Here There Be Tigers (40 page)

Even as she returned Mitch’s kiss, though,
worry crept in. Would they always have to fight? To kill just to
survive? If they stayed together, would Mitch be forced to save her
again and again?

Could she live with that?

CHAPTER FORTY

Mitch stalked the corridor of the compound,
pausing by the door Nila had entered two hours earlier as if he
might catch something of the conversation, then continued his
circuit when he didn’t. The room was sound proofed against tiger
hearing. He knew that. But he still stopped each time he passed the
door.

Two hours. They’d had her locked in that room
for two hours. He was going insane. What where they saying? What
was she telling them? Was she safe? He hadn’t wanted to leave her
alone with the elders knowing that some of them probably wanted her
dead. None of them would actually kill her here, in the seat of
their power in the US.

Mitch still hadn’t wanted to leave her
alone.

Only his grandmother’s insistence kept him in
the hall. Otherwise, he would have barged in on the meeting an hour
ago.

What the hell was going on in there?

On the drive here, she’d told him and Alexis
about Petrov’s confession to murdering his mate. Apparently, he’d
been telling all the males working with him that Anaya had
committed suicide. Nila seemed to think that, to Stephen at least,
this made a difference. With Petrov dead, along with all but one of
the tigers who’d attacked Nila, would Stephen and Joseph actually
tell the council of Petrov’s confession?

The murder of the four humans who’d been
working with Petrov didn’t look good for Stephen and Joseph. They
could claim it was all Petrov, that they never knew he’d murdered
humans, and had been told his mate was a suicide. There was very
little the council could do to them if they stuck to those stories.
They might see a few months in confinement for kidnapping Nila, but
that was it.

Mitch hated it. He didn’t care that Joseph used
to be Victor’s best friend years go, or that Joseph hadn’t been the
same since his sister’s murder ten years earlier. Mitch wanted
everyone involved with Nila’s kidnapping locked away for life—or
executed.

Mitch paced past the door again, scowling at it
before moving up the hall. All of this was outside of the issue of
him being allowed to mate with Nila permanently. That was an even
more uncertain problem.

Last night, he’d have bet money on Nila
overruling anything the elders wanted. He was sure their love was
enough for her. But over the course of the morning, as she prepared
to meet with the elders, she’d pulled back from him, forcing
distance between them. He was no longer so positive he was her
choice above all others. After he’d failed to protect her from
Petrov, she had to realize what being with him would mean to her
future. He couldn’t protect her the way another male could. She’d
had to face that reality. Would that change her mind about staying
with him?

He wouldn’t blame her, but losing her would
kill something in him, something he’d never get back.

Farther down the corridor, beyond the council
room, a door opened and Nila’s grandmother and father walked toward
him.

“
They’re still in there?” Leo De
Luca asked.

Mitch shook the man’s hand. “No word
yet.”

“
I should go in,” Rossa said,
frowning at the closed door. “My
bambina
might need
me.”

Leo laid a hand on his mother’s shoulder. The
big man dwarfed his mother, but Rossa carried herself with such
authority, she didn’t come across as the least bit small. She
really was a lot like his own grandmother. Though her motives were
more straightforward. Elizaveta’s machinations were too convoluted
for even her own grandsons to follow.

Mitch actually wondered if Nila wouldn’t be
better off with Rossa by her side, but Leo spoke up before his
mother could interrupt the session.

“
Nila is strong. She’ll be just fine
in there. When this is done, we’ll take her home.” He glanced at
Mitch. “Assuming there are no objections?”

Mitch wasn’t sure how to answer that. If it
were up to him, he’d run Nila off to the nearest Justice of the
Peace and marry her on the spot. He met Leo’s piercing gaze and
decided to be honest.

“
I love her,” he said bluntly. “If
she’ll have me, I want to marry her.”

Rossa smiled, a beneficent expression that
reminded Mitch sharply of pictures of Italian saints. Leo was not
so easily won over.

“
She’s my only child, young man. I
will not hand her over to someone who can’t protect
her.”

“
Leo,” Rossa hushed him. “Mikhail
saved her life. How can you disapprove?”

Leo continued frowning, though he didn’t say
anything more. Neither did Mitch. He expected resistance from
Nila’s father. Hell, he expected resistance from everyone. In the
end, the only person whose opinion on the topic mattered at all to
him was Nila’s. Unfortunately, he didn’t know what her opinion was
anymore.

Rossa filled in the awkward silence with small
talk about the humidity here in West Virginia and what lovely boys
his brothers had been, keeping her and her son safe. Mitch smiled
at her descriptions of his two older brothers. He hadn’t even known
Nick and Dom had been recruited to watch after Nila’s family.
Elizaveta told him the less everyone knew about what was happening,
the better. He didn’t entirely agree with his grandmother on that
point, but given how things had turned out, he couldn’t argue with
her either.

“
And Nikolai, so polite. Wasn’t he,
Leo? A very good cook, too. He introduced me to…what was that
called? Something Russian, with noodles. It was very good. I
imagine his diner is very successful.”

Leo held his tongue, not commenting on either
Nick’s politeness or his cooking skills. Like Mitch, his attention
kept turning to the meeting room door.

“
Such a shame neither are married,”
Rossa continued. “I am surprised they haven’t found good
wives.”

“
Momma,” Leo finally murmured. “You
know why.”

“
I do not. Human women make very
good wives and there are plenty of children who need adopting.
Silly to waste one’s life on something that doesn’t happen or
cannot be.”

Mitch watched Leo flinch and wondered if his
mother had directed that reprimand to him before. Nila said he’d
never remarried after Anaya. Did Rossa consider that a waste? Mitch
faced the door separating him from Nila again. Would he eventually
be able to love someone else if she left him?

