Tempted by the Jaguar #4: Infiltration (Riverford Shifters)

by Cristina Rayne

  His face crumbled, unable to say the rest.

  A thus far silent Adam reached over and put a comforting hand on Jack’s shoulder. “We’ll get Maya out,” he said, dark eyes flashing with fierce determination. He looked back at Hunter. “We’ll get them all out.”

  Jack raised a hand weakly to clasp Adam’s forearm in a show of gratitude before he turned his gaze to the group of Elders. “I heard them call that cougar ‘Grace,’” he said. “We should ask the cougar clan’s Elders if anyone by that name has gone missing within the last few years.”

  A large chasm suddenly opened up in the pit of Kylie’s stomach and swallowed her whole. It had to be a coincidence. It had to…but…!

  Mom…

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Are you okay?” Kylie heard Adam ask, his voice sounding muffled and distant as though the length of a football field separated them, but she couldn’t drag her mind away from the horrible conclusion that her thoughts had reached enough to answer him.

  A cougar. Her name was Grace. Could it be?

  Suddenly, Hunter was standing in front of her and tilting her chin up with a firm grip. “Kylie, what’s wrong?” he demanded, his eyes swimming with worry.

  “I-I need to—need to leave,” she stuttered, shaking her head a little until she could focus on his face. She grabbed Hunter’s arms and squeezed them urgently. “I need to check with—Hunter, I think I might know her! Grace, I mean.”

  Several people gasped as Kylie fixed Hunter with anguished eyes, willing him to understand what she was trying to tell him. She couldn’t say it, not in front of these people.

  “We need to talk to Paul!” she insisted, willing him to get what she was insinuating.

  She knew the moment he understood, though his eyes only widened a fraction, but Kylie had seen it, the horror that had also flashed fleetingly within his eyes.

  Hunter looked over at the Elders and said, “If she’s right… Either way, I need to take her to speak with the cougar clan Elders right now. Sorry to run out on you so abruptly, especially when it was me that requested this meeting, but I’ll be back as soon as I can to resume our discussions. Maybe by then, Maxim’ll have more info for us, or maybe even be able to join us.”

  “Go. We’ll be down here all night, so take all the time you need,” Glen said. “I’ll have Jack text you my number. Call, and we’ll send Adam out to meet you again when you return.”

  Within minutes they were back on the surface and hurrying through the weeds to Hunter’s truck. Only when they were inside did Kylie lose her grip on the thundering emotions that she had been struggling to keep from breaking loose. Her face scrunched up, and silent tears began to fall at the thought that her mother may very well still be alive, that after over a decade of looking, she may have finally found her in the worst place imaginable.

  Hunter just as quietly reached over and enveloped her within his arms. She melted into his warmth and closed her eyes, her breath hitching as she cried softly.

  “After my parents had been missing for two years,” she said thickly against his neck, “I knew deep down that they were dead, that what Paul, Laura, and I were really looking for was the ‘how’ and not them at all. Then to suddenly find out that she might be in that horrible place being t-tortured…experimented on…”

  “We’ll get them out,” Hunter echoed Adam’s earlier words fiercely.

  Kylie pulled back a little and wiped at her eyes furiously.

  “You’re damn right we’re going to get them out!” she growled.

  Hunter settled himself back into his seat and turned on the ignition. “Let’s go talk to Maxim. We’ll decide what to do next from there, though I have a feeling none of us will be getting much sleep tonight.”

  ***

  The utterly blank look on Maxim’s face when he met them at the door to his office at Southern Glacier and the way he immediately fixed his eyes on her sent every alarm bell in Kylie’s head screeching. She recalled that he had left the clinic in order to view some new video footage. The scents coming off him were also strange, and once again, she cursed her ignorance.

  “It’s about Molly, isn’t it?” she blurted out before they could even step into the room.

  Maxim stilled completely for a breath, that small hesitation making her anxiety levels skyrocket.

  “Your perception’s pretty good,” he replied as he stepped aside and waved them inside. “That or my poker face is slipping.”

  Kylie grabbed one of his arms. “What did you find?”

  “A connection, possibly.” He sighed. “I had hoped to investigate it a little more before discussing it with you, but maybe showing you the footage will be better.”

  “Footage?” Hunter questioned. “Are we talking security footage from a business or from one of your people’s personal cameras?”

  “It’s security footage from Riverford Regional. A guy from my clan works security for them, and I asked him to review their footage from the last couple of days, particularly keeping an eye out for all the people we’ve been able to identify to be likely Sniffers. It seems our two cougar friends Lana’s been tailing have shown up an alarming number of times in the footage, but it’s what they did there today that’s so troubling.”

  Maxim walked over to his desk and picked up his phone. After scrolling through a few pictures, he handed the phone to Kylie. “These are the two cougars we’ve been watching as probable sniffers.”

  The picture was of two blond men who looked to be in their late twenties. They didn’t look even remotely familiar.

  While she was staring at the picture, Maxim turned his large, flat-paneled monitor around so they could all see it. Hunter and she moved to stand at the edge of his desk. A video player window was open and paused on a grainy scene of what Kylie instantly recognized as the waiting area of Riverford Regional’s ER. Before she could scrutinize it further, Maxim reached over to the touchscreen and dragged the slider bar back a few frames with his finger.

