CHAPTER ELEVEN
Angus’s wolf growls rumbled next to Tamsin, filling the air.
The vehicle Dimitri had brought was a huge black box sitting high on double wheels, its windows tinted and dark. It was the cab of a semitruck, polished and glinting even in the shadows.
“I hitched a ride in one of these once,” Tamsin said. “I loved it. Trucker wanted too much to show me the bed in the back though, so I hopped out as soon as he slowed down.”
She spoke lightly but he’d scared her, that scumbag. She’d leapt to the ground in the tiny town he’d had to decelerate to drive through, and had run to the nearest gas station, hiding in the women’s bathroom until he was gone. But she’d liked the truck—wasn’t its fault it had been driven by an asshole.
“We’re trying to be under the radar,” Angus told Dimitri.
Dimitri shrugged, the streetlight glinting on his bright hair. “No one will be expecting a Shifter in that. You’ll blend in with all the other truckers. If anyone asks, you own the cab and are between hauling jobs, heading out with your family somewhere or other.”
“His idea of stealth,” Jaycee said, cocking her head.
“Hiding in plain sight,” Dimitri corrected her. “A person tiptoeing around, glancing furtively over his shoulder is way more suspicious than a man going about his business. Just like eating in the restaurant.”
Angus looked irritated as hell, but Tamsin saw him tamp down his anger. “Thanks, Dimitri. I appreciate the help.”
Jaycee laughed. “It hurt you to say that. I argued with him, Angus, but Dimitri said the truck has a legit license in the human way, registered to an independent trucker—he calls himself Rufus Trucking. Rufus for Canis Rufus, Red Wolf. Hilarious, right?”
“I like that,” Ciaran sang out. “Uncle Dimitri is smart.”
“Hey, the truck is nothing connected with Shifters,” Dimitri said. “I found the cab in a scrap yard and refurbished it myself.” He cast a worried glance at the gleaming black chassis. “Don’t bang it up, okay?”
Tamsin snatched the keys from Angus’s hand. “We’ll take great care of it. Come on, Ciaran. Let’s see what’s inside.”
She and Ciaran darted forward before Angus could stop them, and Tamsin unlocked and opened the passenger side door. She boosted Ciaran inside and then followed him.
The cab was tall, with several steps leading up into it. The front bench seat was wide, with padded headrests, a big radio, and a dashboard with plenty of dials and buttons. In the back was another bench seat and a large storage space, which indeed contained a bed. The bed was wide enough for two, and possibly three if that third person was as small as Ciaran.
“Bet I know why Dimitri put in such a big mattress,” Tamsin said to Jaycee, who had opened the back door. “Your blush says it all.”
Jaycee climbed up inside, settling herself on the back seat. She was a gorgeous woman, all curves and sleek hair, her leather motorcycle pants and dark top hugging her body.
She gave Tamsin a frank look from her golden eyes. “Not to be nosy, but who exactly are you? Angus is going to a lot of trouble for you.”
Tamsin let out her breath. “I know he is. And I’m Trouble with a capital T. I can’t tell you everything you want to know, but I promise you, as soon as I can, I will keep Angus as far from my problems as possible.”
“You could leave right now,” Jaycee pointed out. “While he’s busy chewing the fat with Dimitri, take whatever car you came in and go. If you need to hide out, I’ll tell you how to contact Shifters who are good at hiding people—like Zander and Dylan.”
Tamsin hadn’t heard of Dylan. “I already met Zander.”
Jaycee pulled out her phone, which was a modern one, not Angus’s ten-year-old model. “Then he’ll probably be willing to help. Dylan is even better, but he’s iffy. You never know what Dylan will do.”
The slightly worried look in Jaycee’s eyes when she mentioned Dylan’s name was concerning. The thought of Zander and his let’s-get-this-done attitude was more reassuring. Zander had a mate though, with a Collar, and Tamsin didn’t want to endanger her. The pair had already risked a lot to help her.
But she couldn’t throw away the possibility of his assistance. “All right, give me Zander’s number,” she said with reluctance. “In case. You’ll have to write it down the old-fashioned way. I ditched my phone a long time ago.”
Jaycee rummaged in her pockets and found a scrap of paper, and Tamsin unearthed a pen from the catchall tray in the dashboard. As Jaycee wrote, Ciaran watched, his mouth open.
“No,” he said abruptly. “You’re not leaving.”
Jaycee looked up, brows rising, and Tamsin settled on the front seat and gathered Ciaran to her. “I might have to, sweetie. I don’t want to bring Shifter Bureau down on you or your dad.”
