Spotting His Leopard (Shifters, Inc.) (9 page)

                He grasped her hips in his large, strong hands, helping her to find her rhythm, burying his face against her neck. He licked at the sensitive flesh, bit her gently. The gentle breeze, warm and fragrant with the scent of blossoms, stirred the damp hair at her temples, and the air was alive with the chirruping of insects and the moans and cries of passion from other couples having sex in the park, their only privacy their total absorption in their partners.

                Gwenneth moved faster as passion rose inside her, washing through her in thrilling waves that ebbed and flowed as she moved above him. Tyler moaned desperately, closing his eyes and parting his lips, shuddering as his excitement began to crest.

                Then he was pumping into her in a sweet counterpoint to the rhythmic rolling of her hips and she cried out, coming hard around his pistoning cock as he matched his pace to hers and spasmed inside her with a desperate shout of pleasure  that echoed through the sultry air of the park.

                Gwenneth heard laughter and brief, playful scattered applause, and she rested her forehead against Tyler’s and smiled into his eyes as the breeze cooled the sweat on their hot, damp skin.

                He lay on top of her, breathing hard. Their limbs were tangled together, their clothing in a heap next to the park bench.  A sheen of sweat covered her body, but gentle breezes swept through the trees, cooling her.

                “That was amazing,” she moaned into his ear. 

                “I know. I am pretty incredible.”

                For that, he earned a smack to the side of the head.

                “You arrogant dick.” But she was laughing as she said it.

                Tyler shook his head in protest, grinning at her. “No, no, as you’ll find, I’m just extremely honest and always right.”

                “As I’ll find?”

                “You know. When you come back to Playa Linda and move in with me. You’ve been running for too long. You need a place to call home. You need your name back. Until you change your last name to mine. Gwenneth Witlocke. I like it, don’t you?” He stroked her hair, gazing down into her eyes. 

                She looked up at him, hesitant.

                “Isn’t that what you want?” There was a hint of alarm in his voice.

                “More than anything,” she said, and she felt him relax again.

                “But there’s so much…stuff that hasn’t been resolved yet. We don’t know what’s happening with my sister. The Shadow Lord wants to kill me. Somebody betrayed
Les Abandonnes
, and I don’t know who. And those kids in the shanty town…it may be the death of me, but I can’t just leave them here like this, Tyler, even if all the island police are looking for me.”

                His expression turned serious and he ran his thumb along her cheek, sending a sizzle of desire through her veins. “And that’s why I love you.”

                She jerked with shock.  “You what?”

                Instead of answering, he suddenly stiffened, then shoved her off the bench onto the ground. She landed with a painful thud, and he landed on top of her. As he did, something clanged against the bench and she smelled silver. A knife lay on the park pathway.

                She and Tyler leaped to their feet to see Corran stalking towards them, his face contorted with rage.  Tyler let out a growl and jumped in front of her. Corran had a silver knife clenched in his right hand. He must have brought his entire collection.

                “Corran! What the hell!” she said in a low, urgent voice, not wanting to attract attention.  She glanced around frantically. The lovemaking lions were no longer on their bench, and no police or soldiers were in sight; they were alone, for the moment at least.

                The two men began circling each other. Tyler partially shifted, his snout shooting out, fangs curving down.

                “You think you scare me?” Corran snarled. “Smell my silver, wolf-boy.”

“Stop it, Corran!” she cried. “Whatever your problem is, leave him out of it.”

                He ignored her, jabbing forward with his right arm and aiming at Tyler’s midsection. Tyler just barely managed to dodge him.

                She rushed forward and leaped in front of Tyler just as Corran jabbed again. Tyler grabbed her and pulled her back, but the knife came so close to her that it brushed against her ribcage. She felt her skin tingle and burn from the nearness of the silver, and she let out a yelp of pain.

                Corran instantly dropped the knife and rushed towards her. “Are you all right?” he cried.

                Tyler leaped in front of her, growling. “Get the hell away from her before I take your head off!”

                “Am I all right? You just tried to kill me, you crazy bastard!” she hissed at him.

