by Terry Spear
Thunder continued to rumble throughout the area, though the rain was quieting from the torrential downpour to a steady patter.
Across a grassy plain she saw lights on in a ranch house. She was thinking about the steaks Bettinger and Gunther had cooked on the grill last night, and then she heard chaos.
* * *
Wade hurried to join Maya, licking her face and urging her away from the injured hunter.
Shouts outside then inside the ranch house made Wade believe the cavalry had arrived.
They had to leave. They couldn’t be found out here in their jaguar forms.
They headed for the lake with George. Wade hated having to leave the other female jaguar behind, but someone would soon recapture her and then they could reunite her with the zoo.
When they reached the lake, Maya growled. Facedown in the water, the clothed man still floated.
Wade checked the man for vital signs, but he was dead. Maya was still growling at the man as Wade led her to the portion of the fence that ran across the lake. She quickly began swimming out, ready to leave this place. Wade and George followed her.
Once they had surfaced on the other side and made their way to shore, they heard the shouting of men combing the area, looking for them. Everett, Huntley, and even Martin had come to join the search, as well as others that Wade didn’t recognize.
He shifted and said to Maya and George, “The car is up the road. It’s George’s. Go with him, and I’ll be there in a minute.”
She looked at the other cat. He bowed his head.
She was really going to be pissed at George when she learned of his part in bringing her here.
“Go. I’ll be right there.”
She nodded, and she and George raced off to the vehicle.
Wade cupped his hands and shouted, “Martin! We’re by the lake, all accounted for and heading for the car.”
Men began running in his direction like a stampede of wild horses. Everett saw him first and hurried to take off his raincoat, then frowned. “Not sure I can toss it over that high fence.”
He tried three times, but with the rain and wind, it was useless.
“I’ll shift and return to the car in a moment,” Wade said. “The female jaguar is sitting in a tree about three hundred yards north of the lake. Be careful. And Bettinger is about a hundred yards west of here. The two hunters aren’t feeling very well. One’s pinned beneath a tree with a head wound from crashing his ATV. The other might have a rip-roaring headache. And a dead man’s floating in the lake. Not sure who that is.”
Martin ran up to join them. “That’s the buyer. Gunther Jaemison. He’s got Jim Bettinger’s smell all over him. It appears that Bettinger drowned him. Why don’t you go back to the vehicle and get dressed before the police and reporters arrive? We’ll talk more later.”
“Call Connor and tell him Maya’s safe, will you?”
“Will do.”
Wade shifted and ran toward the car. But headlights were moving in his direction, and he hesitated before he ran across the dirt road, intending to conceal himself in the trees and brush. Then he recognized the rumble of the engine. George’s car. The driver honked twice. It was George.
The car stopped and Maya got out. She was wearing only a shirt—his shirt—and was getting soaked as she motioned to Wade. “Hurry up, Wade.”
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Wade raced to join her, rubbed up against her, then jumped into the backseat of the car. She climbed in with him and closed the door.
Wade shifted and said, “Drive, George. Head back to your hotel so we can grab our car.”
Wade dressed in his boxers and jeans and shoes and socks. He ran his hand over his shirt where it was plastered to Maya’s breasts, looking damned inviting, and leaned over to kiss her mouth, his hands sliding over her breasts. He groaned with need.
“I want to date only you,” she said against his mouth, breathless, the words rushed.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he murmured against her ear.
She looked up at him, her arms around his neck as he continued to massage her breasts with his hands, loving the wet, sexy feel of her. “I missed you, too.” She gave him a thorough tongue kissing, then said, “Everett asked me to dance with him the next time we go to the club. And Huntley, too.”
“Family is the exception. The only exception,” Wade conceded, though he would agree to anything as long as she was safe with him.
She took a deep breath as if she was ready to discuss what had just happened. “Is… Bettinger really dead?”
“Yeah, he is.”
She curled up in Wade’s arms like a needy cat. “He killed Gunther, the buyer,” she said. “The other jaguar’s all right, isn’t she?”
“Safe in a tree. The others might have a time getting her down, but they’ll take good care of her.”
“Good.”
Wade stroked her wet hair and held her close. He still couldn’t believe she was here, safe and in his arms.
“What the hell…?” George said, slamming on the brakes, the car sliding to a halt on the wet road.
Chapter 28
Wade and Maya turned to see what George was viewing, although the rain was hitting the windshield so hard that it was difficult to see what was going on. A dripping-wet naked woman was walking toward the car, dark hair hanging over her shoulders, her eyes amber and staring straight at the car. When George didn’t move, Wade kissed Maya and released her. “Be right back,” he promised.
He quickly got out of the car and hurried toward the woman, smelling her cat scent. She was a shifter. The jaguar he’d seen in the tree on Gunther’s property?
Hell, she hadn’t been the zoo cat.
“Are you okay?” he asked, making sure she was uninjured as he placed his arm around her shoulders to comfort her, afraid she might be in shock because of all that had happened to her.
“Yes, thank you. I… didn’t want to wait for the men to find me and make it harder for them to explain me if the humans learned I was the female jaguar.”
