Wild on You

by Tina Wainscott

  They got back on the road, settling in the silence. She kept stopping herself from asking questions about Mexico. He’d already told her more than he should have. Instead, she tried to remember the news accounts. U.S. troops were there to teach Mexican authorities techniques to fight the drug trafficking war. El Martillo, which translated to the hammer in English, used just that sort of violent force against the cartels. There was plenty of speculation about a relationship, but the U.S. vehemently denied involvement with them. No one knew why the OIC had led the raid, though some thought he was in the cartels’ pocket.

  She needed to stop thinking about Risk and start planning the abduction. Handling a thirty-pound cub would be a challenge, but she had her kit ready. Instead of turning left toward the ranch, she went right.

  “This isn’t the way to your place.” He held up his phone with the map on the screen.

  “I’m making a small detour.”

  “Addie …”

  She rolled her eyes. “You sound like my father. I need to make an appearance at the protest. I’m the one who instigated it. How would it look if I didn’t show?”

  “Like you were a smart woman.”

  “I’m not even sure the parking-lot incident was an attempt on my life.”

  “A car barreled at you, no lights. You think that happens all the time?” He brushed the edge of the bruise on her arm. “This from the near-miss?”

  “Near-hit. They nearly hit me and did miss me. I never understood why it’s called a near-miss when it was a miss.”

  “You almost get hit by a car and you’re hung up on language?”

  Okay, she was in denial. It had been damned frightening: engine revving, black car careening toward her. She’d hit the pavement, scraping up her arm and her favorite pair of jeans. That the car had torn off afterward—well, she’d figured it was a drunk driver scared sober by nearly hitting someone.

  “But I have a bodyguard. Certainly it should be safe to attend with big bad you beside me?”

  He gave her a smirk. “I can’t protect you if they’re shooting from a distance.”

  “They won’t shoot at me in a crowd.” He considered her, and she remembered her father’s order about listening to him. “Please?” she added, even though she hated to beg. “Just pop in, thank everyone for coming, and head out.” She had a few tools of persuasion herself; she gave him her sweetest smile.

  He caved in three seconds flat. “All right. But only for a few minutes. And stick close to me.”

  Stick close to him. That sounded more dangerous than anything else she’d ever done.

  * * *

  “There’s our Wunder girl,” Doug Crooke said, holding the binoculars to his eyes. “How can a cute little thing like that cause so much trouble?”

  “Focus on the trouble, not the cute.” Alan Bates called his boss. “You were right. We didn’t scare her enough to keep her from showing up at the protest. We’ve got her in sight, but there are too many people here to do much about it.”

  “Stay on her,” the boss said. “And don’t do anything stupid,” his voice hammered over the phone. “Like the hit-and-run, stupid idjits, trying to run her down in a parking lot.”

  Alan punched Doug’s arm. “Yeah, well, I’m driving this time.” He spotted someone in the passenger seat of the van. “Who’s that with her?”

  Doug adjusted the glasses. “It’s a guy. Boyfriend?”

  “According to her Facebook page, she’s single,” Alan said. “I didn’t see any one guy posting a lot on her page.” He’d had to troll through her posts to get a bead on her life and her schedule. Funny thing was, she kinda had a point about what they were doing being wrong, if you were the sort of person who put animals over profit or research. His ex had been the same way, always whining about what they were doing, which was why they’d broken up. As his boss liked to say, “God made animals so we can eat ’em, shoot ’em, use ’em, and stuff ’em.” Besides, there was too much at stake to let her shut them down.

  Wunder’s van pulled into the makeshift parking lot. The guy stepped out, scanning the surroundings with a cold, calculating eye. When Wunder got out, the guy shadowed her, body tense and ready for action.

  Alan said, “My guess is her daddy hired a bodyguard. That guy looks like he could tear someone apart with his bare hands. Or at least like he’d enjoy trying. And he’s staying close to our prey.”

  “Probably some rent-a-cop or cop wannabe,” the boss said. “Can you take him?”