                “Not you – him! I would never hurt you, Rhonny, no matter how much you’ve hurt me. I came here to warn you. But then I saw you with him, and I just couldn’t…” He sank to the ground and knelt there. “How could you pick him over me?” His voice was racked with grief.

                “Hey, Limey! Warn her about what?” Tyler demanded.

                Corran looked up and raked him with a glare of utter loathing. Then he turned his attention back to Gwenneth. “Nadette got taken into custody and she sold us out to save her hide. She told the cops about the rendezvous. They’ve already got undercovers here.”

                Then Corran looked at Gwenneth strangely, staring at a spot on her thigh. Remembering that she was naked, she quickly grabbed her clothes and began pulling them on.

                “Where’s your tattoo?” he demanded as she stepped into her skirt. “Rhonny? Where’s the scar on your stomach? Where’s your mole?”

                Then his jaw fell open in shock. “Bloody hell,” he said, peering at her closely, looking her over from head to toe. “It’s Gwenneth.” He glared at her. “What the hell are you playing at? Why did you pretend to be your sister? Where is she?”

                “We can discuss this later. We all need to leave the park, now, before the soldiers get here,” Tyler said, keeping his tone low and calm. “Corran, meet us at the Blessed Lotus Blossom coffee shop in half an hour, and if you try anything again, I will rip your throat out. Gwenneth, you go first, and I’ll be watching you.”

* * *

                “Here’s your coffee, jackass.” Gwenneth shoved the mug into Corran’s hand and sat down in the café chair next to Tyler.  “Oh, did I spill some on you? Sorry. Idiot.”

                Corran winced as the hot coffee splashed him, and quickly wiped his hand off with a napkin. “I’m sorry I tried to kill you,” he said to Tyler. “I thought you were shagging my Rhonny.” Corran’s tone was conciliatory; Tyler just shot him a look of contempt and sipped his tea. All the mugs were shaped like Gu-Ra, with big pregnant bellies and a jaguar-tail handle.

                “Talk,” Gwenneth snapped at him. “When was the last time you saw my sister? Why did you break up?”

                “I haven’t seen her in months now. Close to a year. Rhonwen wanted to quit, and I didn’t, and she broke it off with me. But then she ended up staying in the game after all that. I thought maybe she was just looking for an excuse to get rid of me.” His expression was woebegone.

                “A little more detail,” she pressed.

                “Well, we’d been sort of seeing each other off and on, but things really heated up after we came to Khalijji.  We came here a year ago to break into the palace and steal some statues,” he said.  At Gwenneth’s dirty look, he said, “What? It’s what we do. It’s what you used to do, so don’t act all superior.”

                “And then I quit.” She stared at him stonily.

                “Too bad. You were great at it.” Corran shrugged easily. “Rhonny and I liked it so much here, we hung out for a couple of months. Then things changed. She suddenly started acting concerned about those street urchins, the gang from the shanty town.  I suggested to her that we could take them under our wing, and she seemed all happy, and then I said we could teach them the tricks of the trade and make them as good as we were, really top-level, and for some reason she got really angry with me.” He paused and took a sip of his coffee, staring into space.

                “Go on.” Gwenneth kicked him under the table, none too gently. He winced again, pulling his legs back out of her reach.

                “Out of the blue, she said we should just quit and get normal jobs.” He looked bewildered. “I said no, never. This is all I know, and I couldn’t think of screwing Henri over like that. He took me in when I was selling myself to tourists for a crust of bread.”

                “How exactly would it be screwing him over? We’ve made him an enormous amount of money over the years.  He always made us feel obligated to him, like he’d saved our lives, but that’s crap,” Gwenneth said heatedly. “He plucked us out of one hell and dropped us into another. We were the ones running around risking life in prison while he sat back and took three-quarters of the profits. We bought him his damned mansion and his fancy cars and fancy clothes. We owe him nothing.”

                “That’s pretty much what Rhonny said,” he sighed.  “After our argument, she cut me dead. We flew back to the States the next day, and then she packed up and moved out of her flat and ditched her phone and shut down her email account, and I haven’t seen her since.  I would have thought she’d vanished from the face of the Earth, except from time to time I’d hear rumors about her accepting assignments from Henri. Other than that, it was radio silence.”

