Along Came a Tiger (Tiger Shifters) (13 page)

“Probably just a hunter ma’am.” The operator’s voice was reasonable and calm.

“No, no really.” Sarah gave her the exact location of the body and said, “I swear, I thought I saw a human hand sticking out of the ground.” That little lie would probably come back to haunt her, but she didn’t know how else to make sure they investigated.

“You’re sure, ma’am?”

“It was dark. But I swear, it looked like a hand. And this guy was digging. I was so scared. He looked kind of familiar, but I can’t say from where. Maybe I saw him on TV? I don’t know. He just looked…familiar, something recent. I was too scared, I couldn’t place him.”

She didn’t actually want to give Williams’ name because a human witness wasn’t likely to make the connection. But if the police were considering someone
known
, they’d have even more reason to look at him.

“Please,” she said, making sure she sounded as panicked as she felt. “Please, send someone. The smell
…It was a human hand, I swear.” She made a gagging noise, hoping she could sell this story. If this didn’t work, Williams would have time to move the body and no one would ever find out.

“How did you see this, ma’am?”

“I was…hiking.” She remembered her and Daniel’s cloths and improvised. “My boyfriend and I were…hiking. We heard something…I’ve never smelled anything like that. Please, you have to send someone.”

“The location again, ma’am?”

Sarah gave her the exact directions again. “Please, please, please. I’m really worried.”

“Okay, ma’am. Just try to stay calm. I’ll contact the appropriate authorities. It’s likely he was just burying an animal, but we’ll send someone out to check.”

Sarah hung up and stared at the phone. Damn, damn, damn. This wasn’t going to work. Williams would get away.

And there was nothing she could do about it right now. If she didn’t get to the Run, the elders would send Trackers to find her and bring her in. They’d question her. Everything would fall apart. Daniel might get into trouble.

Fuck! She had to Run. She’d have to wait until afterwards to find out if the human authorities followed up on her call or not. If they didn’t, then Sarah would find another way to draw their attention to Williams. She’d stalk him until he gave her the leverage she needed to have him arrested and convicted of murder.

She no longer wanted him dead, but she still wanted him to suffer. She wanted justice. And she’d make sure Su-jin got that justice in whatever form Sarah could arrange.

Ryan was heading out the door by the time she got back to his apartment. He snatched the coffee from her hand as he moved, saying, “Stay as long as you need. I’ll be back later.”

Sarah stilled him with her hand on his arm. “Thanks. What you did…it means a lot. Really.”

“Do me a favor. Next time you visit, don’t bring wounded tigers.” He winked, then he was gone.”

Turning to Daniel, she saw he’d shifted back to human while she was gone. He was also wearing a pair of Ryan’s sweats and a t-shirt—clothes that were about two sizes too small. The material plastered to his muscles like a second skin, and for a few moments, Sarah could only stare.

She licked her lips and had to force down the urge to throw him onto the couch and rip those too-small clothes off of him.

“How did it go?” he asked without preamble, pulling her from her lustful thoughts.

“I’m not sure if the 911 operator believed me or not. I pretended to be a hiker—who’d been ‘hiking’ with her boyfriend.” Her cheeks heated, though she wasn’t sure why. “I wanted an excuse for our clothes being left in the woods.”

He raised his brows. “Good thinking. Although if they find the blood from my wound, we might have a problem, even if the clothes weren’t.”

Ah hell. She’d forgotten all about the blood they’d left behind. They didn’t need another complication that could get them all confined.

“Why do you think the 911 operator didn’t believe you?” he asked.

“She brought up the very logical option that I might have been seeing things. She agreed to have it checked out, but I don’t know if she was placating me.”

“You tried. If we don’t hear anything on the news about a found body, we’ll try another way to get their attention.”

If Williams didn’t move the body in the meantime.

“Why did you shift already? It hasn’t been an hour.”

“Close enough. There are things to do. I can’t convalesce all day.”

A niggling of hurt clawed at her chest. “You were worried I wouldn’t come back?”

“No.” But he didn’t meet her gaze.

So much for trust, she thought. She had ruined things. Without trust, what did they have? She swallowed hard.

“I’ll put in a call too,” he said.

“You think a second 911 call will help?”

“I’ve got a friend on the force here in Philly. I’ll touch base with him. He’ll make sure the story is taken seriously.”

“Another human friend?”

He raised his brows. “I have a number of them, yes.”

“But…”

“I have a lot of contacts, Sarah. They often come in handy while doing my job.”

“But a human?”

“Sarah, I can’t really discuss it now.”

Hurt, she turned away from him. “We should get going. I need to go back to my place and get ready for the Run.”

She led him to the truck. Unease and uncertainty settled between them and remained there all the way to her apartment.

As she turned to get out of the truck, Daniel stilled her with a hand on her arm. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.” He paused, then, “You’ll be okay getting there on your own?”

Silly question. She always traveled there on her own. But she appreciated his concern. “I’ll be fine.”

Now that he was no longer bleeding and she was no longer on the hunt for bloody revenge, things were awkward between them. The easy companionship they’d built during the last seven cycles buckled under the strain of everything that had happened, all the things still unsaid.

“We’ll talk more
…soon,” Daniel said.

“Sure.”

There was so much more to say and discuss, but as she turned away, her heart broke. He didn’t trust her. She’d lost him and had no idea how to get him back.

* * *

“Hey, Dan, what’s happening?” Detective Peter Kelly said when he answered his phone.

