Wild Cat (34 page)

He'd announced his engagement to Siena and the papers for the license were waiting for her to sign. The notary would be there that evening and they'd both have the papers signed so in seventy-two hours they could be married. He'd arranged for that too. In Jake's home. Emma and Catarina there, Jake and Eli with Drake as well. He was putting a ring on Siena's finger, and the rest of the world could deal with it.

She wasn't having his babies without a ring. And he didn't want to go five minutes longer than necessary before it was done and she was irrevocably his. He heard her come back into the room and he turned. Somewhere she'd found his shirt. He didn't like her wearing anything to bed. He knew he never would.

He loved feeling her soft body, with all those lush curves pressed tight against him. He liked to put his mouth on her breast and feel the way her body went damp for him as he drifted off to sleep. She always gave him that, but when he left their bed before her, she always put a shirt and panties on.

“Have fun with your girls, baby,” he said, turning to her. Taking her into his arms. Holding her close. He loved holding her. She was small and perfect against him. He'd never in his life considered he'd have someone like her as his mate. Someone decent. Someone innocent. Innocent and wild. He brushed a kiss on her head. “I love you,
mi vida
. More than life. I love you that much. Never forget it.”

She went up on her toes and pressed kisses along his jaw. “Come home to me, Elijah. You stay safe and come home to me. I need you.
We
need you.” She narrowed her eyes. “You get me?”

His own words. He smiled down at her. “Yeah, baby. I get you. Get in bed and let me tuck you in. I like knowing you're in our bed and sleeping peaceful. Keep your cell on you.”

“Um, just in case you don't remember, my cell is toast. You threw it. Broke it to bits. I haven't replaced it because—well—I haven't thought about it.”

“I'll call my boys. One of my men, you know Tomas Estrada, is taking this shift with you. He and his brother Joaquin have been with me since I was a kid. Tomas will look after you with Trey Sinclair. They'll have their cells on them, and I'll see about getting Jake's secretary to pick one up for you.”

She lifted her chin at him. The way she did it always made his leopard go a little crazy. That little defiant attitude always made his cock hard and his alpha nature go ballistic. She hadn't figured that out yet.

“I can get my own cell phone.”

He brushed his mouth over hers. “Of course you can. I'm the one who broke it, though, baby, so I'm the one replacing it. Yeah?” He didn't give her a chance to answer. Jerking back the covers he motioned her in. “Get back to sleep and I'll see you this evening.”

She slid in and waited until he tucked the blankets around her before she caught his hand. “You'll come back to me. Safe. Intact.
You.
”

He knew what she meant. Whatever he was doing, she didn't want him to suffer from it. He knew he wouldn't. Leopard law was the law of the jungle. They had strictly enforced laws. They had to. Leopards could kill easily. Leopards weren't allowed to hunt humans in the swamps as Rafe Cordeau had allowed his male to do. His lieutenants had joined in his hunts. Robert Gaton had been one of his lieutenants. He was a vicious killer, and he'd put a hit out on Siena. That was unacceptable. He wasn't going to get the chance to take over Cordeau's territory. He'd run it in the same bloody, cruel way his predecessor had.

“I will,” he said. Meaning it.

She still didn't let go. He was patient. He didn't care that the others were waiting. That Jake's plane was waiting. Siena's gaze clung to his face, moving over his features, seeing him. Seeing the killer in him this time. He endured that. For her. He took it, but he hated it.

He watched her just as closely, his leopard close, but quiet. Both recognized this was a defining moment. Elijah detested that she was so damned intelligent. There was no hiding from her. No hiding from those see-all eyes of hers. She'd always been able to penetrate his armor. She'd found that little piece of him hidden deep, protected from the rest of the world. There was no doubt she saw everything else.

“Elijah.” Her voice was whisper soft. “I've trusted you. Believed in you. Let myself fall, not just in love with you, but so deep, I don't know how I'd survive without you. I'm looking at you and I need you to give me the truth.”

He braced himself.

“Is this necessary? Are these really bad people?”

