Jaguar Pride

  She knew then that it wouldn’t work out with Oliver. The longer they’d been together, the more jealous he’d become of her partners. If she had a mission with another woman, he was fine with it. But as soon as she had an assignment with a male partner, Oliver was hell to live with for a week or more before and after the mission.

  She realized she’d been avoiding having to deal with this. She just seemed to always be on a mission or trying to recuperate from the last one.

  The condo was his, and she didn’t have anywhere to crash while she looked for a place. She would start searching for an apartment first thing in the morning.

  “You sleep with them! You can’t tell me you’re not interested in what they have to offer. They’re wild cats like you, for one,” Oliver said.

  “We sleep in separate bedrooms when we’re in a jungle cabin or hut.” She didn’t know why she was explaining this to him all over again. “Or as cats in a tree. And in a tent? Get real. It’s damned hot and muggy down there, and sex is the furthest thing from our minds.”

  “You’re only human,” Oliver said, pacing. “You get naked in front of him when you shift.”

  Wild cats did when they worked together like this. It was hard not to. Oliver never shifted, but that was his deal, not hers. They didn’t lust after other cats’ bodies. Well, maybe she did a little over Huntley’s, but she was totally hands off with him. Eyeing him a little was okay, as long as she didn’t touch the goods. Right? And that had her thinking about his goods all over again.

  “When you stay in the cabins, they are air-conditioned,” Oliver said, angry.

  Okay, now she was totally ticked off. “We do have some scruples,” she said, annoyed to the max. He acted as though she slept around with every male agent in the branch.

  She sipped her water and studied Oliver, his black hair slicked back, wet from recently showering, his posture rigid. Even when he was angry, he was beautiful in a movie star, heartthrob way—his body sculpted from workouts in the gym and his skin golden from swimming in the condo’s pool. But he looked like he wanted to hit something. Maybe even her. He’d better not try it. Despite his workouts, he’d be flat on his back in a nanosecond.

  Oliver turned to look out the kitchen window onto the backyard, then eyed her. “Okay, here’s the deal.”

  As soon as he spoke the words, she was ready to tell him where he could shove his deal—no matter what it entailed. She was through having these “discussions” when she returned from a mission.

  “I looked into how hard it would be for you to get a license to sell insurance. You should be able to do it,” he said. “My insurance company will sponsor you. You’ll have to take an exam and be fingerprinted, and that’s it.”

  “What?”

  “Then you could work with me at the insurance agency. We have a new opening. We could take off at the same time and be together nights, and we could drive in the HOV lane, and…”

  “Wait, what? The HOV lane?” She couldn’t believe what he’d conjured up while she was away. How long had he been thinking of this?

  “The high-occupancy vehicle lane—you know, for cars with more than one person riding in them during rush hour.”

  She was still staring at him like he’d gone insane. “You want me to quit my job so I can work at yours?” So they could drive to work in a faster lane on the highway? She was usually quick on her feet, but she hadn’t expected this.

  “Yeah. It’s the only way it’s going to work between us.”

  “It doesn’t matter that I love my job?” she asked, not that she meant for him to answer her. She didn’t give a damn what he thought. She wasn’t quitting her job. And certainly not to work at his agency. Selling stuff? She wasn’t a salesperson at heart. Sure, he was always telling her about the Texas codes concerning insurance, which she halfheartedly listened to, and that meant she didn’t know enough to pass any test. If she’d even wanted to do that, which she didn’t.

  She was a fighter, a rescuer—that’s how she lived. If she and her sister, Bonnie, hadn’t been rescued when they were young and that hadn’t made such an impression on her, maybe she wouldn’t be doing this today. She was a survivor. When he was just a JAG agent ten years earlier, Martin had led the team that had rescued her and her sister. From then on, both had wanted to be just like Martin. He finally had become the director of the branch, and when they were old enough, she and her sister had proudly applied to work there. She wasn’t ever quitting her work.

  “I don’t know why you’re so hung up on that job. It’s an addiction for you. That’s all you think about. All you want to talk about. After the mission. Before the mission. What went wrong, and what you have to do differently next time. I just don’t give a damn.”

  She could say the same about him and his insurance work.

  “They’re looking to fill that insurance position by the end of the week. I’ll work with you to get you up to speed to take the test. I made an appointment for you to take it on Thursday, hoping you would be back before then so I could prep you. You’re perfect for the job.”

  She stared at him, not believing he thought he could just rearrange her life like this and she’d be happy with it.

  “That’s my ultimatum,” he said, folding his arms. “It’s not going to work between us if we don’t do this. I don’t want you to go on one more mission away from home.”

  She smiled, albeit a little evilly. “Okay, how about we do this instead. Since you want me working by your side, you can join the JAG agency.”

  Not that Martin would take him into the agency as a field operative when Oliver was a city cat.

  “I love what I do. And if I worked for your agency, Martin Sullivan wouldn’t put me out in the field with you.”

  Right, because Oliver would be a handicap and get them both killed.

  “Not that I have any intention of changing jobs,” Oliver added.

  “Ditto for me.”

