Jaguar Hunt (14 page)

“You
were
focused on them when you were trying to chase them down, right?

“Most of the time, yeah.”

She shook her head. “Did you have any doubts the swimsuit would work?”

“Yeah, I did. I wasn't sure they'd be around when you acted as bait.”

“You know, I'd really like this assignment if there were no flying bullets or snapping cables involved. I don't think I've ever had as much fun as I did during the white-water kayaking,” she said.

“I have to admit I'm enjoying it almost as much as a vacation, if we could just stick to the fun adventures and I'd get to oil you up next time.”

“Maybe some other time.”

“I'm taking you up on it, you know.”

They shared a look that said he had every intention of following through, and he thought from the hint of a smile in her expression that she was willing. But first things first.

They shifted on the shower patio, and Tammy took the bag in her teeth before they leaped over the wall and headed into the jungle. It was around eleven, so David hoped whoever had shot at Tammy was holed up in his rental unit now and sound asleep.

An hour or so later, they found the site where Tammy had gone into the water. David sniffed the air and ground like she was doing. And smelled the cat who had to have knocked her into the water. It definitely was Quinn Singleterry's scent.

She looked at David, and he saw the question in her blue eyes. He wondered if Quinn had attempted to save her by slamming his jaguar body into hers just as the rifle was fired. When Quinn had first met them at the jailhouse, David could have sworn he didn't have any real clues about the missing jaguar. Now David wasn't so certain.

How had Quinn known a shooter was getting ready to fire a rifle? How was he involved in all this?

Except for the noisy cicadas droning on and crickets chirping, they didn't hear any human voices or jaguars calling to each other. The water splashed over rocks here, rapids churning, the smell of fish and fresh water, but no odor of gunfire in the vicinity. Maybe the shots came from across the river? Or from a high-powered rifle?

David glanced at Tammy. She was looking across the water like he had been. She had to be thinking the same thing. The shooter had been on the other side, in a tree most likely. Though the cliffs on the opposite bank would also give someone an advantage.

She turned and headed away from the river, smelling the ground, looking for the two spent rounds of ammunition. He sniffed at nearby trees at the same height as Tammy stood to see if he could find either of the rounds embedded in the trunks.

Before he located them, he heard Tammy scratching the bark of a tree nearby, growling softly.

He hurried to join her, smelled the base of the tree trunk, and saw the metal rim of a round buried in the bark and sapwood. He poked at it with his nose but smelled no scent on it. The shooter had to have been wearing gloves when he loaded his rifle. Swearing to himself, David shifted into his human form and crouched down, trying to pull out the round with his fingers, but it was buried too deep.

Tammy scratched at it again with her long, wicked jaguar claws, but she couldn't get it out that way, either.

“I'll have to return here with my camping knife,” David said with regret and shifted back into his jaguar form. He looked around the area some more, searching for the other round but not finding it. He'd hoped he could locate it in the mud and they'd have at least one of the rounds for evidence.

Tammy finally stopped scratching at the tree to also look for the other round. When he sensed she wasn't nearby, David's heartbeat accelerated. He glanced around and saw her at the river's edge, staring across the swirling water. He joined her and nudged at her to come with him. At this location, they wouldn't be able to get out of the water on the other side because the cliffs were too high and the flow of the river was strong.

He led her upriver until they found a better place to cross.

Before they entered the water, he nuzzled her nose. She licked his. He smiled and waded into the water.

He glanced back to see Tammy leap in and swim toward him.

When they reached the other side, he waited for her to climb onto the bank and they raced toward the cliff. Though the chances were slim that the shooter was still in the area, he couldn't help the nagging concern that plagued him.

Sniffing the whole place, David caught a scent. Damn. He couldn't believe it. What the hell would Joe Storm be doing out here? And why the hell would the bouncer be in Belize hunting a jaguar? He was a jaguar shifter himself!

David recalled Tammy's discussion with the boys and her earlier remark to him. She seemed to have known Joe. At least she'd mentioned he had killer fists. How had she known him? Just visits to the club, or something else? He wondered if she had worked with Joe on assignment in some special capacity while he had still been with the JAG branch. Had she ditched him as a partner? And this was payback? But why now?

Having been a marine, Joe was knowledgeable enough to know to remove the discharged cartridges, except he hadn't removed the round in the tree yet. David suspected he hadn't forgotten. He just hadn't been there yet. That didn't bode well. If Joe came back when David returned with a knife, he could have trouble.

