"But she didn't know," Jake persisted.
"I got that after I threw her out and called her every disgusting name I could think of. After she was gone, I could see blood on the floor where we'd been and on me. She was a fucking virgin, and the things I said and did . . ." He shook his head and raked his fingers through his disheveled hair. "I don't have a clue what to say to her, how to fix this, but she's mine. There's no going back from this. I know she's mine. If she's really in danger, I have to help her."
"Do you think her grandfather beat her?" Jake asked. "You knew him. Would he do that to his own granddaughter for failing in her mission?"
"No way. Antonio was many things, but he loved that girl."
"I'll get the police report and see what happened last night," Jake offered. The phone buzzed and he picked it up to listen for a moment. At once his face darkened as he slammed down the phone, cursing. "Elijah, front desk just reported a man pulled Siena Arnotto into a car. She fought him and he shoved and slapped her before getting into the car after her."
Elijah swore in his native Spanish. "Did they get the license plate?"
"They said it was one of Arnotto's men. A leopard. That has to be either Paolo Riso or Alonzo Massi, since Marco is dead." Jake was on the move as well. "Where will they take her?"
"My guess, back to the Arnotto estate. It's large. A lot of acreage to cover. He won't take her anywhere near the house. That has to be crawling with cops, possibly even Feds. He's going to take her somewhere private, somewhere no one will hear her."
"I'll get a bird in the air," Jake said, and fished out his cell phone as they raced through the building to the garage where both kept vehicles.
Elijah drove and he drove fast, weaving in and out of traffic, fear pushing at him hard. He wasn't a man who was fearful. He'd faced death on several occasions and he had come out on top, but this wasn't him in the fire. This was Siena.
He had spotted Siena when she was a teen. He'd been drawn to her then. She was beautiful, but it was more than that, something he couldn't put his finger on, but he found himself dreaming about her, which, because of her age, made him very uncomfortable. The few times he saw her over the years, as she'd grown, hadn't changed the way he felt about her. The intrigue. The mystery of her. The fantasy of her.
Elijah had always been a generous lover, wild, rough, but always generous. He hadn't been generous with her. Partly anger at her for showing up with the wine. Partly his leopard going crazy. But he couldn't blame his behavior all on his anger. He'd been lost in passion, consumed by it, and that had never happened to him before.
It had been easy, at first, to say he was furious that her grandfather had sent her to seduce him. More than furious. Disappointed in her. But that wasn't the entire truth, and he just didn't like admitting it to himself. He didn't like that he had lost control with her, because a man like him could never lose control.
Elijah had deliberately kept away from her over the last couple of years, feeling like a pervert for even thinking about her, although the chemistry between them, from the very first time he'd laid eyes on her, had been the strongest he'd ever felt and it just grew stronger each time he did see her--even from a distance.
He had solved the mystery of how Arnotto had lulled his friends into a false sense of security the moment he heard Siena's voice on the intercom. Anyone wouldn't think twice about letting her get close. She'd said she was delivering wine. A birthday present. It wasn't his birthday. It wasn't even close to his birthday, but he'd let her in, intrigued to see how far the charade would go, when the hit man would actually show up and what she'd say.
And then he saw her. Sitting in her car. Eyes hot. Face so beautiful and sensual. Her lush body. He could see the naked hunger in her eyes, and there was no way he could stop himself. He was so caught up in his own hunger and lust he hadn't realized his leopard was raging at him, driving him, savage in its need to claim its mate. He hadn't realized she was close to the Han Vol Dan, the moment when a female leopard was ready to emerge and accept her mate.
Siena Arnotto belonged to him. He felt it when he touched her. Knew it when he kissed her. She was branded in his very bones the moment she ignited for him, a wildfire burning out of control right along with him. He hadn't even noticed she was innocent. He nearly groaned aloud right there in the car thinking about it as he drove like a madman through traffic, heading to the hill country. He'd taken her innocence roughly. Without thought for her. He'd been so far gone that it had barely registered until afterward.