  “We wouldn’t be together any more than we are now if I took a job like that,” Oliver said, frowning at her.

  She sighed. “All right. True. I get your point. Really I do. You want more ‘us’ time, and I understand. It’s just not going to work out. I don’t want to quit what I love doing.”

  “Fine. Then pack up your stuff and leave.”

  She couldn’t believe he wanted this over between them so soon. “Okay. Glad we could work this out so well.”

  He walked into the living room, sat down on the couch, turned on the TV, and acted as though she had already vacated his life for good.

  “I’ll have to come back for the rest of my things as soon as I have some boxes and a place I can stay.”

  Oliver raised his brows. “Stay with what’s his face.”

  She ground her teeth. Oliver really believed she was going to move right in with Huntley? “He’s got a girlfriend. I told you that already.” She just barely stifled the urge to add, “you jerk.”

  “Boxes are out in the garage.”

  Her jaw dropped a little. He had known all this time that she wouldn’t go along with his ultimatum and had planned for her to leave? Even prepared for it.

  “Huh? Thanks, I guess. But I still don’t have a place.” And it was too late to do anything about that. “Unless you already thought of that and have one lined up for me. Just in case.”

  He shook his head.

  “Guess not, then. I’ll be back tomorrow when you’re at work and will pack up my stuff.”

  Crap. Well, at least Martin had given her a week off, so she had time to look for a place. But she wasn’t leaving until she had a shower and changed clothes.

  After that, she grabbed her still-packed bags and was about to leave the condo when someone opened the door to the guest bedroom. She nearly had a heart attack, realizing someone else had been in the condo all this time while Oliver and she were talking.
She was certain Oliver had a girlfriend now, and that all his talk had been—well, just that. Talk.

  But when she saw their next-door neighbor, hot and sexy Chadwick Stephano, wearing only a pair of black boxers on his buff body, she just stared at him, openmouthed.

  He smiled a little, then frowned at Oliver. “Why don’t you just tell her the truth about us?”

  “It just happened,” Oliver said, standing and looking sheepish. “Just today. We…we were talking about his organic garden, and…one thing led to another.”

  Melissa was so stunned that she just stared at Oliver. Then finding her tongue, she said, “What about you wanting me to work with you?” Talk about doing a 360-degree turnaround. She was still unable to grasp all that had just been said and, well, all of this.

  “Oliver thought that might make a difference between the two of you. If you were working together and you weren’t off on wilderness trips all the time.” Chad walked over and squeezed Oliver’s shoulder. “But he’s known for a long time that this isn’t working for him any longer.”

  She chewed on her bottom lip. “Okay.” She thought of herself as truly enlightened and mostly aware of what was going on around her. She’d seen Oliver talking with Chad before and knew they’d become great friends. But she hadn’t expected this. “All right. Well, is it still okay if I come and get my things as soon as I get a place of my own?”

  She asked Chad, because he seemed to be the one in charge.

  He smiled sweetly at her, as if he appreciated that she’d asked him. Or maybe he was just amused.

  “Yeah, sure, I said so,” Oliver said, giving Chad an annoyed look back.

  “I’m all right with it,” she said to Oliver. “I just wish you’d told me sooner.”

  “He wasn’t ready to admit it…before,” Chad said. He shrugged. “It just sort of happened.”

  “Okay, um… Well, let me get out of your hair,” she said. “I’ll call you before I return for my stuff.” She hadn’t thought she’d need to, if he hadn’t been seeing anyone. She sure didn’t want to walk into the place and find they were…busy.

  “Yeah, sure,” Oliver said.

  Still reeling with the news as she left the condo and tossed her bags into the car, she tried to tell herself she understood now why Oliver had been acting so strangely. She only wished she’d known before she moved in with him. Now she had to find a place of her own on such short notice.

  Before she left Oliver’s driveway, she called several people who might put her up for the night—but all of them were out of country on missions. Damn it. She knew one who wasn’t. Huntley. And his girlfriend was away on a mission, but she wouldn’t go there. Genista would smell Melissa’s scent in their apartment, and then there’d be trouble between the two of them. And she certainly didn’t want that to happen.

  She’d even tried to get hold of Huntley’s sister, Tammy, now married to another JAG agent. But Tammy and David were training four teens in nighttime operations and couldn’t take any calls. She left a text message that she was looking for a place to crash for the night and decided to go to the jaguar club where she might run into some other agent who would be willing to allow her to stay the night. Otherwise, she was stuck getting a hotel, and she really didn’t want to be alone tonight.

  When she arrived at the club, the first vehicle that caught her eye was Huntley’s. She shook her head. If nothing else, she could share a drink with him and see if he knew anyone else who was still in town that she could stay with for the night.

  ***

  When Huntley arrived, the Clawed and Dangerous Kitty Cat Club was not all that busy, since it was a Monday night. As the jungle rock music played inside and the scantily dressed dancers in leopard skin danced on platforms around poles, he took a seat at one of the empty tables. He glanced around the half-filled establishment at the mix of humans and jaguar shifters there. Telling the two apart was impossible unless he got close enough and could smell the scent of jaguar on the person, or saw the individual shift.

