A Very Jaguar Christmas (2 page)

“Give it up, Bruce,” Everett said, not caring if she needed his interference again. When it came to Demetria, he just couldn't let it go.

She narrowed her eyes at Everett, then turned and stalked off, heading for Tammy, who gave her an envelope.

“Hey, man, so what's the deal with you and the Guardian?” Howard asked Everett, grinning.

Everett might have lost points with Demetria, but apparently he'd made them big time with Howard. Not what he had expected. “She's my sister's best friend, and I promised Matt before he died that I'd look out for her.”

“Is that what they call it now? So where are we going?” Howard asked.

“The briefing note says Brayden normally hangs around Ruby's Burgers this time of day.”

“Okay, let's go get this over with.”

They headed outside, deciding to take Everett's Land Rover Discovery, the steel-gray color sparkling in the Texas sun. Nearly a week before Christmas, the air was cold and crisp.

“How are they going to grade us?” Howard asked.

“If we bring in the boy without having to kill anyone and keep him safe in the meantime, we should be good.” Everett smiled a little.

Howard laughed. “I didn't know anyone in the JAG had a dark sense of humor.”

“With the kind of work we do, sometimes it's necessary just to get through the mission. In any event, we have to evaluate each other on strengths and weaknesses.”

Howard slipped into the passenger seat. “I can tell you what your weakness is already. That hot little number who was about to take Bruce to the floor before you took over and pissed her off.”

Everett hadn't thought his feelings for Demetria were so noticeable. He figured he'd explained his reaction well enough, though he suspected Howard was just spouting off. “I thought she was
your
weakness.”

“Me? Nah. I like the kind of women who
want
me in their space.”

“You seem to know this Bruce guy. He's an Enforcer? What was all that about with Demetria?”

“Not certain, though I've heard rumors. He's got a huge hard-on for her. He learned she was single, not dating anyone, and he's tried other approaches to get her attention, but she's turned him down cold. Anyway, I heard he hoped to catch up to her at the gathering this morning and try again. I didn't have any idea what he planned to do.”

Everett couldn't believe it. He wasn't surprised other men were attracted to Demetria, but pulling a stunt like that in the training room in front of all the other agents was sheer stupidity. If that was the case, Everett was even happier that he'd taken care of Bruce.

“He couldn't get her attention any other way. That's like getting to first base. Only you sort of screwed up the mission. He's an Enforcer. What can I say?”

Glad he didn't have that kind of Enforcer mentality, Everett shook his head.

“So what if this kid doesn't want to come with us?” Howard asked.

Everett glanced at Howard to see if he was being serious, surprised he'd ask. He figured that as an Enforcer, Howard's way of doing business would be to knock the teen out and haul him back to headquarters. Maybe Everett had him figured all wrong.

Howard shrugged. “I don't usually deal with mixed-up teens. I go after the real scum and take them down. Jaguar shifters, of course. Humans, I turn over to the police. So taking care of teens who aren't in any real trouble is new to me.”

Everett explained how most JAG agents would handle it. “We talk to Brayden. If he doesn't willingly come with us, we arrest him. He doesn't have a choice in this. He's going to get himself into serious trouble if he doesn't have someone from our jaguar kind looking out for him. We'll secure a foster home for him with shifters who work with at-risk kids.”

“All right. Sounds good to me. What about the kids he's hanging with? Or his old man?”

“
They
could be trouble.”

Because they couldn't just arrest the kids since they were human. Brayden's stepdad? He was a jaguar shifter. He was fair game.

* * *

Demetria couldn't believe Enforcer Bruce Meyers wanted her to throw him in a mock confrontation in front of all the other people at the JAG training hall. He had assured her that it was part of a test to see how everyone else would react. She'd been getting ready to take him down when Everett Anderson intervened.

