Serengeti Sunrise ss-4 Page 5

  “Whiskey sour, please.” Zoe put a little extra oomph in her smile to make up for the behemoth glaring at the world next to her.

  “Bud,” the behemoth grunted.

  The bartender nodded, keeping the same lazy pace as he reached under the bar. Out of the corner of her eye, Zoe saw Tyler’s shoulders tense then relax slightly when the bartender came up with a bottle of Jack. She knew he was remembering Michael’s description of the pump shotgun that also lived underneath the scarred wood.

  But her new buddy the bartender didn’t seem inclined to drive them out at gunpoint. That’s a start. He just mixed her drink, popped the top off Tyler’s beer and slid them across the bar until the glass caught on a crack in the wood and stopped itself. Tyler laid a ten next to the trail of condensation. The bartender nodded to Zoe with a “Ma’am”, scooped up the money, and ambled back toward the regulars shooting the shit at the opposite end of the bar.

  “That was anticlimactic,” Zoe commented, sipping her sour. “I expected threats and pitchforks at least.”

  “Maybe they only do lynchings every other day.”

  Zoe frowned, scanning the room and examining every drunken patron in turn. “They aren’t even staring at us. Shouldn’t they be staring at us?”

  “I had no idea you were so vain.”

  Zoe glared at him. Under other circumstances she might have been amused, but right now she was concentrating on holding a grudge.

  “A bunch of people live on a secluded compound outside of town and almost never leave their own land. I know this is Texas where the unofficial motto is mind your own damn business, but you’d think there would at least be a few whispers and stares at the possibly cultish people when we show up on their turf. So why aren’t they staring?”

  “I thought you’d be happy you were right.” Tyler tilted the bottle for a long draught. “There’s no danger here. We were wrong. The ostrich approach was unnecessary. So why aren’t you celebrating?”

  “I wouldn’t jump right to unnecessary. There’s something weird here. It’s too quiet.”

  The Bar Nothing bordered on abandoned. The diehard drunks who filled the stools at the other end of the bar all gave them a wide berth, but Zoe’s instincts told her that distance had more to do with the fact that the two of them radiated lovers’ spat than fear. After a month of rumors flying with no damage control, there should have been more of a reaction. Something was definitely wrong.

  “I’ve never met a woman so reluctant to be right,” Tyler bitched.

  “I’ve never met a man so determined to be wrong all the time. I guess we’re even.”

  Tyler bristled. “You wanna tell me what you’re so pissed about?”

  That was all the invitation Zoe needed. “Do I look like I need a babysitter to you?”

  “You look like you need a fucking keeper, and I don’t see anyone else lining up for the job.”

  “A keeper?” Zoe saw red. “Who do you think I am? All this time I thought we’ve been friends—or whatever you wanna call it—and you don’t know me at all. I’m not a fucking damsel in distress, Tyler. I take care of myself. Always have.”

  “I’m sorry I dared try to protect the invincible Zoe King.”

  “That’s your idea of an apology? God save me from alpha males.”

  “What do you want me to say? Go on, have fun, get yourself killed?”

  “I’d be thrilled if you could say you’ll trust me to look after myself and mean it, but that’s probably too much to ask. You’re the big bad lion, right? And I’m the helpless little kitten who needs to be wrapped in cotton for her own protection.”

  “No one could mistake you for a helpless kitten.”

  “No? So that isn’t what you’re trying to do?”

  “Wanting to keep you out of harm’s way isn’t the same as thinking you can’t handle yourself.”

  “Of course not. So if a bar fight started up and we were swarmed on both sides, you’d let me fend for myself?” She could practically hear crickets in the Bar Nothing today, but Zoe enjoyed the idea of her hypothetical brawl. She could do to blow off some steam. “No,” she said, “we both know you wouldn’t. You’d be so busy trying to defend me, you’d probably get your head split open.”

  “Another reason you shouldn’t be here. You’re a distraction.”

