Savage Nature (29 page)

“You think I don’t remember you, Uncle Beau?” There was bitterness in his voice. “Mom never once talked of that night, and she only said good of you and Gilbert, but I remember. My leopard remembers. You betrayed us and that monster of a grandfather killed his own son. I saw it and every night when I go to bed, I still see it. So don’t think for one moment I’ve forgotten because I was little.”

“Leopards don’ forget, boy,” Beau answered wearily. “None of us have forgotten that night. The old devil took our wives. He would have killed them too. Neither Gilbert nor I ever considered that he might kill Renard. Your mother was at risk, but not you or Renard, at least that’s what we believed, and we figured Renard would just cack. Renard refused to allow his wife to bring you back. He sent her runnin’ with you while he fought the old man. It was worse after that for all of us. My wife killed herself and Gilbert’s run off.”

“Why didn’t you just kill the bastard?”

Beau shook his head. “You don’ know what it’s like livin’ with a monster.”

Joshua shook his head. “Your sons?”

Beau gestured toward two grown men just rising after swearing allegiance to their new leader.

“And your daughter? One of you has a daughter. There have been rumors.”

“Rumors the old man could never prove. We told him she died at birth.”

“What a waste, hiding your daughter, living like rats. You need to meet a man named Jake Bannaconni.” There was bitterness in his voice.

“Joshua.”

Drake’s quiet voice penetrated the anger and disgust. Joshua sucked in his breath and turned toward the man who always had provided calm when rage got to be too much. Turning his back on his uncles, he strode toward the house, his shoulders stiff with outrage.

Drake watched him come, judging his mood. “I’m sorry, Joshua, for putting you in such a bad position. I recognized the surname, but didn’t investigate. I should have asked you before putting you . . .”

“I would never have let you come here without backup. The minute Jake told me where you’d gone, I was already packing.” Joshua looked him straight in the eye. “And as long as you’re staying here, I will be too. No one lifted a hand to help my mom, least of all that family.” He looked Drake over and suddenly grinned. “I think you should get back inside before you make a fool of yourself, boss.”

Drake smiled back, swaying slightly. Joshua Tregre had always been a puzzle to him. On one hand he was quiet but confident. There was little arrogance in Joshua, and, unlike some leopards, he rarely was in an altercation. But, there was something very lethal about him. A good man to have at your back, Drake had always felt he would make a bitter, relentless and merciless enemy. They’d worked together for several years and never once had Joshua said anything about his past to him—or to any of the others on the team.

Drake stumbled and nearly went down, shocking himself. Joshua caught him as Remy shut the door on any audience.

“Put the stubborn son of a bitch down on the couch,” Remy ordered. “Our fearless leader has dripped blood all over the floor.”

“I’m not your damned leader,” Drake denied, groaning as Joshua helped lower him to the couch. “I think your sister is a pain right now.”

“Hey!” Saria protested. “It’s not my fault you think you’re a white knight.”

“For future reference,” Lojos said helpfully, holding a bag of ice to the back of his head. “Everyone thinks Saria is a pain. And for your information, poor Jules didn’ hit my sister. He would never hit a girl, let alone Saria. Neither Gaston nor Jules would harm a woman.”

“No one here would dare hit my sister,” Remy said. “Any one of us would kill them. Theirody would be buried so deep in the swamp no one would ever find them.”

There was an edge in Remy’s voice that had Drake turning his head to study the set features. Yeah, he could believe the brothers were capable of getting rid of anyone hurting their sister and Remy was letting him know.

“So what did happen to your face, Saria?” Drake asked, although he could barely see anymore. Blood dripped steadily from the wounds on his face and burned in his eyes.

She knelt beside the couch, handed him a cool cloth for his chest while she went to work on his face. “They hit Lojos as we were going inside . . .”

“Yeah,” Lojos interjected. “Jules and Gaston had no problem hittin’ me.” He glared at his brothers. “It’s evident none of you had a problem with them hittin’
me
.”

Remy feigned indifference. “Our new exalted leader took care of that.”

Drake jerked Saria’s wrist down, removing the cloth so he could send Remy his darkest, most intimidating scowl. “Shut the hell up, you Cajun jackass. I’m
not
your leader.”

