Call of the Cougar

  "What if he set you up?"

  Tracey frowned at Hal. "Honey? But he was dead. He wouldn't have set me up to have me killed and then what?" She really couldn't wrap her mind around that scenario.

  "Why were the men there to ambush you when he only thought there might be a hint of evidence? The stuff had already been moved. It was New Year's Day. Only you and your partner would be dedicated enough to go out there. It seemed like a perfectly safe venture."

  "My partner hadn't planned to go."

  Hal's brows furrowed as he studied her.

  She shrugged. "Like you said, it seemed like a perfectly safe venture. My partner said to wait until the end of the week. I had nothing better to do, and I wasn't waiting. Though he said he wasn't coming, he joined me out there." She took in a deep, settling breath, hating that he had died.

  "All right." Hal started to rub her arm again in a soothing way. "Would Honey have known that?"

  "He might have. My partner had failed to go with me on several expeditionary missions to find evidence."

  "Why the hell was that?" Hal's voice was growly, and he sounded like he would have taken her partner to task if he wasn't already dead.

  "He was having a rough time of it. He'd had a recent divorce, and the agency was forcing him to retire out of his position."

  "He shouldn't have been neglecting his job and left you to do all the work, and risking your neck because he couldn't deal with life any longer. You should have had an agent who was watching your back like you would his. What did Mick say about it?"

  "Are you kidding? I didn't tell him. And don't you dare tell him either."

  "Hell, Tracey." Hall took a deep breath, but he still looked angry. "All right, then if Honey knew that, he might have assumed you would have been alone. Easier to take down one Special Agent."

  "But why would Honey have done it?"

  "Maybe the trafficking evidence left in the old schoolhouse wasn't Mooney's, but Honey's."

  Tracey shook her head and rested it on Hal's chest again, listening to his heart beating.

  "Did you see Honey's dead body?"

  "Yes."

  "And you're sure it was really Honey? The same guy who had been your informant."

  "Unless the guy was acting as the informant for someone else."

  "But you discovered he had been involved in trafficking."

  "Small time. Not as big an operation as Mooney's."

  "What if the small time operation wasn't Honey's? What if it was Mooney's made to look like Honey was into trafficking on a smaller scale?"

  "I don't know. And why would he do that?"

  "Just trying to come up with far-out scenarios we might not have considered. How did you end up with Ricky as an informant?"

  "He contacted me through the agency. Like Honey had done. They check out the informant's first information to make sure he's not putting agents in danger, or that the 'informant' isn't just a nut case. He was young, so they believed he was working for someone else as a cover for the other guy. He gave them three good leads and then they turned him over to me so that I could work with him since I had lost my informant. But he had nothing to do with this other case."

  "He had information about the same site that Honey had. And again, you were ambushed."

  "Ricky's brother called me with the information."

  "And you know that for certain?"

  "No." She hated to admit it, but despite everything, she really couldn't completely put her trust in Ricky. What if he didn't even have a brother?

  "I had the notion that Benny might be Mooney. Do you have a picture of Mooney?" Hal asked.

  "Yes, and I had asked Ricky already if he'd ever seen Mooney before. He said no."

  "Okay, so Benny isn't Mooney. Does Benny have a last name?"

  "Smith."

  "Figures." Hal wrapped his arm around her. "You're sure that Mooney was there at the scene of the shootout?"

  "No. I figured he would be there if he was in charge of the operation though."

  "All right. If you wounded the man who got away like you believe, I wonder how badly he was injured."

  "I have no idea. I'm certain that I shot both men. But they managed to get away until I tracked the one and took him down as a cougar. The other couldn't have been too bad off because he got away."

  "You were injured yourself by then."

  "Quit reminding me."

  He frowned at her as if he didn't like that she'd been injured, and he'd keep reminding her every time she beat herself up mentally over losing the man. "I tracked the scent of a male for a long time that same day when you saw me in the cliffs running as a cougar, but it was several days after he had left the area. None of us could risk shifting while the Feds were looking into the attempted murder. He had to have had a vehicle parked on another side-road nearby. He probably wanted to make sure Mrs. Blasdell didn't see them."

