The relief Remy felt at seeing Bijou alive made him feel weak. He was grateful he was lying on his belly, stretching his weight along the bank to keep it from crumbling. That gave him an excuse not to stand, because at that precise moment he wasn’t altogether certain he could. He didn’t like the close proximity of the other male. His leopard liked it even less, raging and snarling as wild and hard to control as Remy had ever known him to be.

Bijou had to be close to the emerging for his leopard to be so difficult. That, and the scare she’d given them. When he’d seen the tracks of the SUV going over the bank, the cut ropes and saw the mess the stalker had made of her car, he’d felt physically ill.

“I have more rope in the trunk of my car, Remy,” Bijou said. “If you thread it through the master anchor we have on the tree and knot it, using the same knots, we can climb out of here.”

“No problem,” Remy said, and slithered backward until he was certain he wouldn’t bring the cliff down on top of them when he stood up.

Gage came striding through the cypress grove. “What the hell happened here, Remy?” He demanded. “Is your woman alive? Okay?”

“If he has a woman, she isn’t here,” Bijou called. “Should I expect la famille to show up, all one hundred of you, because I can assure you, I’m not adequately dressed for company.”

“I have a woman,” Remy snapped between his teeth, “and she’s extremely difficult. You should have stayed put, Blue.” He walked quickly away before he erupted in temper. The leopard was pushing so hard he wanted to leap down and shake her. She’d scared him past anything he’d ever known before. Or his leopard. However it worked, they were connected, and she didn’t have the right to run off because she was a little uncomfortable with how her first time had gone.

“Of course you can expect la famille to show up. We get in each other’s business. It’s what we do best,” Gage called down to her, unapologetic. “Glad you’re alive there, Bijou. Who’s your friend?”

Remy halted in midstride. Yeah. Just who was her friend? What the hell were they doing together? And why would her leopard even allow him in such close proximity? He was going to have trouble with Bijou Breaux.

“Stop snarlin’,” Gage advised softly. “She’s obviously gone through hell, Remy. That leopard of yours is gettin’ out of control.”

“Arnaud Lefevre is with me,” Bijou called out. “His SUV was driven over the side with all of his things by that crazy person.”