by Terry Spear
“But with a jaguar walking with us to the car, I suspect no one will want to get near us to even ask any questions. They’ll make up their own stories about what happened.”
“More jaguar god stories.”
Maya snorted. “Jaguar goddess. Kat’s the one who’s shifted, after all.”
Kat rubbed at Maya’s hand to get her attention. Maya laughed. “I think we’re all in agreement. Right, Kat?”
Kat nodded, then lay down on the floor.
“An hour,” Connor said. “I sure hope she doesn’t shift right when we’re trying to get her into the car.”
For an hour, Maya and Kat rested on the bed while Connor watched out the window. Maya had offered three times to be the lookout, but her brother was too wired.
Kat didn’t seem to be turning back into her human form anytime soon. They had plenty of time to arrive in Bogotá, hours before their midnight flight to Houston. Which meant Kat had hours before she had to shift. The plan could work. And if she stayed as a cat for longer, maybe she wouldn’t have the urge to shift on the five-hour flight home.
Kat’s stomach rumbled. Maya patted her head. “I’m hungry, too. As soon as we can, we’ll get some breakfast.”
“Police are back,” Connor said, but his tone of voice was warning. “Hell, they’re looking this way.”
Kat jumped off the bed.
Maya climbed off with her and rubbed her hand between Kat’s ears.
“One’s headed this way,” Connor said.
Kat remained frozen next to the bed like a beautiful jaguar statue.
“What will we do, Connor?” Maya asked, her voice rushed.
“Kat, hide in the bathroom. If we have to, Maya, you can run the shower for her and pretend she’s washing up.”
“All right.”
“But don’t turn on the water unless the policeman acts as though he’s coming inside the place.”
“All right.”
When Maya led the way, Kat balked about going to the bathroom. Maya wondered if it was because Kat was getting ready to shift like she had done before when she had stood in front of the steps to their hut, then suddenly shifted into her human form.
“If you’re going to shift, we really need for you to go into the bathroom first,” Maya said, half pleading.
Connor studied her. “Kat?”
She moved toward him.
“Are you all right?” He crossed the floor to her and crouched, giving her a warm embrace. She licked his cheek and looked back at the door. “You don’t want to meet with the policeman, do you?” he asked incredulously.
Her sage-green eyes looked at him.
“I’m not sure this is the best thing to—” Pounding on the door made him stop speaking midsentence.
Maya motioned to Kat and urgently whispered, “Come.”
But she swore Kat smiled at her, then nudged Connor’s hand and leg, and walked to the door.
“All right,” Connor said. “I’m not sure this will work, but here goes.”
Maya held her breath. Should she shift also?
***
Kat took a deep breath and stood behind Connor as he opened the door. She liked Maya’s idea of leaving while Kat was a cat. She didn’t think she was going to change back to her human self anytime soon, and she was starving. They might as well get on their way, throw the bad guys off the track, and pick out a new place to stay in Bogotá in a few hours.
She was feeling more confident of her jaguar status. Not that she felt she had any control over it. But she felt strong and invincible. Lots more unbeatable than when she was in her human form without a gun. She did know some martial arts, but against men armed with automatic rifles, she wouldn’t stand a chance.
The policeman stood on the porch while Connor remained in the doorway, blocking the policeman’s view of her. Annoying her.
“A couple of men were looking this morning for a woman who fits the description of your wife. May I speak with her?” the policeman asked, his tone neutral, his spicy cologne wafting through the door.
She could smell a second man behind him.
Kat nudged at Connor’s leg to get him to move so she could meet the nice policemen. Connor refused to budge—protective of her and Maya as usual. She was about ready to poke her nose between his legs, like a pet Labrador retriever used to do to her to get her attention some years ago.
She growled low and would roar next if Connor didn’t move. She wanted to play! She thought she heard Maya softly chuckle from the direction of the bathroom.
“She left late last night,” Connor said. “Her brother picked her up and took her to Santa Marta and the beaches up there. We’re headed that way ourselves as soon as we pack our bags.”
Good. Connor was giving them a location opposite of where they were bound.
The policeman said, “I understand you are newlyweds.” Which said it all. Why would Kat’s brother come to pick her up and drive her hours away when she and Connor were newly married? “Can I have a look around?”
Again, Kat nudged Connor’s leg with her head. She would nip him in the butt next if he didn’t move.
“Sure, officer,” Connor said and stepped out of the way.
The policeman and his buddy took a step toward the entrance, then abruptly stopped, eyes wide, mouths agape, the smell of fear cloaking them as their gazes riveted on the jaguar standing before them.
“She won’t bite,” Connor quickly assured them. “Just go on in and check around the place. My sister dropped by because we were getting ready to leave.”
“Just got your shampoo,” Maya said cheerfully, bringing out his shaving kit. “He always forgets it on trips, and we’re always having to stop to get him a new bottle.” She smiled brightly at the policemen, but they were still staring at Kat.
Kat imagined it would take a hell of a lot of incentive for them to look away from her, like someone began shooting at them or a bomb went off in a building down the street. For now, they didn’t know what to do—back up, quickly say their good-byes, or try to slip by her and be manly men and check out the place like they had said they wanted to do.