  “I’m only a distraction because you don’t trust me to hold up my end. If you could just accept that I’m tough enough to take care of myself, we could be a great team, but until you do, you’re going to slow me down with this protection nonsense.”

  “I’m going to slow you down?”

  “That’s what I said.” Zoe polished off the last of her drink and shoved the empty glass away before swiveling on her stool to face Tyler. “You don’t think I can keep up, so you slow us both down playing nursemaid to me. I know you’re trying to be all noble, but the interference is a problem. And I don’t need it. You can ask Landon. He never tries to take a bullet for me.”

  “I’m not your brother,” Tyler growled, looming over her.

  “No, you aren’t.” And thank God for that. “So you don’t get to play big brother and boss me around.”

  “Big brother?” He coughed, a jagged leonine sound of irritation. “That’s what you think today was?”

  “I don’t know what today was,” Zoe snapped. “I thought it was chemistry and need and the build up to a good hard fuck, but then some asshole tried to tell me how to live my life. Even if I needed looking after, you don’t have the right to protect me just because you finger fucked me and I sucked you off.”

  Chairs creaked at the end of the bar as the other patrons took a sudden interest in their conversation. Zoe’s face flamed as she leaned toward Tyler, hissing the next words just above a whisper.

  “I. Don’t. Belong. To. You.”

  Something dark and possessive sparked in Tyler’s eyes. He loomed closer, his body crowding hers aggressively. “Yes. You. Do.”

  Zoe wanted to be indignant, but her insides liquefied in a girly rush, heat pooling at her core.

  “Not forever. No commitment. But as long as you are with me, you are mine, Zoe King. And I protect what’s mine.”

  No one had ever said anything like that to her before, especially not with the fire of angry possession leaping in his eyes. Wow. Words abandoned her. Tyler bent over her, pressing his mouth against her ear, and delicious shivers chased one another down her spine.

  “That’s the deal you get when you take me on. So make up your mind. Do you want me or not?”

  That wasn’t much of a question. Right now a hard thought would tip her over into a climax. “I want you,” she whispered.

  “Then let’s get out of here.”

  “Reconnaissance…” Her protest was halfhearted at best.

  “Maybe Caleb and Shana found something.” He guided her off the barstool with a hand on the small of her back. “And we’ve already found out they aren’t going to lynch us on sight. That’s something.”

  Zoe scanned the bar one last time. Now that they weren’t arguing loud enough to draw an audience, the heavy drinkers at the back had stopped paying them any attention. Again, she was struck by the oddness of that. No one was even glancing in their direction. No curiosity. It was almost like the town residents thought they already knew everything there was to know about the Three Rocks Ranch.

  The thought was disconcerting to say the least.

  “Come on.” Tyler slipped his arm around her waist, tucking her against his side. Zoe tried not to bristle when she realized he was shielding her with his body. It wasn’t going to be easy, taking him on his terms, letting him protect her. But his arm felt good, so she leaned into him.

  She could use the comfort. Something was very wrong here.

  Chapter Six

  “They’re onto us.”

  Zoe had only stepped across the threshold of Landon and Ava’s place for the debriefing when Shana’s words stopped her in her tracks. The redhead had been sullenly
silent the entire drive back to the ranch, but now her opening words caused a sudden uproar in the small crowd. Kane and Michael Minor were there with Ava and Landon. Shana had been the first into the room, alongside Caleb. Behind Zoe in the doorway, Tyler nudged her on the back to get her moving again, then stepped across the threshold and shut the door behind him.

  “Calm down.” Landon’s voice cut across the hubbub. He waved them all toward the table, but there weren’t enough chairs, so Zoe leaned against the wall, Tyler taking a position at her side, though he didn’t touch her. “Shana, what did you see?”

  Caleb folded his massive arms on the table. “She didn’t see anything.”

  “Shut up, Caleb. He didn’t ask you.” Shana sent an icy glare at her mate, but considering it was her usual expression, Zoe couldn’t be sure whether she was angry with him or if this was their warped idea of foreplay.

