Trusting the Tiger: BBW Tiger Shifter Paranormal Romance (7 page)

CHAPTER SEVEN

TONI

Toni couldn’t keep the smile off her face. She had woken from an incredible dream – and into an even better one. She and Jack spent the afternoon in lazy, intimate happiness, sharing the picnic and the champagne, and slipping in and out of the pool with its shimmering waterfall.

Not to mention all the … exercise. They had made love again and again, slowly, as though they had all the time in the world. But with the sun falling over the treetops, both of them had realized it was time to leave. Jack had ‘helped’ Toni back into her clothes, kissing every inch of her skin before he covered it up.

Even now, Toni felt as though she was floating a foot above the path rather than pacing along it. Golden shafts of light pierced the green canopy above them, lending a warm glow to the path and the ferns and flowers at its sides. The whole forest seemed to be under a spell of beauty and calmness.

Even now, even just walking together along the gravel path, Toni could barely keep her hands off Jack. They were walking with a little space between them, a teasing gap that just begged to be crossed. Toni reached out and, without looking, her questing fingers met Jack’s. He lifted her hand and nuzzled the underside of her wrist.

They had just reached the end of the track when she heard it. Not a word, nothing said aloud – only a scream that echoed through her mind, and was suddenly cut off.

Toni’s breath caught in her throat. <
Lexi! Felix!
> she called, only just remembering to use mindspeak and not scream their names aloud. Beside her, Jack froze, his grip on her wrist tightening.

“I—” Toni stammered, words failing her. Neither of the children responded to her silent cry, though she was positive it was their scream she had heard. She felt herself go pale, skin prickly and cold. She pulled her hand out of Jack’s grasp and dropped the bike. “I’ve – I’ve got to go.”

Toni broke into a run. She barely knew what direction she was running in, but her legs pushed on, leaves and gravel crunching under her feet. She burst through the trees into open ground and just had time to recognise the clearing with the bike ramps and jumps before she collided with Karen.

The blonde woman’s face was wracked with worry. “Toni, I—”

“Where are they?” Toni gasped. Inside she was still calling out, <
Kids, where are you? Just shout out, let me know you’re okay!
>

Karen’s eyes flickered from Toni’s to a point behind her and she felt, rather than heard, Jack run up to stand at her shoulder.

Karen ran a hand through her hair and grimaced. “Toni, there you are. I don’t want to worry you, but I’m not sure where Felix and Lexi have gotten to…”

Jack put one hand on Toni’s shoulder and she shrugged it off, mind racing. God, she was so stupid. How had she ever thought she could spend a day apart from the kids and they would stay safe? She should have known that no human babysitters would be a match for the two shifter children. And now—

She called out to the twins again, desperately hoping to hear an answer, any answer.

Nothing.

Something had happened to them. She didn’t want to think what. She couldn’t.

“I have to go,” she stammered. “I have to – have to call—”

“Toni, calm down. Listen to me.” Jack had both hands on her shoulders and was looking down into her eyes.

Toni realized she was hyperventilating, her pulse racing. She tried to control her breathing.

If Lexi and Felix couldn’t even mindspeak to her…

Toni felt herself crumble as the evidence lined up in front of her. If Lexi and Felix were ever in real danger, no matter what the risk of revealing their shifter identities, they would transform. There were few places they couldn’t escape from in cat form. And, human or cat, they would still be able to call out to her. 

Unless someone already knew they might shift, and took precautions to prevent their escape that way.

Toni clenched her fists until her fingers stung. Stung like they’d been burnt.

De Jager. And that
thing
, whatever it was, that he’d been so intent on when she first saw him. He had to have something to do with this.

With growing horror, Toni looked back on the events of the previous evening in a new light. De Jager must have been in the campground the whole time. But he’d only approached her after he’d seen her with the twins.

After Felix had been mindspeaking with her.

Could the device de Jager had been using – Toni’s mind reeled – some sort of tracker that picked up on mindspeak? And – he must have deliberately dropped it in front of her. The way it had stung her … it had looked like a burn, but it had
felt
as though it had scraped skin off her fingertips where she touched it.

Skin. Blood. DNA.

Toni gulped.

Of course. He wouldn’t have been able to go up to the kids, but an adult, a related adult, was fair game. Toni’s shifter genes weren’t active, but they were still
there
. All those doctors’ visits when she was young had proved that.

After picking up on Felix’s mindspeak, and her defective DNA, de Jager would have had enough evidence to figure out who the shifters were in their little trio.

And if he had the technology to do all that … Jack had said de Jager was a hunter. He wouldn’t want to leave shifters any advantage. If he could detect mindspeak, it made sense that he would also have the ability to silence it.

It made sense
. But it didn’t. It made no sense. The most important rule of shifter society, no matter whether you were a cat or a four-toed sloth, was secrecy. How could a human know enough about them to be able to build that sort of technology?

Assuming de Jager was human.

The possibilities raised by that thought were too horrifying. Either de Jager was a shifter who hunted his own kind – knowing they couldn’t appeal to human authorities for help – or he’d somehow had access to shifter abilities, enough to test and prove his hunting tech. Toni didn’t want to think about what that might have involved.

She pushed it to the back of her mind.
Focus on what’s happening now
, she told herself.
Find Lexi. Find Felix.

She looked up at Jack, at the concern in his eyes. She trusted him, more deeply that she would ever have felt was possible given they had only known each other less than twenty-four hours. She had to tell him.

She couldn’t.

