A Very Jaguar Christmas (17 page)

The woman told them about how they'd driven home in a hurry, angry with each other over the whole mess with him and her friend. “We never heard the boy make a peep. Believe me, if I'd heard some kid in there crying or hollering to get out, I would've unlocked the door and checked it out.”

“Why didn't you stop at a campsite on the way home?”

“Once we drove out of the snow, I took the wheel. We alternated between driving and sleeping. I just wanted to get home and kill him. When we got home, I went to grab the food out of the fridge in the camper. But when I unlocked the door and opened it, there was this little boy sitting on the bed, a half-melted chocolate bar in hand, taking a bite of it, and a mess everywhere. Took me days to clean it up too. I never seen such a mess.” She went on to explain in detail the mess, taking the boy to clean him up, buying him a couple of things, and then taking him to the day care. “Oh, I finally found his snow boots.”

“Snow boots.” If they'd had those all along, they probably would have had a clue he'd been up north before he'd even shifted.

“And I've got his coloring books and crayons. Which he can have.”

“If you hadn't done anything wrong, why didn't you report this to the police so they could reunite him with his parents?”

“I've been in trouble with the law before. Nothing much. Just petty stuff. But when you get in trouble, people look at you differently. I've never stole a kid before, but what if someone thought we had done that this time and then just chickened out and called the police?”

“Corey told us how he was playing hide-and-seek with his brother and sister. You would have been exonerated. We want you to look at some maps and see if you can give us any direction, any idea of where you drove. Was the same route you took to Minnesota the same as the one on the way back?”

“I don't know. When I take that medicine, it makes me sleepy. But I get so nauseated, I have to take it. I can show you where I drove through on the way home. And on the way there. But once we hit snow, I didn't drive. Paddy's from Minnesota. He's used to it. Not me. I was freezing. I'm from Texas. Never lived anywhere up north. I don't travel well, so I don't usually go anywhere but on really short drives. Paddy wanted to get away. I think he was mad at Millicent, because when he got mad at me and we returned home, he left and I thought he was staying with her, but he came home again.”

“Where in Minnesota is he from?”

“St. Paul, I think.”

“St. Paul,” Everett said. “Big city, no help there. Family there still?”

“No. Parents passed away. No brothers or sisters.”

As if on cue, Tammy came in with a large map of the States and spread it out on the table in front of Belinda. “Leidolf wants to talk to the two of you, and Martin suggested I try to learn what I can from her about where they might have traveled while you take Corey home. Howard is going to look for this girlfriend of Paddy's and check out the pub.”

“All right. Thanks, Tammy,” Everett said.

Demetria knew he wanted to stay and work the case, but they needed to get some sleep and take care of Corey.

Everett took charge of Corey, thanking Howard for taking care of him. “Good luck on your search.”

“A bunch of us are searching. I'm in charge of this part of the investigation until we can bring Paddy O'Leary in,” Howard said.

Leidolf pocketed his phone. “I've got pack trouble at home. I need to take the next flight out of the Dallas area. Keep me in the loop on this, will you? And I'll keep trying to track down the MacPhersons with my own resources.”

“Absolutely,” Demetria said.

“Sure thing. Appreciate you flying all the way out here to help us.” Everett balanced Corey and shook Leidolf's hand.

“I'm sure we'll have more dealings with one another in the future.” Leidolf nodded to Demetria and Howard, then left the viewing room.

“That's the problem with being a pack leader,” Demetria said. “It might be neat to have a pack-run mini kingdom, but when the king is away…”

“Yeah. Hope it isn't anything too serious,” Everett said.

Howard said, “I'll let you know if I track Paddy down and get a location. Or find the girlfriend.”

“Thanks, Howard.” Demetria took hold of Everett's arm. “Come on. Let's get Corey home to bed.”

Everett smiled at her.

“Yeah, yeah. If we come up with any ideas in the middle of the night, we can discuss them.” But Everett was still smiling, as if he knew that any ideas they came up with would have nothing to do with the case and wouldn't lead to any discussion at all.

