Along Came a Tiger (Tiger Shifters) (4 page)

Bile rose in her throat, but she forced herself to face Daniel.

He kept his gaze on the sparse traffic. “Drugged her. Something strong. The coroner says it’s similar to a drug called…suxa…suxa—something. I can’t remember the name he used. But it’s not the same. There’s a different chemical makeup to the drug he found in Su-jin.”

“What does the original drug do?”

He flicked a quick glance at her, then faced the road again. “It’s an anesthetic used to temporarily relax muscles, but it doesn’t knock the person out. It’s fast acting, mostly used during intubations. The coroner said the drug found in Su-jin’s blood was altered, though. Given what she went through physically, the state of her heart, the particular wounds…”

He paused as if not wanting to go into too much detail, a hesitance Sarah was grateful for.

With an audible swallow, he continued, “The coroner suspects she was paralyzed but conscious. He can’t be sure what the altered drug does without testing, though, and that’s going to take some time. He also thinks Williams made this drug himself because he can’t find any records of it being developed.”

“Was it made to hold tigers?” she asked. “Does Willams know about us?”

Her heart hammered a little harder. Damn it! She’d gone after him without enough information. If he knew about tigers, if he’d designed a drug specifically for her people, Williams was a more dangerous man than she’d thought.

“The coroner
thinks
the new drug is meant for humans,” Daniel cut into her thoughts. “Su-jin seemed to have been given…a lot. If Williams had designed the new drug for our metabolisms, the coroner thinks the dosage would have been smaller. But he needs to do more research. He can’t say for sure yet.”

“Okay.” Shit. She was going to have to be more careful the next time she went after Williams.

“Williams has to suspect something was different about Su-jin,” Daniel said, his tone foreboding. “Even if the drug wasn’t designed for shapeshifters.”

“All the more reason for us to kill him. If he learns about us, if he finds out that drug of his will contain tiger shifters, he’s a threat to us all.”

“Damn it, Sarah, do you know who his father is? We can’t just kill this man without risking everything. Everything! Enough. We won’t get revenge directly. We have to leave it up to the human authorities.”

“Fuck the human authorities,” she growled. “He’s still free, even after they questioned him in Su-jin’s murder. They won’t do anything either because of his father.”

Since he’d been in Su-jin’s calendar, the police had talked to Williams, but they hadn’t even brought him into the station. They’d let him go about his business without pushing for the truth.

Now the human authorities didn’t even have a body or any forensics to pursue. Her people had made sure of that by taking everything attached to Su-jin, to protect themselves. They’d even cleared out Su-jin’s apartment. The humans had nothing left to work with. All because her people wanted to remain hidden.

Sarah wanted to scream. Protecting themselves meant a killer went free. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair! Su-jin deserved better.

Daniel merged right and took an off-ramped marked with signs for food and gas. Sarah expected him to stop, but instead he drove past the gas station and fast food restaurant, and continued on a narrow road winding through rolling hills and farmlands.

“Where the hell are you taking me?” He’d never actually told her.

“No place you’ve been before. Don’t worry. You’re safe with me.”

“I’m not worried about you,” she snapped.

That was a big lie, but she refused to admit it to him. She didn’t even want to admit it to herself. This close to her estrous, she was so very vulnerable to the attraction between them. Especially when she took a deep breath and her head filled with his scent—that combination of unique musk and a tang of citrus and cumin. Daniel’s specific
taste
drew her like the heat of a fire on a snowy night.

She studied him from the corner of her eye. Her awareness of him heightened. Her skin tingled and her thighs clenched as her pulse pumped harder. In the faint light from the dashboard, dark shadows danced across his features, cutting them sharper and reminding her of how he looked in the moonlight, staring down at her, intense and intent on her.

Three nights from now, she’d be expected to Run. The part of her that had always wanted Daniel, that reveled in the three days she got to spend with him, rose up from beneath her grief to fill her. Guilt joined the anticipation, but with his heat and scent wrapping around her, the anticipation was its equal.

She looked at him more directly because she couldn’t help herself. He glanced her way, his brilliant eyes dark and heated. He didn’t hold her gaze for long, but it felt like time stopped and they were the only two people who existed. She felt his look along her skin, tingling down her spine, and her muscles low in her abdomen tightened.

Did he know how conflicted and needy she was? Just how very vulnerable? She wanted him. She always wanted him, and she could smell his desire. But how could she feel such lust when she was still grieving? Her body was like a stranger to her, wanting the man she loved desperately and yet full of pain and hurt and devastation for her loss.

Su-jin would not begrudge her the attraction Sarah felt for Daniel. Su-jin had been their most enthusiastic supporter, always anxious to hear after each Run if they’d managed to get pregnant so they could be together.

Outside of the Run, Sarah and Daniel weren’t supposed to be around each other. The realization slowly sunk in. For the first time, Sarah recognized the trouble Daniel could be in just for being with her, for trying to keep her out of danger.

“Does anyone besides Victor know what you’re doing?” she asked.

“Alexis. She’s with Victor.”

“Anyone else?”

Daniel shrugged. “Victor’s mother might know. She’s looking after their kids until Alexis and Victor can talk sense into Joseph.”

“Why are you doing this?” she demanded. “You will get into a lot of trouble if you’re caught.”

He glared at her for a brief moment. She sucked in a breath. The look in his blue eyes was electric in the darkness. Suddenly, the closed cab filled with the scent of his anger mixing with his desire into a complex perfume that grabbed her tight around the chest.