She wished Everett hadn't seen her in the confrontation. She regretted biting him a couple of years ago when he tried to break up a fight between her and her rotten cousin, especially when she learned how many stitches he'd needed. But his sister had warned her never to tell him she was sorry for what she had done, that he'd worn that bite as a badge of honor until it healed and faded away. Demetria couldn't believe it.

He was still devastatingly handsome, his dark frown and tense posture indicating he had been poised to lunge at Bruce if necessary. He must have thought she was a wild, cantankerous she-cat.

But then Bruce had poked at her, and his aggressive action had spurred Everett on. When he'd bumped into her to get to Bruce, he'd brushed his delicious jaguar and hotly aggravated male scent on her, and she'd enjoyed it as if he'd rubbed her with his body in courtship. Maybe this was supposed to have been part of the training plan.

Knowing her history with Everett, she didn't think so. She'd been so ready to prove she could handle Bruce, but Everett's reaction had startled her. That rarely happened to her. She was quick and usually focused when anyone threatened her.

Was Everett's reaction to Bruce's posturing just because he was keeping his promise to Matt to protect her?

She growled a little. Tammy had told her that Everett had promised Matt he'd keep an eye on her, and she didn't want Everett feeling like he had to keep that promise. Demetria could protect herself.

Even so, when Everett had finished tossing Bruce to the floor, she had met Everett's gaze. A queer little flutter had ruffled through her belly. She swore Everett was looking at her with interest, and not just regret that their mutual friend had died.

Then she saw the man Everett was teamed up with. Howard Sternum was casting her a sardonic smile. He had earned the reputation of being the hardest man to deal with on a mixed team. He really needed this training, but she wouldn't have wished him on anyone.

She went up to the board and saw the name of the Enforcer she was to work with. But his name had been crossed out, and no one else had been added to take his place. She read the instructions Tammy had given her. “No,” she said in a frustrated way. She didn't need a teammate for this, but she was totally irked that Brayden Covington needed their intervention again. He was most likely at Ruby's Burgers, and she had to pick him up before he got himself into trouble.

Demetria had hoped Brayden's stepdad would step up to be the father the boy needed. She hated that Brayden would not be able to stay with family and in his own home, but if his stepdad wasn't going to watch over him like a good jaguar dad should, foster care was for the best.

She was used to dealing with teens who weren't getting along at home. She'd been glad when her dad left for good so she wasn't put in a similar circumstance when she was a kid, though his leaving had been hard financially on her and her mother. Unfortunately, she had her dad's short fuse, and if someone was hurting a kid, she'd be right there to protect the child and take the adult down. That made her somewhat of an anomaly within her branch. Other Guardians would just talk their way out of the confrontation with a difficult parent or guardian. She didn't have any qualms about getting physical to get her point across.

She jumped into her Jeep Renegade and headed downtown, ready to handle the case, though she wondered how she was going to be graded if she didn't have a teammate from another branch. She sighed. She was ready for a break for the holidays—doing some shopping for her mom for Christmas, taking in the lights at night, and enjoying Christmas carols at one of the local theaters. Maybe even watching some Christmas stories on TV.

That's what she was thinking of when she pulled into the Ruby's Burgers parking lot and saw Everett and Howard getting out of Everett's vehicle. She frowned. Had they been given the same assignment? Another test to see how they handled a situation like this where they didn't know she was going to be on their team? Or maybe she was supposed to manage this on her own before they had a chance.

Everett's eyes widened a bit. He appeared totally surprised. She hoped she hid her surprise better.

After Everett had given her the awful news that Matt had died in the jungle, she'd learned from his sister how he'd risked his life and Lacy's to bring Matt's body home. She'd been so broken up at the time that she hadn't ever thanked Everett properly. He had seemed just as upset and uncomfortable about bringing her the news. Matt and Everett had been like brothers, and Matt's death had been just as hard on him. So Demetria and Everett had continued to avoid each other, though she'd run into him a number of times when he'd gone home to see his family and she was visiting Tammy there.