  “Hell, brother, you got back!” Everett said, heading for Huntley’s table and instantly brightening his brother’s mood.

  Huntley rose from his chair and gave Everett a brotherly hug. “Hell, I didn’t think you’d be back this soon, either. I tried calling you.”

  “Phone charger went out on me.” Everett took a seat across from Huntley.

  “How was your mission?”

  “Not good. Can’t give you all the details here, but suffice it to say, two of the bad guys got away. Killed one, though. How about you?” Everett asked.

  “Took down five, but one got away. Police are holding the five men.”

  “Better result than we had. How’s Melissa?”

  “She’s good.”

  “Better than working with me?” Everett teased.

  Huntley smiled. He liked working with his brother. They knew each other so well that he never had to second-guess Everett. Like many twins or triplets, they had that secret communication down pat. Melissa was an unknown commodity at times. He found working with her refreshing. More…complicated.

  “I have to admit she’s a damn good cook.”

  Everett laughed. “I figured between you and Genista, you’d both starve to death. I never before knew a woman who hadn’t ever used a microwave. Thought she’d burn down the house when she cooked with aluminum foil lining the glass pan, and fire and smoke started pouring out of the microwave that one time I went to your place for dinner. Your place smelled like smoke for weeks, not to mention the smoke alarm going off and nearly deafening us.”

  Huntley chuckled. “Yeah. I’d nearly forgotten about that. And then the baked potato burst all over the floor when she poked the fork into it to take it out of the microwave.”

  “Hell, yeah.”

  Huntley smiled at the memory. “I think that was about the last time she cooked.”

  Smiling, Everett nodded. “So I take it you’re on break now?”

  “Yeah, you?”

  “Nah. Got another assignment. I’m off for the night. Tomorrow night I’m checking into a missing jaguar-shifter case. The man disappeared last year and no one could figure out what happened to him, so the case went cold. Martin wants me to look into it and see if I can get any new leads.”

  “Good. I don’t know what he has planned for me next. But I’m not going to worry about it.”

  “What about joining Genista in Panama?” Everett asked.

  Huntley snorted. “She called it quits with us. Walked out on me while I was gone.”

  Everett stared at him in disbelief.

  “Yeah, believe it. I wasn’t sure there was anything there for us to build on, the way she’d been acting so distant the last few weeks, so it wasn’t a complete surprise. Though I thought our work might be interfering too much, and I hoped we could get on track.”

  “Well, crap on that. So sorry to hear it. But if it wasn’t meant to be, I’m glad you got out of it this early in the game. What about Melissa?”

  “Melissa? She’s got a guy. Remember?”

  “Ha! The life insurance salesman? Are you kidding? So how’s that going for her?”

  Not good, Huntley didn’t think. But then what did he know? “How would I—”

  “Speak of the devil.” Everett grinned, stood, and waved for someone to join them.

  Chapter 4

  Huntley turned to see what “devil” his brother was referring to while a few more patrons walked into the club. Along with Melissa. No longer wearing khaki shorts and a cool shirt like she had for the jungle heat and humidity and the trip home, she was dressed to kill in a strapless dress, short on the leg, with high heels that would make great weapons and showed off her shapely tan legs, and she had a sweater slung over her arm. She glanced in Everett’s direction and smiled. Then she saw Huntley, and her smile broadened.

  Th
at cheered him up a little.

  “Maybe the guy she’s with isn’t working out for her either,” Everett said to Huntley.

  “Or she’s meeting him here after a while.” He really didn’t believe it. Not the way Oliver had acted toward them when Huntley had dropped her off at their place. More likely, she was here to cool her heels after a fight with her boyfriend.

  As soon as Melissa joined them, Everett got her a chair and pushed it in for her once she was seated. “Well, how’s my favorite agent doing these days?”

  “Get me a Singapore sling and I’ll let you know.”

  Everett raised his brows a little, smiling. He motioned to a server, then ordered the drink for her. “I’ll have a beer,” Huntley said to the server.

  Everett didn’t order anything for himself.

  “I didn’t think you’d be home so early,” she said to Everett before Huntley could make a comment about Everett forgetting to order a drink. “I thought you were still on a mission,” she added.

  “Nah, just got home a little while ago. Thought I’d pop in for a moment and see if anyone I knew was here, when I saw Huntley’s car parked outside and wanted to ask him how the mission went. I didn’t think I’d be back so soon either. Partial bust. Huntley was telling me that one of the guys you were after also got away from the two of you. Sorry to hear it,” Everett said.

  “Yeah, so were we,” she said.

  “Don’t I know it. Well, I’ve got to go. Enjoy your drinks. Got to get packed. Leaving on another mission tomorrow,” Everett said, standing.

  “You just got here.” Huntley had never seen his brother go to the club and not have a drink before he left.

  “Yeah, but you know how it is. If I rush tomorrow, I’m more likely to forget something really important. Besides, I need to take care of some stuff. Call you before I leave. Take care. And enjoy your leave.” Then Everett smiled and hurried off.