Carly insisted on stopping at a rest area where she could use the bathroom, countering the two males’ annoyed stares by saying she didn’t have outdoor plumbing and couldn’t pop behind the nearest bush. Not that there were many out here anyway, and she had no intention of getting foot-long stickers in her privates.
Tiger hated every second she was out of his sight in the restroom. He didn’t relax until she came out, purse over her shoulder, and walked briskly again to the SUV.
Carly took over driving then, competently steering onto the freeway. Walker rode in front with her, both he and Carly wanting Tiger to stay in the back. He was too big and too conspicuous, Walker said, even if he hid his multicolored hair under the baseball cap.
“Will you really be court-martialed?” Carly asked Walker. “Are you—what’s the term—AWOL?”
“No, I had some leave coming. I won’t be AWOL for a week. But unless I can convince whoever tries me that Sheldon is a cruel bastard and endangered people’s lives, they might decide to make an example of me.”
“I’m sorry.” Carly sounded sad. “You shouldn’t have gotten dragged into this.”
“Doesn’t matter. I believe in doing what I think is right.” Walker shrugged bulky shoulders. “I’ve had a good run.”
“You can’t be much older than I am.”
“You grow up fast doing what I do.”
As Tiger listened, a recently learned emotion welled up inside him, one he’d never experienced in the research lab. Tiger had felt something like it for Iona when he finally realized she meant to release him from the research building and let him go, and again for Liam for taking him in and giving him a home. He felt it also for Connor for trying to teach Tiger how to live in the world. Now for Walker for helping at a cost to himself.
Tiger had a word now to put to the feeling: gratitude.
“Take this exit,” Walker told Carly as a green sign loomed up. “No more easy freeway.”
Carly smoothly steered off the road and followed Walker’s instructions to turn left onto the empty, narrow road at the end of the ramp. This road, a little rougher, no shoulder beyond the white stripe at its edge, stretched straight and long southward, going as far as Tiger could see.
They were still on this road as the sun moved slowly westward, but they’d left behind flatlands for small mountain ridges that hugged the horizon and made the road bend around them. Carly had switched with Walker again, but she remained in the front, her sunglasses on against the glare.
She looked as neat and edible as she had when Tiger had first met her—she standing on the side of the road in pristine white, one hand holding her cell phone, fingers of the other splayed on her shapely hip.
Some instinct buried inside him had told Tiger that she was his mate. No other.
And Tiger had been right. No woman not a mate of the heart would be so determined to help him, so ready to endanger herself to help him get away.
Tiger wouldn’t let her endanger herself much longer.
The afternoon grew hot, then hotter. Walker turned off on another road that led into rocky hills and canyons. The road became dirt, the SUV shaking over ruts and washboard grading.
After about an hour or so on this road, traveling at a crawl, Walker pulled over. There was nothing out here except heated sky and rock, with trees and scrub clinging to the sides of the canyons. No other cars, no buildings, nothing.
“Carly, how good are you at reading maps?” Walker asked.
“Pretty good,” Carly said. “I go on road trips with my sisters. They talk instead of watching the road, and they never pay attention to their GPS, if they even turn it on. So I navigate. Put it another way, I yell at them to not miss the turn.”
“No GPS service in this truck,” Walker said. “And it’s best if you don’t turn on your cell phone. If you can read a map, I’ll show you. If not, I’ll just tell you.”
“No trouble about my cell phone. It’s broken.” She shot a look at Tiger. “Show me the map.”
Tiger waited while Walker spread out a map on the seat and pointed out the roads she needed to take to lead her back to the freeway and on to El Paso. She’d cross the border there and take more back roads to where she could pick up Tiger.
“And you’ll be . . . ?” Carly asked him.
“With Tiger.”
“Oh,” she said. “Good.” Carly glanced over the seat again at Tiger. “Someone to take care of you.”
Tiger wasn’t sure having Walker come along was the best idea. He knew he’d end up taking care of Walker, not the other way around.
Tiger opened the back door and stepped out of the SUV. He flexed his cramped muscles—he didn’t like being confined for long stretches of time.
He sniffed the air, smelling nothing but grasses, wind, earth. No pollution, no scent of humans touching the breeze. Clean, fresh, beautiful. A wild place, which called to his heart. He wanted to shift and run, never stop running.
