Walk on the Wild Side

by Christine Warren

  She let herself slip back to her prone position and closed her eyes. A few more minutes, she told herself. Just a few more minutes down here and then she would try again. Honest.

  While her head might not have been working right, Kitty's instincts still functioned perfectly, a fact that saved her life when something told her she needed to move to the right RIGHT THEN.

  Without thinking, she threw herself into a spin, ending up half-buried beneath the overhanging edge of the red rock while a set of lethal fangs snapped together exactly where her face had been a split second before.

  Scrambling into a crouch, Kitty watched a red-gold lioness shake her head in frustration, then turn to face Kitty with a threatening growl and murder in her muddy green eyes.

  Olivia.

  Instantly, Kitty recognized her, the color of her fur and eyes providing the identification. What it didn't provide was the reason why her half cousin would want to see her dead.

  Nadalie's attack had seemed almost inevitable. Not only had the young woman resented the attention her father had given Kitty, but Nadalie had also been wildly jealous of Max. Kitty had known the first instant they met that Nadalie was obsessed with the baas, now the Felix, and had hated the little signs of attraction between him and the woman she saw as the interloper. Kitty hadn't been surprised by that attack. But Olivia? It didn't make sense.

  But there was no time to puzzle it out now. Olivia slinked toward Kitty's hiding place, her intentions more than obvious in her lowered head, her twitching tail, and the ears she had pinned back against her head. Plus, the sounds she was making, something between a roar and a growl, didn't exactly inspire comfort or security in the listener. At least, they didn't in Kitty.

  What they did inspire in the woman was a split-second decision and the uttering of a quick prayer that the lessons Max had taught her that morning had taken with a vengeance. Briefly closing her eyes, Kitty imagined her feline form materializing in an instant, and she opened her eyes just that quickly. When she saw the night landscape around her lit up like the view though a night-vision camera, she offered up another prayer, this one of thanks. Then she gathered her legs beneath her and sprang from beneath the rock, snarling.

  She deliberately overshot her target, clipping Olivia's shoulder as she dove past, hoping to knock the other female off balance. Kitty's real goal had not been to take her attacker down, just to get out into the open where she couldn't be cornered. While the crevice beneath the rock might have saved her life initially, it would be a very bad thing to be trapped there when Olivia launched a renewed attack.

  Kitty's strategy almost worked. She saw Olivia stumble a little as she flew past, but it didn't take the larger lioness very long to right herself, or to turn on Kitty with even greater fury. But this time, she was ready.

  As Olivia sprang, Kitty rose up, bracing herself on her hind legs and intercepting the other female. They came together like wrestlers, grappling and straining, each trying to overpower the other and shove her down into the dust. They snapped and snarled at each other, making sounds like heavy grunts as they struggled. Kitty trembled with the effort of holding back the heavier, more powerful lioness. Pouring her strength into one urgent shove, she managed to throw Olivia back a couple of steps, but not to knock her over.

  Already panting, Kitty dropped back to all fours, pinning back her ears and crouching low as she and Olivia circled each other warily, each one searching for an opening in the other's defenses.

  In the back of her mind, Kitty realized vaguely that this was not a position she'd ever expected to find herself in. Her last physical fight had been that one with Billy Ray Buckner, when she'd punched his tooth out. When she'd been six. She'd never had a girl fight, and even if she had, she didn't think it would have prepared her for this. But it didn't matter. Instinct had taken over. She might not know much about form or tactics, but she had already developed a basic strategy with which she felt comfortable. Put simply, it said. "Don't get killed."

  Words Kitty intended to live by.

  The crowd in the meeting place seemed to have dissolved into chaos when Nadalie had attacked. Certainly they had given Kitty and Olivia a wide-open area to settle their differences. Kitty was aware there were other people and other lions present, but she couldn't focus on them. She had to keep her attention fixed on the one currently trying to kill her. She couldn't even look around to see where Max had gone. She couldn't give Olivia that opening, so Kitty stared intently at the other female and hoped he was okay.

