Catching Her Tigers [Tigers of Twisted, Texas 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  Tigers of Twisted, Texas 4

  Catching Her Tigers

  When Lisa Ridgeway stumbles upon two children and their mother’s dead body, she has no choice but to take the kids with her. In Twisted, she meets two sexy cowboys who are the twins’ uncle and his friend. Although she’s attracted to the men, she’s ready to get out of town—until the children beg her to stay.

  Weretigers Marrick Kinsale and Craig Westbrook know who killed Marrick’s sister, Donna. Marrick’s niece and nephew witnessed their father’s abuse all too often. Although they sense that Lisa is their intended mate, they have to find the killer before they can claim her.

  Falling in love with both men and the children, Lisa’s caught in the middle. She’s protecting the children, but who’s protecting her? Should she take the children and run? Are the men really who they say they are? Or is the killer closer than she thinks?

  Genre: Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Shape-shifter, Western/Cowboys

  Length: 40,669 words

  CATCHING HER TIGERS

  Tigers of Twisted, Texas 4

  Jane Jamison

  MENAGE EVERLASTING

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting

  CATCHING HER TIGERS

  Copyright © 2015 by Jane Jamison

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-63259-498-3

  First E-book Publication: July 2015

  Cover design by Les Byerley

  All art and logo copyright © 2015 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of Catching Her Tigers by Jane Jamison from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Jane Jamison’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Jane Jamison’s right to earn a living from her work.

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  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  DEDICATION

  Dear Reader,

  I love being an author. As such, I have the opportunity to create worlds that otherwise wouldn’t exist, to open up readers to new experiences, and to, hopefully, spread a little excitement and joy. I hope you like the worlds I’ve created. As always, thank you for reading my work.

  Jane Jamison

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  CATCHING HER TIGERS

  Tigers of Twisted, Texas 4

  JANE JAMISON

  Copyright © 2015

  Chapter One

  “You’re a dick, Dick.” Lisa Ridgeway shouted at her boyfriend—suddenly her ex-boyfriend—through the speaker of the cell phone attached to the dash of her ten-year-old silver Mazda Miata.

  “Come on, Lisa. Don’t be that way.”

  “What way? Angry? Because, yeah, I think I really should be that way.” She sounded whiny and she hated it, but damn, how else could she feel?

  See what you’ve done to me, you asshole? You’ve turned me into one of those girls.

  Richard Molta was sexy as hell and a musician on top of it. She’d gone crazy for him when she and a group of friends had discovered his band Sliders playing at a hole-in-the-wall club in Ft. Worth. From the moment she’d cornered him at the bar, hoping to get his autograph, they’d been inseparable.

  And now they were officially over. No warning. No nothing. At least, not that she’d seen coming. When she’d received his text message a minute earlier, she’d been so shocked she’d almost run off the road. She’d called him immediately and he’d surprised her by answering her call. He never answered her first calls. Not unless he wanted something from her. Or, in this case, to dump her.

  “Lisa, get over it. We’ve been fighting for months. Hell, we don’t even have sex anymore. What’d you expect? Flowers and a love letter?”

  “I expected something more than a fucking text telling me it’s over. Especially when I’m in the middle of nowhere, going to a town I’ve never heard of to pick up a stupid rock you bought off EBay. A fuckin’, stupid rock, damn it.”

  “Calm down before you have a wreck. And it’s a mineral, not a rock.”

  She glared at the phone. “Oh, like you care if I crash and burn. Go fuck yourself, Dick.” She smiled, knowing he hated to be called Dick instead of Richard.

  “Fine, be a bitch about it.”

  “I’ll be anything I want to be, you asshole.” Again, too whiny, but she couldn’t stop.

  “You’re acting like some flaky high school girl. Grow the hell up and deal with it. It’s not like we were ever really serious. At least, I wasn’t.”

  Ow. That one hurt.

  Yet had she been serious about him? Truthfully? Not so much. Still, she’d always assumed she’d be the one to break off their on-again, off-again relationship.

  “You’re telling me to grow the hell up? Are you fucking kidding me? You cheated on me, you bastard, with my best friend. Oh, yeah. Tell Cassie she can go fuck herself, too.”

  “Yeah, real mature, Lisa. I want yo
ur shit out of my apartment by the time I get back.”