“No, we go together.” Ciaran’s voice held a hint of tears. “No matter what, we stick together, and we’ll be all right. That’s what my dad says.”
Jaycee exchanged a glance with Tamsin, then went back to writing.
Tamsin smoothed Ciaran’s hair. “Honey, that might not be practical in my case. Shifter Bureau already nabbed you once, and frightened you a lot. I know you won’t admit it, but they did scare you. Scared Angus even more. You want that to happen again?”
Ciaran squirmed away from Tamsin and knelt on the seat. “It won’t happen now that I’m with my dad. He’ll take care of you. Of us. You can’t go.”
“Ciaran—”
“Dad!” Ciaran did a one-eighty on the seat as Angus opened the driver’s-side door. “Tamsin’s trying to leave. Tell her she has to stay.”
“Tamsin, you have to stay,” Angus said. “Jace, are you going with Dimitri or are we giving you a ride back to Kendrick’s?”
Jaycee unfolded herself and scrambled down from the truck, but not before palming the slip of paper to Tamsin. “I’m out of here. See you soon.”
“Make sure Reg’s SUV is left somewhere safe,” Angus said before she could disappear. “Tell Dimitri to mail him the keys.”
Jaycee landed lightly on the ground, her leopard’s grace in evidence. “Stop worrying. Dimitri and I will handle it. We’re good at this.” She sent Tamsin a look. “Take care of yourself.” Then she slammed the door and was gone.
At the same time, Angus started the truck. The engine was surprisingly quiet but powerful enough to send intense vibrations through the cab.
Angus slammed the door. “Ciaran, get in the back seat and buckle up. Tamsin, keep your hand off that door handle. If you try to jump out, I’ll haul you into the back and tie you up.”
Tamsin glanced at the bed, her heart beating faster. “Promise?”
“Yes. But it won’t be any fun.” Angus gave her a hard look, but his cheekbones stained red.
A shy wolf. Wasn’t that sweet?
He’d be a strong and tender lover. Angus’s big hands would caress her as he pinned her with his weight, his kisses gentle yet powerful.
Tamsin swallowed and looked away. She went through the motions of putting on the seat belt but couldn’t have sworn afterward how she got it buckled. The thought of being in the bed with Angus, his body bare for her touch, her lips, pushed everything else out of her brain.
Definitely horny. One cold shower, and I’ll be fine.
Tamsin knew, as Angus pulled the truck from the curb and Jaycee and Dimitri waved, their arms around each other, that she’d never be fine. Angus had touched something within her, and she wouldn’t shake that anytime soon.
Angus drove carefully into the night. Dimitri had been right that no one gave the truck cab a second glance, except to move out of its way. Plenty of truckers drove lone cabs between loads or rode home in them to sleep. Once Angus got onto the interstate, they’d be pretty much invisible.
“You know how to drive one of these things?” Tamsin asked him.
She’d drawn herself up to sit cross-legged on the big seat, and was now busy checking out the compartments and buttons and levers on the dashboard.
“Yes,” Angus answered as he geared down for a turn. “I drove a rig for a while, back before Shifters were outed. Good way to make a living.”
“You did?” Ciaran asked. “You never told me that.”
Angus shrugged. “That was a long time ago, son. Can’t do it anymore.”
He hadn’t wanted to talk about it. But it felt good to sit high above the road again, the big steering wheel in front of him. Angus had driven all over the country for several years, earning enough to support himself and then a mate, back when Shifters had to hide what they were. Shifters weren’t allowed such jobs anymore, as humans worried that Shifters, with their stamina and strength, would push them out of the workplace.
The humans probably weren’t wrong. Shifters were smart, driven, and tireless. At least some Shifters were. Others were complete idiots. Shifters came in all flavors, as did humans.
Maybe one day humans would understand that. Maybe they’d realize that Shifters were just trying to live life, and would never be a threat.
“Are we still going to Kendrick’s?” Ciaran interrupted his thoughts.
Angus took the on-ramp onto the I-10, heading west. If Dimitri and Jaycee on Jaycee’s bike were following, Angus couldn’t see them.
“Best place,” Angus said, although he was having second thoughts.
Tamsin would be safe with Kendrick, without doubt. She’d be in the middle of a horde of un-Collared Shifters who’d lived under the radar for twenty years and knew how to keep hidden. Dimitri and Jaycee would take care of her.
But if Shifter Bureau was after Tamsin as hard as they could be, Angus might be leading Bureau agents straight to Kendrick and those in his care. In spite of Dimitri’s assurances about the anonymity of the truck cab, in spite of Angus’s firsthand knowledge of the security of Kendrick’s place, it was starting to feel not right to him.
