by Terry Spear
"No." Stryker wanted to say more, but he couldn't without Nina hearing what he was saying.
"All right. We don't know if this woman has psychic visions either. We don't know if she even has a sister. Let alone that her sister is really in trouble."
"Correct." Stryker had to admit Nina could be a really good actress. That she was just needing a free place to stay for the night or two and found nobody home. But he smelled only her scent on some of the food supplies in the cupboards and why would she bring her own food and set up housekeeping? Unless she knew the Robinsons were going to be away for a while. The thing that bothered him was that she hadn't told them beforehand that she was going to be staying here. Not asking them for permission first. He should have asked more about her sister and where she'd been working, to see if he could pull up anything on her situation as far as her being charged with a crime.
"She shouldn't be living there until we have confirmation from the Robinsons that she can stay there. If she were any random person, like she is to us, we wouldn't allow it."
"True." They'd arrest her. And Stryker had offered to have her stay at his place, at least he had done that, yet she had a perfectly good reason why she couldn't. If her story checked out.
"I know, for whatever reason, you don't want to kick her out of the house, but she can't remain there without us verifying who she is. So wait with her, and I'll bring Bridget with me to talk with her."
"Okay." Stryker was afraid the woman would disappear again, like she did the last time. He didn't want that. But Dan was right. He was thinking with his sheriff's hat on. Then Stryker wondered if Nina could envision Bridget coming here and speaking with her to learn the truth. If Nina was afraid of the truth, it was better to get this out in the open now. Before he kissed her again.
"We'll be there as soon as we can before you get yourself into any further hot water." Now Dan sounded amused, but he was also a dedicated law enforcement officer. If he felt anything was off about Nina's story, he wouldn't hesitate to arrest her for illegal trespassing, and if Stryker wanted to press charges, for battery.
"Out here." Stryker made his coffee, and he carried it into the living room, but Nina wasn't there. Hell, he felt his stomach drop. He quickly set his cup of coffee down and realized Sydney wasn't by the fireplace either. Had Nina run off before Dan arrived here with Bridget, learned the truth, and arrested her?
Think! Quit panicking!
Zander ran to the back door, and Stryker thought maybe Nina had taken Sydney out for a pee break. Sure enough, as soon as he opened the door, Zander dashed out to join Nina and Sydney by the log pile. Stryker stalked out through the snow to them, appreciative that Nina had taken Sydney outside when the dog needed to go. Immediately, Nina swung around, her face livid and she hollered, "Don't come out here!"
It was too late! Two skunks appeared and the whole lot of them got skunked. The dogs. Nina. Stryker.
Then Zander and Sydney went on a merry run through the snow, chasing the varmints off.
"Ah, hell." Stryker quickly made a call back to Dan. "Hey, listen, about coming to see us? Hold off for a bit. Make it…two hours."
"What's going on?"
"You don't want to know. Suffice it to say you really don't want to talk to us right now. Actually, why don't I call you back when it's safe to come out here?"
"Stryker?"
"Got to run."
4
Usually, Nina could handle any situation—incredibly tough, bad news, impossible to deal with situations—but this had her wanting to pull her hair out. She'd thought Sydney just needed to go out to potty. She should have known the dog had heard something outside that she'd had to investigate. If Nina hadn't been trying so hard to listen to what Stryker had been saying to Dan over the phone in the kitchen, and deciphering Stryker’s cryptic responses to Dan’s comments, she was certain she would have heard whatever Sydney had.
As soon as Nina let Sydney out, the dog ran off and Nina worried she'd be lost, so she ran after her. Nina wasn't even wearing her coat and it was damn cold out there. But she figured Sydney would just run out, relieve herself, run back inside, and want to curl up beside the fire again. Right. Then Nina realized what the matter was. Sydney had cornered a couple of skunks between the compost pile and the stack of logs. Before Nina could coax the curious dog away from the animals, Zander and Stryker were joining them. She warned them too late. And they all got sprayed!
