Along Came a Tiger (Tiger Shifters) (18 page)

“He broke in,” Sarah said, speaking up for the first time. “Kicked in my door. And you heard him threaten us. He was trying to kidnap me. We were in fear for our lives.” Only a little fib, she thought. Fear wasn’t exactly the word she’d use to describe her feelings as she’d broken Williams’ bones. But Pete didn’t need to know the complete truth.

“Hmm,” Pete said. “Sounds like this wasn’t a friendly visit, Mr. Williams.”

“You might want to check his pockets, too, Pete,” Daniel put in. “Carefully, though. Might be a sharp weapon.”

Pete raised his brows. “Seeing as how this is a breaking and entering situation, with a potential kidnapping, I will ask you to stand still for a pat down, Mr. Williams.”

Williams’ eyes narrowed, but then he put his arms out to the side, despite the pain he had to be in.

Pete very carefully patted Williams down, finding a capped syringe in one of his pants pockets.

“Huh. What have we here, Mr. Williams? You often bring syringes to the homes of young ladies you
aren’t
threatening? Cause I know you aren’t diabetic.”

“Think you might find that’s got a familiar drug in it, Pete,” Daniel said, without taking his eyes off Williams.

“Suspect we’d better have this tested then.”

The sound of sirens approaching and cars pulling up to the street below drew Sarah’s attention. But neither Daniel nor Pete took their focus off Williams.

A few minutes later, a couple of uniformed police officers knocked at the doorframe. Pete called them in. “I need a bag for this.” He held up the syringe. “Careful with that now,” he said as the officer sealed the evidence bag with the syringe inside.

“That was planted,” Williams said with a smirk. “My lawyers will have that tossed out before you can say ‘shit’.”

More footsteps sounded in the hall and two paramedics came in.

“The thing is,” Pete said, his voice calm and matter-of-fact, as he directed the paramedics to Williams, “we’ve isolated a strange drug in the blood of that poor woman whose body we found in the woods behind your house.”

“One of my many houses,” Williams interrupted, ignoring the man and woman examining his arm and hands. “Doesn’t mean anything.”

“Be that as it may, we know the woman was drugged with something the labs are busy trying to identify. And coincidentally we discovered this formula for a special drug in her files. Something new. Now, I really don’t like coincidences, so I’m speculating that the formula on her computer will match up to the drug in her body. But the funny thing is, we haven’t found the actual drug anywhere. Just the formula. So, say, and again I’m just speculating here, but say if that drug was to be found in that syringe, it would have been impossible for us to plant it. Interesting bit of information, isn’t it?”

Williams’ face turned red, but he kept quiet as the medics carefully led him to the door.

“I’ll meet you at the hospital for your statement, Mr. Williams,” Pete said. “I suggest you have your lawyers present.” To the uniforms, he said, “Please inform Mr. Williams of his rights on the way to the hospital. We’ll be charging him with breaking and entering, aggravated assault, attempted kidnapping, and intent to use a deadly weapon. For now.”

Williams snorted a defiant grunt over his shoulder. “This isn’t over,” he said, staring directly at Sarah. “Do you hear me?”

“Threatening us in front of cops? Again?” Daniel asked, his voice even and steady. “That’s on the record. Seems to me if we were to be attacked, or anything happened to us, you’d be top of the suspect list.”

“That he would,” Pete confirmed.

“Besides,” Daniel said, “if you come after us again, broken bones will be the least of your worries.”

“You heard that, too,” Williams said. “He threatened
me
.”

“Hmm?” Pete blinked. “Heard what?”

Williams spewed curses as the medics led him to the elevator, the two uniforms following.

“Now,” Pete said, facing Daniel. “Want to explain your side of the story?”

“Not much to explain. He broke in, threatened us, tried to kidnap Sarah. We fought back.”

Pete looked between her and Daniel before saying, “Broke his hands and an arm. I imagine that’s some martial arts skills, huh?”

Sarah exchanged a look with Daniel and then nodded. “That’s right. I’ve taken a few self-defense classes.”

“Mm hm. And you’re prepared to file a report against Mr. Williams?”

Again she looked to Daniel. The elders were going to hate this. A lot. Being questioned by the police ranked right up there on the list of things
not
to do when trying to avoid attention from the human population.

Daniel said, “Any way we can avoid filing a report, Pete?”

“Nope. Unless you want that man on the streets again by nightfall. As it is, we’ll have trouble keeping him in a cell. Without a report and formal charges from you, his lawyers might be able to get that syringe tossed, despite the threats I heard.” Pete looked between them again. “You all want to tell me how you know Mr. Williams?”

Sarah shook her head. She really didn’t. But Williams would spin their acquaintance and “date” in his favor. If she tried to hide it, she’d look suspect. “We went on a date, about a week ago.”

Pete frowned and stared at Daniel. “Your fiancée went on a date with Mr. Williams, and a week later, he’s breaking into her place?”

“She was trying to make me jealous,” Daniel said. “I hadn’t proposed yet.” He shrugged. “It worked. I proposed. Maybe Williams didn’t like being dumped.”

Sarah hid her smile at his story. He was very quick on his feet. Probably came with the job.

“Okay. I’ll allow that for now. Anything else you want to tell me?”

“We’d like to stay as much off the radar as possible,” Daniel said. “We’ll press charges, but it’d be nice if the focus shifted away from us.”

“That right?” Pete’s gaze narrowed, suspicion clear. “What are we gonna find if we dig deeper into all this, Dan?”

“Can’t say.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

“Can’t say,” Daniel repeated.

Pete scowled. “All right. Come down to the station. Cooperate, file the complaint, press charges. I’ve got to get to the hospital. We’ll talk at the station.”

“We will. Thanks for everything, Pete.”

