It was September, but they were now officially in the Southwest, where triple-digit temperatures lingered until late autumn. The lot’s heat came through the soles of Carly’s sandals, making her toes curl.
Carly took out her credit card to slide into the pump’s reader, and then reconsidered. If Tiger had been reported at large, Shifter Bureau might try to trace him through her purchases. They’d guess or learn Carly was with him.
She tucked the card away and hurried into the convenience store, where she paid cash for the gas, giving the clerk a warm smile.
Her wallet was depressingly empty. They’d have to get more money soon, from somewhere. No telling how long this road trip would be. But pursuers could trace her through ATM withdrawals as well. Cutting-edge technology had put the world into a goldfish bowl.
Carly purchased some water and low-cost snacks, and trotted with everything back to the car. She thrust the bag of goodies through the open window at Tiger then wrestled the nozzle from the pump and into the pickup’s tank.
A man on the other side of the pump glanced over, then looked indignant when he saw Carly filling the tank while two men lazed on their asses in the truck. Carly gave the man a bright smile.
“I insist,” she said.
The man gave her a little nod in return, the Whatever loud and clear. He finished, started his car, and drove away.
As Carly watched the numbers on the pump move with agonizing slowness, Connor popped open the front door and slid out of the cab.
“Where are you going?” Carly demanded.
“I have to pee.” Connor zipped the hoodie more securely over his Collar, thrust his hands into his pockets, and slunk into the convenience store.
Carly had used the bathroom at the rest area, but that had been an hour or so ago, and agitation wasn’t helping. The restroom sounded like a good idea. She hung up the nozzle, closed the gas tank, and walked around the truck to Tiger. “Don’t go anywhere,” she said.
He opened his eyes, his protective look returning. Carly put her hand on his arm.
“Seriously don’t,” she said quickly. “I’m just going to the bathroom, and Connor’s in there. We’re all safer if you don’t draw attention.”
Carly saw Tiger acknowledge this, but he didn’t like it. She patted the back of his hand. “Next time you flee town, steal a big RV with a working bathroom.”
Tiger nodded in all seriousness. “I will.”
Carly raced into the store, feeling Tiger watch her all the way. She smiled at the clerk again and ducked into the back, following the “Restrooms” sign. She heard water running in the men’s room and hoped Connor would get back out to the truck soon to keep an eye on Tiger.
She dashed into the empty women’s room and a mostly clean stall with some relief. A few minutes later, she was at the sink, scrubbing her hands and splashing water on her face.
The blotchy mirror showed that she looked awful. Hanks of honey brown hair framed her face, her Scrunchie hanging on by one strand. Her cheeks were pale, shadows like bruises beneath her eyes.
Carly pulled off the Scrunchie, patted water onto her hair, and tried to tame it into a neater ponytail. She grabbed paper towels, dried her hands and face, and sprinted out, doing a two-point slam-dunk of the paper towels into the trash can.
She reached the front door of the convenience store in time to hear Connor shout. Her heart dropped when she saw a black SUV with dark windows gleaming in the bright sunlight pull in behind the pickup and four men in black fatigues leap out.
Connor had apparently lingered in the store to buy another handful of candy bars. Now he halted outside the door, his mouth open from his cry of warning.
Tiger was in the pickup’s driver’s seat. He had the engine started, and as Carly watched, the small truck leapt forward, tires squealing, and bolted out of the lot.
Chapter Four
Connor grabbed Carly’s wrist. She managed a squeak of surprise before Connor dragged her in the opposite direction from the SUV.
Two of the men in black saw them and started after them, but Connor, a lion Shifter at the peak of his youth, could run.
Carly had to pump her legs hard to keep up with him. Connor raced with her around to the back of the gas station just as Dylan’s pickup careened around the corner into the narrow road behind it.
The pickup slowed a fraction, and Connor slung his arm firmly around Carly and sprang with her into the bed of the moving truck.
