Run Fur Love (BBW Tiger Shifter Romance)

by Catherine Vale

  Jericho was there pulling her up from the rocker, wrapping his arms around her. It was what she’d wanted before, and it was what she needed now. He smelled horrible, like sweat and blood and dirt, and none of it mattered. She turned her face against his chest, and let him hold her while she cried.

  They stood on the porch for a long time, until her tears trailed off to random hiccupping sounds, and an occasional sniffle. Finally, she pushed away from him. She thought there was a bit of reluctance, as he loosened his hold on her.

  “You okay?”

  With one last sniff, she looked up at him. “No. But I’m better. I’m not sure it was the best idea to let Duke head off on his own. You think he’s going to go find everybody? Or just go after Morgan on his own?”

  Jericho was silent for long enough that she thought he hadn’t heard her. She was ready to repeat herself, when he spoke.

  “I think he’s going to do what we said. I think he looks at it as a way to make up for starting this whole thing. Even though what happened was an accident, or self-defense, and Jake was out of control. I think today he might have found some courage that he didn’t realize he had.”

  “So you think he was wrong for running away? For coming up here?” Her head ached, and it hurt even more to believe Jericho thought Duke was a coward.

  “I’m not judging him. I think he’s been judging himself, but now he has a way to make things right. At least help make them right with you.”

  She dropped her head against his chest, eyes closed, wishing she could figure out how to go back in time, and make all this go away. For her, for Duke. Maybe even for Jake. But if she did that, it would take Jericho away from her life. And even though all of these horrible things had happened to her, to her club, her friends, a selfish part of her wanted to keep what she had in her arms. She wanted Jericho.

  But her life, and her brother, and those of her friends, were currently turned upside down. And until that got resolved, one way or another, she didn’t really have anything. She pushed away from him, and he relaxed his arms just enough to let her look up at him.

  “We have to go back, don’t we?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. We do. As much as I’d rather run away, with you, we have to face Morgan. Otherwise...”

  “Otherwise there are targets on the back of Duke. And me, forever. And you.”

  His lips curved into a smile. “I can take care of myself. You know, just drift away. Be that drifter again, the one that walked into your bar.”

  That broke her heart, more than she could even think about. Maybe he saw that in her face, or she tensed in his arms, even though she tried not to.

  “Is that what you want to do? Be the drifter again?”

  He reached up, and brushed a strand of tangled hair away from her face. “I don’t want to answer your question with another one, but what do you want, Harley? From me, for us.”

  “Is there an us?” She caught the lift of one eyebrow, and gave him a smile. “Yeah. Sorry. A question with a question.”

  His eyes were the same clear gray, almost unreadable, but she thought she saw something in them that hadn’t been there before, a look she couldn’t quite understand.

  “What I want...” She looked past him, down to the lake. “I’d like to stay here forever, never leave. But that’s not reality.” With a sigh, she looked up, putting the lake into soft focus, Jericho’s face clear, sharp. She reached up, and ran her fingers along his jaw, through what was almost a full beard now.

  “This is reality. You are. I’d like...I’d like you to stay, for us to figure out if there’s a future...”

  He was kissing her before she’d finished talking. For a startled instant, she thought he was trying to shut her up, to keep her from saying more. But the urgency of his kiss, the longing...she felt that, loud and clear, right down to her toes. And she kissed him back, hard, trying to get everything she wanted to say to him into that kiss.

  After a minute, he pulled away, breathing just a little faster, but not quite as fast as she was. Under her hand she could feel his heart beating, a little faster too. A lot like hers was beating right now.

  “I pretty much want the same as you, Harley. I want this to go on, you and me. I want whatever comes next, with us, after this thing with Morgan is over. I’m tired of being the drifter, to you, to myself. I want to be Jericho. Your Jericho. I want a cell phone again, and to have your number be the one that makes my heart skip a beat when I see it on the screen.”

  Her mouth curved into a smile all on its own. “I’ve never had someone tell me how they feel in terms of caller ID. But I’ll take your view of the future, as long as it’s the two of us in that view.”

