Midnight Wolf (Shifters Unbound #11)(22)

Tamsin’s head told her to fight him, get away from him, run like hell. Her libido kept fantasizing about what it would have been like if he had taken her to the floor, covering her with his hard body.

Her heart said . . .

Her heart was all screwed up and always would be. No use asking her heart.

Tamsin dug in her heels as they approached the car. Ben had followed them out, his dark eyes enigmatic. He didn’t like what Angus was doing, but he didn’t try to stop him either.

She jerked against Angus’s hold, but he didn’t release her. “You can’t.” Tamsin continued to yank at him, but she didn’t have any more luck extracting herself than her fox had had pulling its paw from the alligator’s mouth. “Angus, come on.”

Ben reached them, brow puckered with concern. “You know they’ll kill her, Angus. Let me take her—she’ll go so far away Shifter Bureau will never find her, and you’ll be off the hook. They can’t expect you to track someone who’s thousands and thousands of miles from anywhere.”

That solution didn’t sound much better. Tamsin didn’t know exactly what Ben was, in spite of his glib explanation of being a gnome or a goblin—whatever she wanted to call him. Running thousands and thousands of miles away where no one would ever find her wasn’t exactly what she had in mind.

Angus growled, his grip tightening. “She’s coming with me. I’m turning her over and taking Ciaran home. If Haider is too incompetent to hold on to her after that, if she gets away from him right after I’m gone, which I know she can, and if there’s a Shifter waiting around the block to help her out, then Haider can suck it.”

Tamsin ceased struggling as she listened, her mouth forming an O. Angus gave her a long look, gray eyes glittering.

Wait until I have my cub safe and then give this guy Haider the slip, he was trying to tell her. Run like hell, but backup will be just around the corner.

Angus wasn’t interested in pleasing Haider—he only wanted to rescue his cub. If Tamsin kicked Shifter Bureau in the balls and ran far, far away, he didn’t care. As long as he got his cub first, Angus would be happy.

Tamsin gave him a little nod, hoping she hadn’t misunderstood.

She turned and flashed Ben a big smile. “See you, Ben. Who knows, sometime I might need to take you up on your offer to get me far from here. Is it someplace exotic?”

Ben considered. “Exotic-ish.”

Tamsin hugged him—with one arm, as Angus wasn’t about to let her go. “What a sweetie you are. Why don’t you have a mate? Or do you? Tucked away in this exotic-ish place?”

“Huh. I wish.” Ben returned the embrace, then backed from her, hands out as though showing Angus he hadn’t given her anything. “No one wants an old geezer like me.”

“Don’t sell yourself short. I think you’re wicked sexy. All right, all right, don’t push.” The last was directed at Angus, who had the passenger door open and was trying to angle her into the car.

Tamsin lowered herself onto the seat, her shakes returning. Angus shut the door, and Tamsin cranked down the window and blew Ben a kiss.

“Thanks for breakfast, Ben. I’ll send you a postcard.”

Angus said nothing at all. The car jostled as he dropped into the driver’s seat and cranked the engine to life.

A heavy wind sprang up, bending the trees and making the vines on the house dance. The chimes on the porch rang and jangled.

Tamsin laughed in delight. “It’s saying good-bye to me.” She waved at the house as Angus pulled the car around the arc of the drive. “I’ll be back. Don’t you worry.”

Ben watched them go from the foot of the porch steps, arms folded. Tamsin waved until Angus rounded a stand of trees and Ben and the house were lost to sight.

Angus drove out through the rusting gate to the narrow road that skirted the river. He hunkered over the wheel, a silent bulk of male Lupine, his gray eyes light in the morning sunshine.

He said nothing, no mention of the kiss, no more advice for what she should do when in Shifter Bureau’s clutches. He might have been alone in the car for all the attention he paid her.

Tamsin leaned back in the seat and rested her feet on the dash. “So, where exactly are we going?”





CHAPTER SEVEN


“New Orleans.” Angus’s words came out a grunt.

“Oh, that sounds nice,” Tamsin said, pretending her fears weren’t rising. “I can go shopping. And grab some great food. Food’s the best part of Nawlins, isn’t it? While I love walking in Jackson Square and doing the music scene, it’s the food that brings me back.”

Angus glanced at her. “You go there often?”

“If you call twice in my life often, then yes. Last time was with my sister . . .”

The words died as Tamsin’s throat closed. She couldn’t keep up her false chirpiness when she thought about her sister.

Angus glanced at her again. Goddess, he wasn’t going to ask about Glynis, was he?

“What happened to your sister?”

He was. “She died,” Tamsin said in clipped tones. “Shifter hunter. We were trying to avoid being rounded up. Happy now?”

“Why the hell would I be happy hearing that your sister was killed by a fucking Shifter hunter?” he asked with a Lupine snarl. “We all had shit like that happen. No one was spared a tragedy when Shifters were outed.”