“The moment I heard you were coming with us, I had to put the shifters on you. You didn’t give me much choice, Fyodor. The boss shouldn’t be doing a ride-along. You stay at home and direct from there.”

“I have a bad feeling.” He never ignored his gut. The last thing he wanted was for his brother and cousins to walk into a trap or be outmanned. He couldn’t really be angry with Timur when his brother was doing his job, protecting him.

“All the more reason for you to stay home.”

Alonzo ignored his brother’s terse statement. They had eliminated the threat to Evangeline. He’d kept digging until he turned up the fact that the hit on her life didn’t outlive Patrizio. With him dead, no other threats were even uttered in whispers. Mitya was safe, recuperating at Elijah’s in order to learn more about what they were trying to accomplish and how they had to go about it from Elijah and Drake.

Some of the knots in his gut eased just a bit. Evangeline had insisted she go back to work a week earlier than he’d wanted her to go, but Doc had given her the okay as long as she had help. She’d agreed to that. They had a young man working for her, a plant of course, but she’d figured that out the moment he walked through the door. Alonzo loved that she was so smart. On the other hand, it made it impossible to fool her.

Jeremiah Wheating was leopard. He was young, but he’d been trained by some of the best. Elijah trusted him, and that went a long way to ease Alonzo’s mind. Jeremiah had been with Evangeline at the bakery for a couple of weeks and that had given Alonzo time to observe him. He didn’t want the work there, he’d prefer to be a bodyguard for Elijah, but after Timur had talked to him, he’d settled down. Alonzo was fairly certain his brother had threatened to kill him slowly, inch by inch, if Evangeline so much as got a burn on her little finger.

“She calls us her boys,” Timur said.

Alonzo shot his brother a quick glance. There was no inflection in the voice at all, but just the absence told Alonzo that mattered to Timur. Evangeline had gotten to him. He was protecting her, not just for Alonzo.

“She does,” he agreed.

Timur shook his head. “I hope you know how lucky you are.”

“I know.” And he did. Every single morning he woke up to her. He went to bed at night with her after running their leopards. He knew. He’d had nothing before Evangeline; with her, he had it all.