I thought back to those hellish last moments before they left. Before that brute took my man.
“He said he was going to set up some magical ritual. He thinks it’ll give him the strength of all the tiger hearts he stole. While… while he kills Sebastian.”
Isabel shook her head.
“He’s nuts. There’s no magic that can do that.”
“That’s what Sebastian said. But Lavery said he was going to use dark magic.”
Isabel frowned. “But even then, you can’t just say a few words and get instant superpowers. He’d have to summon some pretty unpleasant entities to help him achieve anything like that kind of payoff. I’m talking seriously bad stuff. Is that really what he wants?”
“Isabel, he meant it. You didn’t see him. He’s a total crazy.”
Isabel picked up the phone from the nightstand. She punched in a number and waited a few moments.
“Rufus isn’t answering.”
“Maybe he’s in the shower?”
“Yeah, maybe.” She threw the phone onto the bed. “So here’s what we’ll do.”
As she talked, she draped the embroidered bedcover around my shoulders like a rescue blanket. It made me think of all the lives she’d saved in her work as a doctor in war zones. All in a day’s work, for her. I was lucky she’d been here to save me too.
“So what do we do? My head is spinning.”
“I’m not surprised. You must be in shock. Okay, so I’m going to try to contact as many members of my family as I can. Whoever can get here fast enough will help us Grand Trine this problem away.”
She was doing her best to stay optimistic. But I couldn’t even pretend to be so hopeful. Could anyone really get here in time, before Lavery murdered Sebastian? I doubted it.
My nerves felt knotted together with worry. If that bastard had hurt Sebastian already… The thought of what he intended to do to him made me sob again.
Isabel clutched my hand hard. “Stay strong, Finola. Seb needs you to be strong. We’re going to get through this somehow.”
I squeezed her hand and peered at her through tear-clumped lashes. “What if we’re too late?”
She paused for a minute. Then she looked curiously at me.
“Does it feel too late?”
“What… what do you mean?”
“Well, we already know you have intuitive ability, right? So do you feel in your bones that Sebastian is alive?”
I frowned, baffled by the suggestion.
Then I concentrated hard to see how I did feel. Shutting my eyes, I let my mind go as blank as possible.
A wash of hope seeped in. It was like a light shone on me from far away.
“Y’know… I think he’s all right,” I said. “I think he’s unharmed, right at this moment.”
“That’s what we want to hear,” Isabel said, clapping me on the back. “Perfect. I’m going to order breakfast for you and then I’ll call my family.” I shook my head, but she bulldozed me. “Don’t argue. You need to eat, after all you’ve been through. The quickest remedy for shock is carbohydrate and a little rest. I propose to give you both.”
I nodded. There was no point arguing.
“We’re going to throw everything we’ve got at this, Finola. Please try not to worry. I know it’s hard, but the best thing we can do for Sebastian is stay focused and keep our emotions in check. Agreed?
“Agreed.”
I wasn’t hungry, but she was right. It’d be better not to face this nightmare on an empty stomach, plus I’d been through a lot. And Isabel did have a lot of knowledge in this area. It was probably best to go along with her plans.
Isabel set about busying herself with phone calls. I drifted into the bathroom, flinching when I remembered how Piers Lavery had ambushed me in there just a few hours ago. It took courage to stay in the room and step into the shower.
The tiered jets of the shower were hot and fierce. I switched it up to max and let the water rain down over my face and body, just standing there under the mighty torrent. It washed away the sickening feeling of the gun at my head. With weak fingers, I scratched off the sticky traces of tape at my ankles and wrists.
As I scrubbed my skin, a wave of nausea hit me.
I clung to the frosted glass shower screen, retching. It was a good few minutes before I could stand up without feeling like I was going to hurl.
Then my stomach began to cramp. I wrapped my arms around my middle, shutting my eyes.
The shock of last night must have really upset my system. It wasn’t surprising. But I needed to feel better as fast as possible. It would be hard work helping to find Sebastian if I felt this awful.
