by Terry Spear
Howard entered the bedroom. He headed for the closet door and opened it. “I couldn’t catch up with him. Not when he got into a car and it drove off.”
“It drove off?” Jillian dumped the money out of the bags and onto the bed.
“Yeah. As in someone else was driving it.”
“Like a female jaguar shifter?” Vaughn eyed the bundles of money.
“Yeah. Maybe. Car windows were highly tinted. I couldn’t make out the driver before the vehicle drove off.”
“I told you I saw two cats.”
“She was seeing double?” Howard asked Vaughn. “I only saw the one running way ahead of me, by the time I stripped and shifted.”
“She saw a male and a female. Was there anything in his clothes that would give us a clue as to what’s going on?” Vaughn asked Jillian, then turned to see what she had found. She was lying on the bed, her eyes closed. Hell. “Jillian.” He hurried over to the bed and placed his hand on her arm. “Jillian.”
“I’m fine.” She looked up at him with half-lidded eyes.
“Good. But we’re going to have the doctor check you out anyway.” Vaughn took her hand and squeezed. “We can ask him if he has any news about the DNA from the bite Douglas suffered.”
“Okay.”
“How many of me are there?”
“One. And that’s more than enough,” she said, annoyed.
Vaughn and Howard laughed.
“I think maybe she loves you. Not sure. Wolf behavior sure can be confusing. Do you want me to carry her out to the Land Rover on account of your shoulder wound?” Howard asked.
“I’ve got her. If you could grab all the stuff the guy left behind, we can examine it closer at the ranch house.”
“I’ll take the cash so I can safeguard it. I saw a smallish jaguar too. Female, I think,” Jillian said, reminding them of it.
“You got it. I’ll take a moment and run out back to see if I can smell a she-cat too,” Howard said.
“The money is Douglas’s. Lots of people have touched it, naturally, as it’s all been in circulation, but the person who handled it most recently was Douglas,” Jillian said.
Vaughn placed the money back in the bags. “I need to see if Leidolf can put this in a safe.” Then Vaughn lifted Jillian again and tried unsuccessfully not to groan while she carried the bags of money. His shoulder was killing him, but no way was he going to let on in front of either of them. Once he had settled Jillian in the car, he called the doctor. “Hey, Doc. Jillian hit her head hard on the ground near the cabin we’re investigating. A jaguar knocked her down. I need to have you take a look at her.”
“No, he doesn’t,” Jillian said from the backseat of the car where she was lying down.
“Yeah, I’ll take a look at her. Symptoms?” Dr. Wilders asked.
“Headache, dizziness, blurry vision. And she passed out again.”
“I was just closing my eyes and fell asleep. Someone kept me up too late last night.”
Vaughn imagined she never dozed on the job like that. “I gave her something for her headache and a cool compress.”
“Okay. I’ll check her out, but if she doesn’t stay at the clinic for the next twenty-four hours, she’ll need someone to wake her every two to three hours to make sure she’s all right. She shouldn’t do any physical activity either.”
“We’ll take care of her. Be there in about a half hour.”
“See you then.”
Howard came out with the cat’s clothes and threw them in the back of the Land Rover. “Jillian was right. I saw pugmarks left in the damp soil. They must have been from a female jaguar northeast of where the male was running. Like the male, she left no scent.”
“Two she-cats, or just one?” Vaughn asked.
“One. Did you see two, Jillian?”
“I think one, and she was just blurring a bit,” Jillian said.
Howard cast Vaughn a worried look. Vaughn inclined his head to Howard, acknowledging he was concerned about her too.
“We’re returning to the ranch to see the doctor, right?” Howard asked.
“Yeah, but before we go to the ranch, I want to make one stop on the way over there. I’m going to run in and check out the other bedroom real quick. Watch over her, will you?”
“Sure will.”
Vaughn hurried inside and checked out the other bedroom, but he didn’t smell anyone or see anything that had been left behind. He left the cabin and locked up, then looked in on Jillian.
