Caged

by Diana DeRicci

  Mira flexed her paws until her claws unsheathed and he cocked the rifle. “You’re worth a fortune to me dead or alive, honey.” His voice was acrid and tense. He may have the gun, but he was still nervous. That made him unstable. She needed to be careful to not be shot by accident. He gestured. “Now walk.”

  For a split second she thought about running, terrified, then accepted she had to see this through. The man before her had openly admitted to knowing about the Felids, whether because of her, or because of others through the years. He had to be stopped.

  Chapter Eight

  Mira sniffed at the ramp, eyeing the cage warily. A smell reeked from the cab of the truck. Apparently, that’s where he’d been camping, in the protection of the vehicle, out of the elements, and by the stench for her feline nose, he’d been at it for a long time.

  The cage sat on the back of a large diesel truck, bolted down with a tarp rolled over half of it where the whole thing sat hidden in the dark shadows of the trees. It looked as uninviting as anything she could imagine. She really did not want to get into that cage. The block of steel was much stronger and thicker than the cage he’d used for the cheetah, all but proving her earlier capture had been a surprise and unexpected. This one wouldn’t fall to a pair of clippers, that was a definite. Charles stood right behind her. He hadn’t dropped the gun from her once on the march. She’d had to restrain herself from lashing out, filleting him with claws that would do more than just leave a mark on his flesh. But she’d never attacked another person and wasn’t sure she could do it now. Even to get away.

  Sending a prayer upward, she hoped Rhys and Robbie were still tracking her, otherwise this was going to be the worst mistake of her life.

  “Come on,” he barked. “Get your ass in the cage, bitch.”

  She whipped around and roared at him. He flinched, shaking, as though he’d forgotten she was a tiger, even if she wasn’t. How she longed to tell him the only thing keeping her from gutting his sick ass was the fact that she had backup, and she just wasn’t made to kill.

  Once inside the metal prison with the latch secured, Charles pulled out a cell phone and snapped a couple pictures. Satisfied, he hit a button on the phone.

  “I have it. Sending the pictures now.” He paused, nodding. “In one hour. Do not be late. I don’t want this one getting away.” He snapped the phone shut. “You’re as good as money in the bank,” he jeered.

  Raging inside, Mira followed his motions with unblinking eyes as he flipped the tarp over the cage and secured it. His phone call gave her a new chill. He had figured out she, the tiger and the cheetah were all one and the same. Which meant he’d been gunning for one of their kind all along. A low rumbled growl followed every motion he made until she heard the cab open on the truck and the motor jumped to life.

  * * * *

  Rhys listened, intent on the road as Robbie gave directions. His hands were glued to the wheel.

  “This was such a mistake. An utter mistake,” Rhys growled. His stomach had taken permanent residence half way up his chest.

  “She knows what to do,” Robbie replied, his tone monotonous. A man on a mission. “All I need is for them to stop to get the address, then I can make the call.”

  “Is it going to work?”

  “Let’s hope so,” Robbie said. “He is a wanted man for his poaching. This would be icing on the cake if he’s caught with a tiger in a cage. Or even proof that he’d had one. A lot of governments frown on endangered animal poaching.”

  Rhys sent a silent prayer that it didn’t come to that. The last thing he wanted was for Mira to be discovered. God, he hoped this went down the way she’d painted it. This was the last time he was letting that woman out of his sight for anything, ever again.

  “I know the area he’s heading to,” Robbie said about fifteen minutes later. They’d fallen in about half a mile behind the truck, the dot on the GPS moving steadily. “Vacant industrial lots, where the old coal plant stood.”

  Rhys wasn’t surprised. “That’s only about a mile from where I found her last time. Absolutely no traffic and the area is dead for miles around it.”

  Robbie made a call on his own phone. A few seconds and short answers and he snapped it closed. “Okay, they’re on the move.” After three weeks of planning and working to get as much information as they could on their supposed ‘neighbor’, Robbie was as much on the hot seat as Mira to see this pulled off without any disasters. Rhys sent up one more prayer, focusing once more on trailing the truck only minutes in front of them.

  * * * *

  Mira padded from side to side in the cage, hating the dim shadow the tarp created. They’d stopped moving. That didn’t bode well.

  He was talking on the phone again, in lowered tones.

  She hissed and blinked when he lifted a corner. “Yep, she’s a pretty thing. Wait until you see her on two legs. Fucking knock out.” He grinned, pleased with himself. “Nope, she hasn’t. Don’t know why.” He lifted the phone away from his mouth a scant bit. “Why haven’t you shifted back?”

  Mira opened her jaws wide and snapped at him. Her captor only laughed, safe on the other side of the cage.

  “She didn’t like that at all.” He was almost chortling. “She can understand everything. You’ll see when you get here. I’ve never seen anything like them. She’s only the second I’ve ever found. The first one died of a heart attack or something when she was in the cage and I’ve been looking for more ever since.” Lifting his gaze, he asked, “So are you human, or what?”