Martin met with them before they left. “We're keeping Belinda in a separate wing of a correctional facility for jaguars so our agents can continue to question her, promising she'll be released without criminal prosecution as soon as the family is found. We can't release her until then, in case she's afraid she'll be prosecuted for not turning the boy over to police and tries to disappear.”

“Sound good,” Demetria said.

“Are the two of you good with taking care of Corey while you're still on the case? Do we need to call someone else to take care of him in the meantime?”

“No, we're good,” Everett said. “I don't think it would be a good idea to keep handing him over to different families. We're giving him a birthday party tomorrow, taking him to see Santa, and checking out the mall again. Though I suspect that since Corey's family is in Minnesota, they have nothing to do with the woman and her children that smelled like wolves at the mall.”

Martin glanced at Demetria. “Yeah, we're good, sir. He loves us, so no problem with that. He's been great,” she said.

“Okay. We had a lot of offers to take the boy in, and even more tonight when they saw him sound asleep in Everett's arms, so just checking. It's late. Why don't you get some sleep and get to work on all of this in the morning.”

“Yes, sir,” they both said.

As she drove them to Everett's home, Demetria made a detour and traveled through one of the more highly decorated home developments so she and Everett could enjoy the Christmas lights. Corey was in the car seat fast asleep.

“Beautiful,” Everett said. “Haven't done this in years.”

“Me either. We'll have to do it again when Corey's still awake.”

She parked at Everett's town house shortly after that, but still no word from Howard.

“Why don't we put Corey to bed while we wait for Howard's call?” Everett had every intention of having Demetria stay with him. “We can decide where everyone's staying the night.” He carried Corey into a guest room while Demetria grabbed Corey's bag. “We'll just put him to bed in my spare bedroom, and we'll have some decaf coffee or hot chocolate or eggnog.”

“I have to warn you, I don't do well with too little sleep.”

He smiled. “I thought we did well last night. You can just doze, and I'll wait for the call and wake you.”

She sighed. “I wouldn't be able to sleep. Hot chocolate sounds good to me.” Demetria began to undress Corey and put him in pajamas.

Everett pulled her into a hug. “We'll solve this one.” He kissed her tenderly, and she kissed him back. “And you and I need to talk. About us.”

And about Matt. Everett wanted to clear the air with her, to tell her how he'd felt about her from the first moment he'd seen her. He wanted her to know the feelings he had for her were real, and he hoped she felt the same way about him.

Everett left the room and made hot chocolate for them, turning on all the Christmas lights as he went.

When she joined him, he still hadn't heard from Howard. “This could take a while.”

They sat close together on the couch, their legs touching, mugs of cocoa in hand.

He wanted to ask her how she was feeling about Matt, and yet he didn't. He wanted to know more about her father and what had prompted him to leave, why they were concerned about him returning home, and how she felt about her parents' divorce, because things like that would affect any relationship she might have in the future. Like with him. But he was afraid to pry.

The situation concerning Matt was tough. He wasn't just some guy she had dated and fallen in love with. He'd been Everett's good friend. Losing him on the mission had affected Everett even more. No matter how much he told himself that he couldn't have stopped what happened to Matt, that he could easily have been the one shot and killed instead, he still felt bad about it.

He finished his cocoa and set his mug down, ready to get down to business, when she said, “Everett…”

He braced to hear what she had to say.

She finished her hot chocolate and set the mug on the Christmas-tree coaster on the coffee table. “I know how close you were to Matt. Like blood brothers. He talked about you all the time.”

Okay, so Everett really didn't want to hear this. He'd thought with the passage of time he could deal with it. But hearing her talking about him, sharing how much Matt had cared about him, and knowing he hadn't been able to save Matt's life…

She sighed again and took Everett's hand. “Matt mentioned you'd always wanted to date me. He talked about it constantly.”

Everett stared at her, shocked. He hadn't remembered ever telling Matt that. Maybe in jest, or perhaps an offhand comment. But he didn't think he'd been that obvious about showing his interest in her.

“I think he knew I wanted to date you. I think that's why he tried so hard to make it work with us. But we just didn't fit together, not like I feel with you,” Demetria said.

Everett had wondered why they hadn't married before the last mission.

