Wild Cat (10 page)

Joshua followed him out from under the deck and around toward the back of the house. Elijah turned to face him, folding his arms. “Before I tell you the rest, just know: you laugh and I'm going to knock you out.”

Joshua grinned at him. “You can't do that, man. You need me to disarm that bomb and help you make certain there aren't any others.”

Elijah shook his head. “We fucked, and then Marco showed up and I shot him. I accused her of being part of a plot to divert attention so the hit man could get in and then I threw her out.” It was a watered-down version, but he guessed Joshua would get that.

Joshua looked shocked and then a slow smirk settled over his face. “You did that? You really are a jackass, aren't you?”

“Shut up. I knew I shouldn't tell you. It was bad enough admitting what I did to Drake. He was pissed, and I mean really pissed. For him it was all about controlling my leopard, and clearly I didn't do that. My temper got the best of me.”

“Your temper or your dick?” Joshua sneered, and then burst out laughing. Hastily, he moved around Elijah and dove under the deck.

Elijah stood a moment, staring after his friend. Men had never dared tease him until he became part of Drake's crew. He still felt a little stiff around the others. His upbringing
had been serious. Once his parents were dead—murdered by his uncle—he spent his youth protecting his younger sister Rachel from his uncle. That had been
very
serious business. He'd also spent a number of years cementing his relationship with the men working for his uncle. Plotting against his uncle with two of his childhood friends in the organization. Finally, taking him down.

He wasn't good at the softer things in life. He'd cared for one person—his sister—and he'd had to protect that relationship by acting as if she didn't matter that much to him so his uncle wouldn't know he had as much leverage. He was a hard man, and he got the job done however it needed doing. He'd done things out of necessity he wasn't proud of. He'd done other things—illegal and dangerous—and never looked back.

He had been an enforcer. He was good with his fists. Fast. His leopard was savage and strong. He'd always wielded power, and he'd learned from his grandfather, father and uncle how to command a room just by walking into it. Silence worked for him. He didn't explain himself. He didn't apologize. He had a tendency to take what he wanted. More than anything he was always,
always
in control. Until Siena.

He followed Joshua under the deck. The device was the same as it had been on the front door. Robert Gaton had covered his bets by rigging either door to blow. He considered what would have happened had he opened the front door with Siena in his arms. They both would have died.

A cold rage snaked through him. He was familiar with that feeling. He had waited years to avenge his parents. He'd played his part and developed his strength right under his uncle's nose. He had patience for revenge. The man who had struck Siena, leaving bruises and fractured ribs, the leopard that had torn her flesh open, and now this man, they would all go down, just as his uncle had.

He didn't believe in the justice system. He'd seen it bought and paid for too many times. He wasn't going to trust
anyone with Siena's safety, not completely, not even Drake. He would oversee everything.

Siena didn't have a chance, and he recognized that. Owned it. He was a man with a passionate nature and a savage but cold-as-ice temper, but he'd learned a few things about himself he hadn't known since he'd been with Siena. He could be possessive and jealous, two traits he had never considered would ever be in his nature. Being dominating and controlling was inherent, bred deep, but it was really solidified with his upbringing.

Siena was his.
His.
He was rough and mean and expected those around him to obey him without question. Siena wasn't going to do that. He could tell her nature would rebel if he came at her wrong. Still, she was his.

He had never been moved by a woman's tears. He considered tears a manipulative weapon. Until Siena. Her tears had undone him. He'd ordered her to stop, not because he thought she was trying to control or sway him in some way, but because her weeping was truly heartbreaking. In the end he'd needed to hold her more than she needed to be held.

Siena brought out things in him he didn't know were there, and truthfully, it was a little frightening. She stripped him bare, exposing raw emotion. He kept his emotions under tight control at all times, but with her, he couldn't do it. He'd lost control when he'd taken her innocence and when she'd cried . . .

“Got it,” Joshua said. “What are you going to do about this, Elijah?”

Elijah kept his features carefully blank. “I don't know what you're talking about. The bomb? Hand it over to Drake.”

