Here There Be Tigers (7 page)

She smiled. “How many siblings do you
have?”

“
Two older brothers. I’m the
baby.”

She snorted. “Spoiled?”

“
Of course.”

But a distant look filtered through his
expression, belying the easy banter. Curiosity poked her. He’d
mentioned his uncle but not his parents. What had happened to them?
And why had his mood shifted?

Since they hadn’t even known each other for a
full twenty-four hours, she decided those questions might be too
personal. Better to keep things light given how many other serious
things they still had to discuss. “Was it fun growing up with big
brothers?”

“
Depended on the day. Sometimes they
were great. Sometimes they were a pain in the ass.”

“
When I was a kid, I used to want a
big brother. Mostly because I thought he’d have cute friends he
could introduce me to.”

Mitch laughed and Nila had to swallow her moan.
That sound! His voice was husky and deep, and oh so
sexy.

“
You do realize if you’d had a big
brother, there’s no way in hell he’d allow you to date his
friends.” He plated up the eggs and slid them across the counter to
her.

“
How do you know? You have a
sister?”

“
Technically, no, but a family
friend who’s close enough she might as well be my sister. She’s
older than me, and I still gave her husband a serious grilling
right after they got married. If I had a little sister, I wouldn’t
let my friends anywhere near her.”

“
I doubt that would stop your little
sister.” She grinned at his grunt of disbelief. She liked the way
he talked about family—protective and close. Family was
important.

She took a bite of her eggs. “Yum. Your brother
might be the chef but you make a mean omelet. Thanks.”

“
You’re welcome.” He lifted his own
fork then froze, his head going up and his gaze
sharpening.

She frowned. “What’s wrong?” A tingle of
instinct shivered down her spine, a sense of…something, an
awareness of… She couldn’t put her finger on it, but it reminded
her of the shiver she’d gotten at the airport just before she’d had
a gun shoved into her back, a reaction she’d attributed to the
air-conditioning. As she watched Mitch, her nerves twitched with a
sudden alertness she couldn’t ignore and a tremor of unease she
couldn’t blame on cool air.

He stood perfectly still for a long moment, his
eyes unfocused, his head cocked to one side. His nostrils flared.
Then he snapped his gaze around to the front door and dropped his
fork. “Someone’s here. We have to go. Now!”

He leapt over the counter which was so
astonishing she gasped. An instant later, he had his arm around her
waist and was pulling her toward the rear of the house.

“
Wait. The car…”

“
No time. He’s out
front.”

Nila swallowed her panic and jogged at Mitch’s
side so he could stop dragging her. He led her to a panel near the
first floor bathroom, hit a space on the wall, and a hidden door
quietly slid open, revealing a wide staircase leading underground.
Raising her brows, she squelched her questions. They had to get
away first, then she could ask him why a seemingly normal man had a
hidden escape route in his mountain cabin. As they navigated the
dark steps, she realized the word normal wasn’t quite right for
Mitch.

“
We have even more to talk about
now,” she whispered.

“
Later.”

“
Do you have a plan?”

“
It’s progressive.”

“
Oh, good.”

She nearly ran into his back when he stopped,
and she realized they’d reached the bottom of the stairs. Glancing
back at a noise, she watched the door above them close. Darkness
engulfed them. “No lights?” she asked.

“
Don’t need them.”

Which raised more questions, but they’d have to
wait. Keeping a hand on his shoulder for both balance and
reassurance, she waited while anxiety crawled over her skin. She
heard the sounds of a lock turning, then bright light flooded the
darkness.

“
Come on.” Mitch grabbed her hand
and pulled her outside.

They came out a few hundred yards from the
house, lower on the mountain so she could only glimpse the second
floor from this angle. When the door behind them closed, she
realized it was camouflaged from this end to look like part of the
hill.

“
Clever trick,” she
murmured.

He grunted in response while studying their
surroundings, then pulled her to the right, away from the house. He
moved quickly and easily through the trees and across the leaf
strewn ground. Thanks to the summer heat and lack of rain, the dirt
was dry and crumbly, so at least she wasn’t worried about slipping
in mud.

“
Where are we going?” she asked
quietly, though she wasn’t sure why.

Mitch didn’t have any trouble hearing her.
“Neighbor’s house first.”

“
How far?”

“
About three miles.”

“
Shit.”

He glanced back and gave her a sympathetic
look. “You can do it.”

“
I know. I’m used to hiking. I just
thought I’d get a break from it once I got back to New
York.”

He squeezed her hand but didn’t slow his pace.
They moved at a steady trot, but she had to concentrate to keep
from stumbling over uneven ground. The tension and an empty stomach
left her wobbly. A twisted ankle now would be a very bad thing, so
she focused on where her feet landed and let Mitch lead the
way.

Once, because she thought she heard something,
she glanced over her shoulder. There didn’t seem to be anyone
following, but a tingle of anxiety crept down her spine again. She
could practically
feel
something back there, liked she had
in the airport parking lot.

At the same moment, Mitch picked up the pace so
they were nearly running. She had no idea how far they’d come or
how far they had left to go, but she knew their pursuer was
catching up even if she couldn’t explain how she knew.

This time, Nila did plowed into Mitch when he
suddenly stopped, sending her stumbling and falling to her knees.
She barely had time to feel the sting of scraped skin through her
cargo pants before Mitch used his grip on her hand to lift her back
up. As soon as she had her balance, she realized what had halted
their progress.

Not ten feet away stood a huge Bengal
tiger.

CHAPTER SIX

Nila stared, unable to believe her own eyes.
This wasn’t possible. Who the hell kept tigers in this
area?

