He’d spent a lifetime killing already. First the training, killing at six under his father’s watchful eye. The emotions he had to lock up in a block of ice. The terrible things demanded of him. Demanded of his brother and cousin. The things his father and other brothers and cousins had done in front of him. The cruelty. The cunning. The viciousness.

He’d turned his back on that life, no longer the enforcer. No longer Fyodor Amurov. No longer Russian. He had been a bodyguard. He’d come to Antonio Arnotto at a young age, made the man believe he was Italian, and he’d hired on as a soldier. None of them saw the killer in him. None of them saw what he was or what he was capable of. He’d been simply a bodyguard to Antonio’s beloved granddaughter, Siena. Now she was married to Elijah and Antonio was dead. Elijah had convinced him to step into Antonio’s shoes for Siena and he’d done it, never once thinking he would find a woman like Evangeline. Never once thinking that his leopard would give him a chance with her.

“No.” Joshua said the word softly. “I respect you, Emilio, more than I can say, but Evangeline cannot marry you. I can’t give you reasons, other than she has obligations.”

Heat had banded across Alonzo’s eyes and he saw the flare of anger as a sharp red burst from Emilio, but the man’s anger quickly cooled and he shifted forward in his chair to pin Joshua with his hard gaze. “You cannot speak for her. You have no right.”

“I have every right. She is under my protection and the protection of my family. She is my first cousin.” Joshua made the announcement in his low tone, never realizing he was sealing Evangeline’s fate to Alonzo.

There was no turning away from her. No walking away. She was a Tregre. She was leopard. Whether or not her leopard ever showed didn’t matter, nor would it ever matter to him. Alonzo didn’t know how it happened that he’d ever walked into her bakery by chance and found he couldn’t walk away. Fate maybe. Destiny. What were the odds of meeting a woman in San Antonio who was from a lair of leopards from Louisiana?

His leopard settled. Knew for certain Alonzo would never give Evangeline up. Not. Ever. Alonzo sighed inwardly. He would have to come to terms with the fact that he was a complete bastard. There would be no redemption for him. If he had a shred of decency in him he would walk out of the bakery and never go back, but the belief that someday he’d be strong enough to do that was in tatters with Joshua’s declaration.