Jaguar Fever

Maya purred.

Everett didn’t say anything for a moment, then he asked, “Are you bringing her back here tonight?”

“We haven’t decided yet. We have some making up to do.”

Maya smiled up at him and shook her head.

The movement of someone big heading toward their table caught Wade’s eye. “Oh hell. Thompson’s here. If Connor didn’t fill you in on the latest news concerning what a particular zoo man has seen, ask him about it. Got to go, Everett.” He ended the call.

Maya turned her head to look in Thompson’s direction. He waved at them as if they were old buddies, pointing at their table, and Wade nodded.

The zoo man sat down on one of the free chairs.

“Great,” Maya said under her breath, her hands cupping Wade’s buttocks.

“Hmm, Maya, we’re really going to have to get a room. I’m not sure I’m willing to wait the two hours to get back to your place after we leave here.” The ruby-colored dress was just too provocative, along with her scent and the way she moved like a slender, sleek cat rubbing up against him. He took a deep breath and kissed the top of her head. “I don’t want you seeing anyone else.”

There, he’d said it. He had wanted it to be her choice, but observing her with other guys made him ready to have one hell of a catfight, and he didn’t think killing another man who’d had his hands all over her would encourage his relationship with her in a positive way.

“I don’t want to be with anyone else,” she said on a sigh.

Relief washed over him, and he smiled.

She quickly added, “It doesn’t mean that I don’t worry about… us and what will happen in the future. Or that I’m not anxious about whether I’m leaping into something that neither of us will be happy with in the long run.” She looked up at him, and he saw the worry in her golden eyes.

“Maya…”

She shook her head. “Kat told me I’m projecting my parents’ failure onto our relationship.”

Wade kissed her forehead. “It doesn’t matter. We are not your parents, and whatever happened between them has nothing to do with us.”

“That’s what Kat said.”

“Good. I like Kat. She gave you some sound advice.”

“I want to know the truth about our dad. Kat suggested maybe he hadn’t fathered us and that’s why he left when my mom was pregnant.”

“We can look into it.” Not that he wanted to learn anything she might be unhappy about, but he’d help her just the same.

“What are we going to do about Thompson?” she asked.

“That’s another matter entirely. What do you want to say? Stick to your shifter story?”

She rolled her eyes. “Isn’t your organization involved in keeping our status secret?”

“Truthfully, I haven’t a clue as to how to handle this. Come on. The dance has ended. Let’s go see what he has to say about us.” Wade escorted a very tense Maya back to the table.

He nodded at Thompson, who stood and raised his beer to them, his eyes drifting to Maya and her dress, a slight smile curving his mouth. Then he said to Wade, “I hope I’m not intruding.”

As if he really hadn’t meant to.

“Not at all. It’s good to see old friends.”

Thompson smiled a little at the comment, but then a frown marred his forehead. He sat down and leaned forward against the table as if he didn’t want the rest of the people in the club to hear. “I checked news reports to see if jaguars—male type—had been stolen from other zoos.”

“And you found?” Wade asked, his fingers threading through Maya’s as they sat across from him.

“None. But you already knew that, didn’t you?”

“That you’d been searching for missing jaguars or that you had found none? How would I know that? Besides, we’ve been in Belize for the past week.”

“Both of you?” Thompson said, sounding surprised. Then he narrowed his blue eyes at Wade. “Of course. A jaguar haven.”

“Which is exactly where they belong,” Wade said.

“And that’s why three big males were roaming through Maya’s garden center? Maybe even four of them?”

“They were?” Wade asked, squeezing Maya’s hand. She looked cool and collected, but her hand was cold and clammy in his. “I’m sure Maya’s customers would have reported it, and when she got home, she would have heard about it. Three, you say? Or four? So were the sightings reported? Since she’s mentioned nothing to me about that—”

Thompson skirted the question. “I know what I saw.”

“So it happened at night? Early morning? When we were gone? Before we left for Belize? I’m just trying to get a picture of it in my mind,” Wade said, studying the big man.

Thompson sat back on his chair and regarded Wade coolly but didn’t say a word.

Wade shrugged and took a swallow of beer, set the iced glass on the table, and considered Thompson further. “Okay, if you were there when the garden shop wasn’t open, you must have been trespassing.”

Thompson’s face reddened. “I want my cat back,” he said.

“Fair enough. Maya’s already told you that she had nothing to do with your stolen cat.”

Thompson tapped his fingers on the table, then lifted his beer mug. “They’re dangerous predators. Not a feral animal you can truly train. Sure, circuses give the illusion they have the wild cats coached to do as the trainer wishes, but in the end, the beast is never tamed. You’re fighting with fire when you let those big cats run loose. Someone’s going to get injured. Maybe killed.” He looked at Maya.

“You’re right, of course,” she said. “They’re dangerous. No one would have let a bunch of jaguars loose on their property unless they wanted to suffer the consequences.”

Thompson folded his arms, his eyes dark and troubled. “This is not something to joke about. I know you’re involved. If I’d had any doubts, I wouldn’t after what I saw.”

Maya lifted her tall glass and took another sip of her drink. “Why do you think I have anything to do with the jaguars?”

Thompson left out his breath. “They were serving as guard cats. One stood with you in the entryway of the back door of your home. They ran in and out of your place as if they belonged there. Hell, I was ready to run in and try to save you!”

Her lips parted a little. Wade couldn’t help but admire the man for having been terrified but still wanting to protect Maya.

Thompson waited for Maya to respond. She sat silently. Even Wade didn’t know what to say to that.

“You didn’t report it,” Wade finally said.

“No. You must have packed the cats up in your vehicles the next morning and taken off with them. There wasn’t anything to report that anyone would have believed.”

It wasn’t good that Thompson thought they had a bunch of jaguars at the garden nursery, but he didn’t have proof, and he hadn’t seen any of them shift.

Wade squeezed Maya’s hand. “There is no such thing as a trained jaguar guard cat. Maya and her family don’t own any jaguars, male or otherwise. That’s all we’ve got to say about it.”

Thompson shifted his attention from Wade to Maya. “You remind me of a lady I know—Bella Wilder. She loved wolves and we’re pretty sure she freed a wolf from the Oregon Zoo. I’d taken the female wolf to the zoo to protect her, and she was getting to know another red wolf when she vanished and a naked female—Bella—ended up in her place. Now, we’re friends, but I still believe she and her husband had removed the wolf and freed her into the wild.”

Wade didn’t look to see how Maya was reacting to the news. Just because some crazy woman who loved wolves thought to release one into the wild, it didn’t have anything to do with them.

“I’m beginning to think we have a similar situation here. Except wolves do run wild in Oregon. Jaguars don’t in Texas,” Thompson said.

David headed back to the table with Candy, his face dark. “Can I have a word with you alone, Wade?”