“He knew I felt it wasn't working out between us. But I think he was afraid to let go of me because then you and I might have dated. He was afraid of how that would have affected your friendship. I didn't want to ruin the friendship the two of you shared either. When you weren't off doing things with Huntley, you were with Matt. We had fun, Everett. I won't deny it. We had a lot of great times. He was a good friend. Like he was a good friend to you.”

A good friend. Not a lover. Not the man she wanted to marry?

Everett stared at her now, not believing what he was hearing.

She took a deep breath and let it out. “I really hadn't thought he planned to ask me to marry him over the holidays. Not until he hinted at it right before the two of you took off. I would have said no.” A teardrop rolled down her cheek, and then another.

Everett had felt much the same way, torn between wanting to date Demetria and maintaining his close friendship with Matt. Everett pulled her into his arms, and she sobbed against his chest.

“I felt bad that I had planned to end things between us. I'd waited because I didn't want to do it right before a mission. I hated to hurt him, worried I'd even upset you, and if I dated you? I was just torn up about all of it. But I never expected him to die.”

“I'm sorry, Demetria. I didn't know you felt that way about him. I felt guilty that I was lusting after his girlfriend. And then, I thought you needed the time to heal.”

“I did. I had to sort out my feelings about all of it. And I felt you did too.”

He agreed.

She smiled up at him through her tears. “And I think you were afraid I'd bite.”

“You did.”

She growled a little. “You shouldn't have dated my cousin.”

“I thought maybe she was like you. That I'd capture what I'd lost when I learned that you were dating Matt.”

She slugged Everett on the shoulder. “I'm not
anything
like her.”

“No, you're not.” He pulled her close again. “It was my grave mistake.”

Demetria snuggled against his chest. “I couldn't have married him. I didn't love him. We had fun, but I needed something more. He was a jokester, never serious. I find humor in situations all the time, but I need someone who's more serious like me, not so laid-back. I felt terrible when he died. I had planned to end it between us, and then there you were, depressed, disconsolate, bringing me the horrible news that we'd both just lost a dear friend. I thought you'd hate me for what I had intended to do to him, and I just couldn't…deal with it.

“I felt guilty I hadn't ended our relationship sooner. Like I'd led him on. I had tried to break it off a couple of times, and he just begged me to give him another chance to make this right between us. He was always competing with you. I don't think he could have handled the idea of us dating as well as you did him dating me.”

“Like hell I could.”

She smiled. And that smile cheered him to the marrow of his bones.

He'd wondered if something was wrong between Demetria and Matt. Matt had been so evasive about how things were going with Demetria. Everett had never suspected
he
had been the reason for her reluctance to fully commit to Matt. Everett thought the world of her for having held back in the hopes that he and she could make something of the muddled mess.

“And now?” he asked, wanting to make this work between them and feeling they had to make up for lost time.

“I won't forget the good times I had with him, but I really am ready to move on. Are you?”

Hell yeah, but he knew it would still be tough because of the close ties they had to Matt. “I am.” Everett rubbed her shoulders, looking down into her liquid brown eyes, dark, mysterious, sexy. “Where do you want to go on our first official date?”

“We have this case to take care of.”

“We don't know how long it's going to take us to find Corey's family. We'll work around the case. Here's the deal. Tomorrow is the big birthday party. While Corey's at the party, we'll see if we can learn anything more about Paddy's whereabouts, but we can have lunch out, your choice of place. The next day, we could go Christmas shopping with Corey. Help him pick out presents for his mom, dad, brother, and sister. Maybe his uncles. He can sit on Santa's lap and give him his Christmas list and have a picture taken. I want to be ready when we finally find his family and can bring him home bearing gifts.

“We could look for the mother and her triplets. And if you don't have any really warm gear, we should pick some up because I'm sure we're going up north with Corey as soon as we have a better idea where he's from. I'll need to pick up a few things too. Then he could stay with my mom and work on that puzzle with her while we take a break and go out to dinner.”

Demetria smiled. “I think somewhere in the schedule, we need to go see my mother. That is, if you're up to it.”

“Have I mentioned I love it when you challenge me?”