by Terry Spear
“I wish you could meet Connor and his wife,” Maya said to her cousins. “I’m joining them in Belize tomorrow.”
“Belize,” Wade said, his eyes widening. “You didn’t say that’s where you were going.”
David choked on his beer. Everett and Huntley frowned at her.
“I didn’t realize you had a need to know.” When no one said anything, she asked, “Okay, is there something wrong with going to Belize?”
“Yeah, it’s really not safe for you,” Wade said. “Can you cancel?”
“No. I’m flying out tomorrow afternoon. We’re staying all next week.” She waited for Wade to tell her what the trouble was.
“Where are you staying?” Wade asked, his cell in hand.
“The Treetop Cottage Jungle Resort.”
Wade punched it into his phone and shook his head.
She folded her arms beneath her breasts. “Okay, so want to tell me what’s wrong?” She was starting to feel antsy. Her brother and Kat were down there.
Everett and Huntley exchanged looks, then Everett said to Candy, “Want to dance?”
“Sure. I thought you’d never ask.”
Huntley took the other lady to the dance floor and Wade moved Maya’s chair closer to his, then spoke in a low voice for her hearing only as David watched them. “We’re with a special unit, tracking exotic animal hunters down—jaguar hunters specifically.”
“You think they’re in Belize?”
“We’ve had word that the buyer meets with hunters here, then the men—or possibly women, though I’d lay odds they are men—head for the regions where jaguars live. To our knowledge, they plan to hunt in Belize this time.”
Belize was a big place. Tons of unexplored territory—places in the jungle where no man had ever set foot. She and her brother and Kat would be fine. She took a deep breath. “Okay, look, it’s illegal to hunt jaguars in Belize, but we both know hunters do kill them. It’s a risk we’re willing to take. We’ve always done so. Drug runners can be a danger, too. It’s the same with them. If we worried about this all the time, we’d never return to our native jungle habitat.”
He was wearing a worried frown.
She tilted her head to the side. “Are you going there?”
“Yeah. David and I.”
“You’re going after these guys.” She didn’t ask him. She knew from the feral look in his eyes that he wasn’t planning on just talking to the hunters who used the club as a rendezvous point. “Is… is this just a job?” She didn’t think so. He was so tense that he looked like he was ready to snap.
“Yeah, it’s a job.”
But it seemed personal. Or maybe she was just projecting.
The dance music ended, and Everett and Huntley hurried the women back to their chairs.
“Um,” Everett said, glancing at the human women, who were all ears. “Did you come to some decision?”
He seemed to be asking both Maya and Wade.
“They’ve got a job to do in Belize,” Maya said, waving her hand at David and Wade. “And I’ve got a vacation coming up.”
Everett turned his attention to Wade. “Can we have a word with you? In private?”
Maya ground her teeth. She suspected the “word” had something to do with her and her family.
“Can it wait until we leave?” Wade glanced at the shifters just waiting for an opening to ask Maya to dance.
Right now, with four male jaguars sitting with Maya, none of the other three shifters dared approach. She might as well have been with Connor for all the freedom she had.
“In fact, we could leave now,” Wade said.
“No, I don’t want to leave this instant.” She’d never been around other shifters before, and she did want to dance. She wanted to discover if one of them might interest her more than Wade did. If she left now, would she ever have the nerve to come back?
“We need to talk now,” Everett said to Wade. In private. He didn’t have to tack on the words; the message was clear.
David cleared his throat. “I’ll watch over her.”
Candy snorted. “She’s a wild thing. Why does anyone need to watch over her?”
Maya smiled and gave her a thumbs-up.
Maya’s cousins stared at Candy like she was nuts. Her cheeks reddened a bit.
Wade gave David a warning look as though he’d just better take care of Maya, and then he stepped outside with her cousins.
Time to dance, and when the guys returned, she wanted to make plans for her cousins to meet Connor and Kat at a later date. She wasn’t sure how her brother would react, but she was thrilled to have found more family.
As soon as Wade left with her cousins, the jaguar piranhas moved in.
Maya was going to demonstrate to David she’d be fine, show Candy she had the blond guy’s nickname down pat, and dance with another shifter to prove to herself she could do it—and nothing bad would come of it.
“I’m dancing with Lion Mane,” she said to David, then held her hand out to Lion Mane.
He hurried to take her to the dance floor, though the redhead gave him a manly shove, telling him “Way to go,” and no doubt wishing Maya had invited him to dance instead.
She cast a look over her shoulder at Candy and mouthed, “I told you so.”
Eyes narrowed, Candy gave a little shrug like she didn’t care.
David didn’t come after Maya, which she appreciated. Instead, he pulled Cherry, the other lady seated at their table, onto the dance floor. He moved her nearer to Lion Mane and Maya as if he was going to protect her that way. She really liked Wade’s brother. He was sweet and not half as controlling as Wade. Looks could be deceiving, though. If she’d been someone David was interested in dating? Might have been a whole different story.
When Lion Mane pulled her close, she let him, figuring it was only one dance and then she’d take a new dance partner.
He had some wild moves, twirling her and pressing her intimately against his very hard body, their blond hair colliding as he dipped her and swung her around.
