Jaguar Pride (18 page)

Melissa chuckled.

Huntley rubbed her shoulder and smiled. He knew that would come up in the conversation soon enough. In fact, he suspected that once the family was all home together, and he and Melissa were back stateside, everyone in the JAG would give them a hard time over it in a lighthearted way.

“They can be a handful when I'm at home and Kathy leaves them for me to take care of so she can get some things done. But I have to admit, I wouldn't give them up for the world,” Avery said.

“Which was which?” Melissa asked.

Huntley was also curious to know.

“The smaller, less aggressive one is Jenny. Jaime's the one in charge.”

“Goldie,” Melissa said. “We had to give them nicknames. She was more golden. And the other, Jenny, we called Sweetpea.”

Avery chuckled. “She can be quite a scrapper too, when she wants to be.” He let out his breath in aggravation and folded his arms. “She's not like us. My wife, I mean. She's wild and used to the jungle, but she's not trained to fight like we are in our human forms.”

“She shifted four times. The cubs followed suit,” Melissa said softly, still resting her head on Huntley's lap. “Scared us to death.”

“We tried to make an escape on four separate occasions, but it was impossible. Too many armed men at the place at the time. Each time she shifted and we thought we'd make a run for it, someone would come out to feed the cats or do something. Managing by myself, no problem. But with her safety to think about, no way. They were poking at her, and I got angry. They drugged me again. I didn't even know she was gone until I woke this morning. The buyer was supposed to take both of us, but the bastard chickened out and only took her.”

“In case you didn't see them, I've got some of your bags back there,” Everett said.

“Hell, yeah,” Huntley said, then passed one up to Avery. As soon as Melissa was awake enough, he'd try to change into his own clothes in the car.

Avery got a call on the poacher's cell phone, glanced at it, then smiled. “Yeah, Luke? Okay.” He ended the call. “Luke and his brother will meet us in an hour at Santa Eduviges in the forest reserve of Los Santos. They've got a lead on Pierre Beaufort. He's living near there. Apparently, the reserve is another place where they're picking up animals and selling them off. Beaufort doesn't catch them. He just lives close to the reserve so that the seller can reach him quickly.”

“Good show,” Everett said and headed on the road that would take them there.

“Thank God for that,” Huntley said.

“Yes,” Melissa murmured.

Huntley was glad she was awake enough to be listening in and able to respond. Avery yanked off the poacher's shirt and began pulling on one of his own.

“Trouble up ahead, folks,” Everett said. “Police car is approaching. He's motioning us to stop. Everyone clean? No blood splotches anywhere?”

“None of us have passports on us,” Huntley warned, caressing Melissa's arm as they watched the police approach their rental car and were about to be interrogated.

Everett pointed at the console. “Thankfully, Martin and the Whittaker brothers thought of the trouble you would all be in once I came to free you. I picked up your passports, driver's licenses, and badges and some of your bags from the Whittaker brothers while they went to search for the boat that took you to the cat holding area. I've also got Kathy's for as soon as we're able to rescue her.”

Melissa tried to sit up, not wanting to look like she was out of it because of using drugs, even if she was. She hated feeling this way, hated that she wasn't able to help question the poachers and was only able to snarl and show off her teeth. Even when she'd jumped on Phil's bed, she nearly fell off it, but she guessed he hadn't noticed with her wicked canines distracting him.

She desperately wanted to go back to sleep. She leaned against Huntley's shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her and they waited for the police to question them.

Two police officers approached the vehicle, one going to the driver's side, the other to the passenger's. Both pointed flashlights into the car to see who all was in it.

“Can we see your passports,
por
favor
?” the police officer standing on the driver's side asked.

“Certainly.” Everett handed him everyone's passports.

“Holiday?” the other police officer asked, peering into the backseat at Melissa and Huntley and shining his flashlight on them.

“Checking out the rainforests,” Everett said. “Beautiful beaches, birds, everything. Hoped we'd catch sight of a jaguar, but they're awfully elusive.”

“Recreational drugs?” the police officer asked, looking at Melissa, who felt her whole body chill with concern.

“No, officer. Not into that sort of thing.” Everett pulled out his JAG badge. “We're all with a Special Forces agency in the United States. If we ever got caught using drugs, that would be the end of our careers.”

“Can we see the rest of your badges?” the officer said, looking at Melissa as if he was certain
she
wouldn't have one.

Everett pulled them out of the console and handed them to the officer, but the officer just shook his head. “Just open them up and show them to me.”

“What's wrong with you?” the other officer asked Melissa. “Been drinking?”

“Allergy medicine. It made me drowsy. I thought it was the non-drowsy formula,” she said. “Last time I use that brand.” She made a face of disgust.

“Fernando, we have all we need here,” the first one said after checking the badges and quickly looking at Melissa and Huntley in the backseat.

