Addie had told him to do his job, but Dan worried the guy might be right.
“This is only the second time we’ve seen him here,” Addie said as they watched the man being hauled away, as if they were spectators in the crowd of hikers and runners gathered to watch the excitement. “We’ve been having the path watched until we could get here. And we were lucky. We might have had to wait for hours, but the perp had to get back to work in an hour, so this was our best guestimate.”
“And the danger?”
“The man is a deadly assassin. He’s armed, even if he doesn’t look like it, but he also makes the most of anything he has available.”
“Now what?”
“Mission complete. Your flight leaves at midnight.”
“Can you call in sick? I think this calls for a lot of loving, some cougar running, and a lot more loving.”
She smiled up at him. “Want to go to my place?”
1
Ten and a half years later, Forest Park, Portland, Oregon
* * *
Special Agent Addison Davidson reported to the pickup point at a bench in Forest Park, surrounded by Douglas firs, western hemlock, Oregon grape, and western red cedar, breathing in the scents. After she’d been shot on her last mission in Seattle, Washington, doing the same kind of job, serving as a courier six months ago, she knew they had a mole on her team. Who, of the six people working with her, was the traitor who had told the assassin where the pickup was to be made?
As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she knew she had post-traumatic stress syndrome. She couldn’t let on to the psychologist, who okayed her for duty, that she felt jittery on the job, like at any moment someone would gun her down again. She hated feeling this way. She normally felt completely confident in her abilities, certain that good would win out. On the last mission, she’d taken several bullets, and the only thing saving her was that she’d been wearing a heavier bulletproof vest with the metal insert. Not even those would stop some projectiles, but at least she’d survived the attack. It had taken her six months to recover, not so much physically, because with her cougar shifter abilities, she healed faster than humans. Mentally, she’d had a hard time coping, waking with night terrors and reliving the nightmare whenever she heard popping sounds from cars backfiring, or just any loud bangs.
She hadn’t seen Dan for two years for any missions and she thought she might never see him again, until she was nearly killed. Then once she could vanish, not letting her team or her boss, Clinton Briggs, know where she was going, she’d had to crash with Dan for a couple of nights. He’d been so upset with her that she’d nearly been killed, and that he hadn’t had any word from her. She’d been a jumble of emotions—wanting in the worse way to leave again, to keep him safe, and to keep out of reach of whoever had wanted her dead.
That time, Dr. Kate Parker-Hill had patched her up and then Addie had stayed only as long as she felt it was safe. Dan had taken care of her the whole time, wanting to know what had happened, and why she hadn’t called him for any more missions.
She couldn’t even tell him she suspected a mole in her organization. He hadn’t been happy with her, and after ten and a half years of being her pretend husband, he seemed to be thinking of “divorcing” her. She couldn’t blame him. She couldn’t give up her job, not now that she had to learn who had it in for her, and she didn’t know if she could work at anything else. Could she settle down in a friendly cougar town like Yuma? She was afraid she would miss the bullets flying.
Dan was a different story. She couldn’t deny she missed him, and wanted desperately to see him. She’d tried to pretend he was important only for missions, but she hadn’t had one with him in two years—her boss’s decision—until she needed to drop into Dan’s life again, this time to get patched up. She still remembered how angry he was—at the man who had shot her, at the Bureau for not protecting her better, at her for not keeping in touch. He was, after all, her husband.
Trying to focus on the current mission again, she now watched hikers and runners making their way on Wildwood Trail in Forest Park, not paying any attention to her. Her skin crawled with trepidation. The first day back to duty, and she prayed she could keep it together.
Where was he? The man who was supposed to pass her some information about a group of bank robbers, who were targeting banks in the bigger cities, moving from state to state. It wasn’t the same case that she’d been working on when she’d been shot six months earlier. That one involved stolen military weapons from a National Guard unit, and two of her team members had managed to call for help, but they hadn’t captured the shooter, and she’d been pissed off about it.
Not that she hadn’t been just as mad at herself for not taking him down before he had shot her so many times. She hadn’t even had a chance to pull out her 9mm.
She kept thinking back to Dr. Kate, checking her over, frowning, giving Dan looks, but he wouldn’t tell her who Addie was. No one in Yuma Town could know the circumstances of their marriage, nor that Dan Steinacker had been recruited to serve as her husband as a deep undercover operative. He was called on to do work with her when she needed her husband by her side as the perfect undercover couple. And they’d had fifteen successful missions in the first few years, but once they were done, they’d had to go their separate ways, no questions asked. That had been the hardest part, for both of them.
She’d thought of him seeing Dottie, his dispatcher at the time, and how Dan might have been better off just mating her and terminating his contract with Addie.
And yet, she hadn’t wanted that to happen either. Which was why she put a bug in Jack Barrington’s ear that he needed to return home and see what Dottie’s Aunt Emily had to say about her. Of course, Addie hadn’t talked to Jack directly. She’d spoken with an army buddy of Jack’s, who told him he’d forever regret not trying to see Dottie again. Addie hadn’t been wrong in doing so. He was the father of Dottie’s twins, though he hadn’t known it. And he loved her, like she loved him, if only Dottie hadn’t been afraid to leave her town and lose him in some battle he might have to fight while he served in the military. At least, Addie was glad it had worked out between them. She never thought she would be an undercover FBI matchmaker for a pair of cougars.
