L06 Leopard's Prey Read online

  “I lied. I lied,” Robert admitted, holding the side of his face. Blood seeped through his fingers and trickled down his arms. “I did know she was leopard. It was obvious at one point. I didn’t want Jean or Juste to think I’d turned on them.”

  There it was—exactly where Drake had been leading Robert all along. Had Robert not claimed his loyalty was to the lair, Drake would have challenged him in a battle between leopards and Robert surely would have died. As it was, he had to answer any questions Remy or Drake posed, whether he liked it or not. Drake had been careful to keep every subject in the context of lair business. That was what Remy admired most about Drake. His leopard might be enraged, but he always kept his cool and thought clearly through every crisis. That trait was what made him such a great leader.

  “I see,” Drake said. Deliberately he allowed the silence to stretch out, until Robert squirmed in his chair. “I’m going to give you one chance to come clean. We know about the break-ins, Robert. I want you to give Remy every detail. Every piece of evidence you can provide, anything at all that will help him put those men behind bars.”

  The color drained out of Robert’s face. He opened his mouth but Drake held up his hand to stop him from speaking.

  “One chance, Robert. I’ll know if you lie. Remy will know if you lie. You have a death sentence hanging over your head, so whatever the Rousseau brothers have on you, it will never be as bad as what I’ll do to you. Start talking.”

  Robert licked his suddenly dry lips. Immediately Saria left the room to get him a drink of water. He swallowed several times. “They’ll kill me. They like to kill. They both call themselves bokor, a kind of priest for voodoo black magic. I don’ know if they really know what they’re doin’, but they hold regular rituals out in the swamp and sacrifice animals. They love to cut the heads off of chickens and spray the blood around. They call on demons. They even have a human skull they use for their rituals.”

  He confessed in a rush and gratefully took the glass of water Saria handed to him, drinking it down almost in one gulp. He almost sounded relieved to be telling someone, anyone. “They’re crazy, you know. But smart. Real smart. They have eyes and ears everywhere.” He shivered. “Maybe they really have demons looking out for them. I swear, they’re the devil on earth.”

  “They masterminded the gang robbing and beatings of the elderly,” Remy stated.

  Robert nodded. “We all had to participate. I joined not knowin’ what I was getting into. It seemed like a party at first, the initiation and all. They promised huge amounts of money and great kicks. Ryan Cooper and Brent Underwood both told me I’d make tons of money. So I went with them.”

  “Went where?” Remy prompted.

  “They have this place in the swamp where they conduct their rituals.” His entire body shuddered, and he lifted the glass to his mouth, not realizing it was empty. “They took me out there blindfolded the first time. We were all drinkin’ and then Jean and Juste began to undress and got naked except for loincloths. Both drew intricate symbols in the dirt. I laughed, thinkin’ it was all part of the party until I noticed no one else was laughin’ and the others looked scared.”

  Robert shook his head and drew his hand over his face as if wiping the memory away. “They cut the throat of a pig and watched it bleed out, dancin’ around and invokin’ some demon, and then they painted us with the blood of the pig.” He looked at Remy with stricken eyes. “Once in, you can’t ever get out.”

  “Did Ryan Cooper want out?” Remy asked.

  “Coop was always talkin’ like he was goin’ to get out if Jean and Juste didn’t give him a bigger cut, but it was all talk. He didn’t want to chance crossin’ them any more than the rest of us. He didn’t want the money to stop, but he thought he should get more than the rest of us because he did a lot of the beatings. Brent and I kind of hung back most of the time. Juste and Jean liked hurtin’ people and every single time it seemed to get worse. I was afraid they’d kill someone. It was almost as if they each tried to outdo the other.”

  “Your leopard could tear both of them apart,” Drake pointed out.

  Robert shook his head. “They’re demons. The devil. No one can stop them. I’ve seen them do things no one can do.”

  “How is it we don’ catch the scent of anyone but the Rousseau brothers in the break-ins?” Remy asked.

  Robert ducked his head, refusing to meet Remy’s eyes.

  “You gave them Charisse Mercier’s experiment that masks all scent, didn’t you?” Remy prompted.

