Falling for the Cougar

by Terry Spear

  “Money, what else? Plus, I had some dirt on him. He was military intelligence and he had sold some secrets to China. I told him if he helped me with this business, he wouldn’t go to prison and he’d get paid for the effort. It was too good a deal for him to give up.”

  “And the henchmen you hired?” Bill asked Sam.

  Sam smiled. “Money buys everything.”

  Ten minutes later, other FBI agents came into the apartment, weapons drawn. “Hell, Bill, you had to do this on you own, didn’t you,” one of the men said.

  “It was at my niece’s request since we didn’t know who the mole was,” Bill said. “Hell, what if it was one of you?”

  They smiled and shook their heads at him.

  Ted and Hal arrived at the apartment then with Scott and Nicole’s bags in hand. “The woman who runs the mansion said that she’d been knocked out, tied up, gagged, and locked in the storage closet. If someone hadn’t called the police, she might still have been there, she said. Anyway, we told her you had called them to check on her,” Ted said. “She was grateful and said you could have a free night at the mansion anytime you’d like.”

  Nicole smiled. “Great. I’m glad she was okay.”

  Scott agreed and then told Uncle Ted about Sam as the EMTs loaded Sam into the ambulance.

  Ted was scowling at Sam as the EMT took him away in the ambulance. “I can’t believe Sam was the bastard involved in all of this.”

  “I guess that old adage of keeping your enemies closer really applies here, even though he was thought to be a friend,” Hal said.

  “Are you okay, Uncle Bill?” Scott asked as he went to help Nicole look for the flash drive in the kitchen.

  “Yeah. I guess I just never expected him to be the mole. Not once did he say anything about Scott and Nicole being involved in any of this.”

  “Because Sam didn’t want you involved,” Ted said. “You would have figured out what was going on before long.”

  “Hell, not soon enough.”

  Nicole set a stool down next to the kitchen counter, climbed onto the stool, then lifted her denim skirt as she tried to climb onto the kitchen counter.

  “Here, let me.” Scott pulled her back down. Then he climbed onto her counter and reached the cabinet that touched the ceiling. “What am I looking for?”

  “There’s a jar on the top shelf that says sugar on it. Just pull it down.”

  Bill, his brother, and Hal joined them to see what she had found.

  Scott handed the jar to her, then jumped to the floor. She lifted the lid and smiled. Bundled in cotton, the nesting dolls rested in their makeshift home still.

  Scott asked, “Why in the world did you have them in there?”

  “Mom had wrapped them up in there, she said to keep them dust free. And when she and Dad died, I received all their property. I’d forgotten all about the nesting dolls being in the jar.”

  She unwrapped the dolls from the cotton, then opened the top of the first doll. She shook out the next and continued until she was down to the fifth doll. Inside was the sixth doll and nothing else.

  She tapped her fingers on the tile counter. “He mentioned my mother’s vase he had broken. And the gift he had given my mother to make up for it, which were the nesting dolls.” She stared at the counter. “And he mentioned something else. Something…Japanese. A Japanese charm he said she’d given him.” She looked at the guys. “That’s too weird. Mother wasn’t into stuff like that. She wouldn’t even have begun to know where to find a Japanese charm. Nor would she have given something like that to Boris.”

  “Something else?” Bill asked. “Something Japanese?”

  “My mother didn’t own anything Asian. I have a Chinese lamp, but that’s been mine all along.”

  “Something important to your mother?” Scott asked. “Something that would watch over you? That you would keep. She didn’t give it to Boris, but to you maybe?”

  “Ohmigod, the Japanese snowbirds?” Nicole rushed back into the living room as Bill and Scott followed her. She peered at one of the paintings. Then she looked at the other.

  One of the birds’ eyes appeared to shine slightly. It wasn’t a dull matte finish like the others.

  Bill pulled out a magnifying glass from his pocket and held it over the painting. He smiled. “Can I borrow the painting? I promise we’ll treat it like a Rembrandt.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “If the government ruins my mother’s painting—”

  “I promise we’ll take care of it,” Bill said.

  She studied the painting as he lifted it off the wall. “And it has what on it?”

