Everyone was in hunting mode.
As much as Melissa wanted to stick close to Huntley—to ensure that she knew he stayed safe—she had to move away from him, keep her distance, and travel silently through the rainforest, hidden from his view so that the two of them couldn’t be ambushed at the same time. Someone began talking some distance from her, trying to be quiet, but she heard the man’s low, gruff voice and headed in his direction.
She couldn’t see Huntley, but someone else moved through the tangled vines, sloshing in the water and mud, fast—away from her location. The farther she went, the wetter it got. The rains had created a perfect swampy habitat for caimans and crocs, the soupy water rising several inches up her legs now. She headed for the person speaking, watching for signs of anyone else hidden nearby and for any movement in the water. A howler monkey swung from one tree to another, catching her eye. He’d seen her stalking and hunting, which shook him up. He screamed a warning to his own kind that danger was on the prowl nearby.
But then a cat screamed—a cougar’s blood-curdling human-like scream, as if in a horror flick—and Melissa’s skin tingled with unease. The cougar was about a hundred yards away, if she could guess the distance despite the thick vegetation. Whoever had been talking on the phone had grown quiet.
Between the fog and the vegetation, only a couple of feet were visible as she continued to move in the direction she’d heard the man talking. She heard splashing, and she turned and listened. Then she saw a crocodile floating nearby, only its eyes above water, watching her. She moved away from the crocodile, not believing he’d go after her, but she could never tell.
After wading another twenty or so feet, not seeing or hearing anything but insects buzzing, birds twittering, and butterflies, she heard something else…cat snarls? She lifted her head and listened. Cubs.
Jackson had told Everett he’d caught a cougar and her cubs to sell. But he would have tried to draw Everett into the swamp and then questioned him about his involvement with the jaguars stolen from Jackson’s compound.
Everett hadn’t gotten hold of Jackson and asked him where the cats were that he wanted to buy, or what had happened to the man that was supposed to meet him. Had Jackson’s man called Jackson and told him he was going to speak with Everett? If so, did Jackson know that Everett was probably the last one to see his man alive?
Well, the JAG agents had pretty much figured out Jackson had set up a trap for Everett.
When she heard the cubs crying, even though she knew better, Melissa couldn’t help herself. Their woeful cries drew her toward them. But where was the mother?
Then she saw a burlap sack hanging from a tree branch and two little cubs squirming inside, crying. Had to be cougar cubs, which made her think of the ones they had rescued earlier. She couldn’t free the cubs out there in the swampy area—something might prey on them. She had to locate the mother and free her.
She was fairly certain someone was watching the sack of cubs, waiting for someone to go after them. That observer wouldn’t expect a golden jaguar to come for them. Though the observer might believe the jaguar was a female that had responded to the sound of cubs crying due to maternal instinct. A she-cat’s need to foster the abandoned cougar cubs. She’d heard of a big cat killing a baboon, then discovering an infant crying nearby. The cat had actually nursed the infant. So anything was possible.
A footstep in the squishy mud alerted her that someone was to her right. She dashed into the large leafy understory and came around to attack the man, but he’d taken off into the swamp. She could sort of run in the water by leaping through it until it got too deep, and then she had to dog-paddle.
Whoever it was splashed away, trying to swim through the mucky swamp.
When she saw him, he turned, and the horror on his face meant he knew she wouldn’t let him live. He brought up his rifle and fired as she leaped at him. As close as she was to him, she thought he would have hit her. Probably would have, if the rifle hadn’t misfired.
Thank God for small miracles. She landed on him, shoving him into the swamp. He struggled with her, trying to move her forelegs off him, but then he quit trying and she was certain from the way he moved about that he was going for a knife. If she could just hold him down long enough, he’d drown before he could cut her. She felt a slice of pain in her right foreleg, but didn’t give up, didn’t move off him, and waited until he quit struggling. She got off him and he floated to the surface of the water, and then she saw movement in the water. Another crocodile. But where was the mother cougar?
Leaving the man to the crocodile, she swam away from him and headed back to the tree where the cubs were suspended from the branch. Then she made circles around the area, looking for the mother cat until she found her in a sack tied to another tree. She was quiet, and Melissa assumed she’d been tranquilized, but the cubs hadn’t been this time.
Now what was she to do? She couldn’t move the mother cougar, and she couldn’t move the cubs. She returned to the cubs and jumped into the tree, hoping Huntley was all right. That his brother and the Whittaker brothers were all right as well.
She licked at her bloodied wound. Not too deep, but she’d need to clean it up once she was out of there. She wanted to roar for Huntley, to let him know where she was, but she couldn’t without also letting the poachers know she was there. So she lay down on the branch and guarded the cubs like she’d done with them before. Only that time they’d been on dry land and not hanging in sacks over swampy land. And this time she was alone, praying that everyone else was okay.
***
Huntley heard the cougar scream and the cubs snarling, and he knew beyond a doubt Melissa would head their way. He was chasing his own prey—the man who had shot at him and missed. Huntley heard something moving in a tree nearby. The fog clung to the trees and earth, making the visibility nonexistent for anything any distance away, but the man couldn’t see him either. The poacher couldn’t hear the jaguar like the cat could hear him, though.
