Call of the Cougar (Heart of the Cougar Book 2) (28 page)

"Poor Stryker."

"Poor Stryker, my ass. He didn't even get you a puppy yet."

She smiled.

"I've been thinking about that too."

"You already have a foal."

"Right. But every horse ranch needs a good dog. Australian shepherds come to mind. I was thinking if we get a puppy—"

She realized at once why Hal wanted to get a puppy. And she didn't believe it was for her. Tears filled her eyes. "You want a puppy so that Ricky can raise him and help him overcome his grief about his brother."

"Yeah. The puppy would be all of ours. Ted loves dogs too. But we could let Ricky name the puppy, and he'd be responsible for him overall. The next foal we have, he can help with the foaling and he can name that one too."

"Speaking of puppies and foals and the like, what about if we have kids?"

Hal smiled down at her. "We'll decide how to handle the situation when the time arrives. I'm not sure that Ted would be willing to take on a couple of kids also."

She laughed. "This seems awfully sudden."

"You don't do anything slow and methodically."

"True." She frowned. "You didn't tell Mom and Dad about this, did you?"

"As a true gentleman, I asked your dad's permission to marry you."

She groaned. "You didn't."

"Yeah, I'm sure your mom is already penciling in the wedding plans. But I didn't have a wedding date to give them."

She shook her head. "Glad I could have some say in this."

"Will you be my mate?"

"What if you hate working with me?"

"I haven't so far and if it doesn't work out, I'll return to the ranch and you keep doing your job."

She smiled. "Somehow I doubt you'll want me out there on my own or with another partner."

"I agree. But it's your decision."

"I married a cougar and we divorced four years ago. We had a big falling out over my job. He didn't like my work ethics."

"I do. Just say yes, and give me a date. That way we can let everyone know, and they can quit guessing."

"Who else knows?"

Hal smiled. "By now? Probably the whole cougar community."

"Hal…"

He hugged her tight. "I thought we could go look at the puppies a breeder has that are ready to go home."

"You already found one?"

"Two, actually. I put the money down on them because I figured one would get too lonely."

She smiled. "Okay, what if we wait to go when we can take Ricky over to see them?"

"I got them for you before all this happened with Ricky. I had to put the money down on them to hold them for us. The others were all sold. So is that a yes on the marriage business?"

"Do you love me?" She loved him with all her heart. Anyone who would give up his work to be with her like that, go through the rigorous training and even ask her dad's permission, and then get puppies for her, that would now help to heal Ricky's shattered heart? Hal was a dream come true.

"Are you kidding? I can't imagine you not in my life, Tracey. I love you with all my heart."

She knew he did both by his words and his actions. "I can't think of a place I'd rather be next New Year's Eve."

"We can't wait that long to get married."

She chuckled. "You said yourself I'm not good with waiting. So no. Whenever you want to do it is fine with me."

"And you love me, right? You're not just agreeing so you can get a couple of puppies, a horse of your own, and get to share the master bedroom with me, right?"

"Hell, yeah."

He laughed. "I guess I should have asked one question or the other. Which is it?"

"I love you." She pulled out her phone. "Okay, when do you want to do this?"

"I'd like to clear this mess up with Mooney first, but on the other hand, if it takes too long, I really don't want to wait."

"In two weeks?"

He grinned. "Yeah, it works for me."

She sighed dramatically. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

"It's for a good cause."

She laughed. "You're perfect for me. You know."

"Ditto, Tracey."

She called her mom, who answered without hesitation. "You're all right, aren't you?"

"Oh, yeah, Mom. We're fine. But you might want to pencil in a wedding cake on the calendar for next Saturday. If you have time."

"For you?"

"Yeah, Mom. I guess Dad already told you?"

"He did, and all his retired friends from the agency, your sister, and everyone's coming, no matter what their other plans are. Though your dad was hoping Hal would talk you into becoming a ranch lady and give up this life of danger."

"Later. When we have kids or we have to retire from our positions."

"Hal said Mick approved his working with you."

"Yeah. But he has to pass all the training."

Hal smiled at her.

