Spotting His Leopard (Shifters, Inc.) (5 page)

                “Now. Answers,” he said, sitting between her and the door.

“I…I can’t really tell you anything. Except that I didn’t kill anyone,” she finally said. “I swear I didn’t.” She suddenly found it incredibly important that he believe her. Not just because he was more likely to drag her butt off to Interpol if he thought she was a murderess…because she didn’t want him to think she was evil.

                “I know. That’s the main reason I came back,” he said. “If I really thought you’d murdered two security guards and a family, I’d probably have left you to the jaguar. I’m not against the death penalty.”

                “What do you mean, you know? You accused me of murder right before you handed me off to that psycho.” She rubbed her face.

                “I just had a feeling all along that something was off,” he said. “I mean, I saw the look on your face when I asked you about the murders.  You were shocked; you really had no idea.  And you’re supposed to be this master thief with this fearsome reputation, but something doesn’t click.” He looked at her. “Whoever that murdering thief is, you’re not her.”

                “I’m not?”

                “Hell, no.” He shook his head decisively. “You’re not that good.”

                “Hey!” she said indignantly, kicking out at him.  He snorted and dodged her kick.

                “Come on, sweetheart. I made you at the museum, casing the joint. And then drawing attention to yourself by sticking up for Maji? Very noble…and also very unprofessional.”

                “That asshole was being a dick to him!” she protested, which seemed to amuse him.

                “Yes, that’s what assholes generally do, isn’t it?” He smiled at her. “They act like dicks. That isn’t the point. The girl with the reputation as a master thief, she wouldn’t have exposed herself like that.  Even today, when you attempted to seduce me. You weren’t that good at that either.”

                “Fuck. You.” Her eyes glittered with tears of humiliation. She was furious with him, furious with herself. Why did she even care what he thought?

                “Oh, not that I wouldn’t have been interested, under any other circumstances.” His eyes glimmered with laughter. “But did you think I wouldn’t question how one second you couldn’t wait to get away from me, and the next you were practically throwing yourself at me?”

                She gave an offended sniff. “Well don’t flatter yourself that I wanted you. It was strictly business.”

                “Well you’re not very good at your line of work, then, because letting me switch drinks on you was a rank amateur move.  You shouldn’t have taken your eyes off me after you slipped me that mickey, and you shouldn’t have taken a sip of your own drink. And when you did, your hands were shaking.”

                “With disgust,” she said indignantly. He just looked at her skeptically.

                “Uh-huh. Sure. So tell me what the hell is going on here. You’re not Rhonwen Morgan, master thief and killer – but you look remarkably like her.  Relative? Sister, I’m guessing?”

                She looked away.

                “Okay. So you’re protecting your sister.”

                “I didn’t say that.”

                “You didn’t have to.”

                She shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter, does it?  The immediate, pressing question is, what’s our next move?”

                “We’ll lay low until tomorrow and re-evaluate,” Tyler said. “If you can have your friend bring us a newspaper in the morning, we’ll know exactly how much trouble we’re in.”

                She sighed and glanced around the filthy room.

                “I guess I’m stuck with you,” she said grudgingly.

                “I guess you are.” He pulled a bottle of water out of his knapsack and handed it to her, then took one out for himself.  “So,” he said, “what happened after I left the room?”

                “He started hitting me and screaming questions at me—” She paused as Tyler’s face went hairy and his eyes blazed with anger. 

                “I shouldn’t have left you with him,” he growled.

                “Well, in fairness to you, you didn’t have any way of knowing he’d react that way.”
Why am I sticking up for him?
  she scolded herself. 
He made an utter fool of me.

               
Then again, he had come back and risked his life to save hers.

                “The weird thing is,” she continued, “his men acted like they were really unhappy with him.  When he first started hitting me, they were arguing with him, telling him he couldn’t treat me like that because he didn’t have any proof of anything yet, which is true. But he was yelling at me, screaming, who sent you to steal the Eye? And then he sent them out of the room, and it didn’t seem like they wanted to go.”

                Something was wrong here. First her sister had accepted the job to steal the Eye and never bothered to show.

                Then this corrupt cop had not only seemed to know that someone had been sent to steal it, but he’d tried to murder her after barely trying to question her.  He really didn’t seem to care that much about getting answers; it was more like he wanted to know if she would talk or not.  He could have interrogated her, tortured her to get her to confess – but he seemed more concerned with killing her as quickly as possible.   If anything, it seemed like he was protecting whoever ordered the theft of the crown jewel – because if he killed her, she’d never be able to reveal who it was.

              Of course, she wasn’t Rhonwen and she had no idea who the client was – but the cop wouldn’t know that.

                She shook her head. “I wish I knew – that’s the god’s honest truth.”

              So why was the cop trying to protect whoever wanted to steal the jewel? Was the entire job a setup from the start?

                In fact, maybe that was why her sister hadn’t fulfilled her end of the bargain, she mused.  Maybe Rhonwen had accepted the job and then found out that someone was setting her up.

                That would make the most sense, she thought.  But why wouldn’t she have informed the Shadow Lord about the betrayal? Unless…unless he was somehow behind the betrayal. 

