Catamount Ridge (6 page)

She would.

Keys rattled in the lock on the outer door. Jessie looked up and waited to see who was coming to work this time of night.

A mop of disorderly blonde hair rushed in.

Jessie sat unnoticed as the young woman struggled with her keys. “Hi, Cindy,” she said, startling her employee.

Ranger Cynthia Daniels jumped at the sound of Jessie’s voice and dropped her purse.

“Jessie! What are you doing here?” Before she could reply, Cindy answered her own question. “Sam must have contacted you. Strange, I thought he asked me to notify you first thing.” The ditzy ranger shook her yellow mane. “Never mind, it’s not important. I need to inform everyone about Derek. Since you’re here, I assume you have already started. Who’s left on the list?”

Jessie didn’t have a clue what the blonde was talking about, and she was rather miffed that Sam had notified her assistant instead of his superior officer. “I don’t know a thing. What’s up with Derek?”

Cindy looked more confused than ever. “He’s in the hospital after being mauled by a mountain lion. Sam thinks there’s a rogue animal out there. He’s already up on the ridge tracking him.”

No one seemed the least bit concerned after her attack. Derek and his injuries obviously rated much higher than those of the boss. Jessie would do her due diligence, but she suspected the cousins had a disagreement, and instead of it coming to fists to cuffs, it dissolved to teeth and claws.

“Sam needs to get his ass off that damn mountain,” Jessie commanded. “Get the word out to the public to stay off the ridge and to keep an eye out for our cat. If it’s the same animal that attacked me, he’s a blue-gray beast.” She went to the gun rack, picked out a few choice weapons and headed for the door. “And the next time I’m not the first one informed of a situation,” she barked angrily, “heads will roll.”

•   •   •

“HE GOT ME from behind.”

Derek gazed up from his one good eye. His once chiseled torso was bound in bandages after being torn to shreds. The right side of his face was swollen and bruised. One arm was cast in plaster. In a failing voice, he added, “I’m glad you made it out.”

Derek made it sound like his injuries happened before Ice took her into the mine, but according to the doctor, the wounds were only a few hours old. Jessie didn’t trust him, and she didn’t trust herself not to fall under his smooth, enticing spell.

Marigold warned that the boys had hypnotic eyes. Jessie had fallen victim to their mesmerizing quality too many times not to believe that part of the strange tale, so she looked away. “I did not make it out. Your cousin found me and introduced me to a set of mountain lion cubs. Logic suggests you were complicit. You lured me out there, then left me alone and clueless. You are just as responsible for what happened to me as your cousin, so don’t insult my intelligence with this line of crap you’re dishing out.”

“What happened with Ice, Jessie?” Derek implored.

With angry eyes, she turned to face him. “You should be proud of yourself. I fell right into your trap and nursed the cubs.”

Derek’s one good eye filled with sympathy. “I’m sorry. I failed to protect you, but I did not abandon you.”

“Protect me!” Jessie spat in reply. “You walked me right into the lion’s den, but don’t worry, I talked to your grandmother. I know everything. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to fix this train wreck.”

Derek’s voice grew strong with concern. “Jessie, wait! You can’t trust her. She orchestrated all of this. She’s dying, and we’re the last. Don’t look for the cubs or it will start again. They’ll cry, and you won’t be able to stop yourself.”

Jessie turned back towards Derek. The man looked utterly panic stricken. For about a half a second, his alarming words filled her with trepidation, but lying was a Foster family specialty.

There was one thing she believed. Jessie hadn’t been able to stop herself from going to the cubs when they cried. Underneath the disbelief and horror, she felt the overwhelming urge to feed them. Despite the ardor of Ice’s distracting kisses, she needed to care for them.

If the cousins were at odds, so much the better. It would be easier to take them down one at a time. As a united front, it would be damned near impossible. The fight between Ice and Derek was the first indication that the cousins were no longer working together.