  “It will be. And as much as I’d like to run away with you, we have to go back. Soon. Before Duke does something foolish with his new-found courage.”

  As hard as it was, she stepped away from him, from the strength of his arms, from the promise of another kiss. But something vital seemed to have been decided between them, or at least acknowledge. And that, for now, was good enough.

  Jericho was still smiling at her, his eyes sparkling with happiness, despite all that they were up against.

  “But first, let’s get some food into us. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving, and this shifter needs some grub.”

  Chapter Eight

  “What do we do with the body?” They’d come around the back of the cabin, and the blanket-covered body looked so out of place, like a violation against the dry grass, and brown dirt. She walked as far around it as she could, without walking into trees and brush.

  “Can’t think there’s much we can do, except tell Morgan when we see him where it is.”

  Jericho took her hand, and they walked the rest of the way over the ridge in silence, and even though she knew they were going to find Duke and the rest, and then Morgan, and that made her sick with tension and fear, there was something light and bright growing inside her, a feeling of hope, if she was going to try to put a name to it. It felt good, and she tried to hang onto that feeling, as they came down the other side of the ridge.

  Jericho had done a good job of covering the machine, and she waited while he pulled off the brush he’d thrown over it. It made her nervous, being out of the cover of the trees, even though she knew damned well no one could see her from the highway. At least not yet, not until they got on the bike, and kicked up that big dust plume again.

  “Ready? Want my jacket?”

  She turned back, and took the leather jacket he held out to her, sliding her arms into it, enjoying the easy familiarity of the gesture, the unselfconsciousness between them. Then the warm smell of him rose up, and it pushed back the fear, just a little bit.

  “Thanks.”

  She watched as he swung one long leg over the seat of the bike. He sat down, hands resting on the grips and met her eyes, then smiled.

  “It’s going to be okay, Harley. Hard, maybe, hardest thing you’ve ever done, whatever it is we end up doing. I’m pretty sure Morgan isn’t just going to run off with his tail between his legs. But you’re not going into this alone, and neither is Duke.”

  There was nothing she could say to that, so she climbed on the bike behind him, wrapped her arms around his waist, and let him take them back down the ridge. The bike kicked up dust, and she could see Duke’s tracks in the dirt, and from the torn up ground, he must have been going like a bat out of hell.

  Jericho took the turn between the fences, moving the bike with ease. She rested her head against his back, closed her eyes, and tried to forget for just a little bit longer that they were going to see Morgan Ramsey. Instead, she thought about what it would be like to be riding with Jericho to someplace only the two of them would know about, riding away from all of this, and toward whatever their future was going to be. It made her smile, and she tried to hold on to that smile for as long as she could.

  It lasted until they hit the highway.

  * * *

  Jericho found his way ba
ck to the place where her bar—her home—used to be, without any problem. She’d kept her head down, behind his back, trying to ignore the turns she knew by heart, trying to pretend they were headed somewhere else. But even before they took the last turn, she smelled it. The odor of charred wood, wet still. God, could it only have been this morning that she was up in her bed with Jericho. Her arms tightened around him. His hand touched hers briefly, and then the bike took the last turn back to where her life had come unraveled.

  He slowed, and turned the bike off the road into the parking lot. Dirt and rocks crunched, and she finally lifted her head when the bike came to a stop.

  When she saw it, saw the rubble, she put her head back down, still hanging on to Jericho, hanging on like the harder she did, it would make things better. He cut the engine but didn’t move. His hands came down to hold hers, cold from the wind. She wound her fingers through his, and they sat like that, until the sound of a cycle coming toward them made her look up.

  “That’s Ember. That stupid big bike she bought.” She brushed a tear off her cheek, not really sure how it got there. The noise of the engine got louder, and she looked past Jericho’s shoulder.

  “Oh, good. She’s not driving.”

