He shifted with her, keeping pace just behind her, the larger male protective, but staying back to let her work it out in her mind. Eli knew she had submerged herself in the little female. She needed time to process what he’d told her. He wished she would have flung herself into his arms and clung to him, but whatever she needed, including space, he would provide. He didn’t have to like it, but he’d do it.
The rain slid off her fur, feeling like thousands of fingers brushing over her thick coat. Catarina sank deep inside her leopard, just allowing sensations to penetrate. Her little female was happy to run free, to give her human time to process. She ran to protect Catarina from the overwhelming grief and fear. Catarina could feel her leopard’s determination to surround her and keep her safe from everything and everyone – including the large male prowling behind them.
It’s all right, Cat whispered to her leopard. He’s giving me time. He knows I need this. He’s just making certain we’re safe.
He was. She knew she was right. Eli wasn’t trying to pressure her into spilling everything she knew about Rafe. Why then, was she so reluctant to help others destroy him? He’d just killed three innocent human beings who knew absolutely nothing about her whereabouts. He’d tortured them, and he’d kill others to find her. Bernard and Jase had nothing really to do with her. They’d exchanged a few words. But David… She wanted to scream with anguish.
What was wrong with her that she didn’t leap on the chance to help Jake and Eli? She had to know why, because something was wrong with her that she couldn’t turn completely on Rafe when she knew nothing – no one – could save him.
She ran in the rain, listening to the sounds of the drops hitting the leaves and the ground. There was a rhythm there that soothed her. Even within her leopard, holding herself still as she waited for her heart to slow and her eyes to quit burning, the rain reached her and calmed her.
Rafe had no one else. No one to love him. No one to care whether he was alive or dead. No one loyal to him, not without his money and fear of him. He was alone. She had felt the weight of that since she was a child. She’d tried so hard to get him to care for her. Nothing had worked – at least she hadn’t thought that it did, not when she was a child and needed someone to care about her.
Her leopard cleared a large tree trunk down across the path. Smoothly. Easily. Landing lightly without a sound. Eli had taught her how to move through the heavy brush silently, stealthily, pulling in every bit of information her surroundings could give her. He wanted her to have every advantage. He’d prepared her. He hadn’t thumped his chest and told her to stay in the safe house, instead, he’d been tough on her. Conditioning with her, running every day, teaching her martial arts. Shooting with her on the range. Using weapons. Climbing boulders.
Her training hadn’t stopped there. He worked with her on shifting fast. Shifting on the run. Disposing of her clothes in record time practically as she shifted, so she had every advantage. He’d made her practice over and over, hundreds of times until she was absolutely smooth and fast at it.
Still there was more. His male had taught her female how to maneuver, to get under her opponent, to avoid the stranglehold of his teeth. How to use her claws to her advantage, to turn in midair and to land in a defensive or offensive position.
Eli had cared enough to prepare her. Still, when he reluctantly told her Jake and he could bring Rafe down with her help, she’d felt sick inside. Part of it, she conceded, was that Eli had tried to force her to help them when he worked for the DEA. A tiny, tiny part of her was afraid he’d set her up again. She knew better. Deep down, she did. She knew better. But the nagging little monster that told her men like Eli couldn’t possibly love her had reared its ugly head.
Still, all that aside, and that was clearly her own sad little issue, why was it that she felt the need to protect Rafe? He was a killer. He needed to be brought to justice. Every minute he was loose in the world, innocent people could be killed just for his pleasure. His enjoyment. He liked to hunt them. He liked to kill. He would come back from his trips to the swamp almost euphoric.
And he hadn’t been the only one. She knew, even if Eli and Jake managed to kill Rafe, there were at least three more men under him who hunted victims let loose in the swamp with him. Women mostly, but occasionally someone who double-crossed Rafe.
My little leopard, can I just stay here, tucked into the safety of your protection, and never come out again?
If she could have, she would have put her hand on the animal and just held on. She needed something to hold on to. Someone to hold on to. To steady her. To tell her it was okay to the do the right thing and stop Rafe. That she wouldn’t be abandoning him as she’d felt so abandoned.