Rowdy rode with Vaughn and Jillian in his rental car while Howard and Val led the way. They knew Belize, while the other three had never been there before.
“Either Rowdy’s afraid of me, or he figures we’re courting and he’s giving us some space,” Howard said, hoping it was the latter reason.
“He’s not afraid of you.”
“Then he assumes we’re courting.” Howard was so ready to spend time alone with Val, realizing how much of a workaholic he normally was and how much Val had changed his feelings about that. He wanted to make time for her. For them. Uninterrupted time. Fun time.
“My dad would have to approve.”
Howard glanced at her, not sure if she was joking or not. “Are you serious? I wouldn’t think you’d let him decide something like that for you.”
She let out a heavy sigh. “Let’s just say I have all the luck when it comes to dating the wrong guys.”
“But you ought to know I’m right for you.” He was certain they were meant to be together. If she had any doubts, he wanted to get rid of them right away.
“Yeah, see, as soon as I begin thinking that way, I find myself in trouble.”
“Such as?” Howard asked, concerned. Here he thought everything was going fine between them.
“If I bare my soul to you about past relationships, are you going to do the same with me?”
He hesitated to answer.
She laughed.
“It’s not that I have anything to hide, but you’d probably find my dating life rather boring.” He’d dated a lot, but usually not more than a single date with each woman. He’d always thought that being such a workaholic was what worked against him. He’d be out on a date, get bored, and start thinking about his next case.
“Okay, well, I’ll be the judge of that,” Val said. “I don’t date bad boys. Ever.”
“That’s good to know. I don’t date bad girls either.”
She laughed, sounding tickled by his response. “One of the guys I dated was way too much like my dad—overbearing and in charge of everything. Dates, what we did with our spare time. Just everything.”
“Sounds like a cat I dated. Then there was the one who had set routines for everything in her life. She wouldn’t change them for anything. I like some routine in my life, but if something comes up that I want to do, the routine goes out the window.”
“I do like a cup of coffee first thing before I start my day, but you know with the kind of work we’re in, every day can be so different.”
“Yep. Which is the way I like it. No regular nine-to-five job.” Which could be a real problem with a relationship. His mate never knowing when he’d return home. Missed meals. Missed weeks. Like him being here for now.
“Same with me with loving a varied schedule like this. Okay, so then there was this one guy I went out with who didn’t like me to beat him at anything. I thought maybe he just didn’t like to lose, no matter who he played with. Nope. He didn’t like it that I beat him.”
“Because you’re a woman.”
“Exactly.”
“I’m surprised he’d play any games with you.”
“He kept trying to beat me. Table tennis was the worst. I know how to put a perfect spin on the ball so it flies across the net at a different angle every time, and he could never return it. Dad and I used to play all the time. I could never beat him, but it never stopped me from trying. The first time I won against the ex-boyfriend, he thought it was a fluke. After three more games, he practically slammed his paddle on the table in anger.”
“Poor sport.”
“What about you?”
“At table tennis? I always win.” Howard smiled at her.
She smiled back. “I mean when you lose. What kind of a sport are you?”
“Good. I never lose.”
Val laughed. “Next time we have a chance, I’m beating you.”
Howard chuckled. That was part of why he really liked her. She had the drive and determination to do whatever she set her mind on doing. Just like he did. “What chance do you think I’ll have at convincing your dad that I’m good for you?” He’d like her father to approve of him, so he would do anything to help that along.
“You’ve already blown it.”
Howard paused, a little surprised. How the hell had he already screwed that up? “Oh?”
“Yeah. You were supposed to be protecting me on the mission, but instead, you were trying to chase down Eric and the other man in the rain forest.”
Howard wouldn’t have done anything differently. He’d had to discover the location of her parents in case he and Val could still save their lives. “Yeah, I chased after Eric and the other guy. To learn what had become of your parents. We didn’t know that the woman we had taken into custody knew they were across the street.”
“Yeah, you know, afterward, I realized I should have called my boss to learn where they might be. Then again, if Eric had killed them, he could have already moved them somewhere else. As to my dad, he still would have preferred for you to stay with me to protect me. That was your duty.”
