She didn’t pass many cars as she turned onto the highway, heading back up toward the I-10. Even if she didn’t have a map, the chances of getting lost out here were minimal. There were only a few paved roads that went anywhere.
The distance gave her time to think. Too much time. She knew she had the option of turning right at the 10 instead of left, and heading back to Austin. The Shifters would pry out of her that she’d driven Tiger this far, but then they’d go after him themselves, or alert the Shifter Bureau. They’d leave her alone, not needing her anymore.
Carly could go back to her life. She’d find Yvette’s car where she’d left it at the chain hotel and take it back to her, finding some way to apologize. She could go back to dealing with her broken engagement and figuring out how to keep Ethan from ruining her life. She might have to find another job, but maybe she could sell her house and move in with Althea and Zoë for a while until she got herself sorted out.
If Yvette didn’t fire her, Carly would go back to the trivia of day-to-day work, trying to convince people with large disposable incomes that they wanted to use their money for quality artwork. After work, she’d pick up something at the grocery store on the way home, and while away nights in front of the television.
Carly realized now that she hadn’t spent all that much time with Ethan, even after their engagement, and that they’d only gotten together when he wanted to. She’d been too caught up in planning the rest of her life to notice.
Back to a world where people captured a wild, beautiful man to study him, dissect him, trap him, bind him. Tiger deserved to be free, and Carly was going to make sure he was.
When she turned onto the freeway—choosing to head west, not east—blue and red lights flashed behind her and a sheriff’s car signaled her to pull over. Heart in her throat, Carly slowed and stopped on the freeway’s shoulder, waiting for an eighteen-wheeler to lumber by before she lowered the window. A sheriff’s deputy walked up from behind and leaned to look into the window.
“License and registration, ma’am,” he said.
“Is there a problem, officer?” Carly kept her smile in place as she plucked her license out of her wallet and reached into the glove compartment to find the registration. Her mouth went dry when she didn’t see the registration paper at first, but there it was, tucked under a packet of tissues.
She handed both license and registration to the deputy, glad she’d slid the maps Walker had given her inside her purse. “I know I wasn’t speeding. I’m careful about that.”
The deputy peered for a time at the license, then the registration. “This isn’t your vehicle, ma’am.”
“No, it’s not. My boyfriend’s. He let me borrow it for the weekend.”
“Mind if I ask where you were coming from down that highway? You’re a long way from Austin.”
“Marfa.” A lie. “I have friends there.” The truth. “It’s so pretty.” Also the truth.
“And now you’re heading for . . .”
“El Paso. More friends. We’re going to Juárez, to bargain hunt.”
Carly did her best to look like an empty-headed girl who lived to visit her friends and spend money.
“You still never said why you pulled me over.” Carly smiled again as she took back her license.
“Looking for someone.” The officer gazed, keen-eyed, into the SUV’s interior, over the backseat and the space behind it. He straightened up. “You have a nice afternoon, Ms. Randal. You’re about seventy-five miles from El Paso. Drive safely.”
“Thank you. I will.” Keeping her pleasant tones, Carly rolled up the window and pulled slowly away and back into traffic.
Looking for someone. Her heart thumped. The officer hadn’t been about to tell her who. Obviously not Walker, because his name was on the registration. And not her. That left Tiger.
Carly sped up a little, making sure she didn’t exceed the limit enough to get pulled over again, and headed for the horizon and the city of El Paso.
Tigers liked water. When they reached the Rio Grande, Tiger had no problem wading into the muddy stream, the water cool under his paws. Scrub and trees were green here, fed by the main river and little rivulets that made the ground soggy.
Tiger came out the other side and shook himself off. Walker took more time, holding his belt above his head as he waded then swam the deepest parts. Tiger waited, the beast in him pleased by the open country, the vast sky overhead. In such a place he could run through the night, sleep under trees during the day. If bad men were out here hurting people, Tiger could take them out, as he had done the robber at the convenience store. That was what he was meant to do, he thought. Crush bad guys.
“This way,” Walker said once he was settled.
He led Tiger on across wild land, pushing through tough brush and trees to forge a path. They were going north and west, Tiger could tell, to meet Carly, which made his heart sing. She wouldn’t have been good on this cross-country walk, but she had the comfort of the SUV, and its relative safety. Tiger looked forward to seeing her again, if this all worked, if only for a little while.
They saw no one. Tiger had half hoped the hills would be teeming with people who needed taking down, but it wasn’t to be. His fighting blood was up, his need to run, strike, do what he was meant to do.
At one point a plane flew overhead, high enough up to be a small smudge against the late afternoon sky. Walker ducked under the spread of a tree, and Tiger lowered himself to the ground, letting shadows camouflage him. The plane went straight on, not circling or returning.
Tiger rose and moved on, following Walker’s guidance, feeling the mate bond pull him back to Carly.
Carly drove over one of the bridges that connected El Paso to the Mexican city of Juárez, crossing the border after a wait of about an hour or so. The sun was setting, and plenty of cars were on the streets on both sides, people going home or leaving the cities after the weekend.
Carly knew Walker had picked El Paso as the place she should cross because the cities on both sides were busy, plenty of Americans crossed back and forth daily, and families lived on either side, crossing one way or another for visits. She’d navigated crazy traffic in Juárez before, and she drove out of that city after a time, heading south for the town of Chihuahua.
Now she began to feel a bit uncomfortable. The afternoon was waning into evening, and she was alone, in another country, in a vehicle that was better than most she passed on the road. Carjackings weren’t unusual. She’d be safer not to stop until she reached the meeting point.
The sun sank as she drove south then turned down a lonely stretch of road that Walker had marked. Carly had to drive slowly, through ruts and along ungraded stretches, down dry washes where her tires spun in soft earth.
The thirty miles of this road took Carly well over an hour as the sun slipped over the horizon. Twilight didn’t linger long in the desert, and soon it was dark.
Carly parked at the designated meeting point and killed the engine and lights. She peered at the empty darkness, a flat plain of desert. In the dark, she could see no more than that, and she couldn’t see Tiger or Walker either.
No matter. She’d sit here until they came. Tiger and Walker were the kind of men who’d make double sure and triple sure the way was clear before they showed themselves.
Or, if they didn’t come by morning, Carly could turn around and head back to Austin. She knew why Tiger had agreed to split up—he’d been giving Carly the chance to go home and leave him if she decided that course was best. Splitting up also gave Tiger the choice whether or not to come back for Carly. As he’d told her, he could move faster without her.