Rise of the Jaguar

by Elizabeth Kelly

  “I’m sure Clay has a new plan to help his brother. Hopefully, this one doesn’t involve dragging another innocent person into this fucking mess,” Kat said.

  “He can’t do it alone,” Emerson said. “He’s just a human.”

  “No, he’s a teleport and a hired killer,” Kat said dismissively. “He’ll be fine.”

  “His teleport abilities were suppressed,” Em said.

  “Only for another week or so,” Kat said. “He can take his fifty grand and hole up in a hotel somewhere until they come back. Then he can rescue his brother.”

  “Katarina, stop it,” Emerson said. “Stop being so cruel. This isn’t you.”

  Kat swallowed hard, her face pale. “Honey, he almost got you killed. I don’t care what happens to him.”

  “No, he saved me. If it weren’t for Clay, Wilson would have forced Owen to alter my memories – to make me forget what I knew about him.”

  “You don’t owe him anything,” Kat said.

  Emerson growled lightly. “You have no idea what -”

  “Are you seriously growling at me right now?” Kat said. “Over an asshole teleporter who doesn’t give a fuck if you live or die? I’m your sister, Em, and I care more about you than that killer ever will.”

  “You don’t know anything about him,” Emerson snarled.

  “I know he kidnapped me, almost killed the man I love, and has somehow brainwashed my sister into thinking -”

  “Brainwashed?” Emerson stood, her jaguar growling in fury. “I’m not some easily swayed child, Katarina.”

  Kat stood as well, her cat growling in response when Emerson hissed at her.

  “I didn’t say you were. But you are impulsive and make rash decisions that come back to bite you in the ass. You don’t think that this is just another bad decision in a lifetime of bad decisions?”

  Emerson bared her fangs at her sister. “All my life, you’ve judged me, Kat. Maybe I’m not perfect like you, but I deserve respect.”

  “I do respect you,” Kat said.

  “No, you don’t! You never have!” Emerson shouted.

  Silence fell over the kitchen. Emerson took a deep breath as Ronin said, “Emotions are high right now. I think the best thing to do is table the Clay discussion and finish it in the morning.”

  Kat scowled. “Ronin, he can’t -”

  “He isn’t going to wake until tomorrow,” Ronin said. “Emerson is dead on her feet and needs sleep. This can wait until the morning.”

  Kat turned to Em. “Emerson, I -”

  “Ronin’s right.” Emerson was suddenly bone-tired, and she and her jaguar needed to be with Clay with a deep-seated ache that almost hurt. “Good night, everyone.”

  “Emmy, I don’t want you staying with Clay in the spare room,” Kat said. “It isn’t safe.”

  “He won’t hurt me.” She walked out of the kitchen and climbed the stairs, blinking back the hot tears as Kat spoke in a low murmur to the others.

  She rubbed her forehead as she opened the bedroom door and stepped inside. She was so tired and…

  “Em?”

  She jumped about a foot, her jaguar releasing a startled hiss before purring loudly at the sight of Clay standing in the middle of the room.

  “Clay!” She ran across the room and hugged him hard, burying her face in his neck and breathing deeply.

  The metallic scent of blood coated his skin, and she could smell his weariness and his confusion. She leaned back and cupped his face. “How do you feel?”

  “Tired.” He glanced around the bedroom. “Where are we?”

  “My sister’s. We’re safe for now, I promise.”

  He backed away from her, making her jaguar whine in protest. He glanced at his chest, touching the skin with a shaky hand. “How did this happen? How am I healed? I was dying, Em.”

  “You were,” she said. “But now you’re not. You need to rest, okay? Get back into bed and sleep. I’ll explain everything in the morning.”

  “Explain it to me now.” He suddenly cocked his head to the side, and relief crossed his face.

  “Clay? What is it?”

  “The hum. It’s -”

  “Emerson?” Kat knocked lightly on the open bedroom door and stepped into the room. “Honey, I’m sorry about what I said. I didn’t mean to…”

  Emerson winced when Kat’s jaguar screamed in fury at Clay, the sound bouncing off the walls and echoing into the hallway.

  “Get away from my sister!” Kat growled as footsteps thundered on the stairs.

  “Katarina!” Ronin ran into the room, followed by Mal and Bishop.