“How do you feel about it?” That’s all that really mattered to Howard. He’d thought she would have been glad he had tried to learn what had happened to her parents.
“You needed to go after the bad guys. That was a given. Dad might not see it that way, but I sure do.”
Howard took a relieved breath. He hadn’t realized how important it was to him for Val to see him in a good light.
“Okay, we’re nearly there. The first drug house is on the left, four houses down.”
“White stucco house, four vehicles out front,” he said.
Sounding concerned, Val asked, “Do you recognize any of them as being the ones out in front of Eric’s place?”
Howard had a sickening feeling. “That blue pickup inside the carport. Isn’t that the truck Emmie drove off in to get out of here?”
“Yeah, same license plate too.”
Howard reached over the console and squeezed Val’s hand. “You couldn’t have done anything for her but tell her to leave.”
“Right. But what if she went back to him? Either because he forced her to or he convinced her to return to him?”
Howard couldn’t understand why some people did the things they did. “Or she wanted to return to him on her own. If she had any sense, she would have gotten far away from him, but people fall for criminals all the time, so we can’t discard that possibility.” He was past ready to complete this mission. “Ready for some action?”
“Yeah. The others are right behind us. Let’s do this.”
As soon as Howard and Val were out of the car, Vaughn and Jillian hopped out and headed their way.
His blood pumping hard, Howard knocked at the door while everyone else took up positions that would afford them protection from the windows if anyone started shooting.
No one answered the door, but there was a lot of movement inside.
Howard smelled Benny’s and Eric’s scents. He also detected scents for the men he’d terminated and four more male jaguars. Damn it. And he smelled Emmie’s scent. Was this a rescue mission now? Or was she just as guilty as the rest of them?
Val mouthed, Emmie.
Howard nodded, though her scent didn’t mean she was here. She might have escaped the men and they had found Eric’s truck. Or she might not have gotten away and was no longer alive. He and Val would treat it as though she was alive and being held hostage. Just in case.
Val indicated she was going around back. Vaughn went around the north side of the house with Rowdy while Jillian followed Val. Howard waited where he was until everyone was in place.
Gun out, he tried the doorknob. The door opened, making him wary of an ambush. He shoved the door aside but jumped back to keep out of anyone’s line of sight. He suspected whoever was inside wouldn’t shoot. Not when neighbors might call the cops. At least once the police verified Howard and his team were here looking to take care of the bad guys, they would be fine, though they’d have to explain why Rowdy was with them. Thankfully, the jaguar branches provided a big donation to the Belizean government annually, and they believed the jaguar policing force was a special, secretive unit of the FBI. The jaguar agents had helped them round up human criminals involved in the trafficking or killing of the big cats or any other human criminal activity they ran across while in Belize. In this case, the shifters still couldn’t take these men into custody.
Suddenly, there was a skirmish at the back of the house, and Howard moved inside quickly. A worn couch sat in the middle of the living room, three chairs on either side of it, with dingy curtains hanging from the windows. He moved toward the kitchen and saw dirty dishes stacked in the sink and beer cans littering the kitchen counters and coffee table in the living room. The place smelled of beer, dust, spoiling food, and jaguars. He couldn’t see how shifters could live in such squalor and not be bothered by the odor.
He headed for the bedrooms, the doors closed to both of them, and came to the first one. He twisted the knob and pushed the door open, moving behind the wall in case someone took a potshot at him. Then he got a glimpse of the bed and saw Emmie tied to it. She was wild-eyed and gagged, her head twisting toward the closet, warning him someone was hiding in there. Howard moved quickly into the bedroom, careful not to make any noise, though he was sure whoever was hiding in there would hear him moving toward the door.
Then he heard someone coming down the hall. Afraid he was going to have a fight on two fronts, he slammed his boot into the closet door, splintering it. A jaguar leaped out at him.
That Howard hadn’t expected, thinking the guy would be armed with a gun instead. Before he could get a shot off, the jaguar pounced on him and knocked him to the floor. Having lost his gun, Howard grabbed the jaguar’s neck. He was trying to hold on to the jaguar so he couldn’t bite him with his deadly jaws. Furious with himself for not being better prepared, Howard struggled to keep the jaguar from killing him, but he couldn’t hold him off for long. Already, his biceps were straining with the effort.