Even if some humans already knew about shifters, telling more would only increase the danger. Even if she trusted the human in question. Even if she…

Jack was still talking to her, words that didn’t make it to her ears. She made up her mind and held up one hand to his lips.

“De Jager has Lexi and Felix,” she said quickly.

Karen gasped. “How can you know—”

“I can’t explain that to you now. But he’s got them, and they’re still somewhere near the camp site. We have to move quickly.” Toni had been speaking directly to Jack, but now she turned to look at Karen. “Have there been … has anyone seen two small cats around the camp? Short-haired, with chocolate-brown fur. They’re…” She thought quickly “…the twins’ pets. He might have used them to, to blackmail them into going with him.”

Karen frowned. “I haven’t heard anything. Though I did see an animal control van near the reception hut when we came back from today’s ride.”

Toni was running before she finished speaking. The reception building was at the entrance to the camping ground – down the road, past the cabins. She heard Karen shout in confusion behind her, but ignored it.

Jack ran up beside her, keeping pace with Toni’s panicked sprint.

“This way. It’s a shortcut,” he said, pointing to another path through the trees.

Toni swerved to follow him, trying to keep her mental map of the park oriented. This route would bypass the cabins. If it went directly to the park entrance, it could save them minutes of running. And she had the feeling that every minute was going to count.

It was getting dark. They had been gone all day –
and that was the plan
, Toni wailed to herself,
leave the kids to their own devices– with an adult who had no idea they were shifters. How did I ever, ever think that would be a good idea?

Toni had a stitch in her side by the time they burst out of the trees and on to sealed road. Ahead, the reception hut glowed like a beacon. The porch light illuminated a dark van parked in front.

Three hundred feet. Less. Toni opened her mouth to yell as the hut door opened and a man stepped out, two carry-cages clutched one in each hand. As she drew breath to shout, a panicked howl shot through her mind.

<
HEEEELP!
>

The cry cut into Toni like a knife. She stumbled and crashed to the ground. Beside her, Jack swore and clutched his head.

Toni tried to push herself back upright and hissed in pain as her wrist collapsed under her. She had hit the tarmac at running speed and tumbled head-over-heels; she didn’t need the fading evening light to know the concrete had torn up the skin on her hands and knees. The side of her face stung.

“Are you all right?” Jack’s voice was urgent, panting after their run. He knelt and pulled Toni upright.

Toni leant against him for support, testing her legs. It hurt, but she could stand the pain – and she could
stand
. Only her right wrist was really injured. She flexed her fingers gingerly, wincing as pain shot up her arm. Then she heard something that made her skin go cold.

Ahead of them – still too far ahead – the engine of the black van rumbled into life. Two headlights cut through the darkness, blinding Toni with their glare. She held one hand up to shield her eyes and shouted.

“Hey! Stop! You, stop right now!”

It was impossible to see the man behind the wheel. As Toni shouted and waved, Jack doing the same beside her, the headlights slipped sideways, leaving them in darkness. The engine roared, and the van swung away into the night.

Toni couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She stood stunned for a moment, her head thumping.

He’s driving away.

He saw two people yelling at him to stop, one of them bleeding on the road. And he drove away.

She realized with a chill of horror what that meant. It couldn’t be an accident that the driver had sped off without checking to see whether she was okay.

It must have been de Jager. He hadn’t stopped, because he recognised her – and he had Lexi and Felix.

And he knew who they were, too.
What
they were.

“No!” she cried, and ran forward again. It was no use. The van was far ahead of them already, and accelerating. But she couldn’t stop. She couldn’t just leave them.

“Toni, wait!” called Jack from behind her. He caught up to her in a few long strides and flung his arms around her, holding her still. Sobs heaved out of Toni and she pushed him away.

“I can’t stop! I’ve got to – I’ve got to do something. He’s got them—”

She stopped. How was she meant to explain this? He and Karen and everyone else would help her look for Lexi and Felix, but they were looking for human children. If she told Jack they had to go after the animal control van instead, he was going to think she had gone nuts. If she told him the twins were in the van – that they had just seen someone carrying them into the trunk in cages…

They’d lock her up. They would give her something to calm her down and keep her out of the way and keep looking around the camp for freaking
human
children and she would never be able to find Lexi and Felix. She would lose them.

No. She had to do this herself. But first…

Toni pressed the palms of her hands against her eyes, groaning. She had to call her sister, Ellie, and her husband. She only hoped they would answer this time. If she couldn’t get hold of Ellie or Werther, then she would try her parents. Maybe they knew some local shifters through their own networks. Maybe they knew someone who could help.

She turned toward the reception hut, remembering the old rotary-style phone on the front desk.

“I’m sorry. I’ve got to – I’ve got to make a phone call…”

“Toni,” Jack said again, grabbing her arm to stop her. Fury bubbled up inside her – how dare he stop her? Didn’t he understand? But then she looked up into his eyes.

There was no pity or look of
oh-god-she’s-lost-it-now
in his expression. Just care, concern, and … something else.

“Toni,” he repeated. “Lexi and Felix … are in the truck, aren’t they? When the guy with the cages came out, I heard…”

He looked at her as though a light had gone on behind his eyes.

“Toni, you trust me, don’t you?”

“Yes,” she blurted. “I do, but—”

He cut her off. “Then trust me now. I’ll get the twins back. The road here has speed bumps all the way back to the highway. That van won’t get far fast.” He cupped Toni’s face in his hands. “I will get them back.”