GEDEON wasn’t certain his leg was broken now that he was out of the jungle and the supports had been removed. It should have hurt a hell of a lot worse. He couldn’t see the injury, but he could feel it. He ran his hands carefully over it. Swollen. Hot to the touch. He was bruised. Maybe a crack or two, but he didn’t think it was broken enough to warrant a cast.
Did he want his rescuer to have that information? He brought his hand up to his eyes. She’d replaced the original bandage with a new one. This one was made of cotton and soaked in soothing cool water.
He had to admit she had saved his life. He never could have moved the branch on his own or gotten himself out of the jungle before Miguel showed up to check on his brother. He was lucky that no one knew he had come to the city yet. He was extremely lucky that the little wildcat rescuing him had chosen to come back for him.
Why? That was the burning question. He had warned her about what kind of man he was. He’d told her the truth. He didn’t leave witnesses. He didn’t get attached. That was the rule he lived by, and it served him well. So why was her scent already affecting him?
“Tell me your name.”
“That would be a mistake on my part. You’ve already said you’re going to kill me the minute you’re back on your feet. I’m not going to make it easy on you by telling you my name.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Your fingerprints are all over this room.”
“You wish I’d make it that easy for you,” she said with a little sniff of disdain.
Gedeon was really beginning to like her. He didn’t like too many people, but she didn’t seem to be afraid of him when everyone was terrified to look at him wrong.
“Guess you’re going to have to get used to me calling you all my loving endearments.”
She heaved a sigh. “Fine. My name is Susan. You can call me Susie.”
“You can’t lie worth shit. I’m going to call you my little lotus blossom.”
“You most certainly are not. You’re giving me a headache just talking to you. You probably give everyone headaches when they talk to you.”
She sounded very tired. Exhausted, actually.
He had to get the money sent by courier or it wouldn’t much matter whether she had saved him or not. He didn’t know if he trusted her with that amount of money. The package had been in his jacket, right where he put it, untouched. That didn’t mean if he sent her to send it off, she’d actually follow through. More than a million dollars was a huge temptation, especially for someone living in a dump. He didn’t need his sight to tell him this place was no five-star hotel.
He might as well tell her the truth. “Look, little Lotus Blossom, I appreciate that you would go to all the trouble of saving my ass, especially since it’s clear that you’re not wild for me, but if I don’t send this money to Victor Orlov by courier before midnight, I’m as good as dead. Nothing I say or do will be considered a good enough excuse.”
She sighed. “You could have led with that right away.” There was movement on his left side and then directly behind him. He heard her swear under her breath in a very unladylike manner.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting the blood money for the criminals you work for, what do you think? I didn’t haul you all the way here just to let them send someone to kill you.”
“They’ll know I wasn’t the one to send them the money.”
“No, they won’t,” she denied.
She sounded totally confident. That gave him pause. There was even a twinge of sarcasm in her tone, as if she was annoyed that he persisted in underestimating her. He was beginning to think he did, but it was impossible for her to know how he sent money owed to any of his clients.
“Okay, I’ll bite, baby, how are you going to send the money to them when you don’t even know where to send it, how to send it, who to use, who to send it to, or the exact wording used so they know it’s clean and from me?”
“I looked in your phone.”
“It’s password protected.”
“It was until you told me your password, along with a lot of other things you shouldn’t have told me. Since you were going to kill me anyway, I just let you carry on.”
She sounded smug. He wanted to strangle her because he was very afraid she was telling the truth.
“And then I read all those private messages and learned more things I shouldn’t know. I figured if I was going to die, it should be for a good reason, not for something stupid like I witnessed you doing a good deed killing all those horrible traffickers I had planned on killing or because I saw you shifting into a leopard. Whichever one of those two things you thought it was worth murdering me for.”
She had planned on killing all those men herself? That was laughable. She probably couldn’t kill an insect without feeling remorse. Putting his hands around her neck and strangling her was a very personal way to take her out, and right now his fingers were itching to get the job done. Or maybe he just wanted her to be that close to him again.
“Don’t trust you with all that money, Lotus Blossom. Put it back.”
