Lillian nodded. “I understand. But I can’t—I can’t stay here right now.”
Cal nodded unhappily. He stayed where he was while Lillian collected her bag from the guest room, but followed her to the door, stopped her, and preceded her outside.
She could see him scanning the woods around the cabin, until finally he turned and nodded to her, and she walked down the drive and got into her car. He was still standing there by the doorway as she drove away.
She was struck then with a deep misgiving, a certainty that she was making a mistake.
It probably came from the knowledge that she was worrying Cal, she told herself. He was a good man, and concerned about her safety, and she probably should’ve stayed right there and let him protect her like he’d promised to.
But she couldn’t. Not with how her stomach thrilled when she saw him.
Not with the deep ache that was building in her chest as she thought about him.
Lillian let that thought come to the surface with a bleak realization. She hadn’t just slept with him because she thought he was attractive. There was some kind of deep feeling developing inside her. Not just desire, but—something more.
Did that make it better, or worse?
Because it meant that it was more than sleeping with a stranger. But it also meant that she wanted—
There was a man in the middle of the road.
Lillian slammed on the brakes, screeching to a halt inches before she hit him.
She narrowed her eyes at him, studying his face. He definitely wasn’t the man she’d seen shift out of his mountain lion form yesterday. He was bald, for one, and his beard was very neatly trimmed. He was cleaner and better dressed.
But Cal had said there was a whole mountain lion pack living here. Could this be one of the others?
He was waving at her, holding his phone. He came to the window. “Excuse me, ma’am?” His voice was faint through the glass. He made a rolling-down motion with his hand.
Lillian shook her head. “Do you need help?” she called.
“My car ran off the road just ahead, and my phone’s dead. Could you give me a ride back to town?”
Lillian hesitated. He looked sincere.
But for this to be happening right now, with everything else that was going on...
No. It was too suspicious. “I can call 911 for you,” she called through the window. Although if she took out her phone, focusing on it instead of what he might be doing...”I’ll drive up ahead and do it,” she amended. That should be safe enough. “But I won’t let you into my car. I’m sorry.”
His face twisted, and there was a flash of movement. Instinctively, Lillian stomped on the gas, and as she screeched off, her brain processed what the man had been doing—pulling back his fist.
To try and punch through her window?
Lillian’s heart was beating a mile a minute. She must have broken some speed records getting to Teri’s house.
She’d been wrong. They would ambush her in a moving vehicle. And it was clear that they weren’t going to just give up.
As she pulled into Teri’s driveway, her phone rang. Unknown number. She stared at it, and answered.
“Don’t think that just because you’re hiding with the snow leopards, we can’t make you pay,” a voice snarled. “They’re not a power like we are. They can’t protect you.”
The phone went dead. Lillian took it away from her ear and stared at it.
They must have gotten her number from Lew. They must have gotten all of the information about her from Lew—where she worked, who her sister was, all of it. Damn him.
Pardon my language, she thought, and choked out a laugh that almost turned into a sob.
She blinked her burning eyes furiously. One tear escaped and rolled down her cheek, but she swiped it away and took some careful breaths.