  “What the fuck?” Clay said as he stared in astonishment at Kat and Ronin.

  Emerson reached for him. “Clay, it’s okay. Kat’s my sister and -”

  There was a puff of cold air, and Clay vanished. Her jaguar chuffed in surprise, and Emerson staggered back. “He… he teleported.”

  She turned to stare blankly at the others as Ronin said, “Well, shit.”

  Chapter 16

  “How are you feeling?” Kat stared anxiously at her.

  Emerson dropped into the kitchen chair, taking the cup of coffee Kat handed her with a nod of thanks. “Better.”

  “Did you sleep okay last night?”

  Emerson knew telling Kat she slept like shit because Clay wasn’t in bed with her was a bad idea. Instead, she made a non-committal sound and sipped at her coffee.

  “Are you hungry? I can make you oatmeal or pancakes or -”

  “Kat, I love you, but stop hovering, okay?” Emerson said. “It’s way too early for that.”

  Kat sat in the chair next to hers. They sat silently for a few minutes before Emerson said, “Where’s Ronin?”

  “He’s upstairs still. He wanted to give me a few minutes to apologize to you.” Kat reached out and caught Em’s free hand. “I’m so sorry, Emmy. I don’t judge you, I really don’t, and I hate that I make you feel that way.”

  Her sister’s green eyes had deepened to a bright jade. A sure sign that both she and her jaguar were upset. Kat’s jaguar trilled quietly, and Emerson’s cat replied with a low trill meant to comfort.

  “I know, Kat. I didn’t… I mean, yeah, sometimes I feel like you’re judging me, but I think that’s more to do with me and my insecurities. You’re my younger sister, but you have your life together in a way that I can’t seem to do. You have a fantastic career, a great guy, friends who will drop everything for you… what do I have? A cheating husband, I work for a criminal, and my best friend hasn’t spoken to me in over a year.”

  Kat frowned. “What? Did you and Sarah fight?”

  “No. She got a new man, they moved to Australia for his job, and we just… drifted apart.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Kat said.

  “Because what could you do about it?” Emerson said. “Anyway, I know what Mom and Dad think of me, okay? I know they think I’m impulsive and make bad choices, and I can live with their disapproval… mostly, but I can’t live with you thinking I’m a fuck-up.”

  “I don’t, Em.” Kat squeezed her hand. “I love and respect you, and I don’t want you to think for even a minute that I don’t. Just because we’ve taken different paths in life or do different things doesn’t make me better than you. Okay?”

  “Mom and Dad are so proud of you.” Em’s voice cracked, and Kat’s jaguar purred to her.

  “They’re proud of you too,” Kat said. “Because you are amazing, and anyone who truly knows you can see that. The shit that’s happened to you – Ira cheating, your boss being a criminal, Sarah moving away – those aren’t things that you could predict or control. It’s just dumb bad luck. Right?”

  “I guess,” Emerson said.

  “It is. Besides, Mom has plenty of disappointment for me too. She’s currently not speaking to me because I lost my temper when she asked Ronin for the hundredth damn time when he was going to propose to me.”

  Emerson smiled. “I know. She immediately called me to te
ll me how ungrateful you were and that if she died without a single grandkitten, she would come back and haunt both of us.”

  “Oh God,” Kat said before sitting back. “She’s obsessed with having grandkittens.”

  “Tell me about it. After I left Ira, she had a talk with me about how sometimes men make mistakes, and that forgiveness in a marriage is essential, and that she knew in her heart that Ira would be an excellent father.”

  Kat groaned and took a swallow of coffee. “Are you serious right now?”

  “I am. She brought up my impulsive behaviour and said that leaving Ira was just another bad decision that I was making too quickly.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me this?” Kat said.

  Emerson could smell Kat’s annoyance and her exasperation. “Because I knew you’d say something to Mom, and it would become a thing, and I just wasn’t in the headspace to deal with it, you know? Besides, I expected it. My entire life, every time a decision or a choice I made turned bad, Mom has been there to point it out.”

  Kat chewed on her bottom lip. “I love Mom, you know that I do, but sometimes I think maybe I won’t have kittens. I don’t want to be like Mom and make them feel the way she makes us feel.”

