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

Jared thought it was thunder at first, a thick rumble of sound from the area they had just left. Then the unmistakable whup-whup of helicopter blades as the sheriff’s chopper swooped overhead. Its spotlight lit the woods like sunshine.


Great. That’s gonna scare the shit out of him.


Jared sped up, not caring if Peter stayed with him. The chopper’s presence added an urgent beat to his quest; it could light up the woods and reveal both them and Sultan.


And it had infrared. The sheriff’s scope would show Sultan on the move but them as well.


And what if Lawton put his sniper up there in that bird?


Jared stopped as the chopper dangled over an open field, fifty yards away. Its light was pointed away from them and it hovered, buzzing, a hornet of technology. It rotated slowly, searching. It had done a 360 when Peter caught up to him, puffing loudly.


“What’s he doing?” Peter had to yell.


Chapter 68