Trusting the Tiger: BBW Tiger Shifter Paranormal Romance (12 page)

No helmet, she realized belatedly. She couldn’t even remember where she had left it. No matter. She slung one leg over and straightened the bike under her. A deep breath, one foot on a pedal, push, scramble to get the other foot into its stirrup – and she was off.

Sort of.

The where-you-look, there-you-go steering method Toni had perfected the day before still worked, though it did mean that if she didn’t want to fall into a pothole, she had to pretend they didn’t exist.

Not
looking at obstacles was something of a difficult ask. Try as she might, Toni found her eyes twitching back and forth between the flat road in front of her wheels and the rocky holes and pits beside her. When the road finally deteriorated into a mud track, she heaved a sigh of relief. At least that would be relatively soft to fall on.

As she rode, the invisible rope anchored in her chest seemed to almost physically pull her forward, driving her on toward Jack. The shocks of fear and tension that had shivered down the connection had faded, now, something she took as a sign she was getting closer. In fact, if she concentrated, she could almost tell—

Toni opened her eyes and just managed to twist the handlebars to keep herself upright before the bike veered off the path.
Stupid!
She could concentrate on riding, or concentrate on her connection with Jack – not both at the same time.

Her hands were sweating on the handlebars. The last thing she needed was to crash before she even got to Jack.

Come on, body. Do this one thing right, please, and I’ll never make you get on a bike again.

She pushed on. Even if she didn’t concentrate on her connection to Jack, she could tell she was headed in the right direction. The narrow track wound back and forth up a hill; Toni could just see the top of it through the trees.

She wondered what she would see from the top. This area on the map had been blanked out with a big ‘DANGER: NO ENTRY’ stamp over the top. But the anchor-rope in her heart was leading her straight into it.

Toni gritted her teeth. A few minutes later, legs aching with effort, she crested the ridge. Her breath caught in her throat.

She had thought the raised ground would give her a better view of her surroundings – but not like this. Below her, a landslide had cleared a patch of the forest of trees, leaving a wide swath of bare dirt. And beyond that, the lush forest gave way to a tangle of rubble and rusting machinery. There must have been some sort of factory out there, she realized. But it must have been shut down decades ago, and now the forest was reclaiming the land, sending out vines and hardy shrubs to help time break down the ruins.

Something gleamed silver in the rust and rubble. A solid-looking 4WD truck was parked up against what remained of a brick wall, barring the way to what Toni realized must be a drivable road, the first she had seen since she abandoned her car. She backed up hurriedly, concealing herself back in the trees along the ridgeline. She couldn’t risk being seen.

She had moved just in time. There was another silvery gleam as a car door opened and de Jager stepped out. He was dressed in a light gray suit, completely incongruous given their surroundings. Dark glasses glinted in the sunlight as he surveyed the area, confidence in every inch of his stance.

“Well, Mr. Silver, are you going to show yourself?”

His voice echoed around the clearing. Toni hadn’t noticed the birdsong until it disappeared, leaving a hole of silence after de Jager’s words faded.

“Really, Mr. Silver, there’s no need to keep playing these games. Did you think I wouldn’t notice that you incapacitated the rest of my team as they arrived? Actually, I should thank you! Employees are replaceable, but the thrill of the hunt is, I’m sure you’ll agree, without comparison!”

Even from her distant hiding place, Toni could see the smile spread over his perfectly tanned face.

She frowned. He may have been smiling, but he didn’t appear to be armed. As she watched, he held his arms out wide.

“You know, when your contract first came up, I thought I was losing it. Surely, after all this time, the universe wouldn’t line things up so neatly? And yet, here we are.”

His grin widened. It was no longer a smile – just teeth.

“As for the other two freaks … well, that’ll make a nice bonus for the boss.”

Anger boiled up in Toni’s chest. He was talking about the twins! She clenched her fists, imagining smashing them into de Jager’s smug, smiling face.

Then her anger turned into horror as another figure stepped out of the shadows under the trees.

“Jack, no,” she whispered under her breath. “He’s baiting you. Don’t fall for it!”

She watched, her heart in her throat, as Jack stalked toward de Jager. He stopped ten feet away from the other man. Toni could see the tension in every inch of his body – hell, she could feel it in her own body, and she was no longer sure whether that was a result of their bond, or just plain fear.

The two men exchanged words, too quietly for Toni to hear them. Jack threw a cell phone to the ground between them – the phone Toni had seen last night.

So it had been from the driver. And whatever Jack had tried to use it for, de Jager had clearly used it against him to set this trap.

Toni felt sick. She had come all this way, but now that she was here, she had no idea what to do. If she revealed herself, she might distract Jack long enough for de Jager to… what?

She supposed he might have a gun, hidden somewhere under his perfectly tailored clothes. He seemed too calm for a man who was completely unarmed.

Then a movement further down the slope caught her eye, and her veins turned to ice.

A little way down the slope from where she stood, sunlight glinted off dark metal. She wasn’t the only person hiding in the trees. A man in camo gear knelt behind a stand of brush, completely concealed from the clearing. He held a rifle aimed directly at Jack.

Toni’s chest went tight as she pieced the situation together. Jack had left hours ago, and based on what de Jager had just said, he’d probably had time to deal with any of de Jager’s men who were in the area when he arrived. But if de Jager knew he was coming … then he must have sent those men ahead as bait. Lured Jack into a sense of false security, then called in secret backup.

Jack clearly couldn’t tell he was in danger, and as a breeze of air raised goose bumps on the backs of her arms, Toni realized why. The wind was in the sniper’s favor, blowing his scent, and Toni’s, away from his prey.

