Read White Tiger (A Shifter's Unbound Novel) Online

Authors: Jennifer Ashley

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White Tiger (A Shifter's Unbound Novel) (5 page)

BOOK: White Tiger (A Shifter's Unbound Novel)
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Tonight, he’d found her in his arms, her mouth crushing his in that burning kiss . . .

“Dad,” Robbie called in agitation. “Look!” He was standing up, staring at the television, his small fists balled. The younger boys, who’d been dozing at the end of one bed, sat up to see what had caught Robbie’s attention.

Kendrick fixed his gaze on the screen, the picture playing with no sound. He saw Addison being led up the steps into a building in the middle of a dark town, two men in law enforcement uniforms on either side of her. Words and numbers poured across the bottom of the screen, stock quotes, game scores, and the highlights of the story unfolding.

Shootout in Loneview. Suspected accomplice taken in for questioning.

“Turn that up,” Kendrick said.

Robbie, who’d figured out how to work every remote in the room five minutes after they’d checked in, clicked a button.

“. . . The county sheriff’s department suspects this woman of having a hand in the shooting, though it’s unclear whether she let in the shooters or covered their escape, or whether she was coerced or working with them. Police haven’t discovered the motive for the shooting—a robbery gone wrong, or an act of terrorism.”

Addie glanced once over her shoulder, her face fixed with fear she was trying not to show.

“Son of a fucking . . .” Kendrick’s words faded into snarls. “Robbie.”

Robbie gave him a solemn nod. “I’ll take care of them, Dad. Are you going to go save Addie?”

Kendrick didn’t know if he could. She was in custody of the human police, and Kendrick was an un-Collared Shifter who was breaking the law simply by existing. What the hell he could do, he didn’t know.

He’d think of something. He’d spent his whole life making things up as he went along—why stop now?

“Be ready,” he said to Robbie.

The lad knew what he meant. Robbie had learned how to lie low and then move at the drop of a hat—he’d have their collective belongings together and the littler boys prepared to go.

Robbie nodded. “Goddess go with you,” he said.

Zane and Brett sat quietly, their large eyes on Kendrick. He went to them, bending down to give them tight hugs, kissing the tops of their heads, before he made himself turn and leave them.

He heard, before he mounted his motorcycle he’d parked next to the door, Robbie clicking all the locks home and dragging a piece of furniture in front of the door.

Kendrick slung his sword on his back, started the Harley, and rode away north.

*   *   *

A
ddie sat with her hands folded in front of her in the interrogation room. Alvarez still hadn’t handcuffed her, but he’d made it clear she’d be restrained if she tried to leave before they were finished.

Alvarez faced her, his partner, whose name was Hickson, beside him. Hickson started a recorder.

“For the record, Ms. Price,” he said. “Let’s go over events one more time. I want to emphasize that you’re simply here so I can ask questions. You haven’t been charged. Now . . . who was in the restaurant?”

Addie swallowed. “No one. The last customers had gone.” She cleared her throat, trying to sound helpful, not worried. “I was locking up, and Jimmy stepped outside for a smoke.” She didn’t like to think about Jimmy, falling in the door, surprised and dead. He hadn’t deserved that. “The shooting started and I hid until they were gone.”

“Hmm.” Alvarez shifted in his seat as though growing comfortable for a long chat. “When we went over the diner, there were four place settings and four glasses at the counter. One set of dishes at a booth. Who were those for?”

Addie wet her lips. “Oh—just regulars. They’d gone. I was locking up, like I said. I hadn’t had time to clear the tables.”

She thought hard about when the guy in the John Deere cap had left—she was positive it had been before Kendrick had arrived. Kendrick had been late. But if John Deere Cap had seen Kendrick on his way . . .

“No one was there,” she repeated.

Alvarez didn’t believe her. Addie read that in his eyes. Hickson didn’t either, but he was remaining deferentially silent, letting Alvarez lead.

Alvarez leaned forward and asked, “What about the pie?”