She frowned at him, but he was glad to see she wasn’t sleeping. “I’m awake, okay? I’m just fine. Howard’s been talking my ear off, making sure I didn’t go to sleep.”
“Good.” Vaughn nodded at Howard for doing a great job.
“Do you want me to drive?” Howard asked.
“Sure.”
“Where do we need to stop?” Howard climbed into the driver’s seat.
“The grocery store. You can stay with Jillian. I’ll just run in. We’d better call Demetria and Everett to let them know two jaguars were at Douglas’s cabin.”
Howard called it in, and they all filled in the details as far as they knew them.
“Thanks,” Demetria said. “We haven’t had much luck with our search on the injured jaguar. Of course, we didn’t ask if anyone saw a jaguar. If someone had, that would have been on the news. We’ll return and canvass the area. But the found money might give us a clue to the motivation in Douglas’s attack.”
“Right. Do you want to pick me up at the ranch house?” Howard asked. “Vaughn’s going to stay with Jillian. Unless she’d rather I stay with her.”
“I don’t need to remain behind, or have anyone watch over me,” Jillian said.
“Doctor’s orders,” Vaughn said. “Besides, as much as my shoulder is hurting, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for me to rest up another day too.”
“Jeez, I told you not to carry me!”
He swore she looked a little relieved that he wanted to stay with her to rest up a bit too. Maybe so she felt she wasn’t holding him back from investigating the crimes.
“Okay, if it means you’ll have more time to heal, I’ll remain at the ranch house,” she said.
“Agreed.” Vaughn had never thought he’d tell someone on a mission how he needed to rest up more after being injured so he could complete the job. He’d really intended to push through the pain. If his declaration made Jillian feel better, he didn’t mind.
When they finally arrived at the store, she was sitting up, belted in, and looking annoyed. “I thought we were going to work more on the case.”
Vaughn exchanged glances with Howard. Jillian’s comment made it sound as though she was having short-term memory loss.
“Later. When you’re feeling better. We’ll talk about it when I get back.” Vaughn left the Land Rover and hurried into the store. He hoped Howard would fill her in on the plan…again. More than anything, he hoped Jillian recalled the earlier plan and was just confused by waking up in the car and not from the head injury.
As soon as he found the ice-cream bars she liked, Vaughn picked up two boxes and an adult coloring book and colorful pencils for Jillian. He didn’t know why he did, but they looked like they’d be fun if she didn’t want to sleep but needed to rest. He thought it could give her something relaxing to do until they could investigate the cases further.
They dropped by the clinic after that, and while the doctor was checking out Jillian, Vaughn gave Howard the ice-cream bars to take back to the ranch house and put in the freezer. After that, Howard would drop the Land Rover off at the clinic and Demetria and Everett would pick him up. Hopefully they could find the jaguar’s trail and catch up to him.
“Don’t eat any of the ice-cream bars,” Vaughn warned Howard outside while Doc was seeing to Jillian.
Howard laughed. “She offered them to us before.”
“Well, these are hers. She needs them after what she went through.”
“Two whole boxes?”
“On
e’s to replace the other. And she has one to spare.”
“I saw you bring out two sacks from the grocery store. Did you need me to take the other to the ranch too?”
“No. Thanks. There’s nothing perishable in that one.” Vaughn didn’t want anyone to know he was giving the coloring book to Jillian, in case she didn’t appreciate it or didn’t want anyone else to know she was coloring in a book.
“Did you want me to take the money to Leidolf?”
“No, I’m going to count it while the doc is seeing to Jillian.”
“Okay, I’ll keep you posted on what’s going on with us.”
“Same here.”
While Vaughn waited for the doctor to finish examining Jillian, he kept her phone in his pocket in case her brother tried to call her again. If nothing else, Vaughn wanted to tell Miles that she’d been hurt. The nurse let him take the money into the doc’s office to count it. He began stacking the money in piles of a hundred on the doc’s coffee table, then restacking them into five-hundred-dollar bundles.
The nurse returned to ask if he could use a second person to verify the count.