  “Did anyone say anything suspicious to you?” Landon asked, interrupting the mated pair’s staring contest.

  “No,” Shana admitted.

  “Were you followed? Was someone watching you?”

  “No.” The redhead shook her head sharply. “Nothing like that. It wasn’t that they were suspicious of us, it was that there wasn’t even a single odd glance tossed our way. They didn’t even seem curious. After Michael wigs out in the bar and then the entire pride stops leaving the ranch for any reason for a month, any normal person would at least be curious enough to look, but they all looked at me like they already knew my secrets.”

  Zoe hated to agree with Shana on anything, but in this case she had to. “That’s exactly it. They were too comfortable with us. We weren’t even interesting.” Except when she was shouting about blowjobs.

  “That’s what we want, isn’t it?” Tyler pointed out. “To be below the radar?”

  “We aren’t below the radar,” Shana insisted. “We’re on it. They just think they’ve already identified our dot.”

  Landon looked to Zoe and arched a brow. “Zo?”

  “Yeah. I agree. Someone told them something, cleared things up with some story.”

  “But no one’s been off the ranch,” Kane protested.

  “Are we sure about that?” Zoe countered. “I would have been to town and back again without anyone the wiser if the jeep hadn’t broken down.”

  Ava shook her head. “We knew you’d gone,” she said, her soft voice a contrast to the tense tone around the table.

  “And you’re positive no one else has?” Zoe asked, not wanting to voice the other possibility—that someone outside the pride had stepped in to cover their tracks. That an outsider knew enough to know how to cover their tracks.

  Landon was obviously thinking along the same lines. He met her eyes and then his gaze slid away. “Caleb, Tyler. Can you find out if there were any other unauthorized trips?”

  Without a word, Caleb and Tyler moved toward the door, purpose in every step.

  Zoe kept her eyes straight ahead, refusing to watch Tyler leave, but she felt every step he took away from her. The two of them had unfinished business, but the pride came first. If there was one thing she knew about Tyler, it was that family duty trumped everything.

  “Zoe?” Landon said and she refocused on him.

  Reading the question in his eyes, she shook her head. “I don’t think just one of us sneaking into town could explain it, Landon. If someone covered for us, they were thorough. These people, they looked at us like every question they’d ever had about us had already been answered.”

  “But not with the truth?”

  “No pitchforks and lynch mobs, so I’m guessing whoever is covering our tracks can lie like the devil himself.”

  “Why would they do that?” Ava asked.

  Landon looked away from his mate. It was clear he didn’t want to say it, so Zoe did. “They can’t use our secret to control us if everyone knows.”

  The Alpha shook his head sharply, the picture of denial. “We don’t know that—”

  “Is this about that cougar in Colorado?”

  All eyes flew to Shana. Zoe’s mouth went dry to have her fears voiced. “How did you hear about that?”

  “What cougar in Colorado?” Ava reached blindly for Landon’s hand, not even seeming to realize she was doing it. The Alpha’s larger hand engulfed hers completely.

  “It’s an urban legend,” Landon said. “A shifter boogeyman.”

  Shana snorted. “It’s a rural legend, but it’s more than just myth.”

  Zoe took pity on Ava and explained. “Cougars are solitary. They don’t have the protection and resources of a pride or a pack. Without anyone watching your back, it can be a lot harder to stay hidden. There’s a story of a mountain lion living in a small town in Colorado a few years back. The locals started to suspect things and he thought he was going to have to move on, but then suddenly it was like all their suspicions had been wiped away. He decided to stay, but three weeks later he vanished, never to be heard from again.”

  “He could have just gone into the wild.”

