This time she let him remove her clothing. His fingers brushed her skin and she jumped a little, but remained still. There were puncture wounds on her breasts and at the junction of her legs, a strike at him, Conner was certain, but the real damage was the mottled bruising coming up under her skin.

He closed his eyes for a moment, breathing deep, breathing away the combined rage of the leopard and the man. He waited until he was completely under control. “You know I’m going to kill him.”

She sank into the heated tub, shivering, the blood slowly turning the water pink. “That’s what he wants. Let’s just get the children and leave.”

“You aren’t coming with us, Isabeau. It’s too dangerous and you’re in no shape. Tomorrow you won’t be able to move.”

Her gaze jumped to his face. “You’re not leaving me alone. Not again. And I’ll be even more of an asset to the team. Imelda and her crew will think Elijah did this to me and they’ll be happy that he’s like them. It will be one more thing to make her let down her guard enough to give us a little rein in her territory. Besides, I’m the one her grandfather talked to about gardens. He said he had one. That’s outside. He’ll expect me to go out with him and see it. My cat can smell as well as yours. I’ll find them while Elijah and Marcos talk alliances and you look tough.”

Pride burst through him along with the desire to weep. Isabeau was down, but not out. Ottila had shaken her, but she had never lost sight of what she was about or who she was. He hoped she could move in the morning, but he doubted it. Watching her shivering, trying not to weep while he cleaned the wounds and treated them, he knew Ottila was a dead man.

A man capable of doing such damage to a woman just to prove a point would come at them again and again. It would never be over until he was stopped permanently. There was no point in stating the fact to Isabeau. She was too afraid of the man—but Conner wasn’t.

Chapter 19

19

“ARE you certain Isabeau can handle this?” Leonardo asked Conner as they drove down the narrow road along the edge of the rain forest. He studied Conner’s grim features in the dim light streaming in through the tinted windows.