Timur knew the man, like him, had lost all hope of such a thing happening. The fact that Fyodor had found Evangeline, and now Timur had found Ashe, gave them back that hope. “My leopard claimed her. Like what happens when we’re close to Evangeline, he calms when he’s close to Ashe. It gives me a respite from his continual clawing. He’s always out for blood.”
“Mine too,” Rodion admitted. “Sometimes I’m afraid to go to sleep at night. He wants to kill everything and everybody.”
“That’s what we get raising our leopards on violence,” Timur said. He looked at the sad proof suspended in the air by the ropes. The leopard’s fur was thin and lackluster. The messenger hadn’t allowed him out in a long while. Most likely, Apostol knew, at one time, the leopard was the stronger of the two of them and should he have allowed him out, he wouldn’t be able to shift back into his human form.
Abruptly, Timur turned. He needed to get back to his brother and discuss everything the messenger had told him. He also needed to make a formal claim on Ashe and then inform the other bosses in their closest circle that they needed a meet. He and Fyodor would have to decide who they would trust and who they would avoid giving the information to.
“It seems odd that Lazar would spend so much time looking for your woman’s mother,” Rodion said. “She wasn’t related to him. She wasn’t going to be given to him. He had a wife. Why was she really that important to him?”
“I don’t know,” Timur admitted. “But Delov was telling the truth as he knew it. Lazar sent him to first find Ashe’s mother and father and then to finish the job by finding Ashe. Finding us was a coincidence. He thought he was about to cash in on the ultimate prize.”
“Lazar would have killed him before he paid one penny of that money to him,” Kyanite said.
“Absolutely. Delov should have known that too,” Rodion added.
“He didn’t want to believe it.” With a sigh, Timur turned away. “Get back to the bakery as soon as possible. I don’t like that we don’t know the exact whereabouts of that squad. A standard team would be three men, especially if they’re really only after Ashe. Keep your eyes open, and remember, if they get Evangeline, we’re all dead men anyway. Fyodor will lose his fucking mind.”
“Pretty sure the same will happen to you if they get Ashe,” Rodion said with a small grin that didn’t, in any way, light his eyes. “It won’t happen, Timur.”
Timur nodded, a short jerk of his chin the only answer when his heart clenched painfully. These two men had come with him when he’d fled the lair. When his father, Patva, had murdered his mother in front of Timur and Gorya, both of them had tried to stop him, but Patva was a huge, powerful man with a mean, vicious leopard. Only Fyodor had been able to best him.
Fyodor not only ripped him to pieces, but he went after every male in the lair loyal to Patva. In spite of their injuries, Gorya and Timur had tried to aid him. Although Rodion and Kyanite hadn’t been present during Patva’s attack or Fyodor’s subsequent destruction of the lair, they’d both been Timur’s boyhood friends. And despite the fact that they had powerful and violent fathers of their own, they hadn’t hesitated to follow Timur and Fyodor when they’d fled Russia. That kind of loyalty could never be bought. Fear couldn’t buy that loyalty. Timur was reminded of that every time he saw the two men. They weren’t related by blood, but they were brothers all the same.
Timur controlled his impatience to get back to the bakery. He had a duty to his brother and he had to trust Kyanite and Rodion to safeguard the two women along with the others assigned to their protection. He drove as sedately as possible. They couldn’t do much about their cars moving through the city being caught on traffic cameras so it was important to always have a reason to be where the cars could be traced. In this case, he made certain to talk to one of the garage owners about their lease that was coming due. The conversation was brief, but he had said he would be looking around at some of the other spaces they still had open. He was seen doing just that.
Fyodor was not so patient. He didn’t like being at the helm and was still getting used to the mantle of authority sitting on his shoulders. He had grown up as a soldier and then enforcer, and he didn’t like to have others guarding him. He particularly didn’t like anything that kept him away from Evangeline.