GEDEON spread drawing paper on the small table he shared with Meiling in the early morning hours at the Café Du Monde. There were very few customers, but that wouldn’t last long. Within the next half hour, the tables would fill, and the line would be long. They had grabbed a table close to the side exit on the open platform. Near them was a smaller table, and a single male sat there reading while he enjoyed his coffee. Three tables over were three women dressed in suits. A table over from them held four people, who all obviously worked together opening a restaurant.
Meiling pushed back hair that had escaped from the single ponytail she’d quickly pulled her hair into that morning when she’d crawled out of bed and into the shower. Gedeon looked up from the paper to examine her in the early morning light. She had dark circles under her eyes. Her lips looked bruised. There were smudges on her shoulders where skin was exposed. He could see bruising on her neck as well as teeth marks. He hated to think what her body would reveal if he had her strip right there. He should have checked her over before they started out this morning. It was only day three of Whisper’s heat. He had no idea if other heats were as violent as Whisper’s. Hell. He should have asked. Anyone looking at her would think she was a victim of domestic abuse.
“What?” she asked, giving him a sweet, joyful smile.
“I was just thinking the cops are going to arrest me for domestic abuse if they see you.”
She brought a hand to her neck and covered one of the bite marks. “I didn’t put on any concealer because we were going into the swamp. If it bothers you, I can go back to the house and put some makeup on.”
“Lotus, really? I’m the one who puts those marks all over your body. When I see them on you, all I can do is remember how they got there. I didn’t get to have you when we woke up so I intend to take full advantage when we go into the swamp.”
She laughed. He knew she would, and he’d waited for the sound. He loved that sound and the feeling it gave him of fingers trailing down his spine in a long caress. Sometimes he felt her palm stroking his cock. Other times, it was her cheek rubbing like a cat against his chest. Always, when she laughed, there was some kind of physical reaction.
“Why am I not surprised, Leopard Boy?”
She had introduced him to the art of teasing. He was introducing her to the art of sex. All kinds of sex. She took her lessons seriously and she liked to practice. She wanted to be good at everything she did. He knew a part of her didn’t like that he had had so many partners and she was determined to be his best partner in every aspect of sex. No matter how many times he reassured her that she was perfection for him, she hadn’t yet built up her confidence when it came to their sex life.
He flashed a lecherous grin and tugged at her hair. They had a show to put on, but he needed to know she was good. They could put this off for another day or so.
“You have a good visit with Evangeline?”
Meiling nodded. “Too short, but good. She’s so nice, Gedeon. I liked Ashe too. She’s edgier than Evangeline. I’m glad she’s there, though. Next time we’re in San Antonio, I’m hoping to meet the twins. She has a little nursery set up down the hall from the bakery. Her nanny watches them while she and Ashe work. She can feed them and go in and play or visit them and be close if there’s a problem. That’s so smart. Fyodor had a monitor system set up so she can see them anytime, whether she’s behind the counter or in the kitchen.”
Gedeon remained silent while he reached for her hand and pulled it across the table to his chest. “We talked about having children, but when we did, we glossed over it. You are aware during the heat cycle, birth control will not work. It will rarely work at any other time for us. It all depends on the female and the male.”
She nodded, but her gaze slid from his. “I’m aware.”
“And we fuck like bunny rabbits. More to the point, I’m pretty brutal, baby. I’m rough. The possibility of you getting pregnant is high.”
“Maybe,” she conceded.
“Look at me, Meiling. Eyes to mine. This is important to both of us, although we should have had this conversation before the fact, not after.” He waited until she complied, and he was staring into her dark brown eyes. She looked at him with trepidation. Her fingers had curled into a fist against his chest. He reached with his free hand and uncurled her fingers one by one. He brought them to his mouth and sucked each one inside.
Meiling’s eyes widened, and her breath hitched. She looked around and then her shocked gaze settled back on him. “Gedeon.”
“Yes, Lotus, it’s Gedeon. You want to have children with me, don’t you?”
“Yes, but . . .” She trailed off, a delicate frown marring her face.
“I need to hear your objection, baby, or I can’t fix it.”
“Did you see all the bodyguards everywhere? I mean everywhere. Not just in the building, but outside of it. They were everywhere, Gedeon. If we have children, we’d have to hire bodyguards. Given our pasts, we’d have no choice. They’d have to be protected at all times.”
