her. Flambé’s breath exploded out of her lungs, but other than that, she made no sound. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
Ania spun the car and raced back straight at the Porsche as if playing chicken. Flambé put her hands over her eyes. Sevastyan stared calmly out the front windshield. There was no way whoever was driving that vehicle would be willing to go back to Franco and tell him that they had killed Flambé. Matherson made it clear he wanted her alive.
“I’m so sorry I brought him into your lives,” Flambé whispered. “He isn’t going to stop.”
“No, he won’t. Even if he managed to get his hands on you, baby, he’d still go hunting other leopards. He likes it or he wouldn’t be doing it. There’s no reason to kill other leopards. None at all. There’s something very wrong with him. His lair should have taken care of it a long time ago.”
Sevastyan tried to comfort her even as he watched the driver of the Porsche desperately pull his vehicle hard to the right while his passenger threw his arm up as if that would save him if the two cars collided at the high rate of speed Ania was traveling. Ania’s car sped on past and raced around the bend, back up the slight hill toward the freeway.
“What do you want to do, Sevastyan? Call it off or go to the cul-de-sac by Evangeline’s home one more time?”
“Try the lane. Prune Lane. That’s where the boys have set up. If our company doesn’t follow, we’ll head into the city. Mitya’s pretty pissed, but apparently he was following us anyway.”
Ania laughed. “I’m not surprised.”
Nothing seemed to phase his cousin’s wife. His own wife was going to think twice before she crossed him, especially in matters of her safety. He glanced down at the top of her silky head. She wasn’t saying much, but she kept looking behind them, watching to see if they were being followed.
“We want them to come after us,” he said gently.
“We do?” There was trepidation in her voice. “Sevastyan, there were two men in the Porsche. I saw three in the SUV. I couldn’t see into the other two cars, but you have to figure at least two men in each. So, at least nine men, maybe more. Even with Kirill, Matvei and the two others I don’t know, we’re outnumbered. And what are we going to do with them anyway? Ania’s a good driver. A great driver. She can get us out of here. We’ll lose them and go back to the house. I can call Brent and tell him I have to reschedule. He’ll understand. It will be Cain who might be a problem, but I can handle him.”
Sevastyan’s eyes met Ania’s in the rearview mirror just for a moment. He flicked his gaze toward the right, away from the freeway and back toward Prune Lane.
“Cain? Why would he be a problem?” His hand settled around Flambé’s nape to begin a slow massage, attempting to ease the tension out of her.
“The plants are for his club, his garden of paradise. They’re exotics and we’ve been waiting for some time for them to come in. It hasn’t been easy to get them. I have to have an open time to go to the club when no one is there. He doesn’t shut down that often. Coordinating our schedules isn’t that easy, but this situation is ridiculous.”
“Tell me about his garden. The garden started fairly small although the room itself is huge.” He kept her talking to distract her, although he genuinely wanted to know.
“He wanted the garden to be really large but still allow everyone to see into the rooms on either side of it. I had to design the plants and trees to grow so that could be done. In keeping with his themes, I incorporate his apparatuses as much as possible for the plants to grow on. That lets me prune them back and tie them so they grow the way I need them to. I just had a smaller version of a wooden X brought in to plant some of the exotics to grow up and over. It should be quite lovely.”
Her voice held both intimate and enthusiastic notes when she spoke of her plants and the garden. It was a huge undertaking and very private between her and Cain, the owner of the club. For the first time in his life, Sevastyan felt the stirrings of jealousy and it