  Alan flexed his fists. He hadn’t seen action in a long time, and the prospect felt good. “I could if it came to it. Even without Doug.” The more he watched the guy, though, the more having Doug around sounded better. “The guy’s ex-military, I bet. The way he moves, how he’s constantly assessing his surroundings, it’s like he’s at an Afghanistan marketplace looking for suicide bombers.”

  “It’d be better to wait until she’s alone. Keep a close eye on her. Eventually she’ll go to a restroom, make a private call, something. I don’t want her dead, not right off. I want her here, in one piece.” His voice went deep and raw. “I’m going to have a little fun with her.”

  Chapter 3

  Addie and Risk wandered around the vacant land where the zoo was supposed to set up. More than a hundred people milled about, protest signs at the ready. She sighed with gratitude. Her wonderful supporters, along with the curious public and the valuable press. Several corrals contained rescued animals that were available for adoption. Animal Huggers’ old brown van was positioned for a quick departure.

  “That’s Shirley.” Addie waved at the woman with the six-foot-tall muscular frame. “She handles the care and feeding of the animals. I’m the public face of the organization, and she’s the foundation.”

  “She’s nothing like I pictured in the fantasy,” Risk said.

  “I can just imagine.” She shook her head. “No, I don’t want to imagine.”

  Shirley was even less concerned about appearances than Addie, her salt-and-pepper hair hanging to her waist in a thick braid. Even so, she was both handsome and feminine in her long denim skirt and bright pink blouse.

  “She’s the one person I can count on where the animals are concerned. She’s as dedicated to their welfare as I am. If I were a lesbian, I’d marry her for sure.”

  He checked their surroundings with the same diligence he’d use doing surveillance in some war-torn city in the Middle East. “This is a good location as far as keeping you safe from snipers. Wide-open, flat terrain. But remember, stay close. The enemy could be in the crowd.”

  Addie hated thinking of lurking enemies as she surveyed all the passionate people who’d gathered. Shirley headed over, and Addie introduced them to each other. He shook her hand and made the appropriate noises, but he was surveying the crowd.

  Shirley unabashedly took him in and muttered, “Yeah, I see what you mean.” To Risk, who glanced her way at that comment, she said, “I could use your manly-man help with the goats. We need to get them to that pen over there, and it’s a two-person job.”

  Addie waved that away. “Risk won’t be able to handle them. Or did you have goats at your farm?”

  “No goats, mostly corn and a few cows. But how hard can they be?” he said.

  “Very difficult, especially all three at once.” Addie gave Shirley a wink. “We’ll each take one.”

  “I can handle them,” Risk said, shaking his head at their lack of faith in him.

  Shirley opened the back of the large old brown van where the goats were penned. Toward the front of the cargo hold was the cage Addie would use for the tiger cub. The goats were in high-energy mode, pacing back and forth. Shirley handed Risk the three leads. “Just take them over there.” She pointed to a metal corral.

  Several people came up to Addie as he headed over, and she gave him a nod that was supposed to mean, I know them.

  Stay close, he mouthed to her, then nearly fell as the goats wound themselves around his legs. Addie climbed into th
e back of the van and closed the doors, then stepped up to the cab. Shirley distracted Risk by attempting to take one of the leads, but he turned back toward Addie. His face went red when he realized she was starting the engine. As he lunged toward her, one of the goats stepped in his way and sent him tumbling to the ground. Addie pulled away, watching him untangle himself in the side mirror.

  As soon as she got onto the highway, her phone rang. She didn’t recognize the number. “Hello?”

  “Get back here.” Risk sounded amazingly controlled.

  Yeah, controlled combustion, maybe.

  “I’ll be back in about two hours. Hang tight. I’ll be fine.”

  “Addie, dammit, you’re supposed to listen to me—”

  “Yeah, you know when I agreed to that? I didn’t mean it. Look, it’s not safe to talk on the phone and drive. See you in a bit.” She disconnected. Immediately her phone rang. Did he have no sense of safety?

