Vaughn didn’t want to disturb anyone, so he made his way down the hall as quietly as he could. When he reached the kitchen, he looked in all the pantries. No chocolate. What was the chance that they would have ice cream in the freezer on a chilly Oregon night like this?
He opened the freezer and saw a box of his favorite toffee chocolate ice-cream bars, as if they knew what he liked and had gotten them for him. He pulled the box out and felt how empty it was, but smiled to see there was still one left. The night was looking up. He shut the freezer door, pulled out the ice-cream bar, and tossed the box into the trash. In seventh heaven, he tore off the wrapper and began to eat the ice cream. He was surprised anyone else ate ice cream in the winter like he did. No one else in his family would.
“What are you doing?” a very irate she-wolf asked, hands on her hips and frowning furiously at him.
He dropped his jaw in surprise, not having heard Jillian walk into the kitchen. He wasn’t easily startled like that. He guessed he’d been so busy enjoying the ice-cream bar that he hadn’t heard her. Then he considered her bedroom attire. Fitted fleece yoga pants and a top, purple with pink teddy bears. Somehow, he couldn’t see her—after she’d shot him—as a pink-and-purple teddy bear person.
She was still scowling, and he didn’t think it was because he woke her.
“Don’t tell me you were saving this one for yourself.” He offered the half-eaten ice-cream bar to her.
“Those were all mine.”
“I only ate half of this one. I don’t mind sharing. I figured any of the food here was for all of us.” He had no problem with buying groceries for the team as soon as he had a chance.
“All of it is, except for the toffee bars.”
“They’re your favorite too, huh? I knew you couldn’t be all bad. Next box is on me. I still want that steak though.”
She turned around and headed back down the hall. He followed after her, finishing the ice-cream bar. “I couldn’t sleep. What can I say? I figured a little chocolate would help.”
She cast Vaughn a concerned look. “Are you in pain?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you should have stayed at the clinic.”
“And miss out on all that grilled chicken, potato salad, and the last of the ice-cream bars?”
“I thought I was the only one who ate ice cream in the winter. Until I brought them out at lunchtime when I ate with the jaguars.”
“Hell, any time is a good time for ice cream. Sorry for eating your last one,” he said seriously.
She let out her breath. “You owe me a box. And…I’ll share.”
“And the steak?”
“Demetria’s buying them. As much as Everett likes to cook on the grill, I imagine he’ll be doing them right.”
“Okay, you’re off the hook.”
“You’re not, as far as my brother goes.”
“We’ll see what he says about the whole situation.” Vaughn still didn’t trust that her brother wasn’t in on any of this. As far as he was concerned, if she tried to stop him from learning the truth, she was Miles’s accomplice. “Hey, the hug you gave me in greeting when I first arrived here was first rate. What about a good-night kiss?”
That got one furious look from the sexy she-wolf before she closed the door to her bedroom.
Not that he should kiss her, or want to kiss her a second time, but he figured it would take the edge off the way his shoulder was beginning to hurt like a son-of-a-gun again—like kissing her had the first time. He sure didn’t know why he was attracted to the woman when he knew she would rather kill him than give up her brother for questioning.
She was a challenge. That was it. He loved a woman who challenged him. Not too many could.
Chapter 6
Early the next afternoon, Vaughn heard someone clanking around in the kitchen, and he hurried to get dressed, astounded it was so late. He wouldn’t admit to anyone that he must have needed the sleep though.
When he walked into the kitchen, he was surprised to see only Jillian. “Where are the others?” He couldn’t believe everyone else was still sleeping.
She looked refreshed, wearing blue jeans, a blue sweater, and hiking boots, her dark hair twisted high on her head. She tossed some butter into a frying pan, then brought out some eggs. “Demetria, Everett, and Howard already left to follow up on some leads. I’m fixing omelets for brunch.”
“Looks like we slept in a bit. Were we the only ones?” He was normally such a light sleeper that anything would wake him. He never slept in, no matter how late he went to bed. He guessed after the trauma to his shoulder, he’d slept like the dead once he’d settled down.
“Not me. I’ve been up for hours. Are omelets okay?”
“Yeah, sure, thanks.” He drew close and looked at the ingredients she’d diced up: ham, cheese, bell peppers—red, green, and yellow. He breathed in the freshly brewed coffee and the food, but mostly the she-wolf. “All of it looks good to me.” He didn’t mean just the food. “Want some toast?”
“Yeah, that would be great. Bread is over there. Toaster is in the pantry over there.”
“Did you go looking for your brother?” He pulled out the toaster and plugged it in, then added four slices of bread and started it.
“Yes, but I didn’t find him.”
“Why didn’t you wake me so I could come along for the ride?”
“Are you serious? You needed the extra sleep after raiding the freezer so late last night.”
“And you needed to see your brother alone.” Amused she didn’t touch on his need for sleep because of his injury, Vaughn poured himself a cup of coffee. “While I was still sacked out, why didn’t you go with the others to do more investigating after you returned from looking for Miles?”
“It’s better if we look into this as a team.” After she finished cooking the omelets, she served them while Vaughn pulled the toast out of the toaster.
