Free Tiger by the Tail: A Midnight Liaisons Novella by Jessica Sims Page B

a soothing voice. “You’re scaring her.”
    “She needs to be fucking scared,” Vic roared. His hands clenched on the table, and then one shot up and pointed at Mandy’s face. “You need to fucking realize who you’re putting in danger with this shitty attitude of yours—“
    “She knows,” Estrella said, her voice still placating and soft. “I’m sure this is all a lot for her to take in.”
    “If you lose control, you risk all of us. If you shift in public, you endanger every-fucking-one.” Vic’s voice was sounding more and more animal, and the urge to flee was growing greater and greater. Not so discreetly, Johnny scooted his chair away from Mandy.
    Coward , she thought. God, what had she ever seen in Johnny other than a pair of blue eyes? Thank goodness she’d never slept with him.
    Vic slowly rose from the table. “I’ll not have my wife and child in a fucking zoo—“
    “I’ll handle things,” Adrian said. His voice was utterly calm compared to Vic’s rage, and everyone immediately turned to him. He didn’t get up. Didn’t look in Mandy’s direction. Just shrugged his big shoulders. “I’ll handle things. Give me the week off of work and I’ll handle Mandy.”
    ‘Handle’ Mandy? She bristled, but remained silent. Vic was ragey enough as it was.
    “Are you sure?” Estrella looked a little concerned. She kept glancing over at Mandy, her eyes sympathetic. Maybe she understood what Mandy was going through, as she was an outsider to the Merino clan herself. She was a liger who had been taken in when she’d mated Vic, or so Johnny had told her. It was one thing that had spurred him on to changing her – jealousy over Vic and Estrella’s mated happiness. “Maybe I can help—“
    “No,” Vic said, voice dangerous. His big arms – yikes, they were big — crossed over his chest. “It’s decided. Adrian can handle her.”
    Mandy’s brow wrinkled as she glanced over at Adrian. Tall, gorgeous, utterly confident. Why was he bothering with her? From what Johnny had told her about the tiger clan, Adrian tended to stay out of the messes. And she was pretty sure that she was considered one of their ‘messes’.
    There had to be a catch here somewhere. Just what exactly it was, she hadn’t figured out yet.
    “All right,” Estrella said, a hint of a smile returning to her lovely face. She kept smiling even as she looked over at Mandy. “We’ll let Adrian handle things.”
    “You have a week off of work,” Vic told Adrian.
    “Week’s all I need,” Adrian replied in that utterly calm voice. “I’ll mentor her into shape by then.”
    And there she was, bristling all over again as they talked about her over her head. Like she was nothing. Tiger Barbie, their newest play thing. That was all Johnny had ever considered her to be, right? “What about what I want?”
    Vic snarled, but Adrian was already on it. Those cool blue eyes looked over at her. “It doesn’t matter what you want.”
    She huffed and sat back in her seat. That seemed to be the story of her life. No one ever cared what Mandy wanted.
     
    ~~ * ~~
     
    Adrian studied the redhead that sat across from him at the churrascaria restaurant. He’d taken her here for two reasons: one, because she wouldn’t cause a scene in public no matter how much she might pout; and two, because meat tended to trigger a shifter’s instincts. So what better place than all-you-can-eat Brazilian barbecue?
    They’d been silent on the way over to the restaurant, Mandy sitting with her arms crossed in the passenger seat as he drove. He didn’t mind the silence; he wasn’t normally the biggest talker anyhow. He left that for Vic. Actually, he left most things for Vic. His brother was a year older than him and Adrian was content to let his headstrong, charging-head-first brother take control of everything. Most times. But when Adrian saw something he wanted, he went after it.
    And he wanted Mandy for himself.
    He’d never considered having a