Man-Eater (9 page)

“Honey? Are you all right?” Charlize asked.

Kendra bent over, head between her legs. “I think I just need some time.”

“Take all the time you need, sweetheart. Breathe.”

But Kendra didn’t want to breathe. The human in her wanted to die. She wanted to curl up and die right there on the floor.

Chapter Eight

Kendra seethed. She was, after all, a tigress and tigresses didn’t waste a lot of time feeling sorry for themselves. Her human was done whimpering. Now her tiger was ready to roar. Kendra’s tiger wanted to tear him apart. The rage was stronger than even her heat. She stormed into the club. Cyrus wore a smile, but his expression turned serious the moment he saw the look on her face.

“What’s wrong?” Cyrus asked.

“Can I see you outside please?” Kendra said as calmly as possible.

Laughter erupted. Apparently the other shifters thought this was funny.

“Sure,” Cyrus replied.

She followed him out into the parking lot, doing her best to keep her tigress in check.

“You were wonderful out there, honey.”

“Drop the honey talk,” she said, an animal growl entering her voice. She didn’t know if she’d be able to control her cat. She thought she might tear him apart. But first, she had to find out if it was true.

“Okay,” Cyrus said.

“Are you married?” Kendra asked.

She saw the hesitation before he even opened his mouth. Her tiger quaked with bristled in rage. Was she going to shift right here, right now? Yes, she was. She looked down and saw claws where her hands had just been. No, she needed to control herself. She was civilized, after all. She refused to react with her animal. She pushed her tigress down, but the moment she did, she regretted her decision. Her human side took over, and instead of rage, she felt as if she had been punched in the stomach.
Why?
she thought.
Why?
The sense of betrayal was so visceral, she thought she might vomit.

“Technically, I am married, yes,” Cyrus said.

“What do you mean, technically?”

“I mean...”

“Never mind,” she growled, her tigress surfacing once again. “I don’t want to hear it.”

Kendra didn’t wait another moment. If she did, she knew she’d shift right there in a fit of uncontrolled rage, and she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. Instead, she strode across the parking lot toward the motel.

“No. You need to hear this. Kendra!”

She could sense without even looking back he was following her.

“Stay away,” she called out. “Stay away, and don’t let me ever see you again.”

A semi-truck barreled down the lonely highway, but Kendra was undeterred. Should she wait for it to pass? Screw that. She needed to get away from him. She strode across the road, the truck rushing past her in a furious gust of diesel and hot air and when she looked back, Cyrus was already gone.

∞ ∞ ∞

Cyrus watched Kendra run across the road. What had she seen? How had she known about his marriage? Then he picked up a loose piece of paper that had fallen from the folder she had held. It looked like a credit report. That he had supposedly pulled. But he hadn’t pulled anybody’s credit. Who would have access to his information to make it look as though he had? And one name came to mind.

Morgan.

Cyrus turned to see his soon to be ex-wife exiting the club. Cyrus walked quietly up to her.

“What did you say to Kendra?”

Morgan smiled. “I didn’t have to say anything.”

Cyrus followed Morgan around the side of the building. She was wearing those silver stiletto heels she was so fond of, her stick-thin frame teetering over them like she was going to crash down at any moment.

“What are you talking about?” Cyrus asked.

“I just showed her a copy of this.”

Morgan revealed a second folder and started going through the paperwork. “Photos of the target. Check.”

She whipped off three different photos of Kendra and threw them to the ground.

“Credit report. Check.”

She shoved Kendra’s credit report into Cyrus’s face and dropped it.

“Criminal record report. Eviction report. Employment report. Facebook statuses. Check. Check. Check. Check.”

Morgan dumped a pile of paper onto the ground.

“She’s got it all and she knows you pulled all this info on her because of this.”

Morgan pointed to the upper left corner of the final paper she was holding.

“You used my name to pull a background check on her?”