She took a deep breath and stalked toward Brayden, ready to take care of this business on her own like a Guardian normally would.

Demetria's dark-brown eyes stared right back at Everett, ready to challenge him. Or maybe she was angry that he had taken Bruce down instead of letting her have the honors.

Why had she been given the same assignment, but hadn't been assigned to their team? Knowing Martin, it was his way of throwing a wrench into the works by creating more of a challenge and forcing the agents to deal with it to prove they could handle another branch's unforeseen involvement.

“Hell,” Howard said. “What's
she
doing here? Did you know she broke an Enforcer's nose on her last mission? That's probably why she's here without a partner.”

Everett hadn't heard that story. But that was the point of this training, to team up with someone from another branch and learn how to get along. “How did it happen?”

“She's quick and accurate.”

Everett got that. He frowned at Howard. “
Why
did it happen?”

“Now that's what we're all dying to know.” Howard laughed. “But Petrov isn't telling, and no one has had any luck getting the truth out of her.”

Everett still wondered why Demetria had been fighting her cousin, both of them in their jaguar coats, that time he'd tried to break up the fight. And he
had
broken it up, although not exactly as planned—the fight had stopped when Demetria injured him.

She was a beautiful black jaguar, a rarer variety than the usual beige or brown, and her coloration appealed to him. Maybe because his brother and mother were black jaguars, and he loved how sleek they were, how beautifully they blended in with the night.

Demetria and her cousin, Taramae, had been snarling and biting, and he had only wanted to stop the fighting before either of the women got hurt. He'd dated Taramae once after he'd learned Matt was seeing Demetria, mistakenly thinking she might be like her cousin. Everett soon learned she wasn't. All she could do was put Demetria down, and Everett hadn't liked it one bit.

Brayden watched all three of them approach, Demetria from the south and Everett and Howard from the east, but he stood his ground, looking wary, with his hands shoved in jeans pockets and his unkempt curly, blond hair hanging down to his shirt collar.

Two of the boys with him had shaggy brown hair and their arms folded across their chests. One of them was wearing black jeans and a light jacket; the other, blue jeans and a heavy sweater. They sized up Everett and Howard. The other two boys were clean-cut, nicely dressed, and didn't seem to fit in with the rest. Sometimes teens like that could be the worst—kids with money had dads with lawyers to get them off the hook if they got into trouble.

Demetria quickly identified herself and showed her badge. “Brayden, I need you to come with me.” Her voice was no-nonsense and authoritative, yet softer than Everett's would have been.

Everett and Howard moved toward the other boys in case anyone tried to stop Demetria from taking Brayden into custody.

The boy wearing the black jeans narrowed his blue eyes at them. “You cops?”

Demetria flashed her badge at him. “We are.”

“So what's he done?” the other one in jeans asked.

“Come on, Brayden.” Demetria was still letting the choice be his, for the moment.

“What if I don't want to go with you?” Brayden seemed to be trying to act tough around his friends.

“I'd have to tell you that you have no choice. But you'll be better off if you come with me and don't give me any grief.” Her tone was hard-core now. She was ready to use force if necessary.

“He didn't do nothing,” the boy wearing black jeans said.

The clean-cut kids just stayed out of the confrontation, which Everett was glad for.

“Brayden?” Demetria waited for his compliance.

Brayden had to smell she was a jaguar shifter, and he surely knew they meant business since he'd been through the drill before. He might have even dealt with Demetria before.

He glanced back at the other kids, but Everett noted that Brayden looked longer at the one with the stained black jeans. Everett suspected he was the leader of the little gang.

“Are you going to send me to foster care? I'm seventeen. I can manage on my own.” Brayden smiled a little, but his smile was shadowed with sarcasm. “Unless
you
want to foster me.”

Wrong thing to say. Everett knew Demetria would react to his taunt in a heartbeat.

