Howard hated leaving Val behind, but he had smelled that Benny had been in the drug house, as well as the man Howard had taken out this morning. They were all connected and all had to go down. He didn’t like leaving Val alone in the house with the other woman, not that he didn’t think Val could handle her, but he worried others might be involved and come to find Val there.
If he could just take these two men down, then they’d deal with Benny. At all costs, he had to learn where Val’s parents were. The two men were full-out running, and he desperately wanted to call Val to ensure she was safe. But he couldn’t pause for a second, or he’d lose these guys. Not once had the distance shortened between them, but they hadn’t widened the distance either. They had run him through vacant lots, leaped over wooden fences and concrete walls, never hesitating. He suspected they were headed for the rain forest about two miles ahead. Both men darted around the edge of a wooden fence and disappeared from his view.
Three thoughts ran through Howard’s mind. They were waiting beyond the corner of the fence to ambush him. They were taking a detour to lose him while they were out of sight—but he could track them by scent, and they probably knew that. Or they were still trying to outdistance him until they could reach a place of relative safety, someplace they might have reinforcements waiting for them. He believed they planned to reach the rain forest, shift, and take him on. Two cats versus a human who wasn’t ready for their teeth and claws would spell his doom.
His cell phone rang again, and he fished it out of his pocket. Val. Again. He’d been too busy leaping over obstacles to answer the phone.
Howard made the calculated risk assessment to keep running, knowing if he slowed down at all, he’d lose them for good. But he just had to answer Val’s call when he ran around the corner of the fence. The two men were still running. What he hadn’t counted on was an assailant hiding behind an upside-down boat to his left. The man jumped out at him, stabbing at him with a knife. Howard blocked the knife with the cell—thank God for cell phones—but that knocked the phone from Howard’s hand. It flew across the lot, striking a concrete wall.
His assailant was a jaguar, smelling of weed and eager to take Howard down. He was shorter than Howard, sturdily built and grinning like a fool, his blue eyes bright with eagerness.
“Where are the Enforcer agents who were watching Eric’s place?” Howard asked, not expecting the man to tell him, not even expecting him to know.
“Dead, like you’ll be.”
Hell. Did Val know? Maybe that’s why she’d been calling him. Now he was worried she was trying to catch up to him.
Howard didn’t have his knife out, so he tried to angle himself to break the guy’s neck. Less messy that way. Because of the citrus trees in abundance, the concrete wall, and the wooden fence, no one could see them, but he didn’t want to use a weapon. He was torn between doing this expeditiously so he could catch up to the other men and ensuring he didn’t get himself knifed.
The guy was good at wielding a knife, striking quickly, but Howard’s cat reflexes kept him from getting cut.
“I already put one of you down this morning. Guess it’s my day to destroy your whole damn ring.” Howard was certainly ready, his blood pumping hard with exertion and anger.
“Bixby?” the guy asked, his eyes widening. That little bit of hesitation gave Howard the time he needed.
He lunged forward and grabbed the guy by the arm that was wielding the knife and broke his arm with a quick snap. The man cried out. Howard went for a choke hold around his neck.
“Yeah, Bixby.” Howard guessed that’s who it was. He wondered just how important the man was to startle this guy so. “Two down.” Howard snapped the man’s neck, dropped him where he stood, and took off running, then remembered his phone and rushed to retrieve it from where it had fallen on the concrete next to the wall. The glass was broken, but the shield kept it in place. On the run again, he tried to call Val while chasing down the two men’s scents. All he got was a black screen. “Well, hell.” He pocketed his phone and sprinted even faster. “Damn it all to hell.”
He considered turning around and going back to ensure Val was okay, but then he saw the men race into the rain forest. He couldn’t let them go. But he knew they weren’t going there to hide from him. They were going there to shift and kill him as soon as he entered the forest.
He accepted the challenge. He had to get rid of these men before they could hurt anyone else. They’d already killed Val’s parents. As much as he was interested in her and doing a whole lot more about his feelings for her, she wouldn’t forgive him if he didn’t take the men down now.
