The other Shifters, ignoring him, put up their hands. Almost all of them. Liam got to his feet.
“Screw this. You don’t come into my Shiftertown and mess with my Shifters.”
“And,” Eric said in his calm way, “there’s the problem of being able to kill Tiger at all. How do you propose to do that? A Shifter who can survive bullet wounds? When I first found him, it took two tranq shots just to make him sit down.”
“Which is why we need to act now,” Bowman said. “Who the hell knows what else he can do, or what he’s become capable of? We need to contain or kill him before he hurts one of us.”
Liam barely held on to his temper. “I agree about finding out all we can about him. But those other decisions are mine.”
“Not anymore, Liam,” Bowman said. “You’re holding a potentially lethal weapon. If it gets out of control, it could spell the end for all Shifters. Living in Shiftertowns was a decision pushed through by advocates for Shifters, if you remember. Humans who didn’t want to see us treated like lab rats or slaughtered outright. But the humans will shove us back into cages and drug us until we die if they think we can turn into whatever this tiger Shifter is. You know it, Liam.”
“Yes,” Liam had to say. The word tasted sour in his mouth. “But it’s still my decision.”
“Like I said, not anymore.” Bowman stood up casually, as though they weren’t talking about the life and death of one of Liam’s friends. “We should go before people start wondering why so many Shifters are in town.”
Meeting adjourned, in other words. Several of the leaders and their bodyguards got up and exited without saying good-bye. Others lingered, would drift away a little at a time. A mass exodus would be a bad idea.
Bowman had to pass Liam and Eric on his way out. Graham stepped enough in Bowman’s way that Bowman would have to make physical contact to get around him.
“So they let a dickhead like you run a Shiftertown?” Graham said, giving Bowman his gray-eyed stare.
“I’m doing what I have to do to protect my Shifters,” Bowman said, meeting his gaze without flinching. “It’s my job.”
“If Tiger was living in your house you might understand better, I’m thinking,” Liam said.
“If he was living in my house, he’d already have a Collar.” Bowman turned his body to slide past Graham without touching him. “See you, Liam. Eric.”
Eric remained. He was about the same height as Liam, a little leaner, tanned from Las Vegas sunshine. He folded his arms and leaned against the back of a chair. “You can return him to our Shiftertown if you want,” Eric said. “I know I kind of forced him down your throat.”“You didn’t.” Liam ran a hand through his hair, hoping he could get the smell of angry Shifter out of it when he got home. “I was the one with the arrogance in thinking I could control him, even without putting a Collar on him.”
Eric didn’t argue with him, Liam noticed. Or bother trying to make him feel better. “Want to grab a beer? Lunch?”
“No, I need to be getting back.” Liam sighed and unhooked his sunglasses from his T-shirt. “And I need to think.”
“I’m driving,” Spike said, the first words he’d spoken since they’d walked in. He held out his hand for the keys. “If you’ll be thinking the whole time, I need to do the steering.”
“Call me when you want advice,” Eric said. “You know I’m good at giving it.” He showed his teeth in a grin while Graham rolled his eyes.
Spike, now holding the keys, walked out and had the pickup started by the time Liam finished his parting embraces with Eric, then Graham. Liam got into the truck, Spike navigated through the busy streets back to the freeway, and they headed south, Liam slumped against the door.
“You didn’t mention Carly,” Spike said as they sped down the 35, past downtown and Reunion Arena, and into the southern reaches of the city. “Or that he was shagging her most of the night last night.”
“Shite, are all the rooms in my house bugged?”
“The windows were open. Tiger’s kind of loud. I didn’t hear, but Deni did. She told me. So did her cubs. And Ellison. And Connor—his bedroom’s right under Tiger’s. Glory mentioned it too.”
“Gobshite,” Liam muttered. “If it’s all over Shiftertown already, Bowman must know. Or he will soon. I didn’t say anything about Carly because I don’t want the other leaders too worried about Tiger taking a mate. At the same time, Carly’s the only person I’ve met who can calm him down. Connor can, sometimes, but not like Carly. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“If she has his cub . . .” Spike veered around a slow truck and car. “Bowman might want to kill it too.”
“I know.” Neither Liam nor Spike wanted to think about that, both men having cubs they loved. “Or at least Bowman might want to pen it up and watch it. Goddess, they’re worse than the humans.”
“They don’t want Tiger’s existence to make humans decide it’s too dangerous to let Shifters live.”
Spike never talked much—but when he did talk, he proved he was more than muscle, more than a stupid fighting Shifter, as too many Shifters thought him. Even Liam had made that mistake once.
Spike had distilled the entire meeting into that one sentence.
“I know,” Liam said again. He let out a breath. “If Tiger has to die, it’s going to be me who kills him. I’m not giving him to Bowman or anyone else in that room, not even Eric. I owe Tiger that much, at least.”