Jaguar Hunt (27 page)

The other boys snickered.

“Don't claw over a bad cat's back when I'm trying to take a bite out of him, Hans,” Peter said. “I almost bit you.”

“Yeah,” Hans said. “We really need to learn to coordinate our teamwork better if we're going to do this right the next time.”

If they didn't sound like him and Wade at their age. They had done all right. With no formal training or anything. And against one badass cat like Joe Storm. They'd done a damn good job.

“Tammy, can you shift?” David asked. “I'll help you dress.”

She shifted but laid her head back on the concrete floor, her cheek scratched and bleeding, a red knot on the side of her head. Angry, bloody claw marks trailed down her arm and across her waist. She was beginning to heal already, but she would need some tender, loving care for a few days, and
he
would be the one to provide it. He rushed to get her clothes and helped her to sit. She leaned over and held her stomach like she was going to be sick.

“Nauseated?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“Do you need to throw up?” He pulled her shirt over her head and was going to help her onto her knees if she was going to vomit.

“I'll…be okay,” she said, her voice way too breathy and her skin ice white.

“Okay, I'm going to help you on with your jeans. Sorry, this is going to hurt.” After he zipped up her jeans, he glanced at her sneakers, bra, and panties and heard several vehicles pull up outside. He slipped her bra and panties into his pockets just as the troops arrived.

Men took care of Quinn and Joe. David hated to think what Martin would have to tell Quinn's parents, after having also lost their daughter. Joe didn't have any family that anyone knew of.

Tammy was seeing double and having a mother of a headache as they loaded her into a waiting ambulance. Before David could get in and ride with her to a special clinic reserved for their kind, Alex and Nate approached, the other two boys watching and hanging back a bit. “Can you call our parents and let them know we didn't get into a fight because we were causing trouble?” Nate asked.

David looked over all four boys who were wearing claw marks and bruises like he was. “Hell, yeah. I'll let them know you're officially JAG agents in training and had your first assignment. Hell of a job, boys.”

The boys smiled.

“You were following us, weren't you?” David asked.

“Yeah. We figured the two of you would notice. When Tammy Facebooked us, we were sitting down the street from her house, watching, waiting for the two of you to make your next move,” Hans said. “We were trying to be really super secretive about it, but we had to know if you'd found the cat.”

“We saw you go into the warehouse and we waited, figuring we'd be your rear guard. Joe and Quinn arrived, and we didn't have any choice. We had to enter the warehouse and shift to save Tammy,” Peter said. “Good thing we came inside because right after we did, those trucks pulled up.”

Alex said, “I know we should feel bad that we had to take Joe Storm down, but…” He looked back at Tammy in the waiting ambulance.

“He would have killed Tammy if you hadn't killed him,” David said. “Sometimes we have to do things we would never consider doing otherwise in the name of defending others.”

Tammy growled.

The boys chuckled. “You mean, defending those we love,” Nate said.

David cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah, that's what I said.”

Alex said, “Maybe I should ride with her to the clinic instead.”

“Nothing doing.” David got into the ambulance. He could handle one she-cat no matter how growly she got.

A car squealed to a stop near the ambulance. Weaver and Krustan hurried out of the vehicle. “Hell,” Weaver said. “Is Tammy all right?”

David opened his mouth to speak, but Tammy reached out and touched his arm. “Tell them we already solved the case.” He grinned at her and then back at the Enforcers who folded their arms.

“We got hell from your JAG boss because we dropped by Tammy's house and then got hell from our boss when Martin called Sylvan about it. We only stopped at her house to find out where she was going next to search for the missing cat,” Weaver said.

Before the EMT closed the door, David told the boys, “We're going to Morrow's Theater last Friday night of the month, seven sharp. It's part of your training. We'll expect you there.”

“A play?” Nate asked, sounding alarmed.

“Yeah.”

“Is it a murder mystery like
Sweeney
Todd
?” Alex asked.

David looked at Tammy, not sure what they were attending. She cast him a small smile. “
Annie
.”