“Whoop!” Carly landed hard on Connor, both of them sliding rearward as Tiger sped up. Carly’s feet slammed into the tailgate, and she and Connor held on to each other as the truck spun around another corner and down the street.
As soon as she was able, Carly untangled herself from Connor and pulled herself up to look over the tailgate. They were racing away from the gas station, heading for the ramp to the freeway. The men in black dove into the SUV, the vehicle already moving.
An eighteen-wheeler chose that moment to rumble slowly past the station, blocking the exit. Carly saw the black vehicle come to a sudden halt, and then frantically reverse, looking for another way out.
Carly held up both fists. “Eat that, suckers!”
Tiger careened around cars, and Carly lost sight of the SUV. She collapsed into the truck’s bed to find Connor glaring at her.
“Never taunt Shifter Bureau agents,” he said. “It only gets you into trouble. Trust me.”
“Tiger said they weren’t Shifter Bureau. That is, if those were the same guys following us on the freeway.”
“Oh, they’re the same ones,” Connor answered darkly. “And Tiger could be wrong.”
Carly laughed. “Tiger’s never wrong, honey. If says they aren’t Shifter Bureau, then they’re not.”
Tiger swung the truck through a contingent of bikers on the entrance ramp and roared onto the freeway. The roadway was crowded, the city awake and moving. Tiger slipped and slid through traffic, completely putting the lie to his claim that he had a hard time driving anything but motorcycles.
Carly pulled herself up painfully to look into the cab, the wind destroying the ponytail she’d painstakingly redone in the bathroom.
She sucked in a sharp breath. Tiger was driving all right, zipping and zigging through cars, SUVs, pickups, semis, motorcycles … with his eyes closed.
Carly opened her mouth to cry out, then thought better of it. Tiger was following the curve of the lanes, moving around other vehicles with ease, adjusting to the traffic as though on autopilot. Startling him right now might be deadly.
Tiger had told Carly that sometimes he saw faint streams of numbers, like computer commands, scrolling through the back of his mind. Carly often wondered whether the researchers from Area 51 had stuck some kind of chip inside him, but Tiger didn’t know.
In any case, Tiger was driving the truck steadily along, leaving the black SUV far behind.
Carly knew the reprieve was temporary. Traffic was already thinning as they reached the edge of town, and the road beyond would empty. The SUV would easily catch up with them there.
They sped out of the city limits and passed a sign that read Welcome to New Mexico, Land of Enchantment.
Carly hunkered down with Connor, pulling the fleece blankets he’d been curled up in over them both. The sun was hot but the wind was cool, and hiding from the blaring desert sun was always a good idea.
“Where are we?” Connor asked under the dim confines of the blankets.
“New Mexico.” Carly swallowed. “I wonder if he’s heading all the way to the coast. Will we have to jump aboard a ship?”
Connor only shrugged, curled up and closed his eyes.
He didn’t worry about much, did Connor, Carly thought with envy. He was an amazing young man, chafing at the overprotectiveness of his uncles and grandfather, and poised to take on the world.
The younger, unmated females in Shiftertown were already giving Connor the eye, waiting for him to get through his Transition so they could pursue him as a pot
ential mate. That would be interesting …
After a while, Carly sat up, pushing her hair from her face, and gently slid open the window of the cab. Tiger was still driving, alert but with his eyes closed. Empty desert was all around them now, the road straight.
“Hey,” Carly said softly.
She still feared to startle him, but Tiger simply turned his head a little to listen to her.
“Think I could come back up there and drive?” Carly asked him. “This wind is playing hell with my hair. Besides, you look creepy.”
Tiger opened his eyes all the way and frowned at her.
The pickup swerved onto the road’s shoulder, and Connor groaned under the blanket. “We’re goin’ t’die. I know it.”
Tiger growled. He slammed on the brakes, the truck vibrating on the rough pavement of the shoulder, but they came safely to a halt. The yellow grass beyond bent in the wind.
A few cars came up on them, none the SUV. The vehicles slid on by, not bothering them.
