Light blinded Tammy when the trunk was jerked open. Tammy looked up but she didn’t see a New Species face. Charlie A rtzola glared at her instead before he turned his head to look at someone else.

“I told you they’d just wave me through. They trust me.” The jerk snickered. “Here’s the bitch I told you about. They wanted a marriage license. She wanted to marry one of those animals. She’s living with and screwing him. He looks worse than the rest of them do.

screwing him. He looks worse than the rest of them do.

He doesn’t even appear kind of human. He is a tiger or something. He is about as freakish as I’ve ever seen.”

Tammy screamed inside her head. NO! The officers at the gate couldn’t have just waved him past. A nother man walked closer until Tammy stared at the face of a man in his sixties. He wore glasses and was bald. He looked as if he could be someone’s nice grandfather.

That was until he turned a pair of ice-cold green eyes on her that froze her. He frowned.

“So,” the older man said softly. “We finally have a test subject. She survived breeding with one of them.

Something about her attracted one and, if my theory holds, that chemistry should attract 927 to her as well.

You said the one she was breeding with was a tiger?

Well, let’s see how she fairs with a dog.” He laughed. “I hope he likes her as much as the tiger did.”

Two scary thugs in their twenties suddenly stood over Tammy. They reached for her and lifted her out.

One of them gripped her legs and the other one grabbed her under her armpits. They hauled her out of the car.

She saw a flash of trees while they carried her between them as though she were a large bag.

She glimpsed a house—a white one badly in need of paint. It was a single story and she didn’t recognize it.

That meant she wasn’t close to town. A s they entered the structure she stared up at a cracked, plaster ceiling. They dumped her on a soft mattress.

The twin bed had been set up inside a living room.

One of them grinned at her and pulled out something from his back pocket. He yanked her hands up and handcuffed her to something above her head. She couldn’t turn her head to see what he’d locked her to but then her legs were jerked down flat and straight. Metal enclosed each ankle. The scary one by her head leaned over to stare into her eyes.

“Wait until you meet 927. He’s going to love you.” He laughed, his gaze lifting to the other man. “For about ten seconds until he snaps her neck and kills her.”

Tammy heard the other man laugh.

The jerk still leaning over Tammy looked down. “I almost feel sorry for you. 927 is the meanest beast ever made but since you like to do their kind, I guess you might enjoy the rough treatment you are going to get when he mounts you. If he’ll mount you. The Doc thinks he might since one of his kind liked you.”

“Get away from her,” the older man demanded loudly. Tammy recognized his voice. “We don’t want your smell on her because he’ll just kill her outright since he hates the two of you so much. We need her to smell like the tiger.”

Valiant. She silently screamed his name. Would he be able to find her again? Save her? Would he even know by now that she’d been taken? That someone had kidnapped her?

Tears streamed down her face. She screamed again in her head. Valiant!

* * * * *

“This doesn’t make sense.” Tiger frowned at Valiant.

“Why would they take those two women, walk them a few miles from their home and just leave them tied up alone? It was too easy to find them.”

Valiant shrugged. “I do not know but they are fine.

That is what matters, right?”

Tiger nodded. He glanced at the three other men that he’d brought along on his team. They watched him back.

Tiger sighed. “Something just isn’t right. I can’t put my finger on what it is but this just makes no sense. What was the point of taking two women to just tie them up and abandon them?”

One of the men shrugged. “They are human. They sometimes don’t make sense.”

Sheriff Cooper approached Tiger and his group with a wide grin on his lined face. “Thank you so much.

A gain, we owe you. The women are fine. They were scared but they only have a few bruises. They wanted to give you their thanks. They said the men didn’t talk to them at all. The only thing they heard was one of the men asking if they thought they had moved them far enough for them to be hard to track. It doesn’t make sense to me but that’s all they heard. The women said the men carried them through the woods, took turns tossing them over their shoulders to get them this far, and just dumped them at the base of that tree. They tied them up good and just took off.”

“Perhaps they were planning to come back later.” It was one of the deputies who worked with the sheriff who had joined them. “Maybe they wanted more women and are searching for other victims. We should keep a few deputies out here just in case they return.”

Tiger’s

cell

phone

rang.

“Excuse

me.

It’s

Reservation.” He turned and stepped away to answer it.

He listened and spun around. Tiger locked his grim gaze on Valiant and he hesitated.

“I think I know why the women were taken.” Tiger kept his focus trained on Valiant but then he glanced at the Sheriff.

“You specifically asked me to bring Valiant. Why?”

The sheriff frowned. “Well, he’s your best tracker.

That’s why I asked for him.”

“Who told you that?” Tiger clenched his teeth.

“It was one of the news reporters who’ve been hanging around town since Tammy was taken. They practically camp outside our station. He said he covers stories all the time for you folks and that Valiant was the best tracker you had. He said if more women were ever kidnapped to be sure to ask for him because he’d be the best chance at finding them fast.”

“What is going on?” Valiant frowned. “How would any reporter know my name? It was never released, was it?” He glanced at Tiger for an answer.

“No, it wasn’t.” Tiger appeared killing mad. He glared at the Sheriff. “Do you remember the reporter’s name?”

The sheriff hesitated. “No, but I know his face. Why?”

Tiger growled. He turned his head to Valiant.

“Tammy has been taken from Reservation by force. She’s gone, Valiant. Flame was asked by our attorney to escort her to his office. When they didn’t return to the hotel within twenty minutes and Flame didn’t respond to the radio, a team immediately went in search of them.”

Shock jolted through Valiant. “No.”

“They found Flame on the floor unconscious inside the attorney’s office. He’s been drugged with an unknown substance. The attorney and Tammy are missing. Her purse was found but she was not. Our people picked up only the attorney’s scent and Tammy’s. That led them to the parking lot, which makes it apparent he took her. We are sure she didn’t go willingly because her scent of fear lingered. He drove right out the gate. We trusted him.

We check incoming cars but not outgoing ones when they are driven by trusted employees. He took her, Valiant. The kidnapping of these two human women was obviously a ploy to lead you away from Tammy.” Tiger growled and glared at the Sheriff. “The man who spoke of Valiant used you to lure him away.”

Valiant threw back his head and roared in rage.

“We’ll find her,” Tiger swore. “Everyone is on this.”

Chapter Twelve

Tammy had fallen asleep at some point but awoke when the thugs released her from the bed. They’d dragged her on barely working legs, her entire body sluggish, to push her into a bathroom. To her humiliation, they’d refused to give her any privacy, leering as she used the facilities. She’d had no choice.