"Joaquin," Elijah addressed his personal bodyguard. "Please escort Evangeline to the kitchen and stay there with her. She's under my protection. Patrizio, tell your bodyguards to stand down immediately. Everyone sit down and take a breath."
There was no mistaking the complete authority in that voice, and immediately Patrizio took the "out" Elijah offered and sent his bodyguards back to their original stations, leaving Alonzo his opportunity to kill the man. Three seconds to kill five men. Maybe six. That was all he needed once the bodyguards obeyed and settled into their previous positions.
Evangeline's fingers found the back of his shirt, beneath his suit jacket, and bunched the material into her palm. She leaned into him. Close. Her front to his back. She was trembling. "Don't." She whispered the word against his back. Lips against the material of his suit jacket while her fist held his shirt captive.
She knew. She knew things about him she shouldn't know. She should be terrified of him. Running. But instead she stood behind him knowing he would give his life for her. Knowing she was under his protection. She stood close. Her body was so close he felt her breasts and hips. One arm. That single word spoken so low was far more of a command to him than Elijah's had been. He drew air into his lungs and breathed away the need to kill.
Reaching behind him, he caught Evangeline's wrist and slowly drew her around him. Elijah nodded toward the kitchen. She shook her head, just once, but Alonzo saw her chin lift as she glanced down at the broken glass and pool of coffee. She didn't understand that Elijah was trying to save Alonzo from killing. Alonzo could have told him there was no saving him from anything, but he didn't want to terrify Evangeline.
"Go with him," he said, his hand on her arm all but forcing her toward Elijah's guard. "Timur will go with you as well."
"And Jeremiah," Joshua said.
Emilio stood slowly, and instantly there was silence. "I apologize for the behavior of my friends, Evangeline. Please accept the protection we're offering you. Martino will also accompany you." He looked around the table and shook his head. "I apologize to you, Elijah and Alonzo and Joshua as well. Patrizio, sit down and think with your head, not your dick for a change. What we do here is important."
Alonzo kept his gaze fixed on Patrizio even as his hand continued to urge Evangeline toward safety. Timur took her wrist and pulled gently. To Alonzo's relief, she went with his brother and the other bodyguards. He didn't look away from Patrizio, but he saw everything as a man rather than a leopard. Mostly he saw Evangeline's body, the way her shoulders were slumped as if in defeat. He hated that. And he knew she was going to send him away from her. That gutted him. He deserved it, but it gutted him all the same because in the end, he was already lost. His leopard would grow in power and cruelty until Alonzo wouldn't be able to control him and they'd both go the way of his family unless he killed himself or made someone else do it.
Patrizio sank into his chair, shaking his head. "There is no excuse so I make none, only offer my apologies."
He looked around the table with his lying smile and his hate-filled eyes--eyes that settled on Evangeline with a dark, ugly promise. He must have felt Alonzo's steady stare, the focused stare of the leopard that was unsettling and terrifying. Alonzo didn't take his gaze from the man, not once during all the negotiations. Not when he smiled or tried to fawn, not when he practically gave up everything to be a part of the alliance they were forming. Especially not when Elijah pushed back his chair and stood, silently declaring the meeting over.
"We'll get back to you soon," he promised both Emilio and Patrizio.
Alonzo stood as well, hating to let the man go. His leopard was watchful, angry that the enemy was walking out unscathed, raking and clawing with the need to end the man. He felt as his leopard did, a terrible need consuming every part of him to feel Patrizio Amodeo's life fade in his hands.
We'll get him, he promised. Think of him as a walking dead man. We'll get him.
Patrizio was no fool. He knew he'd made enemies in that room and that Alonzo was one of them. Joshua was a puzzle to the crime boss, as he would be to Emilio. Alonzo knew Joshua and had fought enemies beside him. Joshua was fast and his leopard was fierce. He was also cool under fire. Alonzo liked him, but he hadn't liked the way Joshua was watching Evangeline--almost as if he had some proprietary relationship over her. His gaze had followed her speculatively.
