Jaguar Hunt (4 page)

“You actually want to go zip-lining?” she asked, not liking where that scenario was headed. At first, she thought they'd just catch the boys when they got to the end of the line. But now she wondered if David meant they were also going to make the trip through the canopy.

“You're not afraid of heights, are you?”

“Of course not. But someone should be on the ground to grab these guys when they get off the platform, right?” She wasn't about to share her fear of heights with him. Not even her brothers knew that about her. “So if you follow them on the zip line, I can meet them when they reach their final destination.”

“Shall we toss for it?”

“No,” she said a little too abruptly. “I'll meet the teens on the ground when they have finished their ride.”

“I don't think that will work. I'll have a better chance grabbing them than you will.”

“You said that they'd be more willing to speak to me. I didn't know we had to physically
arrest
them,” she said, eyeing him with suspicion.

“If they won't cooperate… Besides, if I'm not with you, they might be more willing to talk to you
before
you get on the zip line. If that doesn't work, I'll be waiting on the other end. Once they can't run away, you can convince them to tell us about the jaguar. I suspect they're afraid they're going to be in trouble concerning the cat. So we'll just have to ensure they know they won't be. As long as the cat is safe and we can retrieve her.”

What he said about her appearing to be less of a threat to the boys when they had difficulty with male authority figures and meeting them alone made sense. Still, envisioning the kids bound to chairs, she frowned at David. “So how are you going to grab them?”

“Do you always plan your moves to the very last detail?” David asked.

“Do
you
always wing it?” she asked as he opened the door to the dining room for her.

“Some of those turn out to be my best moves.”

“In other words, you don't have a real plan in mind.”

David only chuckled.

***

Partly hidden by giant ferns, banana trees, palms, and a cypress, the large dining room was lit by numerous candles and lanterns, offering a certain ambience that could be considered romantic if this had been a romantic liaison and not strictly a mission. Chatter filled the place, coming from tourists of every shape and size sitting at seven long tables. David sat with Tammy at one that was half empty. The stone tile floors, thatched roof, large ceiling fans, and windows with only screens made him feel as if he was eating outdoors as the rainforest surrounded them with its fragrant smells and unique jungle sounds.

They both ordered the shrimp creole on coconut rice, while David had beer and Tammy, a pineapple rum drink. He quickly ate his meal and shoved the plate aside. “I don't know how long we're going to be here, but if you want, I can pay to upgrade our accommodations.”

“Oh?” She sipped from her tall, cool drink, her strawberry curls framing her face, and he thought how pretty she was—with no resemblance to her brothers. David had to thank Martin for giving him this assignment.

He noticed she was studying his bare fingers, which he thought was odd. Most cats didn't wear jewelry, even wedding rings. Too much of a problem if they had to shift quickly. For one thing, they wouldn't want to lose their expensive rings or watches if they left them behind after shifting. No cat would have piercings or tattoos, either. If the shifter was caught by humans, how would someone explain a jaguar with a tattoo or a belly button ring?

“Not married,” he finally said, amused.

She glanced up from eyeing his fingers to meet his gaze. “What?”

He held up his hand. “No ring. No tanned area around a white band on the skin to indicate I've been wearing one, either.”

Her mouth curved up a bit, but she didn't appease his curiosity.

He waited. She sipped some more of her drink.

He figured the explanation had to be a simple one, but when she didn't explain, he was all the more curious. By nature, cats were. Being a jaguar shifter, inquisitiveness was an inevitable hazard.

“So…do they meet with your expectations?” he asked.

“What?” She frowned a little, appearing not to understand what he was referring to.

“My hands.”

She started laughing.

Now
that
reaction he hadn't expected. “Want to clue me in?” He smiled, her amusement infectious.

“No,” she said, still chuckling.

He'd learn what she was up to one of these days. He finished off his beer. “So with an upgrade on the rental unit, we'd have an indoor shower. Air-conditioning. Just nicer housing.”

“We should be done by tomorrow, if all goes as
planned
. Right? We grab the teens at the zip-line place, find out what they know about the cat, and take them home. Let the agency foot the bill like it's supposed to.”

