“Well, aren’t you the cutest thing?” Carly poked Katriona in the tummy. “What’s your name, honey?”
“’Trina,” she said.
“Katriona,” Tiger rumbled. “She can’t say the whole word yet.”
“A pretty name for a pretty girl.” Carly seemed delighted with Kat.
“’Nk you,” Kat said.
Liam’s scent broke Tiger’s focus on Carly and Kat as Liam himself stopped in front of them. “Excuse me, if I can be interrupting this sweet little moment. Will one of you tell me what the hell is going on? Seeing as I heard Connor lock himself in his room, which means he’s scared about what I’m going to do, and that means there’s something for him to be worrying about. Isn’t there?”
CHAPTER NINE
“I wouldn’t know about that,” Carly said. She broke into a smile again as she tickled Katriona’s stomach. She couldn’t know how beautiful she looked when she did that. “All I know is, his name is Walker Danielson, he was spying on me, and Tiger caught him and knocked him out. He’s also friends with a professor who wants me to come and talk to you and write reports about you for him. For a research project, he said. Wants me to be his assistant. Anyway, Connor was worried Tiger would hurt Walker even more, so I thought, why not bring him to you and have you talk to him? He’s from the Shifter Bureau, and y’all are Shifters.”
Liam listened, his blue gaze trained on Carly’s face. “And Connor wouldn’t have anything to do with this, would he?”
“Connor was doing his best,” Carly said. “He was scared. Give the kid a break, all right?”
Liam moved the slightest bit closer to her. “And you? Are you scared?”
Carly stepped back into Tiger, and Tiger put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m a little afraid, sure,” she said. “It’s not every day I slap a piece of duct tape over a man’s mouth and stuff him into my trunk. And y’all are not reassuring. If Tiger weren’t here, my knees would be knocking together. But your daughter is obnoxiously sweet.”
Liam’s expression softened as he glanced at Katriona. “You only say that because you’re not chasing her all hours of the day and night. Mum goes to the office, and Da stays home and looks after this wee monster. I thought it was bad when she was crawling.”
“Looks like Tiger makes a good babysitter.”
“He does, that,” Liam said. “But he spoils her rotten. Lets her get away with way too much.”
“She’s a Shifter, right?” Carly asked. “What does she turn into?”
“Nothing yet. Her mother’s human, so Kat was born human, and she won’t start shifting into her beastie until she’s about three. She’s a Morrissey, so she’ll have mostly lion in her. Feline Shifters were bred from all big cats, but families tend toward one species or the other. Except Tiger. He seems to be all tiger, interestingly enough.”
“Tigger,” Kat corrected him.
“Yes, love. Is that the kind of thing your professor friend wants you to be reporting?” The dangerous glint was back in Liam’s eye. But Tiger knew Liam wouldn’t hurt Carly, not physically. First, because Liam only attacked true dangers, and second, because Liam would never get through Tiger to touch her.
“He’s not my friend,” Carly said. “I didn’t like him, if you want to know the truth. I didn’t tell him I’d work for him, because I already have a job—which reminds me, I need to go so I can get to it and not lose it. My boss cut me some slack, because my day yesterday was truly shitty, but he’s not going to give me a permanent vacation.”
Leaving. No. Tiger’s hand tightened on Carly’s shoulder. Not leaving, not for the wide world and its dangers, not without him.
Liam wasn’t finished with his interrogation. “And what is this job?”
“I’m an assistant and receptionist at an art gallery. And no, that doesn’t mean I sit and do my nails. I take orders and keep track of them, do the inventory, sell to walk-in customers, set up receptions and such for the artists, and set up exhibit openings, which are a lot more work than they seem, believe you me. Basically anything Armand needs help with, I do.”
Liam’s gaze didn’t move as he took in her words, also taking in, Tiger knew, her scent, her body language, and the nuances behind them.
“All right,” Liam said as Carly wound down. “You go off and get ready for work, and we’ll deal with duct-tape man.”
“I will go with her.” No way would Tiger let her drive off alone, into danger. The professor’s gun-toting friend might have been rendered harmless for now, but there might be more like Walker out there. Plus, when Walker’s disappearance was discovered, Carly’s house would be first on the list of places to look.
“It’s all right,” Carly said quickly, looking up at Tiger. “I’ll be fine.”
“You won’t be fine. I’ll go with you.”
“Yes, you will,” Liam said to Tiger. “But not just you. Let me see which of my trackers is in need of something to do.”
“What are you talking about now? Damn it.” A cell phone pealed, and Carly dug through the giant bin of her purse until she brought it out, nearly dropping it in the process. She looked at the readout, frowned in a puzzled way, and answered it.
“Hello? Who is . . . ?”
Her face changed from curiosity to outrage in the space of a second. “Are you kidding me? Are you . . .” She looked around at the Shifters, all of whom were watching her closely, and let out a breath. “Hang on. I have to take this.” She lowered the phone as she walked out through the kitchen and onto the back porch. Tiger, bouncing Kat, went right after her.
* * *
“Say that again?” Carly yelled into the phone, pressing it against her ear. “Ethan wants to sue me?”
“He has a list of complaints, including bringing a Shifter in to attack him.”
Carly’s rage changed from the simmer to which she’d managed to lower it to a full-blown boil. “Are you f**king kidding me?”
The smooth voice of one of Ethan’s friends, who happened to be a lawyer, continued: “You returned his car damaged and are in possession of a number of expensive items he’s given you, including a sixty-thousand-dollar engagement ring.”
“Sixty-thousand?” Carly thought about the ring that was tucked into her jewelry box, with no lock, no alarm system on her house. “What, is he stupid?”