  "You were supposed to die, bitch," Olivia grunted.

  Literally.

  Kitty heard the sounds Olivia made, and if they hadn't come straight from her lion's mouth, they could have been mistaken for the sounds of a pig at the trough. However she made the sounds, though, didn't seem to matter. Kitty's brain took them in and immediately translated them into words.

  "The bullet wasn't supposed to miss," Olivia continued. "You were supposed to die and I wasn't going to get the pleasure of killing you myself. It wasn't my first choice of course, but I had to admit it was cleaner, so I agreed anyway. Against my better judgment. But then Nadia got in the way and Fate handed me a second chance. I couldn't be happier."

  Kitty tried not to let her surprise show but wasn't sure how to accomplish that on a feline face. She should have realized that cracking noise had been too loud to be her head. It had been a shot, from something more powerful than a 22 and something a lot closer. Whoever had fired on her this time hadn't intended to miss. Wouldn't have missed, if Nadia hadn't chosen that exact moment to go ballistic and try to rip Kitty's throat out.

  Circling warily, Kitty stared into Olivia's poisonous green eyes. "But why, Olivia?" she asked, guessing she sounded no better than a pig herself. "I understood Nadia hating me, but I can't figure out why you should. I wasn't taking anything away from you. Martin wasn't your father, and you never gave any indication you were in love with Max. What would you get from killing me?"

  "God, you're stupid!" Olivia roared. "Do you have any idea how rich Uncle Martin was? A hundred and fifty million dollars, Scarlett. Cash money. That doesn't even include the value of the casino and the resorts. Those are owned by Pride Enterprises and are all tied up in stocks, so it doesn't matter that he left the controlling interest to Max. The money was going to come to us. Can your little hayseed mind even comprehend how much money that is?"

  Actually, Kitty wasn't really sure it could. Even after she had been staying in the hotel and had seen the house and talked to Max, it hadn't really sunk in when he'd told her Martin was wealthy. After all, none of that money was hers. She'd never even stopped to wonder what it would be like if it were. She didn't need that kind of money. She didn't want it.

  "Oh, is the light dawning over marble head?" Olivia sneered. "That was fifty million each, in case you're doing the math. He was going to split it three ways, between Nadia and Peter and me, because I've always been like a daughter to him, you know. But then you came along, and you fucking ruined everything!"

  Screaming in fury, Olivia attacked again. She swiped one huge paw at Kitty's face, missing her target but catching the top of her head as she went by.

  Kitty yelled in pain and shook her head. Why the hell did everyone have to aim for her goddamned head? She was getting sick of it.

  "What did I ruin?" Kitty screamed, hurt and furious. "I never asked Martin for anything. I certainly never asked him for money, so don't blame me if he realized you were too much of a psycho bitch to deserve his money and he decided to write you out of his will."

  Olivia dove at her, her teeth nearly catching Kitty in the side, but she spun away just in time.

  "He didn't change anything until you came along." Head lowered, Olivia stalked and circled like the predator she was. "I saw his will. All I had to do was pull his file at the office and read it. And it always looked the same. Until he got the call about you. Then do you know what happened? He decided to leave a hundred and forty-seven million to you and left t
he three of us with a paltry fucking million each!"

  "Still not my fault," Kitty grunted, dodging a paw to the head. "I didn't change the will and I didn't ask for the will to be changed. Whatever Martin changed, it was his own decision."

  "One he never would have made if it hadn't been for you!"

  She batted a second paw away, baring her teeth and snarling. Olivia lunged, but Kitty parried, dropping her head and ducking beneath the other female's chin to snap at her chest. Kitty felt her teeth sink into fur and skin and tasted blood in her mouth, but the adrenaline rode her too hard for her to pause and really think about that.

  Olivia tore herself away, screaming, a jagged line of red opening up between her front legs, staining her paler chest fur crimson.