“A musical?” he said, his own voice sounding a bit alarmed. He nearly groaned but said to the boys, “Seven.”

He wasn't about to tell the boys what they were in for if they hadn't heard. It would be part of the training to see if they could follow directions. “And dress nice,” he added, giving the boys a stern look.

The EMT shut the door, and Tammy and he were off to the clinic.

He kissed her forehead and said, “Hang in there, honey.”

“I'm all right,” she said, her voice thready.

“We'll just have the doctor check you out and make sure. Anyone you want me to call?”

“Thompson, about the jaguar.”

“Sylvan's taking care of it. What about your brothers?”

“No,” she said, closing her eyes.

He leaned over and kissed her uninjured cheek. “Your parents?”

She shook her head slightly.

“Your cousins?”

She groaned a little at him.

“Okay, no one. Until after you're all checked out.” He sighed. “I know this isn't the place or time to do this, but…we're going to have to get married. You know that. Right, Tammy?”

The EMTs chuckled.

After three days of home rest, Tammy was feeling like her old self. David had moved in to watch over her and make sure she had no more ill effects from the concussion she had suffered. His boss had been nice enough to let him have sick leave, even though there weren't any allowances for taking care of a girlfriend.

David was setting up her TV after getting it back and was planning on fixing her dinner and watching a movie with her tonight.

She was just about to curl up on the couch, loving how attentive David had been, when someone knocked on the door.

“I'll get it,” David said, hurrying to get the door. “It's your…dad.”

He had met her father at the hospital, but she worried what he would think when he saw David here with her. Though she was glad she was dressed in jeans and a shirt.

“Come on in, sir,” David said.

She was surprised to see that her dad was here. He and Mom had just visited her at the hospital. The last time she'd really spoken with him was about him visiting her new cousins. He'd made all kinds of excuses, which was so unlike him and had made her suspicious. “Dad,” she said and gave him an inquisitive look.

“We've got to talk,” her father said.

David said, “I was just going to fix dinner.” He walked off when nobody objected to his leaving them alone.

“What's wrong, Dad?” He looked so grim that she worried something bad had happened to her mother.

“Your mother said you've been asking some…unusual questions regarding your cousins.”

Tammy's stomach tightened.

“She thinks maybe you believe I've been unfaithful.”

Tammy heartbeat accelerated. This was going to be a lot harder to talk to him about than she'd thought.

“I haven't been, Tammy. Your mother and I have been married for thirty-five years and not once did I stray. So what's this all about?”

Tammy pulled the afghan hanging over the couch back onto her lap. “Maya and Connor Anderson.”

Her father didn't say anything. If he hadn't been unfaithful, why didn't he say anything?

“My brother was a wanderer,” her dad finally said. “When he met Eva, Maya and Connor's mother, we thought he would settle down.”

Eva? EL?

“He'd come home on leave from the army and met her at my parent's home. We were having Christmas dinner,” her father continued.

“Wait. Aunt Eva was at my grandparents' house for Christmas? Why?”

“She had an abusive father. She was staying with us.”

“Okay. And…?”

“My brother was always the charmer. And she started dating him, but after they married, he couldn't stay.”

Something more wasn't being said. She heard the hurt in her father's voice, the weariness in his expression, but also something else. Irritation with his brother? She wondered if her father had really liked Eva before his brother showed up for the family Christmas. Maybe her father had been taking it slow with her, and his charming brother had swept her off her feet and married her.

“But…Maya said her father left as soon as he knew Eva was pregnant. Was he afraid of taking care of a couple of twins?” Tammy asked.

Her father didn't say anything for a long moment. He let out his breath on a heavy sigh. “I am Maya and Connor's father.”

She felt as though the couch had melted out from under her.

“I wasn't seeing your mother at the time, Tammy. We met a couple of months later. Eva didn't know she was pregnant until after she married my brother. They had moved away, he left her—he told us he left, but didn't say why, and made no mention that she was pregnant. She disappeared. Never had any contact with us.

