The watch Carly kept in her purse let her keep track of time, which crawled slowly. Agony. The longest day of her life to this point had been the one when she’d realized her father had left for good. This one might just beat it.
Carly caught movement out the back window. Tiger? She turned to look, but remained inside the SUV. Could be anyone out here.
Her heart pounded until her head hurt as whoever it was moved slowly forward. Stealthily. Like a Shifter.
But the Shifter who looked into the window wasn’t Tiger. He had a shaved head and tattoos down his neck and a look of fury in his brown eyes. Spike.
Behind him was Sean, then Ellison with his cowboy hat. The large bear Ronan was approaching the other side of the SUV with Dylan, and Carly’s rearview mirror showed her Liam walking nonchalantly toward her out of the darkness.
Tiger stopped, scenting the Shifters well before he saw them surrounding the SUV that waited in the spot Walker had chosen.
Liam, Dylan, Sean, the trackers. Tiger also smelled an airplane, far away, but near enough for Tiger’s enhanced senses to catch the scent. That explained how the Shifters had managed to be there first, in the plane that had flown over them. Tiger hadn’t known enough about airplanes, and it hadn’t flown low enough, for him to recognize it as Marlo’s.
Tiger shifted to become his human form, sliding his now-loose belt from his waist. He went to Walker. “I need you to take care of Carly,” he said before Walker could speak. “And my cub.”
“I’ll get you to safety,” Walker said in a low voice. “But we have to go now.”
Tiger shook his head. “You’ll be too slow. Promise me. Don’t let them hurt her, or take the cub.”
Walker assessed Tiger, then gave him a nod, not an argument. “I promise.”
“Thank you, Walker Danielson.”
Tiger put his hands on Walker’s shoulders and pulled him into a quick embrace, Shifter fashion. Walker’s scent betrayed his discomfort, but he took the hug, thumping Tiger on the shoulders in return.
Tiger resumed his belt and pouch and shifted to the Bengal again.
Every one of Tiger’s instincts and his heart fought him as he turned and slunk off into the darkness. But the best way to help Carly was for Tiger to disappear. Liam would see that Carly came to no harm, and so would Walker. Tiger had to take care of what he needed to, as much as it killed him to do it.
“We’ll find him,” Liam said to Carly.
Carly sat on the open back bed of the SUV, arms folded, Rebecca the bear Shifter next to her. Liam stood with his hands in the pockets of a leather jacket, the desert night having turned cold. Rebecca had laid a blanket around Carly’s shoulders, but Carly barely acknowledged the gesture.
“Where’d you leave him, Walker?” Liam asked. His voice was quiet, but Carly sensed the anger behind it, tight, ready to strike.
Spike and Ellison had found Walker in the desert, striding toward them, the man alone. Walker gave Liam a stoic look now and pointed into the darkness. “Over there. But he’ll be long gone by now. He’s not an average Shifter.”
Liam nodded in agreement, but he peered into the desert as though he could see behind every tumbleweed, which he possibly could. “Ronan, Dad, Spike. See what you can do.”
The three Shifters at once walked away into the dark, without looking at Carly. Spike was furious with her, she knew, though he’d not said a word. After his first glare of rage, Spike had stepped back, out of the way, and let Liam take over.
Liam swiveled his gaze to Carly. “Where is he heading?”
“I haven’t the faintest idea,” Carly said. “We planned to meet up here, and beyond that, we hadn’t decided.”
Liam made a noise that was a cross between a grunt and a growl. “Damn it, Carly, I’m trying to help him.”
“The last time Tiger heard, you wanted to either put a Collar on him or kill him,” Carly said. “Real helpful.”
“And last time I checked, this guy wanted to lock Tiger back into a research center.” Liam jerked a thumb at Walker, who remained as silent as the Shifters. “And now he’s Tiger’s best friend?”
“Walker changed his mind,” Carly said.
“And you trust him?”
“If he’d been lying to Tiger, Tiger would have known.”
“Aye, that’s true enough. But shite.” Liam turned on Walker. “Why didn’t you come to me? Tiger’s my responsibility. Anything he does can have a backlash on all Shifters, everywhere.”
“Not really my problem,” Walker said. “I want to find out what Tiger is and what he can do, what his original mission was.”
“Why?” Liam asked. “Why so interested? Other than following orders from the Shifter Bureau?”
“I have my reasons.”
Walker could be as stubbornly obtuse as Liam. Carly believed now that Walker didn’t wish to see Tiger locked away again, but he kept going on about wanting to know what Tiger had been made for. Walker wanted Tiger away from the Shifter Bureau, true, but for his own agenda. He’d said nothing about his motives during the ride, and neither had Tiger, but whatever he’d told Tiger must have satisfied.
“Rebecca,” Liam said. “Can you give me a minute alone with Carly?”
Rebecca rose, obedient, but she gave Liam a warning look as she walked away. “Don’t hurt her or upset her. Kim gave me those orders. Don’t make her mad at me. Hey, Walker.” Rebecca smiled at the man and slid her hand through the crook of his arm. She was taller than he was by about an inch. “How about a moonlight stroll?”
Walker’s stance became suddenly nervous, but he walked away with Rebecca. Ellison followed them, limping a little, still recovering from being shot, while Sean moved off into the desert, watching the darkness.
Liam settled himself comfortably next to Carly, resting his hands on his knees. With his worn jeans, leather coat, and dusting of unshaven dark whiskers, he might be a biker sitting back for some rest before continuing on the road.
“Do you know how we tracked you down?” Liam asked, his voice calm.
“I know you’re going to tell me,” Carly said.
“Connor was watching the morning news. There was a local story about a man who’d gone into a convenience store and stopped a robbery in progress. The hero broke the robber’s gun into about ten pieces, knocked the guy down, and then broke his hand. And knocked him out. The amazed clerk described his rescuer as a very large man, hugely strong, and wearing a baseball cap. And then this superhero disappeared. Tiger was gone, no one knew where, and you’d vanished out of your gallery—don’t think Spike didn’t get an earful about that. How brainless would I have to be not to figure out who this hero was?”
“He couldn’t help himself,” Carly said. “It’s who he is.”
“The clerk, who’s now Tiger’s biggest fan, volunteered to me that he saw him getting into a dark SUV. Easy for our Sean to look at traffic cams for that hour and find likely SUVs and their plates. Easy for him to hack into the title records database to find that Walker Danielson had bought a vehicle with that description only yesterday.”
“I got pulled over on the freeway,” Carly said, her voice flat.
“Aye. I asked my friends in counties all over the state to look for the SUV but not to make it official. And not to arrest anyone, but to tell me where the SUV was and where it was heading. Another friend at the Bridge of the Americas gave me another clue, and my Shifter friend Eric has access to a plane.”
“Who else did you tell?” Carly asked. “The Shifter Bureau?”
“Now, why would we be doing that?” Liam gave her an incredulous look. “No, lass, I told no one.”