CHAPTER FIVE

A
ddie started. “Pie?”

“There were four plates behind the pass, pie boxes open, and a spatula thing for scooping pieces out.”

Addie had forgotten about that. She’d set up plates in the back just before the shooting started. “Oh. That. I was going to serve some customers out front, but they left before I could bring the order.”

“Yeah?” Alvarez looked interested. “Why do you think they did that?”

Addie wet her lips. “How should I know? Maybe they were tired and didn’t want to wait. Maybe they had to go to the bathroom. They didn’t say.”

“Did they pay you?”

“For what?” Addie asked, bewildered. “The pie?”

“For the drinks you’d already served. And for the pie, since they’d obviously ordered it.”

“I don’t remember.” Addie pressed her hands to her face. “I really don’t remember.”

“And what did you do to get that very large tip? You were carrying around five thousand dollars. You know that, right?”

Addie jumped again. Yes, she’d guessed at the amount Kendrick had simply handed her. Which the police now had as well as her purse.

“Who were these last customers?” Alvarez prodded. “What did they look like? You said they were regulars. Do you know any of their names?”

“I . . .” Addie couldn’t think. Which was exactly what Alvarez intended. He’d ask her the same questions over and over until she couldn’t remember what she’d told him and blurt out the truth when she couldn’t hold it in any longer.

Addie tried a faint laugh. “If you think the farmer who comes in every night had anything to do with the shooting, you’re wrong. I don’t know his name, but he’s a nice guy. He doesn’t get along with his wife, so he eats in the diner a lot. Mostly for the company. Couldn’t be the food.”

Alvarez listened with seeming patience. “He might have had nothing to do with the shooting, but he might have seen something. Maybe he saw these other customers when they suddenly decided to leave. Tell me about them.”

“About who?”

“The four customers at the counter.” Alvarez spoke slowly, as though Addie had trouble understanding English. “Did you know their names?”

Kendrick, Robbie, Brett, Zane.
Good thing telepathy wasn’t real or Addie would have just given them up.
I hope they’re all right.

“Or at least what they looked like,” Alvarez prompted. Hickson simply sat and listened, and the recorder made a faint, electronic hum.

Someone knocked on the door of the stuffy room. Hickson calmly rose and answered it.

Kendrick walked in. His hair was slicked down on his head, the strands arranged so the white wasn’t as obvious through the black. He carried a leather folder in one hand, and he was wearing a suit. Coat, slacks, ivory-colored shirt, tie and all.

Where the hell did he get a suit?
was Addie’s first dazed thought.
And doesn’t he look good in it?

No, he looked
damn
good in it. The coat hugged broad
shoulders, the collar and tie framed his square face, the slacks skimmed athletic legs. He looked like a corporate pinup guy, like the billionaires on the covers of romances her sister devoured.

Addie imagined him coming home after a hard day’s work, loosening his tie, slinging down his coat, unbuttoning his shirt, giving her a promising look from his green eyes . . .

She nearly swallowed her tongue. Once she regained control of it, she realized he was speaking.

“I’m Ms. Price’s attorney.” Kendrick produced a business card from his pocket and set it on the table in front of Alvarez. “I’m advising her to answer no more questions and requesting that you release her if you have not brought formal charges. She is an unfortunate victim here, not a perpetrator.”

Well, that at least was true. Addie pressed her mouth closed and tried to look like an unfortunate victim.

Alvarez studied Addie for a time. He didn’t want to let her go, she saw. He wanted to charge her for maybe being an accessory to the shootout, maybe for robbery. But Bo could not have reported five thousand dollars missing, because he never kept that kind of money in the diner. Five hundred possibly, but never five grand.

Alvarez had no evidence. Hickson had searched Addie’s car, finding nothing but her change of clothes and her purse. No weapons, ammunition, a phone with calls to a boyfriend to come and open fire on the diner. Addie’s call log showed her sister, a few girlfriends, and that was it. Addie, since her bad breakup a while back, didn’t have much of a social life.

