Leopard's Run

by Christine Feehan

  “We’re both lucky bastards,” Fyodor agreed. “My leopard still gives me hell when Evangeline isn’t around.”

  Temnyy had been nearly uncontrollable at times, raking and clawing for freedom, demanding blood. Raging against every human Timur came into contact with. He understood exactly what his brother meant. Now that he had Ashe, his leopard was much more amenable. Of course, he’d been out running with Godiva every night and having sex. That had tired him out and put him in a far better mood, but if they were away from their females too long, Temnyy was back to his storming, wild ways.

  “My leopard is much happier with Ashe in our lives.” Why was it so much easier to reference his cat rather than just tell his brother that the woman had changed his life forever? He couldn’t imagine what it would be like without her now. He wanted Fyodor to know what Ashe meant to him. Why couldn’t he just say it? That he loved her with every breath he took?

  “We’re going to have to come up with a better plan to protect them,” Fyodor said. “I worry that Lazar or Rolan will decide to plant a bomb in the bakery.”

  “They won’t,” Timur said, utterly confident. “They both want personal revenge. Hands-on. They’d like to torture us themselves. They won’t come here until they know they’re safe from us. They won’t make a move like that against us. The team was sent to take us prisoner, not kill us. I think the idea was to keep us in this house and then Lazar would arrive and take it over.”

  “That sounds like the bastard.”

  “Ashe wants to rent the shop next to the bakery and then put the two shops together. I told her you owned the building.” Timur paced across the floor. Restless. Unable to stay still. “I didn’t want her to be disappointed if you thought it wasn’t a good idea.”

  “It isn’t just me who owns those buildings, Timur. You own them as well. We purchased them. You, Gorya and me. We’re in this together. Your names are on this estate. You want to live here, we’ll make it happen. In fact, I’d prefer that.”

  Timur nodded. “I did tell her that. Ashe likes Evangeline’s house.”

  “So did Evangeline, but I convinced her to live here. There’s more room for the leopards and we can watch over our women much easier here than spread out. Evangeline’s house is a nightmare to defend. She bought it because it’s cute and feminine and it was in that quiet little cul-de-sac with a very large park behind it so her leopard could run if she emerged. Our enemies could come at you from a dozen different ways, and it’s also very public.”

  Timur nodded but said nothing. He wanted to give Ashe the world. Anything she wanted. He’d find a way to make the house work if that was her choice.

  “You could persuade her by saying you were keeping me safe. And Evangeline. That’s even better. She really likes Evangeline.”

  “Everyone likes Evangeline.” Timur paced the length of the room. “I would expand the guesthouse if I was going to stay. I know there’s a workout room here, but I’d want to put in my own as well as a few other amenities for Ashe.” He couldn’t believe he was considering it.

  The estate was enormous, with plenty of room for the leopards. Groves of trees provided an arboreal highway for the cats. There was a full-sized pool and tennis courts. A spa that was not only well-equipped, but at any time, day or night, a massage therapist would come the moment they were called. There were any number of cars to drive, gardens and just about anything else a man—or a woman—could want.

  “I would want privacy. I like to walk around in the nude when I’m at home.”

  “That isn’t news to me,” Fyodor said. “Do whatever you want to the house to make it right for the two of you, or build another one. There’s a nice site just beyond the tea garden. You want that, we could have a house built immediately. It we built from the ground up, we can put in additional safety features, like a panic room, and escape routes for humans or leopards.”

  Timur liked that idea. He turned back to his brother and nodded. “That sounds good. I’ll talk to Ashe about it and see if she likes the idea of designing our own home.” Just saying that aloud gave him satisfaction. It would be their home together. They could have children. He would see to it that his children had a happy childhood and there was no chance that the cruelty and viciousness of his own father would ever touch them.

  “Do you worry about what kind of father you’re going to make?” Timur asked.

  “All the time,” Fyodor admitted. “I’ve been watching men like Drake and Elijah, even Jake Bannaconni. They’re good with their children. I figure I can follow their lead, and if I get into trouble, I’ll ask them questions.”