“Too bad, Freaky Man who kills for a living. I didn’t save you so your nasty employers could do you in. The money’s going out tonight.”
She wasn’t that far from him, and he made a lunge to catch her arm. Normally, his leopard gave him a huge advantage, but she somehow managed to elude him.
“He’s here,” Meiling warned. “Remember, you’re Jeff.”
“You’re giving me back the money. In the meantime, what am I calling you when the doc is here?”
“Audrey,” she supplied.
Her footsteps were so light, they should have been impossible to hear, but Gedeon was leopard, and he knew it took her seven steps to get to the door. The knock was decisive. When the door was opened and the man spoke, it was obvious he towered over her. That one glimpse he’d caught of her confirmed she was a small thing. Delicate looking, but she’d moved that branch without any help from him. She was a mystery.
Dr. Smythe took his temperature and wasn’t happy. He examined his leg first even though his specialty was eyes. He didn’t believe the leg was broken even though it was swollen and the lacerations were hot and ugly.
“You were struck by something very heavy, and your skin was cut in multiple places,” the doctor said. He paused, waiting for an explanation, but neither Meiling nor Gedeon provided him with one. Smythe sighed. “I don’t know why you’ve gotten an infection so fast, but it’s alarming.” He gave him a shot of antibiotics and handed Meiling a bottle of pills. “See that he takes all of these. He should have that leg X-rayed. I’m guessing it isn’t broken, but I can’t be certain. It is swollen, but he’s moving everything without a problem.”
“That’s such a relief,” Meiling said. “We were so worried.”
Smythe removed the makeshift bandage Meiling had placed over Gedeon’s eyes. “How did this occur? That will help considerably if I know what I’m dealing with.”
Gedeon didn’t like the questions. “Isn’t part of your enormous fee for figuring all that out?” He couldn’t help sounding a little threatening. That was who he was, whether or not he was blind. His leopard, quiet since the explosion, was beginning to make himself known again. Waking up. The explosion must have knocked the ferocious cat out. He didn’t like the doctor touching Gedeon and was beginning to claw for freedom. Gedeon took a firm grip on him.
“I could figure it out faster with a little more information,” Smythe groused. “Most of that enormous fee is for silence. Not reporting to the government or other interested parties could get me killed. I’m known for my discretion.”
If Gedeon wasn’t blind, he would kill the doctor after the examination. No way would he trust this man. The doctor would sell them out the moment he was offered more money. He might leave the apartment and go immediately to the government if he thought they were insurgents. If he believed they were in any way connected to the explosion that happened in the jungle, he wouldn’t hesitate to turn them over to Miguel—for a price.
“What exactly are you charging? Audrey didn’t tell me,” Gedeon asked as Smythe continued his examination. His heart jumped and then accelerated. He could tell the doctor was shining a light in his eyes. That had to be a good sign.
Smythe named an exorbitant price. His little lotus blossom made a small sound of protest. “That isn’t what we negotiated.”
“This injury was caused in an explosion—the kind of explosion that happens when you might be making bombs. It’s all over the news that rebels seeking to overthrow the government blew up an apartment building when the bombs they were making detonated because they were unstable. There is no doubt in my mind that this injury was caused by that.”
Again, Lotus Blossom made a sound of distress, further cementing in the doctor’s mind that the two of them were part of the many rebels seeking to overthrow the government. That was good for them in that it wouldn’t occur to Smythe that they had anything to do with the explosion that happened so far away in the jungle.
“I’m going to have to go out for a short while to get the rest of the money for you, Doc. How long will you need with Jeff?”
“As long as it takes for you to get back.” Smythe’s voice was clipped.
“Do you think he has a chance of regaining his eyesight?”
“A very good chance. His eyes need to rest. He shouldn’t be exposed to light for a few days, and then a little at a time. Very dark glasses. I’ll give you a prescription for eye drops. He’ll need to put them in his eyes several times a day. That’s a quick diagnosis, but I’ll know a lot more when I really examine them.”
The truth was, Smythe really didn’t know yet. He was giving little Lotus Blossom hope. Gedeon wasn’t sure how he felt about that. The glimpse he’d caught of her had been so brief, but he was certain she was striking. Delicate. Just like the lotus he called her.