The tension in him subsided. “That’s what you’re concerned about? Their safety? I’m prepared for that. Lotus, I surround you with bodyguards when I’m not with you. You object so I just have them pull back a little further, but they’re required to stay on you. Naturally our children would have bodyguards.”
She leaned toward him. “I’m going to kiss you.”
“I’ll let you if you let me lick the sugar off your lower lip,” he teased, and proceeded to do just that. He framed her face with his hands and first took off the smudge of powdered sugar from the beignets and then brought his mouth down to hers.
The moment his mouth took hers, thunder rolled in his ears, lightning streaked through his body from his throat to his groin and his heart stuttered in his chest. His woman. Melting him without half trying. They were working. On a job. He couldn’t get distracted, and she was one hell of a distraction.
He lifted his head. “Behave yourself, woman. We’re supposed to be working here. Stay on your own side of the table.”
Meiling laughed. “If I have to. Show me where you think the runaway couple is hiding. I can’t believe they’ve pulled this off.”
“They didn’t get on a plane. We know they didn’t take a car. They’re still here in New Orleans. They wanted Hawkins to think they left. I don’t know what game they’re going to run on him eventually, but my gut says they’re still here. If I’m right, and I’m always right, this is the only place they could be.” He smoothed out the paper and tapped the island he’d drawn out.
Meiling hitched closer. “We’ve gone out a couple of times, Gedeon, and we didn’t find anything.”
“I had their location narrowed down to three islands. We checked out the other two first because I thought it more likely they would go to the hunting cabins on one of them. The last one is more remote and has no electricity. Laverne is city all the way. I didn’t think she’d last out in the swamp without fans and a few modern amenities. She’s proving me wrong.”
“You believe the two of them are camping out on that island?”
“Yeah, I do. Her bodyguard has ties to the Cajun community. He goes way back. He can ask for help and someone will deliver groceries. He knows how to fish and trap. They can live out there for a long time until they decide to do whatever it is they plan. We don’t have to worry about that. We just need to take a few pictures to prove to Hawkins she’s alive and give him a map to her location, and then it’s up to him to decide whether he wants a divorce or he wants to go talk to her. We’re clear. It isn’t our business.”
“I’m glad we aren’t going at night. The swamp is a little on the scary side at night.”
“Seriously, Lotus?” Gedeon raised an eyebrow. “I know my way around. We aren’t going to get lost.”
“The river seems to change all the time. One minute we’re traveling along a channel that’s so shallow we can barely make it through, when the day before it was perfectly good to run through it with a boat. I can’t keep up, and I get turned around all the time, especially at night.”
“I know it feels like that. I’m careful, Meiling. Look, I’ll show you which way we’ll go and the channels we’ll use. Once you see them, you’re good at committing things to memory.”
“I am. Thank you. It will make me feel a little better. I know we won’t get separated, but I always like to feel as if I can make my way home if necessary.”
Gedeon took out a pen and drew the course starting from their pier all the way to the island and back. Meiling studied it and then finished off her coffee. “Thanks, I’ve got it.”
“Good, we’ll get started.”
As he started to rise, Meiling’s phone lit up with what looked like colorful fireworks. Gedeon raised his eyebrow, expecting her to flash her smile, but she was suddenly very sober, the color slipping out from under her skin. He rested the pads of his fingers gently on her wrist in inquiry. She turned the phone over to allow him to see that the text was from Etienne.
Jules Louis slipped away. I’m sorry. Sending you encryption. Read immediately. UR Danger. Will do whatever you need.
She looked up at Gedeon as her phone went off again with more fireworks. Gedeon indicated the bench by the river. She nodded. He stood, tore the map into six strips and tossed it into the nearest trash can along with their coffee cups. He held out his hand to her. “Let’s get this done. It will take a while to get there, and I want to have good lighting to get the best pictures.”
“Sounds good to me. I just want to sit by the river first and watch the sun come up like we always do.”
“We have time.” Gedeon took her hand and, ignoring the man reading at the table closest to them, walked out and down to the bench where they sat together nearly every morning. “What the fuck, Meiling? What does Etienne mean?”
“I’m retrieving the file now. He sends it encoded if it’s important. If anyone tries to read it without the right key, it will burn immediately, first time.” She pressed a hand over her heart. “Something is really wrong for him to break protocol and send me a firework and a warning in a text. He’ll remove it once he sees I’ve read it.”