After he had shoved her out the door, furious at her, at himself, after he'd closed the door and locked it, leaning against it, breathing deeply to control the killing fury welling up in him, he became aware of his own body and saw the smears of her blood, evidence of her innocence.
Another surge of anger hit him, this time at himself. He should have known. She was so tight he hadn't been certain he could get inside her when he'd first pushed into her. Had he not been savage and crazy with lust, insane with his own need, like a madman, driving into her, desperate to feel her surround him with her heat and fire, he might have noticed that he was her first.
He realized, far too late, his leopard had been welcoming. Leaping toward the surface, pushing to cement the relationship. Every trait of the leopard was mixed up with his own insane emotions, and he'd treated his own woman in a disgusting, vile way. The things he'd said to her reverberated in his head. The accusations. His temper. Everyone knew his temper was lethal. That made him angry all over again.
She hadn't said anything at all to him. She looked at him with shock in her eyes. Shock at what he said. Shock at what he did. Shock that she recognized Marco. Shock at the realization that her grandfather wasn't the innocent man she thought him.
He swore under his breath. She'd been beaten. Both Alonzo and Paolo were leopard. They would have smelled his scent all over her. They would have known what had happened between them. He stiffened. Her leopard had been so close to emerging. It had to have emerged or would any time now, and if she was with another male, he would claim her. Fight to keep her.
A cold fury settled deep in his bones, poured into every cell of his body. Whoever had beaten her was as good as dead. If they harmed her again, in any way, he would hunt them to the ends of the earth.
"Trey's spotted them. The car is heading into the hills, straight for wine country," Jake reported.
Elijah wound in and out of traffic. Fortunately, one of the advantages to being leopard was amazing eyesight and hand-eye coordination. Still, it took too long, whoever had taken her had too much of a head start. Enough that a leopard could kill or do a tremendous amount of damage in a short time.
Time had never passed so slowly. Fear had never choked him like this. He tasted it in his mouth, became intimately acquainted with it on the long drive. He knew, because the helicopter pilot, Joshua Tregre, reported it, that the car had stopped in heavy brush on the Arnotto estate, and two leopards had tumbled out, rolling, fighting. The car had been driven away, the driver leaving Siena to her fate.
Joshua and Trey reported they lost sight of the two cats in the trees when the smaller, female leopard tried to escape in the denser woods. Jake cursed steadily, but Elijah remained silent, his heart pounding, trying to keep his mind blank. If he thought about what her assailant was doing to her he knew he'd go crazy and never be able to hold back his leopard. More, if her leopard had already come out, the male may have claimed her.
Elijah barely managed to turn off the engine before both men were out and running toward the sounds of screams--human screams, not those of a female leopard. The cries were those of a woman in agony, and the sound chilled him to the bone. He burst through the brush, dodged around trees, leapt over fallen trunks, moving without thought but to get to her. He knew Jake was shedding clothes and that Joshua had found a place to put the helicopter down, which meant Trey was rushing to join them, but Elijah just ran toward those terrible, haunting, chilling cries. Without warning th
e cries stopped abruptly, and his heart stopped right along with the sound. He rounded two more trees and saw them.
A large male leopard tore at Siena's naked body, ripping deep furrows in her back, while his teeth held her in place. She wasn't moving. Her body looked like it might be a doll, a rag doll covered in blood. The cat dropped her on the ground and turned toward Elijah, eyes malevolent, targeting him. Jake slammed into the male from the side, knocking him away from Siena and toward Elijah.
Elijah drew his gun and fired, hitting the leopard in the left shoulder as it spun around. The leopard roared and turned, desperate to escape. Elijah reached Siena and crouched beside her, keeping his body between her and the wounded leopard. Before Jake could hit it again, the male had rushed into the brush. Jake started after it.
"I need the helicopter and your doctor," Elijah shouted, calling Jake back. "Leave him. We'll get him later."
There was blood everywhere. Everywhere. Soaking into the ground, coating her body, thick in her hair. He didn't know where to touch her without hurting her. She had four deep rake marks down her back; the claws had cut through muscle and tissue. Two puncture wounds at her shoulder. One terrible rake from the top of her hip all the way to her knee, and it was deep. The leopard had ripped her open.
