“If you want, Carly, you and I can settle this. It doesn’t have to go to court.”
“To court? He cheats on me, and he wants to take me to court?”
“Now, Carly, calm down. We can—”
His voice cut off as Carly slammed her thumb on the End button. She stopped herself from flinging the phone off the porch and into the green, because it was her phone, and expensive. She settled for throwing it—hard—back into her purse, where it clattered against her sunglasses case.
She turned around to find Tiger standing three feet behind her, the glower on his face telling her he’d heard everything. Didn’t matter. Ethan was a dickhead, and she didn’t care who knew it.
“I have to go,” Carly said. The hour was early enough that she’d have time to go home, get changed, stop at Ethan’s, and drive to the gallery. The stop at Ethan’s wouldn’t take long.
“I’ll go with you,” Tiger repeated. He’d planted himself so stubbornly in her path, she’d never get around him even if she tried to force her way.
“Fine. I don’t have time to argue. You might want to leave the kid, though. My language is going to get ugly.”
Tiger held Katriona out, not to Liam but to Sean, who was approaching through the backyard. With him was a guy with a cowboy hat who studied Carly and Tiger in open curiosity.
Sean took Katriona into his hands with a bemused expression. Carly pushed past him and descended the porch steps, hurrying around the house and down the driveway to her own car. Tiger was right behind her, sliding into the passenger seat as Carly climbed behind the wheel and started it up.
Before she could pull from the curb, the back door opened and the cowboy dove in. He yanked his feet clear and shut the door as Carly peeled out into the street.
Other Shifters were out in the early-morning sunshine, walking or just standing in yards or on porches. Every single one stopped what they were doing and stared the predatory stare as Carly sped down the road to make her way out of Shiftertown.
“Whoa,” the cowboy Shifter said as the car rocketed forward. “Maybe I should drive.”
“And you are?” Carly asked, tearing around a corner and sending him down into the seat.
The man righted himself and clicked on a seat belt. “I’m Ellison Rowe. Lupine Shifter.”
“Lupine?” Carly asked, distracted. She whisked the car around another corner and onto Fifty-first, heading west.
“Wolf, darlin’.” Ellison clutched the back of the seat as Carly sped between two cars and around a truck. “Take it easy, sweetheart. I’m just mated. I want to live long enough to put a cub in the nursery.”
“I’m so sorry,” Carly said, putting on her sugary sweet voice. “I’m just mad at all things male right now, and would really like to know what are you doing in my car?”
“Liam sent me.”
“To keep an eye on me?”
Ellison pointed at Tiger. “No, to keep an eye on him. You seem to have things under control.”
“Then you’ll have to put up with how I drive.” Carly smiled at him in the rearview. “And you can help me carry things.”
Ellison tossed his hat onto the seat beside him, scraped a hand through blond hair, and grinned back at her. “That’s what I live for.”
* * *
Carly got herself showered and dressed for work in record time, including doing her hair and makeup. She enjoyed sliding into her prettiest sheath dress, a silk moiré that was bright green to go with her eyes, plus jewelry that Ethan hadn’t bought her—her earrings had come from her mother, the dangling gold necklace from her oldest sister, Althea.
She put on killer high heels that made her legs look wicked and red lipstick that made her mouth ready for kissing. But not for Ethan. Oh, no.
Carly headed out to the front room, where Tiger and Ellison were doing what Connor had enjoyed doing when he was here, watching sports on cable television. While she moved down the hall, she heard Ellison saying to Tiger, “No, see, this guy over here caught the ball, so even though this guy hit it well, he can’t stay on first base. He’s out.”
A full-grown American male who didn’t understand baseball? Shifter or not, that had to be a first.
Carly nearly danced into the living room, and Ellison rose swiftly from the couch. “Well, damn.”
Tiger said nothing at all. His gaze roved Carly, lingering on her legs and then on the curve of her waist.
“Why, thank you,” Carly said, reaching for her smaller purse to transfer into it what she needed for the day. “It’s nice to be appreciated.”
“Sure you don’t want me to drive?” Ellison asked as they went back to the garage.
“No, I’ve got it. I want to.” Being driven around in Ethan’s expensive cars or in the limos he hired for special nights out had made her feel like a princess. But today Carly wanted to feel powerful, like a kick-ass chick in a superhero movie.
She waited until Tiger and Ellison were settled inside the car before she opened the garage door, started up, and backed out. The neighbors wouldn’t be able to miss Tiger sitting in the front seat with her, but they’d be more freaked out if they caught the whole massive bulk of him.
Ethan didn’t live far away, time-wise, but his neighborhood might as well have been on another planet. People with big money lived on this hill above the river and had either inherited their riches or made money through the big corporations that had settled in Austin, or both.
When Carly pulled into Ethan’s long driveway, she felt both sick to her stomach and elated. Yesterday—had it been only yesterday?—she’d driven here so secure in the knowledge that she was going to marry a rich, successful, stable man. A man not at all like her father, a man who was already planning what they’d do on their ten-year anniversary. Someone who wouldn’t disappear into the night, leaving her with all his debts and nowhere to live.
Ethan’s obvious indifference toward her had kicked her in the teeth. Carly still didn’t know who the woman had been. Someone from work? Friend of a friend?
Did it matter? It was over. Carly had her job, she had friends and her mama and sisters, and she didn’t need Ethan. And now she was making friends with Shifters and carrying around men wrapped in duct tape in the trunk of her car. Strange how the entire world could change in one crazy afternoon.
Carly still had her keys to Ethan’s house. She unlocked and opened the front door, not bothering to knock.