Saria laughed softly. “Maybe you really do need me after all. You certainly get yourself into messes. Don’ worry, I’ll take care of you.”

Joshua and Jerico snickered. Evan turned back to the window hastily, but not before Drake caught the big grin.

“I hope all of you are enjoying yourselves,” he snapped and laid his head back, closing his eyes, more because he had to than because he was dismissing them. “Tell me what happened to your face, honey.”

Saria wasn’t a dabber. She washed the blood from the deep lacerations and then, before he knew what was happening, doused him with disinfectant. He nearly fell off the couch, howling. Saria rolled her eyes and pushed him back down.

“We’re just gettin’ started,” she pointed out. “You really are a baby, aren’t you?”

“You’re certainly not one of those women who believes in making a fuss over a man, are you?” His voice dripped acid.

“You mean mollycoddle him?” she sniped right back.

One of her brothers snorted. The argument wasn’t getting him anywhere. Why had he thought her young and sweet and innocent? He had a damned tiger by the tail and he hadn’t even realized it. So much for Drake Donovan, the man whose instincts never failed him. He caught her wrist again. This time she was scrubbing the hell out of his chest. Their eyes met and he felt himself falling like a ton of brick. Dark, enormous eyes locked with his. All those golden flecks intrigued him, all that dark chocolate enticed him.

“You’re a very scary woman, Saria Boudreaux.” He touched the bruise on her face with gentle fingers. “How did this happen?”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re not distracted easily and never give up when you want something, do you?”

“You might want to remember that in the future.”

She sighed. “I hit my face on the side of the building. Jules is strong and I knew he’d freak if I got hurt. I couldn’t get out of his hold so I jerked toward the building. I didnn expect to hit quite so hard, but it worked. He let loose to catch me around the waist so I wouldn’t fall. He was all worried, so much so that it never occurred to him that I managed to pull my knife and lock it where it counted until I said somethin’ to him.”

“Poor man,” Gage muttered. “He shoulda been expectin’ you to pull somethin’ on him. I’m a little disappointed in him.”

“Take a look at my head before you go and feel sorry for that ass,” Lojos suggested indignantly. “He nearly killed me.”

“It’s a bump,” Mahieu corrected, but he once again checked his brother’s head.

“Pour a little of Saria’s disinfectant over it,” Drake suggested. “It’ll fix him right up.”

“Go to hell,” Lojos grumped.

“This disinfectant is good stuff,” Saria said. “In any case, I need to take a look at your back, Drake. Roll over.”

He groaned. “I don’t want to move.”

“You should have thought about that before you got in the fight.”

Drake opened one eye and looked at her. Her eyes had gone liquid as she looked at the injuries. His heart began to pound. “Baby,” he said softly, uncaring that her brothers—or anyone else heard him. “You can’t cry. Not now. You’ll break my heart.”

“You did this because of me.”

“I did this for me,” he corrected. “My leopard and I are one and the same. Fuckin’ idiots think they can intimidate the world. They shoved and I shoved back harder. That’s all. It will happen again.” He studied her slightly averted face. “Did I scare you?”

She shook her head, but Saria didn’t want to lie to him. She lifted her chin and looked him directly in the eyes. “Maybe. A little. I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

He wrapped his palm around the nape of her neck. “I was careful for the most part. I didn’t want to really hurt anyone, just more like teach them a lesson.” He pressed his forehead against hers. “I’m not a violent man.”

Joshua, Jerico and Evan choked dramatically and began coughing.

Remy snorted. “And if you believe that, Saria, I’ve got a sinkhole I can sell you for farmland.”

“You’re not helping my cause,” Drake complained.

“Ignore them. I always do,” Saria advised. She swallowed, leaned closer and brushed her lips over his. The lightest of touches, but his body stirred—and damn it all—it hurt.

He swore there was a snicker coming from somewhere, but when he glared around the room, everyone was looking away. He rolled over very carefully, his breath hissing out of his lungs, his body on fire. “Fucking jackasses. I should have done a lot more damage.”

“Oh, I think they got the point,” Remy said. “When you stop fussin’ over that man, Saria, you can tell me where the photographs are. This time, I’ll get them.”

“I put them in the left top drawer in a case and hid the negatives away from here, just in case somethin’ happened.”