In a flash, she seized Brayden's arm and hauled him to her Jeep. “We'll talk about the arrangements later, but you're not going to have to deal with your stepdad any longer.” She cast a glance in the direction of the other teens, but then directed her comment to Brayden. “And you'll get your education, training, and some perks, I suspect, when you work with us.”

“A cop?” The leader of the boys sounded incredulous.

“And you'll thank us for it,” she said to Brayden, ignoring the other boy's comment. Then she left Brayden at the passenger's door and waited for him to get in. Again, giving him the choice, for the moment.

“If it doesn't work out?” Brayden's voice wasn't as deep as a man's and a little anxious, his bravado slipping a bit.

“It will. I guarantee it.”

“My stepdad will be pissed off when he learns you've taken me into custody again.”

“Then he should have been providing better guidance at home.”

Looking disgruntled, Brayden climbed in and closed the door.

Everett and Howard watched while she drove off, then headed back to Everett's car.

“I'd say we work well together as a team, even if we didn't do anything,” Howard said, surprising Everett.

“Sometimes having a good mission doesn't mean you have to do anything but be backup for another team member, even if she wasn't exactly on our team. She's one of us, and we're in this together, fighting the bad guys.”

“Hell, you sound like you should be teaching that ‘love one, love all' crap.”

“Not me. Like you, I like to take down the bad guys, not just talk about it. I want to run by Brayden's house and see if we can have a word with his stepdad.”

“You said his mom died?”

“Yeah, at the beginning of this year. Brayden's biological father died when he was seven, and his mom remarried a year later. I'm not sure how his stepfather, Lucian, felt about the boy initially, but we started getting calls like this a few weeks after he had the funeral for Brayden's mother. This is the final straw though. Hanging out with human delinquents is just asking for trouble. We had to take him in.”

“So you've been involved in this before.”

“Not directly. My sister checked on him when she was doing only Guardian work. Lucian supposedly straightened out and began watching the boy. I suspect that's why I got the case this time. And Demetria might have worked with him before. Tammy just wanted to make sure someone she knew well took care of Brayden this time. I'd never met the boy, but his mother's death seems to coincide with the boy's neglect. So what do you say? Shall we see the stepdad?”

“Hell, we're teamed up on this one. If it means we're going to get any action, I'm in.”

Everett smiled a little at Howard. So the big bad ass who couldn't work with any other branch agents wasn't so bad to work with after all. Maybe it had all been for show.

When Everett and Howard arrived at the well-kept French provincial–style home, Everett thought it was a shame the situation with Brayden couldn't have been resolved with his stepdad. But there was more to raising a kid than providing a nice home and other amenities. The boy needed a family to help him grow up, whether he was shifter or human.

No one answered the door, not surprisingly. Everett got back into the car with Howard and checked with his office to see where Lucian worked.

“Where to now?” Howard asked.

“Lucian works for a painting contractor, and there's no telling where he is currently. But I would like to tell him personally that his son has been taken into protective custody and will be living with another family.”

They got the information from Lucian's boss and headed to the newspaper office where he was supposed to be painting the outside of the building. But when they arrived, he wasn't there.

“Guess text messages and emails will have to do,” Everett said. “Lucian has a hot temper. Even though he doesn't take care of the boy, he doesn't want anyone inferring that he can't handle it.”

Howard shook his head. “Sounds like a hard case to me. Glad the boy will be helped though. I never thought a case like this would be that important. But I can see that it is. If we don't catch teens when they're at risk, we'll have to track them down later.”

“Agreed.”

When they arrived back at the branch, Howard and Everett got out of the car. Everett offered to shake his hand, but Howard declined. “Don't want to ruin my reputation.” Then he gave him a maniacal smirk and headed across the parking lot.

Everett wondered if Howard was going to write a scathing review of working with him, just to maintain his reputation. Everett's review of Howard would be glowing, and he was glad he'd had a chance to work with the agent. He saw Demetria walking Brayden into the building, so he followed them in to get a word with her and Brayden.

