Run Fur Love (BBW Tiger Shifter Romance)

by Catherine Vale

  Most often, his complaints stemmed from dirty history he had with some of the members of her club. Through the years, she had heard just about everything you could imagine, from her guys tearing up his bar in drunken fights, driving too hard, or too fast near his property, or her guys tangling themselves up with other clubs that Morgan just didn’t care for. Despite how many times Harley tried to make peace, and to show him that she and her guys never meant any harm, Morgan just refused to leave things be. As a leader of a rival club, he had no interest in co-existing peacefully.

  “He told me one of your members was responsible for his brother’s death.”

  “Jake is dead?” She steadied herself, trying to remain calm. Saying Jake’s name out loud brought it home, made it hurt in a way that she didn’t understand.

  Jake Ramsey was the younger brother of the man who had hired Jericho to kill her, the man with the gun who’d tried to shoot her. The younger brother, who was the cause of more trouble than her club could ever be accused of.

  Jake Ramsey, the man who’d broken her heart once, and the man she’d sworn would be the last.

  “But how? And why would he blame me?” She didn’t understand how any of this brought Jericho into her life, and put a target on her back.

  “Ramsey thinks one of your men sold Jake the drugs that killed him. He told me that his brother had died, not from an overdose, but because the drugs he bought were bad, tainted, was the word he used. He told me he knew the man who’s sold his brother the drugs, and he wanted him taken care of.”

  “He said one of my men sold Jake drugs? Who?”

  Jericho nodded. “Said the name was Duke Stanton. Your brother…or half, I’m guessing by the different last names.”

  Everything inside her had gone cold, and she felt herself shiver. Her blood pressure was sky high, her heart beating a mile a minute.

  Duke. What the hell had her brother gotten mixed up into now? Fierce love for Duke rose up, startling her, but it was mixed with so much anger at the moment, that she wasn’t sure she could untangle her feelings. He’d gotten her mixed up in something big this time, really big. When she found him, he’d be in more trouble with her, than he ever was with Morgan Ramsey.

  “Yeah, different fathers. His was out of the picture by the time I was born. Mom remarried, and then there was me. Duke’s used both names at times, his and mine, when it suited him, but he’s been sticking with Stanton – his given name – since he’s been trying to get clean.”

  “I can understand that.” He held her gaze while he spoke, and she wondered how many different names there were in Jericho’s past. But that could wait, at least for now.

  “But I don’t believe for a minute that Duke sold Jake anything. He knows – all of the club members know - how I feel about that shit, and they know to keep it away from the club.” The words came out strong, but something inside her felt like she was standing on shaky ground.

  “So you came to my bar looking for my brother?”

  Jericho shook his head. “Duke’s in the wind. Has been hiding out for a couple days. He must have known someone would come after him. I went by his place, but no one was home...”

  “Well, if anyone knows where to disappear to around here, it’s Duke. We were born and raised in these mountains. He knows them better than anyone, including me.” Her leg ached, and she stood, knowing it was going to stiffen up, if she sat still any longer. Jericho looked up at her, then pushed up off the rock. Part of her wanted to back away, and another part wanted to be in his arms, being comforted. And that part got its heart broken, because she didn’t move either way, back or forward. Because there was still more that he needed to say to her.

  “But you need to tell me all the words Morgan said, Jericho, not just the ones you pick and choose. I want to know why me, and if Duke’s still in danger. Why did Ramsey decide I was next on his hit list?”

  “Ramsay wanted me to kill Duke, and if I couldn’t do that, I was supposed to go after you. You were the next best thing.”

  She closed her eyes, trying to make sense of all of this. Maybe it was that simple in the end. “A sister for a brother?”

  Jericho shrugged, and dropped his eyes. In the very short time she’d known him, she had come to know that look meant there was more behind that shrug than met the eye. And she wanted to know what that was.

  “You know better than I do how bad that blood is between you. Not just with Morgan believing that Duke was responsible for his brother’s death, but your relationship with Jake. Whatever happened after you and Jake broke up… Morgan believes it’s the cause of his brother spiraling out of control. He blames you for him turning to drugs in the first place.” He brought his eyes back to her face, and in that look she saw that Morgan had told him a great deal about her life, and her time with Jake.

  “Harley, if it’s all the same to you, I’d really not have the rest of this conversation on the side of the road. If Morgan is that determined to get to you...” He stopped, cleared his throat, then raised a hand to rake his fingers through his hair. She didn’t think it was just her life he was worried about. Any man that crossed Morgan Ramsey, had a target on his back. And that now included Jericho.

  “If he’s that determined to get to you, then we should go.”

  “Yeah, okay.” She took a step, testing her weight on her injured leg. Pain, but nothing she couldn’t handle, nothing worse than she’d ever felt from a fall from a horse.

  “If Morgan hadn’t started the fire, would you have still…” The word was like a bad taste in her mouth, but she forced herself to say it. “Would you have still killed me? This morning?”

  The calm that had left his eyes was replaced with something else. For a moment, they burned with an intensity she’d only seen last night, and she took a step back, not out of fear, but out of instinct, the same way you’d move if the pitch in a log caught, sending out sparks.

