"She's an innocent woman, and you knew that." Alonzo lifted his gun. "You also knew she was mine." He shot him between the eyes and then turned and shot the dispatcher. "You left leopard DNA in his chest, Timur," he snapped at his brother. "What the hell were you thinking?"
Timur ducked his head. Shook it. Took a deep breath to breathe away his leopard. "I was thinking he was no different than Patva Amurov. Or Lazar or Rolan Amurov." He shook his head again. "Sometimes I can't take it, Fyodor. Not one more second."
Alonzo went very still. Timur was no different than he was. They had the same upbringing. The same father. Patva was a cruel man who beat his sons daily, humiliated them, insisted they be tough, brutal killing machines before they were in their teens. He fed their leopards pure rage. Now Alonzo was putting him in that same position.
"Don't," Timur warned him in a low, hostile voice. "You're my brother. I choose to follow you. To protect you. You protected me. My leopard won't accept any other way of life, any more than yours will. I had a moment of weakness. Of anger. It's under control now."
Alonzo knew he couldn't apologize or his brother would explode into violence. He was that close. He merely nodded, but deep inside, he felt the burden of another sin. So many. He shook his head. "We can't leave his body here. It has to go out with the guns, down to Louisiana and the swamp."
"I'll take care of it," Timur snarled. "It's my mistake."
Alonzo turned his cold eyes on his brother. "I need you with me. We have a cleanup crew for a reason. They can handle it. We're visiting Amodeo tonight."
"He's going to be armed to the teeth. Guards everywhere," Gorya cautioned. "He'll be expecting retaliation since they missed their target. No one can miss the fact that you were at the hospital every day until they released her and that she's in your home under your protection. Not to mention, Mitya was hurt and is still in the hospital. Amodeo might not give a damn if someone shoots one of his soldiers, but most vors would retaliate immediately."
"Leopards can get through his guards," Alonzo decreed mercilessly. He wanted to be like Elijah Lospostos and Drake Donovan. He'd thought he could be different, leave his past behind and maybe actually do some good, making up a little for his past, but no way was he going to let Patrizio Amodeo live. Not for another day. Not when he knew the bastard had put out a contract on Evangeline.
"Let's do it then," Timur said, already using the burner phone to call in the cleanup crew. He snapped the phone shut and followed his brother and cousin out.
Alonzo waited to call Sevastyan until he was in the car. He used the same phone Timur had, rather than his personal one. They'd learned, over the years, to be meticulous about their work. They couldn't afford one mistake.
"She okay?" he asked abruptly.
"She's a pain in the ass," Sevastyan said, although Alonzo could hear the affection in his voice. "She's got a list as long as my arm and wants me to go to the store for her. She's insisting tomorrow she's cooking for everyone."
"She's supposed to be in bed."
"Yeah, well, let me just say, that's not happening unless I put her ass in bed."
Alonzo remained silent.
Sevastyan blew out air in the way a leopard might. "Really? She'll take my head off."
"Better your head than your dick," Alonzo snapped.
Sevastyan sighed. "Consider it done, but I'm going to make certain she knows where the order came from. Then it will be your dick in danger."
"Lock that place down. She's got a price on her head. If anything happens, you can protect her from my room. There's a passage in the wall just to the left of the door. Find it in case you need it before we get back. You have any inkling of trouble, get her out of there and into the safe room. The passageway leads to one."
"Price on her head?" Sevastyan repeated.
"That's right." Alonzo snapped the phone closed and handed it back to his brother. Sevastyan would get rid of his burner the moment they returned. No one ever used their personal phone for business. Not. Ever.
Alonzo remained silent during the long ride to Amodeo's personal home. He lived on the edge of San Antonio, in a quiet neighborhood reserved for the wealthy. His house was a one-story, lengthy sprawling brick mansion shaped like a U. The courtyard had a swimming pool and a garden, with inviting decks and cool shade trees. The entire estate was surrounded by a high wrought-iron fence, very decorative looking, but perfectly functional.
