“They’re late. They texted and said they couldn’t make it on time and would meet me here. Flight arrived late, and they missed their connection.”
“Your brother let you come here alone?” Wade took a seat next to her.
Maya’s lips parted for a second, her amber eyes darkening, and then she snapped her mouth closed. Looking around the room, she turned to Wade and said, “Get me a Singapore sling, will you?” Then she left the table, walked over to another where two men were eyeing her with interest, stretched out her hand, and asked one to dance.
Wade stared at her in disbelief.
“I wonder what that’s all about. Maybe she’s still serious about seeing other shifters.” David shook his head and waved for a waitress. “Two beers and a Singapore sling.” While he was placing the order, he saw Candy, and so did Wade. “Why don’t you dance with her?”
“I think I will,” Wade said, getting up from his chair. He was trying his damnedest not to look in Maya’s direction, wondering what she was so angry about, while he approached Candy. She flipped her hair off her shoulders and smiled up at him.
“I see your girlfriend is still dancing with others. Want to dance with me?”
He shrugged. “That was the general idea.” Wade meant to dance with Candy away from Maya, to question her in as subtle a manner as he could about Bettinger, but he found his feet drifting in Maya’s direction. The guy with Maya kept putting his hand on her ass, and she kept moving it to her waist.
Wade was about to rip the man’s arm out of his socket when Candy tugged at his belt and said, “I’ve missed you since the last time. Where you been?”
“Hunting.”
Her eyes widened. “Really? I have a couple of friends who hunt.”
“What do they hunt?” he asked, getting interested. He was trying to focus on Candy and not on Maya, but it was killing him not to look and see if the asshole dancing with her was molesting her.
“Cats,” Candy said, smiling up at him.
“Really? I hunt cats. Lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars.”
Candy’s eyes sparkled with interest. She moved closer and whispered, “Ever capture one and want to… sell it to someone?”
“You know someone who’ll buy?”
“Maybe.”
“You said that Bill Bettinger had asked you to date him. Are you still seeing him?”
She shook her head. “I learned he’s got a wife and two kids. Bastard. If a guy’s got a wife, it doesn’t matter to me. I figure it’s her fault she can’t hold on to her man. But when he’s got kids, I draw the line.”
“What about Lion Mane?”
She narrowed her eyes at Wade.
“Aren’t they brothers? And he’s single?” Wade pressed.
“Why do you want to know about him?”
“I heard he’s a hunter, too.”
Candy stumbled. He smelled fear emanating off her beneath the flowery perfume she wore. “He’s… he’s dangerous.”
Bill Bettinger was dangerous, too. Or rather he had been.
Wade shrugged and glanced around the room to see where Maya had gone with her dance partner. Hell, now she was sitting at the two men’s table, ignoring him!
He ground his teeth. Candy looked at where he was glowering and laughed. “Looks like she’s found some place else to sit.” She pulled Wade back to his table, motioning to the Singapore sling, and said, “Oh, for me?”
“It’s for Maya.” David grabbed it and headed over to the table where she was sitting.
Still unsettled about Maya’s behavior and what he’d said wrong to her, Wade took a seat beside Candy and ordered her a margarita.
“Is your brother also a hunter?” Candy asked.
“Yeah, he is.”
“Thought so.” She leaned back on the chair covered in leopard print. “It looks like he’s got Maya’s attention.”
Wade turned to see what his brother was up to. He was taking Maya to the dance floor, leaving her drink sitting on the other men’s table! On one level, he knew his brother was really in protective mode, taking care of her so the other clowns didn’t think they had a chance with her. That didn’t change how Wade was feeling about her.
Where the hell were her cousins? And why was she so mad at him?
“So, you want to split and go somewhere else… less noisy?” Candy asked.
Maya was having the worst night. She wanted desperately to dance with Wade, but first her cousins said they couldn’t make it to her place on time, and then her brother and she’d had a big fight over her coming to the club alone. She knew he only had her best interests at heart, but she also figured that if she helped Wade and his brother out on this case, maybe they could track down the buyer of the jaguar and Lion Mane.
That a buyer for jaguar flesh was still out there was bad enough, but Lion Mane was another story.
The only way she could think to make this work was to act angry and make a scene in front of Wade. It was killing her to do so. He looked so upset with her, like he wanted to shake some sense into her and murder the human she was dancing with. She was grateful when David came to her rescue and asked her to dance.
“Humans,” David said as he moved her across the floor, careful not to hold her too close and stir up his brother’s ire.
She didn’t say anything. Sure, the guys were humans, but she hadn’t wanted to dance with shifters. She’d noticed several eyeing her, a couple that she’d seen the last time, but no sign of Lion Mane.
She didn’t want to tell David the truth—that she was doing this so Wade would have a chance to learn something from Candy—and have him spill the beans to Wade.
“He’s upset,” David said quietly, studying her.
She looked down at his shirt. “I’m upset.” Looking up at him, she said, “Okay?”
“With Wade?”
She swallowed hard. David smiled. Damn it. She didn’t have to say anything, and David would know the truth. She glanced at Wade. He was watching her but sitting with Candy, who was looking smug.
As soon as Candy saw Maya look in her direction, the woman ran her hand over Wade’s hand resting on the table near his beer. Wade looked down at Candy, and she whispered in his ear. Maya wanted to jerk the woman off her seat and toss her to the floor.
When Wade shifted his attention back to Maya, she put her arms around David’s neck, moved closer, and kissed him on the mouth.
“Hell, Maya, what are you trying to do to me? My brother’s going to kill me,” David said, not appearing terribly upset about the consequences.
She smiled at him in the most wicked way. Of course she didn’t want Wade to kill his brother, but if she was going to make this real, she had to do something. Wade wasn’t taking the bait.
Then Wade was on his feet, dragging Candy along with him. His face was dark with anger. He was supposed to be dancing with Candy, not stomping across the dance floor to intercept her and David.
“Uh-oh,” David warned. “That kiss did it.”
Wade was going to ruin it. “Fine. Let’s return to the table.” She started to pull away from David.
“No, I don’t think so. I don’t know what your game is, but I’m letting Wade call the shots before I get myself killed over this.” David tightened his grip on her waist.
She rolled her eyes. “He loves you as a brother.”
David snorted. “When it comes to you, that notion goes out the window.”
The dancers moved out of Wade’s path as if they sensed the big cat’s anger.
When he reached Maya and David, Wade hauled Candy over to his brother, offering her arm to him. “She wants to dance,” he said, his voice dark.
Then he took hold of Maya’s hand and quickly moved her away.
“What the hell is going on?” he growled.
“You are screwing everything up.” She glowered up at him, tears in her eyes.