  “Information about double agents who have infiltrated our intelligence field. The special courier stayed at your parents’ home the day they died in the car crash. He must have hidden the microfilm on your mother’s painting before he vanished.”

  “And Boris? How’d he know?” Nicole asked.

  “He was the special courier. He must have known he was followed, but then couldn’t get back to your parents’ place after their deaths. You received their property. Sam, also known as Lewis, hired the henchmen who were searching for the film. The guys he hired were of the criminal sort. Probably some that he’d apprehended at some time or another and let them walk. We didn’t realize it wasn’t a flash drive after all. I guess Boris was keeping that secret too, so we, or the mole and his men, I should say, would have more difficulty finding it.”

  “What about my parents and how they died?”

  “No one will ever know,” Bill said. “We had our own men investigating the incident but couldn’t find foul play. Only circumstantial evidence like you said. Clear weather, no reason for the car accident to have occurred. I’m afraid it’ll be one of those unsolved mysteries.”

  Maybe. She glanced at Scott. “I think we might have a new mystery game to play.”

  Bill groaned. “I think it’s time for you to take your new bride on her honeymoon. One of my men will take you over to the kennel to get Whiskers. Then we’ll be on our way back to Amarillo. Then you can catch that flight to the Grand Cayman Islands.”

  Scott wrapped his arm around Nicole. “We’ll check into your parents’ accident when we return. But Bill’s right. It’s time to enjoy our honeymoon, Mrs. Weekum.”

  She kissed his cheek. “Clear water this time, no mud wrestling, Mr. Weekum.”

  He chuckled, and she knew from the deeply sensuous sound, they’d be doing a lot of wrestling inside their hotel room, not out.

  Bill, Ted, and Hal just smiled, then led the way.

  As soon as they got Whiskers from the kennel, he laid on his back on the car seat before Bill took him to Amarillo so that Josephine could take care of him while Nicole and Scott were on their honeymoon.

  Immediately, Scott made the mistake of reaching over to pet Whisker’s belly, as if he were a dog. Front paws grabbed his hand, claws extended, back paws clawed at his arm, and Whisker’s teeth clamped down on his hand. He laughed. “Cougars don’t do that.”

  “Not shifter kinds anyway,” Nicole said, laughing. “I suspect if someone tried to rub a cougar that was all cat that way, he’d be in the same bind as you. Though to be honest, some cats like belly rubs. Just not Whiskers.” Then she gave Whiskers a hug and put him in his cat carrier to go home with Bill. Now it was time to enjoy a honeymoon in paradise.

  Epilogue

  The sky was crystal blue, cloud free, just as the water was clear all the way to the white sand bottom that morning in the Grand Cayman Island. This time, Nicole wasn’t going alone. She pulled Scott across the beach as small white crabs ducked into their holes. “The pirate ship excursion, later this afternoon, right?” she asked.

  “You bet. I get to make you walk the plank and everything.”

  “It’s the everything I can’t wait for.”

  Standing waist deep in the azure waters surrounding the island, Nicole rested her head on Scott’s chest. “I can’t believe your mother made all the arrangements for this for us
while we were apprehending the bad guys and she was okay with us getting married without all the fanfare. I was glad to hear your Uncle Bill checked into Bernadette’s claim of being pregnant, and the whole thing was false. Oh, and I can’t wait to run in the forest tonight as cougars on an island paradise.”

  “What I can’t believe, is we arrive here, and you’ve already scheduled swimming for our first activity and a pirate ship adventure for later. We’ll never have time to check out the mattress in our hotel room.”

  “Yes, we will. First, we swim the seven-mile beach, then we’ll take a break in between.”

  “I don’t plan any break in between.”

  “Good, I’d hoped you’d say that.”

  “Seven miles?” he asked.

  “Maybe a mile.”

  He sighed. “That’s more like it.”

  Nicole lifted her arm out of the water and smiled. “No mud.”

  “Hmm, no just perfect.” He kissed her arm up to her shoulder.

  “Maybe swimming wasn’t such a good idea.” She felt his burgeoning arousal as he pulled her close and kissed her. She pulled him from the water. “Did I ever tell you how much I love you?”

