She shook her head. “I wanted to hire him as a bodyguard. Before. Not now when I know Paolo wants war with you. With anyone who is helping me. With my grandfather dead there is going to be a fight for the businesses. Alonzo may be working with Paolo now, but believe me, he’s looking to take over. That means he’s looking at me.”

“Mi corazon, go with Drake.” Elijah gently pushed her toward the other man.

Drake immediately took charge as Elijah turned away, shepherding Siena back into the vehicle with its bulletproof glass and heavy armor on the body. Elijah wouldn’t have trusted Siena to too many other men. He believed in Drake and knew the man would guard her with his life.

Joshua joined him. He’d done a quick search around the house, looking for scent and tracks. “Someone was here. The front and back doors are rigged to blow the moment you open them. Whoever did this knows what they’re doing. They didn’t go into the house. The bomb is below the deck itself and wired to the door so that when it swings open, whoever is in the near vicinity scatters to the winds.”

Elijah nodded and went to investigate for himself. He’d met both Paolo and Alonzo on several occasions. He knew Paolo had been the male leopard attacking Siena at the Arnotto estate. He said as much to Joshua. “This doesn’t smell like either of them.”

Joshua had followed him, slipping beneath the deck so they could both examine the device. “He knows what he’s doing,” Joshua said. “It’s going to take some work to remove this safely. Whoever put this here doesn’t care if Siena dies as well.”

“Not necessarily. I doubt anyone would suspect she would come home with me. I was questioned in her grandfather’s murder. It was all over the news,” Elijah pointed out. “It was only by coincidence that I had gone to Eli’s that night.” To talk to him. To get drunk. To tell him how badly he’d fucked up.

Eli Perez’s land bordered both his and Jake’s properties. Eli was an ex–DEA agent. The cops investigating Antonio Arnotto’s murder had to believe him. Eli’s wife, Caterina, vouched for him as well. Paolo’s plan of implicating him had gone up in smoke thanks to the fact that he’d felt so guilty over his treatment of Siena—and he’d needed help to dispose of Marco’s body. Marco had been leopard as well, one of Antonio’s oldest friends. The body had to be incinerated so there was no evidence of a leopard.