A sneaky little voice in her head reminded her
that the people after her were supposed to be tiger shifters, but
faced with one of the huge cats, she preferred believing someone’s
pet had escaped and gone wandering through the woods.

Mitch shoved her behind him and stood facing
the large animal, staring it right in the eyes. “Show yourself,” he
snapped.

Nila was filled with a horror so profound it
turned to wonder as the tiger began convulsing, its body twisting,
the hair along its spine rolling. She heard the snap snap of bone
and the twang of tendons stretching, making her stomach roll with
nausea. The tiger stood on its hind legs as fur receded, revealing
human skin. The hind legs lengthened and narrowed, the fore legs
elongated, the claws retracted, fingers and hands replaced paws,
the face reshaped with terrifying and impossible movement of bone
and muscle. Ears lowered to the side of its head, the nose
lightened in color and became human.

Unable to look away, Nila stared into the
animal’s eyes as they changed from an almost glowing gold to the
dark gaze of a man. He was tall and thickly muscled, with dark hair
and dusky skin. He was also very naked, though he didn’t seem to
notice.

She had no idea how long the process took.
Reality and sanity were distant memories by the time he’d finished.
It was all she could do not to scream until her throat was raw.
She’d just seen a tiger change into a human. Impossible. Her brain
must have snapped, because this couldn’t be happening.

“
You’re Petrov’s oldest,” Mitch said
matter-of-factly.

The man flicked a glance at Nila, then
nodded.

Over his shoulder, Mitch said to her, “This is
your half brother, Vladimir Dubrovsky.”

Nila’s thoughts spun and she gripped Mitch
tighter. She was so stunned, she couldn’t think, never mind
comprehend what Mitch had just told her.

Vladimir dipped his head toward her in a brief
greeting. “Call me Vlad. I’m the reason our mother and my father
were able to mate permanently...marry. I'm the reason they were
able to marry.”

She stared, unable to respond because she had
no idea what he was talking about, and didn’t have the ability to
form coherent language at the moment anyway.

“
I’m not going to let you kill her,”
Mitch said, breaking into the tense silence that followed Vlad’s
statement.

That got Nila’s attention and her heart started
racing. She blinked away her shock as another kind of panic crept
in. She looked around, searching for an escape route, as every
muscle in her body prepared to run.

But how could she escape something like
Vlad?

“
I’m not interested in killing her,”
the man said, drawing her attention back to him.

Mitch snorted. “Right.”

Vlad held her gaze. “I don’t want you dead,” he
repeated.

“
Why?” she asked, the only word she
could force through her dry mouth.

“
I have my reasons.” He looked back
at Mitch. “I’m here to warn you. My father knows who you are. It
won’t be long before he and my brothers find this house. You have
somewhere else to go? A place he can’t find?”

“
How’d you find this place before
your father?” Mitch asked.

“
He’s not the only one with
connections. I can’t help you beyond this warning. My father would
know. But you need to keep her alive.”

“
I intend to. Why are you warning
us?”

Vlad was silent for a long moment. Then said,
“Not everyone approves of my father’s…methods, but there are more
than a few who want him to succeed. And some…” He faced Nila again.
“Some want you for themselves. They’ll be just as dangerous as my
father.”

“
I’ll keep it in mind,” Mitch
said.

Nila blinked, shock still clouding her ability
to think.

“
You’ll have to fight for her before
this is done,” Vlad said to Mitch.

Mitch remained silent, making Nila look up at
him. His jaw was set, his expression grim, his gaze fixed on the
other man. He didn’t glance down at her, even when she squeezed his
hand. There was more going on here than was evident in the words
being spoken, leaving her lost. Which pissed her off.

“
I have to go.” Vlad started
shifting again, the whole horrible process reversing itself before
Nila’s eyes.

She swallowed hard and forced herself to look
away.

Fortunately, Mitch didn’t wait around for Vlad
to finish. He jerked her hand and pulled her forward, running once
more. Nila did her best to keep up even as she felt bile rising in
her throat.

Later, she thought. Think about this later.
Just don’t pass out now.

Easier said than done.

“
Why aren’t we going back to the
cabin if they’re not here yet?” Nila asked through ragged
breaths.

Mitch didn’t look at her. He was too busy
concentrating on picking out an easy path for her through the
woods. “I want them to think we abandoned the cabin suddenly, just
before they arrived.”

“
If it takes days, the food will
give away that we’ve been gone for a while.”

“
It won’t take days. They’ll be here
in a few hours.”

Thankfully, she didn’t ask how he knew. He
couldn’t really explain his knowledge to a non-tiger. Deep seeded
instinct wasn’t something easily described. He’d grown up fighting
his own kind, being attacked simply because of what his father had
done. He’d honed the ability to judge an approaching attack better
even than most Trackers. And that instinct was telling him they had
three, maybe four hours before Petrov and his people
arrived.

Vlad hadn’t been that far ahead of his father.
His scent carried his anxiety, and he was obviously in a hurry, a
little desperate to make sure Mitch and Nila were gone. Those
signals and Mitch’s own instincts were enough to tell Mitch
everything he needed to know.

“
Vlad’s given us a head start, but I
don’t want Petrov to realize we’re that far ahead of him. He’ll
eventually figure it out, but first, he’ll waste time and effort
searching the area for us.”

He jogged around trees, pushing her as fast as
he thought she could go, to get to his neighbor’s house. Tim Barnes
had been doing some repairs on Mitch’s spare truck while Mitch was
away on his last assignment. He hoped the old machine was in
working order now because he didn’t have another immediate plan to
get them out of the area. If the truck didn’t start, he’d have to
take Nila deeper into the woods and either find a good place to
hide—not a great option since Petrov could hunt them out here—or
another way to get back on the road to a new location.