Elijah shook his head. “Joshua, you know once a female leopard accepts a mate, it’s too late to interfere.”

“She deserves a good life.”

“I’ll give that to her.” Alonzo made the concession of reassurance because he genuinely liked Joshua. He didn’t want the man for an enemy. He knew Joshua and Evangeline weren’t close, but the man was still her family and clearly Joshua felt responsible for her.

Joshua paced across the floor trying to calm his leopard. Elijah ignored him, spreading his hands out in front of him. “We have to do damage control immediately. You have dead bodies here.”

“We’re taking care of it.”

“Then speed it up. You’ll need the cleaners to do their job a hell of a lot faster than they’re doing it, because I can guarantee you’re going to get a visit from the cops in the next few hours. Is there anything else you need to tell me?”

“I took care of business.”

“Yeah, the fire is on every news channel. What else did you take care of?” Elijah asked suspiciously.

“No one threatens my woman, Elijah. What would you do if someone threatened Siena?”

“I’d take care of business,” Elijah conceded. “I need to know if there’s any chance of blowback.”

Alonzo shook his head. “None. The cops can come and search and they won’t find a thing here or anywhere else. I’ve been home all night. My men can testify to that.”

Joshua spun around. “What about your woman? Because they sure as fuck are going to ask her without you in a room.”

Alonzo remained silent. He simply stared at the man. He understood why Joshua didn’t want him for Evangeline. If he was in Tregre’s shoes he wouldn’t want anyone like Alonzo near her. The fact remained that her female had accepted his male. She had made her commitment to him.

Joshua swore again and shook his head. “She had a shit life, Alonzo. You have no idea what our grandfather was like. He raped women, even his own daughters-in-law. He beat them to death. He beat my father to death. He searched for Evangeline, and her father and uncle were too chicken-shit to go against him so they left her out in the swamp to fend for herself. She deserves . . .” He swore in Cajun and paced across the room again. “Not dead bodies in her fucking sitting room.”

“Amodeo put out a contract on her. Not on me. On her. That hit in the bakery was supposed to take her out. The security guard at the hospital was a hit man, and one of the cops was in on it. He was on Amodeo’s payroll, as was a dispatcher who prevented the police from answering any 911 calls from the bakery. The hit might still be open.”