  "Wait. If they were hauling stuff from the schoolhouse, it would have been impossible to carry it over the cliffs."

  "It would have been too great a risk to run it by Mrs. Blasdell."

  She sighed. "Agreed. Mrs. Blasdell watches everything that goes by her house, unless there's another more recently-made trail. Or if she leaves home on a regular basis at a particular time, and they know her schedule."

  "That's entirely possible."

  Tracey's phone rang and Hal reached over, grabbed it, glanced at the caller I.D., and handed the phone to her. "Ricky."

  Her heartbeat raced as she answered the phone. "Ricky, where are you? At the gold mine?"

  "What? No."

  "You didn't call me saying you were going to meet with your brother at the gold mine?" She felt ill to her stomach.

  "No. Damn him. He called you again?"

  "Yeah." Or at least she thought it was him. Maybe this one was the brother and not Ricky.

  Tracey was already getting out of bed. "What horse loves you?"

  "What?"

  Tracey was struggling to pull her jeans on as she kept the phone tucked between her ear and her shoulder. "The one that you've made friends with because you're scared of horses."

  "Who said I was scared of horses? Ted? He doesn't know what he's talking about."

  "One of the horses is shy with people. You're afraid of horses, but she likes you, because you're not aggressive toward her. What is her name? If you don't tell me, I'm hanging up on you."

  "Ahh, hell, you're testing me. Holly. That's her name. But I'm not afraid of horses."

  She smiled, but then frowned. "I got a call about meeting your brother at the gold mining town where we were shot at. The voice belonged to the same person who said he was you."

  "Hell no. Why would I do that?"

  Hal was already wearing his jeans, shirt, and boots and offering to talk to Ricky so she could finish putting her clothes on.

  "Here, talk to Hal while I get dressed." But she didn't relinquish the phone to him and asked Ricky instead, "Where are you exactly?"

  "I just parked at the end of the wagon trail. Tell Ted I'm not afraid of no horse. I'm going to explore around and see if maybe there was something you missed there. You know I'm good at research, but not just on the Net. I can help with this case. But there's a cougar on the prowl out here, and I wonder if it's the one that killed that trafficker."

  Because she couldn't let go of the phone as much as she wanted to hear what Ricky had to say, Hal helped her on with her socks and boots. "A cougar," she said half under her breath. "Did it see you?"

  As soon as she mentioned cougar, Hal glanced up at her with a wary expression.

  "I don't think so. But I got my gun and I'm shooting him if he comes after me."

  "Ricky, listen to me. Return to your car and go back to the ranch. Let Ted know you're on the way. Please, do as I say."

  "I'm sorry. I should have told you I was coming out here. I just wanted to help, and I know you wouldn't let me if I said anything about it to you earlier. You would have made sure Ted was watching me."


  "You were supposed to be home taking care of the horses that you're not afraid of. Why are you really there?" She didn't believe Ricky just randomly went there in the dark of night for no good reason.

  She held her arms out for Hal to pull her bra on, then fastened it. Then he helped her on with her shirt. She knew Ricky wouldn't listen to her and chill bumps coated her arms as she feared the cougar was a shifter—Benny or his buddy.

  "Okay. My brother called me. All right? He said he was scared. I never heard him sound that scared. He's three years older than me and always acts like this really tough dude. But he said he was afraid of Benny. He wanted to talk to me at one of the saloons. He said he couldn't talk to you because you'd arrest him. He wants out of this business. He thought since you and me are friends, I could put in a good word."

  Tracey shook her head. "Ricky, don't you see? He told me to go to the gold mine, and he had to have been setting me up again if he's really even planning to meet you."

  "He just didn't want you getting word that we were meeting and try to stop me from seeing him. So he sent you in the other direction. I guess. You know. Cuz you worry about me. I'm here now. I'm on the path to the town, and I'm going to check things out. I'll be careful."

