Jaycee moved to the high bed and began to strip off its sheets. “No offense, honey, but I have to wash these. Too much human scent.”

“Oh, you go right ahead,” Addie said brightly. “I understand.”

Jaycee nodded. “Good. I know it’s hard for humans when they first come to us, but you’ll catch on.”

I’d bitch-slap her if I thought I could land it before she broke my arm. Addie swallowed her rage, picked up her tote bag with a jerk, and stalked out of the room.

She found Charlie in the kitchen doing a final cleanup. The dishwasher was running, humming and filling the room with the scent of soap.

“Charlie, will you give me a ride?” Addie asked.

Charlie tossed a last towel into the washing machine in the laundry alcove and returned to her. “Sure thing. Where do you want to go?”

“Home. It’s in Loneview.”

Charlie’s face fell. “Aw, honey, you aren’t going to leave me out here with all these Shifters are you?”

Why, when Charlie said honey did Addie feel warmed, but when Jaycee said it, Addie bristled and wanted to smack her?

“It’s time for me to go. Dimitri is looking after the kids, Jaycee wants to clean every trace of me out of the house, and I shouldn’t leave my sister to cope on her own. I think it will be safe enough now for me to go back.” She’d find a real lawyer and ask Bo to vouch for her if the police went back to accusing her of abetting the shooting. She’d make them realize she had nothing to do with it.

Charlie shook his head. “I don’t think you should run just because that woman is giving you a hard time. Stand your ground.”

“It’s not that.” Addie drew a breath, surprised how much her chest hurt. “If I stay, I will stand my ground, and she’ll break every bone in my body. I need to get away and think.”

Charlie studied her, then gave a conceding nod. “I get it. You’d fight for him but you don’t want to have to.”

“I don’t know what I’m feeling. That’s why I need to just . . . go.”

“Maybe you should talk to Kendrick first.”

Addie hesitated. She’d been geared up to run, but Charlie was right. She should at least tell Kendrick to his face what she wanted to do instead of simply disappearing.

Plus, she could watch his reaction and see whether he really wanted her to stay or go. Men went on about not understanding women when they were harder to figure out than differential calculus.

“Where is Kendrick?”

Charlie shook his head. “That, I do not know. I saw him go up toward the barn, but that was right after breakfast.”

“Thanks, Charlie.” Addie slung the tote’s long strap onto her shoulder and went out the back door.

Kendrick wasn’t in the barn. The mare had been turned out into the large open corral behind it and was enjoying herself running around, but Kendrick was nowhere in sight.

Grinding her teeth, Addie headed back down the slope toward where Charlie kept his truck at the end of the long drive. She’d sit in the pickup and wait for Kendrick to return from wherever he’d gone, but she wasn’t going back into the house. Not with Jaycee busy trying to eradicate Addie’s scent from every inch of it.

As she went around the truck to the passenger door, a gigantic Bengal tiger shot out from the shadows of the tall cottonwoods and came right for her.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Addie was too stunned to even scream. The tiger was orange and black, had intense, golden eyes, was larger than any animal she’d ever seen, and had her cornered against the truck in a heartbeat. Sunlight glinted from a silver and black Collar around its neck.