She looked him over closely now—the lean tall form of him. About thirty-five, she guessed, his gray-blue eyes sharp, his dark brown hair mussed by the breeze. He was placing his weight more on one leg as though he was favoring the other. Then she saw the cane tucked behind him. Twice already, he’d moved, and each time he winced as though his leg was bothering him. But what really caught her eye was his face—half of it was scarred horribly, like cat claw marks running from his forehead down his throat. He was lucky to be alive after an encounter that left him scarred like that.
Had it been one of the big cats he’d bought to have hunted?
Served him right, if so.
His gaze remained on her, his mouth curving up slightly. “Jim said you’re a wild cat, straight from Belize. Now I don’t have to rely solely on that poor excuse for a jaguar.” He motioned toward the other cat.
Jim Bettinger? He couldn’t have sold her to this man so that he could have her hunted down. If the hunter killed her, she would shift into a human and he knew it. What was Bettinger thinking?
“He said you’re real special. That you killed his brother and one of our smuggler friends. So we’re going to ensure that you have a chance to really show what a tiger you are. Pardon the mixed cat reference.”
She wanted to tell him that whatever cat had clawed him so grotesquely deserved to be rewarded. But she imagined the animal had died long ago.
Maybe his injury was the reason he arranged for the hunting of big cats—to get back at the one that had disfigured him so badly.
“He promised me a big male, too. And I’ve decided to throw in the other female. Three hunters at one time. It’ll be the hunting sensation of the year.”
Maya glanced at the other cat. Had Bettinger managed to capture the female jaguar his brother lost in Belize? Bettinger had said Maya was a wild cat. So did that mean the other wasn’t? Was she the zoo cat Thompson was searching for?
Maya’s advantage over a jaguar that didn’t shift was that she knew something of the way hunters thought. She was both a hunter and a human. If she were strictly a cat, she’d try to avoid the hunters. That’s what they couldn’t anticipate: Her unpredictability. The hunted hunting them.
“The price is going way up on you, missy,” the man said proudly.
She heard someone coming, and he turned and smiled at the person just out of Maya’s view.
As soon as she saw him, Maya growled low.
Jim Bettinger, aka Lion Mane, smiled broadly at her as he ran his fingers over the steel mesh caging her in. “Hello, beautiful cat. So we meet again.”
The tip of her tail twitched, and her eyes narrowed as she focused fully on him. She so wanted to take care of him just as she had his brother.
“Better not get in her way,” the buyer said. “She looks like she’d love to rip you apart and eat you slowly.”
“Hmm,” Jim said, running his hand along a corner pole. “She’s welcome to bite me any time, Gunther. But just know this, beautiful cat. I bite back.” He turned to Gunther. “Make sure she’s locked up tight in there.”
“You think she’s going to walk out on her own?”
“Trust me,” Jim said, looking back at Maya. “She’s capable of anything. And if she can’t do it on her own, she might very well have help. So you need to ensure she’s not going anywhere.”
Jim glanced up at a point on the cage above her head. “We’ll be watching you.”
She looked to see what he was talking about, presuming the place had security cameras. It did. She didn’t give a damn who was watching, though. If she could buy her freedom any way possible, she was doing it, even if that meant she had to shift in front of the camera.
“I think you’ve done a good job,” Gunther told the shifter. “I can tell just from the way she was watching you and now me that she’s intelligent. She’s going to be just perfect for the hunt.”
“Yeah, she is,” Jim agreed.
“Want some dinner? This calls for a celebration. I’ll have some nice bloody steaks sizzling on the grill in no time.” Gunther limped off.
He would be an easy kill, Maya thought, though they needed to send him to jail for all of his illegal killings, since he was human.
Jim still watched her through the cage and made a kissing motion at her.
She shouldn’t have done it, but she wanted to scare the cockiness out of the son of a bitch. She leaped to her feet, thankful she could manage to shake off the grogginess this much, bounded across the run, and slammed against the cage door with her paws, growling and snarling, forcing Jim to jump back and let out a cry of distress.
Gunther laughed. “Told you she’s smart. You’d better not be anywhere near the hunting grounds. If she could, I’d bet my lands she’d target you even if someone else was firing a gun at her.”
Jim was watching her warily, and Gunther had stopped to observe her with a sly smile on his face, amused that the she-cat had frightened the superior hunter.
“Your ass is mine,” Jim said, his eyes full of hostility.
“Only if you pay for the chance to hunt her,” Gunther warned, the smile sliding off his face.
Jim nodded. “Let’s get those steaks.” Then he turned and headed in the direction Gunther was going.
