Jaguar Hunt Read online

  He fought smiling at her and said, “I used to be just like them.”

  Chapter 4

  Tammy knew David Patterson was trouble. If he had caused problems growing up, he clearly hadn’t changed at all—if picking him up from jail wasn’t enough of a hint. And where would that lead when she had to work with him on the mission?

  Yet sticking his neck out for the boys was commendable, and she admired David for it. He could have been badly injured. She was glad she’d ended her relationship with Joe Storm, knowing all about the time he’d spent as a boxer, which meant he could really injure a guy who wasn’t prepared for the punishment Joe could dish out. She was thankful David had decked him first and hadn’t gotten himself killed instead.

  She reminded herself that David had helped her cousins in Belize during their last mission. With hunters going after exotic cats and Maya, Connor, and his wife getting caught up in it, David and his brother, Wade, had been invaluable in keeping them safe. She couldn’t have been more grateful for the brothers’ help at great risk to themselves.

  She took another deep breath, letting his scent fill her with a warm, tingly feeling. Some men’s scents were a total turnoff. David’s was provocative, very male, and interested. It made her almost forget she wasn’t into that kind of guy.

  He pulled down a couple of blankets and pillows from the overhead bin. He handed her one of each, his expression curious—as if he was trying to read her. Their hands brushed, the gesture not meant to be intimate, yet to her, it felt that way. His eyes and mouth reflected a hint of both intrigue and amusement.

  “Thanks,” she said, and he took her empty cup so she could close up her seatback tray.

  He was being such a gentleman, sweet with a hint of sexy playfulness. He leaned his seat back, and she did likewise with hers.

  She was always driven on an assignment and wanted closure on the missing zoo cat now, particularly when a life was at stake—in this case, a jaguar’s. But she did want to help the boys, too, and ensure they were taken in hand and given proper guidance so they wouldn’t end up in jail in the future. Even though David’s time with the Service hadn’t completely helped him in that regard.

  She wished she could have some fun on this trip. Where that notion came from, she was at a loss to say. Her work ethic—work first, play afterward—had been drummed into her since she was a small child. They had a job to do, and playing wasn’t part of the mission.

  “Thanks for getting me released from jail,” he finally said to Tammy and handed their empty water cups to the airline hostess as she hurried by with the trash bag. “I sort of missed getting a ride with you, though.”

  Tammy assumed he was fishing for the reason she had left him behind. She pulled the blanket over her lap. “I figured you and Quinn needed more time to talk. I had to get home in a hurry and pack if I was to make the flight.”

  “I knew you hadn’t tried to shake me.”

  She smiled a little. That had been her intention, even though she’d guessed she wouldn’t have any success at it—not when he was headed to Belize on the same plane. “Just so you know—this is strictly a job for me, and the first chance I have to solve the mission, I’m doing it.”

  “Absolutely.”

  After leaving him behind, she liked the way he’d acted toward her with only good grace and humor. Not to mention the sexy comeback when he was working her bag into the overhead bin, and rubbing against her just to say he was sticking close to her. Then the thought popped in her mind about his bail having been paid.

  “I thought your boss would have settled your fine to get you out of jail, but someone beat him to it. Was it a girlfriend?”

  David smiled at her.

  She didn’t want David to act like he was interested in her if he had a sweetheart at home. Her previous shifter boyfriend’s unfaithfulness had made her wary of getting back into the dating game right away.

  She shrugged. “The donor was anonymous.”

  “Hmm. I would think Martin would have used JAG funds to pay it since my involvement was all in the line of duty. If my brother had known, he would have paid the fine and been reimbursed afterward, but I doubt our boss told him. Anonymous, eh? Secret admirer?”

  She noted that he didn’t say whether he was seeing someone or not. Though, if he were, there was no reason for the woman to bail him out anonymously.

  “We should do some exploring when we finally get to Belize,” he continued.

  “Absolutely. We can stretch our cat legs a bit. For now, we may want to get some sleep on the flight.”

  He settled against the seat. “Sounds good to me.”

  She liked the idea of running as a cat in the jungle to get some exercise after all the sitting they would be doing on the plane and the bus trip to their destination.

  David snuggled against his pillow, patted the armrest, and said, “We can pull this up and you can lean against me if you’d like to get more comfortable.”

  “That’s okay. I can sleep against the window.” She imagined he didn’t normally offer his fellow agents his shoulder to sleep on. Or his… lap. Unless this was par for the course for him when it came to working with female agents.

  He waited for her to say something more, probably because she had fought smiling and had lost. She didn’t know him and shouldn’t ask, normally wouldn’t, but something about him made her want to play with him a little. Like a cat with a catnip-filled toy. “Do you propose that to all your partners?” she asked.

  He chuckled, the sound dark and sexy, as if he was reading more into the situation than she intended and he was game, not just strictly amused. “I’ve worked with five over the years. Taken several plane trips with them. And no, not once have I offered.”

  “Thanks. I’ll be fine.” She set her pillow next to the window and rested her head against it.

  “If you change your mind, the offer still stands.” He closed his eyes.