"Okay, so nothing really fancy. We have too much work to do and—"

"You're my first daughter to get married. We're doing the wedding gown, the whole business."

"Oh, Mom…"

"Don't oh-mom me. We're doing this right. So pick out a day that you can go shopping, and we'll do this together."

"We're in the middle of a case."

Silence.

Tracey let out her breath. "All right. Monday. I'll pick you up at ten."

"And Jessie too."

"Of course. That goes without saying."

"Any bridesmaids besides your sister being the maid of honor?"

"No. I want to keep this simple."

"And Hal? Will he want his Special Forces buddies to all be groomsmen?"

Tracey growled. "All right, all right. I'll ask some others to be my bridesmaids. Got to go, Mom. We're still running an investigation here."

"Certainly, dear. I'll let everyone know you're taking us shopping on Monday."

When she ended the call, Tracey glanced in the direction of the old bunkhouse and corrals as Hal was driving by it on the road up to the main house. "Hal, don't slow down, but does Ted ever go into the original bunkhouse for any reason?"

Chapter 17

Hal couldn't believe someone would be hiding out in the old bunkhouse. "No, it's not all that stable. In the summer, no telling what might have taken refuge in there. What did you see?"

"Either a ghost or a shadow of someone moving around in there. I might be wrong though," Tracey said.

"Okay, I'm going to stop, we switch places, and you drive the rest of the way to the ranch house. I'll check it out."

"No. If he hears you stop, he's going to assume one of us got out when he hears the truck start up again."

"If we both go up to the house, we might be too late to return to the bunkhouse before he disappears."

"Okay, back up the truck and we both go after him."

"Good call." Hal stopped and put the truck in reverse and headed back to the bunkhouse.

Twisted around in her seat, Tracey kept an eye on the bunkhouse while Hal watched the road and his driving. "No one's leaving it. He can't think he can hide from us in there."

"No. It's more like he'll shoot it out with us." Hal pulled in as close to the bunkhouse as he could get. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah." She had her Glock out and was ready to take care of the threat. "I'll go east."

"Okay, going west. He can't shoot us both at the same time. Stay low."

They climbed out of the truck through the driver's side to use the vehicle as cover. Whoever was inside could hear their footfalls on the dry brush.

But no one fired at them. Maybe he was waiting for them to poke their heads into the doorway or through a window.

"We won't hurt you. Come out where we can see you, hands up in the air," Tracey called out. Hal was already around the other side of the bunkhouse. "Come on. We don't have any reason to hurt you."

"Don't shoot," a man said. "I'm coming out." The floor began to creak as he walked across it, heading toward the front door. Slowly.

Tracey moved back behind the truck, using it as a shield in case the man started firing.

She noticed Hal waiting behind the corner of the bunkhouse as backup.

"I'm armed, but I'm not shooting anyone."

"Come on out," Tracey said.

The man stepped into the morning sunlight, his one hand on his waist, his fingers bloodied, his other hand in the air, holding a gun.

"Put the gun down on the ground," Hal shouted.

The blond-haired guy jumped a little. Hell, Tracey jumped a little at the sound of Hal's commanding voice.

"I'm putting it down. I was planning to protect myself until you arrived." He slowly put the gun on the ground, wobbled a little, and nearly fell.

"How are you wounded?" Tracey asked.

He groaned in pain. She headed for him.

"Move away from the gun," Hal said.

Doing as he was told, the man backed away from his gun and stumbled a little.

"Who are you and who were you planning to protect yourself from?" Tracey asked as she closed in on him.

"I'm Kolby. Ricky's brother."

Both Hal and Tracey stared at him for a moment. She could see the family resemblance, though this man was blonder and his eyes were blue. But he was supposed to be dead. At Ricky’s hand. At least, that's what Ricky had said.

Hal hurried to reach him first and tied his wrists together behind his back with plastic ties. Tracey pulled up Kolby's T-shirt. "We've got to get him to the clinic. It’s a gunshot wound."

The thing that worried her most was that Kolby didn't smell like he was a cougar. And now Ricky was one. She got the medical kit and bandaged Kolby, then Hal helped him to the truck. "So who did Ricky kill?"

