Free The Blind Tiger: An Unusual Paranormal Romance by Dawn Steele

options:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    She could try to wriggle her hands out. The straps were tight, but she had lost weight since they had last been adjusted.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   She could try to bend her hands at their wrists to try to undo the buckles.
     
    She gritted her teeth with determination and set to attempt Option 1. If she failed, she would go on to Option 2.

THE ATTACK
     
    Zach approached the house with confidence. He didn’t even bother to kill his engine. His men were already in place around Noah’s house.
    He smiled.
    Noah’s real name wasn’t even Noah, but he would call him that for now.
    He thought fleetingly of Karen, and a stab of pain lanced through his chest. He remembered the first time he saw her from across the crowded club. She had been an innocent – a lamb in a wolf den. Her friend was different. When Shawna came up to him, he knew that they were alike – predators. Snakes waiting for a chance to strike for whatever reasons they had.
    He hadn’t wanted a predator. Karen interested him because she was so different – so unlike any woman he had ever met. Or maybe he just hadn’t been hanging around in the right circles.
    For a while, he was content to be charmed by her innocence and sweetness. She was like a balm to his tainted soul – a breath of fresh air in his fetid, corrupt world.
    “Ah, you think you are finally in love,” Vladimir, his adopted father, observed.
    Zach was embarrassed. Men like him did not confess to falling in love.
    “I’m not sure, sir. I think it’s too soon.”
    “And you are right,” the old man told him in Russian. “It is too soon to tell. But you should never allow your feelings to show, son. Never allow people to think that you are a card they can play. Many successful people in our world have been brought down by emotion – the kidnapping and ransom of a son, the seduction of a wife.”
    Zach nodded. “Emotion makes people weak.”
    “Not all emotion is unhealthy. Rage can be useful. Desperation can lead a man to survive all odds. Emotion that is not channeled to purpose is useless. Love can motivate people to go beyond their physical and psychological limits. At the same time, love can be crippling and defeating.”
    Vladimir paused.
    “Enjoy your time with this woman, my son. Fornicate with her. Make sons with her, if you wish to. But never, ever fully give your heart to her. People disappoint, Zachary. Wives, girlfriends, sons, daughters, fathers, mothers – they all can disappoint you, as you found out as a child. People steal a part of you and make you weak if you let them in. This woman will disappoint you, too, in one way or another. Mark my words.”
    Zach listened and actually took this to heart. So he never allowed himself to fully fall in love with Karen. And when he made that decision, he gave in to his baser desires and manipulated Karen into submitting to him.
    After that, it was easier and easier to distance himself away from her as he began to see her as a