“I’ll get it for you. This is a lot to take in.” He stood, his eyes on her just in case, and walked to the sink.

She waited for him to fill a glass with water before feeling quickly under the table for the weapon taped there. The moment her fingers found it, she dropped her hands to her lap, twisting her fingers together. She knew he would focus on that. He hated that she couldn’t keep still when she was nervous or agitated.

Rafe set the water in front of her. “You were born for me. Every leopard has a mate, and you’re mine. I’ve always known it. This man who came into your life, I can understand why you would think you needed him, but he isn’t for you. He was never for you. Still, I do understand that you care for him.”

“Rafe, you’ve killed too many people I care about. David Belmont and Bernard Casey didn’t know a thing about me. They’re dead. Some stranger was murdered as well. I didn’t even know his name.”

“Some things are necessary, Catarina. You’re old enough and intelligent enough to understand that. You’ve got your explanations. It’s time to come home now.”

“And if I won’t go?”

“You’ll go. You’ll go because you belong there. You’ll come with me, because if you don’t, that man out there is going to die.”

“We both know he’ll come after me.” She said it quietly, watching his face.

He hit her. He hit her hard, open-handed, across her face, knocking her right out of the chair. Stars burst across her eyes. Pain radiated from her cheek to the top of her skull and down across her jaw. She hit the floor so hard it knocked the wind from her so that she couldn’t get air.

Rafe had often exploded into violence, one moment absolutely cold and controlled and the next, cold and vicious, capable of murder. He was on her so fast she didn’t have time to even roll away from him. He slammed the toe of his shoe into her side, kicking her several times.

Pain blasted through her body. She couldn’t think. Couldn’t rise. Couldn’t get away from the savage attack. It was so fast, so unexpected, all she could do was curl into a ball and try to protect her stomach and ribs. Instinctively, both hands covered her abdomen as her knees drew up for added protection.

He crouched down beside her, gripping her hair and yanking her head toward him. He slapped her three more times, the sound loud, the blows hard. When she managed to look at him, his eyes were all cat, his leopard close.

“You let him fuck you, right here. Right in this room where you cook him meals that should have been mine. Did you think I wouldn’t smell the two of you? You let him touch you. You knew you belonged to me. You had no right allowing him to put his hands on you let alone his dick in you. You allowed his leopard to claim yours. Your leopard belonged to mine. Did you really think for one moment, I’d leave that man alive?” He snarled the questions at her, but his expression didn’t change.

She didn’t move. She didn’t dare. He was too far gone into his world of violence and madness. She reached for air, prayed that Eli had somehow executed his plan and had gotten away from Rafe’s lieutenants.

Rafe reached under the table to find the gun taped there. He pulled it out and showed it to her. “Were you looking for this? Were you planning to shoot me, Catarina?” He slapped her again. Hard. Once, twice. His expression never changed.

She’d seen him deliver this kind of punishment to those who worked for him, but he’d never laid a hand on her. She knew why everyone was so terrified of him. The viciousness when he appeared so remote and cold was worse than any anger he could display.

She felt her leopard rise close to the surface, fur pushing at her skin as the animal tried to save her. Not yet. Not yet. She tried to soothe the little female. She needed just a few more minutes. Rafe wasn’t going to kill her. He planned on killing Eli, probably in front of her, that would be the only way he’d be satisfied. She would take whatever punishment Rafe gave her in order to give Eli the chance he needed to escape.

Rafe dragged her up by her hair. “You’re coming home with me. That bastard is going to die, and it will be a very long time before I forgive what you’ve done. Don’t you ever threaten your own life again, Catarina. I can hurt you in ways you can’t even imagine, and I will if I have to. There are other people you don’t want dead. Think about them before you ever do something like this again.”

Pain crashed through her. She could barely think. She allowed him to shove her toward the screen door, keeping her hands wrapped around her middle, her fingers settling on the side zipper of her camisole. She’d practiced. She was fast. Very fast. Eli had been relentless, making her practice stripping and shifting on the run over and over for hours each day. She had thought he was a little overboard but now she was grateful.

Rafe kept his fingers around her upper arm. Hard. Digging into her flesh. A vise she knew she couldn’t just yank away from. But her leopard could. She just had to figure out a way to rid herself of the camisole.

He opened the screen and thrust her outside, coming right behind her, never losing contact. Dawn had spread light through darkness. Her gaze went straight to Eli, his body still hanging, battered and streaked with blood. For a moment her heart pounded. She thought he was dead. She bit back a scream of denial.

Rafe shoved her toward the end of the porch. She stumbled, keeping her gaze on Eli. When she stumbled, Rafe let go of her. She tore the zipper down and ripped the camisole over her head, shoved the skirt from her hips and kicked it away as she leapt past one of Rafe’s lieutenants who was sitting absolutely still in the chair on the porch. He hadn’t even registered in her vision before.