She shivered a little and wrapped her arms around her own waist. Just the sound of his voice indicated danger. “If I feel I have to know something, Timur, I’m going to ask. That’s the way I am. I can’t be anyone different any more than you can.”
His teeth bit down on her shoulder. Held for a moment and then slowly put pressure until she felt that bite go through her like a lightning strike. “You don’t need to know how I do something ever, Ashe, just that I do it. Can we at least agree on that?”
Ashe thought about it, all the while rubbing her chin back and forth on his arm.
“I’ve told you what I do. I’m an enforcer. When we need information, I don’t just kill an enemy outright. I do whatever it takes to make them talk—and they always talk. I don’t kill indiscriminately, nor do I like the things I’m forced to do at times.”
She knew that was all he was going to tell her, and it wasn’t anything she didn’t already suspect. He’d all but said that to her when he talked about the men who had murdered her parents. He’d been taught to take apart human beings from a very young age.
“I shouldn’t be able to live with that, Timur. What does that say about me?”
“That you are leopard and you have already seen the worst our people can do. Shifters can’t live under the same laws as humans, Ashe, it would never work. Our cats our moody and vicious and if one goes wrong, we have no choice but to put it down. Humans have problems understanding that because they are doing their best to evolve to a higher plane.”
Ashe didn’t point out that she thought it wasn’t working. She pressed her lips to his arm, up high, near his shoulder. “I can live with it, but you tell me the truth when I ask you anything. You have to give me your word.”
“I will, baby, but not details,” he reiterated.
Another shiver went through her. What was she getting herself into? “I don’t want to be any part of running drugs. Or human trafficking. I don’t, Timur. That’s important to me.”
“None of our people are involved in either of those things. We do our best to shut that shit down, Ashe, but we can’t always. It’s a lucrative business, and we would tip our hand if we concentrated too much in one place. The cops are always after us, always looking at us and will do whatever it takes to bust us.”
“That’s their job,” she pointed out.
“I know.” He was silent for a moment and then he pulled the plug. “I’m getting you in bed. Don’t want you falling asleep on me before we have the rest of this conversation.”
He lifted her out of the tub and put her feet on the thick mat. She took the towel and dried her body. No way would she fall asleep before Timur told her the rest. She knew they were in very dangerous territory now. The more she knew, the more she realized there was no chance of going back. If she was aware of any detail of Fyodor’s work, she was a threat. It was that simple. Timur removed threats. She was either with them or against them.
She turned her head to look at him standing beside her, wiping down his body with efficient movement. He had the roped muscles of the leopard. He was taller than a lot of shifters, but it was those blue eyes that really set him apart. Few leopards had them.
Ashe made her way to the bed and flung herself facedown on the sheets. The fabric was cool on the heat of her skin and felt wonderful against her naked body and her nipples that had been on fire since Godiva had gone into her heat. The mattress dipped under Timur’s weight. He stretched out on his side and propped his head up with one hand while the other went to her bottom, stroking caresses over the curve of her buttocks.
“You can’t get rid of all crime, Ashe, it just doesn’t work that way. You cut off one head and another, twice as powerful, takes its place. I finally had to come to that conclusion. I tried dumping businesses my uncle and grandfather built up. Very big alliances, pipelines around the world. I thought I could get away from all of it, but I couldn’t. Drake Donovan offered me a way, not out of the business, but to keep the worst of the bosses from succeeding at the worst of the crimes.”
She turned her head toward him, her gaze steady on his face, needing to see his expression, to read what he was saying along with hearing it. “How did he do that, Timur?”