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

“You just did catch me. I’m heading back out to the station after lunch. Can I get you a cup of coffee or something?” Lawton asked.


“No, but thanks. I’m on my way down to Channel Three to do a taping. My campaign manager is a slave driver.”


“That he is. But Major Hernandez knows his stuff about being reelected.” Lawton nervously snipped the pruning shears in one hand, then stopped.


“Yes, he does.” Silence. She seemed comfortable with it.


“I understand you had one of the choppers up last night.”


“Yes, we did. The old one with the junky infrared. If we’d been able to use the new model, we would have known it wasn’t a tiger in those woods. These funding changes have negatively impacted specialized operations—”


O’Connor held up a hand, nails trimmed and unpolished. Lawton stopped.


She let the silence stretch out again. She was good at that, knew it worked on suspects during interrogation—and employees. “But it wasn’t the tiger.”


Chapter 72