by Terry Spear
Howard looked puzzled. “Is that some kind of clue?”
Jillian rolled her eyes.
While Vaughn and Howard looked through the fridge and the rest of the cabinets, she went outside to make a call to her brother. He didn’t pick up. When she got his message machine, she said, “What the hell is going on? I’ve teamed up with the wolf who went after you. I shot him even. He’s investigating—” The voice mail cut her off.
She hoped her brother didn’t think she’d killed Vaughn. She tried again. “He’s investigating the attack on his pack member. We’re working together. So call me and we can talk. He’s sure you—” The message ended again. “Damn it.”
Vaughn exited the cabin and saw the phone in her hand. “Did you get ahold of him?”
“No. If I had, you would be the first to know.”
From his expression, he clearly thought she was being sarcastic.
“I left him a message though. I told him I shot you for chasing after him.” She smiled at Vaughn.
His mouth curving just a hint, he lifted his brows.
“But that you were still investigating him.” Jillian had tried several times to get ahold of her brother last night, but hadn’t had any success. When she saw his car still parked at the cabin this morning, she presumed he had still been running as a wolf. But he had apparently come back since, and packed up and left in a hurry. Now she wasn’t sure what was going on.
She couldn’t get the image of the red panties out of her thoughts either. She could just imagine what Vaughn had been thinking. That she obviously didn’t know as much about her brother as she thought she did. When had Miles brought some woman there? Probably when Jillian had run into town for groceries earlier in the day and had been gone for a couple of hours.
She couldn’t believe she hadn’t smelled the woman’s scent. He must have had her wear hunter’s spray so Jillian wouldn’t know about it. If that was the case, she wondered how he would have convinced the woman to wear it. Unless she’d done so herself. But why? Worried how Jillian would feel about her brother hooking up with a cat? She could imagine her brother not wanting her to know, afraid she might let it slip to their parents.
But if they both really cared about each other, or even if they were just having a fling, who was she to say that anything was wrong with it? The bag with the red panties swayed in Howard’s hand as he walked out to the car, and she wished he would shove the bag in his jacket pocket or something.
The woman could have at least made sure she took her panties with her! Unless she meant to leave them for Miles as a memento of their time together. Ugh.
Jillian locked up the cabin again.
“Okay, do you want to go to Douglas’s cabin next? See what we can learn from there?” Vaughn asked.
“Yeah, though Leidolf’s men probably cleaned up any evidence we might have gotten from the scene,” Jillian said.
“I take it you didn’t know about your brother seeing some woman.”
“No, I didn’t.”
Howard shook his head. “Happens to the best of us. We just lose our heads and…”
“Attempted murder doesn’t fall under that category.” Jillian wished she could get in touch with her brother and iron this out with him alone.
When they arrived at Douglas’s rental cabin, she parked, and they all left the Land Rover. Immediately, Vaughn pulled out his gun and began hand signaling to them, silently telling them which direction to go while he went to the front door.
What had he seen?
Already frowning, Vaughn shook his head at her. What did that mean?
She and Howard moved quickly around to the back and side of the cabin so whomever Vaughn thought he’d heard wouldn’t escape. Jillian wished she had heard or seen what he had. She felt like she was working blind. Howard looked as clueless as she felt. He shrugged and then disappeared around the side of the log building.
At the back of the cabin, two windows were open, although they shouldn’t have been, and Jillian thought she heard a rustling movement in the trees. She knew she should pay attention to the windows in case anyone jumped out of one, but she couldn’t help feeling like someone was moving around in the woods.
The front door banged open, and Vaughn hollered, “Come out with your hands up, and I won’t have to shoot you.”
Her heart beating spasmodically, Jillian was half watching the windows, half watching the woods when something big and golden, his fur decorated in rings of black, leaped out of the window onto her. Her gun went off as her head hit the packed soil hard. For a moment, she didn’t hear anything.
Then Vaughn hollered from inside the cabin, sounding alarmed. “Jillian!”
