She pressed the glass to her forehead as if it ached. He found himself staring at the marks on her throat. He wanted to mark her skin, but not like that. It didn’t give him satisfaction to see his fingerprints on her.
She pulled the glass down and looked at him, sorrow in her eyes. “My father had been trying to stop the trafficking and the auctions. He had names and dates. He had even contacted some of the victims. He had someone talking to him from my mother’s family, feeding him information, and then his source abruptly went silent.”
“Who was this person?”
“My mother’s sister.”
He doubted it. Her mother’s sister would have been trafficked right along with her, unless she was given to someone in marriage. Often, a lair would give a woman to a man in another lair so he could have children. Once she produced sons for him, he would kill her. That was the fate of the women in his world. Still, if that had happened, and Ashe’s father had located her, most likely she was now dead and her husband had found some evidence of correspondence.
Was he really buying this? What kind of coincidence would it have to be to have the messenger show up right at the same time as Ashe? More, that he would find a place to rent just one street over from her? That was a lot to ask anyone to believe, let alone a suspicious man like him.
“I’m telling the truth.”
“You didn’t before.”
“Everything I’ve told you is the truth. I just left off parts or twisted them to what I needed, but the truth was there.”
“Because you know I’m leopard and can hear lies.”
“Your leopard bit me. He called to my leopard. Why did he do that?”
“We’ll get to that once we sort this out. I can’t have you running around like a loose cannon when my brother’s life could be in danger.”
“Why would his life be in danger from me?” she demanded, but once again, just for a fraction of a second, her gaze slid from his.
“Do you believe he has something to do with human trafficking?”
Her mouth tightened. She didn’t answer, but he didn’t need her to. He shook his head. “Did you come here to kill him?”
“I would never kill an innocent man.”
“Ashe, do you really think a woman like Evangeline, the woman you obviously respect, would be married to a man involved in trafficking?” He crossed his arms over his chest and regarded her levelly, daring her to say one unkind thing about Evangeline.
“She might not know.”
“She’s too intelligent for that. If he’s involved, she would know. She wouldn’t tolerate it, not for one second, and you know that. Gut level. Deep down. You know that about her.”
She nodded because no one could be in Evangeline’s company for two minutes and not recognize she wouldn’t tolerate her husband being involved in something like human trafficking.
“He’s still my only lead,” she said. “If he isn’t the one, maybe he can point me in the right direction. And it doesn’t negate the fact that I needed a friend and a place to lie low.”
He studied her face while the tension between them stretched to screaming. “Has it occurred to you that the reason your father died is because he didn’t leave this alone? These men play for keeps.”
“As do you.” She coughed and took another sip of water.
He nodded. “I’m responsible for Fyodor and Evangeline. They have an enemy so cruel and so vicious, you could never conceive of him, not in your worst nightmare. I take that responsibility very seriously. It weighs heavy on me every time they are out of my sight. I walk a very fine line, giving my sister-in-law the things she needs to make her happy, and yet keeping her safe while she does them.”
“Like her bakery.”
He nodded. “She loves it, but she’s very vulnerable there. Our enemies will always know when she has to get there and when she leaves. They will think nothing of killing others to get to her. Innocent people who’ve done nothing to them. They would bomb her bakery and think nothing of blowing up every store for a block.”
“And you think I could be one of these people.” She made it a statement.
He nodded. “It’s possible. You carry weapons. You’re leopard. You arrived at the same time one of our enemies sent a messenger. That’s a big coincidence, Ashe.”
“I’ll leave.” Her fingers went back to stroking her throat, a nervous gesture he knew she wasn’t aware of. The action drew attention to the darkening marks there.
He didn’t so much as blink and he breathed evenly, keeping the tension from showing in his body. His leopard was now prowling, suddenly very moody and bad-tempered. “If you left, I wouldn’t have the ability to keep my eyes on you, now would I?”