“You sure you want this, Siena? I don't want it for you. I want you to live your life free.”

“You're mine. I can't watch you go, knowing what's going to happen, without you telling me what our lives are going to be like. I've been patient, waiting. Now you're going and it's . . . bad. I can see that. So give me that much. I have to know.”

“I wouldn't go after an innocent, baby,” he assured her. “Hold on to Drake's reputation, not the one that was mine. Is mine. I promise we'll have that talk when I get back if you still want it. I'll lay it out for you.”

“All of it.”

He closed his eyes. Knowing she saw. He
fucking
hated his family, what they'd made him, what they'd given him.

“Honey.” Soft. Beautiful. Loving. She kissed his hand and his heart turned over.

Elijah opened his eyes and nodded. “All of it.”

“Then go, but be safe. And come back to me.” She rubbed her palm over her belly. “To us.”

He put his hand on her soft pooch where his children lay safe and snug inside his woman. “I'll always come back to you.”

He got the hell out of there before he lost his resolve. He would come back to her with blood on his hands. He swore with every step he took, furious at himself, at his life—a life he'd chosen when Drake had proposed it—and furious at the people who had taken a little boy and shaped him into a monster.

The men with him on that plane were good men. All of them. He trusted them when he didn't trust very many. Joshua sat alone, face turned toward the window, looking like stone. Part of him wanted to go to the man and talk him out of his decision. It was easy enough to make when you didn't have a woman, when you didn't have decent, when you were alone with nothing and wanted to do something with your life.

“You okay?” Drake asked, dropping into the seat across from him.

Drake was one of the few people who could read him—or dare to ask him questions. Elijah had never been friendly. His leopard rode him hard. His upbringing had never allowed for friendship. He liked his brother-in-law, Rachel's husband, but when he first met him, Elijah still had major trust issues.
He didn't like someone that close to his sister, not when he didn't know him. Still, the man made her happy and Elijah had learned, over the years, that Rio was a good man.

“She saw me tonight,” he admitted. He pressed his fingers to his eyes. “She saw who I am. What I am.”

“What you
were
,” Drake emphasized. “Even then, it wasn't you, Elijah. That was never you.”

“Don't kid yourself, Drake. It's me. It will always be me. Whatever I could have been was gone the moment I was born into that family. I am what they made me. And I chose to do this work, believing in it. I didn't know the gods were going to hand me Siena. She's my miracle and my punishment all rolled into one. I can't let her go and I have to live with the knowledge of what I am, what she has in her bed, every fucking minute.”

He didn't give a damn if he sounded bitter. Siena deserved a normal life and she wasn't going to get it.

“You knew when you made the decision there was no getting out. You laid that out for Joshua, and you emphasized that. More than once. This kind of thing, Elijah, the only way out is death. They would hunt you to the ends of the earth. I'd try to protect you, but sooner or later, they'd get you. Your best protection is to be stronger than anyone else, have enough allies. We're building that. We're almost there.”

“I know that,” Elijah said. “Doesn't make it any easier when she's looking at the monster and not seeing the man.”

“She still in your bed?”

Elijah's gaze hit Drake's. He nodded slowly.

“Then she saw the man. She's not going anywhere.”

“She did, I'd go after her,” Elijah admitted. His voice was dark. Ugly. The killer, not the man. He wanted Drake to see the worst of him. “I'd drag her ass back home so fast she wouldn't know what hit her. That woman has no idea what's in her fucking bed.”

“Yeah, she does,” Drake said. “She knows. She climbed into it with her eyes open, Elijah. She's smart, that one. Like
Emma. Like Catarina. They know what they got. They love their men and accept them.”

“Jake's clean.”

Drake burst out laughing. “You know better than that.”

“He's clean to the rest of the world.”

“He's dangerous. Eli's dangerous. Their women know.”

“Lot of difference between being dangerous and dirty, Drake. Siena lives with knowing her man heads a crime family. Her man beat the shit out of other men to force them back into line. Her man killed. She doesn't just get to pretend we're living clean, because the neighbors are always going to look at her like she's filth.”