“Not just a background check. I called her references. Her ex-boyfriend. I made it perfectly clear that I wanted to know everything about her.”

“Why?” Cyrus asked.

“So she knows what a creep you are and so that you stay alone. Forever. Just like me.”

Morgan dropped the rest of the file on the asphalt and strode away. What the hell? On one hand, Cyrus was disgusted, but on the other, he was so glad to be done with Morgan, he almost smiled. The divorce would be officially wrapped up by tomorrow. She would be somebody else’s problem. Cyrus bent down to scoop up the papers. He didn’t want anybody else to find Kendra’s personal information.

Kendra.

His heart ached at the thought of the pain Morgan’s lies had caused her. He quickly gathered everything up. He needed to go to her. He ran across the road and knocked on her motel door.

“Kendra, I know you’re in there.”

There was no answer.

“Kendra. Please come to the door. I can explain.”

Still no answer. Where was she? She had crossed the road. All that was over here was the motel. She had to be in her room. Unless. Cyrus glanced past the tow yard to Roland’s Auto Repair. His shop was long since closed. And Kendra’s car was gone.

∞ ∞ ∞

Roland had told Kendra her car was ready to go just before she had gone on stage. Because he was going to be away from the shop, he’d asked her to drop her payment through the slot in his door. He’d told her he’d leave the keys under the visor and Roland had been good to his word. Kendra had dropped the money through the slot, grabbed the keys, and drove.

Because, for better or worse, Kendra was done. Cyrus’s admission that he was married had done more than driven her tigress into a heat-fueled rage. It had changed her. It had shaken her faith in the world to the point she didn’t know if she’d ever be able to trust anybody ever again. She chastised herself for being stupid enough to believe him. Stupid enough to let her heart lead instead of her head. Had she learned nothing in her twenty-nine years? She knew if she’d spent another moment in Cyrus’s presence, she’d have shifted. She’d have taken on his tiger. She’d have bloodied him. Instead, she had done the prudent thing. She’d left.

Now, all she wanted to do was get as far away from Cyrus White as possible. She was well aware that she hadn’t said goodbye to Charlize or anybody else at the club, but she could call them later. Hell, she hadn’t even picked up her things from the motel, but she’d worry about that later too. What was important was she get away from Cyrus. She had been with that kind of man before. The kind of man who catalogued her every move. Her ex had done exactly that and then stolen from her to make it all the worse. He’d taken her bank account, her apartment, her identity, and everything else she had. There was no way she was going to go through that again.

No, Cyrus may have talked a good game, but he was married. And not only was he married, he’d had her followed. It creeped Kendra out. The feeling of violation, of being spied on, of being observed without her knowledge, penetrated her being all the way to her core. It disgusted her, maybe even more so because her ex had behaved in a similar manner. What was she? A magnet for these creepy stalker lurker types? How could Cyrus look into her like that without telling her? Make love to her and then follow it up with photos that proved he’d been stalking her? It made her skin crawl. No. She’d made the right choice. By the time she got back to the city, her heat would be done and she would never, ever, think about Cyrus White again.

All of a sudden, the road noise grew louder. She heard the wind, but she didn’t hear her engine. Huh? Kendra’s dash lit up. No. Not again. The engine had cut out. No throttle response. Nothing.

Kendra rolled to a stop on the shoulder.

Shit. She’d just gotten the thing fixed. She tried the engine again. Nothing. Roland may have been a nice guy, but he sucked as a mechanic. Or was it her? She looked at the gas gauge. It read empty. How was that even possible? It was nearly full before she left. How could it be empty twenty miles later? Kendra took out her phone.

Seriously?

No bars.

She opened her car door and stepped outside and it was the same thing. Still no bars. But she smelled gasoline. Why? She walked behind the car, shining the flashlight app on her phone. Gas. A little trail of it all the way down the road. She looked under her car. A few drops of gasoline still dripped from her tank. Why would there be gasoline dripping from her car? That made no sense. Kendra stood and wiped the sweat from her brow. Her heat had just begun to set in for the evening. One thing was certain. It was going to be a long night.