Rowdy suddenly ran into the room and fired a couple of shots at the jaguar. Hell, Rowdy!
Howard knew the jaguar would devour Rowdy alive as soon as he released Howard, so Rowdy could forget about getting bitten and turned. The jaguar twisted around to pounce on Rowdy, who bolted out the door and slammed it shut in the jaguar’s face. Trying to get to Rowdy, the jaguar ran into the door with a thud.
Freed from the jaguar, Howard stripped out of his clothes the fastest he’d ever done, intent on saving Rowdy’s life and his own. Howard gave Rowdy credit for coming to his rescue and shooting the jaguar while giving Howard the time needed to strip and shift. He just hoped no one would alert the police. What a fiasco that would be. He could see the headlines now: Jaguars and Wolves Fighting at Drug House in Belize!
Howard shifted and tore into the jaguar with snarls and growls of his own—deadly, dangerous, determined to kill the jaguar quickly, his teeth sinking into the jaguar’s shoulder instead of his throat like he’d intended. The jaguar was wearing two nonfatal bullet holes, the areas bloodied. He lunged to tackle the new threat. The very real danger.
Howard couldn’t kill the jaguar easily, not as big as he was. Or aggressive.
He dug his fishhook claws into the sides of the cat to hold on as he tried to bite him in the head. The jaguar did likewise, his claws digging into Howard’s flesh, his teeth clashing with Howard’s.
Howard’s teeth collided so hard with the other jaguar’s that he heard a crack as he broke off one of the cat’s teeth.
Rowdy opened the bedroom door and was about to shoot the jaguar again. As the big cat turned to look at him, Howard slammed his paw against the jaguar’s head. The jaguar collapsed on the floor and expired on the spot. The rogue quickly resumed his human form, showing he wasn’t Benny or Eric.
Leaving the room, Howard prowled through the house as a jaguar, determined to learn if the others needed his help. He was grateful Rowdy had come to his aid but worried about him too, both that he might alert the police by firing his weapon and by the real risk of him being torn to shreds.
Rowdy hurried to free Emmie, but they still had to eliminate the rest of the bastards and make sure the place was safe for her. Howard shifted at the second bedroom door, threw it open, and shifted again, much preferring his jaguar form if he was going to run into another shifter wearing his jaguar coat. He couldn’t believe the other guy had blindsided him like that.
Howard heard a wolf howl. He didn’t see anyone in this bedroom and raced out to join the others. A high fence and thick vegetation kept any neighbors from seeing what was going on, thankfully. Jillian was lying on her side, panting, and Howard saw red. He leaped from the back patio to where a jaguar was fighting Val. It appeared Vaughn and Jillian had tried tackling the other jaguar, but the wolves were no match for the big cats. Howard tore into the jaguar Vaughn was fighting, wishing to hell he could help out Val. She was much better equipped to fight the big male cat than Vaughn was, but the male jaguar she was battling would wear her down. Vaughn immediately went to her aid while Howard fought the other male jaguar. Emmie, as a jaguar, and Rowdy came running out to help them.
With Emmie and Howard both ganging up on the bigger jaguar, Howard was able to get in some hefty bites. The guy thought he could pick on wolves, much easier prey, but now he really had to fight for his life. As soon as Howard killed him, he leaped toward the jaguar Val and Vaughn were fighting. Emmie quickly joined them.
Rowdy carried Jillian into the house. With Val, Vaughn, Emmie, and Howard all helping, they quickly killed the remaining jaguar. Howard prayed Jillian wasn’t too badly injured.
Vaughn and Howard shifted and carried the man they’d just killed into the house. They would do the same with the other while Val ran to the side yard. Howard didn’t like seeing her disappear from their view by herself. Then Emmie joined her, and he was glad she was helping to watch Val’s back.
Howard assumed Val was shifting and getting dressed. Sure enough, when he and Rowdy headed back outside to collect the other dead man’s body, Val was dressed and carrying their weapons, cell phones, and Jillian’s clothes into the house with Emmie at her side. Val set the clothes and other items on the floor and left again, Emmie running beside her as her jaguar protector. He suspected Val was going for Vaughn’s clothes on the other side of the house.
