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"Baby"--he cupped her face with his hand, his thu over her skin--"don't look so sad I swear to you, I would never harave yourself to ave myself to you All of me Please have an open mind Please"

She stared into his eyes and wanted desperately to believe him That face That voice Those eyes If his eyes s to his soul, right now his soul was shattered

"The Bogoh an accident An accident I didn't tell them I wouldn't have wanted the you're alive gives theh I have so to lose"

She slipped away froet lost in sex was fairly high She had toa T-shirt over her head, she shimmied into a pair of jeans while he did the same He held out his hand to her She hesitated a heartbeat Two It was ireen eyes were so coers around hers and led her out of the rooreat room

"Do you want a fire?"

She shook her head and sank into the wide-ar the seat he preferred He took it and leaned forward "You know that no matter how many times the head of the snake is chopped off, another crime lord rises and takes his place There is no way to stop that There will always be criminals, people ant to take froal activity of some kind"

She nodded, pressing her hand to her churning sto to make excuses for what he'd become

His gaze dropped to her hand and then caory for omolov family are Amur leopards from Russia The man known as Alonzo Massi is actually from Russia and was a part of the bratya there He is also leopard There are a few leopard lairs in the bratya They are the cruelest of crime lords"

She knew Nikita was cruel She had seen his orders carried out when men had come to kill her father

"In their lairs, they refuse to find their truethen of loyalty to the bratya"

"Nikita's wife?"

He nodded "Hefor you He doesn't get either of you"

She touched the tip of her tongue to her lips, trying to moisten them "What about you, Joshua, do you think because you aren't killingcrimes"

He nodded "I know I a that It's necessary to keep up the illusion of being in this business I can only shut down the worst of the criminals I do it quietly and slowly from the inside, so it isn't really noticed I have an explanation ready if any of the other bosses questionto take down the worst of the bosses Men like Nikita If the cri stays there, we let it go If it leaks out and aspree, we take hi you this can get a lot of good men killed"

She frowned, trying to process what he was saying "An undercover agent?" She wasn't certain she could believe that, although Drake Donovan's agency had sent him in more than once undercover if his stories could be believed

He shook his head "No, taking down a crime lord that way leaves the territory open for an even worse boss We prefer to make the rules as best we can and keep the worst out"

"I still don't understand Are you saying that you and so to weed out the 'bad' ones?"

He sainst the leather, his eyes on her face "Put like that, it sounds silly, but the reality works We have so He does it legitiitimate way; usually we hack the We shut down hu wherever we find it, and that is a h other territories and that makes it easier to monitor them"

"Essentially, you're working both sides of the fence"

He nodded "Exactly We have to appear, at all times, as if we are the head of a territory to the other bosses We ith theet to know the ship them in their businesses and books We can weaken territories The erous, is take down men like Nikita"

"The cops think you're dirty"

"We are dirty"

"But if the other , they'd kill you"

He nodded slowly "Without a doubt I won't lie about that" He kept his gaze glued to hers

She felt the intensity of that stare right to her core Every word sounded like the absolute truth, but ould be that crazy? Both sides, criminal and laould hunt Joshua

"It's a risk, baby, but soh the roof The violence is escalating Someone has to find a way to stop it In any case, there will always be those rising to power Power corrupts Greed, violence, drugs, alcohol, all of it feeds into a pool of criminals We fill any void and control the borders, so to speak, keeping the criminals as much in their oorld and away from civilians as we can"

"You have a white knight syndroht it's scary Don't you see how truly insane what you're trying to do really is? You can't control what others choose to do You just can't"

"The answer is to ignore it? Do you have any idea what is done to those women and children? We've stopped them, over and over We haven't saved them all, maybe we haven't even slowed it down, but we've stopped soot back We've kept guns fro to terrorist cells over and over That counts as well We've weakened territories, we've messed with books We've turned over evidence to the FBI and found dirty cops and turned over evidence on them"

"They'll kill you if they find out it's you"

He shrugged "I had no idea you existed, Sonia I searched for you and couldn't find you My family is truly fucked up and I wanted little to do with theeline Ironically, she wanted little to do with me"

"Does she know the truth about you?"

"She knows the truth about her husband, and that means she knows the truth aboutto do with the Tregres You talk about vile, ugly people, that would be my family Other than my mother She was the best"

She sent hilad I wish I'd had the chance to meet her"

"I do too, although she would never have approved of what I', and she'd most likely have told you to run for the hills"

"I tried that It didn't work"

"You have a nasty little te"

She shrugged "He deserved it And ain"

"Leopards are rough, baby," he said softly

"Maybe, but he was angry with her"

"She didn't believe hi you so afraid of me I couldn't take it I never want you to look at ain" He leaned toward her "Do you believe what I' to you? Because if you don't, if you want evidence, I'll get it for you I'll do whatever it takes so you knoith ive you that I don't want you to have one small doubt in your mind Tell me how to do that"

She stared at hierous and so like hi

ht Atone his, but he wasn't a liar He wasn't a betrayer Joshua's loyalty ran deep His sense of duty He wasn't lying to her He loved her She chose to believe him because every cell in her body, every instinct she had, said he was telling her the truth and he loved her

She had to believe She had to push aside the hurt and fears fro across from her She could read him, that face, so fah to stay with hile day She had no idea if she would have the strength to walk ahen she kneas doing things that were very wrong

"I believe you I don't know exactly what to do with it, but I believe you"

He went still, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing For a ht the shimmer of tears in his eyes, and that colittered at her, going a deep crystalline blue that always took her breath

He wasn't going to give in to the e her breath, ready to follow his lead to get them out of this moment neither could handle She kneould be sex, because sex was his go-to when he needed to be close to her Right now, she needed to be very close to hi She didn't knohat she would do or say if he asked her the wrong question before she processed everything completely

"Since we're covering everything, I' in front of my men At All You were stark naked I promised myself I would put you over my knee for that"

A little shiver went down her spine, but she lifted her chin and narrowed her eyes at him

"In today's society, adults have evolved, and they don't hit their children or their wohtiest look

"I'm leopard and our society hasn't evolved that far, so you're in very real danger"

"Well, don't even think about doing so like that I'd retaliate"

His eyes went pure crystalline That sea of blue made her breath catch in her throat A slow s the harsh lines "Hoould you retaliate, baby?" His voice had dropped low Intis