  "Ricky, go back to your car. Now. It's too dangerous with that cougar running around. Ricky?" She headed out of the house with Hal. "I either lost him because of the lack of reception out there, or he ended the call. He's headed for one of the saloons, supposedly to meet with his brother, but he spied a cougar." She had planned to call the cavalry, but they couldn't. Not if the cougar was a shifter, and she suspected it was this Benny guy.

  Hal already had his phone out. "Gotcha." He called Dan. "News alert. Got a call from Ricky that he's at Anderson. We're on our way. A warning—a cougar's running around the place. If it's one of the bad guys, Ricky's in for real trouble. I'll let Stryker know, and he can go with us. Ricky's supposed to be seeing his brother there." Hal glanced at Tracey as she told her boss what was going on. "I know. Someone's lying. Meet us there? That will work. We're on our way."

  Hal concluded the conversation and called out to Stryker. He was hidden in the woods and came running. "Yeah, what's up now?"

  "We're going back to Anderson. Ricky's there. Alone. Follow us. We might have cougar trouble."

  "Like with the bastard who fired shots at you, and then ran off here?"

  "Yeah. And if Ricky shoots it?"

  Stryker cursed as he headed for his car.

  Tracey was already in Hal's truck when he climbed in. She was worried sick about Ricky. Not only for his welfare, but if he shot the cougar? And killed it? It would turn into his human form. No telling what Ricky would do. But she also didn't trust his brother one bit.

  "Dan is on his way. He was going to notify your boss, but I take it you already have done so. We can't have anyone out there who's not a cougar shifter in case it's one of our kind."

  "I was automatically thinking it was one of the bad guys. What if it's one of your people?" She let out her breath. "Maybe Ricky will go back to his car like I told him to."

  "Do you think he will?"

  "Fat chance or he would have answered me when I continued to talk to him. He thinks he's going to help us." She explained what Ricky had told her about meeting with his brother. "I think Ricky is relying too much on his brother's sincerity. I don't trust him for an instant."

  "I agree. That worries me too."

  When they finally reached the wagon trail and Mrs. Blasdell's house, she ran outside with a rifle in hand. Hal stopped his truck to see what was wrong, and Tracey assumed she had heard or seen Ricky drive past the house.

  "There's been shooting up there, Deputy Sheriff Haverton."

  Tracey's stomach fell.

  "Thanks. Deputy Sheriff Hill is right behind me. We'll take care of it. Just stay in your home, and we'll check on you when we've dealt with it."

  She nodded, gave Tracey a look like she shouldn't be going into the ghost town on sheriff business, and then headed back into the house.

  "You should have showed her your badge," Hal said, driving to the end of the wagon trail as fast as he could on the rutted road, then parked and grabbed a rifle and medical pack.

  Ricky's car was sitting there but when they checked it out, they found he hadn't returned to it.

  "I have. She thinks I'm just one of the hooligans who used to come here as a teen." Tracey stalked off with Hal down the trail.

  Hal smiled at her. "She thought I was too, and the rest of us who ended up being in the deputy sheriff business."

  As they hurried down the trail, the whole area was quiet, dark, cool, but quiet. No gunfire and that had Tracey more than worried, thinking of all kinds of scenarios. The cougar had killed Ricky, or he had shot it and it had died, then turned into a man, and Ricky was in shock.

  If the cat was really trying to get at Ricky, as it was one of the bad guys, and Hal or Tracey had to shoot it, the same scenario would occur. She could imagine Ricky witnessing it and then what? Humans couldn't see them shift. And shifters had to take matters into their own hands—turn the person or kill him. One or the other. Letting a human know about them and live wasn't an option. That scenario was way too dangerous for their kind.

  Stryker hurried to catch up with them as Tracey tried to smell any signs of anyone—cougars, humans, gunpowder. She smelled Benny and immediately glanced in Hal's direction. He nodded, acknowledging he'd smelled him too.

  She signaled she was headed around to the first saloon she could reach, smelling for signs of Ricky to learn where he'd gone to. Hal went around the south side of the building. Stryker was following her as if she needed more protection than Hal did.