Damn it.
Dan was still holding his phone in his hand, running his free hand through his hair, wondering what the hell to do now. Normally, as sheriff, he had no problem dealing with any crisis. But Stryker seemed to be way over his head right about now. Dan was torn between calling in the troops or letting him take care of whatever the trouble was on his own. Stryker had already told Dan the woman had managed to take him hostage, and that sure as hell didn't bode well.
Dan would rather err on the side of caution, than worry that Stryker was in serious trouble and needed his help. Dan wasn't just his boss, but his good friend. Most of them had been army buddies too, his deputies: Hal Haverton, Chase Buchanan, and Stryker's brother, Leyton Hill, head of the local branch of the Cougar Shifter Force in Yuma Town, and one of his agents, Jack. Dan called in the troops, putting this on a conference call.
"Hey, we've got a situation out at the Robinson's place." Dan explained the situation as far as he knew about it. "I want everyone but Hal to meet me at the sheriff's office. Jack said he can help out. We'll take separate vehicles to drive out there. Hal, you're closer to the location from your horse ranch. If you can pick up Jack on the way there, that would work. Just wait until I tell you to meet us. I don't want anyone else out there without backup."
"Hell, my brother doesn't have any backup!" Leyton said, and Dan heard him over the phone, tearing down his driveway, already headed for the sheriff's office, that was only a few blocks from where he lived with Kate, their doctor.
Dan arrived just seconds before he did, Leyton's face flushed with anger. He looked like he was ready to go into battle. "Okay, Leyton and I are here," Dan told the others on the conference call.
Then he saw Chase drive up. Dan was glad he must have been shopping in town because the drive from Pinyon Pines Resort and the cabins he rented there on Lake Buchanan would have taken him extra minutes none of them wanted to spare.
"Getting a haircut," Chase said, getting out of his car. "Shannon didn't have time to cut it and I thought I was looking way too shaggy. Are we ready to go?"
Everyone was armed and Dan nodded. "No shooting anyone until we know what's going on. But if anyone's shooting back, you know what to do."
They all agreed and when he was halfway to the Robinson’s place, Dan let Hal know to hit the road and join them. He could imagine his friend and deputy pacing until he got word from Dan.
When they arrived at the house, they parked a way out so that they could disguise the fact that the troops had arrived. At least try as much as they could. They saw Stryker’s brand-new red Jeep parked on the snow-covered drive and cougar, dog, and human tracks all over the place.
Zander and Sydney were barking in the garage, as if they'd been locked in there on purpose. Dan's heart was racing. Stryker would never have locked his dogs in the cold garage, though it wouldn't be half as cold as being left out-of-doors.
Dan signaled for Hal, Jack, and Chase to take the front door and he and Leyton headed around the back. They knew not to open the front door until he and Leyton were in place. They smelled the strong odor of skunk, both wrinkling their noses as he slowly turned the doorknob and found the back door unlocked. Chase did the same with the front door and the men smelled the lighter odor of skunk in the house, which could certainly happen once a skunk released its scent in the area, just like Stryker had mentioned to him earlier.
Not seeing anyone in the living room, kitchen, or dining room, they all headed toward the guest bathroom where they heard a shower running. Immediately, Dan thought of the woman w
ashing off blood from her clothes and skin. Looking growly and worried, Leyton glanced at him and Dan swore he thought the very same thing.
The door to the bathroom was open, steam coming out of it, and then Dan stepped into the bathroom, the glassed-in tub covered in steam.
He pointed his gun toward the tub and was about to shout for Nina to come out with her hands up when the glass door slid open and Stryker and a blonde were standing there in their wet birthday suits. She shrieked, Stryker covered her with his body and said, "Hell, Dan, I told you I had this well in hand."
Boy, did he ever!
Leyton was just shaking his head at his brother. Jack, Chase, and Hal smiled and then let them have their privacy, and headed back to the living room.