At least now they both had the shooter's scent. They knew who he was and could report back to the boss with the information. He glanced at Tammy.

She was still looking for cartridges. He grunted at her to come with him, and she hurried to join him.

Now for the tedious part of this business. They had to return to the bungalow so he could get his knife, and then he'd have to make his way back to retrieve the cartridge.

A soft pattering of rain started to fall. He and Tammy returned to the river and swam across. He was feeling more and more drained of energy, and as slowly as Tammy swam this time, being pulled farther downriver than before, he was certain she also was struggling with weariness.

After they climbed out on the rocky bank, they headed straight back to their bungalow. An hour later, they stood in the outdoor shower room, the rain coming down in a deluge now. He shifted and opened the door for Tammy. She shook off under the eaves and ran inside.

“I've got to return to where we found that round embedded in the tree and dig it out,” David said as he rummaged through his bag for his knife.

Tammy emitted the jaguar version of a groan. She hadn't shifted, but was sitting on the floor in front of the door, watching him and waiting for him.

“You don't have to go with me this time. Now that I know where the round is, I should be able to find my way there quickly and return.”

She shook her head.

He appreciated that she felt she had to watch his back, but he was sure no one would be out there at this time of night. The rain was coming down in sheets. They hadn't discovered Joe thus far. David felt he would be safe enough. “I'll be fine and back before you know it.”

Again, she shook her head.

“All right. Don't say I didn't offer. You could be snuggled in bed, rain pouring overhead, dreaming about chasing butterflies or something.”

She gave him a toothy grin.

“Or chasing me, even better.” He smiled at her, found his knife, and let her back out into the pouring rain.

He shifted, and then they were off again.

Between being tired and having trouble searching for the scents in the heavy downpour, they looked forever before finding the right location. The river was overflowing its banks already, the water even more of a rush now. When they reached the tree that wore Tammy's claw marks, he stared at the place where the round had been.

All that was left was a hole with a few gouges around the edge.

Furious that the shooter had returned and removed the round in the tree after all they'd been through to locate it, Tammy wanted to strangle him. What the hell was Joe Storm up to?

She couldn't believe she'd ever dated the jerk. But he was always on his best behavior with women.
More
than best behavior.

Beyond wanting to strangle Joe, she was ready to collapse in bed and sleep the remaining night away as well as half the next day. But she figured David would want to know how she knew Joe, now that they had discovered he was the shooter.

Did Joe hold a grudge against her? Maybe. But she really didn't want to talk to David about this. Martin might know something about it, and he could tell David.

After returning to the bungalow and cleaning up, she dried her hair and then headed for the bedroom. David was sitting on a chair, wearing a pair of blue boxers, his cell phone to his ear. He shook his head at her, indicating he couldn't get through.

Not that she expected a signal with the torrential rain.

She pulled the covers aside to find fragrant purple orchid petals and a silver foil-wrapped chocolate sitting on top of her pillow. Now that was definitely the bright spot in her day.

She glanced at David to see if he had seen them. He was frowning at the gifts. She smiled and took a deep breath to smell the fragrant flower, the heavenly aroma of chocolate, and a hint of the teens, one on the candy wrapper, the other on the petals.

“From the boys, I presume, when they delivered our bags yesterday morning,” she said, unwrapping the chocolate. “I think all the gifts and messages prove they truly do trust us. They're good kids.”

David grunted. “They're obviously trying to butter you up.”

“I'm not easily ‘buttered up,'” she said, though she loved that they were making the attempt.

She popped the chocolate into her mouth and moaned with delight, not realizing how much she had missed it while she had been here.

“Could have fooled me. Does chocolate make everything all better?” he asked.

“You bet. Though they could have left even more.” She smiled and climbed into bed, noting that David had turned the air conditioner on full blast again and her skin was already freckled with goose bumps. “Are you hot?”

He only gave her that sexy smile.

She rolled her eyes. She'd fallen into that one.

Yeah, he was hot and sexy and anything a girl could want in the short-term, she supposed, not that she was biting. She'd thought her parents had a great deal going for them, but after discovering that her father had been fooling around on the side, she wasn't ready to commit to anyone. She'd already been burned once with a JAG agent her brothers had highly recommended, a friend of theirs who had turned out to be the highest order of rat.
Joe
Storm.

She had gone out with a human guy after that, but he'd left her wanting something wilder—like David.

“Are you cold?” David asked.

