Leopard 02 - Wild Rain

here to make certain the job is done right. He’d want to know it’s finished. He’d want to know she was dead and he’d want me to know it.”
    Rio nodded. “There are bandits up and down the river. Some are fairly decent men, just trying to make a living. There are one or two tribes who would be willing to give us aid here and there. This is my realm, not his. He’s infiltrated South America; I doubt he’s had time here.”
    “Duncan knew the layout of the house,” Rachael said. “Someone told him.”
    “Not necessarily. Delgrotto knew nothing of Duncan. As an elder, all information of importance is brought before the council. A member of our species unknown to us would be considered of great importance. I doubt if Duncan had any contact with anyone from my people. He was a shifter and he knew shifters populated this area. He listened to Tomas and his men, gathered information on my team and guessed we were shifters. As a leopard, he could easily find the scents and track us, where as a man, he would find it impossible. Most importantly, Duncan didn’t have time to get this information to Armando. He was captured by bandits and then he came nosing around here, looking for Rachael. He found me instead.”

    Elijah rubbed his jaw. “So your idea is to bring Armando here?”
    “Rachael isn’t going back. She’s my woman. You know the legends, and you can call them myths if you like, but I know she’s supposed to be with me and the only way you’re going to take her from me is over my dead body.”
    Elijah shrugged his broad shoulders. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”
    Rachael knocked a heavy book to the floor. It hit with a thud and brought an abrupt silence. “If you both keep it up,” she hissed between bared teeth, “I’m dumping the rest of the soup over your heads.
    Get some brain cells working here, you two. I love you both. Posturing and threatening each other isn’t winning any points with me. In fact, it’s downright irritating.” Rachael snatched her hand back from Rio and caught up the empty soup bowl. “Elijah, you want coffee or not?”
    “Are you going to dump it in my lap?”
    “I’m not sure yet.”
    “Then I think I’ll pass until you get over your little . . .” he broke off abruptly as Rio frantically signaled him to silence.
    Rachael turned to glare at her brother. “I know you weren’t going to accuse me of being moody—or temperamental. You deserve an entire pot of coffee in your lap. You should have talked to me. I’m a grown woman, not a child to be protected. I know exactly what Armando’s capable of and I knew you had no choice but to try to get rid of him if either of us was going to have a chance at a normal life.”
    She swung around to include Rio in her displeasure. “If you ever get a thick-headed notion to go all silent and macho on me, please just get over it fast. I’m likely to smack you with another stick if you do.”
    Elijah’s eyebrow shot up. “She smacked you with a stick?”
    “Gave me a scar,” Rio said proudly and swept back his black hair to reveal the jagged white line.
    “Right on the temple too. She nearly took my head off.”
    “She knows what she’s doing,” Elijah confirmed. “And she hits like a man, but she can’t cook very well.”
    “I’m a good cook,” Rachael said, outraged. “I’m a very good cook. I can’t help it if you don’t like anything other than rice and beans. And no spices.”
    “There’s such a thing as too much spice,” Elijah said.
    Rio grinned wickedly at Rachael. “Oh, I don’t know, Elijah, you might be missing out. Live a little.”
    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 piss 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