The traffic was particularly light this time of the morning. The moon shone on the strips of foliage on either side of the highway. Alonzo and Timur both scanned with the eyes of a leopard, seeing in the dark, looking for anything unusual.

Alonzo’s eyebrow went up. “You’re keeping an eye on one or two of our soldiers? You didn’t tell me you were worried we might have a mole.”

“I always worry we might have a mole. If we have them, it stands to reason someone else does as well,” Timur pointed out. “I’m responsible for your security. It’s my job to worry.”

As they approached an overpass, movement above caught their eyes simultaneously. Two leopards prowled along the walkway where people could cross on foot. Alonzo sat up straight, his heart in his throat. He’d recognize his woman anywhere, anytime, no matter what form she took. Jeremiah had to be with her.

“What the hell?” Timur snapped. He swore in Russian. “I’m going to kill that cub. He’s supposed to protect her, not bring her out here because she’s worried.”

“The two trucks are slowing down, Fyodor, pulling off the highway to the access road,” Gorya reported. “Looks as if the lead truck has a flat. Good for us, bad for them. Sevastyan took out their tires like a pro.”

The knots in Alonzo’s gut were back, tighter than ever. “Hang back, Kirill,” he told their driver. “It’s a trap, Gorya. That’s why Evangeline and Jeremiah took a chance being seen as leopards. Pull ahead of the access road and when you get to a spot where we can’t be seen by anyone in the trucks, pull off the road. We’ll go on foot, but all of you know, this is going to be kill or be killed.”

“That’s why we brought all shifters,” Timur noted.

The two cars pulled over to the edge of the freeway and let the passengers out before the drivers took off to race up to the next exit. They would come back on the access road. With the cars moving on, those in the trucks wouldn’t know for certain if they’d been followed or not.

Timur slipped from the car and ran, in a crouch, ridding himself of clothes and shifting with blinding speed. Alonzo remained fully dressed, his weapons out. He wasn’t going to allow his leopards to get shot. Someone had to return fire. If Emilio’s men saw him there, they would concentrate on him, giving the leopards time to start tearing through the soldiers.

He heard the back door of one of the trucks raise and then snippets of conversation. The men didn’t like the wait. They especially didn’t like that they couldn’t see where the cars that had been following in the distance had gone.

“What the hell is that?” someone called out and then screamed.