“You mean you didn’t want to leave me alone in case I had it in mind to go after your brother again.”
“The thought did occur to me. Actually, the doctor said since you’d left the clinic earlier than he’d planned, someone had to stay with you to ensure you didn’t start to run a fever. Demetria remained here while I looked for Miles. Howard and Everett went out to look for any more clues about the injured jaguar. When I returned, Demetria and I drew straws to see who would stay with you. You can see I lost.”
He laughed. “I bet you planned it that way.” He set out the plate of toast and returned for butter and peach jelly from the fridge. “Why would your brother have been in Douglas’s cabin? As a wolf?”
“I told you. Douglas was a friend, and Miles went to visit him. I take it that they planned to run as wolves. Do you know for certain that the blood on my brother was Douglas’s?”
Vaughn buttered his toast and slathered on the peach jelly. “No, I don’t know for sure. It seemed obvious at the time. No one else was there. And he ran.” Though the more Vaughn got to know Jillian, the more he wished her brother wasn’t in the middle of this.
She buttered her toast. “You’re forgetting one very important point. My brother didn’t even arrive until after Douglas was hurt and Leidolf’s men had moved him to the clinic.”
“So why did Miles run?”
Jillian narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you joking? One look at you—all growly—and he probably presumed you’d think the worst of him and kill him without asking questions. Maybe he even thought you were Douglas’s attacker because you showed up so unexpectedly.”
Finished with brunch, she grabbed her plate and took it into the kitchen.
Vaughn finished his eggs in a hurry and joined her. “So what about the gap between the time Miles was supposed to see Douglas and when he actually arrived at the cabin and I found him there?”
She rinsed off their dishes and stuck them in the dishwasher. “I have no idea.”
“Girlfriend?”
Jillian shook her head. “I wouldn’t thi
nk so. I’m sure he would have told me if he was seeing someone so I’d stay away from the cabin while he was busy. He’s not courting a she-wolf right now, so he might have met a human while he was here. But if he was supposed to be seeing Douglas, I wouldn’t think he would forget his mission. He may have done some dumb things in the past, but he’s always prompt about appointments. Early even.
“And he’s completely loyal to his friends, almost to a fault. Even when they don’t deserve it. Which is to say he’s had some friends who used him because of his agreeable nature. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t get mad.” She paused, wishing she hadn’t made the comment. As soon as she did, Vaughn appeared a little too interested in the information. “Are you ready to check on Douglas? And then we can go to my cabin?”
“Yeah, sure.”
They grabbed their jackets and headed over to the clinic.
“What does your brother do, besides get himself into trouble?”
“He’s done everything from lawn service to helping me find people I need to talk to. He likes that the best.”
“Is he good at it?”
“Yeah, he’s really good at it. I keep telling him he needs to work with me on a regular basis, but he says he needs more freedom to do what he wants to do.”
“What about your parents?”
“They own a rock-climbing gym in Portland, Oregon. Miles doesn’t work well with Dad. After they had the place built, Miles worked with him for a couple of years, but then he said Dad micromanaged too much, and Miles took off.”
“Do you get along with your dad?”
“No. You know the micromanaging thing? Same thing for me. For example, he’s so bad about it that when I’d clean a frying pan after fixing dinner, he would come over and ensure I made certain it was spotless. Handing the frying pan over to him to clean, I would tell him if I couldn’t do a good enough job, he was welcome to clean it. My work, my way. He didn’t fall for it. I joined the army, and after my obligation was up, I began working as a PI. Pays well sometimes. Sometimes not. I get some interesting cases. What about you?”
“Same here. If we have any spare time, we’ll have to swap stories.” Vaughn added, “Did you see anything important in the photos Douglas took?”
“He had taken tons of them.”
“And…?” The expression on her face said she was halfway amused about something, in a catty way. He wondered if they were pictures Douglas had caught of him up close and personal with other women. “Maybe I should ask if you saw anything relevant to the case.”
She laughed. “You look good in swim trunks. The woman you were with didn’t look half bad in her bikini, either. Was it Cindy?” She pulled up the picture on Douglas’s phone and showed it to Vaughn as they walked into the clinic.
“He’s in room three,” said Sally, the redheaded nurse, who smiled brightly at them. “The jaguar agents are in there visiting with him.”
“Good. Thanks.” Vaughn looked at the photo of him wearing his blue board shorts, standing next to Brandy in her hot-pink bikini and super tan. They’d gone boating with Douglas on Folsom Lake, and the woman had actually been dating Douglas. He’d kept motioning to Vaughn to get closer to her so he could get them both in the picture, but see more of the boat too. When Vaughn had offered to take a picture of the two of them, Douglas had declined, saying he wanted to capture his friends instead.
“Douglas’s girlfriend. For a while.”
Jillian looked skeptically at Vaughn when they reached Douglas’s room and paused.
“Really. I think Douglas wanted to get more of the boat in the picture than the people.”
“And the other?”
“What other?” He wasn’t about to speculate, because he realized Douglas liked to take lots of pictures, and no telling what other one Jillian might have seen and was curious about. When a girl got interested in stuff like that, she was interested in the guy. Then he frowned. Would someone have pictures of her like that with lots of guy friends?
