After Liam closed the door to the car, he put Valorie in with Randi. Amber was driving and Randi was riding in the back. He had a weird feeling in his gut; he’d hoped this wasn’t a mistake. The girls were taking Valorie to his house. He quickly pulled out his phone to call Mailaki.
“Hello, Venzula here.”
“Hey, Mailaki, I need you, man.”
“What’s up, boss?”
Liam liked this guy. A hardworking man. Former drug cartel turned legal after he came to the United States for a better life. He’d lost his entire family before he figured it out though.
He knew he could trust Mailaki. He was, as far as anyone knew, the last dragon shifter in the world. “I need you to go to my house. I have a bad feeling about this one. Amber and Randi just left with Valorie in the car. They are on their way back to my house.” Liam’s gut was telling him something wasn’t right; his beast was at the surface.
“Okay, consider it done. I’ll leave in fifteen, time enough to pack a bag. Hard to say how long it will be before I come home here.” Mailaki was still learning to speak fluent English, occasionally he switched his words around.
“Good enough, thanks, buddy.”
“Oh, no problem, boss, anything for you. She is special to you, yeah?”
Liam didn’t hesitate when answering, “Yes.” It didn’t matter that she had suspected him. He needed to be in her life and she’d been through too many shocks.
“Okay. You’ll take good care of your woman. Bye.” Mailaki hung up.
As Liam walked back into Valorie’s building, he took the stairs up to the third floor. If he could get some of his energy out, it may calm his anxiety. Dialing Randi’s cell number, Liam waited, it went right to voicemail. He tried Valorie next, same thing. He called Amber’s cellphone. Same thing, all three had gone right to voicemail.
He ran the rest of the way to her apartment. When he reached it, he flung open the door. Vince as well as Angela and Luke were just setting up the apartment. “Have you heard from the girls?”
Luke asked first, “Didn’t you just send them off?”
“Yeah, but I just tried all three of their cellphones. Everyone went straight to voicemail.” A flicker of apprehension coursed through Liam.
Luke was on his cell. “Damn it, Amber, pick up the phone. What is going on? Report back ASAP.” Luke left a voicemail.
Vince tried Valorie’s. “Valorie, why is your phone going to voicemail? Call me back ASAP.”
Luke stood up tipping over the chair.
The secretary’s face paled quickly. “You don’t think?” Angela whispered.
“What?” Liam approached her. “What are you thinking, Angela?” Their secretary was also trained by the Army. She’d done two tours as a computer intel specialist.
“No way. There’s no way this guy would know they were leaving, right?” Angela who had dressed in one of Valorie’s outfits was pacing near the window looking out at the city.
“Let me try something.” Vince was on his phone instantly. “Rick, I need another favor. A car left here about ten minutes ago. In that car is Valorie along with two female bodyguards, they became missing as of five minutes ago.”
Liam was waiting to hear more from Vince.
Fear and anger knotted inside him, Liam should have trusted his gut. Something wasn’t right when he waved goodbye to Valorie.
“Their license plate number is? Liam what’s that number?” Vince waited while he wrote it down and handed it to him. “The vehicle was registered to Miranda Young. Black two thousand twelve Ford Escape, plate number KKZ141 Minnesota. Thank you, Rick, you’re a great friend.” Vince put his phone back in his pocket. “He’s going to put an alert out, have all the patrols look for that specific car. He’ll call if he knows anything. But for now, let’s set this plan into motion. The girls have to be okay.”
Liam hoped Vince was right. His tiger came rising to the surface—he was in trouble.
Danny Boy and Wayne walked in. Danny took one look at him and ran over. “Move it now.” He shoved him into Valorie’s bedroom.
Liam couldn’t control what happened next. His fingers ached, he started growling, his muzzle grew, large teeth ripped through his gums. All his organs screamed in agony.
“Let him out.” Danny coaxed his tiger, begging Liam to relax.
“It fucking hurts.” Liam groaned.
“It’s okay, stop fighting him, let him out, buddy.” Danny stood next to him but gave him room.