  Timur thought it was a good plan, especially since Evangeline was already pregnant and expecting twins. By the time Ashe and he had children, Fyodor would, hopefully, already know what he was doing and Timur would just follow his example. The entire question of having children and whether or not he was going to be a good father eluded him.

  “After what we saw happen with Jake’s woman, do you worry that you could lose Evangeline in childbirth?” Even as he voiced the question, he thought of Emma standing in a doorway, blood dripping onto the floor, a look of panic on her face. She’d nearly died. If that happened to Ashe … He had to shut down that line of thinking or he’d be doing the panicking.

  “I think about it every day,” Fyodor admitted. “I go to bed thinking about it and wake up the same way. She’s so sick, in the bathroom all the time. She can barely hold down water. Already she has been severely dehydrated several times. Jake has this nurse that took care of Emma when she was pregnant and I’ve hired her to watch over Evangeline.”

  “Is Evangeline’s life in danger?” Because if it was in danger, what the hell was Fyodor thinking letting her continue to be pregnant? Maybe having children wasn’t such a good idea. Timur did his best to shut down panic. They couldn’t lose Evangeline or Ashe.

  Fyodor scowled and drummed his fingers against his thigh. “I worry and she says I’m being silly and that quite a few women have the problem she’s having and they get through it. I read the statistics on it. There’s not a lot of help other than IV fluids, which the nurse gives her. There’s some medication, but so far, she hasn’t had much relief.”

  “Is it true that birth control doesn’t work on shifters?”

  “It doesn’t work during a heat cycle.” Fyodor met his brother’s eyes. “Don’t even think about dictating whether or not you’re going to have children. Think about all the things they give up for us. All the things we force them to do, the friends they can’t have and the danger they’re in. Don’t be stupid, Timur, and try to take away something so fundamental as having children. You’d find yourself without a woman fast.”

  “Maybe she won’t want them.”

  “Good luck with that. And what about you? Do you want children?”

  He’d never dared to hope that he could have children. Never. Sometimes, he’d fantasize about having his own woman and there was sometimes a baby in her arms, but he hadn’t really believed it would ever happen for him. Now there was Ashe and he wasn’t going to lose her.

  “Don’t hold her too tight,” Fyodor cautioned. “Sometimes, with Evangeline, I have to tell her that I need to know she’s safe. That she won’t disappear and nothing is going to happen to her. I’m lucky that she understands I’m having one of those days. Sadly, I have them often, but she gives me that. At least talk to Ashe before you handcuff her to the bed so you know where she is and that she’s safe.”

  “I’d be more likely to handcuff her to me,” Timur said. He needed to be with her. Maybe it was the talk about their women and their safety that had him so uneasy. He needed to get this done so he could lie in bed beside her and listen to her breathe. There was something very soothing about hearing Ashe breathe.

  “I curl my hand around her throat so her heart beats right into my palm,” Fyodor confessed as if he could read Timur’s mind. “Even that isn’t enough. I can hear my own heart beating right over top of hers because I�
�m terrified living with the idea that I could lose her.”

  Timur knew what he was talking about. He knew what real terror was. He’d grown up in a monster’s household. He’d had no chance at life. None. His father had beaten humanity out of him in his hope of creating a dark, twisted being that would be useful to him. Even after he’d gotten out, he’d take that legacy with him. He couldn’t escape who he had become. But none of that held a candle to the soul-deep terror that came with even the thought of losing Ashe. Ashe was a light shining right into him. If he was going to write poetry again and enter it into his secret journals, every poem would be about her.

  “We’re going to have to kill Evangeline’s father and uncle,” Fyodor said abruptly. Rage crept into his voice and there in the darkness, his eyes glowed with a crimson fury. His leopard stared at Timur through Fyodor’s eyes. The dangerous cat was very close to the surface. He probably had been prowling there, his temper smoldering as man and beast turned over and over in their minds the danger to Evangeline and where it came from.

  “I’m very aware of that,” Timur agreed. “In part, by killing them, we’ll also be cutting off the opium line to Lazar. With Ulisse gone, we’ve also cut off his trafficking. He’ll have to start hunting around and that might mean he’ll make an approach to Joshua, or if we’re lucky, you.”