  “I had to contribute somethin’,” Robert burst out. “I had to. I wasn’t beatin’ up old people. And if I didn’t do somethin’ to help, they were goin’ after Dion.” He looked up at his leader. “That’s the gospel truth, Drake. I was in way over my head.”

  “You should have come to me,” Drake stated. “You have a responsibility to this lair as well as to your brother and the community.” There was no sympathy in his voice and no back up in him. “The Rousseau brothers clearly are a threat to everyone in your community. There’s no excuse for not coming forward.”

  Robert pushed his forehead into the heel of his hand. “You don’ know them.” His voice was filled with loathing and despair. “They’ll kill Dion and me. They’ll use their voodoo magic and kill us both.”

  “Is there a stash of stolen articles somewhere?” Remy asked.

  “In the swamp where they conduct their rituals,” Robert said. “But you’ll never stop them, Remy. They really have made a pact with the demons, and they’re protected. They can get away with anything.”

  “Have they been to Europe?”

  Robert blinked several times. He frowned. “Why? What has that got to do with anything?”

  “Just answer him,” Drake snapped.

  “They’ve mentioned traveling in Europe,” Robert said hastily.

  “Is Bijou a particular favorite of theirs? Do they listen to her music a lot?” Remy demanded.

  Robert nodded. “They’re kind of obsessed with her. They play her stuff all the time.” He ducked his head to avoid eye contact again. “They’ve been tryin’ to get onto the crew workin’ on her new apartment so they could put in cameras and maybe a few ways to get in without anyone knowin’.”

  Remy turned away to keep from leaping on the man. Robert was leopard. He knew Bijou was. It had become evident to all of them in the club, and yet he hadn’t immediately come forward to report a threat toward one of their women. Fingertips burned. His jaw ached. He was close, so close. His leopard was strong and territorial. Also protective. All his life he’d had to work at keeping his leopard in check. Robert was making it very difficult. Any threat to Bijou could not be tolerated.

  He took several deep breaths to keep control, breathing away his leopard’s rage. “Have they gotten onto the work crew?” It helped that Bijou rubbed the middle of his back in a soothing pattern. He could hear her breathing and it hadn’t changed. She was used to threats, he realized. Threats were a daily occurrence for her. That was why she hadn’t gone to the authorities when her stalker had escalated his behavior. She was just too used to threats.

  “Not yet,” Robert answered. “But they were arrangin’ an accident so that the contractor would be shorthanded. Tom and Ryan were supposed to help them with that.”

  “Tom Berlander?” Remy guessed. Berlander hung out with Ryan Cooper and Brent Underwood as well as the Rousseau brothers, so it was easy enough to guess, but Remy wanted Robert’s clear identification.

  Robert nodded. “He’s gotten pretty violent, along with Ryan. Brent hangs back as much as possible. He’s even claimed he’s been sick when we were supposed to hit a place.” He sighed and shook his head, slumping a little more. “I don’ know how you’re goin’ to catch Jean and Juste. No one can catch them. They work at the houses and the people they work for love them. They would never suspect them. They leave their prints everywhere on purpose. The elderly couples would go to court and say how wonderful they are. Jean and Juste actually
bring them groceries and pick up medications, all the while laughin’, knowin’ they’re goin’ to rob and beat them.”

  Remy’s stomach knotted. The more he heard, the more he wanted his leopard to meet the Rousseau brothers out in the swamp.

  “Do you know if they’re the ones committing these murders and harvestin’ bones?” Remy asked.

  Robert frowned, remaining silent, clearly thinking it over. Finally he shrugged. “I don’ know, but they have human bones there in the swamp. I’ve seen them.” He looked straight at Remy, honesty on his face and in his voice and eyes. “If they did, they would never be sorry. They like hurting animals and watching the life fade out of them. They like beating the old people and knowin’ they had their trust. They really travel in the company of demons, just like they claim, and once you’ve made a pact with them, even if you were drunk and didn’t mean it, you can never be free of them.”

  “Is that why you began drinkin’ so much, Robert? And doin’ drugs? To live with the things you were doin’? You knew they were wrong,” Remy said.