"But if you really want to be of help, you guys can wash Sydney and Zander while we're getting dressed. They're in the garage, smelling worse than we were." Stryker pulled a towel around his waist and stepped out of the tub, then handed a towel to Nina, who was behind the steamed-up glass doors. She shut the shower doors to dry off.
"We thought you were in serious trouble, Bro," Leyton said, smirking.
"We were. If someone can, you might want to call the new vet and see if she can tranq these critters and transport them somewhere else where all of us can live happily-ever-after."
Dan should have figured Stryker could have gotten himself out of this one on his own, but the last time he didn't think there was any foul play going on, Leyton had taken Kate hostage, and she had told everyone she was fine. Dan had to orchestrate a massive manhunt for her, so he was glad to learn everyone was all right here. A little wet, a whole lot naked, but fine otherwise.
Walking back to the living room with Leyton so Stryker and Nina could get dressed, Dan made a quick call to Bridget. "Hey, we need your special ability at the Robinson's house."
"To read someone's mind?"
"Yeah, to learn if everything is on the up and up." Dan never thought Stryker would have let a woman sidetrack him from his law enforcement duties.
"Okay, but my mate wants to come with me."
"The more the merrier. Tell Travis he can help wash some skunked dogs while he's here." Then Dan called the vet. "I hate to call you with this business when you're so new to town, but how are you at capturing skunks and relocating them?"
Leyton was smiling, and Dan knew he was glad his doctor wife was off the hook on that one. She and Dr. William had been ministering to the pets in the community, but now she was strictly back to taking care of cougar shifters and humans that needed some quick care.
Stryker joined them in the living room, still wearing the towel. “I have a problem. I can’t find my keys to get my bag out of my Jeep that has a change of clothes for emergencies, and the clothes I was wearing are piled up in a snowbank alongside Nina’s, smelling to high heaven of skunk.”
“When did you last see your keys?” Leyton asked.
“Before the she-cat pounced on me and knocked me out.” Then as if a light bulb came on, Stryker said, “Forget it.” Then he headed back down the hall to the guest bedroom where Nina was getting dressed.
Now Dan was sure his coming here with a rescue party had been totally warranted.
The new vet arrived twenty minutes later, carrying a cage. “You have a skunk problem? I have another cage in the car.”
"I'll grab it," Chase said and Hal offered to help capture the skunks so they could be relocated also.
"I'll be right there!" Stryker said, then added, "As soon as I get some clothes on."
Dan and the others all laughed, though the vet was clueless as to what was going on.
With a tranquilizer gun in hand, Dr. Vanessa headed out with Stryker, carrying a couple of burlap sacks and Chase and Hal carrying the gravity-door traps, so that they could easily take the skunk or skunks out of there without getting sprayed. "If there are any more of them, I can bait them and we'll just have to check the traps to see if we catch any more, then haul it out. But this composter is full of fresh food the Robinsons must have left here before they took off on their vacation."
They went to where they thought the skunk or skunks were burrowed, from the sign of skunk tracks running from the log pile to the composter.
Chase set one of the traps down between the log pile and the composter. Hal did the same with the other cage.
Stryker glanced at the scraps of fruit and vegetables left in the composter. Maybe Nina had been the one to dump the scraps of food in there.
Vanessa put marshmallows in the gravity-door traps. Then she took one of the burlap sacks from Stryker and covered the back of one of the traps. "Usually, skunks only spray what they see. So if one is trapped, you can approach from behind, and you'll be fine."
Stryker used the second sack to cover the other cage.
When nothing came out of where the skunks might be burrowed, Vanessa said, "If you need me to move the critters when the traps catch them, let me know. I'm headed home otherwise."
"Thanks, Doc," Stryker said and Chase and Hal echoed his response.
The vet left and the guys decided to pull the scraps of food out of the composter that were still viable and threw them in the cages, just in case the skunks were hungrier for those kinds of snacks.
Not wanting to get sprayed if the skunks decided now was the time to come out to eat, Stryker and the other guys decided it was time to head in out of the cold and let the traps do the trick.
