Wade was torn. He couldn’t take Maya with them. Why the hell weren’t her cousins here yet? He couldn’t leave her here alone. Thompson was studying them, analyzing the situation.
“I’ll be okay,” Maya quickly said. “You guys go take care of business. Thompson and I can just talk about plants or something.”
“We’ll be right back.” Wade kissed her cheek, gave Thompson a look that warned him not to upset Maya, then rose from the table. He squeezed Maya’s hand, then left the club to speak in private with Candy and his brother.
“What’s going on?” Wade asked Candy in the alley beside the club as David listened in.
Candy smiled up at him. “I called the buyer. He said we can meet him at another location tonight if you want to do some business with him.”
Wade had two choices—leave his brother to watch over Maya and try to take down whoever the buyer was on his own, or take Maya with them. He didn’t like either choice.
David must have been thinking along the same lines. “We can’t take Maya with us.”
“That’s right,” Candy said. “She can’t go along for the ride.”
Wade ignored her.
David cleared his throat and said to Wade, “Our friend Thompson could take her home.”
Wade knew what he was referring to. Thompson had protected her at the club before, and Martin had checked him out and determined he was one of the good guys. Wade still didn’t like the idea.
“It’s about our only choice.”
“The buyer won’t wait forever,” Candy warned.
“All right,” Wade said, hating to agree to this. But if they could take down the buyer, they had to do it. He wasn’t certain that Maya would go along with the plans, but he didn’t want her driving home alone, either. “Wait for me at the car. I’ll be right back.”
Wade stalked into the club and saw Maya watching for his return. He smiled at her, and as soon as he reached the table, he pulled her into his arms and said into her ear for her hearing only, “We’ve got a chance to meet the buyer.”
Her eyes widened.
“I don’t want you to drive home alone,” he said out loud.
“I’ll be fine.”
“I’ve got to take care of business. I don’t want you to be alone,” he said again. “If your cousins were here…”
“I could wait for them.”
“No, it could still take a couple of hours for them to get here.” He glanced at the dancers in the club. He was afraid Lion Mane might show up still.
“You need me to take her home?” Thompson asked.
Not looking really pleased but knowing how important this was, she finally let out her breath. “Okay, Thompson can follow me home if he doesn’t mind. We both have our own vehicles.”
Wade gave her a searing kiss and another hug, then reached over to shake Thompson’s hand. “Thanks. I owe you one.”
“I promise you I’ll see her safely home.”
“Thanks.” Then hating it, but pumped up about catching the buyer, he gave Maya one last squeeze and headed out of the club.
“Do you want one last dance?” Thompson asked Maya.
“Good guys, how?”
“We don’t steal jaguars. We love them. We would protect them with our lives, but we don’t steal them.”
“I don’t understand. So you’re saying you bought them? Don’t you have to have a license to have them in Texas? Facilities to house them? They can’t be running loose like I saw.”
She danced with Thompson, her attention drifting to three men lurking at the edge of the dance floor, shifters. “Yeah, I agree. We don’t have any jaguars. Despite what you think you saw.” Before the dance ended, she said to Thompson, “We better go before there’s another fight.”
Thompson looked at the men who were lined up, eyeing her. “You’re still popular, I see.”
“I’m a wild cat. Didn’t you know?”
He smiled down at her. “As in shifter. Like you told me before.”
“Sure.” She took his hand and skirted around the men, trying to avoid them. Without David and Wade or her cousins to run interference, the shifters zeroed in on her.
“Wanna dance?” one of the men asked, trying to block Thompson from moving Maya out of the club.
“No, thank you.”
The man grabbed her arm. “Just one dance.”
“Let her go,” Thompson said, his words dark with threat.
The shifter released her. Thompson moved Maya quickly through the club. “They’re following us,” he said under his breath to her.
Not liking this, Maya picked up her pace. Thompson swiftly escorted her to her car. She stared at the tires, punctured, as if the rubber had melted against the hot pavement. Her blood iced with anger.
She glanced back at the club and saw the shifters hesitating at the doorway.
“Come on. I’ll take you in my truck, and your cousins or your boyfriend and his brother can take care of your car,” Thompson said.
She hated leaving her car, but she figured they could be in more of a mess if the shifters decided to play hardball with the human.
Thompson’s truck was black and featured a pack of beautiful gray wolves howling against the backdrop of a snow-covered mountain in a custom airbrushed paint job. He really was a wolf person. It amused her to think that he’d tangled with a bunch of big cats. She was never so glad to be inside a vehicle as when she climbed into the passenger seat of the truck, and he jumped into the driver’s seat, turned on the engine, and gunned the gas.
“Okay, tell me what this is all about,” he said.
She chewed on her lower lip.
Thompson glanced at her.
She folded her arms. “I’ve already explained.”
“That you’re a cat shifter and so are your brother and sister-in-law. So what about the rest of the cats I saw? Your cousins? Wade and his brother?”
“You really don’t believe that, do you?”
“No. I think you’re involved in something. But damned if I know what. I mean, jaguars aren’t trainable like that. Not so that they can serve as obedient guard cats.”
She frowned as Thompson took an exit she hadn’t expected. “This isn’t the fastest way out of Houston to catch the highway we need.”
“We’re being followed.” Before she could ask him anything further, he added, “I’m a hunter. I know.”
Chapter 23
David drove the rental car with Candy in the front passenger seat and Wade in the backseat. Wade texted Martin about their whereabouts in Houston and asked for backup. He also texted Connor to let him know that Thompson was taking Maya home.
Martin responded that Maya’s cousins were the closest to them and on their way. But they were still about an hour and a half away in driving time.
“So how did you get involved in all this?” David asked Candy as she gave him the location to go to.
