One of her brothers snorted. The argument wasn’t getting him anywhere. Why had he thought her young and sweet and innocent? He had a damned tiger by the tail and he hadn’t even realized it. So much for Drake Donovan, the man whose instincts never failed him. He caught her wrist again. This time she was scrubbing the hell out of his chest. Their eyes met and he felt himself falling like a ton of brick. Dark, enormous eyes locked with his. All those golden flecks intrigued him, all that dark chocolate enticed him.

“You’re a very scary woman, Saria Boudreaux.” He touched the bruise on her face with gentle fingers. “How did this happen?”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re not distracted easily and never give up when you want something, do you?”

“You might want to remember that in the future.”

She sighed. “I hit my face on the side of the building. Jules is strong and I knew he’d freak if I got hurt. I couldn’t get out of his hold so I jerked toward the building. I didnn expect to hit quite so hard, but it worked. He let loose to catch me around the waist so I wouldn’t fall. He was all worried, so much so that it never occurred to him that I managed to pull my knife and lock it where it counted until I said somethin’ to him.”

“Poor man,” Gage muttered. “He shoulda been expectin’ you to pull somethin’ on him. I’m a little disappointed in him.”

“Take a look at my head before you go and feel sorry for that ass,” Lojos suggested indignantly. “He nearly killed me.”

“It’s a bump,” Mahieu corrected, but he once again checked his brother’s head.

“Pour a little of Saria’s disinfectant over it,” Drake suggested. “It’ll fix him right up.”

“Go to hell,” Lojos grumped.

“This disinfectant is good stuff,” Saria said. “In any case, I need to take a look at your back, Drake. Roll over.”

He groaned. “I don’t want to move.”

“You should have thought about that before you got in the fight.”

Drake opened one eye and looked at her. Her eyes had gone liquid as she looked at the injuries. His heart began to pound. “Baby,” he said softly, uncaring that her brothers—or anyone else heard him. “You can’t cry. Not now. You’ll break my heart.”

“You did this because of me.”

“I did this for me,” he corrected. “My leopard and I are one and the same. Fuckin’ idiots think they can intimidate the world. They shoved and I shoved back harder. That’s all. It will happen again.” He studied her slightly averted face. “Did I scare you?”