The answer would have surprised him a few weeks
ago. Now… Now, he knew what it meant to find the love of his life.
The only love.

He and Leo exchanged a look and the older man’s
hard expression softened just a bit, the creases at the corners of
his eyes relaxing. Mitch realized if he ever had the guts to say
these things out loud to Leo, the man would understand.

Silence fell again as Rossa stopped trying to
distract them with conversation. They watched the door from
directly across the hall, and Mitch counted the seconds.

Finally, one of the elder’s assistants slipped
out of the room, closing the door the instant he was in the
corridor so nothing that was said drifted out to them. Mitch
couldn’t remember the man’s name, even though he was sure they’d
met before.

The assistant stood respectfully, with his
hands clasped in front of him and his shoulders straight as he
addressed them. “They will be another two hours, at least. They’ve
called for dinner, and I’ve been told to make sure you are all fed.
If you’ll follow me, we can adjourn to the elders’ private dining
room.”

“
Wait,” Leo and Mitch both said at
the same time.

“
I’m not going anywhere until I’m
sure my daughter is okay,” Leo finished.

“
I can assure you—”

“
No,” Rossa interrupted. “You cannot
assure us. We will speak to her. For a moment.” There was no
question, no compromise, and a lot of steal in her tone.

Mitch smiled as he watched the assistant squirm
under Rossa’s glare. Mitch saw why his grandmother and Nila’s
grandmother got along so well. They were definitely cut from the
same cloth.

After opening and closing his mouth a couple of
times, the assistant finally nodded. “Excuse me for a moment,
please.” He disappeared back into the council room.

A minute later, Nila walked out.

Mitch’s breath caught. She looked beautiful.
And exhausted. He wanted to pull her into his arms and carry her
off to someplace safe where she could sleep more. Despite her
father and grandmother watching, Mitch did take Nila’s hand when
she got close.

“
Are you okay?” he murmured,
squeezing her fingers.

She squeezed back but didn’t look directly at
him. “We just have a lot to talk about. But I’m okay. Don’t worry.
You all go get something to eat. I’ll find you when we’re
finished.”

“
You’re sure, love?” Leo said,
cupping her cheek in one huge hand. “You don’t have to deal with
any of this if you don’t want to.”

“
It’s okay, dad. I promise. This is
a conversation that has to be had.” She leaned in and kissed him on
the cheek, then smiled at her grandmother and squeezed Mitch’s hand
before returning to the council.

Mitch’s chest ached as he watched the door
close behind her. She hadn’t once looked up at him.

“
Come,” Rossa said when the
assistant rejoined them. “Let’s eat. Mikhail, you are too skinny.
You are a big man. You need more food. Come.”

She forced him to go with her by putting her
small hand into the crook of his arm. A hand that should have been
delicate with age but possessed a strength Mitch couldn’t actually
resist. He went, but he left his heart and soul outside the meeting
room—waiting for Nila.

CHAPTER
FORTY-ONE

By the time Mitch finished dinner, made a phone
call to Max, and met with his brothers, the council meeting had
adjourned. Mitch returned to the floor where his room was located,
but stopped at Nila’s door. He’d been given a room next to hers,
but her grandmother was on the other side and her father was across
the hall, so Mitch had had to stay in his own bed last
night.

As he stood outside her door debating whether
to risk her father’s disapproval by going in, he heard something
that made the decision for him.

He knocked and opened her door without waiting
for a reply. She sat on the bed with her back to him. He went to
her without hesitating, sitting next to her and putting his arms
around her. “Baby, why are you crying?”

She wiped her eyes with the sides of her hands.
“First time I’ve had a chance to,” she said with a half laugh.
“These have been building for days. Lot of tension to
release.”

He hugged her closer but she didn’t relax
against him. “Is there something else wrong?”

“
Besides being on the run for my
life for the last couple of weeks, shooting living beings, being
held hostage, kidnapped, nearly raped and murdered, watching people
be ripped apart, facing off against not one but two crazy
shapeshifters, and oh yeah, having to watch you fight a
life-or-death battle because of me. Twice. Besides all that, no of
course nothing’s wrong.”

“
Nila…” His chest ached. He was
desperate to take away her pain, to fix things he couldn’t fix.
Because he couldn’t do any of that, he felt beyond helpless and
frustrated. “What did the elders say?”

She waved a hand in the air. “Too much. God,
those old farts can talk.”

Her comment surprised a chuckle out of
him.

“
I had to literally slap my hands
down on the table in front of them at one stage to get their
attention.”

“
I would have paid money to see
that.”

“
Yeah, their expressions were
priceless. I don’t think even Elizaveta was expecting that from me,
and she at least knows something about me from my
grandmother.”

“
So, what happened?”

She wiped her fingers under her eyes, removing
more tears. The fact that she still had moisture leaking down her
cheeks broke his heart.

“
Well,” she said, “they didn’t
believe me at first that Petrov admitted to killing
Anaya.”

“
Not surprising.”

“
But Joseph, of all people, came
forward and verified my story. You’re completely off the hook for
killing Petrov.”

“
I wasn’t worried about
me.”

“
Yeah, well, I was. But by unanimous
decision, his…execution was deemed appropriate punishment for his
crime against his mate, not to mention that he’d murdered
humans.”

“
What about his crimes against you?”
He already knew that was a different story. But he wanted to know
what they’d actually said to her.

“
Ah, that’s where we got into a lot
more discussion. Joseph and Stephen are being held in your version
of jail for six months for their part in my kidnapping. The council
couldn’t decide whether to treat their crime as if they’d attacked
a human—” she made air quotes with her fingers around the word
human—“or whether to deal with their crimes as if I were a tiger.
In the end, they compromised.”