Elijah was afraid of turning her over, afraid of what he would see. He didn't even realize he was silently praying, his fingers gentle in her hair, pulling it back away from her face. Blood coated his fingers, her hair sticky with it. His heart sank. Fear was metallic. "Baby," he said softly. "I'm right here. He's gone. I'm right here."
He couldn't see her chest moving up and down. She didn't look as if she was breathing, and he had to feel her pulse. He had to know she was alive. He circled her throat with his palm and was still. Listening. Feeling. There it was.
"I've got to pick you up, Siena. It's going to hurt, baby, but I'll be as gentle as I can. We have a helicopter and we'll get you to a hospital." He wasn't certain she could hear him, but he wanted to reassure her. He needed to reassure himself.
Very, very gently he rolled her partially over, careful not to let any of the rake marks touch the rotting vegetation. The breath left his lungs. His stomach dropped. The leopard had ripped her face open from her temple to the top of her cheek and it was a deep gash. She must have rolled immediately into the fetal position because that was the only laceration on her front that he could see.
"We've got to get moving," Jake hissed. He had pulled on his jeans and was tugging his shirt in place. "I've called for Doc to meet us at the pad on the roof. He knows the injuries are severe and that she's one of us. He's the best, Elijah. You know he'll take care of her. Trey can take the car back."
Elijah didn't know if anyone could take care of her. She'd lost blood. A lot of it. He'd never seen anyone so torn up. As gently as possible, he lifted her into his arms, the worst laceration on her hip facing away from him, but that meant her ripped face was against his chest and his arm was a band across the furrows on her back. He could see swelling on her face and on both hands. She'd fought her attacker. She'd fought him hard.
"I want that bastard," Elijah snapped, looking down into her face as he ran with her through the trees toward the clearing where the helicopter had landed. "I want ten minutes with him before he dies."
Jake was silent, keeping pace. They'd left the keys in the car, and he'd barked an order into his radio so Trey had made his way through the trees to get to the vehicle.
"Too much blood," Elijah said.
"Don't think, let's just get her there."
Elijah tried to keep his mind blank. He didn't slow down when he reached the helicopter, he just ducked and ran, leaping at the last moment with Siena in his arms to get inside. Jake was right behind him. Both threw themselves into seats and Joshua took the bird into the air.
Siena moaned softly as the helicopter banked and then moved fast toward the hospital. Jake covered her naked body with a blanket, dragged on headphones and talked into the radio, obviously communicating with the doctor, relaying as much information to him about Siena's injuries as they could see.
Elijah wanted to brush away the bloody strands of hair that hung in chunks over her face, but the thick strands were helping to stop the flow of blood. Instead he ran his finger along her eyebrow. "I'm here, baby. Right here with you. Hang on for me. Can you do that, Siena? Promise me you'll hang on."
Her lashes fluttered. His breath caught in his throat, but she didn't open her eyes. Everything after the landing felt like a terrible blow. The gurney waiting, the team of doctors racing her to the operating room where Doc was waiting for her. He couldn't go with her--he tried--but four huge security guards blocked him from the room.
He would have gone right through them had it not been for Jake and Joshua. The two men moved up on either side of him, and Jake backed him up with one hand. With three words. "You're not helping."
It was the longest wait of his life. Hours. He didn't sit down. He paced. His leopard raked at him savagely, needing to get to his mate, to ensure no harm was coming to her--to ensure she lived. Elijah found he couldn't pace away the rage that rode him so hard, or the need to go find Paolo and Alonzo and retaliate in a way that would make them suffer for a long time before they died.
He pushed both hands through his hair and stopped moving, going completely still, his breath holding there in his lungs as the doctor came through the doors. Jake and Joshua immediately were there, on either side, caging him in. Not touching him, but close just in case.
"She's alive. She's strong. She fought him off of her. She fought hard. There was no evidence that she was raped, thanks to her determination. Because you told me you had sex with her last night, I gave her the more advanced pregnancy test, but it hasn't been twenty-four hours. Her body is flooded with hormones, so we treated her as if she were pregnant. I'll give her another test tomorrow, because if she's pregnant that will determine the pain medications we can give her."