“About Robert Gaton,” Joshua said patiently, his cool gaze drilling into Elijah's. “And don't give me crap that you're not going to do anything. You're going to hunt him down, just as you're going to hunt Paolo and Alonzo.”

Elijah didn't reply. What was there to say? Hell yeah, he was going to hunt them, but not now, not when they'd be
expecting it. He was going to wait them out. Paolo didn't have the patience for chess. He would make a move soon to get Siena back. He wasn't the type of man to let his dream go. He wanted the power of the Arnotto family, and he saw Siena as his way to get it.

Alonzo was different. Hard to read. He had a reputation, a bad one. No one ever messed with Alonzo, and if he showed up on your doorstep, chances were good you weren't going to live through his punishment. No one knew much about him or his family. Unlike Paolo, he wasn't from any of the leopard families in the United States or South America. He didn't say where he came from. He'd met Antonio by chance and for some reason, best known to him, had stayed.

Elijah always sized up his enemies, and one thing he was very good at was reading them, knowing them, learning everything about them, but Alonzo was an enigma. He'd have to get Drake to use his sources to find out about the man because he was definitely a wild card.

Elijah had learned in a hard school not to show anyone who mattered to him. He protected those he loved by acting completely emotionless around others. He wasn't going to make the mistake of showing the rest of the world that Siena Arnotto had suddenly become as necessary to him as the air he breathed.

That strange thing was, he didn't know how it had happened. It wasn't something that had come on suddenly. He'd been acutely aware of her for years. So much so that he'd deliberately dated the complete opposite of her, but that hadn't gotten her off his mind—or his radar. He fantasized about her. He dreamt about her. He had been obsessed with her.

He hadn't let anyone in on that secret until he spoke to Jake about her, there in the office when he'd confessed he'd totally fucked up, because he wasn't a man to put a woman in jeopardy. Any woman who became his would be living a shadow life. He'd be asking her to allow everyone to think
she lived just as dirty as the world believed he did. She would be in danger and would have to walk a very fine line.

“Elijah?” Joshua pushed.

Elijah shrugged casually, his only answer to Joshua's question, and sauntered back to the car where Siena waited with Drake. She had offered to go away with him right then, to protect him. No one had ever made such an offer, giving herself to him so he would be safe. He liked that. Something deep inside had shifted at her plea.

Drake was out of the car and around to the passenger side before Elijah was there. His eyes asked a question. Elijah answered with a nod.

“Your woman is fragile, Elijah,” Drake warned softly. “She's in some pain, and she's been worried but tried not to show it.” He opened the door.

“I'll handle her with care.” He didn't know if he knew how, but he did acknowledge that he should.

Before Drake could reach inside and get Siena, Elijah did. He drew her into his arms. “You're safe, sweetheart,” he promised. “We'll get you inside and settled.”

She stiffened, but this time she didn't protest. She settled her face in his neck and held on as he carried her back up the stairs to the verandah. He'd given Joshua his keys and Joshua was already inside, disarming the alarm system.

He carried her through the house, straight back to the master bedroom. It was very spacious. The bed was large, on a platform with two steps leading up to it. The rest of the room was space. He liked space. He liked to see what was coming at him. The bed was positioned in such a way to hide two escape routes. One route was beneath the platform through a disguised trapdoor leading to a tunnel that wound underground beneath the house to exit just to the west.

In the underground chamber just beneath them was a room filled with weapons, with a go bag, passport and money at the ready. He could leave in an instant and start again with
no problem. He had vehicles stashed on the property and a route mapped out for his leopard should he need it.

The second escape route had been cleverly incorporated into the design of the wall at the headboard of the bed itself. One simply stepped from the bed, through the hidden door and into the narrow hallway that led throughout the house. There were other openings in various rooms, and small, tucked-in chambers to hide in should there be need. He had stashed weapons and a second go-bag there as well. Elijah was a man who believed in being prepared.

Very gently, he eased Siena down onto the bed. He stayed bent, his fists on the mattress on either side of her hips, caging her in as he leaned close. “I'm having your things brought here. Jake arranged for a police escort to remove your clothing from your room. My people will get whatever else you want out of the house. Make a list, Siena, before you take a nap.”

