Leopard's Wrath (Leopard People 11)

His cousin didn’t like the spotlight. He had been groomed to take over his father’s lair when Rolan died, but he hadn’t wanted the cruelty of the lair any more than Mitya had wanted any part of his father’s lair. Sevastyan didn’t look uneasy. He never did. He looked almost bored, but Mitya knew he was alert and clocking every detail, every expression.

“They knew where we were going to be and approximately the time we’d be there,” Mitya continued. “We managed to turn the tables on them and set up our own trap, but in the end, they were all dead. That includes the one who shot his friend and then killed himself.”

Joshua spread his hands out as if studying his palms would give him answers. He looked around the table at the others. “You all think that we have enemies in our camps?”

“What other explanation is there, Joshua?” Fyodor asked. “Amory, and you met him on more than one occasion, clearly worked for this unknown enemy. He came from the Donovan Security Company with the highest recommendations.”

Joshua sat up straight, his blue-green eyes going as hard as diamonds. “There is no way in hell Drake is dirty. No possible way. I’ve known him for years. If someone is recruiting his employees, he’ll find them, but he is not behind this or in any way a party to it.”

“You’d stake your life on that?” Mitya demanded.

“Absolutely. Drake Donovan is not dirty,” Joshua said. He raked a hand through his blond hair and then shook his head. “I can understand why you’d think it. I can.”

He looked around the table at the Russian cousins. Two of them had taken over territories vacated by men like Rafe Cordeau, men willing to commit any kind of crime for money and power. The Russians had been born into the life, although theirs had been an upbringing of unbelievable cruelty. Tension stretched to a screaming point. Trust was fragile.

“Drake is absolutely innocent. He would be the first to conduct a purge if he was presented with evidence that his business was being used by an unknown enemy. I know, because the moment you informed us after Antosha’s death, he’s been conducting interviews with each of his employees. He’d done it in the past, so there’s no way he’ll tip the enemy, but he’s already looking.”

“Joshua”—Fyodor leaned toward him—“if he is innocent, as you believe, no doubt he has several of our enemy’s sleeper agents in his employ. He didn’t find them before when he conducted interviews, and they were allowed to slip through the cracks to work for us. You, for certain, have one or more in your employ. That means, at any time, someone close to you, someone you trust, can take out a gun, put it to your woman’s head and pull the trigger.”

He paused to let that sink in. Sonia, Joshua’s woman, was his life. The idea of a trusted bodyguard suddenly turning on them was abhorrent.

“I believe that all of us have at least one or more of these plants in our ranks,” Mitya said. “They all have a common denominator. That would be Drake Donovan. We have to decide how much we actually trust any of the others in the coalition enough to keep them in the loop one hundred percent. We may never get any other information than we have right now.”

Mitya switched his attention to Joshua. Fyodor trusted him, or he wouldn’t have brought him to the meeting. They’d all agreed that Joshua was the first. He knew the others, and he would be the one, along with Fyodor, to decide if they could expand their circle. There was risk. The more they brought in, the better the chances that one of their enemies had slipped in a plant as well.

Someone was trying to start a war, and they were doing it by sowing seeds of mistrust and doubt throughout the crime families. They had to know, without a shadow of a doubt, who their friends were. They couldn’t reveal too much and chance information getting back to an enemy.

Fyodor knew Elijah Lospostos was one of the first to form the coalition with Drake. The Lospostoses were known internationally as a ruthless crime family that ruled with an iron fist. They tended to take over, swallowing smaller territories to add to their own. Elijah, like the Russians, had been born into the life and had wanted out—at least that was his claim. What better way to take over then to turn everyone against one another?

“We’ve got to go carefully,” Mitya said. “I know that I have to deal with Lazar, but at least I know who my enemy is and how he’s going to come at me. Even the why of it. With this one, he’s entirely unknown, and we aren’t the only targets. Joshua, they had several items they planned on using to incriminate various families, both with the police and to turn the families against one another.”