She watched them disappear past the cement-block wall that blocked her view. She wondered if anyone was monitoring the cameras. If she could knock out a light overhead, they couldn’t see her. But she’d have to shift first before she could use something on the light.
She looked around and saw a stainless-steel water trough and food dish.
The food dish might work. She’d have to wait until the men were gone or in bed. She glanced at the other cat. She was watching her, almost looking like she was smiling.
***
“I don’t know where Jim Bettinger has taken your girlfriend,” Candy said to Wade and David. Her phone buzzed and she texted back. “My buyer just bought a female cat from Jim Bettinger.”
Damn it to hell. Bettinger had to have sold Maya to the buyer. What was Bettinger thinking? “Bettinger didn’t have a cat to sell. And you know it. He stole one of mine.”
Candy folded her arms. “Says you. How are you going to prove that cat was yours? Got papers?”
“I’ve got a picture of her posted on Maya’s website. You know the one. You saw it yourself.”
Candy’s mouth dropped open. But then she quickly snapped it shut. “I don’t know anything about it.”
“I really don’t give a damn if you do or don’t. I want you to contact the buyer and tell him my brother’s bringing you a trade. A male for a female,” Wade said.
Candy smiled. “Interesting proposition, but he’s surely already paid for the female. You can’t expect him to pay you for the male and give up the female.”
“No payment. Just an even trade.”
Candy frowned at him. “I don’t get it.”
“She’s my breeding stock, damn it.” Maya would be thrilled to hear Wade say it.
“Let me call him.” Candy touched the screen on her phone, then spoke into it. “Um, I have an offer from the other hunters. They say Jim stole their female cat, and they want to trade a male for her.”
Candy looked up at Wade. With his cat’s hearing, Wade heard the man say, “He does, does he? Jim’s right here, and he says the cat’s his.”
“It isn’t. Wade has proof it isn’t,” Candy said.
“Possession is nine-tenths of the law, Sis.”
Sis? This woman was the buyer’s sister?
“He’s willing to give you a male in her place so he can use her for breeding stock,” Candy said.
A long pause followed.
“Candy, Jim said no to the offer. He’s going to deliver another cat—male this time. We’re going to have three on the hunt. First time to have multiple cats to hunt.”<
br />
“Won’t that be dangerous?” Candy asked, sounding anxious. She was frowning, looking at the floor as if she’d forgotten Wade and his brother were there. “If you’re going to do this, I don’t want you out there in the field videotaping it. It’s too risky.”
“I’ll be in the ATV. You worry too much.”
“You know how dangerous the cats can be,” she said.
“All too well. Jim and I are having steaks to celebrate his bringing me a wild jaguar and the other addition—tomorrow. You won’t need to drum up any more business for a while. Unless you’re just enjoying yourself. Come on home and join us, if you want.”
“Thanks. I will. Bye.” She hung up the phone and stuck it in her bag.
“Your brother,” Wade said.
“What?” Candy looked stricken.
“Your brother. The buyer. He said no to exchanging a male out for the female because Jim is going to sell him another cat. Since he didn’t bring one from Belize, that means he intends to steal another one of my cats.”
She licked her lips and glanced from Wade to his brother. “I’m sorry. I… I don’t know what to say.”
“Give me your purse,” Wade demanded.
“I don’t have any money.”
“Just give me the damned purse.”
She handed it to him and he jerked it out of her hands, found a wallet, and looked for her driver’s license. Candy Lyn Jaemison.
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 my property. Bettinger had no right to her. What’s your name?”
“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 is she?” Wade growled.
“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 su
pply 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.”
“…To use in a hunt where hunters have paid to kill said shifter. Do you know what would happen if word got out that a hunter had killed a shifter and that shifter turned from cat to human when she died? All caught on videotape?”
“My God,” George said, shaking. “I… I didn’t know that’s what he wanted her for. I would never have agreed to anything like that. I thought he just wanted her back.”
“And she happens to be my woman,” Wade growled, hand clenched around George’s arm as he guided him out of the suite.
“Your woman?” George looked like he was ready to pass out. “I swear I don’t know where they took her. I’ll drive you to the place where I transferred her to the other vehicle, but that’s all I know. What are you going to do with me?”
Wade and David flanked him as they hurried him out of the hotel. “We’ll turn you and Candy over to our boss. He’ll hand her over to the police once we’re finished mopping things up,” Wade said.
“Which group are you in? The Enforcers?” George sounded hopeful. No one who knew about their organization wanted a visit from the Avengers, who terminated shifters who were this much in violation of their shifter laws.
“Golden Claws.” Which meant they did everything.