She shook her head, her gaze downcast, refusing to meet his. “I'm not staying here. I mean it, Elijah. I know you don't want to hear me, but I'm not.”

“Babe.” He brushed back her hair with gentle fingers, inhaling her scent. He loved how she smelled, that faint scent of honeysuckle that clung to her skin and hair. “Look at me.”

He waited, allowing the silence to add to the tension in the room. He was patient. He had all the patience in the world, especially with her. Her fingers twisted together in her lap. He felt the knots in his stomach unravel. Even with the bandage on her face, she was gorgeous. His stomach went from knots to mush. His cock stirred. Yeah. She was his, all right. Her thick black lashes lifted, leaving him staring into her brilliant green eyes.

“You are,” he stated firmly, uncaring that he sounded bossy and arrogant. He used the tone that brooked no argument—from anyone. “Staying here. You aren't in any
condition to fight me on this. We can protect you here. In a hotel or somewhere else, it would be much more difficult.”

“Why? I don't understand any of this.”

“You burned hot for me the moment I touched you. I burned just as hot for you. You're the only woman in my life I've ever been out of control with.” He gave her that because he'd been brutal in taking her self-esteem. She deserved the truth, even though he was opening himself up further than he'd ever done. “You can't give me that, baby, and then think you're going to walk away from me.”

She blinked. Looked vulnerable. “You threw me out.”

He leaned down and brushed a kiss across her forehead and then straightened. “I fucked up, Siena. You're going to find I do that a lot. I'm leopard. I've got all those traits that make me leopard . . .”

She shrank away from him, fear stark in her eyes.

“Don't. Don't you ever be afraid of me. Don't look at me like that. I'm not like Paolo. I would never physically hurt you. I'd hurt myself before I'd ever harm you. I'm willing to die for you, Siena. More importantly, I'm willing to kill for you.”

“I don't want you to do that,” she whispered.

“Paolo shouldn't have laid his fucking hand on you.” He slid the pad of his thumb across the bruise fading at her temple and then down over her eye. “No one does that to you. No one.”

Elijah turned abruptly and stalked to the door. He couldn't take the look in her eyes. She was afraid of him, and he couldn't really blame her. He had to have scared her to death when he'd turned on her and put a gun to her head. What a damn fool. It was going to take time to repair that damage.

“Make a list,” he reiterated. “Be thorough. Pen and paper are on the nightstand. I'll be back in a few minutes. I want to make certain our team is fully in place.”

Siena watched him leave the room, her heart pounding. She glanced at the phone on the nightstand. She could call
a taxi, but if she did, how would it get through the gates? Elijah would never let a taxi through. So all right. She was going to have to stay for a few days, at least until she felt stronger and her leg and hip didn't hurt so much.

She tried to figure out Elijah's motives. If he was really a good man as Drake had tried to convince her in the car, then none of this made sense. She knew better than to think he was attracted to her, no matter what he said. Her world had been turned upside down. She knew Paolo had tried to come to the hospital on several occasions, ostensibly to talk to her about her grandfather's memorial service. She hadn't been able to go. She had a raging fever, the infection spreading through her body like a wildfire. She knew her grandfather's body had disappeared and why.

Leopard. She moistened her dry lips and pushed off the bed. She was leopard. A shifter. Instead of being upset by the news, she was grateful. Her leopard was company. Part of her, yes, but still company, and she'd felt very, very alone most of the time.

She found an enormous closet through double doors. The closet was so large it appeared to be a room all in itself. Just to the left of that was the master bathroom. An apartment could fit into the bathroom. It was a room one would indulge themselves in. An open shower with beautifully appointed gold hardware and a long marble sink with double faucets, a makeup mirror and a beautiful, deep bathtub-Jacuzzi took up one side of the room. On the other was a deep, inviting pool. The cover appeared to be thick glass. Steam fogged the glass on the inside so she was certain she was looking at very large hot tub.