  Okay, she felt bad about ditching him. She was his job, after all. After what he’d lost the last time things went badly with work, she knew he was bound to take her escape even harder.

  But all would be fine. If anyone had been watching, they’d have seen her arrive in a white van. They’d be looking for that, not the brown van. She made a quick call to the sanctuary to let them know she was on target with delivery.

  A short while later, she found the traveling zoo. She spotted the trailer where they kept the cub, off to the side. They’d procured a postage stamp of land that was little more than a parking lot for a closed gas station. Surrounding that was acres of woods, according to the satellite imagery. The zoo folks were busy setting up the tents.

  Addie took several passes to assess the situation, tracking what the three employees were doing. She pulled off the road a short ways past the zoo and brought up the map on her iPhone. Roads crisscrossed the wooded area, maybe from old logging operations. One of them came within a few yards of the highway, and after some scrutiny, she was able to find it.

  She followed the gravel road through the woods until she could see the back of the gas station. She wove around the trees to get closer, positioning the van and preparing the cage. A cooler held ten pounds of beef chunks. Addie grimaced at the scent of raw meat, something she hadn’t smelled in a long time. She dropped several pieces into a metal bowl and put the remainder in a duffel bag packed with tools. Then she slipped on the kind of gloves butchers wear to protect their hands from knives, and grabbed the leash and collar. “Let’s get you out of here, Tigs.”

  She crept up behind the cub’s trailer. He eyed her warily as she approached. Poor thing had been ripped from his mother days after birth and sent on the road. Addie could see through the bars of the cage to where three men were trying to do the job of four as they put up the large tent. She gave the cub several pieces of meat to earn his trust and then slipped the collar around his neck while he scarfed up the next piece.

  The breeze wreaked havoc with the tent setup, which worked in Addie’s favor. She cut the lock on the cage door with bolt cutters, then stuffed them back in the bag. Another bit of meat lured the cub to the opening. Addie dropped more meat on the ground, gripping the end of the leash and ducking down out of sight. It didn’t take long for the tiger to jump down and snatch them up.

  A trail of steak led back toward the woods. The cub didn’t even know he was on a leash until she reached the van. He didn’t want to go inside, even with a bowl of beef to tempt him. She had to pick him up and wrestle him into the cage.

  “I’m sorry, Tigs. I promise this is the last small cage you’ll have to be in.”

  She fed the rest of the meat through the bars, and the cub momentarily forgot his fear and ate. She sensed that she wasn’t alone and spun to find two men climbing into the back of the van.

  “Get her,” the skinny older one said.

  The guy who was built like a block leaped at her. She skirted his grasp, but the cage impeded her escape. He grabbed her around the waist and tried to slap his hand over her mouth. She couldn’t pry herself loose with the bulky gloves on. Which gave her an idea.

  She grasped his hand and jammed it between the bars of the cage. The cat, feeling that his food was being threatened, bit the man. His scream rendered her deaf in that ear. She got loose enough to scramble out the back. The skinny man came around from the side of the van, his mouth in a snarl. “Troublemaking bitch,” he spat out, reaching for her.

  Being about thirty years younger than he was, she was able to outmaneuver him and swipe up the bag on the ground. She swung and let the full force of the bolt cutters inside nail him.

  Dammit, she wasn’t tall enough to hit him in the head. Still, the impact to his shoulder sent him staggering to the side. She couldn’t run and leave the cub there. Couldn’t scream for help because these idiots were probably with the zoo.

  She faced the skinny guy, bolt cutters at the ready as he came toward her. “Get away from me!”

  Despite the fact that he looked pissed off, he laughed. And pulled out a gun. “Drop the bag.”

  Fear closed her throat and strangled her heart. Her fingers wouldn’t release their grip on the handles. Could she throw the bolt cutters at him and hit the gun? Yeah, like she was so Katniss from The Hunger Games. As her mind sorted through her few options, something hit her from behind. The bag flew from her hands. She hit the ground face-first, and a moment later a heavy weight settled on her back and mashed her into the dirt and pine needles. She saw legs straddling her, baggy denim material and black shoes on either side of her. The blocky guy was sitting on her! Struggling did no good at all. She couldn’t budge him or move an inch.