  With a deep hiss, she unsheathed her claws and raked the cage, rattling the steel and vibrating the bed of the truck. He howled and leaped back, allowing the tarp to fall back into place.

  “Just come get the bitch,” he snapped, apparently tired of gloating over his find. The sound of retreating footsteps echoed in the ensuing quiet. She should’ve taken advantage of his fears a little more before succumbing to the cage. That would have made up for being held within the confines, a tiny bit at least. Instead, she just started pacing again, the width and length of the truck, one step at a time, waiting.

  * * * *

  Rhys and Robbie hid down the block from the building with the bay receiving door open. The shadows of the quiet corner kept them out of sight. “I guess the rest of the party hasn’t arrived yet,” Robbie said in a quiet whisper. It was only a moment or two later, when he corrected himself. “But it looks like they just did.” A pair of headlights lit the front of the dust-laden building with a flood of light, and then turned to ride up the ramp into the interior.

  Robbie picked up his phone and said, “The party is on.”

  “Ten-four.”

  “Now we just have to let them go in and do their thing.” He rubbed his hands together. “This works out as a double whammy. We get Charles and whoever the joker is that just drove in there with him.”

  Rhys swallowed. It sounded so simple, but his heart was jockeying with his stomach for positions in his throat. “What about Mira?”

  A black non-descript van stopped at the opposite corner and about a dozen officers in black gear leaped down and crouched to run along the side of the building. Hand signals split them up to cover all the exits. Just then a harsh, roaring howl sliced through the night.

  “Mira!” he choked, freezing in place. “What are they doing to her?” Rhys tensed where he huddled, bent with Robbie to hide in the shadows. Several of the stalking officers froze in their steps, glancing at each other at the ominous sound. It took all his control to not jump from his hiding place and race to her, to get her out of that cage. His heart was pounding against his ribs.

  “Easy,” Robbie said, placing a calming hand on his shoulder. “We’re not even supposed to be here, remember? Do you want me, or either of you to get our asses busted for this?”

  Less than ten seconds later, all hell broke loose as the officers swarmed the building. Rhys counted his breaths to keep from rushing in behind them.

  The silence was broken
when Robbie’s intercom on his phone chirped. “All clear.”

  “Where is she?” Rhys demanded as soon as he heard that.

  “Any sign of a big cat?” Robbie asked back.

  “Negative. The tabby he has seems awfully ticked though.”

  Rhys’s eyebrows shot up. “Tabby?”

  Robbie only chuckled and with a rueful head shake said, “That was her secret. That’s why she knew she could do this. Not because she knew he’d be hunting, but because she knew how to escape detection. Sneaky thing, that mate of yours.”

  “She’s a freaking house cat?” Rhys almost toppled to the ground. Her five feet-six inch frame was a house cat?

  “It would seem so.” Robbie stood and Rhys followed. “Let’s go get her before one of the guys thinks she’s a stray.”

  * * * *

  Mira leapt from the officer’s hands and bounded to Rhys, practically clawing up his jeans to reach his arms. “Easy sweetheart,” he breathed into her fur. “You will never cease to amaze me.” The blonde striped tabby in his arms simply purred like an outboard motor and rubbed against him like he was made for it.

  “Lieutenant Boles, check this out.” One of the officers held up a cell phone. “He did have a tiger.”

  A glare of anger snapped in the lead officer’s eyes. He got right up into the handcuffed man’s face. “All right, Charles. Where is it? We all heard it.”

  “Maybe it was a recording to hoax this guy,” Robbie suggested with a twitch to include the other man in handcuffs, implanting the perfect ruse to lead the others away from the scream of fury they’d heard not ten minutes before.

  “That’s it!” Charles was almost screaming, staring wildly at Mira, now safe in Rhys’s hold. “She’s a fucking shifter! You have to believe me! He saw it!”

  Charles looked to his accomplice, who sighed and refused to meet his gaze. “I saw nothing.”

  “I suggest neither of you say another word.”

  “We’ll find out who he sold it to,” another said to Robbie. “We’ve been waiting for a chance to nail this guy.” Lifting a second phone, he shook his head. “You’re going to have to answer a lot of questions about what you were doing with this cat and where it was going.” He looked pointedly at the silent man caught in the bust. The buyer who’d arrived alone.

  “You have to prove I was going to do anything first.”A low sneer accompanied his words. “A picture means nothing.”

  “Somehow, I don’t think that will be a problem,” Lieutenant Boles warned with a threatening tone. “Mr. Saledo, AKA Mr. Cunnings.” A slight flicker of uneasiness hit the man’s gaze, but for Mira, just knowing that the man who had been hunting her kind, and another in the chain would be stopped permanently, put her at ease for the first time in weeks. She burrowed into the shoulder beneath her.

  “Can we get out of here now? She’s terrified of all the commotion.” Rhys’s thumb stroked behind an ear and Mira gobbled up his touch, never willing to put either of them at risk again.

