“Both those boys are clean, Fyodor, but her father is dirty as hell along with her uncle. They’re running drugs, and I believe they’ve set her up to die so they can inherit the bakery and get insurance money. Even though you’re married, she hasn’t changed her will, and her father gets everything, especially if you happen to die as well.”
“No, he doesn’t,” Fyodor said. “First of all, he’s dead and just doesn’t know it and secondly, when we got married, we took care of all that. Even if he succeeded, he wouldn’t inherit anything from her.”
Timur filled him in on everything Evangeline’s brothers had told him, and his own conclusions. “Lazar has his top man here. Lipin is Interpol. He’s always worked for Lazar, apparently always done everything Lazar said, yet it appears he went against orders when he took a shot at me. That bothers me, Fyodor.”
Fyodor shook his head. “Lazar could have changed his mind and given the order to kill you. It’s possible we’re reading the situation wrong and he’d go to Joshua Tregre to try to complete his pipeline again and then he wouldn’t need us. It stands to reason that he might think, because they share a name, that Joshua would be like his uncles.”
Timur put his feet up on an ottoman and stared into the fireplace, every muscle in his body aching. “Did you or anyone else talk to Gilbert after I left with Ashe? Ask him why he would challenge me for her?”
“Beau got him into the car and out of here very fast. Evangeline was upset and I didn’t pursue it. I should have, Timur. That’s on me.”
Timur pressed the bottle of water to his forehead, letting the cool drops of condensation seep into his skin. “We’re taking out Lazar’s leopards. He can’t afford to lose many. We don’t have that many in any of the lairs. He can’t see that by killing the women, we’re getting fewer and fewer replacements. He needs his leopards.”
“He’s recruiting locally.”
Timur shrugged. “Drake will go through that lair, and this time he won’t be so nice. He’ll do it quietly. You know Lazar isn’t going to come here himself, although it’s possible Rolan will try to usurp his position. They’re always in competition and he’ll hate the fact that Sevastyan is working as Mitya’s security. You know Lazar will throw that in Rolan’s face.”
“We knew it was coming. We’ll have time to prepare,” Fyodor said.
Timur could hear the weariness in his brother’s voice. “I think Christophe might be an asset to us, but he won’t come in if he thinks you’re dirty. You’d have to bring him all the way in.” He ran a hand through his hair and glanced at his watch. She hadn’t texted him to say her female needed his male. He would have welcomed that from her, even though he knew she needed the rest. Her body needed a few days to recover.
“Ashe is tough as nails,” Fyodor said. “She doesn’t look it, but she is. I watch her with you, Timur, and she’s all about you. She pays attention. She’s quick. She’s a good match for you. I’m happy for you.”
“She’s … unexpected.” Timur stretched and put his head back, to stare up at the ceiling. “She—” He broke off again. Not even to his brother could he say, She turns me inside out. He wasn’t that kind of man. He might like to read poetry and secretly write it, but no one was ever supposed to know that about him. He certainly couldn’t admit to flowery, romantic expressions when he was the man his brother counted on to destroy his enemies.
Fyodor laughed softly. “Believe me, Timur, I understand. If I tried to explain how I felt about Evangeline, or describe her to someone else, I wouldn’t have the words either.”
“Who knew? Who knew this would happen for us,” Timur said. He couldn’t just sit there; although he was very tired, he was feeling too much. She did that to him. He jumped up and began to pace. “She was the last thing I expected.”
“Where is she from?”
“That’s how small a world the leopard world really is,” Timur said. “Her father is from somewhere in Greece. Her mother was from one of our lairs. Lazar sold her mother, at fifteen, at an auction in Greece. The grandfather, Mostafa is the surname, bought her for his son. The son was supposed to use her for a while, pass her around and then send her back to Lazar. He would put her with one of his men to provide sons and then they’d kill her.”
Fyodor sat up straight, slightly shaking his head. “Lazar had his hands on Ashe’s mother at one point? That is a small world.”
“She’s from one of our lairs, Fyodor. I don’t know which one. It wasn’t ours.”