“Beautiful,” he purred and tried to kiss her. When she turned her head away from his mouth, he said, “You gave me a nickname.”
The implication was that she wanted him to kiss her like she had kissed Wade—and probably go much further. “Yes, because the name suited you.”
His hands slid up her waist, his thumbs brushing underneath her breasts like she wished Wade had done, but she didn’t care for this guy’s intimacy. “Because you want me,” Lion Mane said.
No, she didn’t want him. She just wanted to dance with other shifters.
She tried to appease him somewhat. “I love your hair.”
He smiled. “Run your hands through it, beautiful cat.”
“Thank you, no. I’ll just enjoy looking at it.”
Lion Mane twisted his head a little and looked at her, his expression one of disbelief. He knew she wanted to touch his hair. Probably all the women loved to. “The man you danced with earlier does not want to see you with others of our kind.”
She didn’t respond to his comment. He was fishing about her relationship to Wade. As far as she was concerned, she and Wade didn’t have one yet.
“He is not the one for you. He’s too controlling. You need your freedom.” The music ended and Lion Mane kept her close. So much for his sentiments about her needing her freedom.
She tried to back off, but David was coming to her rescue. The redhead, Bill Bettinger, was headed their way, too.
Another man, one she hadn’t noticed before, reached her first. Even though he was human, he was well over six feet tall and towered over Lion Mane and the others. The intimidating blond-bearded human quickly took charge of the situation. Wearing camouflage, he seemed out of place despite the club’s jungle theme. His vivid blue eyes studied her the way a hunter would its prey. Not that he appeared to be a bad man, but he did look like a hunter minus the rifle. Hunters were bad news for big cats like her.
The male cats closin
g in on her looked like they’d love to shift and take care of the interfering human.
“You seem extremely popular here,” the human said, as he began to dance with her. “Come often?”
“First time.”
He raised a brow. He wasn’t holding her too close. He was gentlemanly, in fact, and she liked that.
She had a feeling, though, that he had some other purpose in dancing with her.
He cleared his throat. “I saw your picture on the website.”
“Website?” she said, trying to figure out the connection. “You must be mistaken.” Only her jaguar picture was on their garden nursery website, not any of her in human form. How would he have recognized her?
“You’re Maya Anderson, part owner of the Anderson Garden Nursery?”
“Yes,” she said, hesitating. “How do you know that? Which photo are you talking about?” They had dozens of pictures on their website showcasing the pottery barn, the greenhouse, and the sections that featured the variety of plants they offered.
“I was particularly interested in the greenhouse,” he said.
That still didn’t answer how he would know her by some photo. “Are you considering building one?”
He shook his head. Blue eyes narrowed, he studied her. “Where’s the jaguar?”
Astonished at the question, she stared at him openmouthed, took a misstep, and only managed not to trip because he hurried to steady her.
“What jaguar?” she asked, using her most annoyed voice, which wasn’t difficult.
The mention of the jaguar made her heart begin to pound. With Kat’s help, she’d revamped their nursery website to include a picture of her—in her jaguar coat surrounded by glossy-leafed tropical plants—inside the greenhouse. She’d also added some special links that talked about the plight of the jaguars. She’d posed for one picture as a ferocious cat, but Kat had also caught her snoozing on a bench, legs and tail just hanging off, eyes closed—one happy, sleepy cat—and snapped a picture of her.
Maya had objected to putting that picture on the site, but both Kat and Connor had insisted, though Connor hadn’t liked featuring jaguars on their webpage in the first place, worried it would draw undue attention.
The human didn’t say anything further about the jaguar on her site, just continued to dance with her as if he was giving her time to come up with a good alibi.
The man finally smiled at her, then said, “The picture of the jaguar on your website.”
“Oh,” she said as if it finally came to her. “The jaguar in the greenhouse. What about it?”
“Where did you get the cat?” He continued to dance with her slowly, not tightening his grip on her as if wanting to shake the truth out of her or ensure she didn’t run away, but just as gentlemanly as before.
She should have jerked away from him, but she couldn’t. She had to know where this was leading. “I don’t understand what you’re asking.”
“The jaguar,” he said. “Where… is… the… jaguar?”
“Photoshopped,” she blurted. What else could she say? They’d borrowed a cat from somewhere?
Telling the truth was so much easier. Not believable. But easier. Telling a lie? It just snowballed into something totally unmanageable.
His smile said he knew she’d lied. “I verified that the picture was authentic. Real greenhouse. Real cat in greenhouse. Not Photoshopped.” He waited a heartbeat for her response. When she didn’t offer him any explanation, he pulled a card from his pocket and handed it to her.
Henry Lee Thompson, Agent for the Preservation of Wildlife, Portland, Oregon.
A picture of a gray wolf’s head was featured in
one corner.
She frowned and looked up at Thompson. “Portland, Oregon? What are you doing way out here?”
“I’m a zoologist for the Oregon Zoo. One of our jaguars was stolen. I was asked to look into it.”
“Do you often have problems with people stealing predators from the zoo?” she asked, trying to sound flippant, like she couldn’t believe anyone would be that stupid.
