What if she said no? Pain tightened his chest. She could tell him she didn’t want another male in her life. She’d had two of them who had harmed her heart and betrayed her. They’d been human but she might not understand how different he was from them.

* * * * *

Tiger’s buzzing cell phone woke him before dawn. He hated to turn away from Zandy but he had to answer it. He grabbed it from his pocket and walked into the living room, closing the door to prevent his voice from waking her.

“Tiger here.”

“This is Brass. We’ve had a full-out assault at Homeland. Two of our males are injured, two humans are dead and we’re facing a riot from the protesters. We need help immediately. The human task force is here and we have human police helping but Justice wants you here too. You have a way with our males, of keeping them calm.”

“What happened?” Tiger instantly was alarmed.

“Two of those damn crazy humans drove right up to the gates and came out screaming about how we are animals. The car just blew up. We suspect a car bomb they set off. The humans died instantly. Two of our males were blown right off the walls from the force of the blast. They are in bad shape but they’ll survive. Our males are furious. The protesters are lying, saying we blew up the car. It’s turned into a nightmare. The human law enforcement and our task force are trying to handle the situation but our males are fit to be tied. They are tired of being attacked and Justice thinks your good nature and humor are desperately needed. How fast can you be here?”

“I’m on my way.” He hung up and dialed Security. “Get the helicopter ready. I need to get to Homeland now.”

“Understood.”

He hung up and stared at the closed bedroom door. He didn’t want to leave Zandy but he had no choice. He’d only be gone a few hours.

Chapter Fourteen

Zandy woke alone but Tiger had left a note on the pillow. She read it and smiled. He planned to take her to his house for dinner later. That had to be a good sign that he planned to keep seeing her. She showered, dressed, and turned on the television when breakfast was delivered to her door by a grim officer.

She thanked him and took a seat on the couch, opening the bag. The commercial ended and the opening news story left Zandy gawking at the screen. The background sight of the scarred, twisted gates to Homeland held her attention as a chipper, blonde news reporter accounted what had taken place there in the middle of the night. Two suspected members of a hate group were dead while two New Species had been injured.

“Shit.” Her appetite was gone.

She flipped the channels, picking up more of the story from different reporters. The two New Species would live. It had been a car bomb and both the men who’d driven the car to the gates had died in the explosion. Her mind went over all the hate mail she’d read but no one had made threats against the NSO with car bombs.

Was Tiger okay? Upset? She wouldn’t blame him if he hated humans. She just hoped he didn’t lump her in with the ones who’d attacked Homeland. Were the injured New Species friends of his? She stood and turned off the television. He’d call her and she’d ask him about it. She’d be there for him if he needed her. She put on her shoes and walked to the door, wanting to get to work.

* * * * *

Richard looked surprised to see her when she entered the office. “I thought you were taking a few days off.”

“No.”

He grinned. “I take it you’re wearing panty liners?” Amusement lit his dark eyes. “I didn’t see your escort sniffing at you or drooling.”

“Yeah. I got some of those delivered to me. Did you see the news?”

His humor vanished. “Yeah. They didn’t send in any threats to warn us.”

“That’s what I was going over in my head when I saw the news. I hope we didn’t miss something.”

“We didn’t. The real fanatical ones rarely send warnings. They just attack.”

“What have you heard that isn’t on the news?”

“I talked to someone at Homeland first thing this morning. The officers are going to recover. They mostly suffered cuts and bruises from the fall. They were lucky to hit a grassy area and not the pavement. Their protective gear also helped avoid more severe injuries. We got lucky this time. Expect a lot of threats to come in. Copycat idiots and crazies tend to do that after one of these events.”

“Events?” Zandy sat down hard in her chair. “That sounds like such a tame word for what happened. I keep thinking about how much worse it could have been.”

“What else do you want me to call them? It’s f**king horrific. I shudder to think what could have happened or how many New Species could have been killed if they’d used more explosives. Did you see the damage to the gates? It twisted part of them.”

“I saw.”

Richard got up from his desk to crouch in front of her and stare into her eyes. “Are you okay? You really seem shaken by this.”

Tears filled her eyes. “No. It could have happened here.” She thought about Tiger, Creek and everyone else she had met. “New Species are so great. Why can’t those ass**les leave them alone?”

Richard took her hand. “I know, honey. It’s upsetting. We can’t control the idiots of the world but this time it worked out in our favor. None of the New Species died. We help where we can. That’s why we read all this shit that comes in. Just concentrate on work and maybe we’ll find a real threat today. That’s how we find and stop the morons we can. Okay?”