by Sadie Hart
Rift couldn’t help but smile. A little oops, his ass.
“How’d you find out about her if Jenna kept her away from the pride?”
That muscle in her jaw twitched again. Oh, so there was a nerve there. “Jenna and I weren’t buddy-buddies, but I helped her one time after Dougal got a bit rough.” She glanced at him and shrugged. “She trusted me after that.”
He’d known Dougal was a mean son of a bitch, but the look in Sawyer’s eyes told him ‘a bit rough’ didn’t even begin to cover it.
“So why’d you take her?”
A bitter smile curved her lips. “Jenna was just going to bluff it out. She knows what those bastards are capable of, but she was just going to hope for the best. She pulled out her files on you and grabbed a match. But there was just no way Dougal was going to buy it. He’s mean, but he’s not stupid.”
Sawyer was right, and one look at Kinsey was all it took to see she was the spitting image of her mother, and him. There was no denying her parentage. Rift winced. Dougal wouldn’t have believed it at all, especially if he’d found those files. Besides, Rift had been on Dougal’s hit list for a long time. He would leap at the chance to kill him. Slowly. Painfully.
If he’d thought he could hurt Rift by taking his kid...
“They would have killed her,” Sawyer said, her voice nothing more than a whisper in the car, and suddenly Rift found himself fighting not to touch her. He fisted his hands against his thighs and shifted in his seat to see the girl still staring out the window. Her music had softened, no doubt enough to let her eavesdrop, and he smiled. She had her mother’s soft, wavy hair. Of course, she’d dyed it. Lions didn’t have a blue-green-highlight-and-dye combo as their natural colors. The sharp edge of her nose, though, reminded him a lot of himself.
“She’s got your nose,” Sawyer said. “And your eyes. Once I got a good look at your picture, I could see why Jenna was so sure.”
“Condom,” he reminded Sawyer, and right on cue, Kinsey rolled her eyes. Oh, yeah. She was her mother’s daughter.
From the back seat came, “Those things aren’t a hundred percent safe, you know. If you don’t want bastard offspring, you should keep it in your pants.”
“Kinsey,” Sawyer said. Rift grinned.
The kid’s finger circled the dial on her iPod and her music blared back to life. Rift shifted in his seat to turn his attention back to the woman driving. All long legs, and, now that he was looking, thin, wiry muscle. She was also hard as heck to get a read on, and she was definitely holding something back.
He had the sudden urge to run his hand down Sawyer’s thigh just to see how the lioness would react. He wouldn’t, especially not with a kid in the car, but hell. Tempting. His tongue made a fast swipe on his lips, then Sawyer jerked the car to the right and they bounced down another country road.
They had three miles to go before they arrived at his place. Long enough to ask a few more questions. To get things straight before he made up his mind. She’d taken a cub that wasn’t hers and run for it. Not a completely unsurprising action for a lioness, but then again, Sawyer wasn’t related to Jenna. Talia and Jolyn were, as sister and cousin. If anyone besides Jenna should have taken the girl and run, it should have been one of them.
He told her as much.
Sawyer stiffened. “Except they didn’t.”
Exactly. But it wasn’t like a lioness to go against her pride for a kid that wasn’t hers. Sure, human morals might kick in, but she was facing jail time with the Hounds if they found out what she’d done. Those were some pretty high cards stacked against her. Four pride males and STE on her trail, all because she wanted to do the right thing?
Rift leaned back in his seat. He wasn’t sure he trusted that, but it damn well made him curious.
He tilted his head towards the mailbox that appeared at the far end of the street. “Slow down. We’ll make a pit stop here. Might as well get some supplies if we’re gonna be running.” He glanced at her. “You do have a plan, don’t you?”
Rift wasn’t at all surprised when she bared her teeth at him, a flash of annoyance darting through her eyes. He chuckled, a teasing grin on his face. “Or not. Maybe plans are overrated after all.”
That drew a laugh from her. “My plan was to get her to you. She’s yours, you have a claim to her.”