“I understand.” He opened the front passenger door for her and had her sit there. “Give her your shirt, George,” he said when George just gaped at her. Wade shook his head, reminding himself that not all shifters were hero material.
“Yeah, of course. Sure.” George fumbled to remove his shirt, his cheeks turning crimson.
Wade got a call from Martin as he climbed back into the car and Maya slid into his arms again, settling against him like she was his, and he was hers. His heart stuttered with the notion. She finally had decided she wouldn’t look elsewhere for a shifter mate.
He lifted the phone to his ear as he rubbed Maya’s arm, holding her close and sharing his body heat.
“We can’t locate the jaguar,” Martin said. “Where did you say you saw her last?”
Wade smiled and put the phone on speaker as he looked at the woman sitting in the front seat of George’s car and wearing his T-shirt. “She just joined us. She’s a shifter.”
“My name is Caryn Breming. From Houston. I was running as a jaguar in the woods near here when a human hunter saw me and shot me with a tranquilizer dart. He sold me to Gunther. I’ve been in that cat run ever since then. I couldn’t let them know the truth, not when Gunther was always around. I didn’t know that the rest of you were shifters, too. Thanks for rescuing me,” she said.
“Got all that?” Wade asked Martin.
“Hell, yeah.”
“What about Candy?” Wade asked his boss.
“Police collected her and several hunters at the ranch house. The two hunters that tried to kill the jaguars have been arrested. One of them appears to have several broken ribs due to the tree falling on him and a concussion and a pretty bad gash in his head from the ATV crashing into the tree. Pays to wear a helmet. The other one is more open to speculation. My guess? One of the jaguars hit him pretty hard.”
“Served him right,” Wade said.
Caryn gav
e Wade a thumbs-up.
“Gunther’s body was fished out of the lake. We’ve already taken care of Bettinger’s body to avoid anyone seeing him. Good job,” Martin said.
“Even if you had to come here yourself?” Wade asked.
“On one of the biggest problem cases we’ve had in years? My being here means I can take all the credit.”
Wade smiled. One thing they always said about the director of the Special Forces unit was that he gave credit to the men and women who deserved it.
“I’ve informed the police detective that Maya had been kidnapped by Gunther. We’ll have to come up with a viable cover story for that, and she’ll need to talk to him. David also said you needed some time off. It’s granted.”
“Thanks, boss.” Wade rubbed his hand over Maya’s arm as she snuggled against him. He knew just what he’d do with that time off. “I’ve got to make a call to Thompson. Talk to you later,” he told Martin.
At a run as he headed for George’s car, David waved to them. He was about to open the front passenger door when he saw the woman sitting in the front seat. He quickly pulled open the door to the back. “Sorry, Wade,” he said to his brother as he climbed in. “Hate to have to ride back here with you… considering you probably wanted a little privacy.”
“No problem,” Wade said.
David eyed the new woman in the front seat. “I’m David Patterson.”
She gave him a small smile. “Caryn Breming.”
“George Tucker,” George said, as if he was so tongue-tied around the woman that he was having a time saying anything. But with another shifter sounding interested, he jumped right in. “How come I’ve never seen you around?”
“I never do the club scene,” Caryn said, “if you frequent those kinds of places.”
“Me either,” David said. “Not all the time. Hardly ever. Four times now, actually. But two of the times I was just on a job.”
She smiled and nodded at David.
Score one point for David, Wade thought, amused.
“Are you wild?” George asked. He knew that David was because he was in the Service.
“Not me. I’ve never been to the jungle. No interest.” Caryn glanced at George to see his take on it.
“Me either,” George said.
Score one point for George. She cast a look over the seat back at David to hear his response.
He folded his arms and gave a half smile. “Wild all the way.”
Wade was trying his damnedest not to laugh. He had to give his brother points for being an original.
Caryn smiled back at David as if she was intrigued.
Score a point for David? Maybe?
Maya said to David, “And here you called me a wild cat.”
“Yeah, you are, Maya. But I’d rather be in the jungle with you protecting my back than not.”
“Um, what happens after I drop you off at your car?” George asked Wade, sounding as though he wanted to get the topic off wild cats.
“Caryn needs a ride home,” Wade said, then punched in a number on his phone. “So we need to decide how she gets home.” The call he was trying to make went through, and Wade said, “Thompson, how are you doing?
Thompson said, his voice strained, “Hell, they got Maya.”
“We got her back. She’s okay. How about you?”
“Headache the size of Alaska. My wife will be here any minute now. I’m okay, but they wanted to keep me overnight for observation.”
“Good.”
More silence. Wade looked at David and raised his brows. Wade had to know if Thompson had seen Maya shift, but he couldn’t very well just come out and ask him.
Thompson cleared his throat. “Is Maya with you?”
“Right here.”
“Can I talk to her?”
“Sure.” Wade handed the phone to her.
“Maya?” Thompson said.
“Are you okay? I was afraid after the truck crashed and you didn’t move that you were dead.”
“I’m fine. I have a hard head, or so my wife always tells me. I’m sorry I didn’t protect you better.”
“Ha! The crash knocked you out. You couldn’t have done anything differently.”