  “I’m not killing them because it will help us with our plan to get Lazar and Rolan into the United States where we have the chance at wiping them off the face of the earth. I’m killing them because they betrayed Evangeline. My Evangeline. No one touches her. No one sets her up. That’s why they have to die.”

  Timur agreed wholeheartedly. He loved his sister-in-law. She had managed to make them all a family. That family included his cousins, Mitya and Sevastyan and Gorya. All of them were protective of her.

  “She can’t go in to work,” Timur made it a decree. “Now that we know the danger is to her, above anyone else right now, she’s got to stay where we can protect her.”

  “I’m well aware of that. She’s so sick, day and night, vomiting. Scares the hell out of me. This was one of those times I had a talk with her and explained, if she wanted to continue this pregnancy, there were certain things I needed. One of them was for her to stay home. I’ve already told Ashe that I’m not going to allow Evangeline to go to work. She volunteered to open the bakery for us.”

  Timur froze right in the middle of the floor. Air was trapped in his lungs because he couldn’t exhale. His heart nearly stopped. “She’s at the bakery right now? Alone?”

  “Of course, not alone. What do you take me for? She’s yours. That means she needs to be protected. I sent Gorya and Jeremiah with her.”

  Two men. Gorya was good, but Jeremiah was still learning. He didn’t have the instincts that came with experience. Heart pounding, Timur tried to quiet his chaotic brain. Something nagged there. Anton Lipin in the grove shooting at him. Ashe wasn’t in danger from Lazar or Rolan because they’d completely wiped out the teams sent to get her. But there was Evangeline’s father and uncle. The uncle who had challenged Timur for her.

  She had only two men guarding her when Timur had kept a full six-man team on Evangeline. He wanted to punch his brother. Temnyy roared with rage.

  “You should never have allowed her to go,” Timur bit out, already turning away.

  “I realize that now, Timur, but at the time Evangeline was so sick, throwing up again, and I had to call the nurse to give her fluids. I was so worried and she was crying, worried about her bakery and Ashe volunteered to go. I wasn’t thinking clearly. Ashe was very insistent, and I had the place checked out thoroughly. I sent Gorya with her. We’ve concentrated the threat on us mainly.” Fyodor was on his feet. “Shit. They’ll be expecting Evangeline to be there.”

  Timur was already out of the room. He didn’t much care what Fyodor said. Timur whipped out his phone and group texted, alerting the guards to drop whatever they were doing, secure the house and guard Fyodor and Evangeline.

  Apparently, Fyodor was texting frantically as well, demanding half the men go with Timur. He wasn’t waiting for them, no matter what his brother ordered.

  He chose one of Fyodor’s toys, a sleek Ferrari that had belonged to Antonio Arnotto. Siena didn’t want any of her grandfather’s collection of cars and had gifted them to Fyodor, along with the estate, on his wedding day. It was a gorgeous car, but more than looks, it had speed and handling that was hard to beat.

  She was there with only two guards. Gorya—his cousin who had been through too much for any one person to manage in a lifetime—and Jeremiah, a boy becoming a man. He wasn’t quite as fast yet as the others. He didn’t have experience with killer leopards—cats trained to need violence and blood the way most people needed air.

  Timur texted as he drove. Over and over. Gorya didn’t answer. Neither did Jeremiah. The beginnings of panic settled in his gut. He breathed deeply to overcome it.

  19

  “UM, Ashe, that’s the third time you’ve set off the fire alarm,” Jeremiah announced. He hadn’t moved from where he was perched on the edge of a table, eating cookie dough. He clearly wasn’t planning on doing anything about it.

  She tried to glare at him over her shoulder as she frantically waved a towel to clear the smoke, teetering on a chair at the same time. “You might help, you cretin.”

  He shrugged. “There is no help for you. None. Zero. I surrender to the absolute ineptness that is you.”

  Gorya caught Ashe around the waist with both hands and lifted her off the chair. “Stay down.” He took the towel from her. “And you, quit eating that and help out.”