“Thanks, Sally. That would be great.” While she did that, Vaughn called Leidolf and asked if he had a safe.
“I do.”
Vaughn told him how much he thought he had, and Sally nodded that she’d counted the same amount. Twenty bundles. Ten thousand dollars.
“Do you want me to have my accountant pick it up from the clinic? I’ll have him write you out a receipt for it.”
“Thanks, Leidolf. That would be great.” Vaughn didn’t want to make any more stops if he could help it. He wanted to take Jillian straight back to the guest house.
Hoping the doctor didn’t find anything really wrong with Jillian, Vaughn checked on Douglas in his hospital room. To Vaughn’s regret, there was no change in his condition. Wishing Douglas would come out of it, Vaughn paced across the room, the bags of money sitting on the table until Leidolf’s accountant showed up.
Hell, Vaughn was totally stressed out concerning Douglas’s condition. And now with Jillian hurt too? He sat beside Douglas’s bed and took hold of his hand and squeezed. “Hey, Douglas, you texted me about a friend who was not getting ahold of you. Was it Miles?” He waited, but Douglas didn’t respond to his question. “Or someone else? Do you know a couple of jaguars? A male and female?”
When Douglas didn’t respond, Vaughn took a deep breath, released Douglas’s hand, and stood. “We need to know who bit you so we can catch the SOB.” He hated to mention the money if Douglas was dealing in criminal transactions, but if he wasn’t, Vaughn wanted him to know the money was safe. “Oh, and we found some money that belonged to you. Ten thousand in cash. Leidolf is putting it in his safe to secure it.” Vaughn waited for a response, but there was none.
Leidolf arrived with his accountant and said, “With that much cash on hand, I wanted to be sure you met my accountant first and knew that he was legitimate.”
“Thanks,” Vaughn said, really appreciating Leidolf’s help.
Leidolf and his accountant counted the money, verifying it was ten thousand. Then the man wrote out a receipt for it.
“We’ll have it for you when you need it.”
Vaughn again thanked Leidolf and they left. Jillian’s phone suddenly rang in Vaughn’s pocket. He fished the phone out and smiled when he saw it was Miles. “Got to take this call. I’ll be back, Douglas. We need you to get well.” He didn’t expect a response from Douglas, but even if Douglas couldn’t hear him, Vaughn wasn’t taking any chances and hoped talking to Douglas would help him know Vaughn and others were concerned for him.
He headed to the waiting area and answered it pronto, hoping Miles wouldn’t just hang up on him. “I’m Vaughn Greystoke. Jillian’s been injured. The doctor at Leidolf’s ranch is checking her over now for a head injury. She’s been passing out and has had short-term memory loss.” Vaughn knew he was rattling on, but he wanted to let her brother know she’d been hurt, in case he cared and wanted to see her. Vaughn was afraid that if he stopped talking, Miles would hang up on him.
“This is a setup, isn’t it?” Miles sounded wary.
Vaughn didn’t blame him. “No, it isn’t. For what it’s worth, from everything your sister has told me about you, I don’t believe you wounded Douglas. I’m the lead investigator, since he’s my pack member, so my word counts for a whole hell of a lot.”
“You’re the one who came after me.”
“Hell yeah. For some answers. Were you a witness to the attack?”
“I got there after he was already gone. So no, I didn’t witness anything.”
“Why did you run?”
“Are you kidding me? It looked bad. I was standing next to all this blood on the floor and knew something had torn Douglas up. Hell, you had a gun in your hand, and I was certain you were going to shoot me. Then what did you do? You turned all wolf on me and chased me all over the place. I even thought you might have attacked Douglas, killed him, and disposed of the body. You had just come back to get rid of the blood and any other evidence you might have left behind. I believed a wolf might have killed him. You’re a wolf. I didn’t know who you were.
“The door was open when I arrived. For an instant, I even thought that a cougar might have killed him and hauled the body off. Until you showed up.” Miles let out his breath. “My sister told me to call you. She didn’t tell me she’d been injured. She wanted me to clear this up with both of you, but she didn’t give me your cell number. Anyway, Douglas is from Colorado. How did you end up at the cabin if he’s a member of your pack and you live in Colorado too? He didn’t say anything about a pack member coming to see him.”
