Tears flooded, blurring her vision, but she hung on to the gun as the leopard dragged her across the roof by his claw. The tiles scraped at the skin on her back, but she barely felt it, not with the rake mark down her leg and the hooked nail embedded in her calf.
She took a breath, forced calm into her panicked mind and made the decision to shoot. She wasn’t going to survive with him dragging her around, and he was strong enough to do it all day. He was definitely trying to force her to shift, in order for his leopard to get at Jewel.
She took another deep breath. He was staring at her with that same malicious stare, his claw hooked into her leg, basically telling her the next swipe was going to hurt even more. She brought up the Glock fast and fired two rounds in rapid succession. The first one struck the leopard as he jumped to the side, clipping his ear. The second missed altogether.
As he leapt away from her, he slid on the tiles and nearly went over the edge of the roof. Ania threw herself forward, headfirst, trying to get another shot as the leopard’s back legs went into the air. He dug his claws into the tiles and heaved, throwing himself forward and almost on top of her.
As she fired, she heard the sound of at least two other guns unloading. The big male’s momentum carried him forward and then he dropped right on top of her, his weight indicating he was dead. There was no movement. Nothing.
Ania could barely breathe with the heavy weight on her. She tried pushing him off, but it was impossible. Then, suddenly, he was lifted off her, and she was staring up at Vikenti and Zinoviy. The looks of fear turned to grins.
“You’re alive.”
“Just barely. He was crushing me.”
Vikenti crouched down to examine her leg while Zinoviy casually removed the weapon from her hand.
Vikenti whistled softly. “He got you good. This is going to be one ugly scar.”
She glared at him. “Very funny. Did Dymka manage to kill that last leopard?”
“He made short work of him,” Zinoviy assured. “They’re on their way back, just making certain they’ve got every one of the bastards. Fyodor, Timur and Gorya along with everyone else have thoroughly wiped them out. No one will be going back to the lair from here.”
“Is everyone okay?”
“We lost two of our men. Four wounded severely and two more with not-so-bad injuries, from what Fyodor is reporting. Mop-up is still going on.” Vikenti reached down and lifted her easily. “Let’s get you inside where the doc can take a look at you. Leopards can give you a very nasty infection.”
Zinoviy shoved the leopard carcass from the roof and watched it drop to the ground below. “Your man isn’t going to be happy that one’s already dead. He’ll probably skin it and use that for target practice.”
Ania shuddered. “I’d rather he not do that.”
The two men grinned at each other and then Zinoviy leapt to the ground and looked up, holding out his hands.
“Don’t you dare drop me,” she commanded, grasping at Vikenti’s shirt.
Vikenti laughed and made the leap with her in his arms.20“COME here, kotyonok,” Mitya said, his voice gentle.
Ania turned from where she was staring out the window of their bedroom to look at him. He sat on the edge of the bed, his hand held out to her. Just looking at him sent butterflies winging like mad in her stomach. He was handsome in his rough way, and that appealed to her. There was never going to be a boyish quality to Mitya. He was a man, and one who was always in control of what was happening around him.
She loved him. Really loved him. The last couple of weeks had really made her see there was far more to Mitya than the wild lover she knew. He was gentle and sweet, caring for her while the injury from the leopard healed. He waited on her, bringing her meals himself. He spent time with her, playing chess and watching movies that made her cry. Well, he watched her, and she watched the movies.
Mostly he pored over her plans to redesign the garage for her work. He made suggestions when he thought they would help, and it surprised her that almost every suggestion was an excellent one. She loved that and loved that he seemed every bit as enthusiastic about her new venture as she was.
It was amazing to be able to sketch ideas and show them to him, watch his face light up as if he really appreciated each drawing. Sometimes he liked them so much he wanted to frame them. She already had several ideas for cars, but they had to get the garage pulled together first, so she’d tried to keep her mind on all the details needed to get her business up and running. Mitya helped her with staying on task. Even Sevastyan was on board, although he mostly thought in terms of security and how best to protect her when she worked in the huge, temperature-controlled garage.