Daniel made his call from a truck stop payphone as he headed out of Philly on his way to the location deep in the central Appalachians where the Run would take place. He planned to stop midway to get some sleep, so he could finish healing and be well rested to run for Sarah. He wasn’t sure she’d let him catch her this time, but he intended to be strong enough to chase.

“I need you to check into something, Pete. An anonymous 911 call was placed this morning, early around seven a.m., with information about something buried just inside Ridley Creek State Park. I need you to make sure that’s looked into.”

“Want to tell me why?”

“Nope. But it’s important.”

“What kind of important? I can’t just go poking my nose into a report of domestic disturbance or something. Especially when it’s nowhere near my jurisdiction.”

“Serious important. Murder.”

The line was quiet for a long moment. “You’re gonna have to give me more, Dan. Something…”

“Can’t. Sorry. Wish I could. Just pay attention to this particular call. Don’t write it off. Make sure the state police investigate.”

“One of these days, you’re gonna explain all this mysterious shit to me.”

“Nope,” Daniel said with a half grin. “Thanks, Pete.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Pete hung up without further comment. Daniel put the phone handset back into its cradle and stared at it for a moment. He’d done what he could. Pete was a good cop. He wasn’t working on Su-jin’s case, but he was a smart detective. He’d know what to do, who to talk to.

That was all Daniel could do for now. If this didn’t work…

He’d come up with another plan. Something that didn’t endanger Sarah this time.

As he climbed back into his truck, the thought of what might have happened last night made him sick to his stomach. He’d acted on instinct that went beyond his logical thinking when he’d jumped in front of Sarah and taken that bullet. He’d known somewhere deep inside that she was in trouble and had acted without thought.

Now, though, with time to consider all the things that might have been…

He was sick from the possibilities. She could have been shot, or worse, killed. Williams could have found them while Daniel was incapacitated. They could have been intercepted trying to get back to the truck. Williams could have caught them on the highway and seen Sarah.

Daniel’s hands clenched around the steering wheel and he had to force himself to breathe deeply to calm his rising panic. None of those things had happened, but the possibility that they could have made his heart pound.

At least Sarah had had enough sense to give Williams a false name. He hadn’t seen them last night, so he had no reason to assume they were the ones in the woods. In fact, if he’d seen anything, it was only their animals, so there was even less reason for him to think of Daniel and Sarah in relation to that run through the trees.

They were safe. Sarah was safe. And they’d done what they could to turn the police’s attention toward Williams and that poor buried body. There was nothing else he could do now.

Unless he skipped the Mate Run.

The idea of Sarah with another man cut a deeper hole than the bullet had. If Daniel didn’t show, she’d
have
to choose a mate for this cycle. She couldn’t just run around for three days and not let someone catch her. Well she could, but would she? And what if she got pregnant by another man?

The thought returned—what if she didn’t want him there? Would she still let
him
catch her?

The ache in his chest far outweighed the ache in his shoulder. He had to accept her decision—if she didn’t choose him this time, he had to let her go. But he didn’t have to make it easy for her.

If the cops didn’t do anything about their tip, Daniel would find another way to turn their attention on the crazy man. After the Run. He’d stalk Williams until the end of time if that’s what it took. For Sarah. To give her some sort of satisfaction, some vague kind of revenge.

First, though, he would run. He’d fight for the woman he loved. If she no longer wanted him, he’d deal with it when the time came.

He wasn’t sure how, but for her, he was prepared to do anything. Even give her up.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Daniel stalked through the trees in tiger form, his senses open. He felt Sarah to the west and two other males were closing on her. He didn’t immediately run to intercept them. Instead, he waited, scenting the air. Sarah’s unique, flavorful smell carried to him, highlighted like a glowing beacon by the indefinable addition of her estrous. So delicious and tempting, so addictive.

But she’d let other males get close. She might have chosen someone else this time, and if he got too near, he’d challenge the other males. He wouldn’t be able to help himself. So he waited, resisting her call for as long as he could.

He crouched low and growled when he felt another three males drawing close to her location. What was she doing, letting so many get that close? Would she take more than one this cycle? Females did sometimes. But Sarah hadn’t before.

Though she’d never let anyone but him catch her before either, so he was in no position to guess what she might do now.

Unable to hold off any longer, he stalked closer to her location. And then he felt her move, fast. One instant, she was being surrounded by five different males, the next, she was racing in his direction.

Daniel roared and charged toward her, no longer in complete control of his reactions. She veered off to the south and he followed, racing over the uneven ground as he chased her. The other males also joined the chase, but they were further behind now, not near enough to catch her.

She was his.

He studied her run, judged her direction, then changed his, angling around to cut her off. She changed direction again, foiling his plan, and he thrilled at the challenge. Sarah was no easy prey.

He adjusted his plan again, speeding so fast through the trees a human observer would see little more than a white flash. Fortunately, this place was as isolated as they could get from humans, so deep into the Appalachian mountains very few human hunters or hikers ever made it this far. It was a location frequently used for Mate Runs because of that.

And after seven cycles, Daniel knew the terrain as well as Sarah did.

He caught her by surprise when he burst out of the trees to block her path. She’d run in human form, which thrilled him—they could only get pregnant in human form. She skidded to a halt and laughed when she saw him. Then she bolted in a new direction, not giving in too easily.

Her reaction spurred him on. He’d been so afraid she’d reject him this Run. Her playful teasing and encouragement lightened his soul, and he raced after her with the enthusiasm of a cub.