He followed Joshua under the deck. The device was the same as it had been on the front door. Robert Gaton had covered his bets by rigging either door to blow. He considered what would have happened had he opened the front door with Siena in his arms. They both would have died.

A cold rage snaked through him. He was familiar with that feeling. He had waited years to avenge his parents. He’d played his part and developed his strength right under his uncle’s nose. He had patience for revenge. The man who had struck Siena, leaving bruises and fractured ribs, the leopard that had torn her flesh open, and now this man, they would all go down, just as his uncle had.

He didn’t believe in the justice system. He’d seen it bought and paid for too many times. He wasn’t going to trust anyone with Siena’s safety, not completely, not even Drake. He would oversee everything.

Siena didn’t have a chance, and he recognized that. Owned it. He was a man with a passionate nature and a savage but cold-as-ice temper, but he’d learned a few things about himself he hadn’t known since he’d been with Siena. He could be possessive and jealous, two traits he had never considered would ever be in his nature. Being dominating and controlling was inherent, bred deep, but it was really solidified with his upbringing.

Siena was his. His. He was rough and mean and expected those around him to obey him without question. Siena wasn’t going to do that. He could tell her nature would rebel if he came at her wrong. Still, she was his.

He had never been moved by a woman’s tears. He considered tears a manipulative weapon. Until Siena. Her tears had undone him. He’d ordered her to stop, not because he thought she was trying to control or sway him in some way, but because her weeping was truly heartbreaking. In the end he’d needed to hold her more than she needed to be held.

Siena brought out things in him he didn’t know were there, and truthfully, it was a little frightening. She stripped him bare, exposing raw emotion. He kept his emotions under tight control at all times, but with her, he couldn’t do it. He’d lost control when he’d taken her innocence and when she’d cried . . .

“Got it,” Joshua said. “What are you going to do about this, Elijah?”

Elijah kept his features carefully blank. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. The bomb? Hand it over to Drake.”

“About Robert Gaton,” Joshua said patiently, his cool gaze drilling into Elijah’s. “And don’t give me crap that you’re not going to do anything. You’re going to hunt him down, just as you’re going to hunt Paolo and Alonzo.”