Carly climbed over the tailgate as quickly as her shaking legs would let her and ran to the driver’s side door. Her sandals burned now from the roasting pavement beneath them.
“Coming, Con?” she asked over her shoulder.
Connor unzipped his hoodie but remained seated in the truck’s bed. “Nah. Need another nap.” He was a lion all right—they loved to sleep in the sun.
Carly leapt into the driver’s seat and slammed the door, buckling up and checking the road behind her before she pulled out.
She glanced at Tiger, who’d moved to the passenger seat and now rested against the door.
“Do you have any idea where we’re going?” she asked him as she sped up. “Besides that way?” She pointed forward.
“No,” Tiger said. “I just know I have to go.”
Carly let out a breath. “I can’t say I understand, because I don’t. But if it’s what you need to do, then I’m with you.”
Tiger studied her from golden eyes, his warmth a comfort after the glare of the sun. He said nothing for so long Carly wet her lips nervously.
“What?” she asked.
“I love you.” The words were simple, spoken in Tiger’s deep voice.
He didn’t say it often. Carly knew he loved her—he showed her how much every day and every night. Had since the day they’d met.
But Tiger couldn’t always get out the words that fit his feelings. Liam, in contrast, could be funny, wise, and caring, and find the right words for every occasion.
The Morrissey family’s loquaciousness hadn’t rubbed off on Tiger, who would remain mute while everyone else talked a mile a minute. Now Tiger’s bald words filled the un-romantic pickup cab and entered Carly’s heart.
“I love you too,” she said softly.
If she hadn’t had to drive, she’d have moved into his lap and thanked him with a deep kiss. As it was, Carly reached over and clasped his hand.
They shared a moment—understanding and love that didn’t need words and flowery phrases. Tiger and Carly knew what was between them, the mate bond that wrapped around their hearts. That bond let them touch without touching, be a part of each other.
Carly squeezed Tiger’s hand. When they were back home and out of danger, she’d show her love for him with something far beyond a little hand holding.
Tiger let out a grunt, and the returning pressure on her fingers grew suddenly tight. Tiger’s face lost color as his eyes filled with pain, sweat beading on his skin.
“Not much time,” he said thickly.
“Crap.” Carly pressed the gas pedal. “Hang on, big guy.”
Connor pulled his way up to the window. “They’re coming.”
Carly shot a look to the rearview mirror to see that, sure enough, a black SUV was gaining on them.
“Double crap.” She slammed the pedal to the floor. “Guess there’s no rest for the weary.”
The pickup leapt forward, groaning and rattling, as they sped on into the flat New Mexico desert.
At the border between New Mexico and Arizona, Tiger sensed a patrol car hiding in the underpass of a little road that led to a tiny farm town. He touched Carly’s shoulder, and pointed. “Cop.”
“Shit.” Carly took her foot off the accelerator and braked until they were going an even 75. Tiger kept his hand on her shoulder, liking the warmth of her under his fingers.
“Well,” Carly said brightly. “At least our pursuers will have to slow down too or get pulled over.”
“The cops might be in on it with them,” Tiger said. He didn’t know, and this bothered him. But the heart-wrenching cry in his head wasn’t letting him think straight.
Carly’s eyes widened. “You think they might be in cahoots?” she asked worriedly. “Shit!”
She clenched the wheel and dragged in a long breath as she passed the cop, doing exactly the speed limit.
The Arizona DPS car’s lights went on, and sirens blared as the cop pulled out behind them in a swirl of dust, following in fast pursuit. The SUV hung back, letting the cop car get between them and the pickup.
Carly looked at Tiger, her beautiful eyes trusting. “What do you want me to do?”
There was no choice. “Go. Fast. I have to.”
“You know, my sister wanted me to marry a man with a great job, a big house, and tons of cash,” Carly said as she sped the pickup to eighty, eighty-five, ninety. “To think, right now I could be sitting by the pool buffing my nails and sipping a fancy cocktail.”
