His eyes met his cousin’s, and Sevastyan saw something there that made him wince. Mitya was a product of his father’s twisted, maniacal upbringing. The man had wanted to bring the killer out in his son’s leopard, teach him to rage and hate, to be cruel, so he would pass those traits on to his human counterpart. Lazar had managed to do that from the time Mitya was very young.
Mitya’s leopard was a straight-up killer, and what did that make the man? It was there in his eyes. He couldn’t altogether blame Ania for being leery of him. Or Jewel his leopard. Jewel even more than Ania had to be confused. She could read Dymka every time she rose, and she clearly read him correctly—and she feared him as much as she was enamored with him. At the moment that was what was driving Ania to leave him.
“Ania’s father should have been protected in his own home. He might have been able to last a few more days, or weeks, long enough to see me put a ring on his daughter’s finger, but instead, he had enemies come into his room and smash his things after bashing him with the butt of a gun. Tell me how that happened, Sevastyan.”
“Drake sent us the man from Borneo. Amory Binder worked for him there, worked for his crew rescuing kidnap victims or delivering ransom. I liked the kid. In fact, I worried a little about him. I called for a check when I realized we’d been infiltrated, and he was the only one not to answer. I thought they’d killed him and fully expected to find a body. He knew the combination to shut down the alarm on the house. He had to have used it.”
Mitya couldn’t contain the adrenaline rushing through his veins. He leapt up and began to pace, feeling his leopard close. The thought of a traitor that close to his woman and her father, without him knowing, was abhorrent to him. He needed action. He needed to find Amory Binder and challenge him. His leopard wanted out. Demanded to come out. He would hunt the bastard, track him and kill him. Mitya was inclined to let him.
“He let them in. I want to go back to the house, Sevastyan.”
Sevastyan opened his mouth to protest, but then nodded. “They wanted something in that house. They assumed it was in Antosha’s room, so they took the chance and looked for it there. By the look of it, it either wasn’t there or we caught them too soon. In any case, we’ve vacated the house. We reset the alarm with a different code since Amory knew the old one.”
Mitya was already stripping, his muscles rippling with power, with the need to hunt. He rolled his jeans, just as Sevastyan was doing. “Give the orders to surround this house. Keep her protected, Sevastyan.”
“I’m going with you.” When Mitya started to protest, Sevastyan shook his head and continued shoving his jeans into the small pack he secured around his neck. “Don’t bother with the orders, fire me, I don’t give a fuck, but I’m going with you.”
Mitya didn’t fire his cousin, what was the use? In any case, Sevastyan was a vicious fighter. He’d been raised much the same way as Mitya, and his leopard was experienced and brutal in a fight. “Give the order to protect her and let’s go.”
Sevastyan did as Mitya said but added his own orders. He was taking no chances with Mitya’s protection. Vikenti and Zinoviy were already at the Dover estate cleaning up. They were from his lair, two men he counted on when he needed them. He trusted them with Mitya’s life, and that was saying the most he could about them. He left orders for Kiriil and Matvei to handle Ania’s security and then turned to Mitya, nodding that he was ready.
The two men went out the front door straight into the brush, shifting as they did so. It wasn’t long before they were running full out toward the neighboring estate. They didn’t want to take a car because the headlights might be seen. Their house was lit up, just as their yard was, but the Dover estate was dark and appeared deserted.
Ordinarily, leopards could run fast for short distances, but they were shifters, not wholly leopard or wholly human. They were conditioned to run for miles if necessary, and both men kept themselves in top shape. They were able to cut across the distance between the two estates, shortening the way considerably because the road had to curve around the properties. As they approached, they slowed and kept downwind, creeping up carefully onto the estate.
Vikenti and Zinoviy joined them just outside the house. “Thought we saw something out this way,” Vikenti reported softly to Sevastyan. “We were just circling the house to look.”