“Your secret’s safe with me,” Thompson said.
“Thanks, Thompson. You don’t know how important that is. I think Wade was planning to mention to you that the female jaguar wasn’t from your zoo.”
Thompson didn’t say anything for a moment, and Wade was afraid he’d ask to see the jaguar to prove to himself the cat wasn’t her.
“It… wasn’t?” he finally asked, cautiously.
“No. Believe me when I say she wasn’t.”
“Okay, I do.” Thompson sighed. “I have to find her.”
“People who Wade and I know are looking for her as we speak. They won’t let you down, Thompson.”
Thompson paused. “I believe you. Will I see you again?”
Maya smiled up at Wade as she told Thompson, “Maybe at the club sometime. We could dance.”
“I’d like that. My wife just arrived, and she’s taking me home. The last time I got knocked out when I was searching for clues about a wolf, she wouldn’t let me go anywhere for days.” Thompson paused. “Wolves. Hell.” Another long pause. “Werewolves,” he said under his breath.
Maya laughed. “No way.”
Thompson said good-bye to Maya, then spoke to Wade, thanking him for his continued help in trying to locate the Oregon Zoo jaguar.
After he hung up, Wade kissed Maya’s forehead, loving her but not sure what he should do about the fact she had shifted in front of a human. He should report this to Martin. They couldn’t allow a human to know what they were. Yet he couldn’t do it. He sincerely believed that Thompson was one of the good guys. And he didn’t want Maya to be in trouble, either. Besides, if Thompson started telling the world that werewolves and jaguar shifters were real, he’d be laughed out of existence.
“You won’t say a word,” Maya whispered against Wade’s ear as if she could read his thoughts. “You don’t want to be in the doghouse.”
Wade chuckled and squeezed her in a hugging embrace. “No, I don’t.” He was thinking of getting one of those suites at the classy hotel where George and Candy had taken a room.
Maya had other plans.
Before they reached the hotel where the Pattersons’ car was packed, George said, “I’m sorry for… my involvement in this, Maya. I didn’t have all the facts when I helped Jim Bettinger. I… know… Martin has to review the case, but maybe you can put in a good word for me?” He looked terrified and hopeful at the same time.
As angry as she was that George had helped hand her over to Bettinger, she had to admit that he’d risked his life to help Wade protect her from the hunters. She nodded. Maybe next time he’d know better.
Before dropping Caryn off at her home, Maya vowed to get together with her for lunch in Houston sometime, while Caryn said she’d come out to see their nursery. Then, after making arrangements to secure Maya’s car and dropping David off at the hotel where he and Wade were staying, Wade drove Maya back to the Anderson Garden Nursery. She couldn’t wait to see her brother and Kat.
When they finally arrived home, Kat and Connor greeted her, and Maya felt overjoyed to see them. Though she’d had a swim in the lake and been thoroughly rained on during the storm and was still wearing only Wade’s shirt, she wanted to take a hot shower and slip into bed with him.
What she didn’t expect was to see a strawberry-blond-haired woman crossing the living-room floor, ready to greet her, blue eyes smiling. “I’m Tammy,” she said, “your other cousin.” And then she pulled Maya into a hug as if they were the best of friends and always had been.
“What are you doing here?” Maya asked, loving her already. “I’m so glad you came, but no one said anything about it.”
“You know men. My brothers were too intent on rescuing you. Minor details like my being here wouldn’t have been important enough to share with you
. I’m trying to get a lead on Thompson’s missing zoo jaguar, but I wanted to come down and meet you all, too, since you’re my only known cousins.”
Tammy glanced at Wade. “I take it you’re the man of the hour?”
“If you mean I helped free Maya, I’d say she was doing a great job on her own,” Wade said, shaking Tammy’s hand. “I’m only one of the men who came to rescue her.”
“I understand you are practically family now. Don’t be shy.” Tammy pulled him into a hug, and Maya had to really curb the urge to hiss. The only reason she didn’t was that Wade looked nearly as uncomfortable with the woman hugging him as Maya felt.
When Tammy released him, Wade swept Maya up in his arms, and she gave a small cry of surprise. “You think too much,” he whispered against her ear. “We’ll see you all later. I think we might be flying out to Belize real soon.”
“Um, we’re going to go out for lunch and a double feature with Tammy and dinner after that,” Kat said as she grabbed Connor’s arm and headed for the door.
Connor looked surprised, but then getting the point, he nodded. “See you later.”
“And maybe check out that shifter club,” Kat teased.
“Not on your life,” Connor said.
Tammy smiled, waved, and followed them out of the house.
Maya couldn’t have loved Kat more for the suggestion. She breathed in Wade’s musky, sexy cat smell. He wanted her as much as she wanted him. Wade was one happy male jaguar shifter.
When he entered her bedroom, he shut the door with his hip. “You don’t know how badly I wanted to join you here the first night I stayed in your home.”
“Yeah, I do. If my cousins and your brother hadn’t been here…”
He laughed. “Yeah. I knew you wanted me in here.” His mouth curved up, his eyes heating with fire.
“Whirlpool bath first,” she said.