  A couple of locks of dark silky hair hung over his forehead. He looked angelic in a rough-hewn way. Knowing he wasn’t angelic in the least made him all the more appealing. And that should warn her to take care.

  ***

  After the plane trip and the long drive in the rental car from the airport in Belize City—better than if they had to rely strictly on bus transportation—David and Tammy finally arrived at their jungle resort. Their small cabana sat on short, wooden legs to keep it off the ground, the surrounding rainforest encroaching on the wooden wraparound porch. One wooden chair sat at a corner of the railing, and two green and blue hammocks hung from the thatched roof overhead. The building’s wooden walls were well-weathered, as if this particular cabana were one of the first units the resort had offered to guests. Still, it was way better than tenting in the jungle.

  Tammy rolled her regulation black bag through the small living room, past the couch and single chair, both upholstered in plain white fabric. A glass-topped table sat in between them, and a couple of potted plants were placed near the windows, bringing the jungle look inside. The cabana smelled of humans. No shifters had stayed here recently. The only “air-conditioning” appeared to be a circulating fan overhead.

  While David claimed the first bedroom and unzipped his bag, Tammy headed down the narrow hall to the other bedroom and found a queen-sized bed topped with a mesh canopy to keep the bugs out—much to her liking. An orange hibiscus-patterned bedspread added to the tropical feel. The bedroom was also equipped with a ceiling fan, but she didn’t think it would cool things off that well midday.

  After dumping her backpack on a dresser, she laid her bag on a luggage stand, intending to unpack before they grabbed a bite to eat and explored their options. She unzipped the top of the bag and opened it. A box of XXL condoms sat square in the middle of a pair of black briefs. Momentarily stunned, she stared at them. Until she realized she must have David’s bag and not her own.

&nbs
p; XXL?

  She tried to recall how big his feet were and mentally shook her head at herself. The size of a man’s feet, nose, or Adam’s apple were not indicators of how well hung he was. Although an Asian study had found some correlation to the size of his index finger…

  She grabbed the bag and headed out of the room.

  What did he think? He was going to get lucky with the natives?

  He better not think he was going to get lucky with her.

  She stalked into his bedroom to exchange luggage with him before he discovered what was in her bag. And found him holding up her lace and silk red-hot panties, a smile on his smug face as he admired them. Her cheeks flushed with heat.

  “Wrong bag.” She tossed his on his bunk bed, the box of condoms half falling out of it. She jerked her panties out of his hands, shoved them into her bag, and took off with it.

  She would have laughed when she saw the twin-sized bunk beds in his room if she hadn’t been so embarrassed that he was manhandling her panties. She loved wearing sexy things, even if she had no intention of showing them off to anyone else. Certainly not to a male partner teamed up with her on a mission.

  She had to admit that ditching her other partners—who had been Enforcers like her—had been easy. Maybe they had wanted her to lose them while she did all the work on the investigations. David was another story. The situation had changed so drastically—with them now here in the rainforest instead of back home in Texas—that she wasn’t certain she did want to do this on her own. The case wasn’t supposed to be dangerous, but a trip to the jungle could change that scenario in a heartbeat.

  She was still neatly folding her clothes and placing them in a chest of drawers when David knocked on her doorjamb, frowned, and said, “You don’t have bunk beds in here? Wanna switch rooms?”

  “No, thanks.” She slammed the dresser drawer closed, fighting a smile.

  He eyed the bed further and shook his head, muttering under his breath, “I should have checked the bed situation out first.”

  “You mean, you wouldn’t have been a gentleman and let me have the big bed?” she asked, loving that she could put him on the spot.

  He gave her a quick, heart-thumping smile. “I would have shared it with you.” He paused, watching her, letting that sink in. She wasn’t going for it. He sighed. “Ready for dinner? The dining hall closes soon, and there’s no other place to grab a bite unless you want to hunt for it later tonight.”

  “The dining hall sounds good to me.” She didn’t mind hunting when she had no other choice. She was wild—used to handling herself as a jaguar in the jungle—but given the option, she preferred eating at a more civilized dining facility.

  She peeked into the bathroom on the way down the hall and frowned. “Toilet, sink. Where’s the bathtub or shower?”

  “Outdoor warm-water showers,” David said, looking like he was fighting a smile. “Sorry, our bosses didn’t splurge on this mission.”

  She didn’t think David was sorry at all. “Your boss got you a first-class seat on the plane.”

  “Yeah, because the rest of the seats were filled.”

  “Great.” She hoped they’d find the missing teens soon and be out of here before she had to take too many outdoor showers. In this hot, muggy weather, they’d need them.

  They left the cabana and headed on the stone walkway to the dining hall, hidden by vegetation as if they were taking a Sunday stroll through the jungle.

  “So where are the kids?” she asked.

  “From what my boss has gathered, they signed up to do a bunch of the activities near here.”

  “To be here by themselves, they must be wild too.”

  “You’re right. From what Martin says, they’ve been coming to Belize with their parents for years. Their parents are general surgeons, so they have the money. The last two years, the boys came down here without their parents.”