To get to the house, one had to maneuver up a long, private drive to the gate, where a guardhouse sat, preventing entry. Two guards, both heavily armed, manned the guardhouse. Two dogs patrolled with their handlers on the grounds. No one stood around whispering and laughing. No one smoked cigarettes and looked bored. This was a camp prepared to do battle.
"Just the way I like it," Alonzo murmured as he, Timur and Gorya leapt from the car three blocks from the house. The town car drove off, barely slowing down to allow them out. The three leopards padded silently through the neighborhood, staying close to the bushes and trees lining the streets that led to the larger estates. Each wore a small knapsack around their neck containing clothes.
It wasn't difficult for the leopards to move parallel to the driveway, keeping out of sight of the cameras directed at the long drive. Their long fur camouflaged them easily in the heavier bushes lining the drive. They barely disturbed plants as they made their way to the fence.
All three cats were up and over the fence as if it didn't exist. It wasn't that difficult. Leopards could run up to forty miles per hour in a short burst. They could cover twenty feet with one leap. The fence was eight feet high. Leopards could easily jump it and all three did, landing on padded paws in the foliage, facing the house.
A dog whined close by and they went to the ground, flattening their ears as they crouched low. As the dog passed around the side of the house, they moved forward, slinking stealthily through the brush and the landscaping to gain the shadow of the porch. Alonzo took the lead. He'd spotted a curtain fluttering in the window just off the wing of the house on the left side. Positioning himself under the window, he stood on his hind legs and peered through the window. The room was empty.
He went in, the slide of fur making no noise. It was close to midnight and the house was dark, with only a faint light coming from under the door of one room. Patrizio Amodeo wasn't married, but word was, he always had a woman before he went to bed. He kicked her out the moment he was finished with her.
The big Amur leopards could hear the murmur of voices, a female and male. The hated male voice had all three cats grimacing, lips drawn back, teeth showing, ears flat, ready for combat.
A door slammed off to their right and they heard the heavy tread of footsteps. All three leopards slipped behind furniture and waited as a man strode into the room, all purpose. He knocked on the door where the voices and light came from and then twisted the door handle, opening the bedroom door.
Amodeo wore a silk robe and nothing else. He thrust a woman at his bodyguard. Her clothes were in her arms, but she was stark naked. "Get rid of her. She's not that good, but enjoy her if you want before you send her on her way."
The bodyguard grasped the woman's arm and yanked her from the bedroom. She struggled for a minute, and Patrizio laughed. He slammed the door closed. The bodyguard slapped the woman when she kept struggling.
"Shut up and be still or you're going to have a really bad night, honey," he snapped. He dragged her out of the room and back down the hall.
Timur's leopard followed silently. Alonzo indicated to Gorya to follow his cousin. He didn't need help killing Amodeo. He didn't want help and he wanted Timur protected.
Silence settled on the house. Behind the door drifted the scent of a cigar. Whiskey. The creak of the bed sounded. Amodeo turned down his light until only the glow of a nightlight slid under the door. Alonzo padded to the door, shifted just one paw and turned the doorknob stealthily. He'd noticed when the bodyguard had opened the door there was no sound, no telltale squeak of the hinges
.
The big leopard slid into the room, staying low, moving in stops and starts using the freeze-frame stalk of the large cat. He took his time, his belly sliding along the hardwood floor. Patrizio's eyes were riveted to the screen across the room from his bed where the local nightly news played. Clearly he was hoping for something in particular to be shown. Ordinarily the midnight news was a repeat of the earlier news. Once in a while they gave coverage of an event happening at that time, but rarely.
Unease stirred in Alonzo's gut. He didn't like the smug look on the crime lord's face. Once he lifted his glass toward the news anchor and then took a deep swig. Alonzo waited until the glass was on the nightstand and the cigar was in the ashtray. Once the man put both down, the leopard rushed in a classic blitz attack. He was on Amodeo before the man had an inkling of danger.
The heavy body of the leopard pinned his prey down, his mouth clamping down on the vulnerable throat. The cat stared malevolently down at Amodeo and then backed off with a warning snarl. The man froze, although his bladder let go and he wet his bed. Alonzo shifted just his head, keeping the body and huge hooked claws on his prey.