Gedeon got as close to her as possible, his thigh pressed tightly against hers, one arm sliding along the back of the bench. He didn’t give a fuck if they blew the entire setup they’d fabricated for McGregor Handler. He had a very bad feeling. He’d asked Rene to keep an eye on the Frenchman’s two nephews, but he hadn’t followed up. He should have. He knew better than to leave loose ends, especially when his gut told him not to. He told himself to take a breath; they could handle the two men if they came looking for trouble.
She pulled up the email from Etienne but didn’t open it immediately. She retrieved another program and opened the email in that program. At first there were only numbers and symbols floating all over the page, but then order began to restore itself quickly and lines of text appeared.
They read the report Etienne had compiled for her. Jules and Louis had left their home in France and traveled back to Venezuela. From what Etienne could ascertain from a quiet investigation, they had heard someone was making inquiries about a woman with Meiling’s description, or at least a vague or close description to hers. The people looking for her were willing to pay a great deal of money for any information that might lead to her whereabouts. Jules and Louis knew she had friends who lived on a farm in the area.
Beside him, Meiling stiffened. A single sound escaped her.
Gedeon wanted to yank the phone from her hand. Damn these relentless, cruel bastards who would never stop hunting her because she had gifts they feared. Now they really had someone to fear. They had a reason. Had they simply left her alone, everyone would have been fine, but they just wouldn’t stop coming after her. Gedeon wasn’t going to allow it to continue.
The phone was shaking. He removed it from her hand to steady it so they could both finish reading. The farm was burned to the ground. Those residing there were tortured. Etienne described the way the tortures had been conducted and Gedeon recognized them. They were very distinctive and had been used on his father. They had also been used to make a point on some of the women who wouldn’t cooperate when they were trafficking them. Etienne’s conclusion was that the men seeking Meiling now knew her name and everything her friends at the farm knew about her. He advised she move immediately and go into hiding. He had tracked down his nephews and dispensed justice to them. He owed her more than he could ever repay.
Gedeon watched as the document slowly destructed, blackening first around the edges, and then black holes appeared throughout until it was entirely gone, as if it had never been. Meiling didn’t say a word. She sat staring at the river, watching the water rush past. He doubted she knew tears were on her face. He knew they weren’t for her.
“Tell me about them.”
She turned her face up to his. He brushed at the tracks of wet with his thumb as gently as possible. She broke his heart.
“Your friends on the farm, Lotus Blossom. Tell me about them. Give them to me.”
Her tongue moistened her lower lip and her hand slipped onto his thigh. She did that sometimes when she sought comfort. He knew she was unaware of that very small gesture, but he loved it. Meiling was a woman: confident and independent. It wasn’t often that she admitted to herself or anyone else she needed comfort or help.
“Bridget and her husband, Esteban, own the farm. Esteban went to school to become a better farmer and understand how to keep the soil rich and producing. Their farm has done so well, producing enough food to feed the neighboring farms and ranches. Most of those are run by the reigning crime family and harvested for drugs, not food. So Bridget and Esteban provide an enormous amount of the vegetables for the workers on those farms. They were always left alone.” Her voice broke.
He caught her chin. “Tell me about them, Lotus. Not their farm. What they were like as people. You aren’t to blame for this any more than my father was to blame for what his best friend did to our family. We can’t shoulder those responsibilities, as much as our brains would like us to take them on. We make too many mistakes of our own. Tell me about Bridget, your friend, and Esteban, her husband.”
Her fingers dug into the muscle of his thigh, but she turned her face up to his again and he got a genuine Meiling smile. It was a bit watery and melancholy, but he would take it.
“Bridget is the sweetest, kindest woman on planet Earth. I’ve never seen her without a happy smile on her face. She’s kind of like the sun coming out in the morning. You can’t be grumpy around her. Her laugh is contagious. All the while she’s talking to you, she’s working. She can’t be still. She’s cleaning, or cooking, or baking or gardening. She loves her garden.” She fell silent abruptly as she realized she was speaking about Bridget as if she were still alive.
“And her husband? Esteban?”
“Esteban adored her. He was brilliant and he was going to provide whatever Bridget needed. If she wanted a farm that would produce enough food to feed all their neighbors, he would find a way to get that done. He developed this automatic watering system that used the minimum amount of water each type of plant needed and provided only that much. Some of the plants had cages over them. He used old wire from boxes to weave covers over plants birds and other wildlife would attempt to eat. He didn’t start out with tons of money, so he got inventive with how he put things together. He’d gather old parts from junkyards or wherever they could get them and build whatever they needed.”
