He brought out his phone and took a picture of her name, address, and ID photo. Now, if they could just find a Jaemison who lived in the area, probably some distance away from Houston, though. The ranch couldn’t be too close in, not if they did big-game hunting.
She had several credit cards—looked like business was good—and the usual woman stuff—nail file, lipstick, pen, checkbook, a clutter of receipts. One was a gas receipt for the little town close to Maya’s garden nursery. He read the address on the checkbook, same as the one on her driver’s license.
He pulled out her phone next and called Martin. When he answered, Wade said, “Record the number. It’s Miss Candy Jaemison’s. The woman leading us to Maya’s captor.”
“Got it. Anything else?”
He read off all the phone numbers she had in her address book.
“All right, all right,” Candy said. “Maya’s abduction has nothing to do with my brother, though. If Jim took her, then I’ll tell you what I know. I was supposed to meet George Tucker after we made a deal about the cat. You know, I mentioned him before. He was at the bar that first night I met you.” She gave them the name of the hotel and David headed downtown.
“How do you know he’s involved in this deal with Maya?”
“He and Jim were together tonight. Jim was ranting about his brother dying in Belize, and George was trying to calm him down. Jim said he knew Maya had returned to the club, and he talked about convincing her to go somewhere quiet with him. George said he’d help him. I was to meet him later at the club, and then we were going to the hotel. I had to call off the club date because of you two. I told him once I was done with business, I’d join him at the hotel. What are you going to do to him?”
“Convince him that he wants to let us know where Maya is.”
When they reached the hotel, Wade and David rushed Candy up to the seventh floor. Wade and his brother stood away from the door of the room where George was staying while Candy knocked on it.
“It’s just me,” she called out.
Chapter 26
“What the hell took you so—” George said, opening the door, wearing only boxers and a frown. His brown eyes widened as he saw David and Wade holding Candy’s arms, and he took a deep breath and smelled the scent of the shifters in front of him. Angry shifters.
He tried to slam the door in their faces, but Wade had anticipated his action and blocked the door with his boot.
George raced across the room, grabbed a tranq gun, and fired it without aiming properly. The dart hit Candy. She squeaked, eyes wide, and crumpled to the carpeted floor.
Wade had the man by the throat in the next instant, walking him backward into the suite, while David quickly checked the rest of the place to make sure George was the only person there.
David nodded to Wade. “You can kill him now.”
“Wait,” the man said, eyes bulging as he grasped Wade’s hands still around his throat. “What’s this all about?”
Wade backed him up to the brown sofa in the sitting area and shoved him onto it. “Bettinger asked you to help him grab Maya for him.”
“What? He wanted her. Sure. But then he changed his mind, called me, and told me to pick up a jaguar for him instead.”
“He paid you to take a female jaguar where?” Wade towered over him, arms crossed over his chest, eyes narrowed.
The shifter glanced at David and then at Wade, his forehead pebbled with sweat. “What… what do you want with the jaguar?”
“She was
“George Tucker.” He swallowed hard. “Jim said… the man stole the cat from him. He needed my help to get her back, and he was paying lots of money, no questions asked.”
“That’s the first thing that should have clued you in that you were doing something illegal.”
“Illegal?”
“Where’d you take her? To the ranch? To be hunted?”
“Hunted?” George shook his head.
“Were you involved in crashing the truck Maya was riding in?”
“No, I never saw any truck. Bettinger handled the whole thing and had me pick the cat up from him at an abandoned building. I delivered her across town to another location where a waiting vehicle was parked. Bettinger was really paranoid that someone would come looking for the cat.” George’s jaw dropped open, and then he let out his breath. “Hell, no wonder he was worried someone could find the trail. He’d stolen the cat from two shifters.”
“Where
“I don’t know. I was supposed to transfer her to the trunk of another vehicle parked in a vacant lot.”
“Okay, let’s go. Don’t try to cause any trouble for us,” Wade said, “or you’ll damn well regret it. Get some pants on first.”
“They’re in there,” George said, motioning to the bedroom.
David waved for him to get his clothes. “Nice and easy,” David warned.
“You realize we’re with the Service, right?” Wade said.
George swallowed hard. “I kind of suspected that when you barged in the way you did. I didn’t know anything about jaguars being hunted. I swear it. It was just some quick, easy money. I should have known it was too good to be true.” He slipped into the bedroom, quiet as a cat in the rainforest, and grabbed his clothes, then hurried out of the bedroom. David and Wade waited while George fumbled with his clothes in getting dressed.
“What… what are you going to do with me?” George asked, looking like his legs were barely holding him up.
“Just keep talking about what happened while you dress,” Wade said.
“Okay, I assume that whoever was picking her up was watching because I had to leave the keys on the driver’s seat and anyone could have stolen the car. I was told in pretty harsh terms not to wait around.”
George yanked on his sneakers without bothering with socks. “If someone got to the car and stole it, the thieves would have a real shock. They’d have found a jaguar in the trunk. Once she awakened, they’d have regretted stealing the car, but it would have served them right.”
“Name and make of the car? Color? License tags?”
George gave Wade the information in a hurry. “You can’t kill me. I haven’t done anything wrong, according to our laws.” He tugged on a T-shirt.
David quickly texted the information to Martin.
“You conspired to supply a jaguar as prey for an illegal hunt.” Wade said, raising a brow. “Grab Candy. We’ll take her with us. If we left her and she woke, she could warn her brother we’re out to get Maya back.”
The man’s eyes grew round as he stared mutely at Wade. He suspected the man really hadn’t known that’s why Bettinger was buying the cat. “I can’t believe they’re going to hunt her. I… I thought Bettinger just wanted his shifter girlfriend back and was plenty pissed about her being with the other guy. You know how we are. Possessive. Territorial.”
David grabbed Candy off the floor and cradled her in his arms, since George seemed too shocked to react quickly.
Wade continued to tick off the charges as he shoved George toward the door. “Taking a shifter hostage.”
All the color drained from George’s face. “I… I didn’t think of it as taking her hostage. She was just… asleep. I was just returning her to Bettinger.”