                The thought chilled her to the bone.  The Shadow Lord was one of the most powerful members of the Thieves Guild.  He was ruthless, vicious, and the tentacles of his organization stretched worldwide.  If he wanted you dead, you were dead.

                But that kind of betrayal would be suicide for him. He was a broker. He accepted jobs, and down payments, from carefully vetted clients and passed them along only to the crème de la crème of thieves.  For him to hire a thief and then betray them – if word got out, he would be the one with a kill order out on his head, no matter how scary he was. And he was quite scary – he was a massive lion shifter with a reputation for eviscerating his enemies – but if he was betraying his employees, there would be mutiny and, someday soon, a hail of silver bullets sizzling through his flesh.

                She pursed her lips, thinking hard.

                Nothing was making sense here.  Although the Shadow Lord – nobody knew his real name – was vicious when crossed, he also had kind of a Robin Hood reputation.  He wouldn’t steal from just anybody and he was known to be fairly generous with the needy. He also ran a strictly by-the-book operation.

                But who else could have set Rhonwen up? Who’d known about the theft? The client – who wanted the crown stolen, so he or she was hardly going to tip off the police beforehand.  Henri – but he was the leader of a gang of thieves, so he would be the last person to go to the police.  And Henri, Nadette and the rest of the gang had only learned about the theft after Rhonwen had failed to go through with it and the Shadow Lord had issued his kill order.

                Tyler was watching her face closely. “What is it?” he asked. 

                “Nothing. It’s nothing. Got anything to eat?” she asked, nodding at the backpack, and he pulled out a box of protein bars and handed her one.  He ate one also, chewing thoughtfully and never taking his eyes off her.

                “I got the paper,” Tana said, handing Gwenneth a greasy paper bag, which held the newspaper and a bunch of groceries. She’d also brought a tray with two cups of coffee and breakfast pastries she’d got from a vendor on the outskirts of the shanty town;  Gwenneth had given her enough money to buy breakfast for everybody.

                “Anything interesting in the paper?” she asked, taking a gulp of coffee from the Styrofoam cup. She wanted caffeine in her system to brace herself before she saw her picture plastered all over the front page.

                Tana gave her a puzzled look. “You know I can’t read. You said you might come back and teach us, but…” She shrugged her narrow shoulders.

               
But Rhonwen never came back. I swear to God, when I track her down…

               
“I’m sorry. I wanted to,” she said, at a loss for what to say.

                “It’s okay. You sent us the money every month. Just like you promised.” Tana’s tone was surprised and happy, as if a grownup doing what they promised was a rare and beautiful treat.  Gwenneth remembered what that felt like.

                Gwenneth fished the newspaper out of the bag, stomach clenching with anxiety. How bad was it going to be?

                “Should I give him his breakfast?” Tana asked, inclining her head at their tin shack.

                Gwenneth glanced at the shack; Tyler had been up most of the night, but he’d finally fallen asleep around dawn.  She’d managed to slide out of the room without waking him.  She’d tried yet again to take the copper anklet off, but with no luck. 

                “Don’t wake him yet,” Gwenneth said. “Let me read the paper first.”

                As she read it, she grew increasingly alarmed and confused.

                There was an announcement that there had been an attempt to steal the Eye of the Jaguar and an assassination attempt on the king, and because of that, the parade had been cancelled and so had all the king’s public appearances for the foreseeable future.

               Police Chief Angara and Raa, Witch Doctor of Khaliji, Angarawere quoted in the article.   Angara and Raa were cousins, Gwenneth recalled the recon she’d done on Khaliji before she came.

               “This attack on the sacred nation of Khaliji will not be tolerated. We vow to catch these miscreants and bury them deep in a dungeon where they will never see the light of day,” Police Chief Angara was quoted as saying.

              Raa proclaimed that it was his magic which had kept the king safe, and vowed that his magic would also lead to the swift exposure and capture of those who threatened their beloved kingdom.

                Had there been an assassination attempt and an attempted heist on the same night?  Had Nadette or Corran come here with a secret agenda? She couldn’t see either one of them accepting an assignment as an assassin.

               
And there’s no mention of Tyler killing the police captain.

               
Why not? Shouldn’t it be all over the news, along with their pictures? What the hell was going on here?

                She doubted that she and Tyler were off the hook.  What seemed much more likely was that the police planned to capture them quietly and then she and Tyler would vanish from the face of the Earth.

                “I need to go for a little while,” she said to Tana. “Don’t wake him up; we can give him his breakfast when I come back.”

                As she headed out of the shanty town, she cursed the stupid copper bracelet that clung tight to her ankle. Tyler had steadfastly refused to take it off unless she told him everything.  Like that would happen.

                She’d tried picking it with the hairpin she always kept stuck in her hair that was designed to be bent into the shape of a handcuff key.  No dice. Whoever had designed that anklet knew their stuff.  