  He was going on “tour” for a week again, meaning he’d be traveling between small towns and other hole-in-the-wall bars while she waited for him and imagined how many groupies he’d screw while on the road. “Fuck you. I’ll get my stuff out of your apartment when I damn well want.”

  How could she have been so blind that she hadn’t seen her boyfriend and her now ex-best friend hooking up? Right under her nose. Hell, probably even doing it in their bed. Cassie had a spare key to Richard’s apartment in case of emergencies. An emergency like needing to fuck Lisa’s boyfriend while she was slinging drinks at a crappy bar. She’d saved all her tips, helping Richard pay his rent.

  I’m such an idiot!

  At least she and Richard had never lived together. He’d said it would damage his image as a rocker. What a load of shit. But she’d never pushed to move in. More than likely, she’d sensed they’d never last. He had a toothbrush and a few clothes at her place, but nothing that couldn’t get picked up in a matter of minutes. Or tossed to the curb once she got home.

  “I never meant to hurt you, Lisa.”

  Anger and hurt mixed, blurring her vision. “Oh, sure. You and Cassie just fell into bed together by accident. Damn, I hate it when that shit happens.”

  “I’m sorry, but it’s the way it is. We were kind of hoping you’d understand. We couldn’t help ourselves. No one can fight true love.”

  She gripped the steering wheel so hard it wouldn’t have surprised her to see dents form where her fingers were. “Gee, I’m sorry to disappoint you. True love, huh? I thought that’s what you said we had.”

  His silence said more than his words ever could have.

  “And I’m not going to pick up your stupid rock, either.”

  “It’s not a rock, it’s—”

  “Fuck off, Dick!” She ended the call. If she didn’t, she’d throw the phone out the window.

  Tears streamed down her cheeks faster than she could wipe them away. What had gone wrong? Had it been the pregnancy? Should she have told him? Had Cassie? Had her so-called best friend spilled her secret, hoping he’d freak out and dump her? Was that why he’d ended things?

  When she’d first found out she was pregnant, she’d been scared to death and yet thrilled all at the same time. But that was right before she’d overheard Richard laughing with his friends. They’d made fun of one of his other friends having to get married because his girlfriend was pregnant. Richard had declared loud enough for everyone to hear. He never wanted any kids of his own.

  Lisa placed a hand on her flat abdomen. The week after that, she’d had a lot of pain and had passed a blob of something into the toilet. The next day, her doctor had told her she’d lost the baby.

  Had the baby heard Richard and known his father didn’t want him? It was a silly idea, but one she couldn’t shake.

  Until she’d found out she was pregnant, she’d never given having children a single thought. But after the miscarriage, she’d realized how much she wanted them. At least two, maybe even as many as four or five.

  I’ll make a great mom. At least, I hope I will.

  She glanced around, realizing that she hadn’t paid attention to where she was going. How far had she driven since leaving the highway? Where the hell was she?

  To make matters worse, she needed a bathroom in a bad way. Although there was no sign telling her how far the small town of Crosston was, according dickhead Dick’s directions, she had to be going the right way. How much longer until she saw anything pointing her way to the town?

  Damn it. I’m going to have to pull off and squat by the side of the road. Great. Just great. With my luck, a bunch of jerks will ride by and see me.

  This is so fucked up.

  Dumped by Richard. It hurt. But did it hurt because she’d actually cared for him or because it was just so damn embarrassing?

  Letting out a tortured sob, she pulled the car onto the shoulder of the road. She sat there for a few minutes, fighting the urge to pee. Instead, she wanted to bang her palms against the steering wheel and scream until her throat was sore. Not that it would help.

  She’d known it was going to happen. Hell, down deep she’d even hoped it would. Had she been too cowardly to end it with him? Since losing the baby, she’d been the one who’d rejected him in bed. She’d been the one who’d found herself staring at him as he did a mean imitation of a couch potato and wondered why she hadn’t already broken up with him. Had she forced him to end it?

  They’d never been right for each other. He was a thirty-year old, never-going-to-grow-up kid in a band with four other thirty-something Peter Pan kind of guys still playing dive bars and going nowhere. If she hadn’t been helping him out, he’d have ended up sleeping in a cardboard box.

