He studied her face. He reached out and touched her hair gently. So gently. His fingers slid through the silky length and then he tucked it behind her ear. She realized he really thought he could persuade her to leave Eli and go back with him. To do that, he had to know he’d have to kill Eli. Eli would never let her go, and if there was one thing Rafe was good at, it was reading other men. He’d know that. Somewhere in Rafe’s mind, he believed he could make her see that it was the right thing to do. The thought that Rafe was that far gone saddened her.
“You don’t understand about leopards, sweetheart. They need freedom to be who and what they are. They’re at the top of the food chain. If I don’t let mine run free and hunt the way he was meant to, his mood affects me and I become dangerous. Better a prostitute than some innocent woman.”
“Did your leopard hunt my mother?”
“She wasn’t your mother. She intended to use you for prostitution. She told me so herself when she came back demanding more money for you.”
Her heart stuttered in her chest. She couldn’t help herself. She wrapped her arms around her body and rocked herself gently back and forth. “I need a drink of water, Rafe.”
“I’ll get it for you. This is a lot to take in.” He stood, his eyes on her just in case, and walked to the sink.
She waited for him to fill a glass with water before feeling quickly under the table for the weapon taped there. The moment her fingers found it, she dropped her hands to her lap, twisting her fingers together. She knew he would focus on that. He hated that she couldn’t keep still when she was nervous or agitated.
Rafe set the water in front of her. “You were born for me. Every leopard has a mate, and you’re mine. I’ve always known it. This man who came into your life, I can understand why you would think you needed him, but he isn’t for you. He was never for you. Still, I do understand that you care for him.”
“Rafe, you’ve killed too many people I care about. David Belmont and Bernard Casey didn’t know a thing about me. They’re dead. Some stranger was murdered as well. I didn’t even know his name.”
“Some things are necessary, Catarina. You’re old enough and intelligent enough to understand that. You’ve got your explanations. It’s time to come home now.”
“And if I won’t go?”
“You’ll go. You’ll go because you belong there. You’ll come with me, because if you don’t, that man out there is going to die.”
“We both know he’ll come after me.” She said it quietly, watching his face.
He hit her. He hit her hard, open-handed, across her face, knocking her right out of the chair. Stars burst across her eyes. Pain radiated from her cheek to the top of her skull and down across her jaw. She hit the floor so hard it knocked the wind from her so that she couldn’t get air.
Rafe had often exploded into violence, one moment absolutely cold and controlled and the next, cold and vicious, capable of murder. He was on her so fast she didn’t have time to even roll away from him. He slammed the toe of his shoe into her side, kicking her several times.
Pain blasted through her body. She couldn’t think. Couldn’t rise. Couldn’t get away from the savage attack. It was so fast, so unexpected, all she could do was curl into a ball and try to protect her stomach and ribs. Instinctively, both hands covered her abdomen as her knees drew up for added protection.
He crouched down beside her, gripping her hair and yanking her head toward him. He slapped her three more times, the sound loud, the blows hard. When she managed to look at him, his eyes were all cat, his leopard close.
“You let him fuck you, right here. Right in this room where you cook him meals that should have been mine. Did you think I wouldn’t smell the two of you? You let him touch you. You knew you belonged to me. You had no right allowing him to put his hands on you let alone his dick in you. You allowed his leopard to claim yours. Your leopard belonged to mine. Did you really think for one moment, I’d leave that man alive?” He snarled the questions at her, but his expression didn’t change.
She didn’t move. She didn’t dare. He was too far gone into his world of violence and madness. She reached for air, prayed that Eli had somehow executed his plan and had gotten away from Rafe’s lieutenants.
Rafe reached under the table to find the gun taped there. He pulled it out and showed it to her. “Were you looking for this? Were you planning to shoot me, Catarina?” He slapped her again. Hard. Once, twice. His expression never changed.
She’d seen him deliver this kind of punishment to those who worked for him, but he’d never laid a hand on her. She knew why everyone was so terrified of him. The viciousness when he appeared so remote and cold was worse than any anger he could display.