“You don’t mind if I get the cat in the vehicle, do you?” Connor asked.
Both policemen quickly moved out of the way, shaking their heads.
No. They didn’t mind. Now, if only the bad guys would have that much respect for her. She glanced around the street where small crowds of two or three villagers stood watching the cottage. The Americans had provided plenty of entertainment when Gonzales’s men had shown up and now with the policemen’s interrogation of Connor. But as soon as Connor walked out of the cottage with Kat, all the chatter instantly died. All eyes grew as wide as tortillas, and every mouth hung agape.
No one ran off screaming into their homes like she halfway expected them to. They stood still like a bunch of statues. Maybe they knew cats liked to chase moving objects.
Connor hurried to the car and opened the back door for Kat. But she didn’t hurry to follow him. She wanted the policemen to know that if they tried to detain Connor or Maya, she would be there for them. And if Gonzales’s men suddenly appeared, that they would have to take her on.
Maya carried her bag out to the vehicle. “Connor, I’ll get her in the car. Can you get your bags? I couldn’t manage all of them.”
One was Kat’s. She was glad Maya hadn’t let it slip that Kat’s bag was still here, if she was to have gone with her brother to Santa Marta.
Connor gave Kat a look like he was hoping she would climb into the car and let him take care of this. She just raised her brows a little but wouldn’t move.
“All right,” he said to her, as if he was saying it to Maya.
Maya threw her bag in the trunk and then scratched Kat’s head between the ears.
Kat purred and rubbed her head against Maya’s leg. She hadn’t thought she would like such a thing, but it felt good. Maya seemed to understand Kat’s need to stay with them until they were in the clear.
The policemen still didn’t move from the porch. Connor entered the cottage and left it posthaste with the two bags in hand. “The place is all yours,” Connor said to the policemen, not waiting for their response as he stalked toward the rental vehicle. He gave Kat a look that said, “The show is over. Get into the car.”
She smiled but wouldn’t budge. Not until he deposited the bags in the trunk and closed it. Then she sauntered over to the open door to the backseat and jumped in. Maya shut the door and climbed into the front passenger seat.
Connor sat in the driver’s seat, pulled his door shut with a hard slam, and let his breath out. “When you growled low, Kat, I thought you were ready to bite me.”
Maya chuckled. “You know she was.”
Kat curled up on the backseat and sighed. Yeah, she had been ready all right. Just a nip to get him to move out of her way.
Then she frowned. Connor had thrown her bag in the trunk. What if she shifted? All her clothes were in the bag.
“Find a drive-through so we can get breakfast burritos, okay?” Maya said. “Kat and I are starving.”
“Sure thing.” Still holding on to the steering wheel, Connor stretched his arms.
“Did the policemen go inside the cottage?” Maya asked.
“Finally, as we were pulling away. I watched out the rearview mirror. They waited until we moved off, then finally went inside. Then they came out just as quickly when they didn’t find any dead bodies or anything,” Connor said.
Maya laughed.
After a few minutes, he stopped at a restaurant, no drive-through, and went inside to get them some food to eat on the road.
Kat stood and watched out the open windows, alert, wary.
Maya smiled. “You’re drawing a crowd.”
But Kat didn’t care about that. She worried that they’d been followed. Then she worried about shifting and having no clothes to slip into. She poked her head over the front seat and nudged Maya’s cheek.
Maya frowned. “What?”
Kat made a disgruntled sound. How could she tell her friend what she needed?
“Do you have to go to the bathroom?”
Kat shook her head.
“All right.”
Before Maya could say another word, Kat nipped Maya’s pale blue shirtsleeve and gave a gentle tug.
Maya opened her mouth, closed it, then turned to look at the restaurant. “The keys. You want your clothes out of the trunk so when you shift you can get dressed, but Connor’s got the keys.” She turned back to observe Kat quickly, her eyes big. “You’re not going to shift, are you?”
Kat shook her head. What a disaster that would be. Shifting in broad daylight as people in the area stared at her. She couldn’t even get on the floor to shift, if she decided she had to, because the room between the front seats and the backseat was too narrow. So she would be standing on the backseat, one second a jaguar, the next, one naked woman.
“Okay. As soon as Connor brings us our food, I’ll have him get your bag. I’ll fish out whatever you want to wear for when you need to shift.”
That would work. On the road, she wouldn’t have any spectators. Kat nodded, then began looking out the window again. She saw groups of kids pointing at her, their mouths curved up and huge brown eyes indicating their awe. Adults, too, were staring at her with mixed expressions of fear and excitement.
What if she jumped out the window? And ate one of them? But the day was already warm and they had to leave the car windows open while Connor bought the food. She sighed and glanced around again at the cars driving by. One caught her eye. It was dirty and dusty, black, an off-the-road kind of vehicle, big tires, dark-tinted windows, ominous.
A shiver slid up her spine and her fur stood on end.
Maya was observing her, probably worried Kat might all of a sudden shift, even though she had indicated she wouldn’t. But after Kat had proven she couldn’t control her shifting, Maya probably didn’t trust her.