                “Did she accept those assignments, though? Was it her?” Tyler said suddenly. “I mean, how would you know it was her on those jobs?”

                “What do you mean?” Corran tilted his head quizzically.

                “Oh god.” A look of shock and understanding dawned on Gwenneth’s face. “All those assignments that were screwed up – that only started after she disappeared.  The dumb mistakes she supposedly made, the people who were murdered. That’s not Rhonwen, Corran, you know that. It’s not her style. She’s not a fuckup and she doesn’t hurt people.  Who does that sound like?”

                He stared at her, light dawning on him. “Nadette.”

                “Yes.” She nodded vigorously, enormous relief washing over her. Her sister wasn’t a killer; she’d known it all along. “My sister really did quit. She really disappeared. Nadette accepted those assignments in her place and pretended to be her.”

                She frowned. “There was physical evidence left at the scenes of the murders. Her hair. Nadette had been friends with her for years; she’d have been able to grab some hair from Rhonny’s hairbrush and use it to frame her.”

                Corran flashed a sudden look of alarm at her. “What if she’s dead? What if Nadette killed her?”

                “No,” Gwenneth said quickly, her stomach lurching. “I’d know. She’s my twin. If she were gone, I’d feel it. I’d know. I’m sure of it. She’s just gone off the grid, like I did.”

                “I hope you’re right.” He didn’t look as certain as she was.

                She looked at him accusingly. “You had an affair with Nadette, didn’t you? That’s why she’s so jealous and bitter.”

                “Not an affair, for god’s sake. It was once. One night.” He winced. “And it was before I ever got involved with your sister. And I accidentally called out your sister’s name when I was in bed with Nadette, and she got pissed off with me and screamed out, “If you want to be with her so much, why don’t you?” And she stomped out.” He shuddered at the memory.

                “So after Rhonwen quit, Nadette pretended to be her, accepting all those assignments. How would she get away with that?” Tyler wondered.

                “Well, I hadn’t seen Rhonwen since she broke things off with me, so it’s not like it would have come up in conversation,” Corran said, pondering. “I had assumed that she just was avoiding me, but let’s say she told Nadette she’d quit and was leaving the group. And Nadette didn’t tell anyone else. You know Nadette always operated as Henri’s right-hand man, so to speak, handling all the assignments.  Hell, with Henri’s health declining, the rest of the group has barely spoken to him in the last couple of years.”

                “His health is declining?” Gwenneth said, surprised. “I never heard anything about that through the grapevine.”

                Corran nodded. “He did his best to make sure word didn’t get out, but those of us in the group knew. His three-pack-a-day habit finally caught up with him. He wears an oxygen tank and lets Nadette run the business end of things almost exclusively these days.”

                Gwenneth nodded. Everything was making sense now. “She just took all the jobs that were meant for Rhonwen. Henri wouldn’t have bothered to question his niece. He might not even have known that the jobs were getting screwed up.”

                “Why would Nadette have accepted a job to steal the Eye and not completed it, though?” Tyler asked.

                Corran frowned in thought. “She’s always been jealous of Rhonwen. She wanted to destroy her.  You know how much she hates it when anyone outshines her.  So Nadette took several assignments on Rhonny’s behalf and screwed them up royally; she was already ruining Rhonny’s reputation in the thieving community. This would have been the
coup de grace
.  But she miscalculated. She thought the Shadow Lord would only go after Rhonny, but he put the kill order out on all of us, including her, so she had no choice but to try to fix things.”

                “And so when I contacted her pretending to be my sister and asked her to help me complete the job, she jumped at the chance.” Gwenneth nodded her understanding.

                “But…wouldn’t Nadette be afraid that Rhonwen would know she’d set her up?” Tyler asked.

                “Not necessarily,” Gwenneth said. “If I really had been Rhonwen, I would have known that somebody had set me up, but I couldn’t have been sure it was Nadette or Henri. I’d have come here and tried to investigate, tried to figure out who had done it.  And Nadette must have planned on killing me as soon as we’d successfully stolen the Eye. She kept trying to get me to meet up with her alone, remember?”