He heard Carly leave the SUV, her sneakers crunching on the gravel of the road. Tiger went around the vehicle to her, catching her before she made it to him.
Her eyes were luminous in the sunlight, which burned her hair with golden highlights. “See you soon,” Carly said softly.
Tiger pushed her against the side of the SUV, his body hemming hers in. He put his fingers under her chin, turning her face to his.
“Mate of my heart,” he said. “You always will be. No matter what.”
Carly’s eyes shone with tears. “Remember when I said I thought I was falling in love with you? Well, I think I have. All the way.”
Tiger slid his arm behind her back and pulled her against him, the length of her body along his. He studied her, memorizing her face, her green eyes with the silver gray flecks.
He kissed her, a light touch of lips, fixing her taste in his mind. Always Carly. Always mine.
Tiger kissed her again, this kiss deepening. Carly made a noise in her throat as her body fitted itself inside the curve of his.
Her body was soft where he was firm, rounded where Tiger was flat with muscle. He loved every part of her. The memory of Carly’s warmth would wrap him when he was cold, the thought of her kiss would feed him when he was hungry.
He pressed her back into the warm metal of the SUV, wanting to climb inside her and never come out. Mating frenzy. Here and now.
Tiger kissed her, and Carly kissed him back. His mouth moved on hers, their tongues tangling. The soft sounds Carly made had his cock growing harder, every moment with her making him want to have her one more time.
Walker cleared his throat on the other side of the SUV.
Tiger eased away from Carly, his heart pounding, his temperature soaring, the beast in him angry. He didn’t trust himself to speak as he took one step back and forced his hands to slide from her sides.
Carly looked up at him, her eyes moist, then she reached out and brushed a finger across his burning cheek. “I’ll see you, Tiger. In about five or so hours. Depending on how long it takes me to cross. And then we’ll have time.”
Time. Yes.
In the cage, he’d had nothing but time. Wasted time. Now Tiger wanted to hang on to every bit of time—with her.
“We’ll fix this,” Carly said. “All right?”
Yes, Tiger would fix it. He had to. The thought of being without Carly was tearing him apart.
He took another step back. Carly swallowed and looked away, walking quickly around the back of the SUV to the drivers’ side. Tiger followed her, Walker stepping aside so that Tiger could help Carly into the SUV and close its door.
“Be careful,” she told him through the open window. “I want to see you again.”
Tiger didn’t answer. He leaned in through the window and kissed her again.
Touching her face one last time, Tiger stepped back, waiting while she started up the SUV, then watched her turn it around and head back down the washboard road.
Walker buckled his utility belt around him. “You all right?”
Tiger kept his eyes on the SUV, watching the lights flare as Carly slowed to go down a wash. A line of dust in Carly’s wake spiraled into the solid-blue sky.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Tiger’s chest felt hollow, as though someone had kicked him repeatedly. He needed Carly with him every second—every moment away from her was one too long.
“Tiger?” Walker said.
“Fine.” Tiger made himself turn away. “We should go.” Better get there and meet up with her again as quickly as he could.
“Follow me, and don’t deviate,” Walker said. “We’re going into a dangerous area—drug runners and coyotes use it. Coyotes meaning the guys who run people across the border in exchange for their life savings, not the mangy animals that howl.”
Tiger had heard of these coyotes, and the drug runners who shot those who got in their way. But they were the least of his worries. In fact, he’d make sure that they needed to worry about him.
He paused for a moment to remove his clothes while Walker discreetly looked the other way. Once undressed, Tiger packed his clothes into a waterproof belt pack Walker had brought for him, handed it to Walker, and shifted to his tiger.
The world changed. Scents and sound rushed at him, the beast gleeful to be in open country, far from the confinement of Shiftertown. Tiger stretched, shaking himself out.
Walker had gone wide-eyed, his scent betraying his startled wariness at watching Tiger’s change. Then Walker swallowed his misgivings, came to Tiger, and hooked the belt with Tiger’s clothes around his middle.
The appendage felt a little strange, but Tiger would have to get used to it. He raised his head, sniffed the wind, and followed Walker down the hill, slinking into the shadows of the rocky hills.
* * *
Carly breathed a sigh of relief when the SUV hit pavement. The jarring and rattling stopped, and the ride became smooth.
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 American
s 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.
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.
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