  Kitty shook her head, sending drops of blood flying from the cut between her ears. Now each of them had drawn blood, and Kitty began to wonder if it would end before one of them couldn't bleed anymore.

  "I've been planning to kill you for weeks," Olivia panted, glaring at Kitty. "Ever since your father mentioned you. But now I'm going to enjoy it a hell of a lot more."

  "You don't need to kill me," Kitty panted, feeling herself begin to tire. She wasn't used to this form, let alone this form of exertion. If this went on too much longer, she might not be able to hold Olivia off. "I told you, I don't want the money. I'll refuse it. I'll sign it over. Whatever. I don't want it."

  "It's too fucking late for that." Her head low to the ground, Olivia dropped her belly and lifted her shoulder blades and began to stalk closer to Kitty. "The will is binding, unless you die before it can be executed. If that happens, everything goes back to the way it was before. With the added bonus of you being dead."

  Kitty's mind worked frantically. "But why settle for fifty million?" she asked. "Why split it with the others? If I inherit, I'd sign it over to you. You could have it all. Wouldn't that be better?"

  "Ah-ah. Be careful how you answer that, Cuz," a masculine voice said, and the blood in Kitty's veins froze solid.

  * * *

  Chapter Twenty-six

  KITTY TURNED AND SAW A MALE LION APPROACHING, He was smaller than Max and less filled out, but he was still bigger than Olivia and much bigger than Kitty, with a medium golden pelt and a light toffee mane. And he had Martin's green eyes.

  "It wouldn't be very sporting of you to try and cut a deal with my father's bastard," Peter continued, speaking to Olivia. "Especially not after I helped you find someone willing to shoot an innocent woman, for a reasonable fee."

  Olivia snarled at her cousin. "If the shooter you'd found had been any good, she'd have been dead before your father, so don't rely too much on that to provoke my sense of honor, Peter."

  Kitty looked from one murderous family member to the other and shook her head. She was starting to think she liked Drusilla the best of any of these people. At least she had the decency to issue an almost fair challenge, rather than hire an assassin to do their dirty work with a rifle.

  Suddenly, a thought occurred to Kitty.

  "I suppose I ought to be happy you sent someone to bash my head in at the airport and didn't just take out my whole plane, innocent bystanders and all," she said, watching Peter's face carefully.

  The reaction he gave her looked almost like irritation. "That was my first choice, but he wouldn't do it. He said it was too hard to get the right materials past security. The restroom was supposed to be a sure thing."

  "As was the hit-and-run, I'm guessing." She shook her head. "Maybe next time you ought to check a hit man's references before you hire him, Pete. From what I can tell, the one you used sucks."

  Her half brother roared and lunged at her, but Kitty danced out of his way. She knew she had no chance in a wrestling match with him. She'd barely held her own against Olivia. The best thing Kitty could do was try and stay out of his way. The only advantage her smaller size offered was agility. She'd have to make the most of it.

  Then he spoke again, and she felt her stomach sink.

  "Circle around behind her, Liv," he growled. "She can't fight in two directions at the same time."

  Kitty roared, a round of outrage and frustration mingled with fear. Damn it, she wasn't supposed to go out this way, either! She hadn't clawed her way out of that car wreck and dragged her mother to safety just to be taken down by a couple of psychotic half relatives who had never learned to share their toys!

  Kitty had lived through the wreck, a mugging, a hit-and-run, and two attempted shootings, for God's sake. Now she wanted her happily ever after, and she didn't care who she needed to take down to get it!

  With a wary eye on each of her attackers, Kitty began to inch backward, broadening her field of sight. She had no idea how she was going to get out of this mess, but if there was a way, she'd find it. And then she'd find Max and smack him senseless for not rushing in to save her the one time she actually would have been grateful for his help!

  "Don't bother looking for a white knight, sis," Peter sneered. "No one's coming to the rescue. The shot was timed to keep Max busy looking for the gunman, and I'm afraid David might have run into a small spot of difficulty. Or maybe I should say, six spots of difficulty, since that's how many men I put on the task. The belangrik is a hell of a fighter and I didn't want to take chances."