Getting her mind back on the current mission, she glanced at the fall foliage, the trees in yellows and oranges, reds and greens, the grass still green. So pretty, yet the scene could change in a heartbeat if this went sideways. She buttoned her jacket to keep the chilly air out. Where was the blasted courier?
She was feeling tense, unsettled, wary that something wasn’t right. Sure, a courier could be late, but she didn’t like how this was already going down.
Then someone cried out in the woods, well away from her view from where she was standing, and she knew she shouldn’t leave her position, but what if the guy was the courier and in real trouble? What if he wasn’t and she missed meeting the courier?
She had to help whoever the person was and raced toward the sounds of a struggle. When she reached the man, he was lying dead on the ground. And it was the man she was supposed to meet. The courier. She called for backup and pulled her gun out and saw a man run out of the woods and away from her.
“Stop!” she ordered, ready to chase after him, but she couldn’t leave the courier here, if he had the information on him still.
Paris Pepion and Dirk Carter came to her aid and assured her they would handle this. Paris was calling in the murder, while Dirk was looking through the courier’s clothes for the information. Addie took off running after the murderer, having to catch him. What if he had the information? Though he could have just been a mugger.
“Wait for backup!” Dirk called after her.
She couldn’t. As important as this was, he should have come with her.
She couldn’t see the suspect. With her speed and agility and her scent abilities as a cougar, she had the guy’s scent and she was gaining on him. Then she saw the guy wearing a gray hoody
, blue jeans, and running shoes. Tucked under his arm, he had a manila envelope, and she was certain it was the courier’s package of the information they needed. Running after him, intent on taking him down, she knew this could be a way to help overcome her PTSD—face another assailant, only come out the winner this time. She had to do it, had to prove to herself she could.
At least that’s what she thought when she suddenly realized the man’s scent had stopped. Damn! He had doubled back and he had to have hidden in the brush near her. When she ran back to where she’d discovered the last scent of him, he leapt out of the brush at her. Her cat-like actions made her quick, but he was taller and heavier than her, and he took her down in the brush opposite where he’d been hiding across the path. She dropped her revolver and he slammed her head against the ground, though the fallen leaves cushioned the impact. Still, she saw stars and she knew if she didn’t recover her gun, or reach her dagger, she could be as dead as the courier.
She saw the red-stained blood of the dagger he was holding before he cut her. She reached her gun in the leaves and shot him, but not before he managed to stab her.
If she didn’t get out of this business, she was certain she was going to die. She’d had enough adventure for a lifetime. She wanted a cougar to love. To come home to nights. To have his babies. A cougar like Dan. After all this time, could they really connect?
That was the last thought she had as she lost consciousness.
2
While sorting through paperwork at his desk at the sheriff’s office, Dan received a nearly incoherent call from Addie, his faux wife, her voice weak and strained. Instantly, he knew she was in real trouble. He’d thought of terminating the contract between them so many times, mainly because she wouldn’t leave her job, and he didn’t want to see her get herself killed. He’d wanted more from her, but she couldn’t seem to give it.
Every time she called, needing him, he couldn’t help but drop everything, wanting to be there for her. She was under his skin, in his blood, and he couldn’t let her go.
Now he was sick with worry, trying to learn where she was. She’d called from a cell phone, and the line was still open. Even though he called to her, she didn’t respond. He had to use cell tower triangulation to locate her at a hospital and called to speak with the hospital receptionist before he was put in touch with one of the floor nurses, who was caring for Addie. He explained he was the sheriff of Yuma Town, and her husband.
“Ms. Davidson is in stable condition,” the nurse told Dan.
“Where is she in the hospital?”
The nurse told him the room and floor she was staying on.
“When she wakes, tell her I’m coming.” Dan noticed his new dispatcher, Amy Mayflower, staring at him from the other room. He was in his office, but he hadn’t shut the door. Not to mention he was being very vocal and their cat’s hearing precluded him keeping this quiet anyway. To everyone in town, he wasn’t supposed to be married.
“Yes…sir.” The nurse probably thought Addie wasn’t using her husband’s name, just her maiden name.
As soon as he hung up, his dispatcher asked, “Sheriff, do you want me to call Stryker to come in to take care of things?”
“He’s sick. Damn flu. He needs to rest. He’ll beat it in no time. Call Hal and Chase. Surely someone can take over for a day or so.” Dan was on his computer, making reservations for the next flight out that he could get to in time.
“Or longer? Did you need me to make airline reservations for you?” Amy was a blue-eyed blond, married to Deacon Mayflower, who worked as a reporter for the newspaper, and they had a ten-year old son named Bobby. Dan was glad when Amy said she could take over the job, having worked as a police dispatcher in Sacramento, California before this.
