Rachael groaned and rinsed the dishes, but she was smiling again. The man had a sinful mouth and he had a way of putting fantasies in her head at the most inopportune times.

Rio leaned back in his chair. "The elder had a good idea. If you went to the village and asked for asylum, they'd have to give it to you. You'd be placed under the protection of our lair. It just gives us more people to count on our side."

"What exactly do you do aside from p.i.s.s off the local bandits?" Elijah asked.

Rio's grin widened. "You've been talking to Tomas and his men, haven't you?

Basically that's exactly what I do. That's my job."

"You do that to everyone without much effort," Rachael pointed out.

Franz leapt down from the mantel and scooted under Rio's feet, peering out at Elijah curiously. Rio stretched his legs further to accommodate the small leopard. "I lay up on a knoll, or in a tree, or wherever I can find and guard my team as they go in to bring out kidnap victims, or pay ransom. I do whatever it takes to keep them safe. Once they're out, I lay a false trail and lead the bandits away from the team and into the forest."

"I've heard the bandits have bolt-holes."

"There are mazes of tunnels in the cane fields, just about every field. You don't want to drop into one of them and try to pursue, not if you value your life. We've had to go in a couple of times when the bandits used the tunnels to hide their prisoners. We blew up the tunnels in order to discourage them from using them for that purpose. It's too dangerous to us, although we'll go in if we have to."

"So we don't want Armando to fall in with the bandits and get the idea of using the tunnels."

"If your uncle finds out she's playing house in the forest with some local yokel, don't you think he'd come with guns blazing? Especially if the information was given out 326.

to you, instead of him, for the million-dollar reward. We have to locate Armando's mole and let him overhear Rachael's been found. He'll immediately contact your uncle and Armando will come very quickly to get here before you."

"He'll send his killer after her."

Rio shrugged. "Of course he will. He'll want to confirm her presence and he'll want me out of the way. They'll expect an easy kill."

"He'll hunt you, Rio. Leopards make frightening enemies. They never turn aside and they're as cunning as h.e.l.l. I ought to know."

Rio grinned at Elijah, but it was a particularly lethal smirk. "I'm very aware of what a leopard can do."

Rachael curled up in Rio's lap. Fitting herself to his body seemed perfectly natural. The night had taken on a surreal feel, a dreamlike quality. She couldn't believe Elijah was sprawled in a chair only feet away from Rio, looking relaxed and at home. How had she ever doubted him? His eyes didn't look ice-cold and merciless, although she knew they could. Right now he looked like her big brother, just lying around the house talking. She had forgotten that image of him. Elijah at rest. Elijah relaxed. Elijah with a faint smile on his face.

She buried her face against Rio's chest, confident he wouldn't say a word when he felt her hot tears against his skin. He would understand the enormity of the gift she'd been given this one night. Rio wrapped his arms around her tightly, holding her close to him, protectively, just as she knew he would. He nuzzled the top of her head with his chin, one hand tunneling in her thick ma.s.s of hair, just holding her close.

"This is my territory, Elijah. My realm. Those who enter it are subject to the laws of my people and my laws. Man or beast, it matters little. Armando may be a big deal in South America and in Florida, but he's no one here."

Elijah nodded his head. "I've been slowly cashing out

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our a.s.sets and putting the money where Armando can't touch it. He doesn't know, of course. But I'm hoping to get Rachael and me free of our estate and go back to my homeland. Unfortunately, there are problems."

"You could come here, Elijah," Rachael offered. Her voice was m.u.f.fled against Rio's chest and he couldn't see her face. "The elders would accept you, Delgrotto already said as much. No one knows you here. You could have a new start."

"I don't even know how anymore, Rachael." Elijah looked at his sister through long lashes. His eyes were flat and cold. "If I can't talk to you, my own sister, how do you think I could ever learn to live with others again? Thank you for the offer, but if we manage to remove the threat of Armando, the last thing I intend to do is taint your life."

Rachael stirred as if to protest, but Rio's arm tightened in warning. "Let's just take one thing at a time. Armando is first. Let's find his mole and put out the word."

"He'll know I'm here."

"All to the good. He'll want to kill Rachael right under your nose. You've already established a research camp as your cover so you look as though you're trying to appear legitimate to him while you search for her. Just search in the wrong areas so he'll be convinced you're combing the region for Rachael."

"So I'm the dope miles away when he tries to hit Rachael. I don't think so. If that man sets foot in this country, I'm not leaving Rachael's side."

Rachael sighed heavily. "Do you see where I get words like 'imbecile' and 'idiot' in my vocabulary? Elijah, just this once, please, for me, listen to what Rio has to say."

"What do you know of this man, Rachael? You're betting your life on him."