  “No. Never. Not since you walked down that bar, and into my life. Not since that first shot of whiskey.” That hand was back, running over his face now, and she could hear the scratch of stubble against his palm. “And if you can wait until we get somewhere safer than this, I’ll tell you the rest of my story. But...” He took a step toward her, and she held her ground. The fire was still there in his eyes, but the sparks were gone.

  “If you can, will you trust me?” He held out his hand, and she looked down at those big fingers, long and hard-looking, and thought of all he had done to her with them, and how gentle his touch could be. And all he could have done, if he’d decided to stop being gentle with her.

  Something inside her gave way, that hard part of her that held mistrust and fear. It was easier to take his hand, than she thought, to let him just hold her hand for a minute.

  “Then trust me when I say, you’re the most important thing in my world right now.”

  He took a step toward her, and raised her hand to his lips. The gesture was so out of place, with the rough land around them, with the dirt and dust that covered both of them, with the tangle of her hair and the sweat of fear dried on her, that made her skin itch. It was kind and soft, and it made her heart beat faster.

  “Will you trust me?” He looked up at her intently, his gray eyes glistening with emotion.

  “I really don’t have a choice, but to trust you.”

  His brows pulled together just a little, and she heard how hard those words must sound to him.

  “You have to know it’s hard for me to trust someone who came to kill me. Despite everything, all that happened last night, and this morning...” She cursed the heat that rose in her cheeks at the memories of him in her bed, cuffed to the frame. “It’s still a lot to get past, knowing why you came here in the first place. Even if you’re saying you changed your mind”

  His face smoothed out, but his eyes didn’t soften. He did smile a little, and then nodded.

  “Fair enough. I understand, Harley. Of course, I do. I can’t expect more than that from you right now.�
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  “Good. Then let’s get the hell out of here.”

  He let go of her hand, and she saw the change in his expression. The side of him that was rational and thinking, came back. He looked up to the sky, then over her shoulder, to the mountains.

  “I think we need to find your brother. Seems to me, he’s the one who might have started this whole chain of events, whether he knew it or not.” He looked at her, and she knew what he was going to ask.

  “Do you know where he is?”

  She nodded, and watched as he righted his bike, putting down the kickstand, and walking around the machine. Then he stopped, and reached into his pack, which was still somehow strapped to the back.

  “Anything broken?”

  “I think she’s good to go. Just paint scrapes, and dirt.” He was digging through the pack, and then he smiled. “I do have something for you, though. Can’t say it’s a present, since it’s yours. But I thought you might want it back. Didn’t remember, till just now, that I had it.” His eyes slipped from her face, down to the t-shirt that was stretched tight across her breasts, nipples poking out hard, from cold and adrenaline.

  She saw the black lace in his hand, as he held her bra out to her, and breathed out a laugh, rolling her eyes.

  “You want to put that on?” He nodded at the bra in her hands. “Or, you know, I’d be glad to help.”

  “I’ve done this before, you know, pretty much every day of my adult life.” She turned her back, lifted up her shirt, and squirmed her arms out of the sleeves of her t-shirt. It was a genuine relief to be wearing a bra, felt as if she’d been united with a long lost friend. As she smoothed down her shirt, tears welled in her eyes, and she thought how strange it was to be crying over a piece of lingerie. But it was one more thing of her own, one more possession she’d thought she’d lost. She was grateful for the small favor of black lace and satin straps.

  “Where do we go?”

  “Echo Lake.” She glanced over her shoulder at him, as she tugged down her t-shirt.

  She nodded. “Duke used to take me there when I was a kid. Said it was like a piece of heaven had fallen from the sky, said it was a place no one cared about anymore. There had been a silver mine there over a hundred years ago, if you believe the old guys who drink at the bar. But there’s nothing there now, but good trout fishing, and a little cabin that Duke banged together over a weekend, or three.”

  “Would Morgan know to look for you, or Duke there?”

  She tried to think if that was possible. “Not that I know of. Morgan Ramsey makes his money building urban blight neighborhoods on the edges of Jenner’s Falls, and New Fane. Echo Lake is way off his radar.” She thought about Morgan, tried to keep it dispassionate, and impersonal. “Morgan is one shady bastard.”

  Jericho’s eyebrows drew down, and she thought shady might apply just as much to Jericho, as it did Morgan. She wondered how many of those shadows Jericho was willing to show her before this was all over. If it ever was.

  “Jake has—had—his own money, a lot of it, and always spent it freely, on drugs and fancy bikes, and women.” That’s where her personal history, and the public intersected, and she decided to stick with the public. Because she had been one of those women he’d spent his money on. Not with drugs or bikes, but gifts and trips, and things that she’d thought meant he loved her. But now she thought meant he was trying to buy her. And because after she’d left him, he’d stopped buying bikes and dating women, but kept spending the money on drugs. And somehow Morgan had blamed her for that, for pushing Jake down that slippery slope. But Jake had been dealing with those demons long before she’d met him, and when self-preservation had made her leave him, he’d just continued on down that slope, all on his own.