  “That’s Cassie’s job now.” See? There’s a silver lining to every disaster.

  At twenty-five, she was still a bartender, but at least she’d been attending community college, working toward an associate degree in accounting. One day, she’d become an accountant and be able to earn a decent living. Hell, she’d even get to work during the day like most people did. Not that she liked accounting that much, but she was good with numbers and being an accountant seemed like a responsible kind of job. Besides, a girl had to do something to support herself. At least then, she could support her ever-growing e-book budget.

  Usually a grounded person, she still adored a good love story. She’d realized early on that she was dating a musician partly because it had seemed romantic. Didn’t every girl dream about falling in love with the bad boy in a rock band? Yet she’d only been fooling herself. Had Richard only been a placeholder until her real true love came along?

  True love. Yeah, right. Like that’s a real thing.

  Maybe Richard was right about one thing. It was time to grow up and quit believing romantic fantasies could come true.

  She shoved her shoulder against the car door and slipped out. Checking the road for any tale-tell signs of another car approaching, she pulled her dress up and her panties down.

  If anyone sees me, I’ll just wave and give them a good show.

  She did her business, waited a little while to air dry, and then pulled up panties and smoothed down her dress. By the time she’d made it back behind the wheel, she felt better. It was amazing how getting to pee helped a girl’s mood.

  She checked her phone’s GPS, but it still wasn’t picking up a signal. Glancing around, she wondered if she could make it back to the highway. She’d kind of zoned out while yelling at Richard, but she remembered taking a few turns along some dirt roads. Problem was, had they been left or right turns?

  “Damn it. I’m lost.”

  Going back the way she’d come didn’t guarantee she’d be heading for the highway. Going forward, however, might take her to her destination—if she got lucky. An idea, one that was perhaps a bit juvenile yet held the prospect of making her happy, struck her.

  What if she bought the stupid rock then sent Richard a selfie with her holding the stupid thing? After giving him a few minutes to let it sink in that she’d gotten the rock—and maybe even giving him enough time to text her back—she’d send another selfie of her holding the rock after breaking it apart. The idea was petty and childish, but sometimes petty and childish made a person feel downright good.

  “Crosston, here I come.”

  * * * *

  Craig Westbrook shifted in his saddle. As it always did, gazing over the land of Twisted Oaks Ranch brought a sense of satisfaction. Was there any better life than that of a rancher? The fact that he could think so after pulling an all-nighter nursing a sick calf proved how much he loved the work.

  His best friend, Marrick Kinsale, let his horse trail along the fence. He’d already checked his section for any problems like loose boards and had beaten Marrick back to their starting place.

  He’d gotten lucky meeting Marrick while they were both in the army. They’d been stationed together in Afghani
stan for two years and had become fast friends. Recognizing each other as weretigers hadn’t been the factor that had brought them together. Instead, a hard-nosed sergeant had given them another reason to bond. They’d hated yet respected the man, even though the sergeant kept sending them out on dangerous patrols. In fact, looking back on it, Craig had changed his mind about Sgt. Leftowish. If it hadn’t been for that asshole, he and Marrick might’ve never become as close as brothers. More than likely, he’d still be in Colorado instead of buying an equal share of Marrick’s family ranch.

  “Did you get any sleep last night?” Marrick pulled his horse next to Craig’s.

  “Not much.” Craig pushed his cowboy hat farther up his forehead. “No thanks to you.”

  “Aw, bullshit, man. You know as well as I do you would’ve stayed with the calf even if I’d been there. Besides, someone had to go to the bank this morning and deal with Georgia.”

  Craig didn’t bother arguing. Everything Marrick had said was true. Georgia Gill, the manager of the Bank of Crosston, was a pain in the ass. “I figure I got the better end of the deal. I like staying as far away from Georgia as I can. The woman makes my skin crawl.”

  Marrick chuckled. “You just don’t like her because she’s a panther.”

  Coming from a town in Colorado that was even smaller than Twisted, Craig had never run into a panther before. As a weretiger, he knew lots of other kinds of shifters existed from werewolves, werebears, werepanthers, and if the rumors were true, even weredragons. But was his dislike of her because Georgia was a panther or because she was a bitch? Either way, he was glad Marrick had handled the contracts to assign drilling rights to the oil company.