Deadly Call by Martha Bourke Page A

who. They wrestled one another to the ground, Diesel ending up on the bottom. Their roars were deafening. She could hardly swallow as she watched him try to change his position. When he suddenly let the other cat move over him entirely, she stopped breathing altogether. The other Bengal gave a sudden roar and leapt off of him, limping into the brush. Diesel stayed down. She was afraid he was hurt and she wanted to run to him, but she had no idea where the other tiger was.
    All at once, Diesel phased back, stood up, and brushed off.
    She started to stand, but he put up his hand. He gleamed to her and a moment later they were standing together in their room at the compound.
    She looked up into his face. He had three gashes down his neck and shoulder. “Oh, my God. Are you okay?”
    “I’m okay. I think I twisted the hell out of my ankle though.”
    She went straight into doctor mode. “Sit.”
    Her mate sat on the edge of the bed while she slid off his boot and checked to make sure the bone was sound.
     
    “Ow!”
    “Ow? Really? You just fought off a tiger, sport.”
    “Well, he didn’t fuck around with my ankle afterward.”
    She sighed. “You’ve got a good sprain. Let me get my bag and I’ll clean up those cuts.”
    Shit. She was pissed. Her force fields were up and she was asking Scotty for more power. She turned to stand up and he caught her arm. “Hey.”
    She turned back around and gave him exactly zero eye contact.
    He gently stroked the inside of her wrist with his thumb and moved his head over to catch her gaze. “I’m sorry.”
    That was all it took.
    She put her hands to her face and burst into tears.
    He pulled her in between his legs, put his cheek to her belly, and wrapped his arms around her. He had no idea how long they stayed that way. When she seemed like she was calming down some, he put his chin against her stomach and looked up at her.
    She ran her hands through his hair and sniffled. “I could kill you, you know that?”
    “I think you’ll have to get in line for that one.”
    She smiled. “Don’t make me laugh. I wanna stay mad at you.”
    “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
    She kneeled down in front of him and pulled him to her. As they held each other, tears came to his eyes when it hit him that he’d almost gotten her killed. Again. He was the one who was supposed to be dead. He was the one living on stolen time. He never should have made it out of that Humvee. Why was everyone around him paying the price?

CHAPTER TWELVE
     
    Evy went into the technology room at the youth center and closed the door behind her. She could just as easily have done this at home, but the internet connection and computers at the lab were a lot faster. She sighed. That wasn’t it. Now that she had decided to do some digging on Troy Thomsen, she didn’t want to wait until ten o’clock that night when she got home from the center.
    God. She couldn’t believe she was about to do this. Oh, please, Evy. Who the hell was going to know? So she did a search on Troy Thomsen. Big friggin’ deal. People googled shit on other people all the time, right?
    She brought up the search engine and typed in his name, along with Southie and the name of their high school.
    Nothing.
    That was odd.
    She deleted their high school and added a few different search terms. Again nothing. Okay. She was going to have to get serious. She looked up Boston’s Department of Children and Families. She had no idea where that was going to get her. It wasn’t as though she could access his direct file. And anyway, he was a legal adult. DCF wouldn’t have his current address.
    The door suddenly opened and her friend Liz came strolling in. “You’re here early. Was your class canceled?”
    “No, I cut out.”
    “That’s weird for you. Me, not so much. Must be something important.” She leaned over Evy’s shoulder. “Troy Thomsen, huh? Well, he’s certainly more important than getting your degree.”
    Evy flushed. “I came in to