cops investigating Antonio Arnotto's murder had to believe him. Eli's wife, Caterina, vouched for him as well. Paolo's plan of implicating him had gone up in smoke thanks to the fact that he'd felt so guilty over his treatment of Siena—and he'd needed help to dispose of Marco's body. Marco had been leopard as well, one of Antonio's oldest friends. The body had to be incinerated so there was no evidence of a leopard.

They'd put a story out about a leopard escaping from one of the upstate hunting properties. Rich men with too much time on their hands wanted to hunt large game. The animals were bred and raised on the large property and then hunted and killed. It was easy enough to claim a leopard had escaped and then attacked Siena. Her wounds certainly bore that out.

“If not Paolo or Alonzo,” Joshua said, “then who?”

Elijah inhaled again. He frowned. The scent was definitely male, elusive, but he'd smelled it before. He searched his memory and called up his own leopard. His male was good at identifying other leopards.

He moved positions beneath the deck, looking up at the very neatly made bomb. He'd seen one similar. But where? Partially shifting, just enough to allow his big male access to the smell, Elijah waited patiently. There it was. He shifted back.

“I met him at Rafe Cordeau's home, a few years back when I went there for a dinner. My uncle and Cordeau were cementing a deal. This man was there, but he didn't eat at the table. He prowled around the grounds. I went outside twice. Both times he circled around me, watching closely until I went back inside.”

“You weren't introduced?” Joshua asked, as he pulled out a small tool kit.

“No, not formally, but I met him. I wanted him to know I knew he was watching me, so I walked right up to him and introduced myself, forced him to tell me his name. Gaton. Robert Gaton. Cordeau introduced us to four of his top soldiers, all of whom were leopard. They were killed on Eli's ranch,” Elijah pointed out. “This was Cordeau's reserve man—the one he held back. His shifters ran his army. Everyone answered to them. Whoever he is, he must be taking over Cordeau's territory and is making some kind of a statement. This attack has nothing to do with Siena.”

Elijah felt relief when he hadn't even known he'd been tense. Siena had been through enough and he didn't want her to have anything more to worry about than she already did. She was very fragile. He knew she hadn't dealt with any of it. Not what had happened between them. Not the beating Paolo had given her. Her grandfather's death. Not the leopard attack and, most of all, not their baby growing inside her. She didn't want to acknowledge anything between them, let alone a child. Elijah could give her all the time she needed, but she was taking the time with him right at her side.

Joshua's forehead beaded with sweat. He wiped at it with his forearm to keep the beads from running into his eyes. “He's a hell of a bomb maker. He's got a couple of false tags on this thing. Why would a man who is taking over a territory deliver a bomb himself? That doesn't make sense, Elijah.”

Joshua had a point. A good point. Elijah would never deliver a bomb. He'd send someone he trusted to do it. Antonio hadn't sat in wait for Elijah, he'd sent Marco to do it.

“Someone else, then,” Elijah said softly. “Someone with a big enough reputation that Cordeau's shifter will give him allegiance and do his bidding. Or, he was Rafe's bomb man and didn't trust it to anyone else.”

“We'd better find out or your lady is in trouble. Her grandfather was murdered. Regardless of who did it, some of the other bosses are going to be looking at his territory with hunger in their eyes. Unlike Paolo, they aren't going to worry about how they acquire it, which means Siena won't be safe.” Joshua held his breath for a moment, snipped a wire and allowed his arms to drop to his sides. “One down.”

They stayed still for a few minutes, knowing they had to crawl under the back deck and do the same thing.

“She doesn't want any part of me,” Elijah said.

Joshua frowned. “I thought you said your male recognized her female.”

“Absolutely he did. He's crazy to get at her.”

“Then what's the problem?” Joshua asked, wiping at his forehead again with his arm. “Is it hot under here, or is it just me?”

“It's hot,” Elijah said. “I totally fucked things up, and now she's pregnant and doesn't want any part of me.”

“What did you do?”

Elijah almost didn't say another word. Joshua had sounded a little too amused for his liking, but Elijah had to admit he was out of his depth. He had never had a problem getting a woman he wanted. Not ever. The trouble was, once he had them, he didn't want them again. He didn't have a lot of
experience with having to work at keeping one around—in fact, he had zero experience.

“I knew Arnotto was making his move to acquire new territories. He's always been one to take advantage when there was a vacancy. My uncle used to tell me to watch him. He said Arnotto had the brains to keep the Feds from looking too close. He surrounded himself with legit businesses, high-society friends and had valid reasons for keeping an army around at all times. His son's car bombing and his granddaughter's kidnappings. When bodies started falling I knew he was behind it, especially because each death seemed entirely unrelated. He's that intelligent.”