“Now they have money?” he prompted.
“I don’t honestly know,” Meiling admitted. “I just assumed so because each time I saw them, they had so much more equipment, expensive equipment, like tractors. I didn’t ask, that would have been rude, and frankly, I didn’t care.”
The tears had stopped. Meiling seemed steadier. He turned on the bench and pressed his forehead tight against hers, staring directly into her liquid-chocolate eyes. “Meiling, listen to me. I can handle this on my own. It might be better that I do it alone anyway. We’ll walk on back to the house and you can go nap for the afternoon. I’ll take care of McGregor and come right back to you. When we finish this, we’ll go after the ones who murdered your friends.”
She gave a little shake of her head. To his shock, her eyes brightened, and she lifted her hand to cup his jaw. “I can’t help but fall harder and deeper every day for you, Gedeon. It doesn’t matter if you’re being sweet like this or bossy and arrogant to the point that I want to kick you into the river. You’re always going to be the one.”
“You say that shit to me and we’re alone in the swamp, things are going to get intense between us,” he whispered. Because they were.
“What does that mean?” There was a trace of amusement in her voice.
His thumb swept over the curve of her lower lip, and in between their bodies his other thumb swept over her left nipple. “That means you might be riding through the swamp naked or on your knees between my thighs. It means I’m going to be inspecting those bruises and bite marks you haven’t shown me this morning. All of them.”
“Let’s go, Gedeon. Prepare for inspections and whatever else you have in mind because I’m going to keep saying those kinds of things to you for the rest of your life.”
That was his woman, squaring her shoulders and getting on with it. They had a job, and she was going to see it through. More, if he turned things sexual between them, she was ready for him. She was always ready for him, no matter what.
WHAT are you doing?” Meiling asked, backing away from Gedeon as he stalked her across the very short distance between the cabin walls.
The island Gedeon had chosen to lure McGregor Handler to was small and covered in trees, so much so that it looked like a small jungle. This wasn’t a good thing because spiders built incredible webs in those trees and all sorts of birds made their nests in the canopies. The ground was spongy, which meant there wasn’t a tremendous amount of soil to support them as they walked across it. Gedeon cautioned her several times to step where he stepped.
The hunting cabin was built on stilts, as many of the cabins were, to keep the floodwaters from washing them away or, at the least, ruining them. This cabin was very small, no more than six hundred square feet. It was one room. There was a counter and a woodstove that served the dual purpose of heating the cabin and cooking. The crude cupboards held flattened plates and a few spices in jars. The drawers revealed old silverware, a roll of paper towels and a bar of soap.
Meiling held up her hand to Gedeon. “Seriously, stop right now. You look like Slayer when he’s stalking Whisper.”
“That’s because I feel like Slayer right now. I’ve been too long without you.”
“We’re working. That crazy man might come anytime. He’s likely to have a sniper rifle and shoot us right through the window.”
“We’d go out so happy. In the throes of a climax. Take your clothes off if you don’t want to ride home naked in the boat.”
“Be serious, Leopard Boy,” Meiling entreated, but her hands had gone to the buttons of her blouse because she was afraid he was serious. He looked serious. He sounded serious. He stole her breath. Already, despite her determination not to fall into his trap of temptation, her body had caught fire. Every nerve ending was on alert, aware of him, too sensitive to abide having material touching her.
She slid the buttons out of the loops and opened her blouse. His eyes darkened with lust. When he looked at her like that, her brain just seemed to short out and her body took over. It was exactly what she needed. Gedeon always seemed to know and he provided it for her.
His shirt was already off. When had he taken it off? His chest was magnificent. She loved his chest. She slipped the catch on her bra and set it aside with her blouse, her gaze dropping hungrily to the front of his body. It was so strange, a true puzzle. He was a big man, and when she was in the thrall of her leopard, she could take him deep in her mouth, but when it was just her with her man, no matter how hard she tried, she could only fit so much of him in. But she loved the taste of him. The texture of him. Most of all, she loved how it made him feel when she did her best to take him deeper and deeper.
Gedeon had carried a backpack into the cabin and now he opened it. Pulling out a blanket, he spread it over the counter. “Sit up there, Lotus.”