"Teagan, probably. The guy's been badgering Benny to kill my brother because Ricky's been working for you. In the beginning, I didn't know Ricky was. Until Benny and I overheard him talking to you. I tried to warn you to go somewhere safe—"

So Teagan and Benny were cougars, but Kolby wasn't. Nor was Ricky, until now.

"You thought I would be safe at Anderson where I was ambushed?" She bagged Kolby's gun.

"No. I mean, yeah, I said to go there because they were talking about taking you out at your place. I didn't figure they'd ever believe you'd end up in Anderson. So I figured it would be safe. They must have bugged my phone, or overheard me or something."

"Why didn't you call me and tell me what was going on?" she asked, as she and Hal helped Kolby into the back seat of his pickup, then both climbed in and Hal drove back to Yuma Town’s clinic.

"Hell, I figured they had my damn phone bugged."

She raised her brows at him as Hal called in the emergency.

"It has to be. How else would they know to keep intercepting my calls? And learn where you were going?" Kolby asked.

"What about the ambush at the mine?"

"I didn't know anything about that. I…I was going to meet my brother there."

"At the saloon in Anderson, Ricky said he killed you. He must have been protecting you, saying you were dead so that you could get away. Why did you tell him you'd meet him there and then he was ambushed?"

Kolby's blue eyes watered. "Is he all right?"

"Not on account of you." She narrowed her eyes at Kolby. "He said you told him you were going to talk with him. Where were you?"

Kolby collapsed in the back seat of the truck. "Benny shot me and left me for dead. I was going to meet with Ricky and tell him to go someplace far away. I had a wad of cash to give him, but Benny stole it from me and then shot me. I tried calling Ricky to warn him, but he must have already been in the town, and I couldn't reach him. Is…is Ricky going to live?"

"Yes. He's out of surgery and recovering. So what do you know about Mooney's operation?"

Kolby closed his eyes and didn't respond. Her gut clenching, Tracey worried he'd died on them. "I'm climbing into the back seat to check on him."

"Is he okay?"

"I think he passed out or he doesn't want to answer my questions." Tracey crawled into the backseat and felt his pulse. "Pulse is thready. He might not make it, Hal."

"Ambulance is on its way. The guys asked if you were involved in the action again."

"Like you don't have any trouble when I'm not around."

"Here they come." Hal pulled over as the ambulance parked in front of them.

To Tracey’s relief, the EMTs hurried to carry Kolby into the ambulance.

Once they were on their way, Hal followed them to the clinic. "What do you think? Is he telling the truth?"

"He could be. Ricky said he thought they might have bugged his phone. I figured that was too high tech for these guys, but Mooney's got the money and the resources to do something like that. I just never thought he might."

"Why would Ricky have lied to us?"

"To save his brother. He thought if we believed Kolby was dead, we wouldn't hunt him down. Maybe he planned to leave the area also."

Hal called Dan. "We'll need some more backup at the clinic." He explained the situation with Kolby and the dead man. "He thinks it might be a man called Teagan. We saw a picture of Benny and that wasn't him. We're heading back to the clinic to talk with Ricky."

When they reached the clinic, the EMTs were wheeling Kolby into surgery.

Hal and Tracey went in to speak with Ricky, and Tracey stood next to his bed. He was sleeping.

Tracey said, "We have good news." She was truly glad Ricky hadn’t killed his own brother but she was pissed off that he’d lied to them and that he’d faked being so upset over it. She had to give him credit for being really great at giving her a snow job.

Ricky opened his eyes, but he still looked the worse for wear.

"Your brother is alive. But he's going into surgery for a gunshot wound."

His eyes filling with tears, Ricky started to get out of bed.

She put her hand on his shoulder. "No, stay, Ricky. Dr. Parker's taking care of him."

"You—you didn't tell him what happened to me, did you?"

"That you're one of us now? No. And he can't be told. You can't tell him. So who was it that you killed?"

"Teagan. I didn't know it was him when I shot him. I swear it. It's like I said. The cougar came after me, and I killed it, only he turned into Teagan. I couldn't believe it. I thought when the cougar bit me, he somehow made me hallucinate. But he was just lying there. Teagan was."