“He texted me saying he was worried about a friend not showing up. Then before I arrived to see him, he said the friend got in touch with him. Was he talking about you?”
“No. I hadn’t seen Douglas yet. I was planning to when I found all the blood. I don’t know anything about another friend seeing him. How did my sister get hurt?”
“A jaguar at Douglas’s cabin knocked her down, and she hit her head. I don’t believe he meant to hurt her. He was just trying to stop her from shooting him.”
“Why weren’t you protecting her better than that?”
“The jaguar was damn fast. Do you know anything about him?”
“No. I just went to see Douglas. We…we were friends. I-I can’t believe he’s dead.” Miles sounded choked up. “Can I talk with my sister?”
“Wait, you don’t know? Douglas is alive. He was badly wounded and for now is in a drug-induced coma, but he’s not dead. Hopefully, he will come out of it just fine.”
“No. Hell, I just assumed…when I saw all that blood…” Miles paused. “Thank God he’s okay. Can I see him?”
“He’s not responding to anyone. But I’m sure you can. I think it’s good for anyone he knows to talk to him. Just check in at the clinic. As to your sister, Doc’s running tests on her now. She can call you back as soon as she’s done. She’s staying at the guest house on Leidolf’s ranch, if you want to drop by and see her.”
“So you can arrest me.”
“We can talk to each other civilly about what we both know and clear this whole matter up. We just started to investigate it, but we could use a hell of a lot more information to go on. Like what you know about the person who shot you. And about the female jaguar you hooked up with.”
There was a big moment of silence. “I’ll think about it.” Then Miles hung up on him.
Vaughn swore under his breath. He still had a million questions to ask him. At least Miles had talked to him a bit. He thought Jillian might be right, that her brother hadn’t had anything to do with the attack, but they needed to speak with him further. He might recall something that would help them with the case. And he wondered if Miles thought the owner of the red panties had anything to do with any of this.
A nurse called Vaughn back to speak with the doctor, and Vaughn was worried about Jillia
n all over again. When he reached the exam room, she was sitting on an exam table looking grouchy, arms folded across her chest, brows furrowed.
“I’ll release you, but you need to have someone look out for you. She’s fine to go, but I want her checked every two to three hours if she falls asleep,” Dr. Wilders said.
“Will do.”
“I didn’t see any problems with the scan. But just in case…” the doctor said.
“No problem, Doc. I’m on it.”
“I also wanted to tell you about the DNA findings for Douglas.”
Vaughn gave Jillian a hand down from the exam table. They both waited to hear what the doctor had to say, but Vaughn wasn’t really surprised to hear his findings.
“The animal that bit Douglas wasn’t a wolf. A jaguar assaulted him.”
Vaughn thought that’s where this was headed. Especially after seeing the jaguar looking for something at the cabin. Jillian appeared relieved as she leaned against him, and he sat her down on the chair in the exam room before she collapsed.
“Are you sure?” Vaughn asked, glad for Jillian’s sake that her brother hadn’t actually hurt Douglas. Vaughn gently rubbed her back.
“Yeah, completely. The saliva from the wound proves it. No wolf saliva was anywhere near the teeth marks. Jaguars’ teeth usually press deeper, crushing, their bite per square inch much stronger than a wolf’s. I believe the jaguar was trying to hide the kind of bite and didn’t chomp down as hard. Still, the teeth impressions are consistent with what a jaguar’s bite would look like.”
Vaughn nodded. “You are absolutely positive that a jaguar bit him and a wolf had nothing to do with it?”
“Positive.”
“Good.” Not that Vaughn was glad a jaguar had done it. But he was relieved Jillian’s brother had been cleared.
Jillian gave Vaughn a stern look that said she’d told him so. He didn’t mind admitting he’d been wrong. Given the appearance of the incriminating circumstances, he’d made an honest mistake.