She walked to the couch and sat down, staring at the phone. Should she do it? Call her parents and at least let them know she was alive and that she’d tell them more when she could? She didn’t even know where she was. Colorado. She knew that much. But it was a big state, and she had no idea how to tell her parents her location.
Duncan could tell them. Her breath caught in her chest as indecision held her in its grip.
Could she trust Duncan? Was he even now contacting the state or even the federal authorities? Who would you even call if you found a cheetah that happened to turn into a woman? If her secret was discovered, her people would be at a big risk. The government wouldn’t believe she was a freak occurrence. Surely where there was one there were others.
She covered her eyes with one hand and massaged her temples. She should go. Leave now before he returned. She glanced down at her leg and knew she’d never make it in either human or cheetah form, not that she’d put the cheetah at risk. She had no money, no clothes, no identification. She was at the mercy of Duncan’s hospitality until her parents could come for her.
When she took that into consideration, she didn’t have much choice but to wait for Duncan, bide her time, and heal. A good meal would be a great starting point. She was ravenous and looked forward to human food again instead of the raw scraps thrown to her by her captors.
Even as she rummaged around the small kitchen, she found herself watching the clock and hoping Duncan would return soon.
CHAPTER 7
Duncan sat in his office ready to bellow in frustration. It would figure that on a day where he needed to finish and get the hell out of the office, everyone and their mama decided they needed something.
He hung up the phone and shoved back from his desk, prepared to bolt when Mrs. Humphreys stuck her head in the door.
“Sheriff?”
He managed to keep from sighing. Barely.
“Mrs. Humphreys, come in. What can I do for you?”
She offered a smile and gripped her purse in front of her as she walked in and sat down in the chair in front of his desk.
“I wondered if you’d found anything about those hunters out behind my house.”
Duncan twisted his lips and mulled how to best proceed. Bureaucratic BS usually seemed to work. “I’m working on it. I have a few leads I’m following up on. As soon as I know anything I’ll let you know.”
She gifted him with another smile and reached up to smooth a few silvery strands of hair away that had escaped the bun. “Oh, well that’s good. I hate to think of those poor animals being shot at. I have to tell you, I was rooting for that cheetah, and I never heard shots so I’m hoping it escaped.”
Duncan lunged forward in his seat, his hands flat on the desk. “What cheetah, Mrs. Humphreys? You never said anything about a cheetah.”
A puzzled frown creased her face. “Oh, but I’m sure I did.”
Duncan shook his head. “No, ma’am. You said lion. Not a mountain lion, but a lion.”
“Well, there was a lion too. Before the cheetah. Oh dear, maybe I forgot to mention the cheetah.”
Fuck. Now he had someone else who had seen Aliyah. Could it get any worse?
“Tell me about the cheetah,” he said, directing her back to the matter at hand.
“Well, it was early, and I’m always up early. I went out back to feed Riley, and I saw two SUVs driving across the back boundary of my property. The stopped at the bottom of the first switchback and started unloading a bunch of stuff. So I went inside to get the binoculars.
“I saw that they carried rifles and bows. And then, one of them opened the back, and they lifted out a cage. I couldn’t really see what kind of animal it was until they turned it loose. Now I wouldn’t swear in court, mind you, but it certainly looked like a cheetah. I’d just watched a documentary the night before on Animal Planet.”
Duncan blew out his breath and dragged a hand through his hair. “Did you get a good enough look at the men to be able to give a detailed description? And would you know them again if you saw them?”
“Oh my, I just don’t know. Maybe?”
He smiled kindly at her. “It’s all right, Mrs. Humphreys. You’ve been very helpful. I think you should keep this information to yourself, though. We don’t want people to get the idea that a bunch of wild animals are roaming around our mountains.”
The last thing he needed was a bunch of hot to trot good old boys armed with high powered rifles mounting a search for dangerous animals. It would be more fun than the town of Elk Ridge had had since old man Hildebrandt swore he saw Bigfoot.
“Of course,” she said.
They were interrupted when Nick stuck his head in the door. “Duncan, I need a minute when you get time.”
Mrs. Humphreys rose from her seat and turned to smile at Nick. “That’s all right, young man. I was just going.”
Duncan rose. “Thanks for coming by, Mrs. Humphreys. I appreciate the information, and I want you to know, we’re doing all we can to make sure those poachers are found and arrested. In the meantime, if you see anything else, you call me immediately.”
She nodded and headed out the door as Nick walked in to plot in the chair she’d just vacated.
Duncan stared at Nick and tried not to let his impatience show.
“So what’s going on?” Nick asked.
Duncan blinked. “Going to give me an idea of what you want to know? Or do you want a detailed accounting of my entire morning?”
Nick’s brow arched. “Someone piss in your cereal? I’m talking about yesterday. You going looking for hunters, then calling dispatch and tell them to contact local hospitals to see if anyone showed up with injuries. Yet, you come out alone, don’t file a report other than you have suspicions of illegal hunting. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out something’s fishy as hell.”
Damn. He hadn’t even stopped to think about what asking dispatch to notify the local hospitals would imply. He took a deep breath and quelled his agitation. Nick was his friend and a damn good cop. He didn’t deserve Duncan’s impatience.
“I think one of them was injured,” he said slowly. “They were tracking a kill.”
“So you saw blood. What made you think it wasn’t the animal’s blood?”
“It was an idea,” Duncan said shortly. “I’m covering all the bases.”
Nick stared suspiciously at him. “You’re holding back on me, man. What’s that shit?”
Duncan nearly groaned. He and Nick went way back. Both had grown up here and felt a deep loyalty to the town and to the mountains. No, he hadn’t ever held out on Nick. There had never been a need. But he wasn’t ready to share Aliyah with anyone. And who the hell would believe him anyway?
Duncan grabbed for the phone in relief when it rang. After a few moments, he hung up and looked back up at Nick. At least now he could do something besides sit here while Nick stared him down like a bug under a microscope.
“Looks like their kill has been found. Locals out scouting found a dead lion about a mile up the mountain at the Turner Creek crossing.”
“A mountain lion?”
“No. A lion,” Duncan said evenly.
“You mean a fucking lion as in Lion King?”
Duncan nodded.
“Holy fuck. So maybe Mrs. Humphreys wasn’t off her rocker when she said she saw a cheetah.”
Alarm prickled up Duncan’s spine. “You heard that?”
“Yeah, came in on the tail end of the conversation. What the hell is going on, Duncan?”
Duncan sat back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. He trusted Nick. There was no doubt about that. No, he didn’t want to tell him about Aliyah, but that had more to do with the possessive need crawling through his veins. The need to keep her to himself, sheltered from the rest of the world.