She raised her eyebrow but did as he ordered. The counter was right in front of the sink. The water was pump action, gravity fed. She wouldn’t want to try to use it after it hadn’t been used for a long while. The window was a long bay window taken out of another structure and was now streaked with dirt. Still, the sun shone through, so when she sat on the counter, she knew Gedeon could see every inch of her body easily.
He came across the room dressed only in his lightweight cotton drawstring trousers. He stretched her left leg to one side as if she were doing the splits and gently placed her foot on a small ledge she hadn’t noticed. He then did the same with the right.
“Is that position uncomfortable?”
It wasn’t. She was very limber and made certain to keep herself that way. She shook her head.
“Good. Lean back on your elbows.” He reached into the duffel bag and brought out a small pillow he slipped between her shoulder blades and neck. “Stay like that. I don’t want you to move at all.”
Meiling shivered at his tone. His blazing eyes held hers captive for a moment and then dropped to her neck. He pushed her hair out of the way, the pads of his fingers lingering on the bruises there. He bent his head slowly and brushed his lips over each mark. A whisper. Barely there. Back and forth. His tongue touched the marks. Licked at them soothingly—except Meiling didn’t find his ministrations soothing at all.
His body was wedged between her spread legs. The material of his trousers rubbed against her bare inner thighs. Against the lips of her exposed sex. Against her inflamed clit. Each time he moved, she was more aware than ever that beneath the fabric covering his body, his cock was hard and straining, rubbing tightly against her now-slick and pulsing entrance. Her entire attention was centered on her desperately growing need. His was all about the bruising on her neck and shoulders.
She made a soft sound of distress and rocked her hips into him. At once he turned his head, his eyes meeting hers.
“Did you already forget what I asked of you? Don’t move, baby.”
He was asking the impossible and he knew it. Meiling needed to rub against him just a little harder and she might be able to implode. She took a deep breath and forced her body to stay still. She knew Gedeon. He was well aware of what he was doing to her. He returned to inspecting her body, this time shifting to the other side of her neck. As he did so, he pressed tightly against her wet core, causing her breath to hitch and the muscles in her thighs to jump.
Fire raced up her legs. Tension coiled tighter in her sex. She needed to grip something—anything—with her fists, so she caught at the blanket. Gedeon’s head dipped lower, to her right breast, and despite her best effort, when he sucked gently, her body shuddered with pleasure, and she rocked her hips against his cock and ground down in desperation.
He moved back, a torturously minuscule movement, just enough that it was impossible for her to reach him and get any kind of relief.
“Gedeon, really, I’m all right.”
“I have to see for myself. You’re covered in bruises, Meiling.” He sucked at her left breast and then kissed the bruises on her belly. “Bites can get infected.” He suddenly crouched low. “You have these bite marks on your thighs. Clearly I got carried away.” He gripped her calves, kissed his way along her outstretched left leg and then slowed to run his tongue over the bites marring her inner thigh.
She didn’t feel the bites, but she felt his tongue like a lash of flame dancing over her skin. The fire in her core only blazed hotter. A whimper escaped. She did her best not to move as his mouth moved closer and closer to where she wanted it. Where she needed it. His hair touched her first, sliding over her inflamed clit, and her entire body shook.
He lifted his head away and was back crouching low, one hand circling her ankle.
“Honey, please. I need you.”
“You need to learn patience, Meiling. Meditation. We practice breathing techniques every morning after working out and you still have trouble staying in control.” His tongue moved along her right thigh and his lips kissed gently. She bit her lip in an effort to keep from squirming, but she vowed to herself she was going to show him she could make him lose his precious control sometime very soon.
He came so close. Breathing. Blowing warm air. His tongue dipping. Tasting. Driving her crazy. She really did think it was possible to go insane. Then she became aware of the slow burn. Those tiny little flames licking at her thighs. At her breasts. Arrowing through her body to her clit. Crackling over her skin so that every nerve ending leapt to life.
Gedeon’s fingers settled on the tops of her thighs and gripped her there, and without warning, his tongue lapped at her bare lips, flicked her clit and then plunged deep. She heard herself cry out his name as she unraveled. Came apart. Little lights danced behind her eyes. The orgasm rolled through her and kept going because he did. He devoured her, driving her up again and again, demanding more. Always more until she was certain she was going to die of too many orgasms, or maybe it was one continuous one that never stopped.