Howard also called out to her, just as concerned.
She opened her eyes and wondered where she was for a moment. Feeling disoriented, she recalled that the jaguar had knocked her down. She twisted around to see him bound off into the woods. As she got to her feet, she thought she saw another jaguar, smaller, female, north of where the big cat had raced off, but only for a split second. Then the cat blurred into two and disappeared. Jillian rubbed her eyes, then stumbled after the bigger cat, her head pounding, and her vision swimming. The big cat was running away, or…two of them mixed together, their tails whipping back and forth. Then they were gone.
Running from the side of the house, Howard had nearly reached her. He began stripping off his clothes. “Take my things back to the cabin, will you? I’m going after the cat. This is the best way to catch him.”
She hated to have to stay behind, but she heard Vaughn running to catch up to them, and she knew she and Vaughn needed to learn what they could at the cabin while Howard tried to chase down the other jaguar. Wolves wouldn’t be a match for a jaguar if he decided to stand his ground and fight them.
Then Howard was completely naked, and he shifted. She had never seen a jaguar shifter shift into his animal skin, so it was a few seconds before she realized she was staring and not being proactive. She began grabbing his clothes off the ground.
“Are you all right?” Vaughn came up from behind her, gently taking hold of her arm.
Not having heard him get that close, she swallowed a startled scream.
“Sorry. I saw him take you down.” Vaughn wrapped his arm around her waist, offering his support. “You appeared to be out for a few seconds while I was climbing through the window. I worried—”
“Thanks. I’ll be all right.” She realized then that in all the excitement, she hadn’t noticed how much her head was pounding. She clutched Howard’s clothes and gun in her arms. “He didn’t try to kill me. He just knocked me down so I couldn’t shoot him.”
“Could you have shot him?”
She shook her head, and Vaughn tucked a curl behind her ear, his other arm still steady around her waist, his gaze dark. She liked his protective, caring nature.
“Because he was a jaguar?”
Like she’d only shot Vaughn because he was a wolf and jaguars were more exotic, rarer, or something. “Because he wasn’t trying to kill me. He didn’t really hurt me.” If he’d wanted to hurt her, he could have taken a bite out of her or clawed at her. “Was it… Oh, I was going to say the same scent as the woman who had been with Miles, but this was a male.”
“I didn’t smell his scent at all. Which means he’s wearing that damn hunter’s spray. I saw a blond-haired man looking out the window just as we drew close to the house. Then he moved quickly away from the window.”
“Did he look like any pictures that Douglas had on his phone?” she asked.
“I couldn’t tell. He moved so fast that I didn’t see enough except that he was fair-haired. I’ll look at the photos again, but I doubt I’d be able to successfully identify him.”
Jillian sighed. “I have to admit that him being a jaguar made it difficult to even think about shooting him, if I’d had time to aim.”
“I understand. It’s easier to shoot wolves.”
She frowned up at Vaughn, not sure
if he was teasing her. “You were chasing down my brother. If a jaguar had been, I would have shot him.”
Vaughn smiled, then shook his head. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“I’m fine. Just a little dizzy, nauseous.”
“You lost consciousness. I knew it. Damn it.” Now he sounded really worried again.
She shifted Howard’s clothes to one arm, then rubbed her forehead and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, her vision was clearer, and she knew she really was fine. “Were there two of them?”
Chapter 9
As soon as Jillian asked Vaughn if he’d seen two jaguars, he knew she was worse off than he’d first suspected. “Hell, Jillian. You’ve suffered a concussion.” Vaughn spoke softly, concerned.
“No, I’m fine.” She let out her breath. “You only saw one?”
“Yeah, I only saw one.” Vaughn knew she wasn’t fine. “You hit your head really hard when you went down.”
“I’ll sit down in the cabin for a moment to clear my head. Then I’ll be all right.”
He scooped her up in his arms, and she let out a gasp. “This isn’t necessary.”