“Your mother had known Eva and wanted me to find her and make sure she was okay. I used some resources I had to locate her, and when I did, I learned she had twin toddlers, and she was visibly upset that I'd found her. Which I couldn't understand. We'd been friends. Well, more than friends. Until I realized the babies were mine. She was afraid I'd want to take them from her and raise them as my own.

“I had to take some responsibility for them. She accepted money to help raise them with the condition that I wouldn't see them.”

“Dad,” Tammy said, not believing this.

“It's different for a mother, Tammy. She bore them, loved them, nourished them. Sure, they were mine, too, but when she began seeing my brother, I moved on and began dating your mother. I felt a financial responsibility for the kids and would have spent time getting to know them, but she didn't want it.”

“She abandoned them when they were sixteen.” Tammy felt horrible that Maya and Connor's mother had done that to them after their…well,
her
father had never been there for them, either.

“She said she'd never wanted kids. The birth control pills she was on didn't work, apparently. Or she'd missed taking a couple. But she did stay with them until they were able to manage on their own.”

“At sixteen?” Tammy shook her head. “You mean, running the landscaping business?”

“Yeah. I gave them an interest-free loan. I helped set them up. I wanted to give them the money outright, but they would have suspected something wasn't right about the deal. I told them I was a good friend of their mother's, which I had been, and your mother had been also. If they ever needed anything, to just call. They never knew that the man who married their mother was my brother, that I was their father, none of that. And they only called every once in a while to thank me for my generosity and sent me monthly checks, which I never cashed.”

“They never said anything about it?”

“Sure, Connor did. Each month, he'd call and say he sent the check but it wasn't cashed. I told him I didn't need the money right away. That he should just earn interest on it, and when I needed it, I'd ask him for it.”

“And they didn't think that was suspicious?”

“I'm sure they did. But they didn't ask, and I wasn't offering. I finally mentioned that their mother was married to my brother, which if he'd been their father, would have made you their cousin and me their uncle.”

She let out her breath. “
Dad
,” she said in an elongated, annoyed way. “Why didn't you tell us?”

“If I told you, you would have gotten in touch with them.” He sighed. “I did finally tell you that you had
cousins
, thinking that they should know they had family. I…I couldn't tell you I was their father. But I don't want you to believe I cheated on your mother.”

Tears filled her eyes. She felt choked up all at once. She'd thought the worst of him when he hadn't done anything wrong. “Does Mom know?”

“Yeah, when I located Eva and learned the kids were mine, I told your mother everything. I was upset, not sure what to do. We were raising you kids. She said she would have probably felt the same way as Eva. And when Eva left the kids, your mom was all for my backing their business for them. They've made a great success of it and have been free and clear for years.”

Tammy frowned. “We're not cousins. We're half siblings.”

“Don't you tell them.”

“Dad, Maya nearly didn't marry Wade because she was so worried she'd be like her parents. They need to know. Either you tell them or…” She didn't want to be the one to give that kind of information to her half siblings. “Well, you tell them.”

Silence.

“Dad?”

“As a family.”

“Do my brothers know?”

“No, just you and your mom.”

This was going to be awkward.

“One last question. What does EL stand for?” Tammy asked.

“Eva, Love. That's what I always called her.”

Tammy frowned. “Does Mom know that?”

“No. And you're not to tell her, either.”

She couldn't believe it! Now every time she heard her father refer to her mother as Mary, Love, she'd want to slap him. Couldn't he have thought of something more original to call her? Maybe it went along with his habits of purchasing in quantities or being a pack rat. Did David have a special term of endearment that he used on
all
his girlfriends, too?

She took a deep breath and let it out.

“Since this seems to be confession time, is there anything you want to tell me about David Patterson?” her father asked, jerking his thumb in the direction of the kitchen.

No, definitely not. “Well, I don't know if anything will come of it, but…” She shrugged, not about to talk about what she and David had been doing of late. “You never know about relationships,” she said noncommittally.

“He's here now, and I suspect he's been here since he brought you home from the hospital.”

Her whole body flushed with heat. It was one thing to tell her dad that she was dating David, quite another to tell him the JAG agent was spending the night, every night, and more, and had been for some time. She really didn't think that would go over big with her dad.