“Rarely.” Chances were, if Dougal got Jenna to say she wanted Kinsey back, there wasn’t a court around that would keep her from them. A mother, a ‘stable’ pride—that definitely looked like a better prospect than an unregistered rogue in hiding.
“Yeah, well, that’s as far as I’ve gotten until now. Give me time.” She jerked the car to a stop and glared at him. “Get a bag. Unless all you wanted was a ride home, but if they follow me this far, chances are they’ll find you here.”
“Oh, honey, I already planned on tagging along.” He winked at her and slid out of the car, stalking towards his the run-down mobile house he’d been calling home lately. He needed to find a new place to lay low. With a daughter. That knowledge hit him in the gut, and he hesitated at the door, looking back towards the car.
A daughter and a lioness he knew nothing about.
Chapter Two
“Wow. You’re kidding, right?” Kinsey leaned forward, bracing her elbows between the front seats. “He lives here?”
Sawyer could believe it; though she was still trying to picture how a man Callahan’s size fit into a trailer that small, it made sense for a lion trying to stay off the radar. At least it was a double-wide.
“Ugh.” Kinsey tossed her iPod across the back seat and let herself out. “I can’t believe both of my parents are so lame.”
“Teenage shit, getting old.” Sawyer said and followed her out. She’d have rather the kid stayed in the car, just in case the Cane Creek males came roaring up the road, but she’d have more luck alligator wrestling than getting Kinsey to stay when she didn’t want to. The girl flipped her off and Sawyer thought about lecturing her, but who was she kidding? She wasn’t the girl’s mother and, hell, Kinsey had just met her father. It was a little much to ask Rift to start preaching.
Sawyer glanced towards Callahan, but the lion was already at the front door. Callahan swung the dingy gray door open and stepped inside. He had to duck his head to fit, and Sawyer followed behind him and Kinsey. The place was cramped, but it looked like a home.
“I’m starved,” Kinsey announced, instantly fixating on the kitchen. The girl didn’t have good manners, but then again neither did her mother. Jenna Slade was used to having everything handed to her on a silver platter. The only thing she was unable to control was her husband.
Nobody controlled Dougal Slade.
Sawyer shut the door behind her and glanced around the room. A dilapidated sofa with claw marks down the arms, a dingy, hunter green carpet that varied in shades depending on its place in the room. There was a flat screen television, though. Maybe Callahan wasn’t all piss-poor and had at least some taste. She wanted to flick through the channels and get a look at the other lion’s life. Try to piece together whether or not she’d made the right call by bringing him into this mess.
She rubbed her face. And this most definitely was a mess. She needed to call Lennox soon, get her old boss’s perspective on things. Until then, she just had to keep them moving, and might as well keep moving towards Lennox. That boss would at least have her back.
As for Beckett, she didn’t need to check in with him again until tomorrow. Hopefully by then she’d be close to safe. Especially since he knew what kind of car she drove.
“You should probably pack some food,” Sawyer called out to Rift, who’d disappeared down the small hallway. “She eats like a horse.”
“Don’t call me fat,” Kinsey grumbled around a mouth full of potato chips.
Sawyer rolled her eyes. “If I were going to call you fat, I’d have simply said so.”
“Pack anything you want. Plastic bags under the sink.” Rift poked his head out from a doorway d
own the hall, shaggy black hair falling over his forehead. “I’m not coming back.”
That didn’t surprise her, though the Hound in her—the woman who had gone through the Shifter Town Enforcement Academy, the one who’d studied every law she could—cringed at the thought of helping a rogue pick up and hide again.
But it might very well be the only way Kinsey could stay alive.
She could hardly fault him for that.
Rift’s gaze skimmed over her, and Sawyer felt a shiver trail down her spine. He was everything she’d said she didn’t want—a bad boy, someone who lived outside the law. Hell, a man with a kid he hadn’t even known existed. He was her father all over again, leaving stray cubs behind without any regard for them. But as Rift strode down the hall, all muscle, with skin the color of dark honey, the low burn of desire started simmering inside her again. He was built like a tank, but moved with all the catlike grace of his lion half. Lazy, slow, powerful. You moved or you got flattened, but there was nothing ugly about it.