* * *
Hating that it had taken her so long before she’d been able to chase after Howard and his prey, Val came around the corner of a fence and found a man sprawled on his back, knife by his side, his arm broken, his eyes wide open. It appeared his neck had been broken too. Unless Eric or the other man did this, she assumed Howard had killed him. Thankfully, there was no blood on the knife, but this guy’s body was growing cold, so he’d been dead for a while. She took off running again, growing closer to the rain forest. There was no sign of Howard or either of the other men. She knew they were all in there, and Howard was going to have to fight two male jaguars. She just hoped she could get there in time to help him out, and that she could actually aid him.
She had barely reached the edge of the rain forest when she saw Howard’s clothes lying in a pile near a group of bracken. She didn’t see anyone else’s clothes, and she suspected the other men had gone deeper into the rain forest to draw him in. But Howard had been smart to shift right away. Just as she was going to do. She stripped off her clothes in the dappled forest light and tucked her things with Howard’s, finding his phone and quickly looking at it. Cracked glass, not working. Damn it. She hoped no one would find their clothes and steal them. She hid them better in the leaf litter.
Then she shifted and went on the prowl. The men would be using the jaguar maneuver of stalking and ambushing to deal with Howard, two on one. If Howard got himself killed, she would never forgive herself. She wished she could smell Howard so she could join him. Then again, the men couldn’t smell him or her either, and that was a good thing.
That made Val feel a little better, since the others had the advantage of being two males against a male and a female. Not that she couldn’t be just as aggressive as a male if her life and her partner’s depended on it.
Partner. When had she begun to think of Howard in that way? She sure hoped he was all right.
She moved slowly into the shadowy rain forest, the howler monkeys warning she was in the area. Damn it! She hadn’t thought of that. Then again, maybe they were warning about one of the other jaguars.
She moved cautiously, knowing Howard could be injured, or worse, and she could be facing two male jaguars. She continued to analyze the scents in the rain forest—the sweet fragrance of orchids and the testosterone-laced smell of the male jaguars.
The men had split forces, one going to the south, the other to the north. That worked for her. Fighting one instead of two was a much better deal. She just hoped that’s all she’d have to fight.
She had walked for maybe a mile, climbing trees, looking for any signs of Howard, not wanting to be ambushed herself. And then she heard the sound of cats fighting off in the distance. It had to be Howard and one of the jaguars. She raced to join them, to help Howard kill the cat, hoping the other wouldn’t circle around and attack too. She was certain if he heard them fighting, he would.
Val finally reached the two male cats, and she was thrilled to see Howard was alive, battling the other jaguar, and hadn’t been injured badly yet. Still, as viciously as both of them were attacking, they had both drawn blood.
She waited for a chance to tackle the cat without taking Howard’s attention from the fight. She was also watching for any sign of the second cat. If he pounced on her while she was unaware, she’d be dead. Then he and the other cat would finish Howard off.
The way the men were turned, and as much as they were concentrating on each other, they hadn’t seen her in the shadows of the trees, courtesy of her rosettes. She remained perfectly still. Not even her tail was twitching.
She thought if she could catch the other jaguar’s eye, Howard would take the advantage. But what if he thought the guy’s partner in crime was coming?
She chuffed, letting Howard know she was here for him, and the other jaguar turned to see her. She leaped from where she was crouched, but Howard bit into the jaguar’s skull. Male jaguars might fight with males in the wild to establish territory over females, but they normally didn’t kill each other.
The shifter agents had to take their own kind down in a situation like this. They didn’t have any other choice.
The jaguar collapsed on the ground and shifted into his human form.
Howard rubbed against Val, licking her face, and she did the same with him, rubbing against him, licking him, so grateful he was alive. He wore fresh claw wounds and bite marks, but he was alive.