Then she was in his space, leaning into him, her breasts up against his chest, her lips pressed against his ear as she smoothed one hand down the back of his head. “Remember, just a foot from your hand. Smash with your fist if needed. Under your pillow is a knife. The hilt is toward you. I’ll be gone less than thirty minutes.”
The way her soft lips brushed against her ear was one of the most intimate things he’d ever experienced. But then, he didn’t experience intimacy. His leopard didn’t allow for it. He fucked all the time, but it was “do the deed and get out fast” before the vicious creature craving blood shredded the human being it detested. What was the beast doing now? It felt as if his leopard was rolling around like a lovesick kitten, making his stomach hurt.
Gedeon’s first reaction was to yank her to him, sit her right on his naked lap, the one covered only by a thin sheet that did little to hide the monster of a hard-on. The second was to shove her as far from him as possible. A vicious shove, one that would send her flying hard into the wall. If he was lucky, she’d break her damn neck. He did neither. He just sat on the bed, his fingers buried in her luxurious hair, wondering why the hell when he’d met a woman like her, she regarded him like a wounded pussycat. She was amused by him.
Then she was gone, taking her small, delicate, deceiving frame and all that amazing hair along with her enticing fragrance, leaving him alone. He wasn’t afraid. He didn’t have much fear in him. He’d had that stamped out as a young cub. He had those scars all over his body to prove it too.
“Beautiful woman,” Smythe commented.
His head was turned, watching Lotus Blossom’s departure. Gedeon could tell by the direction of his voice. For some unexplained reason Gedeon didn’t want to explore, his impulse was to leap on the doctor and rip his heart out. The need to do so was so intense, he shook with it, adrenaline pouring into his body. He clenched his fist, thinking to smash into the wall to retrieve a weapon and do the job right. If the doctor thought he could get away with leering at his woman right in front of him, he had another think coming.
“I hope I reassured her enough,” Smythe murmured. He had turned his head back toward Gedeon. “She was hovering over you. I think she was afraid I was going to hurt you.” He laughed heartily. “I can’t imagine you have too many women fussing over a big man like you.”
Gedeon didn’t like Smythe at all, but he didn’t know how bad his eyes really were and he needed to find out. His first instinct had to be put aside, but his leopard wasn’t having any of it. The cat raged at him, fighting to be let out. Declaring that the man was deceitful and would get them killed.
I am well aware he is, but we need him at the moment. You didn’t act this way when the woman was here deceiving us.
His cat raged more, clawing at him, raking. Forcing him to lock the cat down with tremendous strength of will.
She was saving us.
Now you sound sulky, and that’s beneath your dignity. A woman is just as lethal as a man, especially if she can make you believe she’s all rounded edges and innocence. You fall for that shit and we’re both going to die. Gedeon warned his leopard not to trust their savior. No one did anything for free. He’d learned that lesson very young and he’d never forgotten it. His leopard should have learned it as well.
I learned it. The cat was pragmatic. But so far, she has proven worthy. This one has not told us anything of value. It is in his mind to sell both of you.
I am aware. But I need him to tell me what he can about my eyes. Aloud he instructed the doctor. “Get on with it. If Audrey says she’ll be back in half an hour, she will be. She’s very prompt. And I want to know first if it’s bad news before she gets here. I’ll need time to process and decide what to do.”
“What to do?” Smythe echoed.
“Yeah, Doc, what to do. A man like me doesn’t stick around long blind. You have to know that if you’re at all who I think you are.”
“Tip your head back.”
The light went on again. The glare hurt. Gedeon thought it was a good kind of hurt and he tolerated it even though his first instinct was to pull away.
“I’m going to put drops in your eyes.”
He’d always hated drops in his eyes. He thought as an adult he’d grow out of that particular idiosyncrasy, but he hadn’t. He figured it was because he needed his sight so much. His work depended on sight.
“Go for it, Doc. How did you get into your line of work?”
“Shouldn’t that be my question to you?”
“Just making conversation,” Gedeon lied. The more he knew about the doctor, the easier it would be to find him later.
