A man. A tiger. A tornado. Jared Montaine owns a big cat rescue in Florida and faces financial pressures, getting over his ex-wife, and the challenge of suburbia creeping ever closer to his enclave for the animals. But when a tornado wrecks part of the refuge, Jared's worst fear comes to life: his Siberian tiger, Sultan, escapes. It's a big cat handler’s nightmare: a tiger on the loose, confused, lost -- and hungry. Jared races against the police, the media, and the hysterical public, all of whom are clamoring for the tiger's hide. He must re-capture Sultan before the cat is killed -- by traffic, by SWAT, or by a civilian who just wants to shoot a tiger. With fellow wildlife handlers at his side, Jared fights desperately to find and capture Sultan before the tiger injures or kills a human. Because that would lead to his worst nightmare -- having to kill the tiger he hand-raised from a cub. Jared’s commitment is tested -- to his animals, his refuge, and his belief that saving the life of even one tiger is worth losing everything.

The Tiger Whisperer

“Okay, team, listen up!” Jared’s fingers circled over the map. “Here’s the local area. Dawson’s ranch is to the west, about seventeen hundred acres from Morris Bridge Road all the way north to Bruce B Downs. East of that is the Thousand Oaks subdivision. Beyond that, there’s county park so lots of room to hide if Sultan headed that way. Right behind us, there’s more of Dawson’s property, some swamp here, then the back of—what the hell is this one?”


“Yeah, Citrus Groves. To the south is another subdivision, Otter Creek Estates. I guarantee you there are no otters there anymore. And to the east is Miller’s ranch, but it’s sold and they’ve started construction on another development. No one’s living there yet.” Jared stopped for a second and gazed at the map, really seeing it.


The years of the refuge being snugly isolated were gone; the developers had moved in.


Chapter 37