“I told him how intelligent you are, Catarina,” he admitted. “When we were talking at the fence line with Elijah, you said something that made me realize just how smart you really are. You educated yourself right under Cordeau’s nose. You were able to get into his safe, and you managed to escape more than once. You lived with him, Cat. Right there. You made yourself disappear and no one noticed you, but you were there, listening, learning and you know every connection he has. Everyone who does business with him. You know which of his men are leopards and which aren’t. I’m betting you know his deals and how to follow the money trail.”

He watched her carefully as he spoke. This was the worst for him. She knew what was coming, she was too intelligent not to know. He saw the reaction in her eyes. The wariness and suspicion. He hadn’t wanted to discuss this with her for that very reason. He didn’t ever want to see that look in her eyes.

She didn’t speak. She kept looking at him.

Eli sighed and pushed his fingers through his hair. “Baby, I don’t want to have this conversation with you. I know you can’t help but think I’m speaking on behalf of the DEA, but I’m not. Rafe Cordeau can never be taken into custody. There can be no prosecution. When he’s found, he’s got to die and his body be burned. He’s leopard. A shifter. A rogue. We have no choice but to hunt him. That’s what we’ve been doing. Jake’s men and me, trying to get a line on his whereabouts. We have to find him before the law thinks they have enough on him to arrest him.”

She kept looking at him. Watching him. She didn’t blink and he could see her leopard there. The stillness. The focus. Eli cursed silently. Cursed Jake. Cursed himself for ever mishandling the situation with her. For betraying her trust.

“Jake takes down businesses. He takes them apart. He hunts and destroys differently than the law. He can bring down Cordeau’s business partners and find the money with your help. That’s it. That’s everything. I don’t like it, but it can be done if you want to cooperate. We’re not talking a court of law here. We’re just saying we can take down that entire network Cordeau built so no one else can step into his shoes when he’s gone.”

Her lashes swept down, veiling the look in her eyes, but her face was pale. “I can’t breathe right now.”

His heart stuttered. He reached out to touch her but she drew back, shaking her head. “Kitten. Let me help you.”

She shook her head. “I can’t breathe. I just can’t.”

His heart broke for her.

Abruptly, Catarina stood, a fluid, easy movement, all cat. She pulled the shirt over her head and flung it onto the chair even as she leapt off the porch into the rain. She was fast. He was faster. She ran, naked, shifting on the run just as Eli had taught her. A thing of beauty. A creature who had come into her own. She was running on bare feet one moment and on four paws the next.

He shifted with her, keeping pace just behind her, the larger male protective, but staying back to let her work it out in her mind. Eli knew she had submerged herself in the little female. She needed time to process what he’d told her. He wished she would have flung herself into his arms and clung to him, but whatever she needed, including space, he would provide. He didn’t have to like it, but he’d do it.

The rain slid off her fur, feeling like thousands of fingers brushing over her thick coat. Catarina sank deep inside her leopard, just allowing sensations to penetrate. Her little female was happy to run free, to give her human time to process. She ran to protect Catarina from the overwhelming grief and fear. Catarina could feel her leopard’s determination to surround her and keep her safe from everything and everyone – including the large male prowling behind them.

It’s all right, Cat whispered to her leopard. He’s giving me time. He knows I need this. He’s just making certain we’re safe.

He was. She knew she was right. Eli wasn’t trying to pressure her into spilling everything she knew about Rafe. Why then, was she so reluctant to help others destroy him? He’d just killed three innocent human beings who knew absolutely nothing about her whereabouts. He’d tortured them, and he’d kill others to find her. Bernard and Jase had nothing really to do with her. They’d exchanged a few words. But David… She wanted to scream with anguish.

What was wrong with her that she didn’t leap on the chance to help Jake and Eli? She had to know why, because something was wrong with her that she couldn’t turn completely on Rafe when she knew nothing – no one – could save him.

She ran in the rain, listening to the sounds of the drops hitting the leaves and the ground. There was a rhythm there that soothed her. Even within her leopard, holding herself still as she waited for her heart to slow and her eyes to quit burning, the rain reached her and calmed her.

Rafe had no one else. No one to love him. No one to care whether he was alive or dead. No one loyal to him, not without his money and fear of him. He was alone. She had felt the weight of that since she was a child. She’d tried so hard to get him to care for her. Nothing had worked – at least she hadn’t thought that it did, not when she was a child and needed someone to care about her.

Her leopard cleared a large tree trunk down across the path. Smoothly. Easily. Landing lightly without a sound. Eli had taught her how to move through the heavy brush silently, stealthily, pulling in every bit of information her surroundings could give her. He wanted her to have every advantage. He’d prepared her. He hadn’t thumped his chest and told her to stay in the safe house, instead, he’d been tough on her. Conditioning with her, running every day, teaching her martial arts. Shooting with her on the range. Using weapons. Climbing boulders.