They didn’t shift, not wanting to expose themselves as humans while they searched for the other jaguar. After running through the rain forest for another hour, they heard a group of tourists talking.
Val leaped into a strangler fig tree, and Howard joined her. Sitting on the sturdy branch, vines trailing along the massive trunk and down to the ground, they observed the five men and four women and their tour guide approach along a narrow path. The guide was pointing out some of the plants, lizards, frogs, and birds.
Several of the people were taking cell phone pictures. A man and a woman had telephoto lenses on their cameras, and Val worried they might spy the two jaguars if they began searching the trees.
She was sitting stiffly next to Howard. He was relaxed, watching the tour group. He turned and nuzzled her, as if to say she had nothing to worry about. The tour group wasn’t here to shoot the jaguars, except with cameras, if they spied them.
“Ohmigod, right over there,” a woman said, pointing her zoom lens in the direction of the cats.
The guy with the telephoto lens swung around and angled his camera in the direction she indicated.
“Jaguars. A pair. As big as they are, they’re most likely a mating pair, a male and female,” the guide said. “Not a mother and juvenile cub. We rarely see them as they usually hunt during dusk and dawn. Sometimes they’re drinking water or fishing at a river, but it’s very rare for us to catch sight of them.” He sounded as excited about seeing them as everyone else was.
“The one…has blood on him. The bigger one,” the one woman said, looking through her longer lens.
“He must have found some prey. They’ll pull it up into a tree to protect it from other predators, but I only see the female up there with him,” the guide said.
Val prayed the tour group didn’t come across the dead, chewed-up guy. There hadn’t been any sign of a trail through the rain forest where they’d run to catch up to him, so she hoped that meant the group wouldn’t go in that direction. She knew Howard had wanted to catch the other jaguar, but they would also need to dispose of the dead guy before they left the rain forest.
Everyone in the tour group was trying to get shots of them, which didn’t really matter. As long as they didn’t see them shift or find their clothes and things, a jaguar photo op wouldn’t hurt. But the delay could.
The group stayed there forever, watching them, taking pictures, the guide not ushering them along. Seeing the jaguars was too rare an experience. Even he was taking pictures, probably to show future clients what customers might see on the tour. She didn’t think the group would ever leave unless she and Howard did first. She nudged him, and he nodded. Then she leaped down from the tree, and he joined her.
“Oh, oh, oh!”
“Ohmigod!”
“Watch out!”
“Don’t run. Just stay put. They’re leaving,” the tour guide said. “They don’t go after people.”
These did.
“Did you see how they communicated with each other?” a man asked.
Another said, “You can see who wears the pants in the family.”
Everyone laughed.
Val smiled as she and Howard raced off in the direction the other jaguar had gone. She figured they’d made the tourists’ whole trip. That was a perk of being a jaguar in the rain forest if they ran across tourists. As long as they were only tourists.
They finally found the path the other jaguar had taken, which led to the dead man’s clothes. They weren’t a whole lot farther from their own. But there was no sign of the other guy’s clothes, or of him. She suspected he had run off, letting his partner take the heat.
Val nudged Howard, and the two of them made their way back to where the dead man was. Howard took hold of one of his arms, and she took hold of the other. Then they dragged the naked, dead man to the river, swam into it, and let go of him. They watched his body float away. She didn’t see any crocs, but that didn’t mean they weren’t lurking, hidden in the thick vegetation along the shoreline.
It began to rain, and she and Howard headed back to where their clothes were. They quickly shifted, but before she could begin to dress, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her hard on the mouth. “God, Val, I’m so sorry about your parents.”
“They’re alive. A Guardian brother-and-sister team took them to a hospital.”
Looking shocked, Howard stared down at her. “Before I took him out, the guy I killed said they were dead.”
“The bastards thought they’d killed them, but they hadn’t. Thank God.” Val hugged Howard tight. “Thanks for worrying about them.”
“I was anxious about how you were faring if you had learned the truth—which now I know wasn’t the truth.”