  “There was no scent trail.” Shana took up the tale. “He’d been writing letters to his sister, explaining about his fears of discovery and subsequent relief at having been concerned for nothing. He’d invited her to visit and disappeared the night before her arrival. It hadn’t rained. If he’d gone wild, there should have been some scent trail for her to follow after less than twenty-four hours, but there was nothing. He’d just disappeared. Everything in his cabin was as he left it. His car parked in the driveway.”

  “So who’s the boogeyman? Who took him?”

  “They say a group had arrived in town just before the suspicions around him were cleared. And they left within a day of his disappearance. I guess they were there to survey the mountain pass, but their equipment was all wrong. The townspeople just called them the scientists.”

  “So the scientists took the cougar?”

  “His sister thinks so. She’s been trying to find him for years. Trying to rally the other cougars to help her, but that breed is so independent, she hasn’t had much luck.”

  “But even if they did take him, what makes you think this is the same group? We haven’t heard about any surveyors in town, have we?”

  “No. But we haven’t exactly been in town a lot to hear. And someone is covering our tracks. Someone who has a vested interest in making sure no one is looking too hard at this ranch.”

  “We have the pride. They can’t make all of us disappear.”

  Landon held his mate’s hand between his own, but he was the one who gave her the harsh truth. “Until we know who they are and what they want, we don’t know what they can and can’t do.”

  Zoe sighed. “So I guess the ban on going into town holds?”

  “Alone? Hell yes.”

  She cringed, but being trapped at the ranch didn’t sound like the same punishment it had this morning. Tyler had changed that. She didn’t want to think about what else he might have the power to change in her.

  They went over the trip into town in minute detail and discussed possible strategies for learning what the townspeople thought was going on and who might have told them. Around the second hour, Shana declared herself bored with it all and left. Shortly after that, Kane and Ava slipped out, speaking quietly. Leaving Zoe alone with her brother.

  Her brother who looked like he’d been through the wars. He raked a hand through hair streaked with the thousand different blonds and browns of a lion’s mane, worry lines that hadn’t been there a year ago creasing his familiar face.

  “We could go,” Zoe said, the words slipping out of her mouth before she realized she’d thought them. “If we took off tonight—”

  “Zoe.” Landon’s voice was harsh. The disappointment in his expression shamed her.

  It was instinct, the urge to run with Landon when things went bad. For so many years he had been the only one she relied on—and she’d been the same for him.

  Growing up depending on one another for sanity in the
Florida pride, then leaving the pride as teenagers to live as nomads for years—that kind of bond was unshakeable. And it was the only reason Zoe had stuck around Three Rocks as long as she had.

  Landon loved the community he’d found here, but Zoe’d never been the hearth-and-home type. She’d been fantasizing about the freedom of the road since the day they got here. But Landon had needed her, so she’d stayed. Did he really need her now? She wasn’t the only one he relied on anymore. He had a whole pride now. She wasn’t his home anymore. Ava was. Fifty lion-shifters young and old had taken up pieces of his heart that used to belong to only her.

  It was stupid to be jealous of a community, but for all their solitary lifestyle, Zoe had never felt alone until she came here, where she was surrounded by people.

  She turned away from the disapproval on her brother’s face, staring out the window into the black night.

  She heard movement behind her, then Landon spoke from just over her shoulder. “I thought when you left today that this was it. That maybe you…”

  “That I wasn’t coming back?” She’d thought of it. Too many times to count.

  “You could have talked to me before stealing a jeep and breaking the rules.”

  Zoe shrugged. “Easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission.”

  They’d modified that saying growing up. Zoe knew he would be remembering the same words she was. Better to take your licks afterwards than get smacked for even thinking of it. At least then you get to enjoy what you’re being punished for.

  Life hadn’t been fair then. Landon had reacted by becoming fixated on justice. Mr. Nobility and Equality. Zoe’s response had been more self-serving. You took care of yourself because you couldn’t count on anyone else. Except Landon. She’d always been able to count on him. Before they came here. Three Rocks had changed everything.

  “You could be happy here,” Landon said softly. “If you let yourself be. This is a good place. It’s different.”