Jessie’s hand began to throb. She looked at the wound his grandmother etched into her skin and remembered the look of steel in her eyes. Their species was on the verge of collapse, but there was no way she was going to become a foster mom to those cute little cubs.

“Jessie, you’ve been hoodwinked. Come closer. I can show you the truth.” Derek tried to reach out, but he didn’t have the strength.

Suspicious, but curious, she had to ask. “What do you mean?”

Falling limply back into the bed, he closed his one good eye and sighed with relief. “You have to remove the veil. You have to see the truth for yourself.”

The veil of lies
, Jessie thought. Careful to avoid making eye contact, she moved closer. “Fine. Remove it!”

Through his bruised and swollen lips, Derek smiled. “I can’t, but you’re a strong woman. You have already seen through some of it. Your fear is holding you back. Once you face it, you’ll understand everything. All you have to do is trust yourself.”

That was something Jessie hadn’t done in a while. If she trusted what she thought was true, then most of what seemed true, wasn’t. The same favorite knit shirt she wore the night before, suddenly reeked of the oaky-herb scent of the fire.

Jessie’s eyes grew wide with shock.

Lumps of mud flaked off her hiking boots when she ripped the garment from her body and stomped on it.

If this was the truth, then Derek was right, she had known it all along.

The pain searing through her breasts gave her pause, but she had to see for herself. After taking a deep breath, she lifted her tank top. The girls had seen better days. The starving cubs had not been kind. Jessie gasped at the sight of her battered breasts and lowered her top back down.

Derek’s gaze met hers and his un-bandaged eye glistened with sorrow. “I failed you.”

A wave of memories broke through and Jessie remembered everything.

“You fought with Ice in your cabin.” Image after image flooded her mind, and her hands clutched protectively over her chest. “I watched the both of you go at it and it excited me. You each shifted into lion form. It was the same up on the ridge. Ice almost attacked me, but you flew over my head and rescued me from certain death. You defeated him then and again at the cabin. Ice slunk off injured and bleeding. Then you shifted back into human form and tried to get me into the truck. I refused to go.”

Derek picked up the story when she was unable to continue.

“Ice gave you a derivative of Rohypnol. Most people call it the date rape drug. He wanted you compliant, but he also wanted you to remember what was happening. If you were confused and curious enough, he figured he could get your cooperation with the cubs later on. The drug works along the same lines as the stuff I smell on your shirt. You can thank my dear old grandmother for that. Both are strong aphrodisiacs. I should have taken you straight to the hospital, but I was still jacked up on adrenaline from the fight. I’m afraid I didn’t control myself very well.”

He controlled himself just fine until she jumped him. Jessie wanted to stay angry, but it was difficult. Derek might have reaped the benefits, but Ice was the one who had given her the pills. “Don’t beat yourself up about it. I was pretty insistent.”

He smirked a lopsided swollen face grin. “I didn’t say I was sorry.”

She dreamed about the sex they shared for days afterwards, and Jessie found herself smiling back. She raked her fingers through her sleek black hair and brought herself back to the present. There were a few other things that needed an explanation. “The radio in my truck was disabled, and my cell phone was gone. Was that real or a hallucination?”

Derek filled her in. “Ice cut the cord to the radio’s microphone, and after you passed out, I climbed up to higher ground to get a signal on your cell phone. That’s when I called the hospital. I heard the truck start up, so I followed you.”

Jessie didn’t buy it. “I don’t care how fast you are, there isn’t any way you could keep up with me all the way down the mountain.”

Derek gave her an indulgent smile and waited for her to figure it out.

Jessie sighed. She had been a wobbly mess. The truck had probably crept down the mountain trail at a snail’s pace. If he was in cat form, it was entirely possible. “It was you I sensed when I pulled over. I must have passed out again because I don’t remember how I got to the hospital.”

The shifter in the hospital bed seemed to grow stronger by the moment. “I grabbed you through the driver’s side window before you pulled onto Gold Country Drive. I helped ease your distress.”

“You did a good job. My mind is a complete blank.”

