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“So, Blaise took the original call and he set the investigators to work,” Sevastyan said.
“Yes, right away. He called me as well. I told him to alert the extraction team and put them in the field as they might have to track the leopards and get to them very fast. We didn’t know what was happening. Blaise called me back a few minutes later and told me about Shanty and the children. At that time, we didn’t know her name. He just said the contact at National Geographic had her picture and a location and she was separated from the others.”
Sevastyan exchanged a long look with his brother over Flambé’s head. He didn’t like the way this was beginning to shape up.
“Sevastyan?” Flambé’s voice sounded tired and worn. Hurt and betrayed. “Do you remember the day we were working on the property and I was talking with Rory, Etienne and Blaise? You came up behind me? That was when Flamme was really showing herself.”
“I remember.” He kept his voice strictly neutral.
“They were all looking at a picture of Shanty. Blaise acted as if he’d never seen her photograph, but he had to have. He was the first one to take the call. There was no way he didn’t see the photo and know the location. He had to send it to the investigation and extraction teams.”
“Blaise is a strawberry leopard.” Mitya made it a statement.
Ania looked at him, clearly puzzled, but she didn’t say anything.
“I don’t understand.”
“You’re really quite beautiful, Flambé,” Mitya said. “You don’t seem to realize that you are. You also own a very successful business. Your father gave Brodeur the start-up money for a new business, but it would be nothing in comparison to what your business makes. In his mind, he paid his dues. He hung in there, worked hard, did what he was supposed to do and he should have gotten it all. You and the business.”
Sevastyan was extremely glad he wasn’t the one to have to point out to her that Blaise Brodeur was most likely the man who had betrayed her. He knew why Mitya was the one taking that chance. Once again, he was protecting his little brother, risking bringing Flambé’s wrath down on him rather than Sevastyan for even suggesting that Blaise might betray her.
She shook her head. “That makes no sense. He asked me out a couple of times, but after I turned him down, he stopped. He’s never made a move after that. And this entire thing, the poachers, the setup, all of it, the cost would be prohibitive. No way would it be Blaise.”
She didn’t want it to be someone she knew. Sevastyan tightened his arms around her, wishing he was alone with her and they were upstairs in their master bedroom where he could tie her with his rope. Arms and rope, more ties to comfort her. She was beginning to shiver again because she already knew the truth. She looked up at Sevastyan and there was despair in her eyes. Hurt. Tears swimming.
“He isn’t the one behind it all,” Sevastyan said softly. “You know that already, Flambé, but he took the money. He’s angry and he took the money.”
19
I DON’T like this, Flambé,” Blaise said, looking around. “It feels too open here. You’ve always met the clients in a safe house.”
“It’s the best I could do. You know my leopard’s in heat. I can’t exactly go out into the public, Blaise,” Flambé snapped. She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. She makes me very moody. This came at such a bad time for everyone. I tried to get out of meeting Shanty. I was going to have you handle it, but she was very insistent. I told you, she would have preferred I meet her in South Africa. There was no way with my leopard so close to emerging.”
Blaise nodded his understanding. “Sevastyan wouldn’t just leave you, though. Where is he? I can’t imagine that with your leopard rising he’d just go work at his cousin’s house.”
She made an exasperated sound. “I didn’t want him where anyone could see him. That would just scare her off. In any case, you know how he is about his cousin. Mitya’s house is right next door. It isn’t like the time between houses isn’t minutes.”
Not one word she said was a lie. She’d practiced what she would say when the question of Sevastyan came up. She knew it would. They all knew it would. She’d implied Sevastyan was at Mitya’s, she hadn’t said he was.
“I don’t like any client knowing where you live,” Blaise reiterated. “Let alone one we haven’t checked out thoroughly.”
“She won’t know this is my home,” Flambé pointed out. “I’ll meet briefly with her. The rest of the extraction team will have the children with them and they’ll take her to join them at the safe house, where we can decide what to do after I’ve talked with her.”