  Van guiding the bike into the parking lot. Behind him Ember was barely visible, just her arms around Van’s big chest. But as soon as the bike came to a stop, even before Van had the engine off.

  “Harley. Oh, my God.”

  Harley got off the bike, and Ember had her in a hug, before her feet even hit the ground. Ember hugged her hard enough to squeeze the breath out of her. For being such a little thing, she had a grip like iron. Harley finally squirmed enough to get a breath, and get a sliver of space between them.

  “I’m okay, Em. I’m fine.”

  “Well, how the hell was I supposed to know that?”

  Ember pushed away, and for a minute, Harley thought her best friend was going to scream at her. Ember’s dark eyes snapped, and her brows came down hard. She’d seen Ember angry before, at her some of those times. But never like this.

  “Sorry. But…my phone…” Harley waved her hand in the general direction of the burned wood. “It’s in there.”

  “And I suppose he doesn’t have one either?” Em glared past Harley. She turned, and saw that Jericho had gotten off the bike, but was standing what seemed a prudent distance away.

  “No.” There was no reason to add fuel to the fire, bad pun or not, by telling Em why Jericho didn’t have a phone. “Neither of us did. Listen, if I could have, I would have called. You know that.”

  “Right. Okay.” Ember’s anger seemed to fade. Some of the hardness in her eyes softened, replaced with what Harley thought was fear. “Okay.” Her voice trembled, and then everything gave way, and she was hugging Harley again, this time crying on her shoulder.

  “Oh, God, I was so scared. We didn’t know…anything. It was…until Duke showed up.”

  “Where’s Duke?” Harley looked over Ember’s shoulder, looking down the road, looking for Duke’s bike, the thin clouds of blue smoke that followed him, because the bike burned oil.

  “He went to get Bear. I wanted to come here…first…before…” Ember sniffed, then took a step away from Harley, wiping her nose on her sleeve. “Before they got here. I wanted to see you with my own eyes.”

  “Well, now you have. And I’m fine. Really. Just…dirty and smell bad, and would kill for a change of clothes.”

  Ember smiled, something of her old happy personality coming through. But then she looked past Harley again, and some of that hardness came back into her eyes.

  “And he’s got a whole lot of explaining to do.” Ember stepped past Harley, headed for Jericho. “Duke tells us you were hired to kill him, and then her. And what are you still doing here? What are you doing with him?”

  “Em…stop.” She tried to grab Ember’s arm, but her friend was already stalking toward Jericho, hands on her hips. He was at least half a foot taller than Harley, and Ember was shorter than she was, and the difference in height made Ember have to crane her neck to look up at him. If it wasn’t for the anger radiating from Ember, the two of them together would have almost been comical.

  “You…” Ember reached up, poking her finger into Jericho’s chest. “You. How could you? What makes you think you can come here…”

  “Ember, stop.”

  “No, Harley, let her get it out.” Jericho never looked away from Ember. “She has every right to be angry with me. Let her say what she needs to say.”

  “Damn right I’ll say what I want. Morgan Ramsey hired you to kill my best friend. And Duke.” Her voice went rough around the edges, and Harley thought it was more from fear than anger. But Ember never held back what she wanted to say, no matter how hard it was.

  “And now you’re standing here like nothing’s happened, like you have every right to be here. Every damned right to come riding in here like some kind of hero.” Ember had gotten even closer to Jericho, was practically standing on the toes of his boots. He looked down at her, arms held at his sides, and Harley wondered how long it would be before Ember took a swing at him.

  The moment spun on, and then Jericho took a deep breath. “Everything you say is right, from Morgan hiring me to do what you said, to kill Duke and Harley. But when I saw her…” His eyes went from Ember’s, and found Harley’s. “When I saw her, before I knew who she was, what I was supposed to do…” His eyes held Harley’s just long enough, and then he looked back at Ember.

