She didn’t move. She hardly breathed. She just stared at him like he was a total stranger, not the man who had given her that all important first kiss. The one he could still taste in his mouth.

“Kitten,” he said softly.

That got a rise out of her. Her eyes had held just a hint of fear, pushing that blank, dead look – distant. The moment he’d uttered his chosen endearment for her, the name he called her when he was soft inside and wanted to pull her close and hold her forever, the look went from nearly blank to pure fury.

He felt her cat rise and his cat rose to meet hers, clawing and raking at his belly for freedom. He saw the telltale shine in her eyes, felt her body heat. His reacted, going hard, the male cat in him rising to the challenge of a female refusing to submit.

She gasped and pressed both hands to her stomach, dropping her head to breathe deep. He knew what she was doing and why. Catarina Benoit was terrified of her leopard. She was petrified. She didn’t want that gift and she was doing everything in her power to keep it at bay.

Eli smoothed his hand over her hair and helped her to sit up, all the while breathing his leopard back under control.

“Don’t call me that. Not ever again. You aren’t sweet and kind. Don’t use that voice, that lying voice. This is who you are. Violent. Rough. And a killer. You think I can’t see it in your eyes? Leopards are killing machines. That’s what they do. They hunt and they kill and that’s it.”

His leopard was far too close for a conversation like this one. Worse, she came close to the truth of it and that made him angry as well. “You left out fucking, Cat,” he snarled. “Leopards have lots and lots of sex.”

He set her back in the passenger seat and caught up the cuffs. She had gone very pale and shrank back against the seat, her eyes ringed with dark circles. She still looked broken and vulnerable in spite of her sudden fury. Her anger was gone completely. She looked defeated. Completely defeated. He hadn’t been going for that reaction either.

She put both hands in the air. “Please. Not again.” She didn’t look at him.

He took another deep breath, studying the long sweep of her lashes. “Cat, I can’t take any chances with you. I can cuff you to me or the bolt. You choose.” It was the best he could do. He had the feeling she planned to jump out of the truck on the highway when he was going at a high speed.

They were almost out of the car wash. “Choose, baby, and hurry.”

She extended the arm closest to him, turning her head to look out the window. “Just don’t talk to me anymore. I can’t take any more.”

That was a body blow. He could feel her trembling through the connection of metal. “Let’s just get somewhere safe where you can sleep,” he said. “No safe house or trying to get you to testify. Just sleep.”

She swallowed and nodded her head once. Eli supposed that was a better response than nothing. He’d taken the fight out of her, but she was battered and bruised emotionally. He set his teeth and went through the car wash a second time. The moment they were clean, he hit the highway.

He took them out of the city. “Malcom and David are safe. I told them both to get out of town for a while and take a long vacation. They both said they would.”

“Thank you.”

He hadn’t expected that. She sounded like she meant it.

“I didn’t know they’d gotten word to Cordeau. I didn’t have any idea they intended to.”

She didn’t respond. She kept her head turned away from him and he was afraid the tears were falling again. She made no sound, but that just made it worse. The way she held herself, he knew she wouldn’t accept comfort from him.

“I fucked up, Catarina. Big-time. I totally fucked up with you.”

She swallowed again, but she remained silent. He drove fast, heading for one of the three houses he kept for safety issues. No one knew about them, not even his friends. This one was situated on a hundred and twenty-five acres and was fairly remote. His ranch bordered another much larger one. The ranch was in his mother’s maiden name.

Catarina was asleep by the time he drove down a maze of roads to the dirt track that went to the house. He was grateful for that. She didn’t wake up, not even when he parked and sat there in the cab just inhaling her.

There had been something about her from the first moment he’d laid eyes on her. He was often undercover. He was good at it. He was leopard and he could sniff out lies and trail people with no problem. Catarina was correct when she’d said leopards were violent, rough and killing machines. He could kill fast and efficiently when needed, but he certainly didn’t kill indiscriminately. He’d chosen the side of the law for his hunting grounds.

Leopards were also fast and cunning, and he was every bit of that. Somewhere in the back of his head he had suspected Rafe Cordeau was a shifter. He couldn’t exactly blurt out that information to the team. They would probably freak if they knew about shifters in general, let alone that one was in their midst. He should have put two and two together the moment he met Catarina.

All the signs were there. In the dojo when she worked out, she was just that little bit too fast. She had power when she punched or kicked, real power. Her hair, wild silk that fell down her back like a waterfall, grew thick, much thicker than normal.

Eli uncuffed his hand and swung out of the truck to walk around to the passenger side. He really should have put it all together when he’d reacted to her. Not just physically, but emotionally as well. That never happened to him. Not once. Not on an assignment and not with any of the women he took to his bed.