I resolved to make a huge effort to eat the breakfast Isabel had ordered. Even if I didn’t want a single mouthful.
All I wanted was to wake up in Sebastian’s arms, realizing this had all been a dream.
But it wasn’t a dream. It was real. And all I could do now was face it, head on.
I hadn’t brought any clean clothes into the bathroom. Wrapping a towel round myself, I tiptoed back out to grab something I could throw on. Isabel was talking on the phone, sounding irritated.
“Well, when are they due back? Okay. Look, I’m not interested in any gossip, Henry. I just need to know when they’re coming home. No? Well, fine. Thanks anyway.”
She flung the phone onto the bed again and sighed loudly in annoyance.
“What the hell is wrong with our families? I can’t get a single one of them over here fast enough. Not even when I explain what the problem is. The ones who would take responsibility and jump to it are too far away. They’re up mountains. Or on foreign beaches. Or sick. Or in goddamn outer space, by the sound of it. Nobody seems to have the ability to get on a fucking plane and fly to Ireland right now to save a man’s life.”
She started to cry, for the first time since this happened. Her veneer of total control fell away.
“I’m so sorry, Finola” she said. “I didn’t mean to get upset. You’re having a much tougher time than me. We can do this. Somehow. God knows how. But we can do this. I know it.”
I hugged her, just as she had soothed me a little while earlier.
“Isabel, you were right earlier when you said…”
I broke off, clutching my belly. A stab of pain doubled me over.
“Jeez, Finola, are you okay?”
Even whimpering a reply seemed to use too much energy. Nausea and dizziness overwhelmed me.
I was faint and weak. My stomach felt unimaginably sore, like I’d just been kicked by a horse.
Isabel felt my forehead and my pulse. “Let’s get you back on the bed, okay?”
Still clutching my belly, I let her roll me on top of the dove-grey silk eiderdown. Everything looked too bright and pale, like an over-exposed photograph.
“What’s wrong with me?” I whimpered. “Is it another migraine?”
“I don’t know. Does your head hurt?”
“Uh, no. Not right now.”
Isabel peered into my eyes. “Let me grab my medical bag. One second.”
She sprinted out of the room and back in about thirty seconds flat. Shining a tiny flashlight in my eyes, she instructed me to watch the movement of her finger as she wagged it around in front of me. Then she listened to my breathing with her stethoscope, and measured my blood pressure.
“May I touch your abdomen? Where’s the pain exactly?”
I pointed. “It’s sort of like a period pain, only not such a dull ache as that. You know? This was a stabbing pain. Really fierce. Like I swallowed a shard of broken glass and it’s working its way out.”
She pressed gently with her hands all round my stomach, from ribs to panty line. The pain didn’t change when Isabel’s hand pressure glided over it. It cramped just the same.
“Okay, I’ve reached the limit of my human diagnostic ability for the time being. Do you mind if I shift for the next step?”
“Excuse me?” Had I heard her right? Did she say shift?
>
“I can detect very subtle changes in scent in tiger form. Plus I’ll be able to hear if there’s any obstruction in your intestines. If you’re sick in a more subtle way, there’s a chance I’ll pick it up much more quickly as a tiger. It’ll help to narrow down an approximate diagnosis. Then I can order specific tests at the nearest hospital and save time.”
I wasn’t sure what she was talking about, but I nodded my consent. Life was already so wacko. The fact that a tiger was going to examine me medically didn’t even seem that strange any more.
Isabel stripped off her clothes behind the sofa. She didn’t seem at all self-conscious, but I turned my head away. It felt rude not to.
Within a few seconds, I heard the now-familiar growl of a white tiger approaching me. Her growl wasn’t deep like Sebastian’s, but it was just as intimidating.
I held still while the mighty beast sniffed all over me from toes to ears.
As it reached my neck, it leaned in closer. I automatically cringed away from it, then reminded myself not to be so silly. It was only Isabel. I held as still as I could, trembling a little.
