Timur thanked Evangeline and took his coffee and the plate of cookies in one hand, keeping his other hand free. Of course they had concealed weapon permits. Alonzo had made certain everything was aboveboard should they ever be stopped for any reason. He didn’t want that reason to happen there in the bakery. Not with his woman watching.

Timur sank into the chair and grinned at him over his coffee. “That woman is breathtaking. My leopard definitely was soothed, but not interested. There’s a difference. Clearly she’s a leopard whisperer. When you’re close to her, you feel peace. Sounds crazy, but I felt it too.” He kept his eyes on the cops without appearing to do so.

“Don’t get too used to being close to her,” Alonzo warned. Icicles dripped from his voice.

Timur, damn him, grinned wider. “It’s not me you have to worry about, moy brat, those three didn’t come in here expecting us. And she clearly knows them. They’re regulars, and I’m guessing it isn’t all about her badass coffee.”

“Brice, good to see you. Your usual?”

She sounded like sex and sin to Alonzo every time she opened her mouth. His body was as hard as a rock. His mind was filled with a million ways to kill the newcomers, and his leopard raked at him in a rage at the idea of the three men so close to what was so clearly theirs.

“You bet, sweetheart.”

“Sweetheart”? What the fuck was that? It was all Alonzo could do not to leap up and kill the son of a bitch.

“Reeve, Crispin? The usual?”

Both undercover cops nodded, smiling at her, but looking at Alonzo. They turned their bodies slightly, just enough to be able to watch Alonzo, Gorya and Timur yet still flirt with Evangeline.

“You ever going to go out with me?” the one she’d called Brice asked, leaning one elbow on the counter to put his chin in his palm so he could stare at her very enticing ass.

Alonzo’s leopard lifted its head and snarled. Alonzo wanted to do the same but he kept his expressionless mask on. The last thing he wanted was for anyone—let alone the cops—to know he was interested in Evangeline. On the other hand, if she said yes, he was going to follow the fucker right out of the bakery and make certain he wouldn’t be asking Alonzo’s woman out again.