Leopard's Prey

He desperately needed to gather her up and hold her. She was hanging on by a thread—by her pride. She was cold, miserable and exhausted as well as embarrassed for him to see her looking and smelling as if she’d just gone for a swim in the bayou.
    The relief Remy felt at seeing Bijou alive made him feel weak. He was grateful he was lying on his belly, stretching his weight along the bank to keep it from crumbling. That gave him an excuse not to stand, because at that precise moment he wasn’t altogether certain he could. He didn’t like the close proximity of the other male. His leopard liked it even less, raging and snarling as wild and hard to control as Remy had ever known him to be.
    Bijou had to be close to the emerging for his leopard to be so difficult. That, and the scare she’d given them. When he’d seen the tracks of the SUV going over the bank, the cut ropes and saw the mess the stalker had made of her car, he’d felt physically ill.
    “I have more rope in the trunk of my car, Remy,” Bijou said. “If you thread it through the master anchor we have on the tree and knot it, using the same knots, we can climb out of here.”
    “No problem,” Remy said, and slithered backward until he was certain he wouldn’t bring the cliff down on top of them when he stood up.
    Gage came striding through the cypress grove. “What the hell happened here, Remy?” He demanded. “Is your woman alive? Okay?”
    “If he has a woman, she isn’t here,” Bijou called. “Should I expect
la famille
to show up, all one hundred of you, because I can assure you, I’m not adequately dressed for company.”
    “I have a woman,” Remy snapped between his teeth, “and she’s extremely difficult. You should have stayed put, Blue.” He walked quickly away before he erupted in temper. The leopard was pushing so hard he wanted to leap down and shake her. She’d scared him past anything he’d ever known before. Or his leopard. However it worked, they were connected, and she didn’t have the right to run off because she was a little uncomfortable with how her first time had gone.
    “Of course you can expect
la famille
to show up. We get in each other’s business. It’s what we do best,” Gage called down to her, unapologetic. “Glad you’re alive there, Bijou. Who’s your friend?”
    Remy halted in midstride. Yeah. Just who was her friend? What the hell were they doing together? And why would her leopard even allow him in such close proximity? He was going to have trouble with Bijou Breaux.
    “Stop snarlin’,” Gage advised softly. “She’s obviously gone through hell, Remy. That leopard of yours is gettin’ out of control.”
    “Arnaud Lefevre is with me,” Bijou called out. “His SUV was driven over the side with all of his things by that crazy person.”
    “Were the two of you inside?” Remy asked, lifting the trunk of her car and rummaging for her climbing bag. The thought of the suave, wealthy, sophisticated famous sculptor and Bijou together in his backseat was enough to have claws bursting through aching fingers. He breathed away the pain and forced his leopard under control.
    “No, we weren’t inside.” Impatience edged Bijou’s voice. Her teeth were chattering.
    “We were really worried about you, Bijou,” Gage intervened, shooting a glare at his brother. “You obviously ended up in the bayou. We’d like to know what happened.”
    Bijou blinked back tears. “
No
one can be nice to me right now, Gage,” she cautioned. She hated the quiver in her voice. She would
not
turn into a baby in front of Remy. She pressed a hand to her mouth. She needed to be alone, just for a few minutes to compose herself. It would help if she’d stop shaking.
    Remy mouthed the word
see
to his brother, frowning in caution. The last thing he wanted was for Bijou to cry in front of everyone and then blame him. He wouldn’t be able to be cool with her tears and that would only embarrass her more. Gage might not like the way he handled things, but he knew Bijou better than she knew herself.
    Arnaud touched Bijou’s arm awkwardly. “We’ll get you out of here in time for your performance tonight.”
    Bijou hadn’t even thought of singing at the club. How could she have forgotten? She worked so hard to pull the club together, but all she wanted to do right now was crawl in bed and pull the covers over her head—after a long hot shower of course.
    “You’ll be awesome tonight, Bijou,” Arnaud assured her