Rio arrived at dawn, dragging her into his arms, raining kisses over her face. Elijah was with him, real and solid, hugging her hard, telling her how brave she was.

“Did it work? Did he go back to Armando and tell him I was living here alone and you didn’t know about it?” Rachael’s voice was muffled against Rio’s shirt. She inhaled him, touched him, needing to feel his enormous strength when she felt so fragile.

“It worked, Rachael,” Elijah assured. “He went back to Armando like the good little spy and reported everything he saw.”

“I felt how eager he was to kill me,” she said. “I don’t know what he would have done if Kim and Tama hadn’t shown up.”

“I did too,” Rio acknowledged. “He was in my sights the entire time. He never had a chance, sestrilla.”

“Now what do we do?” Rachael asked.

“Tama and Kim are going to escort you to their village. You’ll be safe with them. Armando will send his men back here to the hut and they’ll find it empty. They’ll stake it out thinking you’ll come back. In the meantime, we have to get rid of his big-game hunters. It looks as if Armando instructed them to bag him a leopard. He knows he can’t take Elijah at his camp with all the guards there, but he believes Elijah is shifting at night and hunting for signs of you.”

Elijah grinned at her. His gaze remained flat and cold. “It’s like him to bring in professional hunters. He couldn’t very well tell them I’m a shifter. That would take away one of his big secrets.”

“The hunters staked out a goat hoping to draw in a leopard. There aren’t supposed to be any big leopards in these parts, only the clouded leopard and the smaller cats. We don’t want to take the chance on any other leopard prowling around getting killed. We sent out the word, but we can’t be too careful.”

“Four big-game hunters?” Rachael echoed. “You mean men who hunt big cats for a living? That’s like Armando. I should have guessed he’d do that.”

Elijah touched her shoulder gently. “I knew he would. We’re prepared for it. You’ll be safe with Tama and Kim.”

“Don’t you think the leopard spy will come back to watch me? I should be here, where he can give his little daily reports to Armando.”