“How could you tell? Are my lips turning blue? Do you see my chill bumps?” She was only half teasing.

“We need to talk about what's going on. If you're too cold, I can set the air conditioner so that it's not as frigid. Or we can…share some body heat. I'll definitely think better if we snuggle. Otherwise, I'll keep thinking about it. It's torture being with you but not really being with you.”

She had to admit David was cute. If one of the other men had said that to her when she was on assignment with him, she would have expressly said, “No thanks.” David was another story. Still, she wasn't just giving in.

Working with some of the single agents, Enforcers and JAG alike, she had never felt they appreciated her abilities to get a job done. How could she want a deeper relationship with an agent who couldn't also value her for her vocation? Not that David had been anything like that—so far. Yet she kept waiting for him to show his
true
spots. To prove he was just like all the rest.

Humans were fine for dating, but not for the long run. How could she explain to a human that she had big teeth, big eyes, and big spotted ears—the jaguar's version of the hungry wolf—if he ever riled her too badly? Or that she liked to take moonlight runs as a jaguar from time to time?

“If we cuddle, it could lead to a lot less thinking,” she said pragmatically.

David smiled, and his expression was downright wolfish. She realized he took her comment for agreement. After all, she hadn't said no. He pulled her into his arms, and she went willingly—enjoying the solid, warm feel of him as the air conditioner cooled the rest of her down. She was certain his thoughts were not on the case, the kids, the missing zoo cat, or the missing rounds.

Being the good little Enforcer that she was, she was thinking about the mission for the two of them. As much as she told herself they shouldn't be doing this and needed to keep their relationship on a totally professional level, she loved curling up against his warm body.

“Okay, so the shooter returned to the scene of the crime and learned we knew the round was lodged in the tree. Had he been watching us the whole time?” She hated that he might have been and they hadn't caught him in the act.

“Maybe. If he didn't have his rifle with him, that would account for him not shooting at either of us this time.” David's hand caressed her arm gently.

“His scent wasn't anywhere near the tree, which meant he hadn't crossed the river to find it earlier.”

“Agreed.”

“He had to have crossed the river carrying the rifle in a waterproof bag, unless a bridge exists above or below where we were, but I don't recall seeing any.”

“Also agree,” David said. “I don't believe there are any developments on the other side of the river for miles.”

She'd been avoiding the obvious question she was certain David wanted to ask. And David, being David, was giving her a chance to come clean, she thought. “Okay, yeah, I know Joe Storm.”

David continued to caress her arm, not saying anything, just watching her.

She let out her breath in a heavy sigh. “Okay, okay. I dated him.”

David's eyes widened fractionally.

“My brothers knew him and thought I might like dating him. Joe was fun, took me to some nice restaurants. I really thought I was falling for him.”

David's hand stilled on her skin.

She shrugged. “When I'm in a relationship with a man, I don't share. I found out by mistake that he was dating another girl. He'd gotten his date nights mixed up. That's the problem when you're working a job and juggling multiple girlfriends. He thought we were supposed to be going out on a Saturday night, and I was all for it. He acted really strange, mumbled something concerning another
appointment
he'd forgotten. I told him no problem, though I was disappointed. I'd been gone on a job for two weeks and wanted to spend some time with him before the next assignment.”

She ground her teeth, still irritated about it.

“He canceled on your date so he could go out with another woman?” David asked, sounding incredulous, like he couldn't believe anyone would do that to her.

She valued David's comment more than he could know.

“Nope. We had already arrived at the club when the call came in. He shrugged and said it was no big deal. Of course, I didn't know what the call was about. He said it was JAG business. I had no reason not to believe him. He didn't bother phoning the person back to say he couldn't make it. So I figured it was one of those situations where he could show up or not, no RSVP needed.

“This woman arrived at the club just as we were taking our seats, asking him where he'd been because she'd been waiting for him to pick her up at her apartment for more than half an hour. She said she thought maybe she had it wrong and was supposed to meet him there. I wasn't sure if she was telling the truth or was suspicious that he was seeing another woman. She started screaming at me as if
I
was the one stealing her boyfriend. So that's how I learned he was a two-timer. But she and I weren't the only ones seeing him.”

“There were more than just the two of you?” David sounded shocked.

Tammy gave a sarcastic little laugh. “Yeah. I guess he mostly dated humans. He'd make sure he didn't have the smells of any other woman clinging to him, but he didn't have to worry so much with the human women. Unless one of them wore perfume, the others would never know the difference. With me, he had to be a little more careful.”