“Like hell it isn’t. I need you working this case with me to clear your brother. You’re not going to take a vacation on this one.”
She snorted.
He smiled down at her, but he was still worried about her. He carried her back into the cabin and set her on the blue plaid couch in the living room. “I’ll be right back,” he said as he left the cabin to get his medical kit from the vehicle. When he returned to the living room, she’d closed her eyes and was leaning against the seat back, Howard’s clothes still on her lap.
Vaughn really knew she wasn’t all right then. “I’ll get some water for you. I’ve got some pain reliever for the headache.”
“Thanks. I really believe I saw a smaller one. A female. Maybe two—a male and a female.”
“Hell.”
“Well, did I?”
“I was too busy coming to your aid. But there wasn’t a second person, or cat, in the cabin.” He brought a glass of water and a couple of pills to her, then helped her to hold the glass. She was still a little shaky, and he wanted to make sure she wouldn’t drop the glass when he released it.
“Yeah, but the smaller one was in the woods, not the cabin. Maybe she was the lookout. Only she didn’t do a good job because the one in the cabin didn’t know about us arriving until nearly too late.”
“Okay, no, I didn’t see another in the woods.” Vaughn returned to the kitchen, couldn’t find a washcloth, and went to the bathroom. He rummaged in the drawers and found one. He got it wet, then wrung out the cloth until it was just damp. Turning to leave the bathroom, he saw a spot of blue on the floor near the toilet, he thought from one of those toilet cleaners set inside the tank.
Immediately, one of the PI cases he’d worked came to mind. He’d found drugs in a gallon freezer bag inside a toilet tank. Not that Douglas would have drugs, but why would a blue spot be on the floor? Wouldn’t maid service have cleaned it up if one of the housekeepers had dripped some of the cleaner?
Vaughn set the washcloth on the bathroom counter, then lifted the tank lid. And found two gallon bags floating in the water. Filled with cash.
Holy hell. What had Douglas been into?
“You’re not going to believe this,” Vaughn called out to Jillian.
“Don’t tell me you found a body.”
“Nope. A whole hell of a lot of money.”
He rinsed the blue toilet bowl cleaner off the plastic, money-filled sacks in the sink. He was still furious with the cat for taking Jillian down and injuring her. “Are you still feeling dizzy?” he asked.
“A little. How much money is a lot?”
“Don’t know offhand, but it’s a lot. We’ll have to count it.” He patted the bags of money dry, then carried them and the damp washcloth into the living room.
“Why would he have so much cash on hand?” Jillian asked as Vaughn handed her the bags of money and applied a cold compress to her forehead.
He really didn’t know the answer to her question. All he could think of was drug money, but he didn’t believe his friend could be involved in anything so insidious. “Not sure. What if a jaguar injured Douglas, not a wolf as I thought? We’re not used to thinking in terms of jaguar shifters causing trouble, and who would ever have thought jaguars would exist in this area?”
“True. And knew about the money and was trying to find it?”
“Possibly. He was in his human form. When he saw me, he must not have been armed and figured his best avenue of escape was shift into the jaguar and jump out the window. His clothes were lying on the floor beside the bed. I can think of only one reason for a jaguar shifter coming here. He was involved in the crime, and he’s looking to get rid of any evidence we hadn’t found and possibly searching again for the money.”
“Had Douglas been flashing money around, buying contraband? Or maybe he was being blackmailed. What did his financial situation look like?” Jillian asked.
“I don’t know about blackmail or anything. But as far as I know, he isn’t in debt. He hasn’t bought anything expensive except a new car about two years ago. I need to check further into his financial background though.”
“And you already said he isn’t into gambling.”
“Nope. House has been paid off for years. No loans out that I know about. He likes to travel a lot, which is where he spends some of his money.”
“What would he need that much money for here?”
Vaughn just didn’t know. “Really don’t have a clue.”
“Did you smell another big cat, or just the one?”
