That suggestion set her teeth on edge. She was getting very tired of men ordering her around. She was getting tired of men in general. All of them. Even the three she was sitting with. And if the itching and sudden burning sensation along her nerve endings didn’t stop, she was going to scream.
“Do you have the photograph of Shanty on you?” Etienne asked.
Flambé nodded, refusing to clench her teeth. She didn’t look at Blaise. Instead, she unzipped the pouch on her belt and pulled out a picture of a strawberry leopard and three younger leopards trailing after it. Then a second photograph showing a woman with short red hair and two little girls and a boy, all holding hands and staring into the camera. All three men leaned into her to study the photos.
Rory’s shoulder brushed her arm, sending small electrical charges zinging through her bloodstream. Etienne leaned across her body and his shoulder touched her breast, the merest brush, but her nipples felt as if they’d burst into twin flames, so hot they’d melt through the material of her work shirt. Her breath caught in her throat and she had to bite down hard on her lower lip as Blaise put his hand on her leg, higher, toward her thigh for balance as he leaned in to look at the photos. His palm felt hotter than hell, an inferno traveling up her thigh to center between her legs in a burst of fire so hot she thought she might go insane. She could only breathe through it and hope no one noticed.
Blaise pulled his hand back and once again his gaze moved over her. This time speculation was there and she feared he had much more knowledge than she did—or the other two men.
“Really, Flambé, you need to get out of the sun,” he advised again.
She wanted to claw at him. She actually dug her fingernails into her palm, needing the bite to ground her. Her mind felt chaotic, her body heavy and inflamed.
“This woman isn’t from our lair,” Rory confirmed. “Clearly she has a mate. Where is he? Did she say?”
It took Flambé several moments to get her breathing under control. Fortunately, all three men had straightened up again and the fierce burning sensation was receding.
“We don’t know much at all,” she said, ignoring Blaise. “She was pretty hysterical when the team got to her. She said the poachers came and wiped out everyone. That was what she repeated over and over. She didn’t make much sense other than that.”
The three men exchanged another long look. She wanted to rake her claws right down their faces. What was wrong with them? Didn’t they have any compassion in them?
Flambé sighed. The burning sensation receded further, giving her some respite. “What is it? Just straight up tell me. I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve never had so many men all of a sudden act like I can’t possibly figure things out without their help.”
“It isn’t that, Flambé. You’re trusting when it comes to our people. You think because there are so few of us and we’re hunted by almost everyone that we’re all going to help one another. That isn’t the case. It should be, but it isn’t,” Etienne said.
Rory nodded. “You have a soft heart. I was glad when I heard you were with Sevastyan Amurov. I know some of the others were against him, but you need someone strong to tell you no when you go too far. You don’t look before you leap.”
She was honestly shocked. She always planned everything so carefully. She did look before she leaped. What in the world was he talking about? “That’s not true. You’ve only known me a short while. I plan every rescue operation very carefully. Do you have any idea how many shifters we’ve successfully managed to save?”
“That’s not what I’m saying,” Rory corrected gently. “You believe anyone contacting you and asking for help. If they’re a shifter and they come from a lair that is losing ground fast, that’s all you need to know and you’re in all the way. You have a price on your head. A very big price. Some shifters are unscrupulous. They wouldn’t mind selling you out for the money, and yes, that includes women.”
That sounded like something Sevastyan might say if she gave him the chance—which she didn’t intend to do. She wasn’t going to introduce Rory and Etienne to Sevastyan.
“I’ve known you a lot longer than a short while, Flambé,” Blaise said. “And his assessment is spot on. You do have a soft heart. You believe anyone. You’re just too damned trusting. Your father told me he wanted you out of the business of rescuing but you refused.”
That was true. She didn’t think anyone knew that. Her father had trusted Blaise or he never would have disclosed that information. It was the one topic they’d argued over repeatedly. The disagreement had continued right up until her father was unable to talk. He was adamant that she not continue with his legacy, other than the landscaping business, stating it was too dangerous to rescue shifters anymore. The odds were she would be killed.
She took a breath and met Blaise’s eyes, acknowledging he was right. “He was worried,” she admitted. “The world is smaller with the internet and it’s much more difficult to slip into a country. They see me coming.”
“Exactly,” Blaise said.
“I’ll give what all of you are saying some thought, I promise.” She would. She hadn’t considered that she wasn’t investigating as thoroughly as she should be. Her name and reputation were getting out there. She did have a price on her head. Now Franco Matherson had his sights set on her. “I’ll be more careful.”
She had an investigator and he was good. She just didn’t utilize him to his full potential. She had to do better. She always wanted to extract the shifters as fast as possible so she immediately got down to the planning part. She was excellent at planning the escape routes.
Etienne nodded. “What are they doing on the other side of the house? All those hammers going? I kept thinking I’d have a chance to get over there to look when we took a lunch break, but we were all the way to the back of the property planting trees at the time.”
Excitement burst through her. “I forgot to tell you about that project. Sevastyan has two massive garages, both sitting side by side, two stories high, that weren’t in use. He wants to convert them to greenhouses, or more like one big tropical paradise. I love the idea of lush plants and trees inside a long glass building.”
“That sounds like an enormous undertaking,” Rory said.
“Yes, I can’t wait to get started. I’ve already begun sketches, sectioning smaller areas off around where I’ll put the larger trees. He’s already got massive support beams in, so the outside structure is already there and the builders are framing for the glass now.”
“Amurov wants to put in an indoor garden that large? A tropical garden? It was his idea?” Blaise asked. “What’s he specifically looking to do?” There was speculation in his voice.
Like her father, Blaise was interested in environmental landscaping and he would be shocked at the idea of a tropical garden. One the size Sevastyan was asking for might be interesting for leopards, and Blaise might understand that, but the outdoors appealed to him far more. Flambé wouldn’t have talked to him about Cain’s club garden of paradise even if there hadn’t been a nondisclosure in place, so she wasn’t about to tell him why Sevastyan wanted a very large indoor tropical garden.
“For something that massive he must plan on utilizing the highest technology available,” Rory said. “Temperature control for every section of plants.”