  As if.

  Why was it that men always thought women were more vulnerable in a situation like this? She could shoot just as well as any man, keep her emotions under control, and a level head.

  Then she heard someone sobbing inside. Her heart nearly quit beating with concern. She motioned to the saloon in front of her, indicating to Stryker she heard someone inside while she searched for an entryway.

  Was it Ricky? She feared it was as it sounded like a young man weeping. As long as it wasn't a ruse, but she didn't believe it would be, though she used restraint in any event. She finally found the entryway through the storage room, the same saloon where she and her partner had been ambushed.

  "Ricky," she whispered, using her cell phone light. She didn't have a lantern this time. "It's me, Tracey."

  "Over here," he whispered back, his voice soaked with tears.

  "Are you all right?" She moved toward him, knowing he wasn't all right. Not the way he was leaning up against a wall as if to use it to prop himself up. Not the way his face was ashen, or the way tears were streaking down his dusty cheeks, leaving trails of white skin in their path. Not the way he was holding his shoulder, the gun still gripped loosely in his right hand and his light gray hoody was stained with blood.

  "What happened?" She moved toward him using caution, surveying the area around him for signs of anyone else, still concerned she might be ambushed.

  "I…I killed it. Him. It."

  "The cougar?" she directed her light about and saw a dead man, his naked torso covered in blood, a bullet wound in the head, blood dripping down his cheek. God, it was a shifter.

  Stryker was moving inside now, making sure the place was secure before he checked on the dead man.

  Hal slipped in the back way too, and stalked across the floor. "I didn't see anyone outside," he said, his voice hushed as Tracey took the medical pack from him.

  "There were two of them," Ricky gritted out.

  Tracey carefully moved his hand from his shoulder so she could apply antiseptic to the wound. The cougar must have bitten Ricky after he shot it. Otherwise, the cougar would have finished the job before Ricky could have killed him.

  "Two cougars?" she asked.

  Ricky cried out when the sting of the antiseptic penetrated. "Yeah." br />
  "We've got to get him out of here," Hal said. "We'll take him to our clinic."

  Which meant it was cougar run. Not all bites resulted in a turned human. But if it didn't, if they didn't want to kill him, they'd have to bite him again to see if they could change him. What a mess.

  Ricky was just staring at the body, his eyes as vacant as the dead man's.

  "Anyone you know?" she asked Hal, just to make sure it wasn't someone who lived around there and was one of the good guys. Not that she thought he could be if he had been trying to kill Ricky, but she had to ask.

  "No," Hal said, and she thought then it had to be one of the bad guys.

  Ricky responded tonelessly, "It's my brother."

  And then he began to sob again.

  Chapter 15

  Hal examined Ricky's brother for vital signs and was disappointed to learn he really was dead, though if he'd still been alive, that would have complicated matters even more. He would have to have been incarcerated for attempted murder, and their kind couldn't go to prison for any length of time when they needed to shift from time to time.

  In the meantime, Tracey was binding Ricky's wound to stop the bleeding, and Stryker was checking around the outside of the building, looking for signs of the other cougar Ricky had seen.

  "We have to carry him out of here and pronto." Hal joined Ricky and Tracey, and crouched beside Ricky. He squeezed Ricky's good shoulder with reassurance. Ricky was so pale, shaking, his brown eyes dilated and filled with tears. Tears trailed down his cheeks and clung to his eyelashes and scraggly whiskers. He needed medical attention right away. "We need to stick together and head back to the vehicles."

  "What about my…" Ricky choked on a sob and didn't say anything further, just stared at his brother.

  Hal said, "As soon as we reach the vehicles, we can make a call to have a team out here to investigate—"

  "I…I shot him." Ricky cut off Hal's words, as if telling them no one needed to investigate anything further because it was clear that he had killed his brother, and he was ready to plead guilty to the crime.

  "Yeah, in self-defense, Ricky. We know. You couldn't have done anything differently," Hal assured him. "It was kill or be killed."