  Robert nodded, pressing his fingers to his eyes, shaking his head. “I got in too deep, Remy. There was nowhere to go.”

  “That’s bullshit, Robert,” Drake snarled. He began to pace back and forth. “You’re a member of this lair. There is no excuse not to inform me of what is happening in our territory. You say they threatened your brother. He’s a member and under my protection. You knew you should come to me. If I hear another lie coming out of your mouth, I’ll take your damned head off and consequences be damned.”

  Robert pushed back in his chair, his face nearly frozen with fear. “I could get drugs any time I wanted. Drugs, alcohol, even women. Ryan had a thing going with Juste and Jean at the strip joint where he worked and the women did whatever he said. I had money and just about anything else I wanted and I just told myself I was keeping Dion safe.”

  “Are you sayin’ the Rousseau brothers are also runnin’ a prostitution ring?” Remy demanded.

  “No. No.” Robert shook his head. “No one pays them. They’re strippers. They do what Jean and Juste say to do.”

  “Out of fear? Do the brothers threaten the women?”

  Robert squirmed. “I don’ want to talk about this. They’re just strippers. I never paid for sex. They put out whenever they’re told.”

  Saria gasped and made a soft growl in the back of her throat. Her dark chocolate eyes had gone nearly gold, a bad sign.

  Bijou’s fingers dug into Remy’s back. He felt her tremble, but not with fear, more with rage. Her breath felt hot on the back of his neck and just for one moment, fur brushed over his exposed skin. She breathed deeply, pulling her leopard back, getting her under control.

  Remy was proud of her. He knew Saria could hold back her leopard, but Bijou was new to the world of leopards, and yet she instinctively exerted dominion over her cat. Tension ran high in the room. The male leopards moved just below the surface of their human counterparts, enraged at the sniveling male who acted as if it was perfectly all right to force a woman to do his bidding simply because she worked as an exotic dancer.

  “We’re goin’ to talk about it,” Remy snapped, his voice unusually gravelly. “Whether you like it or not. Women who work in clubs don’ have to have sex with men because the men demand it. They have the right to say no. Why would you think otherwise?”

  Drake prowled up and down the room, coiled and ready. He shot Robert a glare from nearly golden eyes. “Be very careful about lying, Robert. I’ve run out of patience with you.”

  Robert shrank back in his chair, his face going pale. “It’s not like we have a lot of women around here, and the ones we do have are taken. Those strippers expect to have to put out. It comes with the territory.”

  “How did they get the girls to cooperate?” Remy persisted.

  “One girl, Candy Jacobson, refused when Ryan tried to fuck her out in the alley. She even slapped his face. Juste beat the livin’ daylights out of her. He wanted the other girls to see what would happen if they said no. He made certain the others saw her, he took them to her room and then she disappeared. He told everyone she left town, but . . .” He trailed off, shaking his head and looking up at Remy with fear.

  “You believe she’s dead,” Remy prompted.

  Robert nodded. “Brent and I went to the swamp early the day she disappeared. Jean and Juste kept their stash of drugs there and we both were hurtin’. There was supposed to be a job that night. Neither one of us wanted to go and we thought if we got wasted, it would be easier.”

  “And?” Remy insisted through gritted teeth.

  “The brothers had weighted somethin’ down and shoved it underwater. Both of us caught a glimpse of red material. Candy had been wearin’ a red nightgown in her bed when Juste and Jean brought the other girls in to see her.”

  “You knew they killed this woman and you still didn’t come forward?” Remy demanded.

  “You really are a worthless human being and an even worse leopard,” Drake snarled.

  “I didn’t know for certain,” Robert defended his inaction. “I wasn’t about to try to bring up whatever the Rousseaus had put in the water.”

  Remy felt Bijou press her face against his back. The anger had faded to be replaced by something altogether different. Fear had a distinct smell to it, and Bijou was afraid. His world was dark and violent. Most of the time he lived in the shadows. He tracked murderers and spent his time looking at crime scenes. Bijou lived very differently. She was alone a lot, but in some ways she was protected from the outside world. On tour she’d had a team of bodyguards to watch over her.