  “Since they were fifteen? Wow.” She couldn’t imagine. She’d come here with her parents until she was nineteen, and on assignment with the Service after that.

  David didn’t make any comment, and Tammy wondered if he had been that age when he was running around in the jungle by himself. But he’d probably been with his brother, like these boys were together.

  “If Alex and Nate were worried that someone was coming after them because they knew about the missing jaguar, they might have felt safer down here,” David said.

  “Except that your boss knows where they plan to be. So couldn’t anyone figure that out?”

  “Possibly. We don’t know enough about what’s going on with the brothers,” David said.

  Tammy pondered this as they walked together to the resort’s dining hall. Ribbons of pink and orange sky turned darker as the night drew down upon them. Beautiful. Parrots talked away to each other, their vibrant plumage of blues and greens standing out against every shade of green foliage imaginable as monkeys called out somewhere in the canopy. Oil lanterns lighted the pathways, though the jaguar shifters didn’t need the extra light to see well. The sweet fragrance of orchids wafted through the air, and Tammy felt like she was walking through an exotic garden with a much too hot and sexy shifter.

  “So what ‘activities’ are the boys signed up for exactly?” Tammy asked, bringing her mind back to the mission from the romantic surroundings.

  “Zip-lining through the canopy will be first thing tomorrow morning,” David said.

  She glanced at him. “Okay, not to sound dumb, but what is zip-lining, exactly?”

  “It’s high-flying excitement when you harness up and whip through the canopy of the rainforest.”

  She frowned at him.

  “Technically, a pulley is connected to a cable strung through the trees. A person is harnessed to the pulley at the top of the cable, and then gravity zips him along the cable to reach a lower point. It’s fun. We’ll go on the excursion in an attempt to catch up with them.”

  “You actually want to go zip-lining?” she asked, not liking where that scenario was headed. At first, she thought they’d just catch the boys when they got to the end of the line. But now she wondered if David meant they were also going to make the trip through the canopy.

  “You’re not afraid of heights, are you?”

  “Of course not. But someone should be on the ground to grab these guys when they get off the platform, right?” She wasn’t about to share her fear of heights with him. Not even her brothers knew that about her. “So if you follow them on the zip line, I can meet them when they reach their final destination.”

  “Shall we toss for it?”

  “No,” she said a little too abruptly. “I’ll meet the teens on the ground when they have finished their ride.”

  “I don’t think that will work. I’ll have a better chance grabbing them than you will.”

  “You said that they’d be more willing to speak to me. I didn’t know we had to physically arrest them,” she said, eyeing him with suspicion.

  “If they won’t cooperate… Besides, if I’m not with you, they might be more willing to talk to you before you get on the zip line. If that doesn’t work, I’ll be waiting on the other end. Once they can’t run away, you can convince them to tell us about the jaguar. I suspect they’re afraid they’re going to be in trouble concerning the cat. So we’ll just have to ensure they know they won’t be. As long as the cat is safe and we can retrieve her.”

  What he said about her appearing to be less of a threat to the boys when they had difficulty with male authority figures and meeting them alone made sense. Still, envisioning the kids bound to chairs, she frowned at David. “So how are you going to grab them?”

  “Do you always plan your moves to the very last detail?” David asked.

  “Do you always wing it?” she asked as he opened the door to the dining room for her.

  “Some of those turn out
to be my best moves.”

  “In other words, you don’t have a real plan in mind.”

  David only chuckled.

  ***

  Partly hidden by giant ferns, banana trees, palms, and a cypress, the large dining room was lit by numerous candles and lanterns, offering a certain ambience that could be considered romantic if this had been a romantic liaison and not strictly a mission. Chatter filled the place, coming from tourists of every shape and size sitting at seven long tables. David sat with Tammy at one that was half empty. The stone tile floors, thatched roof, large ceiling fans, and windows with only screens made him feel as if he was eating outdoors as the rainforest surrounded them with its fragrant smells and unique jungle sounds.

  They both ordered the shrimp creole on coconut rice, while David had beer and Tammy, a pineapple rum drink. He quickly ate his meal and shoved the plate aside. “I don’t know how long we’re going to be here, but if you want, I can pay to upgrade our accommodations.”

  “Oh?” She sipped from her tall, cool drink, her strawberry curls framing her face, and he thought how pretty she was—with no resemblance to her brothers. David had to thank Martin for giving him this assignment.

  He noticed she was studying his bare fingers, which he thought was odd. Most cats didn’t wear jewelry, even wedding rings. Too much of a problem if they had to shift quickly. For one thing, they wouldn’t want to lose their expensive rings or watches if they left them behind after shifting. No cat would have piercings or tattoos, either. If the shifter was caught by humans, how would someone explain a jaguar with a tattoo or a belly button ring?

  “Not married,” he finally said, amused.

  She glanced up from eyeing his fingers to meet his gaze. “What?”

  He held up his hand. “No ring. No tanned area around a white band on the skin to indicate I’ve been wearing one, either.”

  Her mouth curved up a bit, but she didn’t appease his curiosity.