Ania. If he took her and kept her, she would give them both peace. God knew he needed peace.

I'm not a good man, Ania, and you're a good woman. A man like me has to think long and hard before he decides to bring a woman like you into his world.

One night will never be enough. A thousand nights will never be enough. If you come to me, Ania, it will be a commitment to me. To us. There will be no going back.

His body hurt all the time. The bullets had torn into him; not only him, but his leopard as well, nearly killing both of them. He wished they had succeeded.

He'd grown up a criminal. A man who hurt others. A man who destroyed the lives of others. A man who killed. That was who and what he was, and no matter how hard he tried to climb out of that world of blood and treachery, there was no getting out. Never. He didn't have much to live for.

The cat was still clawing at him, still trying for supremacy, but not in his usual aggressive, out for blood and mayhem, for the taste of human flesh manner. No this time he felt almost playful.Playful? His Leopard? There was no time;even in childhood, his Leopard had never felt playful.

He wasn't a good talker under the best of circumstances. If she needed someone killed, he was her man, but trying to sound suave and sophisticated was far beyond any ability he had.

He wanted his Leopard to keep up the strange behavior. He sensed that this woman, in some way, calmed the dangerous predator in him, and having that respite, if only for a few moments, after a lifetime of sheer hell, was a miracle.

His cousin would be immediately suspicious she was an assassin come to kill him. He wouldn't have minded so much. His cat was content, and at that moment so was he. It would have been a good moment to go out.