She laughed, bubbling with mirth at a joke Tiger didn’t really understand. He’d met the guy her sister had wanted Carly to marry—a weak, mean, irritating man who had already made her unhappy by the time Tiger came along. Why Carly thought that was funny, Tiger didn’t know.
He only knew he liked hearing her laugh, that it eased the pain that sliced him, the urgency that drew him onward.
On rescue missions, he could feel the fear of the person he searched for, could sense their despair that no one would come. But usually it was distant, at the back of his mind, like a homing beacon to their location.
This person’s distress gouged him, keeping Tiger from feeling anything but the need to race to them.
If the DPS cop wasn’t with the SUV guys, he or she could help. The SUV men might be hunting whoever Tiger sought, but a decent cop would bring backup, ambulances, humans trained to take care of others.
Humans like that did exist, in spite of the belief of some Shifters that all humans were barbaric to one another. Tiger had seen too many human men and women throwing themselves into danger on behalf of others to believe otherwise.
Carly passed a sign that announced they were in a town called Bowie. At the same time, Tiger’s insides compressed with a sudden sharp pain. He doubled over, groaning.
“Tiger?” Carly’s voice sounded far away. “You all right? Stay with me—Tiger?”
Tiger lifted a hand and waved at jagged mountains south of them. “There.”
Carly peered at the mountains then scanned the road, including the two-exit town they were screaming through. Farms spread on either side of the freeway, the rich furrowed earth stretching out until it died into dust and desert.
The DPS car was still with them. As they left Bowie, another raced down an onramp and joined in.
“How the hell am I going to get there?” Carly demanded. “This truck isn’t exactly off-road material.”
Tiger didn’t know, and he couldn’t think anymore. His head pounded, and he collapsed into the seat.
He heard Carly shout for Connor. When the lad finally rose to look in the window, Carly shoved her phone at him. “Bring up some maps. I need to know how to get over there.” She pointed at the mountains.
Connor blinked, took in the cops chasing them, and then bent to the phone. His thumbs flew over it, Connor having taken to technology with startling ease. Though Shifters were restricted from having the latest gadgets, Connor knew all about them and how to manipulate them.
“There’s a turnoff
in Wilcox,” Connor said over the wind. “Road heads toward those mountains. There’s a national monument there.”
He gave more directions to Carly, but Tiger couldn’t make out his words.
He lapsed into darkness as Carly sped down the road, then she swerved off the freeway onto a highway that headed toward the looming crags.
We’re coming, Tiger promised silently, but whether the person on the other end could hear him, he couldn’t know.
Chapter Five
The road across the desert was narrow, a reddish-black ribbon unfolding through brush and dust. The vegetation was thicker here than in Texas and New Mexico, but spikier, as though the ground allowed only the hardiest plants to break through.
Carly straddled the yellow line on the empty road, going too fast to worry about the rules. Behind her came four DPS officers, weaving in and out and around the black SUV. Connor had sunk lower into the truck bed, holding on as Carly careened down the road.
More worrying to Carly was Tiger. Sweat dampened his hair and growls issued from his throat.
She recognized the signs—he wanted to shift to let the tiger in him take over. But a giant Bengal filling the cab of the small truck right now would be a disaster.
“Hang on,” Carly said to him.
Tiger didn’t answer. Carly couldn’t reach over and reassure him with a touch, because she didn’t dare let go of the wheel.
A sign told her she was heading toward Chiricahua National Monument. That meant a gatehouse at the end of the road—probably—where a park ranger would be there to provide helpful information.
If Carly stopped, the cops would be all over them, and the cops were armed. If Tiger jumped out and ran, the police would have no hesitation about shooting.
Tiger had the tendency to shake off bullets though—Carly had witnessed this. On the other hand, enough bullets would bring even Tiger down. Out in the middle of nowhere, with no hospital or Shifter healer in sight, Tiger would die.
Carly didn’t slow. Unlike Hill Country in Texas, there were no side roads here, nothing but an empty plain covered with rocks and scrub, and mountains that looked more craggy the closer she drew to them.
Tiger Striped Page 3