Night of the Lions (Lions of Manhattan 1)

Now she had his full attention. He cast her a suspicious look. “Who are you?”

“I’m Catherine Kovac, your ten o’clock appointment. Can we talk somewhere private?”

Duval’s gaze slid to a black Lincoln parked nearby. “I’m a bit tight at the moment. We can talk if you want to take a ride. Otherwise, you have to schedule another appointment with Janice.”

The hell she would. That bitchy receptionist? No way, José. “I’ll take a ride.”

“Good. Let’s go.”

As Gabriel had feared, Alex came back empty-handed.

Gabe swivelled in his chair and ordered his secretary to hold his calls until lunchtime. He and Renaud had just had a discussion about the mysterious client who’d hired Catherine Kovac.

Alex joined Renaud on a sofa across from Gabe’s desk. He sighed heavily. “That’s one stubborn woman,” Alex chided. However, his tone betrayed his words. Respect was shadowed beneath it. “She even refused the bribe money.”

“She did?” Ren echoed with interest. “Even when her business is down the shitter, she rejected a cool hundred grand, just like that?”

“Not even a blink. She said she’s committed to her client.”

Gabe steepled his fingers, listening studiously. The payoff had been Gabe’s idea, to measure what kind of person Cat was. He was glad Cat had refused to be bribed, but he was disappointed that she’d rejected the dinner invitation. He had hoped he could g

et to know her more intimately. After all, they had unfinished business between them. His lion had been on his case since last night, restless with mating frenzy. It had been a long while since he had got laid, and Catherine Kovac was the woman he had been looking for as a mate. As soon as she’d left the club, Gabe had ordered Ren to gather intel about her. He now knew Cat sleuthed unlicensed, running a private investigation agency that she had inherited from her brother, an agency that had mounting debts and served shoddy clients.

Ren threw a curious look at Alex. “This private eye I’ve been hearing so much about, Catherine Kovac; how does she look?”

“You saw her pictures in the DMV database when you hacked it.”

“I mean in person.”

“Firecracker.”

“Is she hot?”

Alex threw a grin at Gabe. “Hot enough to make him frisky. By the way, in case you were wondering, Gabe, she opened her door in her bathrobe.”

Ren whistled. “Was she wearing anything underneath the bathrobe?”

“Do you want to hear my best guess?”

“Cut it out. Both of you.” Gabe was a bit peeved that Alex and Ren were having a ball throwing digs at him. It must have amused them that he was showing interest in a woman after a long time of celibacy.

Ren had done a background check on Cat’s client, Judith Rossi. There were seventy-five women in the tri-state area with the name Judith Rossi, yet none of them had had a sibling with the name Cameron who’d died more than a decade ago overseas. Africa, to be exact. Ren had widened his search nationwide and still come up with nothing. Gabe’s computer whiz of a brother had come to the conclusion that Cat’s client might not even be legitimate. Last night, Ren had hacked Cat’s computer and traced the down-payment she’d received from Judith Rossi. The account’s trail had led him to a company headquartered in the Cayman Islands. Gabe had no doubt that the company was a shelter, a fake, designed to front illegal business and money-laundering schemes.

What made it more interesting was that the same company, with a different account number, had made some steady payments to Jonathan Kovac, Cat’s brother, for over a year and abruptly ended them before his untimely death. Gabe had cross-checked Kovac’s agency client list. The account matched a client named Kelly Rothford. Jonathan had kept an immaculate list of his clients with the descriptions of the jobs he did for them. Most consisted of insurance and divorce lawyer work. But whatever he’d done for Kelly Rothford, Jon had kept a secret. Even from Cat, who’d worked as his secretary since he’d started the agency. Gabe had drawn the conclusion that Judith Rossi and Kelly Rothford were the same person. Or worked for the same man.

Gabe usually liked puzzles. Solving a mystery. Gaining an advantage over his opponents. This time, he didn’t like where it was headed. He had a theory that Cat’s mysterious client had deliberately given her a fake job with a sinister purpose. And it connected to Gabe personally. Gabe had been up thinking all night, trying to guess who would want to take him down.

He had a few enemies.

One didn’t reach success at this level without stepping on a few toes along the way. But judging by the intricacy of this threat, Gabe believed this problem was more personal than it was business.

And Gabe knew one person who had a grudge against him, silently lurking with an eternal hatred burning in her soul. Sophie-Marie Veron. Daughter of the alpha Marius Veron, the man Gabe had killed in a duel at the Night of the Lions.

“Who’s in charge of Cat’s personal detail this morning?” Gabe asked Alex. Last night, after he’d realised the connections and that Cat might be in danger, he had called Todd Johnson, the head of his firm’s security, and ordered Todd to assign men to watch her.

“Danielson. Saw him when I went to Kovac’s apartment.” Alex’s cell rang. He took the call. His face darkened as he hung up. “Speaking of Danielson, that was him. We have a problem.”

“What is it?”