“Like someone killed you?” Remy demanded.

“Yeah. Like that,” Saria admitted, shrugging.

He swore under his breath, something about stubborn women who needed a man to take them in hand, as he stalked out. Drake turned his head and flicked a look at Joshua, who immediately trailed after him. Drake wasn’t about to take the chance that someone from the lair—or a killer—might try another sneak attack, not when his body needed time to recover.

Gage and Mahieu exchanged a long look. “No one would try to jump Remy,” Gage said. “He’s got a rep around here.”

“Maybe, but a bullet doesn’t care much about reputation and I’ve seen several of your neighbors all too ready to use a gun.” Drake didn’t bother to lift his head up again. His belly burned with every movement. He was getting too old to fight three or four challengers. Foolish males feeling their leopard’s drive did that sort of thing—or someone insane enough to crave leadership—which was
not
him.

He had to smile when he heard Remy’s voice. “What the hell are you doin’ tailin’ after me? You think I need a damn babysitter?”

Remy stalked back into the house, Joshua trailing behind him. Joshua hadn’t replied, nor would he, Drake knew. He’d been given an order to keep Remy safe and he wasn’t about to be intimidated by the Cajun snarling at him. Joshua simply sent the affronted homicide detective one level look from eyes that said it all. He moved on past the man and stood to the side of the window facing into the swamp.

“Your men are downright hostile.”

Drake snorted. Remy had the photographs and he had to see them. Gritting his teeth, he righted himself. The lacerations along his ribs and across his belly burned like hell, but he’d sustained far worse injuries. No broken bones this time, only minor gashes and rips that would heal fast. His leopard blood would see to that.

“Yours aren’t?” Jerico demanded, turning to face the detective. “I’ve never seen a lair like this one, not in all my travels. Drake could have killed all three of those men and maybe he should have. In the rain forest, men act without honor, there are consequences.”

Joshua stiffened. “This lair has been without honor for a long time.”

The Boudreaux brothers bristled, coming to their feet.

Drake swung his feet to the floor, holding up his hand for silence as he waited for the room to quit spinning. “A lair needs strong leadership to control the leopards, all of us know that. And something else is going on here. I don’t know what, but I intend to get to the bottom of it. We all felt it out there in Fenton’s Marsh. We’re not turning on each other. The only people we can count on right now are the ones in this room.”

“Sadly I have to agree with that,” Remy told his brothers. “Although I’d put my life on Gaston and Jules. Right now, however, I can’t risk it.” He handed the photographs to Drake.

Saria had carefully catalogued each body, the wounds and the surrounding scene. The stab wound was the same each time, a straight puncture to the abdomen the victim had never seen coming. The knife hadn’t killed him. He’d been awake to see his attacker shift and probably look right into his eyes as he delivered the suffocating bite. The victim had to have been terrified.

Drake looked up at Remy and saw the same understanding in his eyes. Whoever was killing these men had done so cruelly and deliberately, needing to see the life leave their bodies. A serial killer then. A shifter who enjoyed killing for the pleasure of it.

“The crime scene almost looks as if two people went there together, had a couple of drinks and one killed the other.” Remy frowned as he studied one of the photographs. “You say you couldn’t find a hint of another male? A leopard or human?”

“I picked up Saria’s scent, but nothing else,” Drake confirmed. “There was a strong scent of blood in the ground in several other places. I don’t think Saria found all the bodies. If I had to guess, maybe six.”

Remy shook his head, his teeth snapping together as if he wanted to bite down hard on something. “This makes no sense. The wounds are almost exactly alike every time. The stab wound is very precise. It enables the killer to take the fight out of his victim fast and yet keep them alive to spend as much time as he wants terrorizing him—or her.”

“This is the work of a leopard—a shifter,” Drake said heavily.

Remy scrubbed his hand down his face as if removing something oily and thick. “I was so certain it was someone who couldn’t shift tryin’ to put blame on us.”

“You didn’t want it to be a friend or neighbor.”

Remy shook his head. “No, I didn’t, although I checked up on everyone. My brothers first.” He shot Saria a small smile. “You can stop feelin’ guilty for thinkin’ it might be one of us. I will admit, I doubted it, but I checked all the same.”