                 She really wanted to shift into leopard form when she left the shanty town, in the hopes that she might not be recognized. Either way, she needed to find Nadette and Corran before they found her.  Hiding from them forever wasn’t an option. And she couldn’t take Tyler with her – she knew that even though he’d bent the rules for her, he was still basically a law and order type. So he knew she wasn’t a murderess…but he believed her sister was, and he would feel obligated to stick with her until he could track her down.

                She was sure her sister wasn’t a murderess. She couldn’t have changed that much. Could she?

But would she had killed those people? What would Gwenneth do? Would she let Tyler track her down – even help him?

                She couldn’t let herself think that way. They might be estranged, but Rhonwen was all the family she had in the world.

                She gulped down the rest of her coffee as she headed into town.  She’d shed her brown wig and glasses and brown contacts. When Tyler fell asleep, she’d pulled a frosted blonde wig out of her purse and donned that, along with blue contacts. She’d have to pray that no cops recognized her.

                The only thing she could think to do was go and meet up with Nadette at the time and place they’d agreed on when they’d drawn up their plans – a small park in town.  That was where she’d been supposed to meet her and give her the crown.  The park was a popular one with couples looking to get pregnant, because it had a fountain that was supposedly imbued with the powers of fertility.  There were people there at all hours of the day and night.  That might slow Nadette down long enough for her to get a word in before Nadette tried to kill her – assuming she even showed up. 

* * *

                Tyler watched through the door and waited until she’d walked away. He gave it another minute, until Tana had also gone, then slid out from behind the sheet of metal that served as a door.  Was letting her go too risky? Not really, he decided, because even if she did manage to shake him, there was no way she was getting that ankle bracelet off, and as long as it was on, she was stuck with him.

                He moved swiftly, staying far enough behind her that she couldn’t spot him.  As he jogged after her, he passed what looked like piles of refuse, but he knew that they concealed people who called the garbage-heaps home. He scented people and shifters as he moved through the shanty town, but everybody maintained their distance. Probably because of the bribe he’d paid the gang of street urchins.

                Gwenneth moved towards the better part of town. He wore a cap pulled low, and would have to hope that it disguised him enough.

                At the outskirts of the shanty town, he stopped to buy a newspaper, and read it as he walked. 

                Once they left the shanty town, there were soldiers on patrol everywhere.   He kept his head down, pretending to be very
absorbed
in the newspaper, and tried to comprehend what he’d read.  Had there really been an assassination attempt? At least some of the cops here were corrupt, and the newspaper was state-owned, so he couldn’t believe anything he read there. And why hadn’t they mentioned him killing the police captain? That seemed like the kind of thing that would make the news.

                He watched the leopard stroll through an iron archway and into a park.  At the edge of the park, he stopped at a vending truck and bought two donuts.

                Then he called out, “Hey, Tana!” to a stand of bamboo. Tana poked her head out from behind the bamboo, scowling, and walked over.

                “What?” she said irritably. “How did you see me?”

                “I didn’t see you. You’re too good for that.” He handed her a donut.  She beamed at the compliment.

                “I scented you,” he added. “I’m a wolf. We have the best sense of smell in the animal kingdom.”

                “Oh.” She nodded with understanding. Then she looked at the donut with a smile. “Two breakfasts in one day!” Tana shoved half the donut into her mouth.

                “Why did you follow her?” he asked.

                “I wanted to make sure she’d be all right. I think all the soldiers are looking for her. I thought if they spotted her, I could make a distraction and she could escape.”

                He nodded approvingly. “You’re a good friend.”

                “You think so?” she gave him a powdered- sugar smile, then her face grew serious again. “I think maybe we did something wrong last time she was here. Maybe
I
did something wrong.”

                “Like what?” Tyler felt frustration and pity for the little jaguar cub. What kind of chance did she have, growing up in a place like this?

                “I don’t know at all. She was taking care of us, and she brought us food and clothing and toys, and she was starting to teach me to read, and I read the whole alphabet but I was having a hard time…and then she said she had to go, and she would send money until she could come back. And she left for a whole year. But she did send the money every month,” she added, perking up a little.

                “How did you meet her?” Tyler asked curiously.

                “Oh, she hired us to help her and her friend create a distraction. They were here to steal some jewels. Then after that she came around to visit us a lot, and she stayed for months. But then she left. Maybe it was because I couldn’t learn the alphabet. Do you think that’s it?” She screwed her face up anxiously, looking up at Tyler.

                “Of course not. I’m sure she only left because she had to,” Tyler said, shocked. “She came back, didn’t she? And she sent all that money?”

                He glanced over at the park. “I need to go in there, and I need you to stay here. If you come into the park, you could be putting her in danger. If I need help, I’ll howl for you, okay?”

                She frowned suspiciously, but nodded and jogged back over to the giant bamboo shoots, ducking behind them.

                He quickly moved into the park, sniffing at the air and following her trail.  He wound his way along narrow garden paths, past passionate couples who were groping each other on park benches and in the bushes.

                She was in a small clearing towards the back of the park, and she wasn’t alone.  As he rounded the corner, he heard a woman’s voice, speaking with a trace of a French accent.

                “So, Rhonwen, do you want to die fast or slow?”