Vaughn frowned at her, worried when she didn’t seem to recall what he’d said about the cat. “I didn’t smell either of them.” He gave her the cold compress. “Just hold it against your head. I’ll be right back. I want to search through his clothes.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“You should stay put.” And he should be with her at all times until Doc checked her out and gave the green light.
“I have to help investigate this for myself. I might see something you don’t.”
“How many fingers am I holding up?”
“Oh, come on.”
“All right.” As much as he didn’t believe she was okay, he would do as she asked.
She looked so pale that he was afraid she’d pass out on him if he jostled her around too much. He lifted her in his arms again, though his shoulder was killing him.
“What are you doing? I can walk.”
“Humor me. I have no intention of letting you walk and then having to pick you up off the floor if you pass out. My shoulder hurts too much for that.” He hadn’t meant to reveal the way his darned shoulder was paining him.
Her worried frown deepened. “Your shoulder has to be killing you with carrying me. Put me down.”
“When we get to the room.” He was carrying her down the hall when he heard something moving around in the bedroom.
Before Vaughn could set Jillian on her feet and pull out his gun, a jaguar came bounding out of the room. For a minute, both Vaughn and Jillian stared at the jaguar. The cat raised his brows. Vaughn had seen Howard shift, but he hadn’t seen the other big cat long enough to be able to differentiate between the two of them. Though when he took a deep breath, a breeze came through the bedroom window carrying the cat’s scent to him, and he knew it was Howard.
The jaguar quickly shifted, and Howard stood before them naked. “Just me, in case you didn’t know which jaguar I was and were thinking of shooting me. Though it looks to me like you have your hands full.” He smiled. “Here I am working the case, attempting to chase a jaguar down, and the two of you are making up to each other? Wolves sure do things differently than us big cats.”
Vaughn shook his head. “Jillian has a mild concussion from the jaguar knocking her down. She insisted she investigate the cat’s clothes at the same time I did.”<
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Howard’s expression darkened. “Damn, I sure wish I’d been able to get ahold of him. No one messes with a member of my team and gets away with it.”
“Jaguars play rough.” Jillian sounded irritable.
“They can. As powerful as a jaguar is, with just the swipe of his paw, he could have killed you. But he didn’t, which says something.” Howard looked down at the clear bags of money in Jillian’s hands. “What the hell is that?”
“Money, and lots of it.” Vaughn needed to call his pack leaders and see if they knew anything about it.
Howard whistled. “I take it that it’s not Jillian’s. Where are my clothes?”
“On the couch in the living room,” she said. “Did you smell a female cat around where the male jaguar was? Or maybe she was farther northeast from his location.”
“I’ll check in a few minutes.”
“Did you recognize the jaguar?” Vaughn asked.
“No,” Howard admitted. “It was a male, but I didn’t recognize him. He’s not with the Enforcer Branch in any case.”
“But you would have a better idea than we would from the rosette pattern he was wearing, wouldn’t you, if you saw a picture of him?”
“No. I couldn’t confirm whether it was someone I’ve seen unless I knew the person really well. Like an Enforcer I’ve seen in jaguar form. Or Demetria and Everett, since I’ve worked a lot with them. I never saw his face, only his tail end before he disappeared for good. It’s like seeing the back of someone’s human head if you haven’t been around him much. Our official photos show faces—jaguars, humans, not the agents’ tails.” Howard walked off down the hall to get his clothes.
Vaughn wondered if the jaguar that had jumped out the window was the same one he’d seen racing through the woods when he’d been chasing Miles. He wouldn’t have any idea without having a picture of both and comparing rosettes. Then again, how many jaguar shifters could be in the area? He gently set Jillian down on the bed.
“I’ll search in the drawers to see if there might be some evidence he was looking for. Unless he knew about the money and was searching in here. You can look through his clothes.” He picked them up and left them on the bed for her. Then he hollered down the hall to Howard. “I take it you couldn’t catch up to him.” Vaughn opened drawers and found nothing.