Gedeon towered above her, lodging his cock in her hot entrance. She was helpless to do anything but accept him. He thrust deep. Hard. Driving through her tight folds. She was slick from so many orgasms, so ready for him. With the angle he had and her body so open to his, he was able to drive deep into her silken tunnel. So tight and hot. She was always so snug every time he took her. He could feel the walls of her channel surrounding him, gripping his cock and squeezing and massaging like so many fingers, stroking like so many tongues. The sensation was unlike anything he’d ever experienced.
He began to move in her, surging deep, watching the miracle of her body swallowing his. Taking his. He varied the speed and roughness and then caught her left leg and wrapped it around his hip. Did the same with her right. He lifted her off the counter, never missing a stroke, pressing her close to the wall, looking for leverage, the fierceness of the leopard gripping him. She leaned forward and bit his neck hard.
White-hot lightning forked through his body and settled in his cock. He jerked and pulsed in time to her body’s squeezing and milking. He heard himself curse in Cajun French and then he wrapped his arms tight around her and rocked her hard before setting her feet on the floor and allowing his cock to slip free of her.
Before she could move away, he caught her to him and tipped up her face, needing to see if she was good. She was. Her eyes soft. Clear. Her head was in the game, not wondering if she was to blame for what happened to her friends.
They cleaned up, ate a sandwich and drank water. Just as they were returning everything to the backpack, the insects went quiet. The birds, ever in motion, suddenly ceased movement.
Gedeon signaled to Meiling and she went out the back door first. She barely opened it. The stairs were rickety and looked as if any weight would have them crumbling. She took no chances and leapt lightly to the ground below, landing in a crouch and staying low while she took a long look around. She moved to her right to make room for Gedeon. He had the backpack strapped to his back as he dropped right beside her.
Can you tell where he is? Meiling asked. She was fairly certain McGregor hadn’t yet set foot on the island. It didn’t feel as if he had, but he was disturbing the wildlife, so he was close enough.
He’s right next to our boat. He isn’t a swamp man. I don’t blame him. The terrain is spongy, and you can see the alligator slides, Gedeon said.
He’s got to be rethinking killing all of us out here, Meiling pointed out.
It makes so much more sense for him to kill Laverne, Edge and the two of us, weigh our bodies down and hope no one but the alligators finds us for years, he said.
Are we going to let him come to us?
Meiling was willing to allow Gedeon to take the lead on this one. She didn’t lie in wait to kill her targets. She knew McGregor had murdered countless men, women and children. She knew he had followed them into the swamp with the intention of killing Laverne and Edge and then finishing off Gedeon and Meiling. It wasn’t that she was opposed to killing him. It was just that she wasn’t certain how she felt about luring him out to the swamp and then essentially murdering him.
It isn’t murder. He’ll have his chance at me, Gedeon objected.
Her heart jumped and then accelerated. What does that mean?
I plan on talking to him. Unlike you, I’m not opposed to walking up behind him, sticking a gun to his head and blowing it off, but you’re with me and you have a moral compass I don’t have.
Now that he said he would put himself at risk, she wasn’t as certain she had a moral compass. McGregor did deserve to die. I could look at it as justice.
The insects, rarely quiet for long, had begun to sound off again. They grew louder and more confident as McGregor remained offshore. Birds once again flitted from tree to tree; squirrels chased one another up the tree trunks while rodents resumed scurrying under the leaves looking for seeds.
Stay here while I go have a talk with him.
Meiling gave him a sharp glance. That wasn’t the plan.
Gedeon sighed. No, Lotus, it wasn’t the plan. But it wasn’t the plan to have Etienne send news that two of your friends were tortured and murdered before we came out here to exact justice for those murdered lovers of Hawkins or to keep him from killing poor Laverne.
I can do this, Meiling hissed at Gedeon.
You think I don’t know that? Mon Dieu, Lotus, you’re the strongest woman I know. Has it ever occurred to you that I want to take care of you? That there are times I need to take care of you?
Gedeon. She moved closer to him and framed his face with her hands. Sometimes I don’t know what to do with you. If I lost you now, I couldn’t take it. You can’t be careless the way you have been in the past. You have to know I’m waiting for you.
He didn’t tell her it was easier not to think about someone waiting. In the past he didn’t care if he lived or died. That always gave him an edge. He leaned into her. You’re so beautiful, my beautiful little mate. Let me do this. When she still looked unsure, he brushed another kiss on top of her head. Do what you do best. Back me up.
I can do that.
Of course she could. His woman. Meiling. She could do anything no matter how difficult. He was so damned lucky and so damned undeserving. He was also too intelligent to blow it with her. He kissed her thoroughly and then turned toward the side of the island where he had tied up their boat.