He was the kind of man who would plow through a bed too.
She had not just gone there.
She turned away, doing her best to ignore the sudden heat in her cheeks.
“Do you and Kinsey already have things packed?”
“The Honda’s mine. I had Kinsey pack a bag. Jenna never even tried to stop me.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Clothes for you?”
The way he said it made it sound dark, sinful. Sawyer nodded, shaky. “Yeah.”
“And when did you manage to do that?”
When she’d packed to go under cover. Not that she dared say that out loud. “Had a small bag packed in my car before I was part of the pride. Some habits don’t die.”
The lie hung there a moment in the silence as she waited to see if Rift would bite. His gaze narrowed, but he didn’t call her out. Relief sank through her shoulders like a two-ton truck.
Instead, he switched topics. “I’d bitch about the size of that car, but it’ll blend. We’ll have to change plates, though. Dougal’s little posse is good at following tracks, and if they’ve notified STE we’re in double trouble.” Rift started to say more and then froze. His large body suddenly leaned down, only to scoop up a blur of purring housecat.
Seriously?
The bobtailed tiger cat purred, content.
“You have to be shitting me,” Sawyer murmured before she could stop it. The lion had a kitty cat. “Full-sized pussy too much for you?”
Rift tossed back his head in a laugh. Shoulders shaking with mirth he leaned in, pure masculine pride stamped in every line of his face. “Oh, I assure you, sweetheart, I can handle both.”
He winked and passed her cat, giving the tiger another gentle scratch under the chin.
Oh, great. “We’re bringing the cat?”
Not that they could possibly leave her behind. But where were they supposed to put a litter box? In the car?
“Her food is on top of the fridge. Dishes on the counter.” He started back toward the hall, pausing with one hand braced on the couch as he looked back. “And don’t say a word about the bowls.”
He gave another low chuckle before continuing down the hall, and Sawyer looked down at the cat in her arms. Hell. This was more than she’d bargained for. She really needed to call Lennox and put together a plan. Keeping Kinsey safe had been enough to worry about, but now she’d added Rift and his pint-sized cat. With a grunt, Sawyer stalked towards the kitchen, dumping the cat in Kinsey’s arms. “Pack as much food as you want and don’t eat the cat. I think Rift would shit something fierce if you did.”
Kinsey gave a soft sound of delight. “Aww, I wouldn’t eat the kitty. Aren’t you a pretty kitty?”
She scratched the silver tiger behind her ears, so Sawyer pointed her towards the cat food. “Food, Kinsey. We don’t have all day.”
Cat dishes, Sawyer reminded herself, scanning the counter. She spotted the blue-and-white cat-sized bowls. Oh. Precious. Little cartoon fish bones were drawn at the bottom. The smile sneaked across her face before she could help it, and the only thing that stopped her from laughing was Rift crossing the room, his eyes dancing.
“Not saying a word,” Sawyer said, tongue in cheek.
Rift tossed a military green sack on the floor. “Good.”
“What’s her name?” Kinsey asked, from her perch on the counter with the cat. Didn’t act a bit like a girl who’d been starving less than ten minutes ago.
“Corona.”
Oh, come on. Sawyer jerked her head around, doing her best to bite back the laugh. “Like the beer?”
“Yes, like the beer.” Everything about him dared her to laugh. When she didn’t cave, he turned back to Kinsey. “Rona for short.”
“She’s so cute,” Kinsey crooned and Sawyer found herself smiling as she filled a bag with random packages of potato chips, cookies, a half a loaf of bread, anything else she could get her hands on. That girl had been running with her for two days straight. If the cat perked her up, who was Sawyer to object?
“Does she have a litter box or—?”
“A litter box and a harness. Harness is packed.” He leaned down and pulled a strip of pink nylon out of the side pouch of his bag. “Litter box is by the door. And here I thought you’d argue more.” He handed her his bag. “Take this. I have a truck out back. Dead as a doornail, but I can swap the plates.”