The doctor put in the drops. They stung like hell. Gedeon’s cat roared, the sound reverberating like thunder cracking up close, shaking the thin walls of the apartment. Uneasy, not understanding where the sound came from, the doc jumped up and hastily inspected outside through the window.
“What’s wrong?” Gedeon did his best to sound nervous.
“They should have bars on these windows.”
“Why, what’s wrong?” Gedeon repeated the question.
“That sounded like a leopard. They can get into the city, and once they do, they find out they have a smorgasbord. It takes forever to catch them.” He returned to the side of Gedeon’s bed but didn’t sit down. He began to pace. “A couple of years ago, one got loose in the city and killed almost every night for nearly two months. It didn’t have to make so many kills, but the authorities said leave the body to act as bait. The leopard never returned to the same body. It always made a fresh kill. Twice it turned back on the hunters and killed one of them.”
Gedeon had heard of that leopard. It had terrorized the city for months. The city officials had hired several renowned hunters to track and kill it, but all attempts had failed. Gedeon knew eventually a man by the name of Drake Donovan had been contacted, which on the surface made no sense. He ran a security firm reputed to be the best. His men were investigators and bodyguards. They also hired on in just about any terrain to retrieve hostages or pay ransom. They brought the kidnap victim home or exacted revenge. He had a reputation for getting the job done. He had gotten the job done when the other hunters had failed—or at least the man he sent to do the job had gotten it done.
“I think we’re safe enough in here,” Gedeon assured the other man.
“These leopards can sneak right into a home and drag a full-sized man from his living room right out from under the noses of his family. I’m telling you, these leopards in that jungle are no joke. You’re a city man. You’ve never encountered them.”
This told Gedeon that Dr. Smythe hadn’t been born in a city. He’d dug his way out of a jungle village and never wanted to go back. It also told him the man, at some point in his life, had had an encounter with a leopard and it hadn’t gone well.
Eventually the doctor got down to business and he was thorough. He seemed to know what he was doing and talked to Gedeon the entire time. His eyes reacted to the light, a good sign. Nothing was torn, another good sign. In the end, it was a wait-and-see game. If his eyesight was to return, and the doctor thought there was an excellent chance, it would return slowly over the next couple of weeks, and even then, he would need to rest his eyes, stay out of bright sunlight and wear dark glasses if he had to go out. The good news was he would have his beautiful companion at his side fussing over him.
Gedeon heard the door open and close and scented the woman. She was a few minutes early. He had an internal clock, and the passage of time was ingrained in him. She had said thirty minutes and he had been going to hold her to that. She was there. The sense of relief was overwhelming.
“Your money, Dr. Smythe. How is he? What do you think now that you’ve thoroughly examined him?”
She came straight to the bed. To his side. He counted the steps again automatically. Taking his hand, she sat on the edge close to him and leaned in to brush his cheek with her cool, soft lips. His heart jumped.
“He needs rest and to keep his eyes covered for at least two weeks. I’ve given you a soaking solution you can pick up anywhere. You have the antibiotics. I’ll return in three days to check on him.”
“Thank you so much, Dr. Smythe.”
Gedeon didn’t want her to follow Smythe to the door even to see the treacherous bastard out, so he kept a firm hand circled around her wrist. To his shock, the moment the door closed she jumped up.
“We don’t have much time. I got you clothes and we’ve got to get you dressed. Between the two of us, we can get these trousers on you. They’re just drawstring cotton pants, but you’ll be decent. I’m pulling a T-shirt over your head now.”
He felt her tug the shirt over his head and automatically fit his arms through the openings. She let him take it and drag it over his chest. It fit snug, but it was clothing. Then she was pulling his feet through the legs of the cotton pants and dragging them up as far as she could. She was careful of his swollen leg. The lacerations the doctor had carefully closed and covered with fresh gauze and bandages were treated with extra gentleness. He helped as best he could, lifting his body when she got to his hips. She didn’t even hesitate pulling the material over his groin.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” He didn’t know whether to be amused or annoyed that she refused to see him as a man. She treated him like a small child or a patient in the hospital she had to care for. That put him at a distinct disadvantage, which tended to amuse more than annoy him.