Dottie, his former dispatcher, had left to have fun with other pursuits, especially since she had brand new triplets, and twins still at home now that their father was home with them too. He was glad for them that everything had worked out, but Jack Barrington, one of the newest agents on the CSF on Leyton’s team, had been as much as a surprise to everyone as Dan’s faux wife would be.
“I’ve got it.” Dan grabbed his Stetson and headed out the door.
“Good luck. Let us know how things are going,” Amy said, holding her hand over the phone as she was already talking to Chase.
“Yeah. Thanks.” Dan was trying to think of everything he had to do before he went to the airport to fly to Portland, Oregon. He managed to have enough presence of mind to grab a bag, shove some clothes and toiletries into it, and headed for the airport.
Chase called him when he was on his way. “Hey, do you need me to drive you to the airport?”
“Already on my way.”
“Amy said this was about your wife. She had to be mistaken. What the hell’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you and everyone all about it later. As soon as I return home. For now, I’ve got to keep trying to get hold of her.”
“Is she all right?”
“She’s in the hospital. I’ll get back with you, Chase. I promise. I’m…I’m going to bring her home, if I can convince her to come home with me and stay for good.”
“We’ll all be there for you both. You know we’ll always have your back. Let us know if there’s anything we can do to help, to make her feel welcome.”
“I know you will. Thanks. Just take care of things there until I return home, will you?”
“Will do. We’ll make arrangements to cover for you while you’re gone, Dan.”
Dan was glad for having such good friends, wishing he could have told them before this about his wife. Pseudo-wife. Even if she didn’t want to make it real between them, he wanted her in Yuma Town while she recovered. And maybe he could prove to her he was the only cougar for her once and for all.
Before he reached the airport, he got a call from Leyton. He was the sole person who had known he had a wife, and Dan had only spilled the beans accidentally to him. Leyton had been good about not sharing what he’d learned with anyone.
“Hey, I guess the news is about to break to the rest of Yuma Town. What can I do to help?” Leyton asked.
“I’m bringing her home, Leyton. I want to make a go of it, but I’m not sure she’ll want to.” He explained to him how he’d been recruited to play this role with her.
“You have something real with her?”
“Hell, yeah. It’s not just a job. The thing is, can we make it on a day-to-day basis?”
“If there’s enough commonality between the two of you to make a go of it, beyond the thrill of the assignment and the rest, I’d say so. You know how it was with Kate and me.”
“Right, but the last time Addie was injured, I couldn’t keep her here. I tried. She was hell-bent on leaving town, afraid whoever had wanted her dead would find her in Yuma Town and kill me too. If I can help it, she’s not leaving this time. I want to take care of her.”
“We all will. You’ve got a whole community of cougars who will watch out for her.”
“Thanks, man.”
“You’ve been there for all of us. It’s the least we can do. And tell her she can always come to work for me, if she needs the excitement in her life.” Leyton took down rogue cougars, and others who were involved in coming after their kind, heading up the Cougar Shifter Force, CSF, in their town.
“Thanks. If she wants to be my deputy, I’ll hire her in a heartbeat. I’m at the airport. I’ll let you all know how it’s going when I know something more.” The quickest flight he could find was six and a half hours. Add the driving time of half an hour to the airport, more time to get a rental car and reach the hospital, and it was more like eight hours by the time he would arrive at the hospital to see her. He hated that it would take this long.
The whole time he worried she’d check herself out of the hospital and disappear, just like she had the last time she’d been injured and had ended up at his place. He still couldn’t believe it when he returned to have lunch at his place to f
ind she’d slipped into his house, mostly unseen. She was his only contact, he didn’t have the phone numbers of anyone else who knew her at the Bureau, so he wouldn’t be able to learn where she’d vanished to if she left.
He had problems he hadn’t considered when he arrived on her floor of the hospital and approached the room. An FBI agent at her door warily watched his approach. Even though Dan was wearing his sheriff’s uniform, the man shook his head. “You can’t see her. No one can without strict authorization.”
Dan wasn’t going to let anyone deter him from seeing his wife, not when he was afraid she’d try to slip out of there and disappear and he’d lose her again.
“I’m Addie’s husband, Dan Steinacker, sheriff of Yuma Town,” Dan growled.
“No visitors unless the boss okays it.” The guy in the dark gray suit didn’t make a move to allow Dan entry.
Dan was surprised the agent didn’t know that he was not her real husband. Maybe he wasn’t on the same team as her, just someone to serve as a bodyguard for the time-being while she was in the hospital. They probably wouldn’t realize he’d be coming either. “Then get the boss on the line. I work with Addie, and only Addie. And I’m not leaving here until I see her.”
Looking annoyed, the man pulled out his phone and called someone. “Yeah, I’ve got a guy here, who says he’s Sheriff Dan Steinacker from Yuma Town.” He raised his brows and smiled a little.
Dan wanted to knock the smug smile off his face.
“All right. Out here.” He pocketed his phone.
“Well?”
“He said no visitors.”
“Get him on the line and let me talk to him.”