When they reached the lake, Maya growled. Facedown in the water, the clothed man still floated.
Wade checked the man for vital signs, but he was dead. Maya was still growling at the man as Wade led her to the portion of the fence that ran across the lake. She quickly began swimming out, ready to leave this place. Wade and George followed her.
Once they had surfaced on the other side and made their way to shore, they heard the shouting of men combing the area, looking for them. Everett, Huntley, and even Martin had come to join the search, as well as others that Wade didn’t recognize.
He shifted and said to Maya and George, “The car is up the road. It’s George’s. Go with him, and I’ll be there in a minute.”
She looked at the other cat. He bowed his head.
She was really going to be pissed at George when she learned of his part in bringing her here.
“Go. I’ll be right there.”
She nodded, and she and George raced off to the vehicle.
Wade cupped his hands and shouted, “Martin! We’re by the lake, all accounted for and heading for the car.”
Men began running in his direction like a stampede of wild horses. Everett saw him first and hurried to take off his raincoat, then frowned. “Not sure I can toss it over that high fence.”
He tried three times, but with the rain and wind, it was useless.
“I’ll shift and return to the car in a moment,” Wade said. “The female jaguar is sitting in a tree about three hundred yards north of the lake. Be careful. And Bettinger is about a hundred yards west of here. The two hunters aren’t feeling very well. One’s pinned beneath a tree with a head wound from crashing his ATV. The other might have a rip-roaring headache. And a dead man’s floating in the lake. Not sure who that is.”
Martin ran up to join them. “That’s the buyer. Gunther Jaemison. He’s got Jim Bettinger’s smell all over him. It appears that Bettinger drowned him. Why don’t you go back to the vehicle and get dressed before the police and reporters arrive? We’ll talk more later.”
“Call Connor and tell him Maya’s safe, will you?”
“Will do.”
Wade shifted and ran toward the car. But headlights were moving in his direction, and he hesitated before he ran across the dirt road, intending to conceal himself in the trees and brush. Then he recognized the rumble of the engine. George’s car. The driver honked twice. It was George.
The car stopped and Maya got out. She was wearing only a shirt—his shirt—and was getting soaked as she motioned to Wade. “Hurry up, Wade.”
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Wade raced to join her, rubbed up against her, then jumped into the backseat of the car. She climbed in with him and closed the door.
Wade shifted and said, “Drive, George. Head back to your hotel so we can grab our car.”
Wade dressed in his boxers and jeans and shoes and socks. He ran his hand over his shirt where it was plastered to Maya’s breasts, looking damned inviting, and leaned over to kiss her mouth, his hands sliding over her breasts. He groaned with need.
“I want to date only you,” she said against his mouth, breathless, the words rushed.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he murmured against her ear.
She looked up at him, her arms around his neck as he continued to massage her breasts with his hands, loving the wet, sexy feel of her. “I missed you, too.” She gave him a thorough tongue kissing, then said, “Everett asked me to dance with him the next time we go to the club. And Huntley, too.”
“Family is the exception. The only exception,” Wade conceded, though he would agree to anything as long as she was safe with him.
She took a deep breath as if she was ready to discuss what had just happened. “Is… Bettinger really dead?”
“Yeah, he is.”
She curled up in Wade’s arms like a needy cat. “He killed Gunther, the buyer,” she said. “The other jaguar’s all right, isn’t she?”
“Safe in a tree. The others might have a time getting her down, but they’ll take good care of her.”
“Good.”
Wade stroked her wet hair and held her close. He still couldn’t believe she was here, safe and in his arms.
“What the hell…?” George said, slamming on the brakes, the car sliding to a halt on the wet road.
Chapter 28
Wade and Maya turned to see what George was viewing, although the rain was hitting the windshield so hard that it was difficult to see what was going on. A dripping-wet naked woman was walking toward the car, dark hair hanging over her shoulders, her eyes amber and staring straight at the car. When George didn’t move, Wade kissed Maya and released her. “Be right back,” he promised.
He quickly got out of the car and hurried toward the woman, smelling her cat scent. She was a shifter. The jaguar he’d seen in the tree on Gunther’s property?
Hell, she hadn’t been the zoo cat.
“Are you okay?” he asked, making sure she was uninjured as he placed his arm around her shoulders to comfort her, afraid she might be in shock because of all that had happened to her.
“Yes, thank you. I… didn’t want to wait for the men to find me and make it harder for them to explain me if the humans learned I was the female jaguar.”
“I understand.” He opened the front passenger door for her and had her sit there. “Give her your shirt, George,” he said when George just gaped at her. Wade shook his head, reminding himself that not all shifters were hero material.
“Yeah, of course. Sure.” George fumbled to remove his shirt, his cheeks turning crimson.
Wade got a call from Martin as he climbed back into the car and Maya slid into his arms again, settling against him like she was his, and he was hers. His heart stuttered with the notion. She finally had decided she wouldn’t look elsewhere for a shifter mate.
He lifted the phone to his ear as he rubbed Maya’s arm, holding her close and sharing his body heat.
“We can’t locate the jaguar,” Martin said. “Where did you say you saw her last?”
Wade smiled and put the phone on speaker as he looked at the woman sitting in the front seat of George’s car and wearing his T-shirt. “She just joined us. She’s a shifter.”
“My name is Caryn Breming. From Houston. I was running as a jaguar in the woods near here when a human hunter saw me and shot me with a tranquilizer dart. He sold me to Gunther. I’ve been in that cat run ever since then. I couldn’t let them know the truth, not when Gunther was always around. I didn’t know that the rest of you were shifters, too. Thanks for rescuing me,” she said.
“Got all that?” Wade asked Martin.
“Hell, yeah.”
“What about Candy?” Wade asked his boss.
“Police collected her and several hunters at the ranch house. The two hunters that tried to kill the jaguars have been arrested. One of them appears to have several broken ribs due to the tree falling on him and a concussion and a pretty bad gash in his head from the ATV crashing into the tree. Pays to wear a helmet. The other one is more open to speculation. My guess? One of the jaguars hit him pretty hard.”
“Served him right,” Wade said.
Caryn gave Wade a thumbs-up.
“Gunther’s body was fished out of the lake. We’ve already taken care of Bettinger’s body to avoid anyone seeing him. Good job,” Martin said.
“Even if you had to come here yourself?” Wade asked.
“On one of the biggest problem cases we’ve had in years? My being here means I can take all the credit.”
Wade smiled. One thing they always said about the director of the Special Forces unit was that he gave credit to the men and women who deserved it.
“I’ve informed the police detective that Maya had been kidnapped by Gunther. We’ll have to come up with a viable cover story for that, and she’ll need to talk to him. David also said you needed some time off. It’s granted.”