Alvarez scowled at Kendrick, then he hid his disappointment and nodded at Hickson. “Stay close to home, Ms. Price, in case I need to speak to you again.”

Kendrick closed his hands around his folder and waited. Addie, after a heartbeat or two, sprang to her feet. “Right. Thank you.” She nodded at Alvarez and Hickson with as much dignity as she could and followed Kendrick out.

Addie managed to keep her mouth shut all the way down the white-tiled halls of the courthouse and sheriff’s department. At the door, her purse and clothes were returned, but
not, she noticed, the money. She could protest about that, but then they might come up with a charge to keep her there.

She took up her stuff and jogged along beside Kendrick, out into the cool darkness of the Texas night.

The courthouse in Loneview, the county seat, was typical old-style, sitting in a square, surrounded by quiet streets of an aging Texas town. Kendrick headed around the corner in a long stride, and Addie trotted to keep up with him, her purse flopping against her hip.

Kendrick reached a motorcycle parked around the corner of the next block, hidden behind a convenience store. He dropped the leather folder into one of the saddlebags and loosened and pulled off his tie.

“Can you ride?” he asked her.

Addie dragged her gaze from the open buttons at his throat and fixed it on the large Harley. “A motorcycle? I don’t know. I never have.”

“Time to learn.” Kendrick mounted the bike and handed her a helmet. He pried the purse from Addie’s shoulder as she stood there, tucked it into the saddlebag, and patted the seat behind him.

Addie settled the helmet with shaking fingers and tried to swing her leg over the bike’s seat. She kicked the seat with her clunky shoe, her toe bouncing off, and ended up hopping on her other foot, trying to regain her balance.

Kendrick, for the first time since she’d met him, twitched his lips into the ghost of a smile. He grabbed her leg, pushed it over the bike, and helped get her butt on the seat. Addie settled herself, the imprint of his hand warm on her skin.

“Where are the boys?” she said to him as he started the bike. “Are they all right?”

“Yes.” Kendrick’s body moved as he balanced the throbbing motorcycle. “Put your feet on the footholds and hang on to me.”

Addie’s feet slipped off twice before she figured out how to plant them onto the metal bars. She grabbed Kendrick around the waist as he lifted his feet and guided them out of the small parking lot, holding on tighter as he glided around a corner.

Kendrick headed away from the courthouse, using streets that would take them out of town the fastest. Addie expected him to turn around and head for the 10, but Kendrick took the road south, out to open country.

Wind, speed, and the roar of the motor prevented Addie from asking him questions, like
Why did you come back for me?

There wasn’t much traffic out here, and Kendrick sped up, leaning into the wind. This part of Texas was flat, dry, spreading out under endless sky. Stars unfurled in a multitude above them, glittering against the black of nothingness.

Addie wrapped her arms more firmly around Kendrick, the power of him vibrating against her. She moved with him, the two of them one as cool air flowed around them and the land rolled on forever.

I love this
, Addie realized.
No wonder bikers are so obsessed with the road.

The freedom of riding, being part of the land instead of shut away from it, was exhilarating. Riding at this speed, holding on to a hard-bodied man who’d just rescued her, the wide world spinning under her, made Addie laugh out loud. The danger of it simply made it more exciting.

They rode ever southward, until Addie started to wonder if they were heading into Mexico. Alvarez had asked her not to go far—Mexico could be considered far.

But for the moment, Addie didn’t care. She was now without a job, and she had no ties except to her sister, no obligations. No money either, but that didn’t seem to matter right now.

She was almost disappointed when Kendrick slowed in another small town and made for a motel a little way from the highway.

Seeing Robbie and the little guys inside the room after Robbie unlocked the door and peered out cautiously, made up for the disappointment, however. Brett and Zane cried out in delight and rushed Addie, throwing their arms around her legs. Robbie gave her a calmer but no less exuberant hug.

“Addie!” Brett yelled. “Did you bring pie?”