  “That’s not the only place I can think Duke might go, but it’s a good place for us to start.” She thought about Duke, the way he lived his life. “Duke would be the guy in the old westerns who knew where Butch and Sundance hid out, how to find the entrance to the slot canyon, or the hidden lake.”

  “But do you know where Butch and Sundance hid out?” Jericho’s mouth curved into a half-smile. “Knowing there’s a place called Echo Lake, and finding it are two different things, especially if you haven’t been there since you were a kid.”

  “I’ve ridden up there a few times on the bike, stayed in the cabin. The last couple times I saw Duke’s bike there...” She thought about those times, and how she’d turned the bike around, and headed back the way she’d come. She shook her head. “But we’ve never stayed there together.”

  Jericho nodded. “You never asked what he was doing?”

  It was her turn to shake her head. “No. Figured the less I knew the better.”

  “Any reason Jake would have known about Echo Lake?”

  She frowned at the ground, kicking a stone, trying to see the connections, shadowy, or otherwise. But they weren’t there. “I don’t think Jake had any idea where Echo Lake is. He had his own patch of ground he liked to stomp around on, but it wasn’t hidden or anything. Just isolated. I think he hid drugs there, between deliveries. Morgan, for living here, never really sank into the land, like Duke or me. He likes the finer things in life. He thinks those are in the city, not out here with dirt and dry grass, and whatever. I don’t think he’d know about Echo Lake.”

  Jericho was quiet for a minute, and she was suddenly filled with the horrible thought that she wouldn’t be able to find the right field, or farm, or tree, or trail, and Duke would be out there alone, and she’d be here, with a target still on her back, and Morgan with a gun still in his hand.

  “How sure are you he’ll be there, Harley?”

  She turned back to Jericho, saw the look on his face, that this question was hard for him to ask. But it was something she’d thought, that maybe they were going on a wild goose chase.

  “It’s the best place I can think of, where he’d want to hide. I think he’d feel safe there, more than any place else. It was where he went when his father died. It’s got a special place in his heart.”

  “So we start there, and if Duke has another piece of heaven he’s never shown you, then we think of something else.”

  “Oh.” Yeah, well, if Duke had another place to hide, then Jericho’s guess was as good as hers as to where it might be. Jericho was looking off into the distance. Then he turned back to her. The look on his face wasn’t one she particularly liked, and she was pretty sure she wasn’t going to like what he had to say.

  “I have to ask; do you think Duke had anything to do with Jake’s death?”

  All the love she had for Duke washed away the anger she had. “Duke’s a good man, always has been, under all the mistakes he’s made. I can’t imagine how he’d be involved in Jake Ramsey’s death.”

  Jericho held her gaze, then shrugged. It was somewhere between non-committal, and dismissive. “Good or not, I’d say he’s mixed up in something that’s over his head. And he’s cut himself off from anyone who could help.”

  “It might be that he didn’t have time to find me, to let anyone else know. Or more likely he thought he could handle it on his own, and didn’t want to drag me down with him. He’s got a stubborn streak.”

  Jericho struggled to suppress a smile. “Can’t imagine that streak runs in the family, does it?”

  She rolled her eyes, and chose to be the better person, and not give him an answer.

  They both went quiet, and she didn’t have any idea what was going through his head. Hers was filled with disloyal thoughts about her brother, which made her feel guilty; confusion over how she ended up being shot at—shot at!—by Morgan Ramsey. And how the man who’d been hired to kill her was now the one helping her find her brother. The world had turned on its head, and she wasn’t sure how she was going to get it right side up again. Maybe Jericho had some answer that would help.

  “I think you still owe me the rest of the conversation you had with Ramsey. Why he didn’t put too much effort into finding Duke, but sure as hel
l put a lot of thought into ruining my life. Besides the fact that he sent you to kill me, and he burned down my bar.”

  The words hung in the air, the threat Jericho had been, and maybe still was, held between them like a bad dream. Jericho looked at her, then rubbed his hand along his chin again. The stubble he’d been sporting last night was turning into a full-grown beard. Shifter blood, she thought, made men grow hair faster than lightning. Maybe that’s why all her guys had long hair and beards; less maintenance.

  “He said Duke was responsible, but in the end, if Duke was gone, then I should go after you. And I’d find you at the Red Arrow, behind the bar. A red-head with curves that went for days.”

  Harley blinked in the cold sunlight. He was talking about her, and it chilled her to think she had been putting those curves on display, while he was figuring out how to kill her. She went hot and cold all over, and a deep shiver started somewhere close to her spine, running through her, so her teeth chattered.

  Somewhere in trying to figure all this out, she wondered if it had been pure accidental divine providence, or just dumb luck, that had made her handcuff him to the bed on the strength of doubting his story. That, and a Montana license plate.

  Chapter Six

  “Are you okay?”

  “No. Not really.” She grabbed her upper arms, and understood the feeling of thinking your body was capable of exploding in a million shards of confusion, and doubt, and fear. Pacing helped, but it was hard to pace with much momentum holding herself the way she was. So she turned back to Jericho.

  “I know we have to find Duke, and I know you don’t like being here in the open having conversations. But I need to know before I get back on that bike, why you didn’t do what you’d been sent to do. Why I’m still alive.”