“Good.”
Wade stroked her wet hair and held her close. He still couldn’t believe she was here, safe and in his arms.
“What the hell…?” George said, slamming on the brakes, the car sliding to a halt on the wet road.
Chapter 28
Wade and Maya turned to see what George was viewing, although the rain was hitting the windshield so hard that it was difficult to see what was going on. A dripping-wet naked woman was walking toward the car, dark hair hanging over her shoulders, her eyes amber and staring straight at the car. When George didn’t move, Wade kissed Maya and released her. “Be right back,” he promised.
He quickly got out of the car and hurried toward the woman, smelling her cat scent. She was a shifter. The jaguar he’d seen in the tree on Gunther’s property?
Hell, she hadn’t been the zoo cat.
“Are you okay?” he asked, making sure she was uninjured as he placed his arm around her shoulders to comfort her, afraid she might be in shock because of all that had happened to her.
“Yes, thank you. I… didn’t want to wait for the men to find me and make it harder for them to explain me if the humans learned I was the female jaguar.”
“I understand.” He opened the front passenger door for her and had her sit there. “Give her your shirt, George,” he said when George just gaped at her. Wade shook his head, reminding himself that not all shifters were hero material.
“Yeah, of course. Sure.” George fumbled to remove his shirt, his cheeks turning crimson.
Wade got a call from Martin as he climbed back into the car and Maya slid into his arms again, settling against him like she was his, and he was hers. His heart stuttered with the notion. She finally had decided she wouldn’t look elsewhere for a shifter mate.
He lifted the phone to his ear as he rubbed Maya’s arm, holding her close and sharing his body heat.
“We can’t locate the jaguar,” Martin said. “Where did you say you saw her last?”
Wade smiled and put the phone on speaker as he looked at the woman sitting in the front seat of George’s car and wearing his T-shirt. “She just joined us. She’s a shifter.”
“My name is Caryn Breming. From Houston. I was running as a jaguar in the woods near here when a human hunter saw me and shot me with a tranquilizer dart. He sold me to Gunther. I’ve been in that cat run ever since then. I couldn’t let them know the truth, not when Gunther was always around. I didn’t know that the rest of you were shifters, too. Thanks for rescuing me,” she said.
“Got all that?” Wade asked Martin.
“Hell, yeah.”
“What about Candy?” Wade asked his boss.
“Police collected her and several hunters at the ranch house. The two hunters that tried to kill the jaguars have been arrested. One of them appears to have several broken ribs due to the tree falling on him and a concussion and a pretty bad gash in his head from the ATV crashing into the tree. Pays to wear a helmet. The other one is more open to speculation. My guess? One of the jaguars hit him pretty hard.”
“Served him right,” Wade said.
Caryn gave Wade a thumbs-up.
“Gunther’s body was fished out of the lake. We’ve already taken care of Bettinger’s body to avoid anyone seeing him. Good job,” Martin said.
“Even if you had to come here yourself?” Wade asked.
“On one of the biggest problem cases we’ve had in years? My being here means I can take all the credit.”
Wade smiled. One thing they always said about the director of the Special Forces unit was that he gave credit to the men and women who deserved it.
“I’ve informed the police detective that Maya had been kidnapped by Gunther. We’ll have to come up with a viable cover story for that, and she’ll need to talk to him. David also said you needed some time off. It’s granted.”
“Thanks, boss.” Wade rubbed his hand over Maya’s arm as she snuggled against him. He knew just what he’d do with that time off. “I’ve got to make a call to Thompson. Talk to you later,” he told Martin.
At a run as he headed for George’s car, David waved to them. He was about to open the front passenger door when he saw the woman sitting in the front seat. He quickly pulled open the door to the back. “Sorry, Wade,” he said to his brother as he climbed in. “Hate to have to ride back here with you… considering you probably wanted a little privacy.”
“No problem,” Wade said.
David eyed the new woman in the front seat. “I’m David Patterson.”
She gave him a small smile. “Caryn Breming.”
“George Tucker,” George said, as if he was so tongue-tied around the woman that he was having a time saying anything. But with another shifter sounding interested, he jumped right in. “How come I’ve never seen
“I never do the club scene,” Caryn said, “if you frequent those kinds of places.”
“Me either,” David said. “Not all the time. Hardly ever. Four times now, actually. But two of the times I was just on a job.”
She smiled and nodded at David.
Score one point for David, Wade thought, amused.
“Are you wild?” George asked. He knew that David was because he was in the Service.
“Not me. I’ve never been to the jungle. No interest.” Caryn glanced at George to see his take on it.
“Me either,” George said.
Score one point for George. She cast a look over the seat back at David to hear his response.
He folded his arms and gave a half smile. “Wild all the way.”
Wade was trying his damnedest not to laugh. He had to give his brother points for being an original.
Caryn smiled back at David as if she was intrigued.
Score a point for David? Maybe?
Maya said to David, “And here you called
“Yeah, you are, Maya. But I’d rather be in the jungle with you protecting my back than not.”
“Um, what happens after I drop you off at your car?” George asked Wade, sounding as though he wanted to get the topic off wild cats.
“Caryn needs a ride home,” Wade said, then punched in a number on his phone. “So we need to decide how she gets home.” The call he was trying to make went through, and Wade said, “Thompson, how are you doing?
Thompson said, his voice strained, “Hell, they got Maya.”
“We got her back. She’s okay. How about you?”
“Headache the size of Alaska. My wife will be here any minute now. I’m okay, but they wanted to keep me overnight for observation.”
“Good.”
More silence. Wade looked at David and raised his brows. Wade had to know if Thompson had seen Maya shift, but he couldn’t very well just come out and ask him.
Thompson cleared his throat. “Is Maya with you?”
“Right here.”
“Can I talk to her?”
“Sure.” Wade handed the phone to her.
“Maya?” Thompson said.
“Are you okay? I was afraid after the truck crashed and you didn’t move that you were dead.”