He glanced at Tamsin. She turned a dial, and a radio blared to life. Smiling happily, she began to push buttons, trying station after station until she halted on one belting out country music.
“Hey, I love this song.” She leaned back and started to sing at the top of her lungs.
Angus hadn’t heard the song, which seemed to be about a man and woman kissing in the moonlight, and then both of them thinking about the kiss, alone, all night long. Tamsin’s voice couldn’t quite hold the tune, but she sang with enthusiasm, squeezing her eyes shut to warble out the emotional phrases. Ciaran leaned forward, listening in fascination.
Tamsin tasted joy in every second of her life, Angus realized. She was on the run, being hunted by Shifter Bureau, wanted in connection with Angus’s brother’s activities and more recently a murder, and yet she took time to find delight in a simple love song.
Angus had once had that joy in him. It had surged when Ciaran was born, when he’d held his tiny cub in his hands, marveling that this was his son.
The song wound down. The next had a jumpy, rock beat and was about a man and his lady making love somewhere along a back road.
Tamsin sang this one word for word, and Ciaran joined in, his treble cutting through Tamsin’s faulty alto. Angus hadn’t known Ciaran liked country music, especially the kind with raunchy lyrics.
The truck filled with song, and with laughter when Tamsin and Ciaran both attempted a sexy “mmm-hmm” in the middle. Tamsin’s laugh was as musical as what came through the radio.
Something inside Angus loosened as he drove through the darkness, the voices of his son and the fiery woman he’d rescued weaving together and nestling in his heart.
Texas was much bigger than Tamsin had imagined. Less than an hour after they left Lake Charles, they were crossing the border, heralded by nothing but a green sign that read “Texas State Line.” They came to a turnoff to a travel information center with tall flagpoles poking up beside the freeway. Tamsin wanted to stop, but Angus sailed past.
Another hour and a half and they were in Houston, a giant city that went on endlessly. Two hours after they left the heart of Houston, they were in a dark, flat, empty plain that stretched all around them. Still Texas, Angus said. They’d traversed only one small part of it.
It wasn’t simply the distance Tamsin felt. The land opened up around them, the darkness beyond the road unbroken by lights, buildings, trees. The sky arched high above, dark and silent. This was a place of vast spaces and silences.
The radio was off now that Tamsin and Ciaran had sung every song they could, some of them twice. When the stations segued into endless commercials, Tamsin had shut off the noise, and Ciaran slid into sleep.
“You don’t look happy,” Tamsin said to Angus.
Angus gazed down the road, one hand resting negligently on the large steering wheel. She believed him when he said he’d once done this for a living—he drove in a relaxed way, as though far more used to taking a rig across country than chasing fugitives through swamps.
He glanced briefly at her. “Why am I supposed to look happy? My cub should be home in bed, waiting for me to get back from the club. Instead I’m in a borrowed truck, heading down the freeway in the opposite direction.”
“I mean, you don’t seem relieved you’re taking me to a safe place. What’s wrong?”
Angus let out a breath, not looking surprised she’d read him right. “I don’t know. Maybe I just feel like it’s too easy.”
“Mmm.” Tamsin studied the road ahead of them, other vehicles few and far between now. “I think it’s more than that.”
“Probably.” Angus shifted in his seat, his left hand coming to join his right on the wheel. “My instincts don’t like the idea of going to Kendrick’s. What if Shifter Bureau follows us there? That’s a huge chunk of innocent Shifters to put in danger.”
“But no one is following us,” Tamsin pointed out. They’d seen no signs of pursuit since New Orleans.
“I know—that bugs me too. How did we lose Haider so easily? Why didn’t they have Shifter Bureau people all over the place at the Texas border? Shifters aren’t allowed to cross into other states without permission, so it’s a great place to put a checkpoint.”
Tamsin had been having the same thoughts, but she’d tried to put them aside. She’d learned to worry about the here and now, not possibilities, to be cautious but not paranoid.
“Maybe they’re tracking us, sitting back to see where we go. Is there GPS on this truck? Or was there on Reg’s SUV?”
“Dimitri would have taken out any GPS devices before he lugged the cab out of the junkyard. Reg would know if someone had stuck a tracker on his SUV, and he’d have told me. Wouldn’t have brought us the SUV at all, if that were the case. You can’t surreptitiously track a Shifter vehicle—all Shifters know their cars and trucks and motorcycles inside and out. We have to work on them constantly to keep them running.” Angus huffed a short laugh. “Shiftertowns are great places to learn auto mechanics.”
“Or Haider already knows about this guy Kendrick and will be waiting for us at his compound.”