Gedeon stripped, bundled his lightweight pants into a small roll and shoved them into a pack along with a couple of weapons. He strapped the pack around his neck and shifted as he covered ground. Slayer padded carefully through the trees to keep insects and birds from giving away his presence. He was a big leopard and had to choose where to place his paws in order not to sink into the spongy terrain. Most of the island was fairly stable but there were places where the crust was thin. Eventually, as he approached the outer edge of the thick trees, he clawed his way up a tree and used the branches to continue to make his way toward the strip of land where they’d left the boat.
MCGREGOR stood on the shore, binoculars up to his eyes, seeking to peer through the trees. He walked closer to the trees, shoving impatiently at the veils of hanging moss. As he did, he dislodged spiders from their webs. Cursing, he slapped at them and took several steps backward. As he did, something moved in the shadows, catching his attention. He had no idea what was in the trees, but his heart began to pound alarmingly.
Both hands were clutched around the binoculars. He needed his gun. He backed up more and felt one of his loafer-clad feet fall into some kind of sinkhole. Deep. Whatever the thing watching him was emerged from the shadows in a slow stalk as he tried to pull his foot from the hole. His entire body froze as a large head came first, and then he saw part of the body.
A leopard. Not just any leopard. This one was enormous. Its golden gaze was fixed on him, wholly focused, as it began to stalk him in a freeze-frame motion that was the most terrifying vision imaginable. McGregor took an involuntary step back with his free foot and buried that one in the sinkhole as well.
He struggled and sank to his thighs. The leopard stopped, those eyes never leaving his face. Very slowly, so as not to trigger the large cat’s instincts, McGregor put the binoculars down and reached into his jacket for his gun. He’d barely managed to pull it out when the leopard was on him, his teeth clamping around his arm, crunching down on his bone, sawing through skin, muscle, bone, everything, so he screamed in agony and dropped the gun. The leopard backed off, although the eyes never stopped staring at him.
McGregor watched in horror as the leopard contorted, the muscles and head shifting and moving until he was no longer looking at a leopard but at a large, very muscular man. He recognized him instantly. Gedeon Volkov casually pulled the pack from around his neck and dragged on a pair of drawstring trousers.
“You came out here to kill me, McGregor. Not only me but my woman as well. That wasn’t smart. Hawkins is too arrogant to do any research into who he’s hiring, but you’re smarter than that. You wouldn’t have your reputation and you wouldn’t have stayed alive this long unless you knew what you were doing.”
McGregor was too horrified at what he’d just witnessed to respond. Yeah, he’d done his research. He’d thought about walking away, but the temptation to kill Gedeon Volkov was too much to give up.
“Those women you killed for Hawkins, you want to tell me where you buried them?”
“Fuck you, Volkov,” McGregor snapped, trying to think of how he was going to get out of the mess he was in.
Gedeon was a few feet away from him one minute; the next, he was so close, McGregor could smell the leopard in him. Volkov moved so fast, he was a blur. McGregor’s clothes were in tatters, strips floating in the air as the leopard tore them from him in a fury. His skin was next, long rakes, deep, his chest and back, his neck, those terrible claws sinking into him and ripping through his flesh.
Gedeon was on him in a flash and gone just as fast, so at first McGregor thought he’d gone crazy, that the man hadn’t morphed into a partial leopard and ripped him into pieces while the ground held him captive. Looking down, he saw that it was true. The pain was excruciating.
That wasn’t even the worst. Tiny flies and other bugs found their way into the open wounds and began to feast. He felt as if he was being eaten alive. He looked down at the floor of the island. The leaves had come alive with ants. They formed bridges and crawled up his legs to find their way into the wounds. Beetles joined them. He heard the flutter of wings and found large birds with thick curved beaks and shiny eyes staring down at him from the branches above him. He was surrounded.
“Just kill me, for God’s sake,” he yelled at Gedeon.
“Why would I show you one ounce of mercy, McGregor? Did you show those women any mercy? Any of the victims you murdered, did you show them one moment of mercy?”
“Kill me.”
“Where are they?” Gedeon persisted.
In the end, McGregor made up several locations before he told the truth. Gedeon moved fast, using his knife to make the kill, opening the jugular, not wanting Slayer to make the kill. He made his way back to Meiling, afraid she would reject the man he was. She saw him at his worst, when the monster was out, but she simply put her arms around him and held him before asking him to take her home.