Elijah shook his head and took a deep breath to let it out. Of course she could be pregnant. With her leopard rising, both the cat and the human were fertile at the same time. He'd been so out of control he hadn't thought about anything but being inside of her.
"She has four cracked ribs and another one fractured," Doc continued. "The laceration on her hip and leg is the worst. It took us hours to close that one. Michelle, a friend of mine, is an amazing plastic surgeon. She spent a long time on Siena's face as well as all other surface closings. The four rake marks on her back are deep, and she's going to experience pain for a long while. She was lucky. He wanted to hurt her. He wanted to punish her, but he didn't want to kill her."
"Her leopard didn't accept his," Elijah guessed.
"I would say that's what happened," Doc agreed. "The puncture wounds indicate he tried to cement a relationship. The fact that the male leopard raked her like that, it wasn't a marking, it was a punishment, a leopard out of control when he's denied what he wants." Doc's dark eyes pierced Elijah directly. "Her leopard was already bonded to yours, yet there was no mark on her from you."
That wasn't exactly true and Elijah knew it. He had marked her with his teeth, with his hands. His marks were all over her and probably deep inside as well.
"What are you not telling us?" Elijah prompted.
"Infection is bound to set in," Doc said. "We have to anticipate that. We flooded the wounds with antibiotics, but this is a cat and those lacerations are deep. Very deep. We're not out of the woods yet."
"You're not happy," Jake observed.
Doc sighed. "She lost a lot of blood. We gave her transfusions and we'll blast her with a cocktail of intravenous antibiotics, but you need to be prepared." He stood for a moment, head down, and then he looked up, his eyes meeting Elijah's.
For the first time Elijah could see the leopard in him. That fierce nature.
"Whoever did this to her needs to be . . . eradicated. Gone. For all time. It's not right. She's a young girl. I've never been so angry in
my life."
"I'll find him," Elijah said, and made it a vow.
*
SIENA floated in a sea of pain for days, moving in and out of awareness. Once she opened her eyes and Elijah was there, his hands stroking her hair, whispering softly to her, assuring her he was there. That she was safe. At times she thought she was dreaming, but that time she knew he was really in the room with her. She couldn't bear his touch. Couldn't stand the idea of facing him. She would never be safe again. She would never look the same again. She closed her eyes and he was gone.
Another time she heard muted weeping. It was heartbreaking. She wanted to get up and go to the person to comfort them. They sounded so alone and wept as if their world was gone. It was only when she felt a hand on her forehead, brushing back her hair, and heard Elijah's voice soothing her that she realized she was the one crying.
She surfaced a few more times and always he seemed to be there, no matter if it was dark or light. She had to have been dreaming, but it was such a strange thing to dream that she wanted to stop. She didn't even want the man in her dreams, let alone in her hospital room--and she knew she was in a hospital. She remembered what had happened to her--every single detail.
In the car, Paolo had tried to rape her. She fought him hard, but when he hit her in the face, nearly knocking her out, her leopard had pushed forward to save her and she'd allowed it. It had angered Paolo that her leopard had already emerged. His male leopard had immediately attacked the little female. Her female had only come out twice before and had no clue how to fight off a huge male, and he wanted to mate with her. The attack on the small female leopard had been brutal and Siena couldn't stand it; she'd shifted again to protect her cat.
Siena didn't want to think about it. She didn't want to remember the pain knifing through her when the cat mauled her. She didn't want to think about her grandfather's death and how her demands of allowing her to have a different choice for a husband had precipitated his death.
Siena tried to force her body back to wherever it had gone, but she could hear the sound of machines and the noise was persistent. A heartbeat. Drumming. And then there was the pain. She wanted to move, to try to get away from it, but found it impossible. She took a breath and forced her eyes open. She found herself staring at a wall. She was hooked up to all kinds of bags with all sorts of liquids in them, and none seemed to be the painkiller that she needed desperately.
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