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.”
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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 accommodate the small leopard. “I lay up on a knoll, or in a tree, or wherever I can find and guard my team as they go in to bring out kidnap victims, or pay ransom. I do whatever it takes to keep them safe. Once they’re out, I lay a false trail and lead the bandits away from the team and into the forest.”
“I’ve heard the bandits have bolt-holes.”
“There are mazes of tunnels in the cane fields, just about every field. You don’t want to drop into one of them and try to pursue, not if you value your life. We’ve had to go in a couple of times when the bandits used the tunnels to hide their prisoners. We blew up the tunnels in order to discourage them from using them for that purpose. It’s too dangerous to us, although we’ll go in if we have to.”
“So we don’t want Armando to fall in with the bandits and get the idea of using the tunnels.”
“If your uncle finds out she’s playing house in the forest with some local yokel, don’t you think he’d come with guns blazing? Especially if the information was given out
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to you, instead of him, for the million-dollar reward. We have to locate Armando’s mole and let him overhear Rachael’s been found. He’ll immediately contact your uncle and Armando will come very quickly to get here before you.”
“He’ll send his killer after her.”
Rio shrugged. “Of course he will. He’ll want to confirm her presence and he’ll want me out of the way. They’ll expect an easy kill.”
“He’ll hunt you, Rio. Leopards make frightening enemies. They never turn aside and they’re as cunning as hell. I ought to know.”
Rio grinned at Elijah, but it was a particularly lethal smirk. “I’m very aware of what a leopard can do.”
Rachael curled up in Rio’s lap. Fitting herself to his body seemed perfectly natural. The night had taken on a surreal feel, a dreamlike quality. She couldn’t believe Elijah was sprawled in a chair only feet away from Rio, looking relaxed and at home. How had she ever doubted him? His eyes didn’t look ice-cold and merciless, although she knew they could. Right now he looked like her big brother, just lying around the house talking. She had forgotten that image of him. Elijah at rest. Elijah relaxed. Elijah with a faint smile on his face.
She buried her face against Rio’s chest, confident he wouldn’t say a word when he felt her hot tears against his skin. He would understand the enormity of the gift she’d been given this one night. Rio wrapped his arms around her tightly, holding her close to him, protectively, just as she knew he would. He nuzzled the top of her head with his chin, one hand tunneling in her thick mass of hair, just holding her close.