Huntley moved around the tree to come in from the back in case the shooter was ready to hit him with another dart.
And then Huntley saw him, his rifle ready, waiting for the jaguar to move into his sights.
Huntley jumped into the tree, let the man see an up-close and really snarly view of an angry jaguar, and then killed him with one swing of his paw, breaking the man’s neck and sending him flying into the muddy swamp below.
Now Huntley had to locate Melissa, and then he was going back for his brother. He roared for Melissa, and way off in the distance, he heard her roar back for him. Thank God. He ran through the shallower areas of the swamp-covered land, had to paddle some, and saw a damn fer-de-lance swimming toward him. They were so aggressive that it wouldn’t hesitate to attack, but neither would Huntley. Then it veered off and went on its way as if it suddenly realized the jaguar wasn’t one to mess with.
Huntley continued to swim as fast as he could. Though jaguars were powerful swimmers, able to go against strong currents and long distances, they couldn’t paddle very fast. Then he saw a dead man floating in the swamp and a rifle next to him. Melissa’s handiwork, he was sure. A crocodile had already taken a bite out of the man’s leg. Huntley continued on his way when he saw a sack hanging from a tree, no movement in it, and as he looked higher, perched on a branch was Melissa, his beautiful golden jaguar.
He leaped into the tree and nuzzled her as she practically purred to him. Then he shifted and saw her bloodied leg. It wasn’t cut badly, but she still was bleeding a little and he wanted in the worse way to carry her out of here and take care of her wound. “If you’re all right here, I’m going back to make sure my brother and the others are okay. Can you hold out without us for a little while longer?”
She nodded and he gave her a hug, then she shifted and he gave her a kiss. “Stay safe. Stay here. Do you know where the mother is?”
“In another tree ab
out hundred feet from here. She’s been drugged and tied up in a burlap sack to a tree branch like her babies.”
“Okay, we’ll move them to dry ground and watch over them like we did before. I’ll be back.”
“Be careful.” She gave him another hug and kiss.
“We’re house hunting when we get home,” he said, as if to tell her she was staying with him for the long run.
She lifted a brow and smiled a little.
“I’ll be back.”
Then he shifted and so did she. He licked her cheek, then jumped to the swampy ground and took off through the fog to locate his brother. He couldn’t help the anxious gnawing at his gut. Everything had become too quiet after the shots had been fired. He even thought that when Melissa and he had roared, one of the Whittaker brothers would have followed suit.
He tracked his scent trail to reach the place where he’d heard the shots fired, about three hundred yards from there, and headed in that direction.
He saw Luke in his tan jaguar form looking dead to the world, only he was sleeping, not dead. Thank God. Huntley whipped around, looking for signs of the shooter, and then found him lying on the ground hidden by vegetation. He was dead.
Huntley continued to look for Everett and Luke’s brother, then heard talking—a man’s low voice. “You were involved with the stealing of the jaguars. Tell me the truth. You wanted me and my men to risk coming out here to catch the cats, and then when they were in the compound, you stole them from me so you wouldn’t have to pay for them. Where are the rest of your men? You can’t tell me you took out all of my men on your own.” Jackson held a rifle on Everett, looking anxious to use it.
So Jackson hadn’t realized Everett was one of the good guys. Just thought he was a double-crosser.
“Listen, Jackson, I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. I met with you in good faith. Your man said I should follow him to the compound, but the next thing I knew, someone stopped his truck and killed him. I didn’t know what the hell was going on, so I turned around and left. I didn’t even know where your compound was.”
“You lie.”
Everett folded his arms. “I take it that you don’t really have a cougar and cubs for me to buy.”
“I’ll sell them to someone a little more reliable. You and I are going to take a walk in the swamps. You’ll make a damn good meal for some hungry crocodile.”
Everett turned to look behind Jackson as Huntley got ready to ambush the bastard.
“Oldest trick in the book,” Jackson said, not about to turn his head and look until Huntley roared.
That got Jackson’s attention in a heartbeat. Before he could turn around and center his rifle, Huntley leaped and knocked him down. Then took a swipe with his forepaw and killed the bastard. Huntley shifted and said, “Where’s Jason?”
“Shot, tranquilized.”
“Crap.”
“Where’s Melissa?”
Huntley shook his head. “Cougar cub-sitting. We’ve got a hell of a lot of work to do. We need to move these bodies into the swamp. On second thought, one of us has to stay with the brothers and protect them. You do that. I’ll take care of the bodies. Hell, what a mess.”
“Take care, Brother.”
“You too.” Huntley shifted as Everett went to move Luke to where Jason had fallen. Huntley grabbed Jackson’s belt and tugged him toward the area where the swampy area started. He thought of doing this as a human, but in truth, he could carry large animals into trees as a jaguar, and he could move a couple of measly humans just as easily with his jaguar muscles. As a human, he’d be at more of a disadvantage.
When he reached the swamp, he dumped Jackson into the water, then headed back for the last man. It was still so foggy that he didn’t see the body or Everett trying to wake up the two agents until he was practically on top of them. Then he hauled off the last man until he reached the water and dumped him in.