“I never knew.”

“Yeah, well, the woman started telling me how he had broken up with two different fiancées, and I got suspicious and began investigating him on the sly after I broke up with him. I discovered he had two
current
fiancées, neither of whom he had broken off relations with. Once the word got to his boss, Martin felt that someone with so little integrity wouldn't make a good JAG agent. So he fired him.”

David was caressing her skin again but slower now, as if he was pondering the ramifications.

“And that's how I know Joe,” she said.

“That's why he was let go? We thought it was because he coldcocked one of the other agents. Though we were surprised that had been enough to get him fired. I had no idea he was dating so many women at one time.”

“Welcome to the club.”

“We're not all like that, Tammy,” David finally said, his voice thoughtful, as if she thought all agents were like Joe.

“No. I met your brother and he seems like a nice-enough guy.”

David's mouth twitched into a hint of a smile.

“My brothers are okay when they want to be,” Tammy said.

“I've never strung a woman along or dated more than one at a time,” David said.

She wasn't sure if he was mentioning it as a way of sticking up for the male race in general, or if it was more of a personal declaration.

Not sure what to say, she patted David's chest. “Good to know.”

That earned a dark chuckle from him. He let out his breath. “Did Joe feel any animosity toward you? Believe you had anything to do with him getting fired?”

“I didn't tell Martin about Joe's situation with women, if you think that could be a reason he shot at me.”

“Yeah, it could be a darned good motive. Did he believe you told on him?”

“Maybe. I don't know. I didn't have anything further to do with him after I learned what I could.”

“Hell, what if Joe's been working with dirty agents since he was terminated from employment with the JAG branch? He has a possible grudge against both you and the JAG branch. How long ago were the two of you dating?”

“Six months ago. We'd only been dating for a couple of months. Some of that time I was gone on missions. Or he was. If he thought I had something to do with him getting fired and was angry with me, why didn't he do something about it when he got canned? He could have killed me anytime.”

“The jungle is a great place to get rid of someone you have a grudge against without anyone being the wiser. He might have just snapped recently. Maybe he knew you were looking for the missing jaguar, and he's involved in the theft, in addition to believing you had something to do with his firing. That could have put him over the edge.”

“Wait, how would he have known exactly where I would be when he fired the shot? I was traveling all over the jungle. Just like you and the teens were.”

“Hmm, not sure. You told the teens he had killer fists. He never hurt you, did he?”

“Emotionally, sure. I was upset when I learned he'd been seeing other women behind my back, pretending he was away on missions and that he loved me so sincerely. But physically, no.”

“I had another thought. I think Quinn must have saved you by pushing you into the river. I don't believe he was involved in the shooting.”

She had thought the same thing. “How did he know about the shooter? Do you think he was in cahoots with Joe but didn't want him to hurt me?”

“Martin seems to believe Quinn's still a good guy. I'd have to agree that he tried to help. What I want to know is if he was really looking into the stolen cat issue or if that was a ploy to work with you. Or like you said, he is involved but didn't want you shot.”

“You probably know him better than I do.”

“We've served on five missions together. Boss said he's had some financial difficulties.”

“Not good.”

“No. Other than that, he has a sister he adores, and believe me, if anyone came on to her like
he
does women, he'd bite the guy's head off. His dad was always catting around and took off when he was a teen. His mother teaches English at a local community college. His sister is a college freshman, no major yet. He had an older sister who committed suicide. I think he feels somewhat responsible for her death, though he would never say why. But it makes him even more protective of his younger sister. He loves hamburgers, hates onions—says they aren't helpful in a man-woman relationship—and I doubt he'll ever settle down.”

“Any negatives?”

David looked down at her.

“Besides that he's in debt and is a womanizer?”

He snorted. “Sounds like enough negatives to me.”

She chuckled. “I mean, any reason he would be involved in any of this?”

“Financial. But he's really hard-core about the Service. So it's difficult to see that he would jeopardize his career to be one of the bad guys.”

“He wouldn't be the first guy who appears to have everything going for him but turns to criminal activities for money.”

“True. I wonder, too, who would have used my name when the boys called to turn the jaguar over to the agent.”

“Someone who thought you wouldn't get wind of it, maybe. Or someone who believed you'd try to work with the teens and wanted them to doubt your integrity. So why would Quinn be out here if he's not working on this case?”