Blaise nodded. Flambé hadn’t stepped off the verandah. She was tucked back in the security of the alcove, which couldn’t be seen from any of the trees or rolling hills. Sevastyan and his team of security guards had made certain, looking from every angle, making absolutely sure that no one could get a shot at her if that was the intention. Blaise had left the alcove several times to lean out over the railing, shading his eyes in spite of his sunglasses to peer down the road.
“Why are you so nervous?” Flambé asked curiously. “This isn’t that different than any other time.”
“I don’t know. It just feels off to me.”
Flambé tried not to feel hopeful. Or elated. Maybe they were all wrong about Blaise after all. She didn’t want him to be working against her. She felt real affection for him. He might not be what she wanted in a life partner, but she felt close to him.
“You realize I don’t have any family at all, Blaise. No siblings, no cousins. No one. You’re the closest thing to family I have.” She meant it. There was an ache in her voice. She couldn’t help it. Blaise heard it and he turned around to face her, his back to the railing.
“What’s wrong, Flambé?”
“I don’t know. Nothing. Everything. I don’t think you’re happy and I want you to be. Why don’t you date anymore? You used to go out all the time.”
He hesitated. Like Flambé, he was well aware leopards could hear lies. “I want a life partner, not a one-night stand. I got damn tired of those.”
“Can I ask you a personal question? It’s really personal,” she warned.
He shrugged, looking wary, but he nodded. His gaze on her face was very focused, indicating his leopard was close.
“Are your nerve endings in your body close to the surface?”
He frowned. “I don’t know what you mean exactly.”
“In some strawberry leopards”—Flambé chose her words carefully—“nerve endings are very close to the surface. It can cause real pain if touched the wrong way. It can also develop into a need for sex all the time. I just wondered if that happened to you.”
Those eyes didn’t blink. Didn’t leave hers. He shook his head slowly. “Do you have that problem?”
She had been afraid if she asked, he would retaliate. It was natural that he would. Male strawberry leopards seemed to have a healthy sex drive, like most shifters, but they didn’t seem to suffer the genetic affliction some of the women did.
“Are you a hemophiliac?”
He shook his head, frowning now, worry creeping into his eyes. “Flambé, what the hell? Are you? Your father never said a word.”
“My mother hemorrhaged in childbirth, Blaise. It was genetic, so yes, I am. I take iron, of course, but I need more than that if I’m going to stay alive. They have a few newer things to try than they did in my mother’s time.”
Blaise shoved his hand through his hair in agitation. “I wish your father had told me. You shouldn’t have been working with all the equipment, Flambé. Too many accidents can happen. One slip of a pruning knife and you’ve got a dangerous cut.”
“I try to take precautions.”
“But you didn’t tell anyone. You should have at least told me.” He swung around, his fingers biting deep into the wooden beams of the railing. “I didn’t understand your father. He put you out of the house, left you on your own and then never once reined you in when you neede
d it. Hell. You could have died.”
There was real caring in his voice. Again, she didn’t want to believe he had anything to do with betrayal.
“I can’t live my entire life shut up in my room, Blaise.”
“No, but you could be more careful,” he said. “A hell of a lot more careful. What did you mean about nerve endings and needing sex all the time?”
She took a slow drink from her water bottle, placed it carefully on the table and then kept her fingers closed around it. “There’s a condition some of the strawberry leopards have—and yes, it’s genetic as well—that I suffer from, where nerve endings can make life hell.”
Blaise turned back, kept his gaze fixed on her face, but the expression in his eyes had gone predatory. “You need sex all the time? That’s what you’re saying.”
She shrugged. “It’s a condition, not something you want to have anyone you care about sharing with you, you know?” That was true as well. She’d been ashamed of it for so long, and truthfully, no matter what Sevastyan said or how she tried to rethink it, she still was. She didn’t want to think that her body drove her. She wanted to be in control.