“You know exactly what’s going on. Don’t pretend ignorance. I’m exhausted and I had to use up one of the biggest favors owed to me in order to get you safely out of here. That doctor is going to go straight to the authorities and tell them he’s got two of the bomb-making rebels sitting in an apartment waiting for his return. He’ll expect to collect a huge reward for his trouble. We have to go now.”
He wanted to kiss her. She was intelligent and she acted on her instincts immediately. She didn’t just decide to hash it all out endlessly and get killed when she took too much time. And what did she mean, use up one of the biggest favors owed to her? She traded in favors? A woman after his own heart if that was what she did. Few people thought that way. They were all about dollar signs, forgetting that people often could give so much more in return for something you did for them. The old barter system in place. He specialized in collecting favors—and money—depending on the job.
She circled around to the other side of him and pried a board loose from the wall. Catching his wrist, she placed a gun in his palm. Replacing the board, and that meant she drove the nail back into the hole, she went around to the other side and did the same, again handing him the gun she’d retrieved. Next, she took his old clothing and stuffed it into a bag she brought in. He could hear the rustling.
“I’m going to help you to the one and only chair in the room. I’ve covered it with a cloth we’re taking with us. You were on the sheets so we’re taking those as well. I have to strip the bed. Put this cap on your head and the dark glasses. Keep them on. I trust this man with my life, but not necessarily with yours. Don’t threaten anyone no matter what is said. These people are my friends and they’re going out of their way to help us.”
“You mean to help you.” He clenched his teeth as she helped him hobble over to the chair. It hurt like a son of bitch, but he kept that to himself.
“They created new identities for both of us. Those identities will be impeccable. They don’t come cheap. They’re allowing us to fly using one of their private jets. That doesn’t come cheap either. The flight plan has been filed and we’re being picked up a few blocks from here. I can’t have the neighborhood seeing the vehicle we take to the airport.”
“The money you took with you?”
“I delivered the money to Orlov and put the receipt in your wallet. When we board the jet, you can ask the attendant to read the contents to you. I’d like to tell you I don’t steal, but that’s how I got the money to pay the doctor. So I do when I need fast money.”
A surge of adrenaline caught him unawares. His leopard roared with rage. She calmly stripped the bed and stuffed the sheets into a bag she’d brought. He heard movement around the bed and catching up the pillows and stripping them of the pillowcases. He thought he caught a slight groan escaping, but if he did, she hastily covered it.
“I parked the Jeep as close as possible. I’ll help you walk to it and get in the back seat. Lay down in the back seat. I’ll take you to the rendezvous point and then go on to ditch the Jeep . . .”
“No.” He was firm. “We stay together.”
“If something goes wrong, they’ll take you to the States.” Now she sounded impatient. He could hear the exhaustion in her voice. Before, she’d tried to spare him; now, she was just too tired to put in the effort.
“No. I mean it, Lotus Blossom. We stay together.”
She didn’t waste time arguing with him. He stood up and tested his weight on the swollen leg. It wasn’t going to hold up. He’d have to accept her help whether he wanted to or not. She wrapped her arm around his waist without a word, and they hobbled out together. Every step had him cursing under his breath. He wasn’t nearly as stoic as he wanted to be. He couldn’t see where he was going or how far it was, and she didn’t give him any kind of a reference. To be fair, she was struggling to keep him on his feet. He was giving her more of his weight than he had before.
“Three more steps and you’re going in the back seat.” She left him for few seconds to yank open the door. “All clear. I don’t feel a target on my back at the moment. Do you?”
He shook his head and then wished he hadn’t. “I need to lie down before I fall down. I’m beginning to think I’d welcome a target at this rate. Should have asked the doc for painkillers.”
“He left you some. I think he was afraid I’d shoot him if I came back and found you high as a kite on pills.”
“Would you have?” Gedeon was curious.
“Shot him because you were high?” Amusement was back in her voice, replacing the exhaustion as she helped him the last two steps to the back seat. “I might have paid him more money just to see what other secrets you had to spill. Step up, Gedeon, I’m not going to toss you onto the back seat.”