  “You wouldn’t,” Emerson said. “Kat, you’re nothing like Mom. Neither of us are. Is that why you and Ronin aren’t married yet?”

  Kat shook her head. “No, the timing just hasn’t been right, and you know me… I don’t like to rush into anything. I want to marry Ronin, and I will marry him, I just -”

  “Oh my God.” Ronin walked into the kitchen. “Are you proposing to me, Kitten? Because I thought we agreed that if either of us proposed, it would be at a Celine Dion concert while she sang Power of Love. Also – I’m pretty sure I mentioned I want a clown in attendance during the proposal.”

  Emerson laughed. “A clown? Why?”

  “Who else is gonna make the celebratory ‘you just got engaged’ balloon animals?” Ronin said.

  He did a cute butt wiggle when Kat slapped him on the ass as he walked by her. “I told you that I’m open to the Celine Dion concert proposal but not the clown. Clowns are creepy as hell.”

  “You just haven’t met the right clowns.” He poured some coffee into a mug and took a sip before staring at them over the cup. “Shit, did I interrupt Kat’s apology? I thought I’d given you enough time, but I’m an only kid, and I have no idea how long a sibling fight lasts.”

  “You didn’t interrupt,” Emerson said, “and we weren’t fighting yesterday. We were having a heated conversation.”

  Kat laughed. “Remember that heated conversation we had when you were fourteen, and I was thirteen?”

  Emerson sighed. “Don’t remind me. Mom still gets me in trouble for what I did to your hair.”

  “What did you do?” Ronin said.

  “I gave her a small,” Emerson held her fingers apart about an inch, “teensy hair cut.”

  “She tied me to a chair and chopped my waist-length hair off to just below my shoulders,” Kat said.

  “Shit,” Ronin said.

  Emerson shrugged. “I told her not to borrow my leather jacket. She didn’t listen. Besides, her hair looked amazing when I was done.”

  “It did,” Kat said. “But Mom was not pleased. She grounded Emerson for two months. I had to prop a ladder up under her bedroom window to sneak her out of the house for Richard Fenderson’s sixteenth birthday party.”

  Emerson grinned at her. She and Kat didn’t always see eye to eye, but she knew without a doubt that her sister would always have her back.

  “What’s on the agenda for today?” Ronin said.

  “Clothes and a new phone,” Emerson said.

  “All right. Let me finish my coffee and grab some breakfast, and we’ll head out after Kat leaves for work.”

  Kat frowned. “Maybe you should stick to the house for a couple of days, Emerson. Just in case.”

  “I’ve been trapped in a cabin for five days in the middle of a blizzard,” Emerson said. “I’m over just sitting around. I need fresh air. Besides, Ronin’s the best employee at the firm, right?”

  “Yes,” Kat said.

  “Then I’ll be perfectly safe with him.”

  Kat caught her hand when Emerson stood up. “Honey, you can’t try to find Clay. Promise me.”

  A jolt of loneliness washed over Emerson at the mention of Clay’s name. She swallowed hard as her jaguar whined. “I’m not going to look for him. He’s gone, and I’ll never see him again.”

  Her jaguar made another long and sorrowful whine of misery. When Kat inhaled deeply in her direction, Emerson made a beeline for the doorway before her sister caught the scent of her loneliness. “I’ll shower and then be ready to go, Ronin.”

  “You look like shit.” Wilson studied Dax as he walked into Wilson’s office. The big tiger shifter was pale, and his usual powerful stride diminished to a slow and shaky walk. “I know your healing powers diminish with age, but I didn’t think you were that fucking old, Dax.”

  Dax’s upper lip curled as he lowered himself gingerly into the leather chair across from Wilson’s desk. “I was shot twice less than two days ago. One of the bullets just narrowly missed my heart. So maybe you can cut me a fucking break on busting my balls, Wilson.”

  Wilson bit down on his cutting reply. Dax was in a foul mood, and while he wasn’t afraid of his right-hand man, he also didn’t fancy having his head torn off. Healing or not, Dax was more than capable of it.

  “You should be in bed,” he said.

  “Tell me about it,” Dax replied. “Did you find her fucking sister?”

