“This is Coby,” she said, a note of pride in her voice. “Our new little son. You two have come to see Walker.”
Carly looked up from where she’d been gently tickling Coby’s stomach. “That’s right. How’d you know?”
“Shifter gossip. Faster than e-mail. Come on inside. I’ve got cold bottled water for you—it’s a hot one today.”
“That’s Austin in the summer,” Carly said.
“You’ve lived here long?” Elizabeth led the way into the house, Carly following, Tiger close behind her.
“All my life,” Carly said. “Born and raised.” By a great mother and three sisters who’d pulled together for survival.
“I’ve been here about seven years. But I love it. Been in Shiftertown less than that.” Elizabeth bounced the little boy. “You get used to it.”
Do you? Carly wondered.
Ronan’s house was large, the floors polished hardwood with rugs, and had big, solid furniture all around. Carly guessed why the furniture was so sturdy when she saw the people sitting at the dining room table—a giant of a man and a woman who, Carly saw when she stood up, was tall, curvaceous, and absolutely gorgeous. The Collar around her neck only enhanced her sensuality.
The way she flicked her attention to Tiger made Carly’s possessiveness rear its head.
Not ten minutes ago, Carly had been thinking that she should tell Tiger they needed to slow down and get to know each other before they proceeded with a relationship of any kind. But as soon as this Shifter woman so much as glanced at him, Carly wanted to glare at her and say, Back off.
Weird, she’d never felt that way about Ethan. Carly had never worried at all with Ethan, until it was too late.
The Shifter woman must have seen the jealous glitter in Carly’s eyes, because she broke into a smile that threatened to become a laugh.
“Ronan,” she said and wandered to an open door that led to a kitchen. “They’re here.”
“I can see that.”
Ronan rose, the man larger even than Tiger. Walker sat behind him at the table, one wrist in a handcuff, the handcuff chained to a ring in the wall. Why Ronan’s household had a heavy ring in the wall in the dining room, Carly wasn’t sure, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
“Tiger,” Ronan said. Unlike the Shifters they’d passed on the way, he didn’t drop his gaze before Tiger or stare at him in hostile fear. “You’re looking good for a Shifter who should be dead.”
“I feel good too,” Tiger said. He rested his hands on Carly’s shoulders. “Not so surprising.”
Ronan’s brows went up, and he breathed in. “I see,” he said. “You work fast. But we can talk about that later. You came to interrogate Walker, right? Just remember that he won’t be able to talk if you break his jaw, knock him out, or rip out his throat.”
Tiger nodded gravely. “I’ll remember.”
“How long do we have to keep him?” Ronan went on conversationally. He moved to Elizabeth and took up his son, using the same care with which Tiger had lifted Sean’s cub. “I expected Liam to come for him, but I guess Liam has better things to do. Tasting new batches of Guinness or something.”
Ronan spoke lightly, but Carly saw his tension. Liam had left town for an important reason, one Ronan wouldn’t talk about in front of Walker, or maybe even Tiger.
Walker looked tired but whole. The bruises and scratches Tiger had left on his face were healing, and he looked all right. No one here had tortured him.
He seemed subdued though, and not because his hand was chained to the wall. Walker glanced at Rebecca, and red stained his cheekbones.
Tiger pulled out a chair and sat, leaning forward with elbows on knees. He looked into Walker’s face, just looked at him. Walker returned the look with the same blank expression.
Elizabeth pressed a cold, damp bottle into Carly’s hand. Carly took the bottle of water and opened it, watching Tiger and Walker while she drank.
Tiger waited, and minutes stretched by. Walker was getting nervous, or so it seemed from the sheen of perspiration on his forehead. But he said nothing and didn’t move.
Ronan handed his baby back to Elizabeth and seated himself at the head of the table, close enough so he could dive between Tiger and Walker if needed. The polar bear cub had disappeared, perhaps knowing that the dining room was about to become an interrogation cell.
Tiger said nothing. Carly couldn’t see Tiger’s eyes from where she stood, but Walker started sweating more, his hand twitching where it was cuffed.
“They want to know what you are,” Walker said after fifteen solid minutes of silence.
Carly was the one stretched to her limit. Men enjoyed staring at each other until one of them broke, but she always believed that if you wanted to know something you just asked.
“Who wants to know?” she broke in. “The Shifter Bureau?”
Carly expected Tiger to be annoyed with her for interrupting, but he only waited with her for Walker’s answer.
“Shifter Bureau,” Walker said, giving Carly a nod. “And the commander of my unit. We’re always on the lookout for Shifter anomalies. That order isn’t classified; it’s common knowledge.”
“Not to me,” Carly said. “Why so much interest in Tiger? He’s just another Shifter, isn’t he?”
Walker’s tight mouth twitched. “No, he’s not. And everyone in this room knows it. He can do things other Shifters can’t. When he landed in the hospital, I was sent to report.”
“And shoot him,” Carly said testily. “You came with plenty of firepower.”
“We were only to shoot if necessary. And it almost became necessary. And then you showed up.” Walker’s gaze moved from Tiger to rest on Carly.
Carly understood then that Walker wasn’t a pushover, a man doing his job, controlled by others. He was smart—he’d seen how Carly had calmed Tiger in the hospital and gotten him back into bed, had wondered why she’d been able to make him see reason when no one else had.
“That’s why you and Dr. Brennan came to see me,” Carly said. “You were interested in me, not my observations on Shifters.”
“We thought you could provide insight on the tiger. When you kicked Brennan out, I stayed to watch you, to see if you’d run to the Shifters and tell them everything. But the tiger showed up instead.”
“He was worried about me,” Carly said, because Tiger remained silent. “With good reason. You were lurking in my backyard, up to no good.”
“And now I’m here.” Walker gave her a wry look and raised the hand with the cuff.
“Don’t let him fool you,” Rebecca said, coming back into the room. “He’s a master at escaping. He’s gotten himself out of duct tape, a zip tie, and once from that cuff already. He put it back on to be polite.”
Ronan rumbled, “Easy to pick open a cuff, hard to get past two Kodiak bears in bad moods.”
“I have PMS,” Rebecca said. She smiled at Walker. “Not a good time to piss me off.”
“Why do you need insight on Tiger?” Carly asked. “He tore it up in the hospital because he was hurt, and because your little army was trying to take him down. I hate hospitals myself—all those machines beeping and people poking at you and sticking you with needles filled with who knows what. You know Tiger wasn’t trying to attack anyone there, because his Collar would have shocked him. That’s what it’s for.”
Walker glanced back at Tiger, his gaze going to Tiger’s Collar. Tiger hadn’t taken his eyes from Walker for one second.
“Collar shocks hurt like hell,” Rebecca said. She leaned forward so her breasts clearly filled the V neckline of her T-shirt. “We avoid it, trust me.”
“Another question for you,” Carly said. “What about the attack on us yesterday? The black SUV chasing us and the spectacular crash at the end? We could have all been killed. And then Tiger gets shot, repeatedly. Was that meant for me? Or him? Both of us?”