  Being newly introduced to the world of leopards she had to be a little freaked out. Robert was no example of what they were like, she had to know that, but the rage in both Remy and Drake was tangible and that had to scare her. If nothing else, she had to consider whether or not she wanted to live in a world where the rules were kill or be killed. Make a mistake and the law of the jungle was brought down on one’s head. Robert was under a death sentence, and it wasn’t just talk. The more he revealed the extent of and his attitude toward the crimes he’d committed, the worse it was for him. No leopard could be jailed for long. The results would be catastrophic. To protect their lair and all of their kind, a rotten apple like Robert had to be dealt with immediately and permanently.

  Remy wanted to comfort Bijou, but there was no way to do that. He glanced at his sister. There were tears in her eyes. She knew Robert had dug himself a deep hole. Robert and Dion had always been her friends. She had to be wondering how he could sink so low so fast.

  Leopards didn’t tolerate drugs or alcohol. Most of the time none of the shifters bothered because one had to really suppress his leopard to feel the effects, and it took a lot. Robert had clearly chosen drugs and alcohol over his own leopard—another major sin in their world.

  “Robert,” Remy said quietly. He kept breathing deep to keep his own leopard in check. The animal was difficult at the best of times and right now, he wanted free reign to take care of what he considered a traitor to their people. “You’re goin’ to take me to the site. I don’ want an argument so just don’ bother protesting. You know the Rousseau brothers are capable of murder. Did you think Jean and Juste might have killed Pete Morgan?” Remy asked grimly.

  “I don’ know. I thought about it. Brent and I even talked about it. We were supposed to meet up with them that night, but they didn’t show. Juste had a run-in with Morgan a few nights earlier. He’d heard Bijou had asked around lookin’ for a guide into the swamp and someone recommended Pete Morgan. Juste confronted Morgan because accordin’ to Juste and Jean, he had no business actin’ like a guide. Pete was a shrimper and fisherman and they didn’t want him . . .”

  Drake leapt past Remy, a blur of motion, claws raking the other side of Robert’s face, furious that Robert knew Saria and every other guide in the swamp might be in danger from the Rousseau brothers, and he handn’t come forward to tell. Robert ducked, try
ing to scramble backward in the chair, but Drake had been far too fast and he was seconds too late. Blood ran down the other side of his face and trickled onto his shirt in four tiny streams.

  Bijou shuddered, twisting her fingers deeper into the back of Remy’s shirt. She made a soft sound of pure distress in her throat. Remy wanted to fold her into his arms, hold her next to his heart to shelter her from everything else. He reached behind him to run his fingers down her arm in a small, reassuring caress. It was the best he could do under the circumstances.

  “They were expandin’ their business and wanted money from anyone guidin’ in the swamp. Pete laughed at them and refused to pay,” Robert howled. “It wasn’t my idea. I told them no one livin’ and workin’ around the bayous or swamps would pay, but they wouldn’t listen. They said all they needed was a couple of good examples and everyone would get in line.”

  “So you knew all this and still you kept quiet. Saria guides tourists,” Remy pointed out. “My sister. The wife of your leader, and your friend.”

  “They didn’t threaten Saria,” Robert denied. “They didn’t.”

  “You’re going to write this all down and then you’re going to lead us into the swamp where they conduct these rituals,” Remy said. “Don’ shake your head, Robert. You’ve broken just about every single law we have. I’m takin’ these two down, and you’re goin’ to help me do it. I want them for the break-ins and the beatin’s. Even if I can’t prove they killed Pete Morgan and Ryan Cooper, I’ll have them behind bars, and that should give me more time to find evidence they’ve been committin’ these murders if they have.”

  “We’ll go as soon as it’s dark,” Drake said. “The three of us will go in to uncover the evidence and see what’s there. I’ll want your brothers, Remy, to be on guard here. We’ll have to bring Dion back and put him in protective custody—ours. I trust our leopards to guard him. He won’t like it, but that’s too bad.”

  “You know I have to bring Robert in,” Remy said.