“It's your call. But I don't mind you upgrading if you want to.” He wouldn't be doing it
all
for her benefit, though he didn't care anything about having or not having air-conditioning, and the outdoor shower was fine with him. He didn't mind footing the bill himself if he could move her into the only place that was still available—a jungle bungalow with only one queen-sized bed.
No
bunk beds.

She put her empty drink glass down and tilted her head to the side, considering him. He swore she could see clean through him.

When she didn't say anything, he said, “Yes?”

He felt like he'd been caught fingering her silky red panties again. He shouldn't have lifted them out of her suitcase. The red silk had been just too tempting. Being a man, he had to imagine what she'd look like wearing the panties. And what she would look like not wearing them.

“Exactly what would the sleeping arrangements be?” she asked.

A middle-aged couple sitting at the end of the table glanced their way.

“One queen-sized bed,” David said.

“But there's a couch, right?” she asked.

The man at the end of the table chuckled.

“Tiny couch.” David was not upgrading their accommodations to a place with an indoor shower so he could lose his bunk bed to sleep on an even shorter couch. “Are you done with your meal?” He rose from his chair, wanting to end this discussion in a hurry. He figured he was stuck with the bunk bed for the duration of their stay. “We need to get an early start tomorrow. I want to be at the zip-line place first thing before anyone gets there and scope out the area a bit. Just in case the kids arrive early to hang around.”

Tammy headed outside the dining hall with him and glanced around at the jungle. “As jaguars?”

“Yeah. Early. Sniff around a bit. The terminal platform is not far from here. The other is about twenty-three hundred feet due west from that.” He walked with her down the stone path back to the cabana hidden in the green foliage. “But I also want to explore the whole area around here tonight.”

“To see if the kids are staying close by,” she said. “They'd have to be, wouldn't they?”

“Unless they have transportation. A car storage facility is near the airport. One of our men used to keep a car there, and the business offers free rides to and from the airport. As much as the boys' parents and the teens themselves visit Belize, they might just have a car stored there. We'll check out the surrounding area for any sign of them. I know their scent, so if they're anywhere in the area, I can track them.”

“Wait,” she said, stopping David on the path, her hand on his arm, his skin too hot, electrifying, his scent turning intrigued. She quickly released him. “How come your boss knows what excursions the kids have paid for but doesn't know where they're staying?”

“They used a credit card for the adventures, but not for lodging.”

“Doesn't that seem a bit odd?”

“Maybe they maxed out the one card and used another for the hotel. Martin hasn't been able to track another one yet. Either that or they paid cash. But the adventures are all located about a half hour from here, so I imagine they are staying in the vicinity. Maybe even here, if we're real lucky. I didn't smell their scent in the dining room, though, and nowhere out here, either.”

When they reached their cabana, David unlocked the door and let Tammy walk in first.

As soon as they entered the living room, she smelled the scent of male jaguars, but no sign that anyone had been on the front porch except for past human tourists and her and David. Inside, the scent of three males now wafted in the air—David's and two others.

Tammy headed for her bedroom, but David seized her arm, bringing her to an abrupt halt. She cast him a growly look, warning him to release her at once.

“It's them,” he whispered.

“The kids?” she asked, her voice hushed and surprised. The teens appeared to have pursued her and David instead of the other way around.

“Wait here,” David said.

Though agents in the Enforcer branch, like Tammy, were trained to use force when warranted, the agents in David's Special Ops branch were more used to employing lethal take-down methods.

Concerned David might react more violently than she would, Tammy shook her head. “You said they'd respond better to a woman.”

“Fine,” David grunted, but from the tone of his voice, his macho ego said otherwise.

David followed Tammy down the hall as she listened for any sounds other than the jungle noises outside the cabana. Nothing. If the boys were still here, they were not moving about.

She and David peeked into his room first. No one was in it, but his dresser drawers were all standing open. Her annoyance grew as she assumed the boys had rifled through her clothes as well.

They stalked into her room and discovered the same thing—drawers open, culprits gone. Her chest of drawers stood open, and her neatly folded panties were all in a jumble now. Furious, she ground her teeth.

“They must have gotten word somehow that we were coming here, saw us go to dinner, and broke in,” she said. “But I can't see how they'd know we were coming after them. Or what they could have been looking for in my underwear drawer.”