When the fur on the nape of her neck stood and her ears perked up, Maya looked to see what had caught Kat’s attention.
Maya’s lower lip parted. “He was following us before, wasn’t he?” she asked.
Kat grunted in a yes reply.
“Great.”
Connor headed out of the restaurant, two bags in hand. As much as the bags were bulging, she assumed he had bought enough for a small army.
As soon as he opened his car door, Maya reached for the bags. “Kat needs her backpack out of the trunk of the car.”
His gaze swiveled to catch Kat’s eye in the backseat.
“She doesn’t feel the urge to shift yet, but she needs her clothes for when she does.”
He relaxed and handed Maya the bags of food, then headed for the trunk.
Kat watched the black vehicle drive off slowly.
“He’s going to follow us. Bet my savings,” Maya warned.
Kat thought so, too.
Connor slammed the trunk, then shoved Kat’s bag into the backseat and climbed into the driver’s seat.
“We have a stalker,” Maya said, setting out some of the burritos and letting Kat pick the ones she wanted. Then Maya opened the wrappers around the two that Kat had nudged with her nose.
As soon as Maya handed the first to Kat and she was able to grasp it with her teeth and began chewing it, the children watching her began to laugh. A jaguar who loved burritos. Yep.
Connor pulled onto the road and headed for their destination. “Where’s the vehicle, Maya?”
“He drove off that way. Both Kat and I remember seeing him before.”
“When you see him again, point him out to me. Okay?”
“Will do.”
As they drove, Kat licked her chops, eyed the burritos Maya and Connor hadn’t eaten, and then nudged Maya with her nose.
Maya looked back at her. “What’s wrong, Kat?”
Kat sighed, hating this part of being a jaguar-shifter where she had such a time communicating with Maya and Connor. She poked her nose at two more burritos. Maya laughed. “That problem I can fix.” She unwrapped the burritos and then fed them one at a time to Kat.
Connor shook his head. “They were supposed to last us through lunchtime.”
Maya glanced at him and looked like she was ready to scold him, when he suddenly said, “We’ve got company.”
Chapter 27
The vehicle behind them was quickly closing in on them, like a jaguar canvassing its prey. Connor expected it to be the one that Kat and Maya had seen in the village, but when Maya looked in the side mirror, she shook her head. “That’s not the one that was following us before.”
Kat turned around and looked out the back window and growled softly.
Connor was beginning to wonder if Kat was stuck in her jaguar form now.
“I was only kidding about the burritos,” he told Kat. “You can eat all that you want.” He gave Maya a look of scolding back. He had been teasing, but then he had caught sight of the vehicle following them and speeding to catch up to them, and he couldn’t think of anything else.
“What do we do?” Maya asked.
“They’re getting ready to ram us. No, wait. One of them is leaning out of his vehicle’s window and getting ready to shoot at our car.”
“Then I’ll shoot back.”
“No. If you lean out of the car window, you’ll be a target, Maya.”
“We need to pull off the road and confront them. There,” Maya said, pointing to a dirt road leading into the trees.
Showtime.
“Should I shift?”
“Get the gun ready.”
They barely made the turn at the rate of speed Connor was driving, taking a couple of tree branches with them, and he sped up even faster.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to shift?”
“It’ll be hard for you to do so in the front seat.”
“I’ll climb into the back with Kat.”
“Okay, leave the rifle on the front seat. You get in the back
and shift. I’ll park, let you out, and you take off into the jungle. I’ll grab our bags and the gun, and split off from you.”
“Then shift,” Maya said, climbing over the seat back.
“Then shift. After I hide our gear.” He didn’t like any scenario he could come up with. What if Kat suddenly shifted? She’d be naked and without any resources. He changed his mind. “Kat, you’ll come with me. I want you up in the tree with our gear, protecting it.”
Maya gave him a knowing look.
He couldn’t tell what Kat was thinking. He would just have to play it by ear.
He pulled the car off the dirt road and ran over a ton of ferns and shrubs, then jumped out to open the back car door to let the women out because Maya had already shifted. Maya had packed her clothes in Kat’s bag, he supposed, as he saw none in the car.
Then he started gathering backpacks as Maya and Kat waited, their tails twitching. After shutting the trunk, he ran with the bags, searching for a perfect climbing tree. He soon spied one and figured the men following them wouldn’t suspect that any of them would hide in a tree. Then he hauled up two of the bags, returning for his and the rifle after that, and then motioned to the tree because he intended to shift and leave Kat there.
A vehicle rumbled down the road, tires spinning on dirt, men’s loud, boisterous voices hollering out the window, trying to scare their prey into panicking.
Then the vehicle stopped, and Connor knew that the men had reached the rental vehicle.
The engine cut, and doors opened and closed. The men were hollering for them to come out from wherever they were.
Connor glanced at Kat and motioned to the tree. She shook her head.
Maya nudged at her to come with her.
Connor didn’t like it, but he knew Maya would show Kat the jaguar way while he stowed the rest of his gear and shifted. He fully intended to take down as many of the men as possible before Kat had to face any of them.