The pain in my belly had subsided to familiar cramps. Maybe it really was just my time of the month. I couldn’t even remember where I was in my cycle, with all the upheaval lately.
Had Sebastian’s staff packed tampons when they threw together our suitcases? It had never even occurred to me to check. But I was sure Isabel would have something I could use in an emergency. Hell, room service probably brought stuff like that up, if I was bold enough to request it.
Tiger Isabel finished sniffing me and padded off behind the sofa again. There, she transformed back into a nude woman, before my very eyes. I looked away again, so she could dress in some privacy.
When she made her way back to me, fully dressed, she was smiling.
“Well, I don’t think you’re sick,” she said. “There’s no sign of anything too serious.”
“Oh good,” I said, relieved. “I’m just stressed, aren’t I? That’s all it is, right?”
“Not quite.”
I sat up. “What do you mean ‘not quite’?”
She ignored the question. “So what are your other symptoms? You said you didn’t have a headache. Are you feeling sick?”
“Yeah. I nearly threw up in the shower. I feel dizzy and faint too.”
“Yeah? I’m not surprised.” She smiled again and grabbed my hand. “Finola, would you like to know what’s up with you?”
“I sure would.”
Isabel’s grin almost filled her whole face. “Are you ready for this?”
“Just say it.”
She paused for effect, but she couldn’t keep it to herself a moment longer.
“Finola… Congratulations. You’re pregnant.”
32
The room turned too bright again. My head swam. I lay back against the pillows, unable to speak.
She went on. “You’re only just pregnant, incidentally. The pain you felt just now was what’s known as implantation. The blastocyst must have just attached to the wall of your uterus. It’s only as big as the head of a pin today.”
“The blasto-what?” I could hardly lift my jaw up off the floor. “Pregnant? You’re sure?”
“Positive. In tiger form, I can smell the change in your skin from the altered hormones. Like I say, the baby only just implanted. A pregnancy test won’t work for a few days. Not until your pregnancy hormones reach a certain level. So no point taking a test until next week. But I’m 100% sure. You’re pregnant, for definite.”
I stared at her, dumbfounded.
She hugged me and planted a big kiss on my cheek.
“Finola, congratulations! It’s such wonderful news. You’re having a baby!”
“I… It’s…”
This latest development shocked me. It blew a hurricane through my world and left everything smashed to pieces.
And yet…
At the same time it just somehow felt… right.
I was pregnant with Sebastian’s baby. I was going to be a mother!
The elation quickly turned back to anxiety.
“Great timing huh? When his or her father is staring death in the face.” I burst into tears.
Isabel’s eyes sparkled with emotion as she squeezed both my hands. “We’re going to find him. We’re going to bring him home. And then you can celebrate together. Right?”
I swiped my tears away and forced a smile. “Right.”
There was a knock at the door. Isabel opened it to a smiling woman in hotel uniform, wheeling in a silver-colored trolley full of breakfast foods.
“Eat,” ordered Isabel. “You’re eating for two, remember. And one of you is half-tiger. Believe me when I tell you cubs can eat. I don’t want to see any of those waffles left, you hear?”
I set to work with the syrup, suddenly ravenous.
A half-human baby, half-tiger shifter cub inside me? What an insane, ridiculous, wonderful idea.
As I munched, Isabel turned back to her phone calls. Her voice grew louder and more curt several times. The calls always ended the same way. Then she’d dial the next one. Then the same thing happened.
White tiger shifters seemed to be the most elusive people on earth today. It wasn’t looking good.
Was nobody going to help us get Sebastian out of there? Was there any hope at all of him escaping on his own? I seriously doubted it. Especially not if he was drugged and bound, like he had been when Lavery took him away.
Just then, the door flew open.
It was Rufus. He stumbled in looking awful, with creased clothes and dark circles under both eyes. I’d never seen him so unkempt.
“Wow, Rufus. That’s some hangover you’ve got there.”