“How can you ask me that?” he hissed. “How can you think I would stand by and let you sacrifice yourself, sacrifice Joseph’s life, maybe get yourself killed by the same psycho who killed your friend? I don’t care how angry you two are. This man is not some two-legged deer. Killing him will destroy more than just your lives and I can’t allow that. Do you understand? Your life is more important to me than that.”

“Why?” she asked again.

For a heartbeat, she saw the hurt in his eyes before he focused on the road again. Then his features moved into a hard, expressionless granite. His fingers flexed around the steering wheel. The sound of the engine seemed loud in the ensuing silence.

She’d hurt him, she realized, but she wasn’t sure what she’d said to cause his reaction. Confusion she didn’t want to feel and a new layer to her guilt churned in her gut. She shifted positions, putting her back to him as much as her seatbelt would allow, and stared out the side window, watching the barren roadway pass as they moved deeper into the farmlands of Lancaster County.

Damn him anyway
. She didn’t have time to worry about his feelings. She needed to find a way to get back to Philly. No matter what Daniel said, she still intended to kill Bradley Williams. She would have her revenge, even if it cost her everything.

CHAPTER FOUR

“Mind telling me where this house is?” Sarah asked, again, as Daniel moved the truck off the side road and onto a rural track that wound through a series of horse farms and open fields. A few copses of trees dotted the landscape.

“We’re close,” he said.

“And your friend?”

“No one you know.”

“Human?”

He glanced at her. “Yes. Does that bother you?”

A valid question. At the moment, she hated the entire human race. Their incompetence, their inability to weed out the crazy man, was infuriating.

“Will he be there?” she asked.

“No. She’s stationed in Hawaii for the next six months.”

“She?” Sarah felt another kind of anger rising. Jealousy bit hard and she cut her gaze to the man she’d spent the last seven estrous cycles with.

“Military nurse. Good egg.”

Sarah dropped her chin to her chest and gave him a
look
. His mouth tilted up just a little. She pressed her lips together and turned away. Damn him. He could smell her jealousy. He’d done it on purpose. To distract her, she was sure.

It was working. Suddenly, the question of who this woman was to Daniel nagged at her. She wanted to ask more, to dig into his past with the “nurse”, but she didn’t want to think about it right now. It would just distract her from her goal. She had to find a way to convince Daniel to let her go. Worrying about his sex life shouldn’t be her concern right now.

Still…She knew very little about Daniel’s romantic life. They’d never discussed past relationships—only general life stuff, like jobs, family, hobbies, and silly things like favorite movies or places they’d like to travel. But never their human sexual partners.

The idea of going to the home of one of his former human lovers hurt. Sarah tried forcing her mind away from the mysterious nurse, but she couldn’t keep from asking, “This nurse a farmer or something?” She gestured to the surrounding pasture lands.

“She inherited a small horse farm from her parents,” Daniel said. “She had to sell off their herd because she’s still on active duty. But one day she intends to get it going again. Her mom bred excellent show horses.”

“Sounds wonderful,” Sarah said with a scowl.

Daniel chuckled so she knew he’d heard her sarcasm.

She also knew he was taunting her. Some of her hurt shifted to annoyance. “You can’t distract me like this, you know.”

“Like what?”

“With jealousy. I don’t care how close I am to estrous. This won’t work.”

He cut her a sideways glance and the sudden heat of it started her heartbeat pounding.

“Jealousy?” he asked. “You should know better than that.”

She swallowed. She knew he wanted her. He’d made it clear from the very beginning he intended to win her. But in their world, winning a mate during the Run didn’t
have
to translate to a permanent relationship. Commitment, love…those were options not requirements. She and Daniel hadn’t actually discussed their future after…if she got pregnant, so while she suspected he wanted more than a baby from her, she didn’t actually “know better” where his feelings were concerned.

She’d only met Daniel twice before her first Mate Run. Most females were at least acquainted with the tiger males living near enough to be part of their Run even if they never met them personally. But she’d been introduced to Daniel at the elders’ compound in West Virginia when she’d gone to present reports to Elizaveta Chernikov
a on the research being done at the lab.

Daniel was gorgeous, polite, charming, sexy, and strong. He made her giddy and he showed up more than she cared to admit in her fantasies.

Outside of the two brief meetings, though, they hadn’t talked much before she started running. No dating, sex, or romantic associations of any kind were allowed before that, and no contact was allowed between cycles after a female started running. The rules were in place, supposedly, to level the playing field and make the mating process fair for all the males.

In practical terms, most of the females Sarah had talked to knew who they wanted to catch them from the beginning. At least, for that very first time. She’d been no exception. And after three days of the most mind-blowing sex she’d ever experienced, Sarah hadn’t wanted anyone but Daniel from then on.

It wasn’t just the sex, though. They…fit well together. She wasn’t sure how else to put it. They laughed a lot, and played, and talked. Their scents combined to make a delicious mix of flavors unlike anything she’d ever known before. She could be herself with him in a way that had only ever been possible with her family and Su-jin.

There was something deep between Sarah and Daniel, right from the beginning. And seven cycles later, she knew she’d fallen in love with him. But until she got pregnant, they couldn’t make their relationship official.

By being with her outside of the Run, he risked everything. Maybe not his life, but certainly his ability to have a life with a mate and children. His chance at a family, a future.
Their
chance at a future together.

A chance she was throwing away for revenge.

If she was locked up for killing Williams, she’d lose Daniel. She’d accepted the punishment she’d face, but in her anger, she hadn’t really thought about the fact that she was sacrificing any hope of a future with Daniel, too. Losing him would hurt as much as losing Su-jin had.

What the hell was she doing?