  “Yeah, now I get to show you how much I love you back.”

  With fingers interlocked, they grabbed their beach towels and headed for their room.

  Once they walked into their room, Scott pointed to the bathroom. “Want to rinse off some of the saltwater together?”

  Nicole unbuttoned her cover-up slowly. “Anything you say, honey.” She dropped her long-sleeved shirt on the floor and kicked off her sandals as he pulled his T-shirt off.

  “Last one in is a rotten egg.” He grabbed the waistband of his board shorts, but when someone rapped on the door, they both paused.

  Scott crossed the floor and peered out the peephole. “Room service,” he whispered.

  “We didn’t order room service,” she whispered back.

  A keycard shoved into the slot.

  Nicole’s heart beat wildly as she headed for the patio, Scott following close behind.

  “What now?” he asked.

  “We can drop down to the next balcony, and from there, jump to the ground.”

  “I’m not sure about this. I mean, I don’t want you to get hurt…” he said.

  The door began to open.

  Nicole climbed over the balcony and dropped down into the one below it. Then she did the same to the next and jumped onto the grass below. As Scott followed her, she smiled at two young boys, dripping wet from the pool, who stared at them in disbelief.

  “Practicing fire escape drills. But don’t you do that without adult supervision,” she said to them, then grabbed Scott’s hand and hurried away. “Now what? I can’t run around only dressed in my bathing suit forever, and neither of us even have shoes on.”

  “I’ll sneak back to the room and check it out.”

  They hid behind a palm tree as the man in a white coat pushed the food cart back to the kitchen. “That’s the man.”

  She nodded. “We stick together, remember?”

  “Yeah, well, we need to make some new rules.” He grabbed her hand and led her back upstairs to their room. At the door, he hesitated. Then he shoved his keycard in. When the light turned green, he opened the door. On the table, plates covered in silver domes sat.

  In the center, a bottle of champagne nestled in a container of ice, and next to this, a note card sat.

  Scott peeked into the bathroom. “All clear,” he said, then headed for the table. Lifting the note, he read out loud, “A special dinner for my favorite nephew and his new bride and all your help with apprehending the moles in our organization. Love, Uncle Bill.”

  Scott laughed and turned to wink at Nicole as she closed the door to the room. “Got to love him.”

  The phone rang, and they both turned to look at it. She took a deep breath, then answered the phone. No one said a thing, but the heavy breathing on the other end of the phone made her skin chill. Then she noticed something in her suitcase, something shiny. She hung up the phone and pulled her nightie aside.

  Scott pulled off the silver lid to one of the plates. “So who was that on the phone? Hmm, steak and lobster.”

  “A heavy breather.” Underneath her nightie rested a Russian nesting doll. “Scott.”

  He turned to look at the doll as someone else knocked on the door. The keycard slid into the slot.

  Nicole grabbed up her cover-up and shoved the doll in the pocket. “Fire escape.” She dashed for the balcony again.

  Scott hesitated, but then followed her over the edge.

  After they reached the ground, they headed for the pool area where several sunbathers lay out on the chaise lounges…safety in numbers.

  Nicole pulled the nesting doll from her pocket and opened it. Another nesting doll. She continued to open them until she got to the fifth one as Scott looked on with apprehension. When she opened it, she found a sixth nesting doll inside. Collapsing on an empty lounger, she shook her head. “Sorry. I’m getting paranoid.”

  “Shall we enjoy our meal?”

  She glanced back at their room. “Yeah.”

  When they returned to the room, a vase of fresh flowers sat on the table now too. Nicole read the card. “The nesting dolls and the flowers are for you. I’m close by…if you need my help from any more sharks. Just call me. From Boris.” She laughed. “Boris is a spook and here to protect us if we need any further assistance. He must have sneaked the dolls into my bag at some time while we were searching for the flash drive at my apartment.” She pulled the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign out and attached it to their door. Then she bolted it, like they should have done in the first place.

  “That’s good to know. Should we shower first?”