Joshua was single, but his gaze, as focused as it was on Evangeline, hadn't held heat exactly. Interest, yes, but heat, no. Alonzo didn't like anything touching Evangeline he didn't understand. He had done everything in his power to make her safe, but people were always unpredictable, leopards even more so.
"I'm sorry about Amodeo," Emilio said as Elijah sat back down into his seat. He looked down at the coffee spill still on the floor. "I know you took it as an insult, and I don't blame you. You haven't had much contact with Patrizio. I knew his father. Same problem. They traffic in women and they have no respect for them. Not even their own wives." He shook his head. "Otherwise, they are good businessmen and they have excellent laundries."
"It's a weakness." Joshua spoke for nearly the first time. "A man thinks with his dick during a business meeting to the point of disrupting it, he's a question mark any time we're doing business if there's a woman in the room."
"You knew that he'd react that way to Evangeline," Elijah accused, sounding almost bored. "Why?"
Emilio shrugged. "I wanted to see everyone's reaction to her. She's stunning. She's intelligent. I am thinking of taking her for my wife."
The shock wave went around the table. Truth was in every word. Alonzo's leopard roared with fury and leapt for the surface, shoving himself into his shifter's throat, pushing into his jaw and down into his hands and feet, determined to take over, to rip apart his opponent.
"There's a bit of an age difference," Elijah pointed out politely. "She's barely legal."
Emilio nodded. "Young enough to give me children. I wanted to see how she did with a meeting of my friends held here and how she would handle Patrizio pawing at her."
Alonzo fought back the change. His skull hurt. His jaw ached. Teeth were too big for his mouth. Every joint flared with pain, and his hands, curled into fists, were excruciatingly painful. We'll get him when the time is right. So many lives his leopard demanded, but Alonzo had always refused the bloodthirsty creature.
He'd spent a lifetime killing already. First the training, killing at six under his father's watchful eye. The emotions he had to lock up in a block of ice. The terrible things demanded of him. Demanded of his brother and cousin. The things his father and other brothers and cousins had done in front of him. The cruelty. The cunning. The viciousness.
He'd turned his back on that life, no longer the enforcer. No longer Fyodor Amurov. No longer Russian. He had been a bodyguard. He'd come to Antonio Arnotto at a young age, made the man believe he was Italian, and he'd hired on as a soldier. None of them saw the killer in him. None of them saw what he was or what he was capable of. He'd been simply a bodyguard to Antonio's beloved granddaughter, Siena. Now she was married to Elijah and Antonio was dead. Elijah had convinced him to step into Antonio's shoes for Siena and he'd done it, never once thinking he would find a woman like Evangeline. Never once thinking that his leopard would give him a chance with her.
"No." Joshua said the word softly. "I respect you, Emilio, more than I can say, but Evangeline cannot marry you. I can't give you reasons, other than she has obligations."
Heat had banded across Alonzo's eyes and he saw the flare of anger as a sharp red burst from Emilio, but the man's anger quickly cooled and he shifted forward in his chair to pin Joshua with his hard gaze. "You cannot speak for her. You have no right."
"I have every right. She is under my protection and the protection of my family. She is my first cousin." Joshua made the announcement in his low tone, never realizing he was sealing Evangeline's fate to Alonzo.
There was no turning away from her. No walking away. She was a Tregre. Sh
e was leopard. Whether or not her leopard ever showed didn't matter, nor would it ever matter to him. Alonzo didn't know how it happened that he'd ever walked into her bakery by chance and found he couldn't walk away. Fate maybe. Destiny. What were the odds of meeting a woman in San Antonio who was from a lair of leopards from Louisiana?
His leopard settled. Knew for certain Alonzo would never give Evangeline up. Not. Ever. Alonzo sighed inwardly. He would have to come to terms with the fact that he was a complete bastard. There would be no redemption for him. If he had a shred of decency in him he would walk out of the bakery and never go back, but the belief that someday he'd be strong enough to do that was in tatters with Joshua's declaration.