"I just wanted you to know who killed you."
Amodeo's face twisted into a mask of hatred and he lunged for the gun sitting in the open drawer of his nightstand. The leopard shifted that fast, mouth clamping down around the arm, breaking through skin and bone, twisting as it did so, cutting the bone in two as if it were nothing. The leopard whipped its head around and drove for the throat as Amodeo opened his mouth to scream. The cat delivered a suffocating bite, breaking the neck at the same time.
Alonzo left him there, blood running down the bedsheets and pooling in the mattress and on the floor. He forced his leopard out of the room and down the hall, following his brother and cousin. He came across the first body just outside what appeared to be the kitchen. The man was dead with a look of stark horror on his face. His eyes were open and he stared up at the ceiling with glassy, shocked eyes. There was blood on his throat.
Two more bodies lay on the floor. The bodyguard was partially nude. His pants were down around his ankles and he had every indication that he'd died hard. Alonzo knew he was looking at Timur's leopard's kill. The cat had ripped apart the body below the waist, broken the neck and killed with a suffocating bite before the man had time to bleed out.
Gorya had shifted to his human form, hadn't bothered with clothes and was rigging the gas to blow. Timur had also shifted. He was dressed and carrying an unconscious woman out of the house straight into the garage. He placed her into the backseat of a car.
Alonzo quickly aided Gorya in rigging the house, utilizing every gas fireplace, including the one in Patrizio's bedroom. They wanted the explosion to be spectacular and the fire to burn hot, fast and wild. They needed to destroy all evidence of leopard DNA, which was never easy.
Gorya poured accelerant over each of the bodies and then indicated to Alonzo to leave. He would start the fire and then join Timur in the car. They'd drive out with the woman the moment the explosion brought all the outside guards to the house. Alonzo would kill any guard trying to stop them. It wasn't the best idea, but they couldn't leave the woman behind to be killed by one of Amodeo's men or die in the fire.
"Being one of the good guys has definite drawbacks," Gorya pointed out with a small grin.
Alonzo shook his head. "Fuckin' Timur. Just has to be the white knight." He wasn't about to admit he would have done the same thing. They had vowed they were never going to be like their father, no matter what their leopards--or circumstances--demanded. They didn't beat up or kill women, nor did they allow others to do it, not in their territory. Alonzo had made that clear to his soldiers when he took over. Any wife coming to him with a black eye meant swift and brutal punishment. Still, now they were in this mess. Gorya was right--being the good guys definitely had drawbacks.
It wasn't difficult to make his way back toward the fence. He was leopard and leopards could go right into a room full of people watching a movie, kill one quietly, drag him outside and feast. They were that stealthy.
He waited for the explosion. When it came, it was spectacular, better than anything he could have hoped for. The house had four gas fireplaces, the central heater was gas and so was the kitchen stove. The building went up fast, flames shooting orange and red through windows, breaking glass, eating the structure from the inside out. Guards came running from every direction. Some raced to the garage, hoping to get in that way or at least save the vehicles from going up in flames.
The moment one hopped in a car and drove it out, Timur raced after him. In the dark with the entire house on fire, no one paid attention. He drove straight through the gates without slowing down. Once down the road, he parked the car, pulled the woman out, set her a distance away from the car and the estate and walked away.
Their driver picked them up three blocks away. Sirens wailed. Police and fire trucks raced past them. Alonzo ignored the chaos and leaned toward Timur. "I've got this bad feeling, Timur. Right before I attacked, Amodeo smirked. I keep thinking about that expression."
"Smirked?" Timur repeated, frowning. He exchanged a long look with Gorya.
"You certain that's what you saw?" Gorya asked. "A smirk?"
Alonzo nodded. The knots in his gut tightened. Something was wrong. "There's only one reason that son of a bitch would smirk."
"Evangeline."
Timur and Gorya said her name simultaneously, confirming what Alonzo was desperately trying to deny. Timur reached for the phone, yanking it free of his pack. Alonzo reached for it, snapped it open in one quick jerk and punched in the number for Sevastyan. It rang and rang. Went to voice mail.
"Step on it, Borya," he commanded the driver.