He felt his clothes rip apart. Then the pain was gone. He looked across the room. He was level with her bed. Standing on all fours, he glanced down, large paws.
Valorie had a full-length mirror, Liam used his tiger legs to move over to the mirror. Looking at himself, he was amazed. Everything fell into place for him. A very large white Siberian Tiger stared back at him. He had green and amber eyes. It felt so natural. He let his tiger tell him how to move, walk. He jumped on the bed and rolled around in Valorie’s scent.
Valorie! He had to find her. He tried for the door. Crashing into the wood, he heard it splinter.
“Hey, buddy, where the hell do you think you’re going? You can’t go out there like that. Liam, the first time you have no control over the tiger. Now concentrate on seeing yourself as human. You have to shift back. Then when you need your tiger, he’ll be there for you. I will teach you, okay? Concentrate.” Danny was standing next to him.
The tiger wanted to go hunting, he wanted to find and protect Valorie. Liam knew they couldn’t go charging out there in the city of Minneapolis. Concentrating on what his human body looked like, he felt the skin change, his body shifting back to human. When it was over, he was kneeling on his hands and knees. He stood, naked as the day he was born. His clothes were shredded. “Now what?” Liam looked over.
Danny was chuckling. “Yeah, I hate it when that happens.”
They heard voices coming from the living room. “Where is he?”
“Hang out here for a minute.” Danny left him, the bedroom door had almost broke when Liam had hit it.
It had been amazing to be one with his tiger but at the same time confusing. He was worried about Valorie—why they couldn’t get ahold of her or the girls? He grabbed his jeans, in his front pocket was his phone. He checked, no missed calls or texts. “Shit.”
Danny came back into the room, Wayne on his heels. “Well, that’s what all the noise was all about. Liam, I didn’t know you were one of us?”
“Yeah, me neither until yesterday. Thanks, man.” Danny handed him a pair of sweats and a shirt. Liam threw them on and headed back out in the living room. Everyone was there, including his dad and Valorie’s father.
“Son, you okay?” Razan walked forward.
“Yeah, I am now. Valorie is missing, Dad.”
His dad nodded. “I know, son. We’ll find her. I have everyone on it.”
Valorie couldn’t move, it was black and cold. She hoped Randi and Amber were okay. When that SUV had run into them, t-boning the car she was in, the lights blinded them.
When Valorie had come to, Amber was unconscious with blood running down her forehead. She was lying back against the driver’s seat. She couldn’t see Randi who’d been in the backseat. She wasn’t sure the seatbelt had even been on her.
She reached up and found a lump the size of an orange on her forehead. Her neck was hurt and she could hardly move, her eyes weren’t focusing at all, she couldn’t see anything it was so dark.
She remembered a man had opened the passenger door before she blacked out again. She didn’t remember what he looked like, Valorie tried moving slightly but she couldn’t feel anything. Wondering if this was what death was like, then realized no—because she felt as if she was in a dark box.
Valorie listened and could hear road noise of tires going fast, almost like she was in car on a freeway. She tried moving but her hands were behind her back and her legs were somehow stuck together. She felt nausea and was about to be sick. She tried thinking about a happy place but it wasn’t working. Her head was pounding. Blissfully, sleep took her again.
A horn honked, startling Valorie awake. What have you gotten involved in? She couldn’t think clearly. Her head was pounding and her stomach kept lurching. Trying to swallow the bile which rose in the back of her throat was difficult but she managed not to throw up.
When she tried opening her mouth to test her voice, she found something across it. She stuck her tongue between her lips it stopped at her teeth. Something sticky was across her face preventing her from opening her mouth to talk.
Darkness was all around her, she felt oozy. She gasped, realizing a shiver of panic. Then sheer black fright swept through her. Valorie couldn’t comprehend or try to think enough to figure out where the hell she was. Trying to move, she hit her arm on metal, sending pain shooting through her elbow.
Her brain seemed foggy, unsure as if she’d been drugged. Trying to think clearly was impossible so succumbing to sleep seemed easier than fighting it.