  “Hah! We got her,” he said.

  Chapter 4

  Risk had almost reached the back of the van. Almost. If he’d had something to grab on to, he would be standing on the back bumper instead of lying facedown in the dirt with the goats. Addie pulled out onto the highway and was quickly out of his reach. His chest hurt, and he was pretty sure it was more than just the exertion.

  After his second call to her was dismissed, he raced to the white van they’d come in and reached for the keys the moment his ass hit the seat. Except no keys dangled from the ignition. Adrenaline kicked in. His vision narrowed, and his focus became lasersharp. That focus honed in on Shirley, who was trying to wrangle the goats with the help of some of the supporters.

  Within seconds, he was gripping her arm and pulling her close to whisper, “I bet you were in on this.” It wasn’t his fault it came out as more of a growl.

  She must have picked up on his barely contained anger; she gave him a look of both wariness and guilt. “Addie just needs to take care of one little thing, and she said you wouldn’t let her.”

  He turned to one of the helpers. “Take the rope.” The guy did as he was told, relieving Shirley of goat duty. Risk led her away. “Let’s have ourselves a chat, Shirley.” It sounded like a request, but he gave her no choice as he escorted her to the white van. “My orders were to keep her from getting into trouble. What is she doing?”

  “My orders are to keep you here until she gets back, in about two hours. Her father’s just paranoid—”

  “Have you read the police report about the hit-and-run attempt?” Dammit, his hands were shaking, he was so pissed. And worried. “First off, if she thought it was an accident, why did she report it to the cops? Second, did you see her injuries?” His stomach had clenched at the pictures showing the raw scrapes along Addie’s arm. She’d looked shaken up and pale.

  Obviously Shirley hadn’t seen her injuries, by the shock on her face. “She said it was a few scrapes. Is that why she was wearing long sleeves in the summer?”

  Risk had subtly trapped Shirley between his body and the van. “Someone wants her dead. Someone who knew she’d be here. Now she’s off doing …”

  He stared her down, and whatever she saw in his expression encouraged her to admit, “Stealing a tiger cub from the zoo that was supposed to be here.”

 
; Addie Wunder was the most maddening person he’d ever met. He’d been protecting her for under an hour, and she’d given him the slip. Using goats, for God’s sake.

  “Where did she go, Shirley?”

  “She’s going to kill me if—”

  “Someone might kill her if you don’t.” He drilled her with the same expression he used on the bad guys. “Where is she?”

  Shirley spilled, giving him directions and Addie’s plan to approach from behind. “She usually hides the keys to the van beneath the seat.”

  He jammed his hand down there and found them. In three seconds, he was pulling out of the protest area. “Stealing a tiger cub. Son of a bitch.” He remembered Chase saying this wasn’t going to be an easy assignment, with that knowing smile.

  Chase. If something happened to Addie, Risk would lose this job. Deservedly so. He couldn’t take another fail, not so soon after the defuckle.

  But it was Addie he was worried about. If something happened … Her sweet, impish grin and big blue eyes flashed to mind. His foot pressed harder on the accelerator. He forced himself to ease up. The last thing he needed was to be stopped in a vehicle that didn’t belong to him, with a Glock 23 on his person. Even though he had a concealed-weapons permit, in addition to his security company ID, he didn’t have time to get hassled.

  He slowed when he got near the zoo’s new site, looking for telltale signs of an entry point into the woods. He found one past the zoo and followed the trail of broken branches and saplings. A few minutes later, his heart gave a jolt at the sight of the brown van in the distance. Then his heart dropped to his feet when he saw another vehicle a short distance from the van.

  Risk killed the engine, released the Glock from the holster, and made his way toward the van, alert for any movement. He heard Addie shout, “Get away from me!” and then oof as someone obviously hit the ground. And that oof sounded a lot like her.

  He ran.