Once he and Rowdy had dumped the second body with the others in the spare bedroom, Howard went to help Vaughn with Jillian.
“I’ll get the first aid kits,” Val said to the group and hurried out the front door to their vehicle.
Rowdy went with her while Emmie returned to the bedroom to shift and dress.
Vaughn was cradling Jillian on his lap so she wouldn’t have to lie on the filthy floor. He knew they needed to bandage her wounds and find out what other injuries she had before they moved her.
Val returned with the first aid kit and began to clean and bandage Jillian’s wounds while Howard hurried to dress.
“The jaguar struck with his paw and knocked Jillian out. I was afraid he’d murdered her,” Vaughn said. “I could have killed him, I was so angry, despite the fighting inequities between our species.”
Howard hadn’t seen Vaughn fight that fiercely before, but he understood why. Vaughn had to kill the rogue jaguar before he reached Jillian and finished her off.
“If you hadn’t worn him out, Emmie and I would have had a rougher time of it. When I heard you howl, I knew you were in trouble.” That had surprised the hell out of Howard, and he knew Vaughn would never have done so if he hadn’t been losing the battle.
“I was afraid someone had killed you in the house when Rowdy left me to go to your aid,” Vaughn said.
“Hell, I assumed the jaguar had attacked you when you were still human, from all the snarling I heard. I was certain it wasn’t you doing any of the growling,” Rowdy said. “I hadn’t wanted to leave the others in a bind, but I figured if we didn’t have your help out back, we weren’t going to win against those two jaguars either.”
“I was glad to see you, but I believed you were going to get yourself killed. I was surprised the jaguar didn’t break down the door, he hit it so hard,” Howard said.
“I won’t lie. I was certain I was facing imminent death.” Rowdy shook his head. “I know you didn’t want any gunfire, but I reckoned you’d be dead if I didn’t do something.”
“Yeah, but that means we really need to get out of here,” Val said.
Jillian groaned and looked up at everyone, her eyes half-lidded. “We won, didn’t we?”
They all chuckled. “Hell yeah, honey,” Vaughn said, kissing her cheek.
Once Val was finished bandaging Jillian’s wounds, she and Vaughn helped Jillian to dress. Then Val turned to Vaughn. “You’re next.”
He had been torn up pretty badly too, but he was either too macho or too worried about Jillian to notice. Val took care of his wounds and then he dressed.
“I swear…the next time, I’m just shooting them. No more trying to take them on in my fur coat,” Jillian said.
“I agree with you there,” Vaughn said. “We need something to even the odds against a rogue jaguar.”
* * *
Val wondered just how viable a united shifter force was when the wolves couldn’t fight the jaguars. But she knew they all needed a force like this to deal with mixed groups of shifters or lone wolves that were creating issues. Packs took care of their own, but they didn’t have a policing force that would do that kind of work.
She realized that before they got into any more fights, they needed more supplies.
“We’ve got a first aid kit in our car,” Jillian said, still not making a move to get up.
Val hoped the wolf hadn’t suffered any internal injuries. “I’ll get it.”
Emmie came out of the bathroom, tears trailing down her cheeks, and Val was glad to see she was alive. Bruised, beaten, but alive.
“I didn’t get away,” Emmie said, sobbing. “I’m so sorry they did this to you.”
“I’m afraid it comes with the kind of work we have to do. We’ll have to get you out of here. I wish the Sorensons could have taken you with them,” Val said.
Emmie wiped away her tears. “I thought I could do it on my own. Thanks for believing in me and not turning me over to your people.”
“I’ll put in a good word for you, if it comes to that.” Val hurried outside to get the other first aid kit. Howard quickly followed her.
“How are you doing?” Howard asked.
“I think I’m going to be sore tonight, just like everyone else. The shifters wanted to take us on as shifters, maybe guessing the wolves couldn’t hurt them, nor could a female jaguar. If we’d had silencers, we could have shot them all. I was afraid to start shooting everyone and have to face a police inquisition. It’s one thing for us to turn these guys over to the police, quite another to start a shooting war.”
“I’m surprised they didn’t just run off.”
“They couldn’t. The fence was electrified. I was disappointed Benny and Eric weren’t here,” Val said.