  “Watch the entrance carefully.”

  Frowning, Kylie bent closer. Within a minute, two light-haired men walked in, and her eyes narrowed as she stared at their faces. Even a bit grainy, she recognized them as the cougars in the picture.

  Kylie felt Hunter stir beside her. “This was just a few hours ago. Still looking for Kylie’s father, maybe? Or the assassin?”

  “Maybe yes to all of that,” Maxim said, his eyes glued to the screen, “but in a few seconds you’ll see—well, just watch.”

  Kylie could practically taste the tension coming off the tiger, but she didn’t dare take her eyes off the unfolding scene to see his expression.

  The two men made their way to the nurses’ station where they paused to talk to a couple of the nurses working behind the long counter. One of the nurses nodded and walked off while one of the men continued to talk to the remaining nurse. The other leaned up against the counter with his back towards her, his posture casual.

  Suddenly, Kylie gasped as the nurse returned and she got a good look at the person wearing regular street clothes trailing her. No—it couldn’t be…

  “I was under the impression that Karen Wilson and her son had gone into hiding,” Maxim said grimly.

  Each of his words was like a pebble falling into a still pond, and yet she still found herself shaking her head, rejecting the horrible direction her mind wanted to go. There was no way—no way Karen would betray them! It had to be a horrible coincidence. She probably had no idea those two were Sniffers. She looked at Hunter pleadingly, but the expression on his face mirrored his friend’s.

  “There’s no way Karen’s working for the lions!” Kylie protested vehemently. “Her husband was murdered by a lion, for God’s sake!”

  Maxim nodded. “That was my exact thought—at first.” He paused the video and moved it back a few seconds. “Watch.”

  The last thing Kylie wanted to do was watch, but she forced herself not to look away, to not even blink as someone she had always thought of lik
e an aunt immediately gestured for the two Sniffers to follow after her without so much as a moment’s hesitation or hint of wariness in her demeanor. Karen was as relaxed as if she was talking to a couple of friends. Even if Karen had a good reason for being in the ER at the moment instead of hiding away—Mitch had been injured after all and maybe they had lied about how serious it was in order to not add to her worries—what she was seeing now was pretty damning.

  When the trio walked out of the camera’s view, Maxim paused the video. Kylie felt Hunter slip a comforting arm around her waist, but her eyes remained fixed on the scene frozen on the screen, unable to face either man and see the pity that was very likely in their eyes just yet.

  “Grief is a terrible thing,” Maxim said into tense silence. “It changes a person’s entire perspective. Imagine if a loved one was killed and those same murderers went on to threaten another, this time a child. You’d be more likely to believe them when they say the knife is already pressed against that child’s throat.”

  Kylie looked at him sharply. “You’re saying they might have blackmailed her, threatened to kill Mitch?”

  “I did find it strange that the assassin found you and your father so quickly, and after seeing this footage and the history of the Wilson family being what it is, I’m almost certain of it.”

  “Is this all the footage of them you have?” Hunter asked.

  “They pop up in a few other feeds. One shows her entering an employee lounge briefly while the cougars wait outside. The others show them leaving the hospital, and then the premises, on foot.”

  Hunter turned Kylie’s body to face him. “Did you tell Karen or Mitch the location of my clan’s clinic?” he asked, his voice suddenly urgent.

  “No,” she replied with relief, realizing what he was really asking. “I didn’t think that was something I should blab about without permission, so I just told her you brought us somewhere safe and hidden where Paul could be treated.”

  “Speaking of safe and hidden,” Maxim said, “I’m pretty shocked that you allowed Kylie to leave the clinic.”

  “I didn’t have a choice,” Hunter replied irritably. “The wolf clan Elders wanted to talk face-to-face, but before I could leave, Gaither cornered us. He wanted to talk to Kylie. There was no way I was going to leave her there, so Kylie made up an excuse about needing to fetch something important for her father and we blew him off. Until we find out for sure whether or not there’s another Polyshifter running around Riverford, she stays with either me or you at all times.”

  “My people have found nothing new on that front,” Maxim said, flashing Kylie an apologetic expression. “Unfortunately, there were no shifters living in your friend, Molly’s, apartment complex, so there were no witnesses to even ask about whether or not any gators had been seen lurking in the last day or so. All we can do now is scour the city and try to pick up Molly’s scent while the police investigate as they usually do. Your friend, Tara, was sent home about thirty minutes ago, and I sent a couple of my wolves to keep an eye on her place tonight.”

  “Saying ‘thanks’ just doesn’t seem like enough,” Kylie said guiltily. “I just wish I could do more to help, especially now that I found out—oh! I still haven’t told you! It’s the reason why we came to talk to you in the first place. I might have finally found my mother!”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “Your mother?” Maxim echoed, looking completely taken aback.

  Kylie nodded. “When we went to see Jack and the wolf Elders, he freaked out when he saw me. He said I looked like one of the cougars that were being held captive at that horrible ranch, that her name was Grace. If you saw a picture of my mother during her college days, you would probably think it’s me, we look that much alike. Also, my mother’s name is Grace, and ever since she came here to America, she’s lived as a cougar.”