Gedeon did his best to climb into the Jeep. He made it inside, but it wasn’t pretty, and he really did crawl, dragging his injured leg and swearing in several languages. Sweat broke out, beading on his body. He was on the floor of the Jeep rather than the seat. He rested his head on the seat and fought for his breath.
“I think this is just fine, right here.”
She must have agreed because she shut the door quickly, was gone a couple of minutes and returned with two suitcases. Stowing them in the front passenger’s seat, she hopped into the driver’s side and the Jeep was in motion.
“You okay back there?”
“No, I’m dying.”
“What happened to the badass who single-handedly wiped out thirty murdering traffickers in a night? Where is he in the middle of all this whining?”
He caught the note of concern in the midst of her teasing. “Yeah, I think the badass got the shit kicked out of him by a little four-foot-and-some-change lotus blossom.”
The Jeep swerved sharply to the left and then straightened again. He turned his head to see her better. He’d forgotten the bandages covering his eyes for just that little moment.
“Sorry, dog in the road. We’re almost there. I’m sorry, but it’s another change. Nicer vehicle. We have to ditch the Jeep. Once we get to the plane, I can take better care of you. There’s a bed on the plane, Gedeon. You can take whatever the doctor gave you for pain and sleep. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Why? I learned a long time ago that nothing’s free. Why are you helping me? You know what kind of man I am. I was up front with you. I even told you I can’t leave witnesses.”
“I heard you loud and clear.”
“Then why?”
“I have my reasons. I don’t particularly feel like sharing them. You wouldn’t understand. I had three destinations I could choose from and you had a real estate transaction in New Orleans, a house you bought, so I chose that. I’ll get you there and disappear.”
“Let me get this straight. After rescuing me and getting a doctor to check me out, stealing money to pay him, calling in an enormous favor to get papers and fly us out of the country, you’re going to dump me in a house that needs tons of work, still blind, unable to walk, and just leave me to fend for myself.”
There was a telling silence. She was getting antsy to leave him. Women fell all over him. He was used to walking into a club and having his choice. He just looked, crooked his finger or nodded and the woman hurried over to him. He didn’t even have to bother walking over to her. It was a unique experience to have this woman give him attitude and not even try to persuade him that he would be better off with her.
“Put like that, it doesn’t sound like a good plan, but you have money. Your clothes stank of it. Use some of it to hire nurses. They’ll help. Call your friends. You have more contacts in your phone than I’ve ever met in my lifetime.”
He wiped the sweat from his face by using his sleeve. His temperature was going back up and he was hotter than hell. “It doesn’t work that way in my world, and I think you know that. At the first hint of vulnerability, I’m a dead man. All the trouble you’ve gone to would be for nothing.”
“Don’t sound so cheerful about it.”
He knew he’d been right to play on her sympathy. She did have too much compassion in her. She wasn’t just going to dump him. She was going to look after him until she was certain he could take care of himself. That was not going to happen until he’d figured her out and why she was helping him.
“Nothing cheerful about me right now. I wish I could say there was. I’m hotter than hell and sweating like a pig. Maybe that doctor gave me something that’s going to kill me.”
“Do a lot of people want you dead?”
“Yes.” That was an honest answer.
“Great. When we meet with my friends, let me do the talking. I don’t want them to know who you are.”
“Do you think they’d sell me out?”
“No. But if you’re such a badass that a lot of people want you dead, they might take it in their heads to get the job done. Considering the way you keep threatening me, your reputation of leaving no witnesses might just tip them off that you plan to kill me.”
“That is one possibility.” He wiped his face again on his arm. “I’m a little too weak to defend myself. I’ll have to rely on you once again to save my life. It would seem those favors are stacking up.”
She laughed. The sound was sweet and genuine. Low. Soft little bells on the summer’s breeze. He didn’t have the least inclination to read poetry, but if he did, he was certain she’d be on every page. Bright as the sun. Moody as the coming storm. Yeah. She’d be there.
He became aware of the Jeep slowing and pulling into a dark, cavernous room. A parking garage? He should have been paying attention to the route. He was too miserable to care. He was as certain as the doctor that his leg wasn’t broken, but it hurt every bit as badly as if it could be. Maybe worse than a broken leg.
