“Damn it, answer me. Do you think I’m asking for my health?” He spat the question at her, allowing his anger to fill the cab. She couldn’t know that his anger was at himself, at the damage he’d done to her, and at Rafe, for what he’d done to her. She was an innocent caught between two powerful men who played for keeps. He had a very bad feeling she would continue to be caught between them.
“I’m not going to ask you again. Answer me now.”
She didn’t look scared. She looked… broken, and he felt like a damn fucking bully, kicking the little kid that was down right there in the play yard.
“Yes. I had my first period at eleven. But Rafe couldn’t have known that. My mother was a junkie and she took me to him and offered me to him.”
He shook his head. “Think back. It didn’t happen that way. He had to have come to your house when you were younger. He had to have looked you over. Decided on you. He was the one who first made the approach. There’s a reason he wants you.”
He had taken his eyes off the road long enough to watch her face when he told her the truth. He saw he’d scored. She swallowed and looked away from him. He hated that he couldn’t comfort her. He hated that he’d cuffed her to his truck and her wrists were already bruised. She had a bruise on her cheek and her face was swollen from crying. He couldn’t pull her into his arms and just hold her. First, he had to get them to safety, and it didn’t matter to him whether or not she wanted to be safe. He had to make her safe. Not only because he helped put her in this position, but because it was a compulsion and damn it to hell, she’d gotten under his skin.
He waited, hoping curiosity would win out and she’d ask him questions, but she didn’t. She didn’t look at him again either. She kept her gaze on the floor. Her head had been down the same way, her hair everywhere when she’d bent to vomit in the police station. That was on him too. That had nearly killed him. He wanted to beat the hell out of Frank with his bare fists. He wanted to beat the hell out of Rafe Cordeau. Mostly he wanted to take back everything that had happened and play it all another way.
He pulled into the automatic car wash. He wanted a thorough wash and that meant going through twice. He had no doubt that Rafe had followed Catarina’s scent to the police department. He was grateful, at least, that the warehouse had been raided. Rafe would know she hadn’t gone voluntarily. If what he suspected were true, Rafe would never kill Catarina. He might hurt her, but he’d never kill her.
“What do you know about shifters?” he asked.
She stared at the floor, but her shoulders shrugged. Her hair covered her face, and her cuffed hands.
“You know Rafe is a leopard. So am I. And I suspect you are as well.”
That got him a head turn. Her blue eyes were so dark they looked violet, but again there was no real life in them. Not even the interest he’d hoped for.
“That’s why he waited to claim you, Cat. A female shifter doesn’t necessarily feel her leopard right away the way a male does. She can’t emerge until both the human and the leopard enter the same cycle together.” He kept his eyes on hers. “A heat. You both have to be fertile at the same time. When she emerges, both of you are going to need sex. It’s hot and wild and not for an innocent.”
She blinked, but again, there was no response in her eyes. She turned her head away again.
“Did he mark you? Did you see his leopard? Did he bite you or rake you with his claws?”
She sat up fast, swinging both fists together at his face, slamming into his jaw, snapping his head back. One hand disengaged her seat belt while the other dropped to the truck door and yanked, trying to open it. He’d been smart enough to engage the locks and that second cost her. He gripped her hair in his fist and yanked her hard back to him, so that she fell sideways, her body sprawling across his, her head facedown in his lap.
She cried out and both hands went to his. He didn’t loosen his grip, but he did quit pulling so hard. “Are you serious right now, Cat?” he spat out.
He was fairly certain from her reaction that no one had ever manhandled her before, not like this, and he could see the shock on her face. Fear edging in. Good. He was finally getting to her. He’d take fear over… nothing. “I’m bigger and stronger. I know your every move.” He was secretly proud of her for getting out of the handcuffs. He saw the broken pen on the floor mat.
She went very still, her blue eyes searching his face. He detested the bruise on her cheek. He really hated the bruises circling her wrists. He loosened his grip on her hair, his fingers sliding deeper, massaging her scalp, trying to ease the pain he’d caused when he’d yanked her across the truck to him.
She didn’t move. She hardly breathed. She just stared at him like he was a total stranger, not the man who had given her that all important first kiss. The one he could still taste in his mouth.
“Kitten,” he said softly.
That got a rise out of her. Her eyes had held just a hint of fear, pushing that blank, dead look – distant. The moment he’d uttered his chosen endearment for her, the name he called her when he was soft inside and wanted to pull her close and hold her forever, the look went from nearly blank to pure fury.
He felt her cat rise and his cat rose to meet hers, clawing and raking at his belly for freedom. He saw the telltale shine in her eyes, felt her body heat. His reacted, going hard, the male cat in him rising to the challenge of a female refusing to submit.
She gasped and pressed both hands to her stomach, dropping her head to breathe deep. He knew what she was doing and why. Catarina Benoit was terrified of her leopard. She was petrified. She didn’t want that gift and she was doing everything in her power to keep it at bay.
Eli smoothed his hand over her hair and helped her to sit up, all the while breathing his leopard back under control.
“Don’t call me that. Not ever again. You aren’t sweet and kind. Don’t use that voice, that lying voice. This is who you are. Violent. Rough. And a killer. You think I can’t see it in your eyes? Leopards are killing machines. That’s what they do. They hunt and they kill and that’s it.”
His leopard was far too close for a conversation like this one. Worse, she came close to the truth of it and that made him angry as well. “You left out fucking, Cat,” he snarled. “Leopards have lots and lots of sex.”
He set her back in the passenger seat and caught up the cuffs. She had gone very pale and shrank back against the seat, her eyes ringed with dark circles. She still looked broken and vulnerable in spite of her sudden fury. Her anger was gone completely. She looked defeated. Completely defeated. He hadn’t been going for that reaction either.
She put both hands in the air. “Please. Not again.” She didn’t look at him.
He took another deep breath, studying the long sweep of her lashes. “Cat, I can’t take any chances with you. I can cuff you to me or the bolt. You choose.” It was the best he could do. He had the feeling she planned to jump out of the truck on the highway when he was going at a high speed.