“Think probably, based on what I walked in on, Mr. Williams should be thanking me. I imagine a few more things might have gotten broken otherwise.”

Neither she nor Daniel commented.

Pete waved over his shoulder as he walked out the door, but before Sarah could cross to close it, he poked his head back in. “Oh, by the way, congratulations on the engagement.”

“Thanks.” She smiled as Pete tipped an invisible hat at her and left. She closed the door and locked it, then faced Daniel.

“Will the elders punish us for this?” she asked. “We’re attracting a
lot
of attention now. And they’re going to find out I was friends with a murder victim whose body went missing. I’m not sure we can avoid that.”

“We won’t offer it up. We shouldn’t have any reason to link that death to Williams so there’s no need to mention the friendship. If
they
make the link between Su-jin and Williams, well, that’s another thing entirely.”

“Even if they have no evidence to use?”

“It’ll just add to their suspicions and encourage them to look deeper into Williams.”

“Okay.” She nodded. “And the elders?”

“A man attacked you while you were carrying one of our precious babies, and we defended ourselves without killing him. They don’t have anything they can punish us for. We didn’t break any tiger laws.”

She knew that. Still
…“What if Williams’ lawyers dig into our lives? What if they find something?”

Daniel shrugged. “Love, we’ve spent centuries hiding our natures from humans while still living and working alongside them. His lawyers won’t find anything we don’t want them to find. Without physical proof that we’re different, they have nothing to uncover. And they’d only be able to go after that physical evidence if we’d actually killed him.”

“The blood…”

“Yeah, that’s already disappeared.”

“What?” She closed the space between them. “When?”

“Very early this morning. That’s what I was talking to Alexis about earlier. She decided not to wait and risk the elders finding out about the blood. Since it’s not part of the immediate investigation, though, it should take time before the police realize the samples are gone.”

“Wow. She works fast.”

“Yes, she does.”

Sarah wrapped her arms around his neck, worry still nagging her, but being in Daniel’s arms helped. “Still…This is some serious unwanted attention.”

“We have a cop as witness to Williams’ attack. He overheard the man threatening us. Even if you have to go to court—a little pregnant woman who looks significantly more delicate than she is?” He shook his head. “We’ll be okay, Sarah. I’ve been upholding our laws for the last eight years. We haven’t broken any of them. We haven’t even broken any human laws. You’re allowed to defend yourself in your own home.” He hugged her tight. “I promise. We’ll be fine.”

Sarah nodded and tucked her head under his chin. “Okay. I trust you.” And she did. With her life. With her future. With her heart. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” He settled his hand over her stomach. “And if that man gets anywhere near us again, I will damage him severely.”

“I’ll help.”

“That was a good idea, breaking bits of him without actually killing him.” He kissed her temple. “Was it hard? Not killing him.”

“Not as hard as I thought it would be. I was too intent on protecting our future. It wasn’t about revenge in those moments, just keeping him from hurting our baby.”

“Our baby. Our baby has an excellent mother.”

“A very good daddy, too,” she said and rose up to kiss him on the mouth.

As soon as she tasted him, their kiss turned serious. All the stress of the last few minutes, all the anxiety and anger morphed into a need to assure herself Daniel was whole and they were both okay. She wove her fingers through his hair and held him close, kissing him hard, letting her tension go.

Need rose to replace the tension she’d felt. She couldn’t get him naked fast enough.

Daniel pulled her close, flattening her breasts against his chest. His heart hammered. He was alive. Safe.

Hers.

Desperate to touch him, she ripped at his t-shirt until the material hung in shredded strands across his broad shoulders. He released his hold on her long enough for the material to drop away before pulling her close again. But her bra was still in the way. Annoyed, she jerked at the back strap, breaking the tiny hooks. A little wiggle and the material dropped to the floor between them. Once her breasts were pressed against his bare chest, all was right in Sarah’s world.

She nudged him back. “Into the bedroom,” she said. “I have plans for you.”

“Yes,” he growled, and picked her up, carrying her into her cheerful room and dropping her gently onto the large bed. “Finish stripping,” he said, his gaze hot on her body.

She smiled and slowly pushed her jeans and underwear off in one swipe, then settled back on the mattress, watching him remove the rest of his clothes. She purred in the back of her throat when he stood naked before her, his beautiful cock hard and ready. But as she leaned forward to take hold of him, he shook his head.

“I need to taste you,” he said and nudged her back onto the bed.

Then he leaned between her legs and licked her before she had a chance to catch her breath. The feel of his mouth on her clit, so hot and wet and perfect, sent her senses careening. Their individual scents swirled around them and joined, creating that delectable flavor that was only theirs. She moaned and fisted her hands in his hair.

“I love the sound of your pleasure,” he said against her heat. “I had plans to wake you up just this way last night.”

“What stopped you?” she panted. Her hips jerked when he tongued her clit before answering.

“Our unexpected visitors.” His hands flexed on her thighs. “But I intend to take the very next opportunity I get.”

“Oh, god, yes.” She’d be more than willing to sleep a little longer if it meant waking up like this.

He licked and sucked her most sensitive flesh until she trembled. And when she couldn’t hold back anymore, she let go, coming with a cry, her body beyond her control.

Before she’d fully recovered, she said, “In me. Now.”

To her pleasure, he didn’t hesitate. Her body still throbbed when he slid into her, his cock hard and thick. She arched to take him deeper, her every nerve alive with sensation. The friction so soon after her orgasm quickly sent her climbing to another. She let go, kissing him, her fingers digging into his back as he thrust her back over that edge.

As soon as her orgasm eased, she opened her eyes and watched him take his pleasure. His jaw tightened, his chest and shoulder muscles strained as he held himself over her. His eyes were so brilliantly blue, she practically felt a sizzle of lightning in the room.