Evangeline had never had drugs of any kind before and her leopard didn’t like it. At first the animal fought the sensations, but as her human companion’s body accepted it and she was able to deal better with the pain as they were loading her onto a gurney, the cat settled, curling up and making herself small. Evangeline couldn’t imagine what Mitya’s male was doing. The danger was, while Mitya was unable to be in control, his male, every bit a killer like Alonzo’s, would emerge and savage everyone in sight.

She felt Alonzo’s hand in hers as he ran alongside the gurney to the helicopter the pilot had set down in the park just one block down from her shop. He couldn’t ride with her, the space was cramped, and he bent to brush her lips with his.

“Stay, Evangeline. I’ll meet you at the hospital. You fight, you hear me? You fight.” Alonzo watched them get her inside and he turned back toward his brother, his hand at the nape of his neck, uncaring that he had blood all over him. It was her blood. Mitya’s blood. “Let’s go.”

“We’ve got the cops and dead bodies,” Timur ventured, reluctance in his voice. “Thankfully we’ve got cameras. There is no denying it was self-defense.”

“I have to go to the hospital,” Alonzo said. “Send the cops there if they want to talk to me. I can’t be here when she’s there. And Mitya . . . It doesn’t look good.”

“Go then. Sevastyan, go with Alonzo,” Timur said decisively. “Don’t let him out of your sight, no matter what he says. Gorya and I will stay and deal with the police and their questions.”

Alonzo went through the kitchen, out the back. Timur had a driver waiting for them, already called when Alonzo had called Jake for the helicopter. Stay alive for me. Want me enough to live. He slipped into the car, Sevastyan slamming the door after him and diving into the front passenger seat. The car was in motion almost before Sevastyan got the door closed.

Alonzo held himself very still. His leopard was equally as still. For most of his life, he’d been frozen inside. He needed it that way to survive. His leopard was all fiery passion, raging with fury and killing with ice-cold proficiency. He had lost so much in his life, lost it before it was ever that good.

Solnyshko moyo. Stay alive for me. Want me enough to live. He curled his fingers into a tight fist as if he could hold her in his palm. He brought his fist to his chest, rested it there against his heart. She was his sun. His heart. His everything.