* * *

Demetria saw Everett closing in on her and Brayden, and she waited for him to catch up, expecting him to be annoyed that she'd taken over his and Howard's case. But she'd been given the case too.

Everett appeared as tense as he had when she was having issues with Bruce earlier, only this time he had a different mission in mind. “Do you mind if I have a word with Brayden for a minute?” he asked.

“No, go ahead.” She waited.

When Everett didn't say anything for a moment, she thought he expected her to leave him alone with the kid. But Brayden was her charge now. She wasn't about to give him up to anyone except the jaguar family who would foster him.

“Brayden, I tried to get ahold of your stepdad, but he wasn't at work or at home. We'll keep trying.”

“I've asked several agents to help contact him. We don't want his stepdad to believe Brayden's in trouble,” Demetria assured Everett.

“Like he even cares. All he cares about are his poker games and drinking. That's all he cares about,” Brayden said, his face flushed.

“How did he act toward you when you were growing up? Was he a good stepdad then?” Everett asked.

Demetria rephrased the question for Brayden. “What he means is, did your stepdad treat you like you were his son?” Lucian could have provided a roof over Brayden's head and food and such, but if he hadn't wanted the boy and had only been interested in the mother, then it was a different situation. Though in that case, Demetria couldn't imagine why Lucian wanted the boy home now. If he didn't really care about his stepson, why not let him be raised by someone else? Was it guilt? A promise to his mother to take care of him? An alpha male need to prove he was in charge, even if technically he didn't want to be?

Brayden shrugged. “He paid for things.” Tears filled his eyes. “He just didn't want to see me around.”

“Why?” Demetria hated this part of the mission, hearing about the emotional and sometimes physical trauma these kids faced.

Brayden swallowed hard and angrily swiped away tears suddenly running down his cheeks. “I reminded him of Mom.”

Demetria gave him a hug. “It's not your fault. None of it is.”

“Was he a good father to you before your mother died?” Everett asked.

Demetria rolled her eyes at Everett.

He raised his brows at her in a question that said, “
What
did I say wrong?”

“Did he play with you, have father-son talks, take you places like a father might?” Demetria asked. How would Brayden know what a good father was? A man could be a good father while he took his son on all kinds of father-son excursions, but another who did none of that could be just as decent. What was a “good” father supposed to be like?

Brayden looked at the floor and shoved his hands in his pockets.

“What, Brayden?” Demetria asked.

“He tried to lose me in the Amazon once. That was his idea of a father-son outing. I was eight, and my mom had just married him. It was kind of a honeymoon with the kid. Okay? Lucian wanted to take me on a jungle hike while Mom was cooking catfish. I saw a baby caiman and I wanted to check it out. The next thing I knew, Lucian was gone. I wasn't scared at first. I knew I could just follow his scent and find him. But I lost his scent at a river. I–I felt panicked. Like I couldn't breathe. I called out for my mom and stepdad. No one answered. They couldn't hear me. My jaguar roar wasn't that loud back then.

“I was scared. Then I finally figured I had to find my way back to the campsite. I was worried they'd think I was lost for good and go home without me. I didn't know for sure, you know. I was only a kid. I thought I was being stupid and got distracted. My stepdad said that afterward. He was furious with me. And I felt guilty for ruining everyone's vacation. And I was mad at myself for not paying better attention.”

“Ohmigod, Brayden. Why didn't you tell anyone? Any of the Guardians that took you in before.” Demetria couldn't believe he hadn't told anyone how he'd felt all these years.

He shrugged, his eyes glistening with fresh tears. “Mom was searching for me, calling, and I finally heard her and called back. We found each other, and she told me that I shouldn't have wandered off. That Lucian was beside himself with worry and couldn't find me anywhere. He was afraid a caiman had gotten me when he crossed the river.”

Demetria wanted to kill Lucian. If he had truly done that to his stepson, he deserved the strongest punishment they could mete out. “But you suspect he left you behind on purpose?”