The three men were almost perfectly lined up. That was probably the only reason Jack was still alive, Toni realized. The sniper wouldn’t risk shooting his boss by accident.

“I have a proposal for you, Mr. Silver!” De Jager was speaking loudly again, his voice carrying across the clearing. “I told you I should thank you for taking out my advance team. After all, there’s no fun to a hunt when the field’s already been staked out.”

“Say what you’ve got to say,” Jack growled. “You know I don’t have any interest in your
hunts
.”

He spat the last word as though it hurt his mouth.

De Jager regarded him coolly. Toni wanted to jump out, to scream and wave her arms, warn Jack, but even mindspeaking might surprise him too much, give de Jager time to jump away and the sniper time to get that one shot in. She gulped.

“As I said, my contract is only for you. The two kittens were an unexpected bonus. Or they will be when I catch up with them.”

Toni could see Jack’s fists clench.

“But I can see that distresses you, Mr. Silver. And I’m sure it is distressing. Two children, carried away to who knows where?”

All traces of humor disappeared from his face. They were replaced by a strange expression, as though de Jager was trying to fake compassion, but had no idea what the concept really was.

“Here’s the deal, Mr. Silver. I want my bounty, but I want my hunt, too. You give me that, and I’ll leave the kittens alone.”

Toni held her breath. Her eyes kept darting between the sniper on the slope below her, and the two men standing so close together across the clearing.

“What do you mean?” Jack asked at the same moment as the question passed through Toni’s mind.

De Jager shrugged. “I didn’t get into this profession for the money, Mr. Silver. I got into it for the game. You give me a good time, and when I haul your carcass to my employer, I won’t say a peep about the kids. You can die knowing you’re saving their lives.”

And, Toni thought, that might have been the truth – except that as he finished speaking, de Jager took a casual step sideways.

Jack hung his head in his hands. Toni’s heart went out to him – was already with him – but her brain was on fire.

De Jager was lying. All that rubbish about the hunt was just that: bullshit. This was the same man who’d piled carcass on top of carcass in front of a government building out of sheer spite, so Toni was pretty sure it wasn’t any
game
that interested him. Just death.

And if she didn’t do something, Jack would be his next victim.

Her thoughts jumped to the gun in her pack, but her hands were shaking so badly she would be more likely to drop the gun than aim and fire it. She could shout, or mindspeak, but if Jack made any sudden moves the man would likely shoot him on the spot.

She could only think of one thing to do.

Heart hammering in her chest, Toni mounted the bike again and let gravity pull her forward and down the other side of the ridge. Wind whipped across her bare face as she gained speed.

Where you look, there you go
. Toni kept her eyes locked on her target: the man with the gun.

If she had had time to think about what she was doing, Toni never would have gone through with it. She would have seen the stones mixed in with the dirt along the edge of the slip, the holes and gaps and sharp edges just waiting to clip the wheels of her bike and send her tumbling. But she hadn’t had time to think about it, so instead she barreled on down the hill and slammed directly into the shooter.

Later, Toni would remember thinking that everything happened at once, like a series of photographic negatives stacked one on top of the other. Slamming into the man full-on, sending him sprawling into the dirt. The ground rising up and smacking her. Winded, rolling downhill, trying to cover her head, but unable to tell whether she’d banged it on anything already, or even what part of her had hit the ground first.

The smell of hot dirt in her face.

Sun glaring in her eyes.

Pushing herself up, muscles screaming, head spinning. She had to run. She had to get to the van, the kids—

No.

That had been yesterday. It was light now, not dark. The kids were safe.

A voice in her head.

<
Toni!
>

Jack
.

Toni stared across the bare earth at the man she had come to rescue, and the world stopped spinning. She had fallen off her bike and skidded halfway down the hill; the man she had hit lay crumpled on the ground.

His gun lay midway between them, smaller items scattered around it. Toni blinked. They looked like … phials?

“Toni!”

“Jack!” She spun around and half-ran, half-skidded down the hill, her backpack smacking against her with every step. Jack had turned away from de Jager and was moving toward her.

Behind him, Toni saw de Jager dash back to the car and pull out a gun. He leveled it at Jack’s back.

“Jack, look out!” Even before the words left her lips, Jack was spinning around. Toni felt his shock like a blow as he saw the gun.

Then she felt the shots.

Toni gasped, and her hands flew to her chest. There was nothing there, just the same dirt-stained shirt as before. Then she saw Jack fall to his knees in front of her.

She ran to his side, knees buckling under her as she reached him. The phantom pain –
his
pain – still echoed in her body as Jack sank to the ground. She rolled him over, terrified by the thought of what she might see.

A metallic glint caught the light where she had expected to see blood. Something was sticking out of Jack’s chest, and it wasn’t bullets. Jack grunted as Toni pulled one of the darts out of his chest. It had a highlighter-yellow fletch and, under that, an empty syringe.

“Oh, god, Jack,” Toni breathed. “It’s a tranquilizer dart.”

But it wasn’t just one. It was three, bristling from Jack’s heaving chest like monstrous flowers. Toni pulled the other two from her lover’s body as fast as she could, but all three syringes were empty.

She’d been wrong. Whatever de Jager, or his boss, wanted out of Jack, it wasn’t his death. This whole thing had been a trap meant to capture him alive. Render him unconscious, and helpless.

Jack’s eyes were going unfocused, and Toni could tell he was losing consciousness as the drug kicked in. She mentally added up the quantity of tranquilizer that must have been in the three darts and felt ill. De Jager had shot Jack with enough tranquilizer to fell a huge animal – but for a human, that dose would be lethal. She held back a sob. De Jager’s plan might fail, after all, but not for any reason she could have hoped.