In the world of shifters, a man and a woman could come together in more than one lifetime. His family refused to find their true mates. They wanted sons for their work, a daughter if they could use her to barter an alliance with another lair, but rarely did they keep a female alive. In their lair only males were trusted into the brotherhood, the sacred shifter bratya. When a wife had done her duty and given her husband as many sons as he demanded, she met with a cruel and very untimely death. He'd been born into that. He'd failed to save his mother, but he'd managed to save Timur and Gorya from his father's wrath.
Both had been there that day. Gorya had been given to Ogfia, Alonzo's mother, when Gorya's mother had died. Alonzo now knew her own husband had murdered her. It was a sign of loyalty to their lair, to the brotherhood. Gorya and Timur had been home the day Alonzo and Timur's father had chosen to murder his wife. Both tried to fight him, but Alonzo's father, like Alonzo, was a giant of a man and incredibly strong and fast. He'd killed his wife and then begun to beat both boys to death. Alonzo had come in.
Around him the meeting was breaking up, Emilio seemingly accepting Joshua's verdict and leaving with his bodyguards, stopping to kiss Evangeline's hand as he swept through the bakery to the back entrance. She gave Emilio a genuine smile and a little wave as he left via the kitchen.
Once again his leopard protested another man touching her. It won't be long. Once we claim her, no other man will put his hands on her . . . and live. He closed his eyes briefly on that thought. That made him far too much like his father. The opposite, but still willing to kill. He would keep her any way he had to.
Evangeline returned from the kitchen and stood just behind the counter, frowning a little as she stared at the coffee stain. She didn't have a poker face at all. Every expression gave away her thoughts, and without a doubt she thought to send all of them away.
Joshua and Elijah left next, both stopping to thank her. She avoided Joshua's gaze, which told Alonzo she refused to acknowledge the family connection between them. He needed to find out why. She had been using another name. Bouvier, not Tregre. Timur would find out everything there was to know about her. He needed to know. He couldn't walk into the relationship and be blindsided now that he'd made up his mind.
Eventually there was only Alonzo and his four bodyguards left in the store. Evangeline took towels to soak up the coffee and dropped them on the wide stain. She bent to pick up the glass. Alonzo caught her arm, preventing her from dropping to the floor. "We're going into the kitchen to talk."
"No, we're not," she protested even as he began to propel her across the room. He had a big stride and he used it, taking her with him. "I mean it, Alonzo. You and your men are leavin' and you're never comin' back. Tell me where the cameras are so I can get rid of them."
His gaze jumped to Timur, letting him know silently that as soon as they were home, at the Arnotto estate, he was going to get pounded into the ground.
"We'll discuss that in the kitchen," he said softly. Not in front of his soldiers. He had things to make clear to her and she wasn't going to like anything he had to say. He wanted her to be able to be as angry as she needed to be, and having a woman yell at him in front of his soldiers wasn't a good idea. In his business, respect was everything. To protect her and give her the privacy to do what she needed to do, they had to be in the kitchen. He kept walking her right around the counter, even when she turned as if she'd go back.
"Stop it, Alonzo," she hissed. "I mean it. You don' have the right to tell me--"
He cut off her protests by simply lifting her into his arms. Cradling her close. Taking the chance she'd rake his face with her nails. He knew her leopard was close because his leopard was purring and strutting, and her eyes were glowing. She looked more exotic than ever and thoroughly pissed.
"Clean that mess up and make certain you get every single splinter of glass." He gave the command over his shoulder and kicked the door shut behind him.
He set her carefully on her feet and she backed away from him, putting a short distance between them as if that would make her safe.
"I want you gone, Alonzo. I mean it. Leave and don' come back. I don' want your friends in my bakery either, so make that happen. I want to know where every single camera is and quit havin' Timur or Gorya follow me home every night."
She looked . . . beautiful. Gorgeous. She took his breath away. Her skin was flushed, her eyes so bright they were two emeralds shaped like a cat's eye with many fascinating facets. A gold ring had formed as flecks merged, telling him that when she was all cat--if that ever happened--her eyes would be molten gold. Lashes were as dark as the long thick hair he wanted to sink his fingers into.
