“They’re true, Flambé. I was up front with you about what and who I am.” It was very possible, with the leopard’s heat on her so severely, she could barely understand a word he was saying.
“Leopards hear lies, Sevastyan, and that’s the first lie you’ve told me.” She tilted her head and studied his face. “Why would you want me to believe that you’re in the mob?”
He swore to himself but never changed expression. Didn’t blink. Didn’t look away from her. “My father was a vor. He ruled a lair in a brutal and savage way and trained me to be that way. Mitya’s father and Fyodor’s father were the same. Gorya’s father tried to get out and they killed him—his own brothers and sons. They would have killed Gorya—an infant—but Fyodor’s father had plans for him. I come from a very long line of evil leopards, Flambé, all of whom were bratya. That is the Russian equivalent to the mob. Perhaps the interpretation is lost in the way I speak and I sound as if I am speaking an untruth.”
Flambé searched his eyes. “Perhaps.” There was pure skepticism in her voice.
He took her hand and pulled her to her feet. “Out of curiosity, do you have any of your mother’s skills when it comes to cooking?”
“I hear pleading in your voice. Are you telling me you can’t cook?”
“It depends. I might be able to cook when it matters to me. That’s not when I’m hungry, only when it matters. I have no problem sharing the kitchen duties, in fact I like that idea, but it would be nice if you’re good at it.”
She put her hands on her hips. “I’m okay being the modern, hear-me-roar, I-can-do-it-all kind of woman, but what exactly are you bringing to the table?” Her gaze swept him up and down. “Aside from the obvious really good looks. Okay, brutally good looks. Aside from that, what are you bringing to the table?”
He stepped close to her, letting her feel his raw heat. The hot blood pounding through his veins. He dropped his voice to that velvet whisper of sheer command. “Sex, Flambé, the way no one else can or ever will give it to you. You’ll scream with pleasure, you’ll beg me for my cock. You’ll do anything I ask of you, just to feel that pleasure, knowing I’ll take you there over and over.”
He dropped a kiss on top of her head and put her hand in the crook of his arm when she continued to stare up at him looking shocked. “We’re going out the back way. Matherson has men watching the house. We’ll take the car in the underground garage. They don’t know about that one yet. There’s a tunnel that goes straight to Mitya’s property and comes out on the other side of his drive. I’ve texted him we’re using it and to alert his security people so they don’t decide to treat us like we’re the enemy.”
“You have a secret underground garage?”
“We do. Technically, since we’re going to be together and Shturm claimed Flamme, it’s our tunnel. I didn’t think of it first. The Dovers owned the property before me. They were all about cars and they had the underground tunnel put in. Ania, Mitya’s wife, didn’t even know about it until after her father died. We discovered it when we were clearing out the garage of all the cars the Dovers owned. We had to reinforce the tunnel with steel in a few places, but it’s a nice escape route for us and for them. Dover had a few surprises for us.”
She looked around. “I love the house.”
“The best is upstairs. The entire floor is dedicated to a bedroom, sitting room and bathroom. That floor has a wraparound balcony. It wasn’t the master bedroom. That’s downstairs, but I prefer the upstairs room. I had that one remodeled before anything else. I’ll show it to you sometime.” Sooner than later, he was certain, going by her leopard’s antics. In the meantime, he was going to do whatever he could to earn her trust.
3
WHAT do you know about the Matherson family?” Mitya Amurov asked Jake Bannaconni. He sat back and regarded the billionaire across the wide expanse of the cherrywood desk. “The bastard Franco Matherson went to Sevastyan’s home and threatened my cousin after running Flambé Carver off the road, assaulting her by punching her in the face and then trying to force his leopard’s claim on her. She got away and ran to Sevastyan’s home. Who is this man that he dared do these things and think he is safe from the police?”
Mitya Amurov was a big man with flat, cold eyes that right now spoke volumes. He sat at the table with Jake Bannaconni, Fyodor Amurov and Drake Donovan. Standing in the shadows were Gorya, Timur Amurov and Sevastyan Amurov, all cousins, and another bodyguard by the name of Logan Shields.
“Franco Matherson is safe from the police,” Jake said. “The evidence against him would simply disappear. That’s why he’s an arrogant prick. He gets away with murder. He always has, he’s just more blatant about it now. His family has tried to get him to see reason, but he doesn’t listen to them. There are five boys. Franco is the oldest. They come from old money, somewhere in the Congo area, I heard.”
Drake Donovan nodded. He owned a small but trusted international security company, one that was made up of mainly shifters, although very few knew that. He was probably the leading authority on the shifters and various lairs around the world. “They’re African leopards, big ones and fighters. They keep their leopards in combat shape.”
“Sevastyan deliberately provoked him to get his attention off Flambé,” Mitya continued. “She’s very close to the emergence. She’ll be staying with him until her leopard makes an appearance. Right now, Matherson has several men watching Sevastyan’s home. They can’t get in and if they try to burn him out, he’s prepared for that as well. We’re on a wait-and-see policy at the moment. We wanted to find out what you had on Franco,” Mitya added. His voice was clipped. It was evident to everyone in the room, Jake included, that Mitya didn’t want to wait at all. He wanted to take care of the problem and just go after Matherson right then.
“Let me find out how extensive his reach is into law enforcement,” Jake said. “That shouldn’t be difficult. Franco is relatively new to this area. He had to have reached out to someone to get in. He had to hire locals to help him. He brought leopards, but he can’t have that many. His brothers travel with him, but they don’t always stay if they think he’s going to pull them into deep shit. Messing with the local mob might constitute deep shit to them.”
“Did you not hear that he left his men on Sevastyan’s property?” Fyodor snapped.
Sevastyan stirred, just the slightest of movements to remind his cousins that it really didn’t matter what the decision was at the table. In the end, he was going to kill and burn the bodies of every leopard Franco Matherson left behind for whatever purpose. He would get his woman to sleep and then go hunting.
His cousins would want to hunt with him, but he was the head of security and he was forbidding that. He had already contacted the team he wanted with him. They were on standby.
Drake Donovan glanced over his shoulder, more like flicked his gaze at him, but then turned his attention to Mitya. “We know. We heard. They can’t get to him. This is really about Flambé. Matherson wants her and he can’t have her so he’s throwing one of his fits. It’s what he does. He’s dangerous when he’s like this.”
“I don’t get it,” Fyodor said. “Why isn’t he going after the women in his lair? Or one of the lairs closer to his? He has the money. He had the opportunity. You said he’s a fighter and so is his family. The chances of his mate being among the women there are so much greater.”
Drake shrugged. “He still has to abide by the shifter laws within his lair. The elders refused to allow him to search. He has a reputation for cruelty and they fiercely protect their women and children. It didn’t matter how much money the Matherson family had, the lair didn’t care. They drove them out.”
“Yet Franco didn’t retaliate by hunting and killing the leopards in his lair,” Mitya pointed out, “the way he seemed to do with the Arabians.”
“There were too many of the African leopards. The lairs would have banded together and hunted Franco,” Drake said. “They have an enforcer team. I’ve tried to recruit members for my security team—they’re that good—but so far I haven’t been able to persuade them away from their home turf. I wouldn’t be surprised, given Franco’s reputation, if these boys don’t come hunting him.”
“They’ll have to get in line,” Mitya said, his voice grim.