“I want to talk to him,” he said when she didn't answer her father fast enough.

“He's kind of busy with fixing dinner and…”

“Let…me…talk…with…him.”

She let out her breath in a huff. “David? You want to come here for a sec? Dad wants to talk to you.”

David couldn't have been more thrilled. As long as Tammy's father was of like mind with what David wanted.

Tammy looked like she was ready to die of embarrassment, her cheeks flaming red. She might not be ready for this conversation to take place between David and her dad, but David was. He came in, sat beside Tammy, wrapped his arm around her, and said, “Yes, Mr. Anderson?”

“Are you marrying Tammy?”

Right
to
the
point.
David liked that.

“That's up to your daughter.”

“So you've asked her to marry you?”

“We haven't gotten to that part yet.”

“I'll be perfectly honest with you. I know you've been here, protecting my daughter before this, then watching her after her injuries, so I've gone along with it, or else I would have had you transferred. If you didn't know it, I've donated a lot of funds to the Service over the years, so I have some clout there.”

David wondered what Tammy's father's business was that he could afford to give away a lot of money. For a good cause, sure, but still.

“Yes, sir.”

“I've talked with both her boss and yours to confirm you were needed there on this assignment.”

“Yes, sir.” David smiled at Tammy. He liked her father. She looked like she was about to die from worry. He had to admit he was glad
his
father hadn't called to talk to her.

“I've spoken with your brother, Wade, all about you.”

Hell, David thought to himself. It was bad enough her father probably dug up some information about the trouble he'd gotten into in his youth, but he sure didn't want his brother telling secrets about him that only he and Wade knew.

Her father continued, “I've had thorough background checks run on you and your brother—all about who you'd been seeing, why you'd been shot by a girlfriend's ex-lover, the missions you've been on that the JAG director could share with me, family ties, and the trouble the two of you got into when you were teens and had lost your mother. I've also looked into your financial state, and I can say I approve.”

“But?”

“No buts. I just don't want you taking the situation with my daughter lightly and stringing her along. When my sons told me that Wade was hitting on their ‘cousin' Maya, I started the background investigations. I just never thought that his brother—
you
—would get involved with my daughter, Tammy.”

“It was just an assignment.”

“Yeah, except your boss told me you requested to work with her.”

David heard a hint of a smile in her dad's gruff voice. “Yeah, I did.”

“Not just because you wanted to find the missing zoo cat.”

“My mission was to bring in the boys who knew something about the missing zoo cat,” David said truthfully.

“You didn't ask to work with her just because of the missing cat or the boys. Both my sons and my son-in-law requested that you work with her, and you yourself wanted to. To keep her out of danger.”

David cleared his throat. “She's very capable, sir.”

“I saw the video of her,” her father said.

David glanced at Tammy.

She was frowning at him.

“Yes, sir.”

“You have my blessing,” her father said.

David paused. “Thank you, sir.”

“Now, what are you waiting for?”

David chuckled. “The right moment when she's in more of a receptive mood to say yes.” He smiled at Tammy. Her eyes widened.

“So ask her.”

“Right now?”

“No time like the present.”

“I've got to do this right.”

“I'd like you to try now,” her father said. “But I'll leave you to do it in privacy.”

Her father kissed Tammy good-bye, and David walked him to the door and shook his hand. “She's special,” her father said.

“She sure as hell is.” David smiled, and then they said their good nights and David locked up.

“So…how are you going to do this right?” she asked. Before he could come up with something, she held up her hand. “I'm kidding. Well, not really, but I'm not serious. My father is nuts. I don't want…”

“I don't agree. I think your father is extremely sensible. He's done a background check on me and approved me.” David pulled her from the couch. Her sweet cinnamon-scented breath mingled with his—so close their lips hovered, nearly touching. He slid his fingers under her shirt, cupped her lace-covered breasts in his hands, and kissed her. Her mouth pressed his back—hot, needy, wanting. “I love you, Tammy. And hope that you might come to love me.”