Angus shook his head. “Kendrick is careful. I’ve never met anyone so careful. Dimitri and Jaycee had to talk a long time before he let me out there a few months ago when they had their sun and moon ceremonies. Kendrick doesn’t trust anyone. I had to swear to keep the location of the compound a deep, dark secret, on pain of death. Which I have.”
“Except now you’ve told me. Maybe that’s what your instincts are warning you about. I could be a spy, leading Shifter Bureau right to your friends.”
“You could be,” Angus said without worry. “But I saw how terrified you were when I took you to Haider. You kept your chin up, but I know you were afraid.”
Tamsin shivered. She’d been arrested before, interrogated by Bureau agents before, but never had she met one with eyes as cold as Haider’s. “I don’t know what’s up with him, but he has pure hatred in him. More than what should come from him believing I killed those agents in Shreveport.”
“Which you said you didn’t do.” Angus glanced at her, the gray of his eyes glinting. “I believe you.”
Tamsin remembered telling him about Dion, right before he’d kissed her. Her lips tingled and she went on hastily. “Yeah? How do you know I wasn’t feeding you a line of bull?”
“Instincts again. They’re pretty good. I can imagine you spitting on Shifter Bureau agents, telling them off, pulling down your pants and mooning them, but I can’t see you going insane and clawing them to death. Anyway, that was done by a larger Shifter, a Feline or Lupine. Your claws aren’t big enough to have made those marks I saw in the photos.”
Tamsin looked at her hand, her pale fingers that never could hold a tan. “No, they’re not.”
“So why is Haider so interested in you?” Angus asked.
“He knows what I am.” Tamsin folded her arms over her stomach, moving uncomfortably. It hadn’t bothered her for Angus to find out her true nature, but it had creeped her out when Haider had showed her the video. “He has footage of me shifting to my fox. He had it on his phone and played it with a big smirk on his face. He wants to dissect me. That’s why I ran, why we’re here right now.”
Angus turned to stare at her, and Tamsin kept her face straight. She suspected that Haider wanted to know not only Tamsin’s secrets but Gavan’s, which Tamsin wanted to keep tucked firmly into her brain.
Angus jerked his attention back to the road. “I’m glad you ran. I’ll dissect Haider if I see him again.”
“You didn’t have to help me. I keep telling you to let me out, and I’ll go off on my own.”
Angus scowled. “I wasn’t going to leave you for Haider to catch again. I’m not that much of a dickhead.”
“But it’s my problem. My whole life is my problem. Nothing to do with you.”
“It became my problem when Haider came into the club and ordered me to find you,” Angus said angrily. “When he took Ciaran from me. When he said you worked with my brother. I decided to make it my problem.”
Tamsin lifted her brows, hiding her nervousness. “I sense a big sibling rivalry here. I mean, more than your mate running off with him, the ungrateful cow. Want to talk about it?”
“No,” Angus said, the word abrupt.
“Struck another nerve, did I? You have a lot of those.”
“Why are you so interested in counseling me? I could ask you—”
The jangling noise of his cell phone cut into his speech. Angus snarled and grabbed the phone from his belt, flipping it open. The good thing about an old-style cell phone was that it didn’t have tracking in it. Tamsin had ditched her smartphone and used burners if she used cell phones at all.
Angus checked the number calling before he said a cautious, “What?”
A voice came through, male, with an Irish accent. “Sean here. My dad wants a word.”
“Does he? Then why isn’t Dylan calling me? Never mind—put him on.”
“I don’t mean he’s here with me. Our dad is never that straightforward. He wants a meet.”
“Don’t have time. Busy. I’ll catch him later.”
The easygoing lilt in Sean’s voice changed, the man’s dominance coming through to Tamsin. “It’s not a suggestion. Dylan says it’s urgent, and I’m not to let you blow him off. His very words. I know you’re driving Dimitri’s souped-up rig, and I know you’re heading to Kendrick’s, so take a turn north and meet in our usual spot. Please don’t make me tell him you’re not coming.”
“I have Ciaran with me. I’m not racing off for one of his meetings with my cub.”
“Dylan knows Ciaran’s with you,” Sean went on. “He says bring him. And the red-haired woman. Do it for me, Angus. If I can’t persuade you, I’ll never hear the end of it. Don’t do that to me, my friend. Take pity on me, please.”
Angus’s jaw tightened so much Tamsin feared he’d break his teeth. “Fine,” he snarled. “I’ll be there.”
He snapped the phone closed and tossed it down, slamming his hand back to the wheel as though resisting the urge to crush the phone in his bare hand.