She parked the Jeep and shut off the engine. Just sat there waiting. “Not a good idea, Lotus Blossom. They could have ten guns on you and you wouldn’t know.”
“They do have ten guns on me,” she admitted. “They’ve made that plain enough. Keep your hands in sight at all times. I’ve got mine on the steering wheel. You keep yours on the seat. They aren’t going to hesitate to shoot.”
All four doors were yanked open. He heard Lotus Blossom give a grunt of pain. It sounded as if she was being dragged off the seat. He cursed his useless eyes. A man’s hands caught him under his shoulders, and he started to slide out of the car as he was jerked backward. Pain came in a black wave that made his stomach heave, and beneath the bandage the world spun and tilted.
“Stop right now or I swear I’ll shoot you.”
That was his feisty little Lotus Blossom, putting herself in harm’s way again for him. She wasn’t playing around. He could tell by the way the man behind him froze. His self-appointed guardian angel was pointing a gun at him.
“I know you had orders to treat him gently. He’s hurt, in case that escaped you. If you can’t do the job you were paid to do, you put him very gently down and walk away. I’ll let the man who hired you deal with you.”
There was steel in Lotus Blossom. She had to be surrounded, but she refused to back down. She played her role so perfectly, as if she were in charge and those helping answered to her. He would give anything to have his sight back and be able to see her.
“Sorry, ma’am,” the man behind him mumbled. “I’ll be very careful.”
“Thank you.” She waited several minutes before speaking again. “I’ll just wait here with my brother until Etienne gets here. You boys seem a little antsy.”
He was carried very carefully to another vehicle and laid down on the back seat. They left the door open, and he was grateful, telling himself his little lotus blossom was coming with them. Sure enough, he caught a whiff of her fragrance. Her fingers were in his hair, featherlight. She started to climb into the vehicle and had one foot in when a voice stopped her.
“Meiling. Weren’t you going to say hello to me after all the trouble I went to for you?”
The voice was smooth. Polished. Very masculine and used to getting his way. The speaker was also very attracted to Lotus Blossom.
“I had no idea you were here, Etienne.”
Gedeon didn’t like the way her voice lit up. At least he knew her real name—unless she had lied to Etienne as well. He doubted it. They sounded close. Affectionate. There was a brief silence, as if they might be hugging—or kissing.
“You’re going to allow one of my men to ditch your Jeep?”
“Yes. But he must make sure he does it properly. I don’t want this to come back and bite me in the butt. No one knows I was anywhere around here.”
“He’ll do it properly or answer to me. Meiling, what is this man to you? I had to see his picture in order to make the necessary papers for you. Do you have any idea who he is?”
Gedeon stiffened. He told himself his reactions to his Lotus Blossom and her answers were because of his dependency on her, not because for the first time in his life he could remember being intrigued by another human being.
“Of course I know who he is.”
“He’s a very dangerous man.”
Her laughter was dark. “Etienne, you’re a dangerous man.”
Gedeon was uncomfortable with the entire situation. His leopard continuously clawed for freedom. That didn’t help. He had always been the one in control. Always. Others deferred to him. They were on edge because he was in close proximity to them. Now he felt like a little child, relegated to the back seat, told to be quiet while in the presence of adults. It was bullshit. He wasn’t emotional. That was an emotional reaction and he refused to allow emotions into his life. Whoever his lotus blossom was, she had turned his life upside down in just a few short hours.
“Tell me why you’re doing this.”
Gedeon wanted that answer as well. He remained very still, willing her to answer.
“You know I won’t. It’s personal.”
“A debt, then. I’ll pay it. Any amount.”
“Then I would owe you. I don’t think so, but thank you, Etienne. This is a matter of honor. The debt is nearly paid.”
“You know to come to me first if you need anything.”
There was another long silence and she got in the car with Gedeon. Sliding in behind his head, her fingers in his hair. His leopard subsided, and that went a long way to calm the strange rage in him. Ordinarily, if a woman put her hands on him so intimately, he would have knocked them off and rebuked her. He found Lotus Blossom’s touch soothing. He closed his eyes and drifted off on a sea of pain, fighting nightmares, images of planes, terrible jostling and her comforting voice telling him it was going to be all right.