“I told her I wanted her back and she kicked me out.”
The sound of Vlad’s voice sent such a wave of relief through Rose she’d be embarrassed by it later. Right then, she was beyond grateful he’d ignored her wishes and followed her.
She looked around Anton at Vlad. His scowl was so dark, she shivered. “What are you doing here?” she asked, playing into the story he’d started. “I told you I needed time.”
He looked at her long enough to say, “I was hoping to…talk more.”
“Not now.” She took Zoe’s hand. “Come on, baby.” To Vlad she said, “Later. Maybe. I’ll…I’ll let you know.”
Keeping Zoe on the far side of her, she passed Anton. He stepped off the walkway to give her room, but he was still too close and her stomach tightened as she waited for him to attack. When she reached Vlad and Anton hadn’t moved, she forced out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She glanced at Vlad, just a moment of eye contact, before moving quickly to her SUV. She tossed the gun case onto the front seat, strapped Zoe into her car seat, and climbed behind the wheel, all without looking directly at the brothers. But she kept her awareness focused on them and knew they were staring at her.
Her hands shook as she started the engine. She checked her rearview mirror as she headed out of the cul-de-sac. Anton was standing next to Vlad as they both watched her drive away.
Vlad waited until Rose had turned the corner before he faced his brother. “What in the ever loving hell are you doing here? Why were you talking with Rose?” He had to force down the panic that had shot through him when he’d sensed one of his brothers in the Callaghan’s neighborhood.
Despite her insistence, Vlad had followed Rose from her house to the Callaghan Adventure Travel offices, then on to her parents’ house. He’d kept a discreet distance, not wanting her to see him. Unfortunately, he’d gotten caught behind a fender bender and had to watch her drive off without him guarding her back.
He’d held his anxiety in check by reminding himself that his brothers couldn’t get to this part of Phoenix from the airport in the time since they’d been spotted. He knew where her parents’ house was. He could get there in time to ensure she got out of town safely.
He’d underestimated his brothers. The second time he’d made that mistake in the last month.
“Good to see you too, bro,” Anton said dryly.
“Answer the damned question.” His anger was strong enough to cover his other emotions, thankfully, because he was having a lot of trouble keeping his panic and fear buried. He was used to lying to his family, hiding his real feelings, but seeing Anton so close to Rose and Zoe…
He couldn’t even consider what might have happened. He had to throw Anton off, make him believe the story he’d started about being here to get Rose back. For Zoe’s sake, he had to make sure his younger brother didn’t realize she was his daughter.
Fortunately, Anton couldn’t have sensed Zoe the way their kind sensed each other. He should have been able to feel that she was a tiger shifter—a fact that would have made hiding her relationship to Vlad impossible. But Vlad’s senses couldn’t tell Zoe apart from a human, which meant Anton couldn’t either. It had to have something to do with her being a hybrid. Vlad didn’t understand it, and he had a lot of questions, but for the moment, he was just grateful Zoe’s nature wasn’t easy to discern.
Anton rocked from one foot to the other, not quite meeting Vlad’s gaze when he said, “Just worrying about you.”
“Worrying about me?” Vlad gave him a look.
Anton rolled his eyes and a hint of embarrassment, like the smell of overripe fruit, crept into his scent. “Yeah, well, a lot’s happened in the last five months.”
“So you thought you should come see my ex-girlfriend out of the blue?”
“You’re here. You want to explain that?”
“No.”
Anton was the younger of the twins, by about a minute, and the brother Vlad had managed to get along with, at least when they were younger. Andrey and Yuri were just too much like their father. But for some reason, Anton had been less inclined to hold Vlad’s resemblance to their mother against him.
All three of his younger brothers bore a strong resemblance to their father—as was typical for tigers. Yuri was actually the spitting image of their father with pale blond hair and electric blue eyes. Both twins had darker hair, almost as dark brown as Vlad’s, and Anton’s blue eyes had a lot of gray in them, but his features invoked memories of their father. Both the twins were tall, taller than Vlad by a couple of inches, but Vlad had the advantage of age.