He kissed her and then, conscious of the other jaguar still on the loose, they separated and began to get dressed.
“They needed blood. They’d both been shot, but the Guardians said they’ll make it. I was so worried about you when you didn’t answer your phone.”
“I couldn’t answer your calls right away while I was trying to navigate over walls and fences, and then the bastard broke my phone. I made him pay for breaking it, but I’ll need to get another.”
Val eyed Howard’s new injuries as she pulled her shirt on. “We need to take care of your fresh wounds.”
“I’ll live.” He tugged his shirt on.
“Don’t act all tough on me.” She sat down on the leafy forest floor to pull on her boots. “You know as well as I do how bad getting an infection in a jungle environment can be. What would Jillian do without you if you ended up coming down with a fever and couldn’t do your job?”
Smiling, he crouched down and finished tying his own boots.
“Jillian was right about you not liking to have your wounds taken care of. I’m so glad you’re okay. Chewed up and clawed a bit, but alive.”
“I was glad to see you too, safe and sound.” He helped her off the ground. “I hated that we couldn’t get in touch with each other. But then I was running through the rain forest as a cat and couldn’t have called you anyway.”
“When I found you fighting with the one cat, I hoped my chuffing at you wouldn’t unduly distract you.”
They began moving through the rain forest again.
“It did, believe me, but it distracted the perp much more. All I could think of was that you were alive, but I needed to take the guy out as quickly as I could. He looked shocked as hell that you had come to my aid. I was damn glad for it.”
“I’m glad you took him down.” Val pulled her phone out of her pocket. “I’m calling my boss.” As soon as she got ahold of him, she let him know what had happened. He was still trying to get more agents on the case. Then she called Jillian to update her and make sure she and Rowdy were all right. Jillian said they hadn’t heard a peep from anyone. “We’re on our way back there soon,” Val told her.
“Good,” Jillian said. “I’d rather we were together as a unified force, now that we know more rogues have banded together.”
“Me too. Keep you posted.” Val and Jillian signed off.
Val and Howard shared what they’d each been through as they walked back to the spot where the dead man’s clothes were.
“Maybe we can find something on the guy’s phone that will help us. In any event, you can use his phone until you can get another,” Val said.
They searched the dead man’s clothes for any ID. “This is Harington,” she said, looking at his driver’s license.
“Which means Eric was the one who got away.”
“You killed Bixby this morning. He was Eric’s brother. I warned Jillian that Eric might be coming to learn what happened to him. And Benny’s involved with this whole mess. Emmie, the woman in the house, gave me two more drug houses to check out.”
“Did you already call that in? Martin or Sylvan needs to send another team. For now, we need to return to the resort to make sure Jillian and Rowdy remain safe.”
“I thought we could handle it on our own. But you’re right. We need to take care of this other matter with Benny first.” Val got on her phone and told Sylvan about the “new” phone Howard had to use for the time being so he and Martin would have a number to call if they needed to reach him and would know who was trying to get ahold of them if he called them. Then she told Sylvan about the two other drug houses.
“I’ve already been working with Martin to see if we can get another team there right away. Our intel on this was bad. We’ll let you know as soon as we have the names of the agents who’ll be joining you.”
“Thanks, sir.”
“Just keep me informed on your end.”
“Will do.”
She and Howard avoided going near where he had killed the other man, in case the police were looking into the murder by now.
“We need to eat. We haven’t had breakfast, and it’s way past lunchtime,” Val said.
Howard took hold of her hand. “All right. We’ll head to one of the hole-in-the-wall fast-food cafés to grab some tacos or whatever you’re feeling like somewhere along the way. We can get the food to go that way, no long waiting time in a restaurant.”
“Sounds good, and I need to pack up my parents’ things at the rental house. We also need to return their rental car to the airport when we can.”
“We’ll take care of those errands. Hopefully, we won’t run into any trouble at their rental house.”
She had considered that some of Eric’s men might be there lying in wait. She sure hoped not.