“Damn it, Flambé. You went to the bar and picked up human males and had one-night stands so you wouldn’t let anyone you cared about get attached to you.” He made it a statement.
Flambé was grateful he had made that a statement. There was no requirement for her one way or another to comment. She just looked at him and shrugged again. He could infer from that that Sevastyan wasn’t a man she cared for; she just hoped he didn’t ask her any questions. She could see the sudden speculation in his eyes.
“Flambé, you should have come to me and told me all of this instead of keeping it to yourself.” He heaved a sigh. “I understand why you didn’t. Your father has so much to answer for. You spent most of your life alone, trying to figure out everything on your own, but you really need someone to rely on. I’ve been in your life longer than anyone else and you know you can trust me.”
For the first time she could hear that slight discordant note and Flamme scraped hard against her, protesting his declaration. Her heart sank. Blaise. What was left of her family. Unexpected tears burned behind her eyes. Hormones, she told herself. She forced herself to concentrate on the water bottle, lifting it to her mouth and drinking. She didn’t taste the cool liquid, but it saved her from crying and giving herself away.
Truck coming up the road, malen’koye plamya. Sevastyan’s low voice was in her ear, intimate. Sounding the way he did when he spoke to her with a rope in his hands.
Vehicles moving into position at back of property. I count two, Christophe Tregre reported. He was situated in the control room inside the main house. It was imperative Flambé keep Blaise out of the house.
Can you see how many inside each vehicle? Sevastyan asked.
That’s negative at this time, Christophe answered. Over to you, Ambroise.
Am looking from above, using heat imaging, Ambroise intoned, sounding distant. He was, in fact, at Mitya’s. In all but the first vehicle going to front of house, there are five-man teams. First vehicle holds three people.
“I have to text Sevastyan that all is well, Blaise. Give me a minute. I don’t want him charging in and ruining everything. He likes to take over.”
A look of annoyance slid over Blaise’s face, hastily gone as he turned away. He walked down the stairs and bent down to examine the newly planted shrubs.
That should be right, Sevastyan. Two of my extraction team members would escort Shanty to me. They would then take her to the safe house from here, she texted to him.
Don’t leave that alcove for any reason. When you’re going to talk to Shanty, have them bring her there and make everyone else leave. You have access to the house and you can get her inside and lock both of you in if necessary. Again, his voice was like liquid velvet in her ear, stroking her nerves when Blaise had unsettled her.
If they do have her husband, she won’t come with me unless we’ve gotten him back. Do you have any idea where he is? Who has him?
He has to be close. If it isn’t the money and it is her mate, she will continue to ask for reassurance that he’s alive. That means she has to ask for constant contact. Have her do that. When she does, we can get his location and go after him.
Blaise is coming back.
Knowing Sevastyan was close, that he had eyes on her, comforted her to some degree, but there was this underlying hurt and feeling of betrayal that just wouldn’t let go. She had grown up feeling that male shifters were not trustworthy. They didn’t care about females. Females had to rely on themselves. She wasn’t going to miraculously get over years of conditioning because Sevastyan had called the doctor and tried to find ways to help her. She knew she would question his integrity even when she didn’t want to.
“What’s wrong, Flambé? Is Sevastyan giving you trouble?” Blaise asked, perching on the railing, looking confident, as if he owned the property. There was something almost proprietorial in the way he acted, both over the land and over her.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just out of sorts. Moody, I guess. I wish this was over and I could just be myself again.”
“Did you say just be yourself again? Do you think you made a mistake with Sevastyan, Flambé?” Blaise asked.
Flambé hesitated. She had made her choice to be with Sevastyan, made that commitment to him. Was she sure of him? Absolutely not. She was still very much terrified. How did anyone, man or woman, know they weren’t making a terrible mistake when they entered into a life partnership? Sevastyan wasn’t an easy partner. He wasn’t ever going to be easy, but then, if she was honest, neither was she.