  Olivia and Peter stalked toward Kitty in unison, shoulder to shoulder. Then they began to drift apart, each one trying to find an angle of approach that would force Kitty to divide her attention between them. It sucked, but she knew it was going to work.

  When she felt her right flank hit something solid, Kitty froze. The bastards hadn't just been stalking her; they'd been herding her, forcing her back toward the red rock in an attempt to box her in. Fortunately, their aim had been off. They'd guided her in at an angle, and out of the corner of her eye she could see most of the rock stretched out to her right. Praying frantically, Kitty hitched her hips to the left and backed up again. She took two free steps and rejoiced to have skirted the end of the monument but froze again when she sensed something behind her.

  Please, God, don't let it be Nadalie, Kitty prayed. I'm already outnumbered. Throwing her into the mix wouldn't be fair.

  "Nadalie is dead," a grim voice answered. "She took the bullet meant for you square in the back of the head. It was the first decent thing she ever did. But don't think that will keep me from beating you for putting yourself in danger, just as soon as I get you alone."

  Max!

  She would have recognized his voice anywhere, especially when he was lecturing her about something, and she'd never been so happy to be yelled at in her entire life.

  She didn't turn around, couldn't afford to with Olivia and Peter still crouched in front of her, preparing to pounce. So instead she flicked her tail in his direction and purred, "It's about time you showed up, mister. I was beginning to think you'd forgotten me."

  He didn't bother to respond to that, just stepped out from behind the red rock and padded around to sit on her left side, his hard, copper stare fixed on Peter and Olivia.

  The cousins jerked back, surprise and unease creeping over their expressions. When it had been two against one, them against Kitty, their malevolent arrogance had been palpable, but neither of them was a match for Max, and they both knew it. In fact, Kitty could see them mentally calculating the odds of the two of them against Max.

  "I wouldn't try it if I were you," Max snarled, baring his razor-sharp fangs. "Not only are both of you together not enough to take me on, but you'd be signing your own death warrants. Take a look around you. We're surrounded by witnesses. Witnesses who know when a legitimate challenge hasn't been offered or accepted. Even if you were, by some miracle, able to take me down, you'd never make it out of the territory alive. Are you really stupid enough to take the chance?"

  Blinking, Kitty turned her head and peered into the torch-lit shadows. She'd been focused so intently on the lions trying to kill her that she hadn't had a chance to see what had happened to the crowd that had origin
ally gathered for Max's announcement. She knew they had scattered when Nadalie had attacked her and the shot had been fired, but it looked as if most of them had reassembled at the meeting place. There were Leos everywhere, the majority of them in their furry forms at the moment, though Kitty thought she saw a few two-legged shapes in the distance.

  Every single one of them, no matter what shape they wore, had their eyes fixed on the little scenario playing itself out beside the red rock.

  Olivia had noticed the same thing. Immediately, she dropped to the ground and rolled to her back, exposing her belly to the sky in a sign of her submission. Apparently, she wasn't crazy enough to make a last try for Kitty's throat. At least, not in front of four hundred witnesses.

  Beside her, Kitty heard Max's snarl of displeasure.

  "I would like nothing more than to rip your belly open for what you've done," he said, his eyes glowing with fury, "but unfortunately, the days of meting out that kind of justice are gone. Now we have to deal with humans asking questions when the bodies turn up. So instead, I have no choice but to simply banish you from the pride. You will leave my territory and never show your face here again. If you do, we'll find a way to hide your body so that the humans never find it. Do you understand me?"

  Olivia whimpered a reply. Slowly, she rolled back onto her feet and belly crawled off into the night.

  When she disappeared beyond the crowd, Max turned to Peter. "You," he snarled. "I'm not even sure I have the words for you. Not only did you attempt to kill my mate, but you succeeded in killing your sister. Can you think of a single reason why I shouldn't damn the interference of the humans and tear your throat out where you stand?"