Elijah swore at him in Spanish. When Drake made up his mind to do something, nothing could budge him. Besides, Elijah knew he was right. He pushed down his temper. “Gaton brought in a new crew. They’re probably resting in the bunkhouse. Joaquin and I are going there next the moment the house is clear. No sign of Gaton yet.”

“We’ll find him.” Drake was confident.

“Alonzo, you locate the leopards yet?” Elijah asked, as he began to sweep down the hallway of the upper story. Joaquin was clearing the other side and so far he’d been silent, but that didn’t tell anyone much. That was Joaquin’s way.

“Two factions,” Alonzo replied tersely. “I’m watching the ones who need killing. Three of them, and they love to hurt people. I caught part of the show with the woman. Man named Bart beat her with a whip. These three laughed and did a lot of crotch clutching. One jacked off. I’m killing him as soon as you give me the word. All I could do to stay put. Give me the word. I’ll take all three of them.”

“You wait. I’ll join you in another minute,” Elijah ordered. He understood. He would have wanted to kill the bastards after witnessing them torturing a woman and getting off on it. “Bart’s dead, if that makes you any happier.”

“Yeah. Makes me downright fuzzy. Eli’s following the other leopards. They weren’t happy with the show and left. Five of them.”

Elijah wasn’t surprised that the leopards weren’t mixing with the fully human soldiers. The shifters didn’t want to accidentally make a mistake and give themselves away. They’d have to kill the soldiers, and that didn’t make for good business. He was thankful that not all of Cordeau’s shifters allowed their savage natures to overcome their humanity.

If Joshua challenged for leadership of the lair and won the battle, defeating and killing Gaton, those five leopards would follow him. That would help immensely. Drake and Elijah were already spreading their own crew thin trying to cover all the bases, and Alonzo would need help when he took over the Arnotto territory.

Elijah stopped just outside the door right in the middle of the wide loft area overlooking the first story. There were two staircases, one to his left that he’d used and one to his right that Joaquin had crawled up. Joaquin had cleared every room on his side and found no one. He met Elijah at the middle door. The double door itself was ornate. According to Catarina’s plans, this was the master bedroom. Gaton’s room. He would have moved in the moment he was certain Cordeau wasn’t returning. Cordeau’s body—and those of his four leopard lieutenants—had never been found. Shifters were always burned and the remains buried deep.