“We haven't checked the trunk of their car, their car rental agreement, or—” Fernando said, but the other man was already handing over the passports and bidding them a good night.

“But—” Fernando said, hurrying to join his partner.

“They are the ones!” the police officer hissed.

Fernando glanced back at the car.

“The ones Alvarez and his partner got into trouble over.”

Fernando glanced back at the car, though he couldn't see in the dark interior now. The other officer waved for them to move along and Everett did.

And Melissa relaxed again against Huntley. Then she leaned over to pull some clothes out of her bag, wanting to get out of her borrowed stuff. Huntley helped her out of the long men's T-shirt and boxers, and smiled when he was assisting her into a pair of lace-trimmed robin's-egg blue bikini panties and the matching bra. She hoped that everyone sitting up front was watching out the window and not slipping peeks in her direction.

But it was hard to get changed in the backseat of a car. She pulled on a pair of jeans shorts and a royal blue tank top, leaving off her tennis shoes for later. She wanted to help Huntley change, not because he needed her help, but because she wanted to have her fingers on him. She slid the poacher's shirt off him, slipping her hands over his body while he tugged his own T-shirt over his head. He smiled back at her, kissing her forehead, then worked on the hard part of pulling off the jeans in the cramped quarters. His cock stood at attention. She smiled. Shaking his head, he smiled back at her.

“Your fault,” he said. He pulled on a pair of briefs and then his own jeans. After he tied on a pair of boots, he gathered her close again.

She smiled, thinking of Everett's comment about her being Huntley's new girlfriend. She had thought she'd just try it out—staying with him and seeing if they were really cut out for being together. But now she wasn't sure she was ready for it.

She'd believed that she could do this, but maybe not. Working with him was one thing. But worrying about him getting killed on a mission when they were mates? She realized that she really did like that Oliver was safe and sound at home so she didn't have to worry about him when she was on a mission. Sure, she worried about her partner on missions, but it was different, wasn't it? What if they had cubs, like the Carringtons? What if the cubs were home, and both she and Huntley were on jobs, maybe not working together on an assignment, and neither made it back?

At least someone who had a job like Oliver's would be home to take care of the cubs. One parent would be there for them growing up.

Not that she wanted her kids to be tame shifters. Then again, she didn't want to worry about them getting into a situation like Avery and Kathy's cubs had either.

Beyond that, how would it look if she and Huntley were together on jobs like this and no longer strictly partners? She realized they were displaying too much affection toward each other in public, when they should have been strictly equal partners on a mission. She sat up straighter, trying to be more agent-like and less like a wilting, drugged cat.

Huntley sighed and encouraged her to lie down on his lap again. No matter what, she couldn't fight the urge to go along with his suggestion. As soon as she nestled her head in his lap, she promptly fell asleep.

Melissa felt the car stop and the engine shut off, so she lifted her head and then sat up, feeling a hundred percent now. Huntley had fallen asleep too, so she didn't feel bad that she was the only one who had been so out of it. She glanced at Avery and smiled. He was snoring a little, his head planted against the passenger's window. He probably hadn't had enough sleep either as he worried about how to rescue himself and his wife when they were still together, and then again after he lost her.

“Catnap time's over, folks.” Everett gave them all a big grin as Avery and Huntley stirred, and then they climbed out of the car and headed inside the eatery.

The aroma of rice, beans, and chicken filled the air while the chatter of conversation surrounded them. They quickly spied Luke and Jason seated at one of the red vinyl-covered tables, and each man rose from his chair to give Avery a bear hug.

“Hell, man, we thought we might have lost you,” Jason said.

“Not me. But I'm more than concerned about my wife. What do you have?” Avery asked.

A pretty waitress took their orders, and then left.

“See that guy over in the corner? The redhead?” Luke asked, his voice hushed as he leaned forward a little to speak privately to them.

The men were far enough away that they couldn't hear Luke, but she knew he was ensuring that others wouldn't overhear him and become suspicious about their interest in Pierre, in the event anyone knew him.

Surrounding each of the tables, vines hung from the ceiling like a screen, simulating the rainforest, to give each of the customers some privacy. The agents all looked in that direction.

“That's the jerk who's buying the animals. Pierre Beaufort,” Jason said. “The one who bought Kathy.”

Avery tensed so much that Melissa was afraid he'd make a scene. But he was good. He was seething, ready to shift and rip the man to shreds—after he intimidated him enough to locate his wife—but he remained seated, hands clenched, grinding his teeth, eyes narrowed, his posture rigid.