After that, it was time to take care of Melissa’s charges. He dove through the vegetation to reach her, swam out to her, then jumped into the tree and she brushed her muzzle against his. He shifted. “The Whittaker brothers are asleep. Everett’s good. Jackson and his other man are dead. I’m going to untie the bag with the cubs and give them to you to take care of. I’ll get the mother, and we’ll take them to dry ground, open the sacks, and watch over them until the mother revives like we did before. Okay?”
She nodded.
After another hour, they were sitting together high in a tree, watching the mother stir and the cubs drinking milk from her. They hoped it wouldn’t make the cubs sleepy, but they’d guard them until the mother could. They were still a long way from where Everett and the other agents were, but they wanted it that way. After what had happened to the mother, they didn’t want her tearing into the agents.
When the mother woke sufficiently, she led her cubs away. As soon as they were gone, Huntley and Melissa leaped onto the muddy ground and ran through the rainforest to locate Everett. He paced back and forth in front of two drowsy jaguars, both sitting up now but unable to shake off the effects of the drug.
Huntley smiled a little at the brothers, then nudged for Melissa to go with him. They found their field pack and shifted and dressed. Then they rejoined Everett. “We need to get them dressed and walk them out of here before anyone runs across us with a couple of doped-up jaguars and thinks we’re trying to capture them,” Huntley said.
“This I’ve got to see,” Melissa said.
The men all smiled at her.
“This is one part of the mission you don’t need to watch,” Huntley said, then found where the men had stashed their gear and brought it back.
“What? You think one of the other guys has something that you don’t have?”
Huntley cast her a look that meant payback time. She smiled at him, then turned around to watch the birds in the trees or something while the two brothers shifted.
After having a horrendous time trying to dress the brothers, as loopy as they were, Everett and Huntley each took one of the men in hand and helped them walk. It would be dark before they reached the park ranger’s station, and hopefully by then, the Whittakers wouldn’t look like a couple of drunks.
Melissa slipped underneath Luke’s other arm and helped out. He gave her a sloppy grin. She smiled up at him.
“She’s mine,” Huntley growled.
She and Everett laughed.
By the time they reached the ranger’s station, the men were still dead tired, but they managed to walk on their own and appeared to be beat by the heat, humidity, and all-day hike they’d taken. Recognizing Melissa and Huntley from before, the ranger said, “You didn’t find any poachers?”
“Didn’t see anything worth mentioning.” Huntley wrapped his arm around Melissa’s shoulder and kissed her on the cheek.
He couldn’t wait to get to the cabana, get cleaned up, and get some sleep before they flew out tomorrow. He decided as much as he loved being a jaguar in the wild, he wanted some human time to spend with his new live-in partner. Who he hoped would become much more than that in short order.
***
The next day at the airport, they both picked up new phones at a kiosk, and the first thing Melissa did was call the Carringtons to get an update on them and the kids. And then she made a play date with them, arching a brow to see if Huntley wished to be included.
“Hell yeah,” Huntley said, enfolding Melissa in his arms. All of this felt so right. Better than right.
But as soon as they arrived in Dallas, he felt antsy about Melissa having to deal with Oliver. When they saw him at the airport, Huntley felt her sag a little, like she didn’t want to deal with this right now.
Huntley was all for having a showdown with the man—telling Oliver he managed to drive away the most alluring she-cat ever, and now he had no claim on her.
So that’s
just what he said. And Melissa looked at Huntley as if he was crazy!
Chapter 21
Melissa was tired. After making love as quietly as she and Huntley could in the cabana half the night, and with the energy it had taken to heal up from the cut she’d received, and then the long drive to the airport and the long flight, she couldn’t deal with Oliver. Actually, she was shocked to see him standing there, hands shoved in his pockets, giving Huntley a nod as if he was still just her partner on a mission, and then acting as though she was supposed to get a ride with Oliver home. When he was supposed to be seeing Chad. Unless that was already over before it had started. She hoped not.
She had to admit this was a new one on her—Oliver coming to pick her up from the airport and not allowing Huntley to drop her off. Then again, Huntley wasn’t planning to drop her anywhere but take her to his studio apartment.
And then Huntley had opened his big mouth. As if Huntley had any claim to her! Though she did like that he said she was precious. And alluring. But she hadn’t expected Huntley to say anything about her to the ex-boyfriend.
Oliver nodded, but he didn’t budge either.
She sighed. “Thanks so much for discovering the Carringtons’ identities. That was a real big help to us. About packing up my stuff and moving out—”
“Can we talk, alone?”
She felt Huntley tense beside her.
“Tomorrow. When I come to pack up my stuff. But I’m tired. Certainly not tonight.”
Oliver opened his mouth to speak, as if to object or try to change her mind.
“She said no,” Huntley growled.
Melissa glanced up at him, telling him in no uncertain terms that this was not his business.
“Just saying,” Huntley said, still looking all growly.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Oliver. Again, thanks for everything.” Then she walked past him and Huntley hurried to catch up to her.
“You might want to ask Genista why she really left Huntley Anderson,” Oliver called out to her.