The fresh scent of cinnamon hung heavy in the air. Ashe inhaled. She loved the way the shop always smelled of freshly baked goods. “The bad kind. The kind that could get the people around me killed.”
“Did you come here for help, or were you targeting my husband?”
The voice was very, very mild, but Ashe wasn’t deceived. For the very first time she realized Evangeline would defend her man against any threat.
“Evangeline, please look at me,” Ashe said.
The woman she respected so much turned her head, not moving any other part of her body, hands still around the tray.
“I came here because I thought he was a criminal. I’m in trouble and I needed help. You’re my only friend and you just happened to marry someone I thought might be able to help me. Don’t worry, I told Timur I would leave. He said no, but I’m still going in spite of his orders. I hope you can forgive me.”
“What kind of trouble?” Evangeline asked.
“The men after me are the real deal. They are criminals and will stop at nothing to get what they want.”
“What is it they want?”
“Me dead.”5ASHE was going to run. She had that same look on her face that Evangeline had when she’d tried running from Fyodor. That hadn’t worked, and Timur wasn’t about to let Ashe get away any more than Fyodor had allowed Evangeline to run. They were going to have to work things out, which meant whatever she was holding back, she was going to have to give him.
His phone buzzed. He glanced down. He’s on the move, heading straight toward Evangeline’s home to put the mark on the door.
His gut tightened. He glanced toward the kitchen as he texted back. Pick him up. You know where to take him. Make certain he has his phone on him.
If Ashe was in league with the messenger, then he was going to have to rethink his plan, but for the moment, he was going to believe she had nothing to do with Apostol Delov and that the messenger had been after her all along, not Evangeline. He caught up his jacket and went to stand in the doorway leading to the kitchen. He paused there for a moment, watching them work with a quiet efficiency that looked so smooth—as if they’d been at it for years.
“Got things to do this morning, Evangeline,” he informed her.
Evangeline spun around, nearly knocking into Ashe, but Ashe moved, just like he knew she would, avoiding the collision easily. He liked the way she moved, so fluid, a sensual flow of muscle and bone, her skin glowing beneath the overhead lights. She was close to the emerging, the Han Vol Dan that would have her leopard insisting on shifting, insisting on coming out to meet her mate. He had to stay close to Ashe in the event that it happened.
Not yet, Temnyy, his leopard, claimed. The cat gave a lazy yawn. Soon, but not yet.
The male had mellowed considerably now that he’d claimed his mate. Ordinarily, he was at Timur night and day, demanding blood, hating everything that moved. He was bad-tempered and mean, but now, with his mate so close, he wasn’t nearly as difficult. For that alone, Timur wanted to kiss his woman.
“Is something wrong? Fyodor?” Evangeline asked anxiously and pulled her cell from her back pocket.
“If something was wrong, mladshaya sestra , I would have told you straight up. I’m not the one always cushioning you. That would be my brother.” He spoke the truth and saw the worry drain from her. Who knew truth could be such a distraction? He didn’t want either of them thinking too much.
“Will Fyodor be coming in today?”
He shrugged. “You know we don’t have set days we come here, and we never use the same routes. He changes his mind often, Evangeline, and that’s a good thing. We don’t want anyone getting a read on him. We’re careful. As of this morning when I checked in with him and Gorya, he wasn’t planning on it.”
He glanced over his shoulder at the room behind him. It was empty of customers, but not for long. They would come in for Evangeline’s pastries and coffee drinks. Some would come for the atmosphere. Others for the thrill of possibly rubbing shoulders with crime lords. The cops would come.
“I’ll have two men in the shop and two on patrol.” She didn’t need to know about the man on the roof across the street, the one with a high-powered rifle. “Both of you stay inside.”
Ashe’s chin went up. He didn’t give a damn whether she liked his orders or not. She’d just better follow them. He pinned her with an ice-cold gaze. “Don’t think you’re going to run off, Ashe. I don’t have the time to go chasing you down, which I’d do, but then we’d have a reckoning you wouldn’t like.”