∞ ∞ ∞

Cyrus’s tiger itched under his skin, scratching to get out. He was trying very hard to contain his animal. Not because he wasn’t roaring on the inside, but because if he was going to go after Kendra, he’d need to drive. In his shifted state, he’d barely be able to fit inside the cab of the truck let alone hold the wheel. But even if he could find her, how would Kendra react? His tiger silently seethed at the injustice of it all. He had to tell her he hadn’t been the one to pull her credit reports, that he hadn’t been snooping into her life or taking pictures of her, that he would never do that.

Cyrus sighed, consciously pushing down his animal. He should have told Kendra the whole sad story about Morgan from the start. She would have understood. But instead, she had to find out like this. Why hadn’t he just explained the situation?

Cyrus cursed his shortsightedness. But none of that mattered now. What mattered was that he fix it. He hiked past Roland’s shop. Some tools had been left on the ground. A pair of pliers, a hammer, a drill. That was strange, Roland usually kept his tools tidy. And he never left them outside overnight. Cyrus picked up the tools. He’d put them in the cab of the tow truck for now. He walked into the driveway behind the tow yard. The tow truck. Where was it?

He’d parked it behind the yard. He was sure of it. But it wasn’t there. How could that be? Was it stolen? He doubted it. Things rarely got stolen in these parts. Besides, who would have known it was parked back there? And then Cyrus noticed something in the dust and dirt. Little holes in the gravel. Heel marks. Stiletto heel marks. And there was only one person he’d see recently that was wearing stiletto heels.

Morgan.

∞ ∞ ∞

Kendra watched as the headlights approached down the lonely road. They were the first set she’d seen since her car had died. If she got out of her vehicle and waved them down, maybe she’d get some help. Not exactly what she wanted to be doing on a Saturday night, but it beat walking back to the motel. And then the lights flashed orange. Police. No, you’ve got to kidding me. Wait—it was a tow truck.

Cyrus?

She needed the help, but really? He’d taken stalking her one step too far. Her inner tigress roared as a rush of animal anger welled up within her. She was so upset she didn’t care if he could tow her out of there. She would give him a piece of her mind. Kendra got out of her car. The door of the tow truck opened. Cyrus approached in the darkness.

But something was wrong. It wasn’t Cyrus. Then who was it? Someone a lot smaller than Cyrus. Someone skinny. Cyrus’s shifter wife. What was her name?
Morgan?

“You look like you could use some help,” Morgan said.

Kendra stared at Morgan standing there in her silver stiletto heels. Something was definitely not right.

“Thanks,” Kendra said. “I could use a tow. Didn’t know you drove the truck.”

“I don’t,” Morgan said, approaching very closely. “I mean, my husband usually does.”

This definitely wasn’t the ride back to civilization she had been hoping for. There was a long awkward silence. Awkward, like Kendra had never felt before. One the one hand, Kendra’s tigress wanted to rip Morgan apart with her bare teeth. Tear her flesh. Destroy the woman whom Cyrus had dared make his wife. But she knew it was just her tigress talking. The jealousy talking. And Kendra wasn’t about to give in to her animal. She wanted to. Oh, how she wanted to. But she wouldn’t do it. It was a point of principle and her human side wouldn’t allow it. Not on this point. It was, after all, Cyrus she was angry with. He was the one who had created the situation. He was the one who was to blame. Not his wife.

“Look, I didn’t know you guys were married. I’m really sorry.”

Morgan’s eyes glowed.

“I think I should be going back to my car now,” Kendra said.

“Should you?”

Kendra felt her tigress scratch under her skin. But it wasn’t just jealousy. Her hackles were up and that meant trouble. What was going on here? What was wrong with this Morgan woman? Whatever it was, Kendra knew it was serious. Because at that moment, Morgan shifted into a black panther and leaped through the night at her.