“What’s that?”
“He’s got a female cat, but she’s not all that big, and she’s not that aggressive. He wants one from the wild. He’s afraid the female he has won’t provide a real challenge to the hunter. He’d also have to cancel the other hunter’s chance at the hunt. He hates refunding money. Believe me, these hunts can backfire in a heartbeat. The news spreads by word of mouth and then there’s no more hunting here. Or the hunters will refuse to pay the higher fees even if they still want to hunt the cat.”
Thompson’s missing zoo cat? Wade texted Martin about the possibility of the zoo cat being offered for the hunt.
Martin texted back. If you’re thinking of “selling” a shifter to the buyer to learn who he is and where this business is taking place, I say no. Too dangerous. And as for the location she’s directing you to? There’s no such place.
“Stop the car,” Wade said to David, then turned to Candy. “What is it that you want us to do exactly?”
David immediately pulled up next to the curb and waited for further instructions.
“My buyer doesn’t believe Jim Bettinger can return to South or Central America and pick up another cat in time. He’d have to get some other help, since he’s lost his brother and the rest of his men. My buyer knows you have jaguars that attacked Bill. He must have tried to steal your cats and say they were his and then planned to sell them as his own to the buyer. You must intend to sell them to someone else, or you wouldn’t have them hidden away somewhere.”
“You know that for certain?” Wade asked.
“I went to the garden nursery while you were away to look around the place. So yeah, I know that.”
“You thought to steal them while we were gone? Cut out the hunter in the equation?” Wade growled, doing his best to sound angered.
“No, I just was to verify that you had the big cats before I told the buyer,” Candy quickly said.
“Get out, Candy. You might get hurt.” The threat in Wade’s voice was real.
“What… you can’t leave me out here.” She twisted around to scowl at Wade. “This is a really bad part of town.”
She was right. He couldn’t leave her here. “We weren’t really meeting the buyer, were we? You just wanted to confirm that we had the cats and were willing to sell them.” Wade was already punching in a message to Maya. Where are you?
David said, “You heard my brother. Hit the road.”
Candy didn’t move. “You
Wade’s phone rang, and he said, “Yeah, Maya, where are you?”
“All four of my car tires were slashed. I had to ride with Thompson. We’re being tailed. Thompson’s trying to lose them.”
Wade swore under his breath. “Divide and conquer” came rushing into his thoughts as the adrenaline surged through his blood. “Give me your coordinates. We’re coming to your rescue.”
“What about the buyer?” Maya asked Wade, her voice anxious.
He didn’t care about that as much as he was worried about Maya. “We’ll take care of it later,” he said harshly. “Got to take care of Candy, then get back to you.”
“Who’s after Maya, Candy?” Wade grabbed his door handle and shoved the door open, then jumped out of the backseat, ready to toss Candy to the curb.
“Lion Mane. Jim Bettinger.”
“Shit.”
“I don’t know why everyone’s interested in Maya. Must be good in bed,” Candy groused.
Wade yanked Candy’s door open. “Why the hell is he after Maya?” Wade was certain he knew. Maya had killed Jim’s brother.
“I don’t have any idea except that he wanted more of her than just to dance.” Candy wouldn’t budge from the seat.
Wade reached down to grab her arm. “You got a phone on you?”
She nodded.
“Then call a taxi. Or Bettinger can drop by and pick you up, but you’re not coming with us.”
She yanked a Taser gun out of her purse.
Narrowing his eyes, Wade tsked. “Give us the name of your buyer, and we won’t dump you here.”
“I’ll be out of a job.”
“Your choice.”
David wrenched the Taser gun out of her hand. She cried out as he twisted her wrist behind her with his quick action.
She rubbed her wrist. “Okay, okay.”
Wade got back in the car and gave Thompson’s coordinates to Martin. David pulled away from the curb and hightailed it in the direction Maya and Thompson were headed.
“The buyer’s name is?” Wade asked Candy.
“Gunther Smith.” The woman frowned at Wade.
“Your name?”
“Candy.”
Wade looked up from texting, and she shrugged. “It’s the name my mother gave me. So sue me.” She frowned at him. “What are you doing exactly? How are you learning all this stuff so quickly?” Her eyes widened. “Are you the feds?” She shook her head. “You can’t be. We already checked you out.”
“Your last name?”
She hesitated to answer, then asked, “Will you sell us one of the cats?”
“You’re not with the police, are you?” That’s all they’d need was for Candy to be an undercover cop, attempting a sting operation.
She laughed. “You think I’m going to say you’re both under arrest for attempting to smuggle exotic cats into the country for the purpose of selling them? Hardly.”
“We’ll have to think further about selling one of the cats to you.”
“If you say you definitely will, I’ll give you my full name. Oh, and what happened to the other men? Bill Bettinger and the two smugglers?” she asked, sounding a little unsure of herself as if it was a dangerous thing to ask.
“They didn’t make it back. The rainforest can be a deadly place if you don’t know what you’re doing.” He gave her a warning look not to press the issue or she might end up where the others had.
“So you eliminated some of your competition,” she said. “That’s what we suspected.”
Wade said to his brother, “Drive faster. We need to find Maya, now!”
Chapter 24
Maya’s skin prickled with anxiety. She was certain that Thompson wasn’t going to lose the truck following them. The rig painted in camouflage had a Herd grill guard and bull bars in front, so if the driver chose to ram Thompson hard, he would lose control of his truck, guaranteed.
Maya pulled off her seat belt as Thompson made another turn downtown, trying to lose the tail. “What are you doing?” Thompson asked. “You should keep your seat belt on. It’s too dangerous not to.”
“Do you have a gun?”
He stared at her for a second, then watched his driving again. “Tranquilizer gun.”
“Good. But it might not be enough. I’m going to shift. You
“I don’t believe any of this,” Thompson muttered. “Who are those guys following us?”
“Taking a wild guess? Lion Mane and a buddy. Lion Mane was the guy I danced with at the club a week ago. You remember the guy with the blond hair?” Maya climbed over the seat, afraid she was flashing her thong, but