“Only the wolves,” he said.
Her eyes widened. “Wolves?”
His jaw tightened. “Yeah, but I’m here because of a missing jaguar.”
She couldn’t wrap her mind around the idea that someone was stealing wolves and jaguars from a zoo. Finally, she focused again on the real issue at hand, the only one that should concern her—that he thought she’d stolen the big cat. “Oh, and you naturally assumed my Photoshopped cat was your jaguar.”
“The cat was real. The setting was real, Miss Anderson. The jaguar looks just like ours.”
Her lips parted, then she frowned again. “So you’re telling me all spotted cats look alike? If you knew anything about them, you’d know the rosettes are uniquely patterned. That’s how scientists can tell them apart.” She almost said us apart because she was so angry.
Most humans would think jaguars all looked alike. Even though she and Connor were twins, they had differences in their jaguar appearance other than the shape of their rosettes. Her cheeks and chest had more white than his did, for one thing.
“Search the garden nursery if you want. You’ll find plenty of plants. Maybe a kitty cat or two. They’re kind of wild, but they catch mice, and we’ve found them curled up in the catnip and basil before. We don’t have any big cats there.”
“Big cats?” he asked, sounding suspicious. “I was asking about only one.”
She felt her cheeks warm. Maybe Connor had been right, though she hated to admit it. Maybe trying to catch a jaguar shifter’s attention on social networking sites was going to cause more trouble than it was worth.
“So where’s the cat in the photo?” Thompson
asked again.
Thompson was like a wolf, she decided. Just like the picture on his business card. All people had an animal type. Some were snakes, some sharks, some butterflies; others cats, doe-eyed deer, or bull terriers. Thompson was a lone wolf, and right now he wasn’t letting go of his potential prey.
The truth, then. “It was me,” she said, cocking her head. “I confess. I was having a bad hair day so I shifted, and one of the other jaguar shifters in the family snapped the photo. We all sat around looking at it afterward over glasses of ice-cold milk—cats like milk, you know—and decided it would be great for the website since jaguars love the jungle. The jaguar gave the greenhouse a wilder appearance and would catch a viewer’s attention. We’d make more sales that way, don’t you see?”
He nodded agreeably, a lifted brow saying he didn’t believe a word she said.
She smiled. “I like you, Thompson. I love jaguars. I wish I could help you find your jaguar and return her to the zoo.”
“I believe you. So where did you get the cat for your website photo?”
Chapter 3
“Make it brief,” Wade said, as he moved outside the club with Everett and Huntley. He knew Maya would dance with the other shifters, as much of a free spirit as she was. He didn’t like it, even though he knew he had no claim on her. He didn’t like that she was more vulnerable without her brother—or him—to watch over her.
He walked with her cousins into an alley between the buildings for privacy. “David can’t hold them all off for long.”
Everett folded his arms and scowled at Wade. “I thought you were going to talk her out of going to Belize, Patterson. Until the hunters are dead, our kind aren’t safe down there.”
“I can’t. She was right. Anytime we go south of the border, we’re at risk.”
Huntley growled, “Okay, so she said you’re going there. Are you planning to protect her?”
“I can’t stay with her. I have my orders. If I can take the hunters down, that’ll be the end of the problem.”
“So your orders were to go to Belize,” Everett said. “Not to stay here and dance with our cousin.”
Wade tried to keep his temper. He understood her cousins were concerned for her safety. “We had word that
the buyer was meeting here with the hunters commissioned to locate and smuggle a cat out of Belize. We had no idea that Maya would be here, or that her brother and sister-in-law and she were going to be in Belize.”
“All right,” Huntley said. “We’ve got a job here, but if we can finish it and get there in time to help out, where would we meet you?”
“Our source there said the hunters are headed to the area between the Macal and Mopan rivers in one of the rainforest preserves in Central Belize. We’ll check on the resort where Maya and her family are staying once we get in. No flights are available until tomorrow.”
Everett glanced back at the club. “I take it you don’t know who the buyer is. We could at least take him down.”
“No. That’s why we’re here. To learn what we can about the deal going down before we target the men who are going after a big cat. We’ve been here for three hours already. Haven’t seen anyone who appeared to be making a deal with hunters.”
“One or more of the shifters here are sure to follow her back to her place,” Huntley said. “At least three damn male shifters in the club are interested in her. Hell, if she wasn’t my cousin, I would be, too.”
“What are your plans with her?” Everett asked, as if he was playing the role of her brother while Connor was away.
Wade would have told him to take a flying leap, which for jaguars was an easy task, but because he might work with these men on an assignment in the future, and because he was interested in dating Maya and these men were family, he said, “I want to get to know her better. I was able to help protect her, Connor, and his wife in the Amazon jungle in an ugly situation five months ago. I only have her best interests at heart.”
Everett studied him for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, and you’re one of us.” He sounded as though he approved.
“Our mission is in Brazil tomorrow or we’d go with her to see to her safety,” Huntley said.
“I understand,” Wade said.
Something crashed inside the club, and shouts could be heard over the music. A brawl, Wade thought, just what they all needed now—not.
Maya and David could be in the middle of it.