“Agreed. I'm not sure, either. It's like they've been monitoring our moves ever since I was thrown in jail.”

“Or before that? What if they knew you were tailing them to see if they broke any rules?”

“It's possible. So did they know I was listening in to their talk about the jaguar? Even specifically mentioned her so I would follow them here?” David let out his breath. “See if anything of yours in missing.”

Everything appeared to be there, but Tammy smelled the three male jaguars' scents on her undergarments. She growled under her breath.

She returned to David's bedroom and peeked in. “Nothing of mine is missing. Anything of yours?”

“About a half-dozen condoms,” David said, peering into the box.

She closed her gaping mouth. Finally finding her wits, she said, “Do you normally keep count?”

That earned her a cocky smile. He was too charming for his own good. “The box was brand-new and hadn't been opened yet.” He gave her a sly wink. “You sure there's nothing missing from your room?”

“Nothing. So what is this all about? They wanted us to know that they're on to us?” She'd had the misconception that as an Enforcer, she and her top-gun JAG agent would easily have the upper hand with the teens. Clearly she was wrong.

“They're clever. I'll give them that. They didn't vandalize anything. Just let us know they know we're here.” David tucked his box of condoms back in his chest of drawers.

“And stealing your condoms?”

“Shows they're into safe sex.”

She rolled her eyes. “Won't that cramp your style, being a half dozen short?” she said sardonically.

He grinned at her, cleared his throat, and said, “I'm never short.”

Her whole body flushed hot. She should be used to her brothers' double entendres by now, but she couldn't help reacting to that kind of comment coming from a man she barely knew and to whom she was more than a little attracted.

David stood there, waiting for her comeback.

She
was changing the subject. “Okay, so what do we do about tomorrow? They know we're on to them, so they won't do the zip-line adventure, don't you think?”

“Maybe. We need to look for them now. See if we can sense them. The jungle surrounds the whole cabana, and it's dark enough since the sun sets so early—what, 6:30 or so—that we can shift outside and head out.”

“What if they're watching?” As jaguar shifters, the teens could see them in the dark if they were observing them.

“They could be.”

“Great. I'll shift inside. When I growl, let me out.”

Jaguars didn't run in packs. Tammy wasn't used to shifting in front of others, except with her family when she was younger, and she didn't plan to change that scenario anytime soon. David didn't go outside like she expected him to, though. He stood at the front door watching her.

“What are you waiting for?” she asked, frustrated.

“I was going to ask you the same thing. As soon as you shift, I'll open the front door for you.”

In disbelief, she stared at him. Men could be so thick-headed sometimes. She didn't want to strip naked in front of the teens
or
him.

Growling, she headed back to her bedroom and slammed the door. She heard him chuckle as his heavy footsteps approached the door.

“Or not. No one told me you were shy,” he said, standing outside her room.

She quickly slipped out of her clothes, tossing them on her bed and ignoring him. Heck, did all the women he had worked with strip naked in front of him if they had to shift, no qualms about it?

In a fluid movement too quick for human eyes to comprehend, she shifted from human to jaguar, a beautiful blurring of forms. She felt wilder, more lithe, able to move stealthier and faster through the jungle than as a human. She batted the door with her paw to tell David to open it.

“I take that to mean you want out?” he asked.

She roared.

He laughed and opened the bedroom door. “I didn't want to open the door prematurely.” She loped down the hall. “Beautiful.” He headed for the front door where she already stood, waiting for him to open it, eager to find the boys.

“Don't run off without me,” he said.

They'd already delayed way too long.

As soon as he opened the door, she dashed off. If the kids were watching, she was going to find them before they knew what hit them.

***

David cursed when Tammy disappeared into the jungle as he rushed to strip out of his clothes on the cabana's tile patio. He'd considered stripping to bare skin when he opened the door, but he was trying hard to make her feel comfortable around him.

He wasn't used to a female agent who was shy about stripping and shifting in front of him. He also hadn't had any romantic notions about any of them. Tammy was another story.

Was it Tammy's reluctance that intrigued him? Everyone giving him a hard time about her? He wasn't sure why, but he was fascinated with everything about her.