“The one with some big-haired girl that’s smooching with you? You do look a little startled. Not sure if it was because she was kissing you, or because Douglas caught the two of you on camera.”
Vaughn hadn’t remembered that one. “Let me see which one you’re talking about.” When he saw Brock with the rodeo girl, he smiled with relief. “That’s my brother.”
Jillian eyed it closer, then Vaughn. “Okay, can’t tell from the lighting in the bar. Could be a twin.”
“It is a twin. My twin. He’s darker haired, and you can’t tell from the picture because of the darkness in the bar, but he’s blue-eyed. Any other photos of interest?” He really hoped she hadn’t found any others of him with women. “Relevant to the case?”
“Probably there are others.” She smiled and walked into the room. “Not sure about being relevant to the case.”
Everett greeted them. “Hope you got some good sleep.”
“I did. Thanks.”
“We’ve been talking away to Douglas about you and Jillian,” Demetria said, smiling. “Something to cheer him up.”
Great. What in the world had they said?
“Have you got Douglas’s phone with you?” Howard asked. “I’d like to see some of those interesting shots.”
Vaughn liked the jaguars. Doing something like this with them on a full-time basis hadn’t been in his plans, but he’d rethink that notion if he had a wolf teammate like Jillian on the force.
Chapter 7
Douglas was still in a drug-induced coma. Jillian hated to see him that way and hoped they would take him off the drugs soon, but the doctor knew best, and if this helped Douglas to recover more quickly, they would have to be patient. She watched as Vaughn took his friend’s hand and squeezed. “We need you back home. A lot of people are worried about you.” He paused. “Including Miles Matthews.” Vaughn’s lips parted.
“What?” she whispered.
“I swore Douglas squeezed my hand slightly. But I could be mistaken.”
She so hoped Douglas would be all right when they weaned him off the drugs. “I’m Miles’s sister, Jillian Matthews,” she said to Douglas. She hoped she could add another personal touch. “I’m the person who found you injured. I’m glad to meet you and hope we can talk soon. We need to know who did this to you.” She squeezed his hand and kissed his forehead.
“We’ve told him who we are and why we’re here.” Demetria caressed Douglas’s shoulder in a gentle way. “How we can’t wait for him to join the conversation.”
They talked about the beauty of the Oregon coastline and how they could see why he’d come here on vacation, and repeated how eager they were to really visit with him.
But then Vaughn recalled how Jillian had been at the same club as them and wanted to mention it and the fact that these jaguar agents were the first of their kind to find out about wolf shifters. “Remember when our pack leaders told us about three jaguar agents trying to return an Arctic wolf pup to his family, and we learned jaguar shifters exist? Well, these are the three jaguar agents who made that happen. Remember when we went to the rocking Clawed and Dangerous Kitty Cat Club in San Diego? When we finally learned about the jaguar shifters, we all realized some of those cat-lover patrons had to be genuine jaguar shifters. Well, Jillian was there that night too…a wolf like us and just as confused.”
“Wait, Douglas was there?” Jillian asked.
“Yeah. My twin brother, Brock, too.”
“And dates,” Jillian said. “Miles and I were there together.”
“And dates,” Vaughn said.
She smiled. Then frowned. “Would Douglas have taken photos? I didn’t see any of you at the club.”
“It was pretty dark. I remember him taking pictures. They might not have turned out and he deleted them.”
“Or they’re so dark that I couldn’t see anyone well in the pictures and just bypassed them. I can upload them to my laptop and check them out. I’ll just use a program to brighten the exposure on them.”
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“Sounds good,” Vaughn said.
Though she swore he didn’t sound like he was really glad about it. Why not? Because of what else she might see of him in photos? She smiled.
Then they left Douglas to rest with promises they’d return.
Despite Vaughn’s shoulder wound, he seemed to be doing fine. Jillian was glad for that. She wasn’t certain how Vaughn would feel if he had to run as a wolf and use his shoulder more though. He’d been favoring his right arm whenever he ate or did anything. He appeared to be left-handed, which was a good thing. Unless he had the notion to shoot her brother. She believed he still thought her brother could have attacked Douglas.
She thought she knew her brother better than that. But what if something had happened, and it had led to violence? What if her brother had been defending himself? Then again, an unarmed shifter in his human form was no match for a shifter in his wolf form. She was certain he hadn’t been there before she got there though. He would have had to have worn hunter’s spray, removed it, and returned. Then she realized she must have gotten there soon after the attack happened. The shifter had to have run off into the woods. There was only one gravel road to the cabin, and if anyone had been driving on it, he would have passed her.
“Were there any photos of Miles on Douglas’s phone?” Vaughn asked Jillian as they left the clinic.
“Yeah, one of him with a curvaceous blond. Really snuggled up close. But maybe Douglas just wanted to get more of the boat in the picture and had them move closer together.” She cocked a brow as she waited for Vaughn’s response.
He just smiled.
“She danced with you too, as I recall.”
Vaughn frowned at that. “I danced with several women that night.”
“I know.”
“I’m surprised you noticed.”
“I doubt you really are.”