“The other drug house then?”
Val and Howard walked back into the house. “Maybe.”
She took care of some of his wounds, and he bandaged up hers.
“After what happened to Jillian, we need to regroup and head back to the resort,” Howard said.
“I agree,” Vaughn said.
Jillian nodded.
Howard turned to Rowdy. “Thanks, man, for saving my ass.”
He smiled, but Howard noticed he looked a bit flushed.
“I guess you’re one of us, even if you don’t have the credentials. Or the shifter powers,” Howard said. “Are…you okay, Rowdy?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Everyone studied him. Val placed her hand on his forehead. “You’re burning up.”
“I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night.”
“What about them?” Emmie asked, motioning to the dead men in the bedroom where she’d been tied up.
“Either the police will find their rotting corpses and investigate how wolves and jaguars had killed them, or the other rogue jaguars will bury the bodies. No one’s going to be able to figure it out,” Howard said, glancing back at Rowdy’s flushed face. “Good thing this was a team effort. Totally confuses the issue. Let’s get out of here before anyone comes to investigate the shots fired.”
Val had to agree with Howard there. She also thought the world of Howard for saying what he did. She knew he really liked working with Vaughn and Jillian and wondered if he’d lose them as partners if the USF believed the wolves couldn’t do the job they were there for.
“Did you overhear anything that could help us take these men down?” Val asked Emmie.
“They were careful not to talk about their plans in front of me. Well, most of them, anyway. The new guys you killed? I hadn’t seen them before, so I hadn’t known about them.”
“I’m surprised Eric didn’t kill you for running off, thinking you could be a traitor,” Val said.
“I think Eric planned to use me as bait to draw you out. Which was the reason I had run. I did overhear him bragging to the other men that two jaguars couldn’t take them down, and they’d deal with them soon enough. He said the rest of the shifters would be easy kills. Despite his bravado, he called in reinforcements.”
“So he didn’t say anything else that could help us?”
“He did get into a fight with Benny. Said if it hadn’t been for him turning and killing his wife, they wouldn’t have had to deal with all this. Benny reminded him your parents were in Belize already, and that had nothing to do with him.”
“Sounds like they’re having some issues among themselves. Good,” Howard said as they quickly moved to the cars, Vaughn carrying Jillian.
“How did you know to come here? Did you already go to the other drug house?” Emmie asked.
“We chose this one first. We’re glad we did so we could rescue you. If we’d hit the wrong house, they might have warned Eric, and he might have realized you gave us the intel on their drug houses.” Val pulled out her phone.
Normally, she would have called their situation in to her boss right away. She would have maintained a purely objective stance concerning what had gone down. She couldn’t this time. For the first time since she’d had a partner, she felt the shifters working to bring the bad guys to justice had to come before the mission, and she was afraid her boss would change the game plan.
“Are you all right to drive?” Howard asked Vaughn.
She thought Vaughn would take offense, as if Howard was implying the wolf wasn’t as strong as the jaguars.
“Hell yeah. Are you?” Vaughn arched a brow at him.
Howard gave him a cocky smile, and Val realized that was part of the way they joked with each other, reducing some of the tension after a high-conflict situation. At the same time, she suspected Howard really wanted to ensure Vaughn was all right to drive.
“I can drive, if anyone needs me to,” Emmie said. “I wasn’t injured like the rest of you.”
“Not in the fight, but you look like they beat you,” Val said, furious with the bastards.
“Yeah, Eric didn’t like that I had run off. I told him I’d escaped you, and I was trying to leave so you wouldn’t catch up to me.”
“I’m so sorry, Emmie.”
“We’re good as far as the driving goes, Emmie,” Howard said. “Thanks for the offer. Rowdy, are you okay riding with Vaughn and Jillian again?”
“Yeah. Jillian can stretch out in the back this time. I’ll watch over her since Vaughn won’t give up the wheel. I think he believes I can’t drive as well as he can.”
Howard chuckled. “Emmie, why don’t you come with us then.”
“Let me grab my bag. They threw it in a closet.” She rushed to get it and rejoined them.
Val just hoped they wouldn’t have any further trouble before they could get Emmie safely away.