“Siena is in your bed, Elijah. Right now. She knew your reputation before she ever made that choice.”

Elijah shook his head, his eyes going pure cat. “Did I give her a choice? A real choice? I forced her to come home with me . . .”

“That was me,” Drake said. “Not you. Your home was the only safe place for her.
You
were the only safe place for her. She was under your protection the moment she entered your house. No matter where she landed, someone was going to go after her. With you standing between her and everyone else, that threat was minimized. You have Cordeau's heir and Paolo and no one else to deal with because of your reputation. That's what saved Siena. You think she doesn't know that? She can't very well get too righteous if she's hiding behind that strength.”

“Shut the fuck up. She's not hiding behind anything, and she can get as righteous as she wants to. What the hell does that mean? You think she knew her grandfather was dirty? He was a winemaker. She went to school to take over his business.”

“You really are a hothead when it comes to that woman,” Drake said. He didn't even bother to hide his grin. He sure as hell wasn't afraid of Elijah or his anger. “She should take over her grandfather's business. Waltz right back home and
announce she's the boss. And no, I don't believe she knew about her grandfather. Even the Feds weren't certain. There's never been a shred of evidence. The man was brilliant at hiding his activities. If he hadn't associated with known criminals, he wouldn't have even been on their radar.”

“Eli told me the Feds believed he was friends with them because of their American-Italian connection. His wine is considered among the best in the United States, and naturally the families would gravitate toward it.”

Eli Perez was on the plane as well. An ex-DEA agent, he was tough as nails and good in a fight. He was a recent addition to Drake's team, and he was assisting Jake in coming at Cordeau's business partners from another angle. Jake was famous for buying up companies and taking them apart. He was ruthless when it came to business.

They'd brought Alonzo with them. They needed to see him in action. Make certain before they brought him further into their fold. Most of Drake's team had come from his home lair in the Borneo rain forest and Drake had known them from his childhood. Any new members were also men he'd known and worked with on his rescue teams from various rain forests around the world. They didn't have to worry about their loyalty.

Bringing Alonzo in was dangerous. All of them knew it and were willing to take the risk. Like Elijah, Drake and the others thought he would be a good asset, a man worth saving. Still, one wrong move and he wouldn't make it back. Elijah sighed. He was leopard. He knew the rules of living in the world of leopards. The rules were even more rigid and ruthless, more primitive and savage than the rules of his family.

Joaquin Estrada was there as well. He kept to himself, although he'd met Drake a few times when Elijah had pulled him in on a rescue job they needed. There was no way Joaquin or Tomas would ever allow Elijah to go too far without one of them.

“Siena wants to take over her grandfather's winery,” Elijah
confirmed for Drake. “But I can't let her go back there until Paolo is dragged out into the open and I can take his ass down.”

“You take Siena to that winery, I guarantee Paolo will come out of the shadows,” Drake said. “He'll have no choice. He's made his brag to her father's army. They see the princess and she tells them Paolo beat the crap out of her and murdered their boss, they aren't going to welcome him.”

A snarl erupted before Drake could finish. Growls rumbled deep in Elijah's chest, and his eyes banded with heat. His leopard rose fast, angry, vicious. There was instant silence on the plane. Elijah fought back his male. Cleared his throat several times to try to stop the raging beast from coming up any farther. He felt the itch of fur. The ache in his joints. The need to shift.

Drake didn't move a muscle. He didn't back away. He didn't try to shift in order for his leopard to combat Elijah's. He simply waited for Elijah to get himself under control, as if he had all the faith in the world that he would. If he didn't, Drake was dead. Elijah's male would kill him instantly, and no one, not even Elijah, would be able to stop him.

Elijah breathed deep, forcing his leopard under control. Breathing away the need to shift. The anger remained. “I should rip your fucking head off,” he snarled, his voice low, dark with his rage. “You already put her out there as bait once, against my better judgment, and someone got close enough to take a shot at her.”