"That isn't going to happen." He said it quietly with a heavy note of finality.
She heard the note. Processed it instantly. He saw knowledge on her face. Wariness crept into her eyes, into her expression. Her tongue touched her bottom lip, that full bottom lip he wanted to bite. He dreamt of biting it. Now it was going to happen.
She shook her head and took another step back, throwing up her hand, palm out facing him, warding him off. So fragile. So little. Such a small thing to think she could hold back the force of an Amurov. "I'll admit I flirted with the idea. I had a hard time with the idea of givin' anyone else a chance because I was so attracted to you, but it isn't right. What's between us isn't right. You clearly didn't want it when I was dancin' around the idea and now I know I don't want it."
"You do."
Faint color crept up her body, flushed the curves of her breasts, her neck and face. Her chin lifted. "Maybe I am physically attracted to you, Alonzo, but I don' have to act on it. You put cameras in my place of business like a stalker. You have me followed home every night. You brought horrible people into my bakery, men with guns, and there was nearly a shoot-out. Don' pretend that didn't happen because it did."
He liked that even angry and afraid--and she was both--her voice was pitched low. She always talked softly, and that soothed him just as it did his leopard. "I put cameras in your business to protect you, so someone I trusted had eyes on you when I wasn't here. I put you in danger by coming here, I know that, but I couldn't stop myself. I have you escorted home. They're visible to protect you from any enemy I have that might think to strike at me through you. You're my one vulnerability. The only one I have. I can't stay away so I have to protect you."
She opened her mouth twice to protest what he said. He knew she could throw attitude and sass at him, but she wouldn't do it just for the sake of throwing it. She was a reasonable woman and she would hear the ring of truth in his voice because her leopard would hear it.
"I didn't want to keep coming here and putting you in jeopardy. Believe me, Evangeline, I know how selfish it was, but when I'm here, you make my world okay for just a little bit. I don't know if I would have survived it intact had I managed to find the strength to leave you alone. And I tried. Five weeks, four days, three hours and twenty-seven minutes I made it. Each one of those days was agony."
"Alonzo . . ."
"You know that's not my name." He said it quietly.
Her small white teeth sank into her lower lip. Yeah. She knew. She was very observant. Her gaze shifted from his.
"Evangeline." Just her name. A command. He waited. She took a breath. A second one a
nd then her eyes lifted to his. His woman had the courage of a leopard. "I'm not going anywhere. It's not possible, so you're going to have to get over being angry about the cameras and the protection. You'll have to get used to that." He said it as gently as possible, but he meant every word. There was a slight shake to her head that told him she was still going to try to fight the inevitable.
"Leave the cameras for the time bein' if they make you feel better, but this . . ." She swept her hand between them. "This isn't goin' to happen. Yes, I'm not goin' to lie, because clearly you know I'm attracted to you. Very attracted."
That honest admission cost her and he wanted to reach out and pull her into his arms to comfort her.
"But it can't happen. Not for all the reasons you think either. It has nothin' to do with you and what you've chosen to do with your life. It's about me and what I can't go back to. I won't go back."
Her voice trembled a little and that cost him. He didn't like her scared, or hurt or embarrassed. Still, she was cute as all hell standing up to him.
"Back to what?" he prompted.
Her chin lifted. That little defiant gesture drove him wild--sent his leopard into a fury of need to claim her. To show her just whom she belonged to.
For one moment she struggled with her decision to admit she knew he was leopard. Or that she was. He saw it on her face, but then she shrugged and just committed.
"A lair. Never again. I don' care what Joshua said, I have no responsibilities to any lair or any leader of a lair."
He opened his mouth to deny she would be in a lair of any kind, but then realized that wasn't true. His brother and cousin were leopards. He'd already acquired two more men from the Borneo rain forest, both leopards, men he could trust. Timur had sent for Amur leopards that had left the lairs right after they had. Technically, he was the head of the lair. The leader. She said she had no responsibilities to a lair.
"You didn't ask for Joshua's protection, or for anyone's protection for that matter. Why not?"