SUV turning up driveway. Sevastyan’s voice was in her ear.
Gratefully, Flambé turned to look at the vehicle proceeding toward them. She recognized the 4Runner used by the extraction team in the United States to transport the shifters they brought in. They already had received all their shots, had their papers and were ready to go to their assigned home, usually the confines of a safe house for a week until they were brought onto the main property. The men slept in the barracks and the women usually had rooms in the main house.
“They’re here, Blaise.”
“Flambé,” Blaise began. “You don’t have to stay with this man. You know that, don’t you? It’s your leopard’s first cycle and they often make mistakes the first time around.”
“She was terrified.” Flambé kept her eyes on the 4Runner in the distance. “I was as well. Franco Matherson had been stalking me for a while. He ran me off the road when I was coming out here to talk to Sevastyan about working on his property. He threw me up against his car, punched me when I fought him, and I hit my head really hard on the ground when I went down. I fought him and barely managed to get away.”
Flambé had turned back to watch the expressions chasing across Blaise’s face. There was genuine outrage. Fury. He was leopard and he had a leopard’s temper. “What the hell? Why didn’t you say anything to me?”
She shrugged and kept going with her explanation. “I was very disoriented and I ran into the woods. I knew the property because I’d been here with my father. I ran up to the house and unfortunately, my leopard was able to break free enough to call to Sevastyan’s male. I was too out of it to know what was happening until it was too late for both of us. I have to take full responsibility for that. It wasn’t his fault. My leopard was very seductive. She thought she was protecting us from that creeper.”
“Franco Matherson?” Blaise echoed.
She nodded. “Yes.” Deliberately she ran her hands up and down her arms, shivering. “He’s never going to leave me alone. He’s sent several of his men to kidnap me even after that. At least three different tries.”
Blaise stood up, his back to her, watching the 4Runner as it came closer to the house. “Are you absolutely certain it was Matherson, Flambé?” His voice was very quiet.
“Yes.” She remained seated. “When she gets out
of the car, will you have them bring her up here into the alcove, Blaise? I always interview each person alone. That’s imperative. If I don’t have access to them alone, where I feel they can be completely candid with me, I can’t get a feel if they’re right for our program. If she isn’t, we can ask Drake Donovan to help her and her children. We’re very full and there’s more of these shifters out there, displaced from their lair.”
“She’s going to insist that you accompany her and the children to the safe house, Flambé,” Blaise said.
“Why would you think that? Her children are already there.”
“She was so nervous she was insisting you go to South Africa.”
Flambé nodded. “You’re right. Well, maybe this one time I might have to make an exception, as long as I don’t think my leopard is too close to rising. If so, I’d have to let Sevastyan know.” She let her voice trail off.
Blaise shook his head decisively. “I don’t think it’s a good idea, Flambé. You should just tell her no. She can be like everyone else.”
There was a hardness in his voice she’d never heard before. Whatever Blaise was up to, whatever the original plan was, and she was certain it involved getting into the 4Runner with Shanty, Blaise had suddenly changed his mind.
Flambé recognized two members of the extraction team. They regularly moved back and forth between the United States and any country where they retrieved shifters and brought them to work in the landscaping business until they could decide where they wanted to go to school and what they were interested in as a business.
Terry Orsan was a tall, dark-skinned man with a ready smile and the roped muscles of the shifters. He wore his hair longer and it tended to curl around his head in ringlets, although the only one who could get away with calling the long dark curls ringlets was his daughter. She was ten now and adored her father. Jet Vicks was short in contrast to Terry, but equally as muscular, with a thick lion’s mane of graying hair that was wildly out of control, tamed only by a loose tie. It was clear the two men had worked together for a long time. Jet helped the young woman out of the 4Runner while Terry watched their backtrail. In spite of being on private property, they were both wary, very cognizant of being responsible for their client.