many shifters we’ve successfully managed to save?”
“That’s not what I’m saying,” Rory corrected gently. “You believe anyone contacting you and asking for help. If they’re a shifter and they come from a lair that is losing ground fast, that’s all you need to know and you’re in all the way. You have a price on your head. A very big price. Some shifters are unscrupulous. They wouldn’t mind selling you out for the money, and yes, that includes women.”
That sounded like something Sevastyan might say if she gave him the chance—which she didn’t intend to do. She wasn’t going to introduce Rory and Etienne to Sevastyan.
“I’ve known you a lot longer than a short while, Flambé,” Blaise said. “And his assessment is spot on. You do have a soft heart. You believe anyone. You’re just too damned trusting. Your father told me he wanted you out of the business of rescuing but you refused.”
That was true. She didn’t think anyone knew that. Her father had trusted Blaise or he never would have disclosed that information. It was the one topic they’d argued over repeatedly. The disagreement had continued right up until her father was unable to talk. He was adamant that she not continue with his legacy, other than the landscaping business, stating it was too dangerous to rescue shifters anymore. The odds were she would be killed.
She took a breath and met Blaise’s eyes, acknowledging he was right. “He was worried,” she admitted. “The world is smaller with the internet and it’s much more difficult to slip into a country. They see me coming.”
“Exactly,” Blaise said.
“I’ll give what all of you are saying some thought, I promise.” She would. She hadn’t considered that she wasn’t investigating as thoroughly as she should be. Her name and reputation were getting out there. She did have a price on her head. Now Franco Matherson had his sights set on her. “I’ll be more careful.”
She had an investigator and he was good. She just didn’t utilize him to his full potential. She had to do better. She always wanted to extract the shifters as fast as possible so she immediately got down to the planning part. She was excellent at planning the escape routes.
Etienne nodded. “What are they doing on the other side of the house? All those hammers going? I kept thinking I’d have a chance to get over there to look when we took a lunch break, but we were all the way to the back of the property planting trees at the time.”
Excitement burst through her. “I forgot to tell you about that project. Sevastyan has two massive garages, both sitting side by side, two stories high, that weren’t in use. He wants to convert them to greenhouses, or more like one big tropical paradise. I love the idea of lush plants and trees inside a long glass building.”
“That sounds like an enormous undertaking,” Rory said.
“Yes, I can’t wait to get started. I’ve already begun sketches, sectioning smaller areas off around where I’ll put the larger trees. He’s already got massive support beams in, so the outside structure is already there and the builders are framing for the glass now.”
“Amurov wants to put in an indoor garden that large? A tropical garden? It was his idea?” Blaise asked. “What’s he specifically looking to do?” There was speculation in his voice.
Like her father, Blaise was interested in environmental landscaping and he would be shocked at the idea of a tropical garden. One the size Sevastyan was asking for might be interesting for leopards, and Blaise might understand that, but the outdoors appealed to him far more. Flambé wouldn’t have talked to him about Cain’s club garden of paradise even if there hadn’t been a nondisclosure in place, so she wasn’t about to tell him why Sevastyan wanted a very large indoor tropical garden.
“For something that massive he must plan on utilizing the highest technology available,” Rory said. “Temperature control for every section of plants.”
“I can’t imagine otherwise.” Cain had done the same, although he was continually adding to his garden, calling Flambé back to the club to plant new exotics. With the additional space he was adding on, Cain liked to try to find plants no one else had. He pored over catalogs, searching for blossoms and vines to add to the latest section, sending Flambé his ideas, hoping she could get them for him. Often, she had to tell him the plants he’d chosen weren’t allowed into the United States,