  “Yes. We’ve got her home address and her office address.” Wilson opened the single file folder that sat on his gleaming desk. “Katarina Frost. Jaguar shifter like her sister. She’s a partner at Burke, King, and Frost Security. They mostly provide personal security for shifters, but in the last few years, they’ve branched out into corporate security.”

  “I don’t fucking care,” Dax growled.

  Wilson glared at him. “I’ll forgive your poor attitude based on your recent traumatic experience at the hands of a mere human.”

  Dax growled again. “I told you we needed more than a dozen men.”

  “Perhaps. Or perhaps if you had done your job, I wouldn’t be down a dozen men, including a powerful grizzly shifter and lion shifter. Randy and Thomas were two of my best men, Dax.”

  “If they were so good, how the fuck did they get taken out by your goddamn secretary?”

  Wilson leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers together under his chin. “Emerson is a bit more… resourceful than I imagined she would be.”

  He could hear the admiration in his voice. Dax’s disgusted look told Wilson he could hear it too. “She’s a fucking woman who got lucky, that’s all.”

  “Not sure I agree, but let’s move on,” Wilson said. “No doubt Emerson has gone to her sister in Ashdale. It’s only a few hours from White Rock, and Clay and Owen grew up in Ashdale. It would make sense to both of them to go there.”

  “Clay was wounded badly,” Dax said. “The amount of blood on the ground – Randy had to have done a real number on him before that bitch jaguar killed him.”

  “Perhaps it was Emerson’s blood,” Wilson said.

  Dax shook his head. “I could smell that it was Clay’s blood. He was dying when she hauled him off that fucking mountain.”

  “I had Alex check the local hospital at White Rock and the hospitals in Ashdale. No men were brought in that fit Clay’s description. She was smart and didn’t take him to the hospital. No doubt she has him at her sister’s place with her as he recovers.”

  “Or he’s dead,” Dax said.

  “Or he’s dead,” Wilson echoed as frustration welled inside of him. If that bitch of a cat had let Clay die, Wilson would make her suffer in ways she couldn’t possibly imagine. “Regardless, Emerson is a loose end that needs tying.”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t have fucking told he
r everything,” Dax said. “Letting her in on all your dirty secrets instead of killing her or having Owen immediately wipe her brain was a mistake.”

  “Maybe you should watch your fucking mouth, Dax,” Wilson said. “I’ve had just about enough of your attitude.”

  Dax bared his teeth at him but didn’t say anything else. Wilson stared steadily at Dax for over a minute before saying, “I’m sending a team to the sister’s house. They’ll kill Emerson and her sister and take Clay if he’s still alive.”

  “He won’t be,” Dax said. “No human could lose that amount of blood and survive without going to the hospital.”

  “Clay’s tough and has a strong will to live. You know that better than anybody. The possibility of him being alive is high,” Wilson said.

  “I want to lead the team,” Dax said.

  “No.”

  Dax growled, his pale cheeks flushing a little. “I want to kill that bitch myself.”

  “You failed me earlier, Dax. I won’t allow you to do so again. Not this time. Besides, I’ve already sent the team.”

  “Humans or shifters?”

  “Mostly shifters,” Wilson said.

  “Who’s leading the team?” Dax said.

  “Alan.”

  “He’s an idiot. He’ll fuck it up, I guarantee you.”

  Wilson sighed in exasperation. “It’s a simple job.”

  “She killed Randy and Thomas,” Dax said.

  “The team is going in with serum,” Wilson said. “We’ll neutralize their shifting abilities and then kill them.”

  Dax studied him. “So, now you’re not only shipping it, but you’re using it too?”

  “At our meeting earlier today to discuss when he would be bringing the serum for shipping, Mr. Grimes was kind enough to offer a few vials of the serum for my personal use,” Wilson said.

  “Right. Offered. Has nothing to do with you bringing Owen into that meeting,” Dax said.

  His patience almost at its limit with Dax, Wilson said, “If you have a problem with the way I conduct business, Dax, perhaps it’s time you found new employment.”

  Dax’s body tensed as he stared at Wilson. Wilson didn’t doubt that the tiger shifter knew Wilson would kill him. He slipped one hand under his desk, gripping the dart gun clipped to the underside. The dart carried the suppressant serum. He waited patiently for Dax to make his choice.