“He's living a half mile from here. Alone. Has a bamboo privacy fence with a locked gate. We couldn't see any cages from our vantage point, but we could smell cat urine. So we know he's had cats there before,” Luke said. “We called out Kathy's name, but we didn't get any response. He wasn't home when we checked, so we picked the lock to his gate, slipped in, and found cages and your wife's scent, so we knew we were at the right place, but your wife wasn't there. We checked the house just in case and found a note on his calendar showing he was going to be here at this time. We headed on over here and waited in the car until we saw him park at the café. We couldn't take him in front of all the patrons. We figured we'd meet up with you here if you arrived in time.”

“Now that we have a couple of vehicles, some of us could wait for him at his place while some of us followed him if he doesn't head straight home,” Melissa said.

“Agreed,” Huntley said.

“So who wants to do what?” Jason asked, looking at Avery, given that it was his wife who was at risk.

“I'll go with whoever's following the bastard,” Avery said. “If he doesn't return home, he might be picking up more cats or something. I don't want to be sitting at an empty house, waiting to hear word.”

“Melissa? Huntley?” Luke asked, still giving them the lead on the case.

“If he doesn't go to the house, he might be meeting up with Jackson. The man would most likely not go to Pierre's house,” Melissa said.

“I agree,” Huntley said. “We'll stay with Avery and follow Pierre. But we have a problem with rental cars. We don't want to get stopped by the police and have them learn that whoever signed for the rental car isn't driving it.”

Everett nodded. “I'll have to go with you while the Whittaker brothers are house-sitting.”

“Once we saw the note on Pierre's calendar about coming here, we didn't have a whole lot of time to do a thorough search of his place. We'll do it this time and maybe discover another lead,” Jason said. “We did grab our GPS tracker off the boat before Martin let the authorities know it was being used to steal cats from the park. After Pierre went inside the café, Luke attached the GPS tracker to Pierre's car.”

Melissa smiled. “You guys really come in handy.” She saw Pierre sit up a little taller in his seat, then motion with his head to someone in greeting. “Did he say who he was meeting?” Melissa asked.

All heads turned in Pierre's direction. None of them recognized the swarthy, dark-haired man.

“He only scribbled the words: ‘noon,' ‘lunch,' and the name of this café,” Luke said.

Pierre and his lunch companion huddled over the table discussing some matter.

Then suddenly Pierre straightened his back, lost all the color in his face, and stared at the man for a moment.

Melissa didn't want to voice the concern she had, but Pierre seemed to have received bad news. About Kathy? Or something else?

“Look away,” Melissa said, getting a cat's wary sixth sense that the man would glance around the room. Everyone at her table did what she told them as the waitress served up their meals. True, the vines helped to screen them from view, but if Pierre managed to see a glimpse of all the agents watching him, she figured that would spook him.

Melissa continued watching Pierre, but in a more inconspicuous way. He didn't notice her as her lunch companions hurried to scarf down their meals. When Huntley was through with his, he said, “Eat yours, Melissa. I'll keep an eye on the situation.”

Pierre and the other man were again huddled together, talking to each other. She wished she could hear what was being said, but she ate her meal while Huntley continued to surreptitiously observe the men. She felt that any second, Pierre would flee.

“I think we need another plan,” she said. “Instead of the ones who were planning to house-sit, I believe you should follow his friend. I suspect he knows what Pierre is up to.”

“Sounds like a good change of plan to me.” Huntley took a sip of his coffee. “Same deal as before?” He was still watching the two men when she finished her meal.

“Yeah,” Avery said. “I'm all for still following Pierre.”

Luke paid for their meals. “Okay, same setup as before.”

“Let's go before they do,” Huntley said.

“Got to use the little girls' room,” Melissa said. She couldn't imagine that no one else needed use the facilities.

“Actually,” Huntley said, “I could use a pit stop too.”

Avery got up with them.

“Guess that leaves us holding down the fort,” Everett said to the other two agents.

“We'll be quick,” Huntley said.

Melissa hated that she had to run to the bathroom at a time like this, but it might be the only opportunity she had. She rushed through her business and headed out of the bathroom, nearly colliding with Pierre.

“Sorry,” she said, rattled. She smelled the scent of jaguar on him and wanted to growl, but instead gave him a pretty, faked smile. She hoped that if Avery was still in the restroom, he didn't kill the guy when Pierre walked inside the men's room.

Pierre smiled back at her as if he thought she might really be interested in him, but then Huntley and Avery exited the men's room and an instant of barely controlled tension rolled off the two agents. She hurried back to the table where the others were waiting, while Huntley and Avery followed after her, thank God.

“Ready to go?” Huntley asked everyone.

“Yeah, let's do it,” Everett said.

The other agents waited for Melissa and her party to leave the place first.

The man who had been eating with Pierre was just finishing up his meal when Melissa and her group walked past his table. Everyone was taking in deep breaths, trying to determine if he had been around the jaguars or other big cats. He had.