"I know that. And if you're insisting on staying, maybe both of our lives, and that ought to tell you all you need to know. I left home rather than put you in a position of having to ..." She trailed off. Only Rio knew she jammed her 328.

fist in her mouth to choke back the words before they could be said.

Elijah sat up straight. "I never wanted you dead. Never, Rachael. It was always the two of us. h.e.l.l, without you, what did I have to fight for? Why would I bother? I would have disappeared into the jungle and he would never have tracked me. But I didn't think you could."

"Because I couldn't shift?" She turned her head to look at her brother. "I didn't even know we were capable of shifting. How did you know?"

"It just happened. When I was young, a little boy. Mom told me not to say anything. We always spoke of it in whispers."

Rio brought up his hand to the nape of Rachael's neck in a slow ma.s.sage. "Of course. She was still trying to hide it from her new husband. He didn't know until later. And then the elders of your mother's lair found out an outsider knew. It had to have happened that way."

"Something went wrong. Mom and Dad were very nervous until we reached Florida.

They were nervous for a couple of years. Mom wouldn't allow me to shift and said I wasn't to tell anyone." Elijah sighed. "They were trying to protect us from our own kind. They should have been looking toward Armando."

"He knew, though." Rio said. "He used to take you places and let you run."

"If I had just told Mom right away-but I didn't. Just once, if I had said something to her, they might still be alive." Elijah fell silent, listening to the soothing rain. "And then when I did tell her, I should have kept my mouth shut. Armando already had made his plans and he killed them."

"Their deaths had nothing to do with what you didn't or did tell our parents, Elijah," Rachael denied. "You can't take on the responsibility. You did everything you could to keep us alive."

"I didn't kill Armando, Rachael. "

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"Killing him might set the two of you free, Elijah," Rio said, "but it won't bring anyone back, and it won't make you feel any better."

"I'll settle for making certain Rachael is safe. Even if we could find a way to put him in jail, he'd send someone after her and he'd never stop until she was dead. It doesn't matter if I went against the laws of our people and got a conviction, he'd find a way to kill her. I know him. Armando is vindictive and he hates me. In his mind, I betrayed him. He offered to make me his son. I was the heir to his empire and I went along with it for years. I had to make him believe it."

Elijah looked into Rio's eyes with the focused stare of his kind. "You probably can't understand that kind of twisted hatred, but he wants to kill Rachael more than he wants anything else. I chose her over him. That's the way he looks at it. She held some kind of power over me, otherwise, I would have become his son."

"But you made your move too soon and you couldn't get him. Why?" Rio returned the focused stare, every bit as unblinking and merciless.

"He came to me one night and told me it was time to clean house. He wanted Rachael dead. He said he knew I couldn't do it, so he wasn't asking me to kill her, he didn't need a sign of loyalty. He told me he was going to do it himself, that he wouldn't take the chance that any of the men would dishonor her first."

Elijah drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair. "That's exactly how he put it to me. He was casually talking about killing my sister, but not to worry, none of the men would be allowed to rape her first."

"So you had to make your move."

"I had my men in place. I had a loyal following. I got Rachael to a safe house and made my move. Unfortunately, he was still too strong. He knows the way to defeat me is to get to her. She's everything I care about. You know that, don't you, Rachael? I swear I don't know what I said to you when I pulled you out of that car, but Tony was taking 330.

you to Armando, and you would have been sent back to me in pieces."

"It's all right," she said softly. "Elijah, I'm sorry I ever doubted you.

Whatever was said is forgotten. Please forgive me for the terrible things I was thinking."

"Who could blame you, Rachael? We've lived with betrayal for so long it's become a way of life for the both of us." Elijah shifted in his chair. "So tell me what you want me to do, Rio. Let's see if we can manage to hash out a plan to remove the threat to Rachael."

Rio rocked Rachael gently, a soothing, comforting gesture he was barely aware of making. Her body trembled in his arms. She was overwhelmed by everything but hung on to her calm demeanor because she was Rachael and that's what she did.

She had a way of moving him, turning him inside out over the simplest things. He felt the love she had for her brother and the fear for him all mixed together.

"Have Tama take you downriver, far downriver, as many miles as possible. We'll start the rumor that Rachael's shoe was found. Then let's get an informant on the river to tell a government official in front of Armando's mole that Rachael is living in the forest. Once the mole gets the information to your uncle, he'll send his leopard out to confirm first."

"Or kill her."

"Or kill her," Rio agreed. "That will be the most critical time. You'll have to put your trust in me and stay a long way away. I'll try to keep you informed, but this won't work if he even thinks you're anywhere near her. He'll sense a trap. You'll have to be downriver and on the lookout for a hit on you."

Rachael stirred restlessly, shooting an apprehensive look at her brother. "What kind of protection did you bring with you?"

"I have some of my best men. In the forest, it won't be

easy to surprise me, not even for his leopard a.s.sa.s.sin..

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