hopefully Thompson was watching his driving.
Thompson snorted. “I never thought they’d go this far to get your interest.”
She yanked her dress over her head and tossed it on the seat, then ditched her shoes.
Thompson swung a wild right down another street.
Maya lost her balance and fell against the seat. She quickly righted herself and slid her thong off. Thompson glanced up at the rearview mirror.
“Watch your driving.” She unfastened her strapless bra and left it on the seat. “Don’t watch me.”
Thompson didn’t say anything, but he was grinding his back teeth. “I don’t believe any of this.” But he sounded like he wasn’t real sure of what he was saying.
“Believe what you will. We’ll need every weapon we can use. Oh and, Thompson? Lion Mane is a jaguar shifter, too. If they stop us and we’re out of options, open the door so I can get out of the truck and attempt to deal with them. Okay?”
Thompson stared at her. Thankfully, because of the seat, he couldn’t see her nude body, only the swell of her breasts and naked shoulders. “All right? If you keep me penned up in the truck and they begin shooting, I won’t have a chance to help us.”
“All right.” He sounded so unconvinced that she wanted to shift and give him a small nip to prove she wasn’t making this stuff up. “I’ll let you out if the time comes. And I’ll have my rifle ready.”
“I won’t bite you. No matter how scary I might look, I know what I’m doing. I might growl and sound vicious and deadly. But you’re one of the good guys. You love the jaguars as much as we do. You’re on our side. You just can’t let anyone, not
Then she called on the need to shift, and in that blur between human and jaguar, warmth seeped through her body, through every muscle, through every tissue, through every cell. She felt the change from being a much less flexible human to becoming a golden furred cat, stretching and purring until the vehicle crashed with a bang.
Wade was getting a really bad feeling. For the past ten minutes, he’d tried over and over to reach Maya without success. “I can’t get ahold of her,” Wade told his brother. He contacted Martin. “Any luck with locating her?”
“None,” Martin answered. “I’ve been in touch with her cousins. They’re on their way to your location.”
Wade was afraid they’d be too late. David drove around the area for another twenty minutes, until Wade was ready to shift and run through Houston searching for her.
His brother glanced at him. “You can’t.”
“Hell, I know I can’t. But sitting in a car and not being able to search for her by…” He stopped short of saying scent. He wished they’d dumped Candy’s butt at the convenience store.
“You wouldn’t be able to locate her while she’s riding in Thompson’s truck,” David said.
Wade knew that. He just hated feeling that the situation was so out of his control. They heard sirens, and David headed in that direction.
“Where are you going?”
“Anywhere. We haven’t had word, and until we do, I have no idea where to drive to.”
Wade watched for signs of emergency lights and finally saw the flashing, colorful lights partially hidden by a tall glass building. “Fire truck, police cars. Virtually no traffic down here.”
When they drew close, Wade took in the sight of the crumpled truck, wolves painted on the side. Thompson’s truck? Wade’s heart thundered in his ears. David had barely slowed down to see what was going on before Wade was opening the car door.
“Christ, Wade, let me stop before you kill yourself.” David jerked the car to the curb and let Wade out as a policeman hurried toward them to tell them to stay away from the scene of the accident.
“I know the driver and the woman who was with him, Thompson and Maya Anderson,” Wade said to the policeman, trying to draw closer. “What’s happened? Where are they?”
“Mr. Thompson suffered a head injury in the collision. It looks like another vehicle hit him, slamming his truck into the light pole, and then took off. There wasn’t any sign of a… woman.”
“Let me talk to him,” Wade said, trying to get past the policeman, attempting not to growl too much. He really had to speak with Thompson.
“Sir,” the policeman said.
“She’s my fiancee, damn it!”
David had parked the car farther away and was running in Wade’s direction.
The policeman cleared his throat. “You know this man well?”
“Thompson? Yeah, he’s from the Oregon Zoo, searching for a missing jaguar. We’ve been trying to help him track it down.”
“And your… fiancee was with him because…?”
Wade glowered at the officer. “He was taking her home.”
“Sounds like police business to me.” The officer waved for someone else to talk to them.
Wade glanced at the waiting ambulance as emergency personnel were strapping Thompson on a gurney before they loaded it into the ambulance. “I need to see Thompson.”
“I’m Detective Oberton,” the man said, then dismissed the other policeman. “I overheard you say you know the driver.”
Wade quickly gave him the same spiel as he had the other officer. “I need to speak with Thompson. My fiancee was with him. Where is she now? If the man who forced Thompson off the street did it to kidnap my fiancee…”
The detective let out his breath and glanced in the direction of two officers who were checking out Wade’s rental car. The men shook their heads, and one of them motioned that it was all clear.
Wade frowned at the policemen and then at the detective. He folded his arms. “I didn’t have anything to do with crashing Thompson’s truck into the pole.”
“It appears you didn’t.” The detective continued to jot down notes on his notepad, then looked up at Wade. “Mr. Thompson has a concussion. He’s incoherent, slurring his words, mentioning something about jaguars and Maya. I’m sure if he’s looking for the missing jaguar from his zoo, he’s confused about that and jumbling it together with talk about your fiancee.”
“So let me talk to him.”
“For just a second. They need to get him to the hospital.”
The detective walked with Wade to the ambulance, though Wade was ready to push him aside and sprint for it. He also needed to check out Thompson’s truck.
“Thompson.” Wade reached out to grasp the zoo man’s cold hand. He squeezed it reassuringly.
Thompson’s eyes looked like glassy blue lakes. He stared at Wade without comprehension.
“Was it that blond guy… you know, Lion Mane, who took Maya? Did he say where he was taking her? Thompson?”
Thompson’s lips parted, but he didn’t make a sound. Frowning a little, he looked confused.
“Thompson, tell me. Did he take her?”
“Mr. Patterson,” the detective said, “he’s just too injured to respond. Let them take him to the hospital. You can see him there.”
“Thompson, did… he… take… her?”
Thompson shut his eyes.
Hell. “Okay, we’ll check on you at the hospital in a little while. Hold on, buddy.” For the first time since he’d met the man, Wade noticed that Thompson wore a wedding ring. “I’ll get in touch with your family.”
As the ambulance took Thompson to the hospital, Wade began to walk toward the truck, taking deep breaths and trying to smell Lion Mane’s scent.
“You can’t get close to the truck. It’s a crime scene,” the detective said.
“I’m not going to touch anything.”
David was walking with him but stopped in his tracks to let Wade try and persuade the detective to let him get closer.
“The thing of it is…” the detective said, stopping Wade, “the situation’s a little complicated.”