  “You read my mind.” He scooped her up and headed into the luxury bathroom and he was thinking of renovating his home to include a bathroom like this with a whirlpool tub and adding a swimming pool to the backyard, to make it just this perfect. For Nicole, and of course, for him to enjoy with her, the cougar/mermaid from the Gulf.

  * * *

  The End

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks so much to Darla Taylor and Donna Fournier for all their pointers—to Darla for the fun extra part of the scene about cats and belly rubs, the one I included was how my own cat would react when I played a game with her, and Donna making me tie up a couple of loose ends and catching my mistakes too! You all are the cats’ pajamas!

  About the Author

  USA Today bestselling author Terry Spear has written over sixty paranormal and medieval Highland romances. In 2008, Heart of the Wolf was named a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. She has received a PNR Top Pick, a Best Book of the Month nomination by Long and Short Reviews, numerous Night Owl Romance Top Picks, and 2 Paranormal Excellence Awards for Romantic Literature (Finalist & Honorable Mention). In 2016, Billionaire in Wolf’s Clothing was an RT Book Reviews top pick. A retired officer of the U.S. Army Reserves, Terry also creates award-winning teddy bears that have found homes all over the world, helps out with her grandbaby, and she is raising two Havanese puppies. She lives in Spring, Texas.

  Also by Terry Spear

  Heart of the Cougar Series:

  Cougar’s Mate, Book 1

  Call of the Cougar, Book 2

  Taming the Wild Cougar, Book 3

  Covert Cougar Christmas (Novella)

  Double Cougar Trouble, Book 4

  Cougar Undercover, Book 5

  Cougar Magic, Book 6

  Cougar Halloween Mischief (Novella)

  Falling for the Cougar, Book 7

  Heart of the Bear Series

  Loving the White Bear, Book 1

  Claiming the White Bear, Book 2

  The Highlanders Series:Winning the Highlander's Heart, The Accidental Highland Hero, Highland Rake, Taming the Wild Highlander, The Highlander, Her Highland Hero, The Viking’s Highland Lass, His Wild Highland Lass (novella), Vexing the Highlander (novella),
My Highlander

  Other historical romances: Lady Caroline & the Egotistical Earl, A Ghost of a Chance at Love

  Heart of the Wolf Series: Heart of the Wolf, Destiny of the Wolf, To Tempt the Wolf, Legend of the White Wolf, Seduced by the Wolf, Wolf Fever, Heart of the Highland Wolf, Dreaming of the Wolf, A SEAL in Wolf's Clothing, A Howl for a Highlander, A Highland Werewolf Wedding, A SEAL Wolf Christmas, Silence of the Wolf, Hero of a Highland Wolf, A Highland Wolf Christmas, A SEAL Wolf Hunting; A Silver Wolf Christmas, A SEAL Wolf in Too Deep, Alpha Wolf Need Not Apply, Billionaire in Wolf’s Clothing, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, SEAL Wolf Undercover, Dreaming of a White Wolf Christmas, Flight of the White Wolf, All’s Fair in Love and Wolf, A Billionaire Wolf for Christmas, SEAL Wolf Surrender (2019), Silver Town Wolf: Home for the Holidays (2019), Wolff Brothers: You Had Me at Wolf, Night of the Billionaire Wolf

  * * *

  SEAL Wolves: To Tempt the Wolf, A SEAL in Wolf's Clothing, A SEAL Wolf Christmas, A SEAL Wolf Hunting, A SEAL Wolf in Too Deep, SEAL Wolf Undercover, SEAL Wolf Surrender (2019)

  Silver Bros Wolves: Destiny of the Wolf, Wolf Fever, Dreaming of the Wolf, Silence of the Wolf, A Silver Wolf Christmas, Alpha Wolf Need Not Apply, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, All’s Fair in Love and Wolf, Silver Town Wolf: Home for the Holidays (2019)

  Wolff Brothers of Silver Town

  Billionaire Wolves: Billionaire in Wolf’s Clothing, A Billionaire Wolf for Christmas

  Highland Wolves: Heart of the Highland Wolf, A Howl for a Highlander, A Highland Werewolf Wedding, Hero of a Highland Wolf, A Highland Wolf Christmas