  “Yeah, poor kitty,” one of the group offered. “She was shaking so bad from all the noise. Can’t believe he tried to ruse him with a cat.” Sarcasm lay thick in the words.

  “She’ll be well cared for, I can promise you that.” Rhys didn’t wait for a second chance to vacate. With Robbie hot on his heels, they left the cops to do their job.

  Epilogue

  “Now this is the way to spend an afternoon at the lake,” Robbie crowed, his feet propped up on the end of his lounger, a beer in his hand, sunglasses blocking the worst of the summer glare and a smile that rivaled the sun’s intensity. Rhys stood over the grill, flipping the steaks one last turn. The house stood off behind his shoulder, but only a short walk from the back door to the deck on the water. A splash pulled his attention up. And Mira…

  His gaze landed on the woman floating at the edge of the lake rim.

  After the bust, he’d taken her home. Robbie dropped them both off and he’d ensured for himself that she was okay. In fact, he’d spent the rest of the night, touching and loving every single inch of her lithe, perfect body. He’d never imagined her ability to be able to shrink herself to such a small creature. She admitted afterward that it was harder to do, and took longer to completely take the shape, and then return to a biped. It was a greater risk because she had to complete it after the contact had arrived, but before the place was covered in cops. She didn’t come right out and admit to it, but he was sure her timing was within seconds of being discovered mid-shrink from tiger to tabby.

  “You ready to chow down?”

  “Always, buddy,” Robbie answered, rubbing his flat stomach.

  Rhys was glad Robbie had agreed to come to the country that weekend. He had news to share with them both.

  “Food,” he called, plating the steaks and wrangling the one potato out of the coals with his tongs. Mira stood, water cascading off of her trim body and his mouth went dry. She affected him like no one else. It became a necessity to drop his gaze to his chore to derail the erection he felt growing behind his swim trunks.

  Robbie sat up and sauntered over to the picnic table as Mira approached with a towel, rubbing her hair and absently running the towel over her skin. “Smells awesome,” she said, giving Rhys a peck on the cheek.

  “Help yourselves.”

  Robbie didn’t have to be told twice, spearing a thick steak. Seated, with everyone’s plate packed, he opened the cooler he’d refused to let them touch, bringing out a bottle of champagne and three extra glasses.

  “Today, we’re celebrating,” he told them, opening the top with a pronounced pop sound, then pouring.

  “Oh, what’s the occasion?” Robbie asked, claiming a foaming cup. “Did Mira finally say yes?” He winked at her, making her giggle and blush.

  “Actually, yes, she did, but this is something I’ve been working on since the arrests.” He owed a ton of thanks and miles of gratitude to Robbie for his efforts in catching the man who had been poaching and hunting to expose the Felids.

  Robbie lifted his cup in congratulations to them both. “Okay, what? You’ve got my curiosity.”

  “What is it?” Mira asked, crossing her arms in front of her to lean on the table, waiting for him to sit and eat with them.

  “This ranch now belongs to me. Welcome to your new running ground.” He lifted his cup in toast and sipped. Their dropped jaws were the best reaction he could’ve hoped for.

  “What?” they squeaked in tandem.

  “It’s not a lot, but Mom’s great-aunt to the Nth degree had this property and it was languishing. I’d always hoped to get it before one of the other hungry vultures in the family did. I wanted to keep it wild, so I took out a loan, paid the taxes, bought the deed to the house and land, and voilá, one poacher and stalker free playground, lake included.”

  “I thought this house and lake belonged to a cousin or something, and that’s how you used to bring us here in the summer after our senior year.”

  He shook his head, meeting Robbie’s dazed expression. “No. It’s been in the family, but no one was willing pay the land taxes to pull it completely out of debt. They just kept it above water until someone could.” Or until a developer made a large enough bid on it.

  “Are we moving here?” Mira asked.

  Rhys shook his head. “No, I can’t. Not yet. But I hope to. I’m going to give Robbie a key to the house; consider it yours to use. Just double check to make sure if we’re coming, you don’t mind the company.”

  Rhys nudged at a still stunned Robbie in male humor.

  “Seriously? You bought the ranch?” He seemed absolutely shocked, staring up to Rhys at his shoulder.

  “Lock, stock and tax barrel.”

  “For us?” Robbie glanced at Mira, then wide-eyed at Rhys.

  “For all of us, but yes, for the both of you. Dude, you’re family to me. You always have been.” Rhys swallowed because he almost choked on that. “I know it’s a drive for just a weekend to turn and run, but I expect Mira an
d I will be here frequently. I’ll show you the property map so you both can see where the next ranch starts, but you have about two hundred acres to play with. You’re only thirty minutes from the closest town for supplies and entertainment, if you want a movie or something. Otherwise, it’s sheer wilderness and quiet.”

  Mira stood and circled the table. Tears shimmered in her eyes. “I love you, Rhys.”