"Hey, sorry about barging in on you and the she-cat," Chase said, "but after the way Dan reacted, we figured you were in some serious trouble."
"In the shower?" Stryker shook his head.
"She could have been washing blood out of her clothes and off her body," Chase said, sounding serious.
Stryker glanced at him.
Chase shrugged. "We didn't know what was going down. Except that you were in serious trouble."
Hal added, "Way over your head, from the looks of it. And you still are."
Before they were able to trudge much further in the snow Stryker saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Shit! Three skunks had ventured out of their burrow to seek out the food and saw all three of the men turn. One of the skunks lifted his tail and let loose of the foul stench.
"Aw, crap," Hal said, and the three of the men raced off toward the house.
Though now Stryker, and the other men, were in the same boat as he and Nina had been earlier. They didn't want to carry the smell into the house, and they began stripping out of their clothes.
"Oh, Shannon won't let me in the house if I don't wash this off good," Chase said and groaned.
"Neither will your girls," Stryker said.
"Same here," Hal said, just as annoyed. "They'll never let us live this down either."
Naked, they quickly shifted into their cougar coats and ran for the river where Stryker and Nina had run to wash some of the skunk odor off first. She'd already been skunked twice and knew the ropes. So did he now and he knew how bad it was to experience it again. He didn't have any more spare clothes either. Damn it. He hoped the others did. Usually, serving as deputies, they always had a change of clothes for emergencies. From now on, he needed to keep a couple of changes of clothes in his bag.
No way was he going to borrow Mr. Robinson's clothes, but he suspected if it meant getting rid of the skunks, he wouldn't have minded.
As cougars, Stryker and the others rubbed themselves off in the snow. He sure hoped the Robinsons had enough ingredients to wash off the smell or some of the guys would be going home to their mates, smelling up their vehicles, and trying to get clean at home.
When they reached the house, they all hesitated to go inside. Dan opened the door, shaking his head, but smiling broadly. "I can't believe all my deputies got skunked this time."
Stryker knew Dan was glad he hadn't opted to play the hero this time to take care of the skunks.
"Nina made baths for you guys with all the good stuff in them to help reduce the odor and you can use her body wash and shampo
o. You might have to explain that to your mates, Hal and Chase, but I'm sure they'll get a kick out of it."
As cougars, Stryker ended up in a bathtub with Chase. Well, it wasn't like they didn't take showers in a communal bathroom in the army. The two of them sat in the tub for a little bit, ducking their heads under the water. Hal must have gone to the other bathtub.
Then Hal came to their bathroom, wrapped in a towel. "Other bathroom is free if one of you guys want to use it to shower in."
Stryker leaped out of the bathtub, regretting he'd leave a trail of water down the hall and then ended up in the other bathtub. He shifted into his human form, pulled the glass doors shut, then showered. He didn't mind Nina's bodywash and shampoo. It made him think of her and when he went home today, he'd feel she'd rubbed off on him. Besides, it smelled way better than skunk. Though he could see where the other guys might be worried their mates would wonder what in the world was up.
At least Dan had been nice enough to grab all their clothes from outside, thrown them in a bag of the miracle solution, and finally dumped them in the wash and started it. He'd retrieved everyone's keys and anything else that couldn't be washed and found the emergency bags of clothes Hal and Chase had in their vehicles. Leyton offered his to Stryker, or he would have been sitting in a towel next to the fireplace with the dogs.
5
Nina had been annoyed to high heaven when Dan and all the other men had barged into the bathroom while she and Stryker were leaving the bathtub after taking a hot shower together—no sex, just trying to wash off every bit of skunk odor they could—though she couldn't help but notice Stryker's cock swelling with interest while she soaped him up and down. And she had been just as aroused as he was. They couldn't help that part of their nature, and once they were both rinsed off and no longer smelling of skunk, they could really smell how much their pheromones were doing headstands again, calling attention to each other.
