“ELI.” Catarina stopped abruptly as they walked up to the front door. Her heart jerked hard and began to pound. She tasted fear in her mouth. “Someone’s been here.” Even her leopard had gone on alert.
Eli’s arm snaked around her waist and he pulled her body into his, leaned his chin over her shoulder and placed his lips against her ear. “Good girl. I was hoping you’d feel it. Inhale and let your leopard senses free. Tell me who was here.”
Catarina pushed down the fear. Eli wasn’t pushing her behind him as he normally would if there was danger surrounding them. She did as he said, took a deep breath. Immediately her leopard rose to aid her. There were three distinct scents. All male. Leopards. Her female knew that. She had smelled them before.
“Joshua,” she said.
He nodded and brushed his lips against her ear. “Good, baby, he was here. Who else?”
She made a face, even though his warm praise made her glow inside. “Elijah.”
“He isn’t part of the criminal world, Cat.”
She heard the quiet patience in his voice. “He’s head of a major crime syndicate, Eli. You don’t have to believe me.”
“I’m not denying he’s part of that family and he inherited the mantle, but he’s been working to get all their businesses out from under everything illegal. The first to go were the drugs. That was the most difficult for him. Supplying drugs made a lot of money, and his people didn’t want to give it up. He had to find ways to make the money for them without the drugs. There was a war and a lot of people died. He had a price on his head for a long time from some of his own people.”
She didn’t answer him because she didn’t know what the truth was. She knew Eli believed leopards could smell lies, but she had seen Elijah there at Rafe’s home, making a deal with him. It made her uneasy to know that she’d met Elijah at Rafe’s. Rafe Cordeau had never once invited a decent person to his home. Every man or woman who had come, and some had been cops, were dirty. They ran guns, drugs or prostitution rings. They murdered for hire.
No crime was too big or too small. But everyone who came was a criminal in some way or other. One had even been a Catholic priest who had a weakness for prostitutes. Rafe may have started out by blackmailing him, she honestly didn’t know, but he often came to give up the major sins of his congregation when it earned him favors.
“The third man is Trey.” She turned her head to look at him over her shoulder, lips just a whisper away from his. “What were they doing here? You obviously know.”
“I have a surprise for you,” he said. “In the house.”
She froze. Her heart did a funny little contraction, almost hurting. “A surprise? What kind of surprise?”
“Kitten.” Masculine amusement. He said it softly in the tone that always melted her insides and teased her thighs and feminine sheath so beautifully. “If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise, would it?”
She still didn’t move, even though his body put pressure on hers to step forward. “You planned something for me? You actually planned it yourself? I’m going to cry. I can’t help it.”
“You don’t even know what it is yet.”
“It doesn’t matter what it is. You thought of doing something for me, Eli. No one’s ever done that before.”
Eli laughed softly. “Get used to it, baby. I plan to surprise you quite often. Let’s go inside.”
She blinked back tears, and he had to step around her and tug on her hand to get her in motion. The moment he opened the door and stepped inside, he felt as if he’d come home. He’d been to the ranch several times over the last couple of years, but he’d never really felt that particular emotion until this moment.
He expected Catarina to ask him where her surprise was, but she didn’t. She tightened her fingers around his, and actually slowed her footsteps to the point of dragging. He could feel a tremor running through her body.
Eli pulled her in tight against him. “This is a good thing, Kitten. Nothing bad is going to happen.”
She turned her face up to his and his heart stuttered in his chest. She looked stripped down, vulnerable. Afraid even. “It’s a big thing, Eli, something sweet, no matter what it is and I don’t know what to do with that.”