  “When I saw her, I knew I’d hit the bottom of my life, that I’d gotten to be someone I hated. And I swore if this woman…if Harley…would talk to me, just say a word, my life would change. I’d change. I’d forget Morgan Ramsey, forget this whole fucked up plan. I would talk with her, if I was lucky maybe have a drink with her. And then I’d get on my bike, and I’d ride as far away as I could from this corner of Montana.”

  Some of the tension had gone out of Ember’s shoulders, but she wasn’t backing away.

  “And I got more than I bargained for.” Jericho looked up at Harley again, and smiled. She held his gaze, smiled back, and something passed between them. Something she knew he’d never put into words, or her. Something so deep maybe there weren’t even words for it.

  “I got more than a drink, and a word or two. I got to spend the night with her.”

  Harley felt a flush rise in her cheeks, not only at the honesty of his words, but at the memories his words brought up. She knew he was remembering too, from the heat of his gaze on her face.

  “So she was a distraction? A fuck to take your mind off what you were supposed to do?”

  “It’s not what you think, that just having sex with a beautiful woman was some kind of healing experience.”

  Ember had stepped away from Jericho, or rather she’d kind of melted back under the intensity of his words, even though his voice was low. Jericho didn’t move, didn’t take a step, just held Harley’s gaze.

  “Even if we’d just sat at the bar, just talked, I would have left, left her alone. The woman behind you is more than just…” Jericho’s voice dropped, and a look came into his eyes, the longing she hadn’t seen, but had felt in his kiss. Then he looked back at Ember. Whatever she saw in his eyes this time made her take a step back.

  “She was never just a one-night stand, just a fuck to take my mind off things. I can’t explain what she is to me. She’s your best friend, but I can’t make you see what I see in her. Right now, she’s the most important thing in my life.”

  Ember turned to Harley. There was a moment where everyone held someone else’s gaze, then Ember spoke.

  “Well, I guess that’s that. Whatever you did in bed must have been something pretty amazing.” Her mouth turned up at the corner. “I hope it was as good for you.”

  “She handcuffed me to the frame, if you want to know.”

  Ember’s smile froze, and she spun around toward Jericho. Harley didn’t bother to hold back her laugh. Even Van laughed,
and Jericho gave Ember that cocky grin of his. If that didn’t melt Ember’s cold heart, nothing would.

  “Ember, listen, it’s okay. He’s okay. He could have…if he’d wanted to…he could have killed me in my sleep. But he didn’t.” She reached out, put her hand on Ember’s arm. “Are you going to stand here, and give Jericho a hard time? We still have to get Duke…”

  As if by divine providence, the thin sound of a motorcycle rose on the air, like the buzzing of a bee. They all turned automatically toward the highway. It wasn’t just Duke; behind her brother on his battered bike was Bear, hands up on the wide handlebars. The bikes slowed, and then turned into the parking lot.

  “I’m still not done with him, Harley.” Ember was at her elbow, looking up with those dark eyes of hers. “I still don’t trust him. I have to believe you know what you’re doing, but I can’t believe you’re still with the guy hired to kill you.”

  “Ember. He saved my life. If he hadn’t…” For the first time Harley looked past Jericho. “If he hadn’t, I’d be under all that burned rubble. And you’d be out one best friend.”

  Harley could tell by the set of Ember’s chin, the tilt of her head, that the issue of Jericho, and his rights, or trustworthiness wasn’t finished. But whatever was between them would have to wait. Duke was climbing off his bike, followed closely by Bear. Jericho stepped away from his bike, coming to stand beside Harley.

  “Right. So now what?”

  Duke had found another feed cap, and seeing Duke wearing it somehow set a tiny part of her world right again. He stood, hands on his hips, with Bear looking like a mountain behind him.

  “We have to figure out how to talk to Morgan…” She thought she’d just get it out there, but to her surprise Duke cut her off.

  “Tell him what? That it was all a mistake? Got our wires crossed, sorry?”

  Duke’s eyes flashed with anger. “The man won’t listen to talk. He’s got it in his head that we’re responsible, you and me, Harley. He’d already gotten a hired killer. I’m pretty sure he’s past the talking point.”