He winced. “Finola. Good morning. Is Sebastian here?”
I bit my lip. Of course. He’d been totally out of it when it all happened. He didn’t know.
Isabel came over to the door and closed it behind Rufus. Then she edged forward and sniffed him. He didn’t seem to mind at all.
“Rufus, you positively reek of benzodiazepines. I presume you didn’t take them recreationally?”
“Of course not. You’re saying-“
“I think your drinks were spiked,” Isabel nodded. “You’ve been dosed with tranquilizers, possibly Valium or Rohypnol. Quite a hefty dose, I’d say, from your odor. I can even smell it in human form. Can’t imagine why I didn’t smell it last night. Perhaps the metabolic byproducts hadn’t reached your skin yet.”
I gasped, trying to decode all the medical jargon. “Wait. Rufus was drugged?”
Rufus groaned and rubbed his face. “So I feel like I’ve been thrown down two flights of stairs and I stink. Anything else?”
Isabel handed him a cup of coffee. He took it with a rueful nod of thanks.
“I guess you could use some breakfast?” She grinned.
He sipped the steaming coffee. “That would explain my high level of inebriation. I never drink heavily. I had precisely two bottles of beer. Continental beer too. The weakest kind. It would have been impossible to get so drunk on that.”
“Wow. Piers Lavery’s team really went to town on us all last night.” I forced some more food into my mouth, to quell the sick feeling.
Rufus snorted. “I’d love to know when the hell it happened. I kept my eye on everyone’s drinks at all time. Part of my training. The swine would have had to have been Houdini.”
“It’s incredible what a nasty mind can achieve when it tries hard,” Isabel said, patting his shoulder. “Maybe a member of the bar staff was being bribed to help out. Or blackmailed. You never know. People agree to crazy things when their back’s against the wall.”
“So, where is he, then?” Rufus looked all around the room, as though expecting Sebastian’s large frame to come springing out from behind the drapes.
Isabel looked at me. I looked at her.
He didn’t know what had happened with Sebastian. And one of us had to tell him.
I nodded to Isabel. It would be me.
“He’s got him,” I blurted. “Lavery’s got Sebastian. He’s not dead. He came and he threatened me with a gun. And he said he wanted to take Sebastian away, or he’d kill me. Sebastian went with him to save me. Lavery said he wants to cut out Sebastian’s heart and do a dark magic ritual. He thinks it’ll download the strength of all the tigers he killed, or something.” I took a breath, finally.
Isabel nodded, sitting down next to me.
“Oh, my dear,” Rufus said, sitting heavily on the end of the bed. His face took on a hint of menace. “Lavery’s alive?”
It took Rufus few moments to absorb the news and what this meant. He looked down at his own clothes, in disarray.
“And he got what he wanted at last. This is… This is just intolerable.”
“It sure is,” said Isabel. She bustled around, filling two glasses with orange juice. “Rufus, you need to eat too. I can give you something to speed up your metabolism of the tranquilizers. But eating and drinking plenty will help. If we’re going to find Sebastian, we all need to be fighting fit. That goes for both of you.” She nodded at me as I finished the last corner of waffle. “Have some more, Finola. Strawberries. Juice. Whatever you can bear to eat. Get your strength back. Both of you.”
Rufus looked awful. Another wave of nausea hit me and I ran to the bathroom to throw up.
When I emerged, Rufus smiled at me, holding out his arms. “Congratulations!” he cried.
Isabel had obviously told him about the baby while I was gone.
“Thanks. It doesn’t feel like a day for congratulations, though,” I said, returning his hug. “Not without Sebastian.”
“Of course not,” Rufus said. “What an infernal time you’re having of it. Stay positive, my dear. We’ll do whatever it takes to get him back.”
I nodded and downed the orange juice in one sip. May as well do as Isabel said, I told myself. There was no way of knowing when my next bout of nausea might strike. It flashed on and off like a neon motel sign.
Tiger Billionaire: The Whole Story (BBW Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Box Set) Page 21