HAWKINS,” Gedeon greeted. “You look smug sitting there reading that text from your number-one man, McGregor. Looks like he found Laverne and took care of her and Edge for you right along with my woman, Meiling, and, of course, me. But then, if he did, how am I sitting here in your grandiose bedroom that’s more for show than for reality?”
Hawkins slowly lowered his tablet and stared at Gedeon as if he had two heads. He looked around the large room. “It is ostentatious, isn’t it? I hire designers and this is what I get.”
“It’s always someone else’s fault, never your own,” Gedeon said. He held up McGregor’s phone. “Your man missed this time. You should have done your homework before you sent him after me and mine. I spotted the shadow the very first night. I knew then I was going to kill him. And then I was going to kill you.”
Hawkins chuckled. “I don’t think that’s necessary, Gedeon. I’ll be the first to admit I could have made a mistake about you. There’s always room for negotiation.”
“We can negotiate pills or knives. Either is acceptable. There are a couple of pills on your nightstand. You can take one now and we keep talking. Or I can slice a knife across your belly, not too deep but enough that you feel it and we keep talking. Your choice.”
“What’s the pill?” Hawkins picked it up and looked at it.
“It’s Percocet. Right out of the bottle on your nightstand.” Gedeon held a knife up so the blade caught the light from the lamp on Hawkins’s nightstand. “The blade is sharp. Goes in clean. You’ll barely feel it at first.”
Hawkins sighed, put the Percocet in his mouth and tossed it back with water from the glass on his nightstand. “Is Laverne dead? Did you wait to kill McGregor so he could do his job?”
“No, Laverne is alive and well. She’ll inherit everything when you’re gone. She’s a good actress. I imagine she’ll garner a great deal of sympathy, being such a young widow. Such a young, wealthy widow. It was a good thing you insisted she inherit everything if you died.”
“That’s just bullshit, and you know it. They’ll suspect she murdered me. She’s been gone for this last week with no explanation.”
“She went to a women’s retreat. All the women there will testify to her being there.” Gedeon watched him closely. “She’s going to come home early when she’s contacted by the police. They’ll find you dead. Your prescription drug habit was kept under wraps. Tight. She wasn’t aware of it. Only a close few knew. Sadly, your Percocet was laced with fentanyl. You should have been more careful, Hawkins.”
For the first time, the smug smirk was wiped from Guy Hawkins’s face. He looked from his nightstand to Gedeon and then touched a hand to his throat, or tried to. His head lolled back on his neck against his pillow.
Gedeon stood up and walked across the room, shoving his knife back into the scabbard at his belt. “Your reputation will suffer just enough in the media to start the rumor mill gossiping, and your widow will defend you. This way to die is far too easy for you, Hawkins. If I had my choice, I would have made it a hard one. You would have paid for every single woman you had killed. As it is, you can die knowing Laverne will have your money. The gossipmongers will chew on your reputation. A really shrewd homicide detective is unraveling the deaths of those women you had murdered by McGregor, all of whom he can tie back to you. McGregor gave up the location of their bodies so the police can recover them. You’ll be dead, but your music legacy will be marred by your image.”
Hawkins couldn’t speak clearly. His words were slurred. Gedeon smiled at him. “Don’t worry about me, Guy. No one saw me come in and they won’t see me slip out. I’ve got an alibi even if they thought they saw me. I won’t leave behind any trace of me. It will look as if you were completely alone in your room. There will be no evidence of the last message between you and McGregor, but I find it nice you would have concerns.”
He waited for Hawkins to stop breathing, confirmed it by taking his pulse and then took his time hiding Hawkins’s prescription drugs all over the suite. He had the prescriptions filled from all different pharmacies from various counties and states. All were opiates. Some were obtained from unknown sources. Once Gedeon had placed evidence of Hawkins’s drug use throughout the suite, he left the music mogul slumped over in his bed, dead, to be found by his staff in the morning.
Slipping out into the night was easy enough. Meiling waited for him, sliding down from the rooftop of the mansion across the way after breaking down a sniper rifle and placing it in her case. He took her hand and walked around the block to their car, avoiding the street cameras and the door cameras that seemed to be on every door nowadays. Laverne and Edge were safe. Hawkins and McGregor were dead, and the women Hawkins would have marked for death would be safe. It was the best they could do. The job was finished and there was satisfaction in that.