  She looked at both men with determination. “That’s why whatever you two plan on doing to rescue the captives, count me in.”

  “No!” Hunter practically snarled, his arm tightening around her waist as though he expected her to run off right then and there. “If you think I would let you within a hundred miles of that place—”

  Kylie’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t even think about trying to keep me out of it. At the very least, if you plan to storm the place, I can bring my lion soul to the forefront, serve as a distraction.”

  “That cougar may not be your mother,” Hunter argued.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Kylie replied mulishly. “Your brother and Anna definitely are there, and if I can help in any way, I want to do it.”

  “I hate to say it,” Maxim cut in, “but she does have a good point. A lion may even get us through the front door, so to speak.”

  Hunter shot his best friend a look of betrayal. “If her mother really is one of their captives, her cover would be blown the moment anyone in that place got a good look at her.”

  Kylie shrugged. “I’ll wear a blonde wig.”

  This time Kylie was on the receiving end of his withering gaze. “I don’t want to lose someone else that I care about to those fuckers if things go south.”

  Her heart thumped painfully at his admission. Dammit, but the look of very real pain in his eyes made her want to give in, to allow him to protect her completely as he had promised earlier. She smiled at him sadly and bent over to kiss him softly, not caring that Maxim was watching. She had never been the type of person to sit around and let others take care of her if she could at all help it, and this time would be no different no matter how long Hunter looked at her with those pleading eyes.

  “And I don’t want to lose you, either,” she said softly, “but this is something I have to do for myself just as much as you do. If that cougar really is my mother—I would never forgive myself if something went wrong and I knew I didn’t do everything in my power to help get her out of there.”

  Hunter sighed and pressed his forehead firmly against her own. “Why is it that I only seem to attract stubborn people into my life?” he said, his tone tinged with amusement.

  The smile that Maxim directed at them was bittersweet. “Well, somebody needs to kick your brooding ass into shape when I’m not around.”

  Hunter snorted but he didn’t deny it. Kylie supposed she needed his reticence just as much. They really did complement each other, she thought with some surprise.

  “Hopefully we’ll have a lot more intel on the ranch and what the fuck those sickos are actually doing there by the morning,” Maxim said, “and in the meantime, let’s see just how many shifters on this end are willing to follow us into what very well may turn out to be a serious battle. With all these Sniffers and assassins suddenly coming out of the woodwork, I really don’t think we should wait longer than another day to make our move, be it covert or all-out war.”

  “The wolf clan Elders are waiting for me to go back,” Hunter said. “I’ll see just how far they’re willing to go. Afterwards, I’ll contact some friends from the bobcat clan and see if I can drudge up some volunteers.”

  Maxim shook his head. “I seriously doubt you’ll have to try all that hard,” he said dryly.

  “I’m counting on it.”

  Maxim turned to her and said, “Kylie, if Karen calls you, don’t answer. Wait an hour, then text her a message saying that you and your father are okay but in the process of being moved to a new, undisclosed location and will call her as soon as you’re settled. If she is being coerced, that’ll buy them some safety for a few days and us some time to locate both her and Mitch. I’ll see if I can get some of the shifters on the force to pick them up once we do find them. Innocent or not, we need to confront her with the security footage sooner rather than later.”

  Kylie nodded.

  “I may need to call you later for a three-way conference with the wolves, so keep your phone handy,” Hunter said as he took Kylie’s hand and led her to the door. “Unless something else comes up, we’ll be at my clan’s clinic once I finish talking with the wolves.”

&nb
sp; “Stay safe, you two.”

  “Bobcats?” Kylie asked Hunter skeptically as they left Maxim’s club through the VIP exit. Although only a couple of Maxim’s employees were around, she still lowered her voice. “Going against a lion, I imagine it would be like David and Goliath.”

  Hunter grinned. “That’s not a bad comparison. It’s not their claws or fangs I’m interested in, it’s their guns.”

  Kylie looked at him incredulously. “Guns…?”

  “That whole clan practically worships anything with a loud bang. Civil War era firearms, cannons, AK47s, all the way down to fireworks, they’re crazy about them all. A few of them have even medaled in both men’s and women’s shooting in the Olympics over the years. Having an opportunity to participate in an actual gunfight would literally be a dream come true for most of them.”

  “Do you really think it’ll come to that?” Kylie asked worriedly.

  “I truly hope not, but we need to be prepared for the worst case scenario. Having a few sharpshooters in our corner can only better our chances.”

  Once inside the truck, Kylie rubbed at her eyes wearily. “I wonder if I should even tell Paul about any of this—Karen, the ranch, a new, very promising lead on my mother. He has enough on his plate dealing with his injury as it is.” She paused. “I planned on leaving him behind, you know. If we would have made it to England, I was going to leave him, maybe even that same day. You see, even if we managed to find my mother’s clan and they accepted me back into the fold, there was no way they would have allowed a human to live among them. With my secret out, my life in Riverford was pretty much over, but Paul still had his practice, his friends. He was human. He had already given up so much to raise me that I just…”