Derek continued his explanation. “When we were young, it was hard to control when we shifted. We found it useful to hypnotize the poor soul who saw us change. We would suggest they fall asleep, and that what they witnessed was a figment of their imagination. Since nobody wants to believe in shifters, the trick works pretty well.”

One final veil collapsed, and Jessie realized there was someone else who knew about the animal shifters. That’s why Grace Langston told her campfire cat story year after year. It was a warning.

Jessie couldn’t recall many of the details of the story Ms. Langston told, only that it had scared the daylights out of her. Basically, the tale told of an all-knowing Oracle who foretold of a world filled with cat-people who would eventually rule this earthly realm.

Derek had more he wanted to say, but Jessie wasn’t in the mood to listen. She had to find Ms. Langston. It was time to get down and dirty with the cat-people.

•   •   •

JESSIE CHECKED THE tranquilizing darts about a hundred times as Gracie drove her four-wheel-drive Durango up Catamount Ridge.

Grace was the first to speak. “You shouldn’t be out here, Jessie. If you get near the cubs, I won’t be able to stop you from mothering them.”

After an hour or so away from Derek, Jessie no longer believed the mere sound of their cries could bring out the surrogate in her. They were cute, but they weren’t that cute. She suspected the herbal concoction brought on both the overwhelming desire and the ability to lactate.

Jessie smiled at Ms. Langston and questioned her with sweet sarcasm. “Has the Oracle spoken?”

“This is not a game, Jessie. I remember Ice as a child. He was scary then, but if what you say is true, then he is extremely dangerous now.”

Jessie looked at her former teacher and wondered for the thousandth time what her father saw in the woman. That all-knowing teacher glare and persistent frown, never left her face. Grace Langston was a monster in her own right, but since a monster was what they were about to fight, Jessie figured she couldn’t have anyone better by her side.

“Are you sure any of this is real?” the teacher argued. “It could be a manifestation brought on because of my old story and that bump on your head.”

Jessie left out a ton of details in the recruitment of her former teacher. She figured the only reason Ms. Langston was here at all was because, at one time, she had witnessed either Ice or Derek’s transformation and that somewhere in her subconscious, she knew it was possible. Jessie couldn’t begin to retell the yarn she rattled off to the woman, so she responded by lifting her shirt and flashing her.

Ms. Langston grimaced at the sight of Jessie’s mangled breasts. “Sorry I asked.”

“Me too.”

For the millionth time that day, Ms. Grace Langston rolled her eyes and let out a frustrated sigh.

The women shared a complicated relationship. Neither gave the other an inch, yet, there was respect. They would never refer to the other as a friend, but they could count on each other during difficult times. Grace was there to help take care of Cade after he suffered a mild heart infarction. She kept Jessie informed of his progress and let her know the moment he was up for a visit.

Jessie was confident her father was in capable hands. She was also extremely grateful not to have to see the strong, constant force in her life, weak and suffering. Jessie saw him that way after the rattlesnake incident, and she never wanted to see her dad that way again.

Gracie wasn’t the only one capable of handing out favors. Jessie couldn’t begin to count the number of papers she graded so her father and the teacher could spend time together. Only for her dad would she give up a Friday night out on the town with her wild high school buddies.

In her heart of hearts, Jessie knew that Ms. Langston had been an on-again, off-again mother figure for most of her life, and that she was richer for it. Even now, despite the danger and the endless griping, Grace Langston was ready to go to battle, simply because Jessie had asked for her help.

Their plan was straightforward. They would take out Ice and render the cubs safe for Grace to deal with. Upon entering the mine, Jessie would get close enough for the cubs to smell her and begin their baby-like cry. In case Derek was telling the truth, Jessie planned on staying far enough away to resist the need to feed them. The wailing cubs were bait, used to lure their father into their trap, but that was all. Jessie would never form a personal attachment with them. Come hell or high water, the cubs were going to stay mountain lions and never have the opportunity to explore the human side of their unique DNA.