The more he got to know her, the less he understood her. He had really expected her to wait for him. After the incident in the police-station parking lot, he
should
have known better.

Agents had each other to watch their backs. Tammy was highly trained in combat as an Enforcer, and this was supposed to be a no-fighting mission. She had deadly claws and teeth in any case, but she was still a smaller female jaguar. If she had to fight a male jaguar, David thought she would be in a world of trouble.

He raced through mud from the recent rains, his jaguar paws sliding a little as he headed in the direction she had vanished. A few minutes later, he heard a jaguar roar—female, calling with news, not in distress—thank God. He switched course, diving through giant ferns until he found her. Her golden coat glowed in the filtered moonlight, her chin and belly white, and distinctive black rosettes patterning her coat—unique from any other jaguar. Now that he'd seen her as one, he would recognize her anytime, even if he wasn't close enough or the breeze wasn't blowing the right way for him to smell her delightful scent.

He looked up to a tree branch about five feet off the ground to see what she was observing and saw the oddest sight. One of his condoms filled with water was tied securely to a branch. A vine stretched from that branch to another tree branch several yards away. Another water-filled condom hung in the center of the vine. And one last makeshift balloon was attached to the second tree.

Tammy looked questioningly at him with her vivid blue jaguar eyes. Amused at the boys' shenanigans, he couldn't help giving her a big, toothy jaguar grin. She grunted and scrutinized the condom in the center, and then she began sniffing the ground to learn where the teens had taken off to.

David headed for the other tree and saw something red and glossy on the trunk. Peering closer, he spotted a tiny heart drawn on the pale gray bark. He sniffed at the substance. Lipstick. Watermelon. Tammy's.

It instantly made him think of her lip-glossed mouth and how kissable it had looked earlier when she was sipping her sweet rum drink, her lips sucking seductively on the straw.

He didn't want to show her the lipstick mark because he was certain she hadn't realized she was missing the tube and she'd be further riled, but she needed to know. He took a deep breath and roared for her. Hidden by the foliage nearby, she dashed back in a flash, her spotted, golden tail swishing. He pointed his nose at the small red heart, accidentally touching it, and got a little on the tip of his nose.

She growled low, then looked at the red that must have been on his nose. Her pink tongue curled out, and before he knew what she was going to do, she took a lick. He was certain her sandpaper tongue washed the lipstick mark right off, but licking him was tantamount to a jaguar kiss, and hell, he wanted more.

Unfortunately for him, she took off running again, and he sprinted after her. They continued to search the whole area and found fresh tire track imprints in the mud, but the boys' trail had grown cold.

Despite planning to do this early tomorrow, David led Tammy to where the zip-line adventure would be to see if the boys had done anything there. Sure enough, after a long trek through the jungle, they found a condom filled with water tied to the platform where the zipper would start out. Another rubber was tied on the cable nearby, and the other at the end of the line. They finally found a lipstick heart drawn on the bottom wooden step from the platform where the zip line ended. Again, Tammy growled.

David was more than a little amused at the boys' mischief. He and his brother had never come up with anything quite as humorous or creative as this.

He and Tammy returned to their cabana, their legs, bellies, throats, and chins splattered with mud. When they reached the back patio, Tammy batted at the faucet for the shower, either trying to turn it on herself or telling him she wanted him to do it for her. Happy to oblige, he shifted and twisted the nozzles on the shower until the water was warm. When she nudged at him to get out so she could wash in her jaguar form, he laughed.

“You
are
shy.” He smiled, sighed, and headed back into the cabana. He loved how human she really was.

When he returned, she was too busy enjoying the shower to notice that he was
still
naked
as she bit at the stream of water. He chuckled, amused at her playfulness. He stepped into the shower and poured jasmine-scented shampoo on her back. She turned her head and growled a little, but it was more of an annoyance—a “leave me alone” rather than “I'm ready to bite” growl.

He ignored her and began lathering her up, knowing she wouldn't like it if she tracked mud all through the cabana and had to clean it up. Once she shifted into human form, she'd have to wash the rest of the dirt off her legs and feet in the bathroom sink, no easy feat.

“You'll thank me in the morning,” he said.