Leopard 04 - Wild Fire

deliberately. They were sending their own message to Imelda. The woman was known for her insanity. She could order her men to open fire with the automatic weapons, killing everyone in the room. The other couples in the room were clearly shocked, gasping. One woman began to cry but her partner quickly shushed her.
    Conner never broke off his stare, his eyes pure cat. He looked relaxed. He looked . . . lethal. He made the men he was facing look small.
    The man closest to him spoke into his radio. “Martin, we have a problem in here.”
    Almost immediately two men entered the room. Both had the build of the leopard and moved with fluid power. Isabeau’s cat reacted with a snarl and leap. She saw, because she was watching him, Conner’s fingers flex just once when the man who was reputed to have killed his mother entered the room. Isabeau recognized Suma from the village and her stomach rebelled at the sight of him, almost as much as her cat did.
    Used to instant obedience and the cowering of any opposition, Martin Suma and Ottila Zorba shoved their security force aside and were almost toe to toe with Conner before it hit them what exactly they were facing. Martin found himself staring into the focused eyes of a killer. Conner smiled. It wasn’t a pleasant smile. The tension in the room stretched nearly to a breaking point as the two stared each other down.
    Ottila, not the one locked in combat with Conner, surveyed the security for the two visitors, recognizing them instantly as leopard. He inhaled sharply and drew the scent of a female close to the Han Vol Dan Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    into his body. At once his cat reacted, all male, hunger invading, a dark need that was all encompassing.
    He looked past the others and focused on the object of his desire.
    Martin caught the scent next and his gaze flicked to the woman standing behind the man he knew as Elijah Lospostos, head of a major drug cartel and by all accounts a very powerful and dangerous man.
    Only then did he realize not only was the security team leopard, and the woman, but the two visitors as well. He was facing seven leopards, all of them armed. Self-preservation was strong and dictated that he back off immediately.
    Isabeau saw the knowledge hit the two guards almost at the same time. Their eyes glittered with malice.
    She never wanted to meet either of them alone on a dark night. These were the men who had kidnapped the children and killed several villagers and Conner’s mother. She couldn’t quite control the pounding of her heart.
    Elijah reached behind him, a casual, gentle gesture, and laid his hand on her arm. That small touch steadied her. She took a breath and forced herself to breathe normally, slowing her pulse. She couldn’t be afraid of them. Her cat detested the scent of the two rogue leopards, yet recognized Conner’s immediately, nearly purring at his closeness.
    A stir at the door drew her attention. Isabeau peeked around Elijah and caught her first glimpse of Imelda Cortez. She wore a long, flowing gown of bloodred, matching her long nails and lipstick. Her hair, as black as a raven’s wing, was swept up in an intricate knot so that the dazzling gems on her ears and at her throat were prominently displayed. The dress was slashed nearly to the navel so that the perfect globes of her breasts peeked out, making Isabeau feel drab and childish in comparison.
    Imelda swept into the room on her spiked crimson heels, her dark eyes alighting instantly on Conner, her hungry gaze devouring him in a slow, greedy perusal that drank in the broad shoulders and thick chest.
    There was no missing the aura of danger he exuded, and Imelda actually inhaled sharply, her breasts heaving, in grave danger of spilling out of the dress.
    Isabeau’s cat went crazy, raking at her, clawing and growling, recognizing an enemy, desperate for the freedom to destroy her. For one terrible moment Isabeau was certain she wouldn’t be able to stop her leopard from emerging and killing the woman in a fit of rage. Her muscles contorted. Her bones popped.
    Pain burst through her jaw and her mouth seemed overcrowded with teeth.
    No! You will not! She fought the leopard back. He needs us. Both of us. She filled her mind with Conner, drew strength from him, from her love of him. And she did love him with every fiber of her being. She would do this for him.
    Imelda Cortez was tall and thin, very fashionable, but she