“No, sweetie, sorry,” Addie said.

Kendrick closed the door and locked it, then dropped the folder onto the bed and sent the suit coat and tie after it.

Addie disentangled herself from the cubs, watching as Kendrick unbuttoned the shirt’s collar, just as she’d imagined him doing. His eyes took her in, his hair mussed from the ride. His hand went to another of the shirt buttons, and another.

Just when Addie thought, breathlessly, that he’d pull open the shirt and let her gaze at his firm, well-muscled chest she’d seen in naked glory at the diner, he turned from her and headed for the bathroom.

To hide her regret, she picked up the leather-bound folder he’d dropped, and opened it. Inside she found a yellow legal pad, brand new and unused, and the pockets of the folder empty. The folder too was new, probably purchased at an office supply store on Kendrick’s way to Loneview.

Glancing at the closed bathroom door, Addie dipped her hand into his coat pocket. She found three cards, also new, possibly printed off at the same office store.
Miles Standing, Attorney at Law, Standing, Standing, and Davis
.

She was staring at the card, mystified, when Kendrick came out. He’d changed back to jeans and a black T-shirt, looking like he always did when he came into the diner. Addie wasn’t sure which she preferred—bad-boy biker or well-dressed attorney.

Addie held up the card. “Who is—?”

“No one,” Kendrick said. “It’s a name I use sometimes when I have to deal with humans.”

His clear eyes scrutinized her, taking in her waitress dress, which was limp and tired now, the ugly shoes she wore to keep her feet from getting too sore. She flushed, knowing she looked like crap but not sure what to do about it.

Addie studied Kendrick in return. The white streaks in his hair were more prominent now that it was messy from the wind. The T-shirt hugged every muscle, which he hadn’t hidden at all when he’d fought at the diner. His neck remained bare, no Collar in sight.

“All right, next question,” Addie said, her tongue finally loosening. “Why did you come rescue me?”

Kendrick’s stare didn’t waver. “Because you were innocent. And because you didn’t betray me.”

“Yes, I am, and no, I didn’t. Wait—how do you know I didn’t tell anyone about you? Can you read minds?
That
would be embarrassing.”

“I’m Shifter.”

Addie waited but Kendrick seemed to think the two words were an explanation.

“What does that have to do with anything?” she finally asked.

Kendrick’s voice was a low and pleasing rumble. “If you’d told them I was Shifter, Shifter Bureau and every law enforcement agency from Austin to the border would be hunting me right now. There’d be news reports telling people to call in any sight of me or any unusual Shifter activity at all.
That’s
how I know.”

His gaze was unnerving but Addie continued to meet it. “Well,
you
didn’t do the shooting. You were shot
at
. You killed that guy in self-defense. But there’s no body, no evidence that you hurt anyone or he hurt you. I don’t think anyone would have believed me when I said you stuck a sword into a man and he disintegrated.” She ran out of breath, rubbing her hands over her arms. “They took your money—the deputies did. I’m so sorry.”

Kendrick shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”

Addie’s eyes widened. “Seriously? Five thousand dollars is gone like a puff of dust and it doesn’t matter?”

“Getting you away from them matters.” Warmth entered Kendrick’s gaze. “You’re a very strong woman to resist speaking of me and my cubs under interrogation. Most humans would have given me up.”

Addie went on rubbing her arms. “I didn’t feel strong. I just didn’t want the kids pulled in by the cops or you arrested. I bet if you were imprisoned, the kids wouldn’t go into foster care, unless there’s some Shifter equivalent—not that I’d want them in foster care at all. I didn’t want to see Robbie and Zane and Brett hurt, so I kept quiet.”

Kendrick gave her a nod that was almost a bow. “And for that, I thank you.”

Addie looked him over again. “Are you always so formal?”

Kendrick gave her another nod, a sparkle lighting his eyes. “Yes.”

BOOK: White Tiger (A Shifter's Unbound Novel)
13.26Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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