"We don't know anything is wrong," Timur tempered, the voice of reason, although it was strained. "We don't want to call attention to ourselves. Not with three men missing and Amodeo attacked. Even if the car is caught on cameras, we won't be seen inside of it. Borya is going to dump the car at the wrecking yard once we're home. It will be crushed. There won't be any trace of us anywhere--unless we get stopped by a traffic cop."
Alonzo swore over and over, trying not to think about what was happening at his home. How many guards had he put on the grounds? How many leopards were there to protect Evangeline? He tried to keep his mind blank, but the closer they got to the Arnotto estate, the more ice poured into his veins.
"Let us out here," he snapped, before Borya could turn onto the private drive leading to the huge property. He had the door open before Borya could fully stop. "Get rid of this thing and get back here," he snapped.
Borya nodded as Timur and Gorya followed Alonzo from the vehicle. Alonzo barely managed to take the time to shed his clothes. He shifted fast and allowed his leopard to leap the fence and move quickly and stealthily through the thick brush. The Arnotto property was massive and the terrain included slightly rolling hills. Acres of vineyards, groves of trees and beautifully kept gardens made the leopards feel right at home.
Antonio Arnotto had been leopard and he'd designed his home with the comfort and protection of the leopards in mind. Trees were abundant, their branches thick and wide, often touching or very close from one tree to the other, so the leopards could use the limbs of the trees as a kind of arboreal highway above ground.
Alonzo's male lifted his head to scent the air. His whiskers flared out, a sensitive guidance system, enabling him to read air currents. He could feel his way as he moved. The whiskers provided the exact location of obstacles and vegetation. He moved silently through the brush and flower beds until he reached the house.
Already, he knew that Amodeo's men had been here. He scented blood and his leopard grimaced, drawing back his lips to show his teeth. They found the first body just inside the flower beds closest to the house. He was a complete stranger, a man dressed in a suit and reeking of Patrizio Amodeo. This had to be one of his soldiers. The man had died fast, probably without even realizing he was in d
anger until it was too late, a leopard attacking and bringing him down before he could get a shot off. His weapon lay on the ground inches from his hand. He recognized Sevastyan's big male's scent.
The second body was around the corner of the house, on the large patio surrounding the pool. The man lay just in the shadow of the overhead roof. His gun was still in his hand, finger on the trigger. His suit jacket was shredded into tatters in places. The puncture wounds on his throat testified to the fact that a leopard had killed him. Again it was Sevastyan's male who had made the kill.
Alonzo didn't spare the body a glance. It wasn't one of his men on the ground, so he stepped over the carcass and hurried to the door. The heavy wooden door was open partway, as if in silent invitation. He wasn't buying it. Sevastyan had a way about him. He was fast and deadly. Alonzo wasn't taking any chances. Sevastyan would know anyone coming at him was an enemy and he'd kill fast without waiting to see first.
Alonzo, Gorya and Timur chuffed softly, letting Sevastyan know they were coming in. The third body was just at the entrance. He'd taken the invitation of that unlocked, partially open door. A classic mistake. What idiot would believe a guarded house would have one unlocked door?
Timur's big male tried to nudge his leopard out of the way, but Alonzo refused to let his younger brother go ahead of him into danger. Mitya had taken bullets for him. So had Evangeline. He didn't want anyone else he loved hurt because of him. Not again. And yeah, he could finally admit he loved his brother and cousin. Because of her. Evangeline. She'd melted some of that ice inside of him, enough that there was no doubt his family was everything to him and he wasn't going to lose another member that he loved.
His father had beaten him if he'd showed affection to his brother or cousins. He remembered that very clearly. Every beating. Every lesson. He knew it was so his father could kill anyone he felt was weak. Love was a weakness. It made one vulnerable. He understood that. He understood that love had a price tag. He was willing to pay it. Timur, Gorya, Sevastyan and Mitya were also willing to pay that price. His father hadn't won after all.
The big male leopard thrust his head inside the door and scented the air. His whiskers reached out like antennae, his radar system fully working as he nosed through the door. He chuffed again, letting Sevastyan know he was coming in.