She watched him go. All lean male swagger and confidence. Not at all like someone worried that danger would pop up on their tails. Apparently the worrying was her job. She glanced at Kinsey, the teen cuddling the purring bundle of fur in her arms. She looked safe. Relaxed.
For the first time in days.
Sawyer closed her eyes. Now she just had to find a way to keep her that way.
***
His thigh cramped, startling him back awake with a jerk, only to ram his knee into the dash of the little car, which was still barreling seventy-five miles an hour down the highway. “Fuck,” Rift muttered and blinked. Beyond the flash of headlights over the bare highway, the world around the car was nothing but darkness.
He glanced at the lioness in the driver’s seat and shook his head. How long had she been driving? The clock read quarter to two. She had to be running on fumes by now, but his earlier offers to drive had been met with staunch refusal. The little hellcat was definitely a control freak.
Rift stretched out his legs and turned to see Kinsey sleeping stretched out across the back seat. One large gold paw hung off the seat. He smiled when he spotted Rona curled up on Kinsey’s back, her eyes blinking up at him in the dark.
“How you feeling?” Rift said, turning his attention back to the woman next to him. She looked like death warmed over. Exhaustion emanated from her in waves. Regardless of what she said, she needed a break.
She shrugged. “Passable. Gonna have to stop and get gas again soon, though.”
She had dark circles under her eyes. They needed more than gas. “Might as well stop for the night. Let’s grab a motel at the next exit.”
Sawyer’s hands tensed on the wheel. “Sure that’s smart?”
“Smarter than you falling asleep at the wheel and getting us all killed. Besides, I want to get out and stretch. We don’t do that soon, and I’m ripping the top off this matchbox you’re driving.”
He watched the lopsided grin that stole over Sawyer’s face. “Beggars can’t be choosers.”
True enough. Rift leaned back in his seat and let the silence stretch between them as the road flew by. Kinsey gave a muffled snore from the back seat, the sound hitting him like a sock to the gut. A kid. Hell. Rift hadn’t seen that one coming. Sure, he’d always known condoms weren’t foolproof, but they were what he relied on. How many kids did he have strung out over the country? A whole line of them, or was Kinsey the only one?
“Shit,” he breathed aloud. The thought of a bunch of little Rifts with no dad in sight made him nauseous.
“You okay?” Sawyer asked, voice soft.
> “Yeah.” He tilted his head towards her. Slim, petite, so unlike any other lioness he’d ever seen. One eyebrow arched, probing, and he sighed. “You got kids?”
“No.”
“You come up with that plan yet?” After all, she’d had plenty of time to think while he’d been conked out next to her.
Sawyer shook her head. “Get as much distance between them and us as possible.”
“And then?”
“Ask me tomorrow.”
She angled the car onto the exit ramp. Rift couldn’t help but wonder if she’d have a plan by then. He doubted it. The moment her head hit a pillow she was going to be out. That left it up to him.
But damn if this time he didn’t have a clue.
***
Sawyer tossed the bags down on the floor and turned in time to see Rift carrying in a sleeping Kinsey, the young lioness’s head resting against his shoulder. One golden ear twitched before he gently laid her across the bed. He froze for a second, staring down at her, almost lost. Then Rona crawled off his shoulder and curled up next to Kinsey.
Rift turned and looked at her, dark amber eyes intense. “You should get some sleep.”
“I will.” She glanced between the two Queen-sized beds. Kinsey was sprawled out in the middle of one. She could push the girl off to one side.
“I’ll take the floor,” Rift said, gripping her shoulder as he walked by. “I’m going to take a shower first. Toss me a pillow and a blanket and I’ll be good.”
Grabbing the green military sack, he slung it over one arm and disappeared through the door. Sawyer held her breath, waiting. It was now or never. She waited until the water clicked on before kneeling beside her backpack and digging out the slim, black cell phone. With one more glance at the still-sleeping Kinsey, Sawyer slipped outside.