  Jeremiah shook his head. “Evangeline made this cookie dough. It’s the only decent thing to eat, and I’m starving. We’ve been here for two hours already with just the blackened ruins of what is left of a once-great bakery. May it rest in peace.”

  Ashe threw a blackened croissant at him and with deadly accuracy hit him in the head.

  Jeremiah was unfazed. “Does Timur know you can’t cook?”

  “This is baking ,” she hissed. “It’s an entirely different thing.”

  “You didn’t answer the question.” Jeremiah spoke with exaggerated loudness as if she wouldn’t be able to hear him over the blaring of the fire alarm.

  The alarm was unnecessarily loud and she was definitely talking to Evangeline about it. Why would anyone need to have some idiotic piece of technology blaring so loudly one could barely think? It was no wonder she messed up a few recipes.

  She dumped the tray of black croissants in the trash along with the other two hours’ worth of her tries. “Evangeline must be a baking genius or something. Who does this? And why?”

  “The why is easily answered,” Jeremiah said. “For me. I need to eat. If there isn’t anything else she’s left overnight, then I claim this dough. If you try to actually bake cookies, you’ll just fuck those up and then I’ll starve.”

  “If I had a gun, I’d shoot you right now,” Ashe declared.

  Jeremiah ignored her and scooped another spoonful of dough out of the large round metal bowl Ashe had pulled out of the walk-in refrigerator. Evangeline prepared dough for pies and cookies ahead of time. Ashe had left those for last, hoping to get the harder items she’d have to bake from scratch done first. She’d followed the recipes exactly but the results were disasterous. Okay, maybe not exactly. Maybe once or twice she’d lost her place or put in one spice instead of another. In her defense, they looked alike.

  “Have you considered a career in assassination? You could just poison people,” Jeremiah offered, licking the spoon.

  “Don’t you dare put that spoon back in the dough. That is unsanitary. You’ll be the one poisoning the customers.” She reached to yank the mixing bowl from his hands.

  He caught the other side of it and jerked it to him, holding it protectively like a mother might a baby. “You’re going to put the cookies in the oven, that will kill any germs I might have. I need this after sampling your vile
concoctions. I’ve been traumatized, and my stomach is devastated beyond belief. Sheesh, woman, I’m not certain Fyodor should allow you into their family with the carnage you’ve wrought on these poor helpless baked goods.”

  “There’s a reason you don’t have a girlfriend,” Ashe said, and dumped the rest of the trays of blackened croissants into the trash.

  “How do you know I don’t have a girl?” Jeremiah scowled at her.

  She yanked the bowl of cookie dough from his hand. “You wouldn’t dare be so mean. You lack the ability to be supportive.”

  Marching over to one of the two long islands in the center of the room, where she’d laid out the recipes, she slammed the mixing bowl down onto the metal top with a little too much force. The sound was loud enough to make her wince.

  “Leave her alone, Jeremiah,” Gorya said again. “He’s working on his vocabulary, just in case you haven’t noticed. He might shut the hell up if you acknowledge his good word usage.”

  Jeremiah snorted. “I’d do better if she’d quit setting off that fucking alarm.”

  The fire alarm went silent abruptly, removing the blaring and very annoying noise. Gorya had unscrewed it and unhooked wires.

  “It isn’t entirely my fault that the stupid fire alarm keeps going off. It’s highly sensitive. Evangeline needs to change the setting or something.”

  Gorya groaned, shook his head and walked to the other side of the room, keeping his back to her. Jeremiah wasn’t so polite.

  “Change the settings? As in you have a fire alarm but you set it for quiet? On vibration maybe? If there’s smoke the entire building might vibrate?”

  “Shut the hell up,” she snapped. “I’m trying to concentrate. If I don’t get this right, we’ll be a bakery without any goods. I can pretend we’re sold out of everything else, if I at least have these cookies.”

  “Ashe.” Gorya came back to stand beside her. “Why don’t we just clean up in here and keep the bakery closed for another day or so until we see if Evangeline gets better.”