Spotting His Leopard (Shifters, Inc.)

by Georgette St. Clair

  “No, but it’s a good thing that he showed up,” Gwenneth shot Nadette a look of disgust, “since you were planning to take me out and keep all the spoils to yourself.”

  “You dare? I’m here to finish your job and save our group because of your screw-up.”

  Their group. Gwenneth fought to keep the scorn from her face. Les Abandonnes. Henri, Nadette’s uncle, had called them that, and she’d bought into it once. A bunch of raggedy street urchins who’d displayed enough talent at thievery that they’d attracted Henri’s attention. Them against the world that had abandoned them. Screw the system.

  Then she’d grown up. Apparently the rest of the group never had.

  “How did you find out I was here? And that I was meeting Nadette?” Gwenneth asked Corran.

  He shrugged. “Her computer security is second-rate. Hacked my way in.”

  Nadette flashed Corran a quick, angry look, but underneath it, for a micro-second, Gwenneth saw bone-deep hurt as well.

  Interesting. Les Abandonnes had sworn to remain loyal only to the group, and to refrain from having real relationships with anyone, including each other, but that was the kind of rule that begged to be broken. Something had clearly happened there. A one-night stand, a real relationship, an unrequited crush? Whatever it was, Nadette wasn’t over it.

  “She has a point,” Corran said to Gwenneth, his cold gray eyes gleaming. “You painted an enormous target on our backs last week, and then just vanished to leave us to deal with the fallout… Is there a good reason I shouldn’t kill you?”

  At that, Nadette’s lips twitched into a smile before her expression settled back into sullen and threatened.

  “I did not finish the job because I was unavoidably detained,” Gwenneth said calmly. “I can’t provide more detail than that. “ She flicked her gaze over to Nadette. “I contacted you so you could help me to complete the job and get the death order lifted, and you show up here ready to murder me. Not smart, Nadette. You need me.”

  Nadette’s eyes narrowed as she skewered Gwenneth with a glare. “Do you have any idea how furious my uncle is?”

  Gwenneth could only imagine. “I’m here to make things right.”

  Nadette glanced at Corran. “You said it yourself. Why not kill her?” she wheedled. “Right here, right now. Once we’ve got the Eye, we can split the proceeds.”

  Gwenneth had been expecting this. She’d violated the code, the price was death, blah blah blah. “Do you have a better second-story man in mind?” she asked coolly. She already knew the answer to that question. Of all the wildcat species, leopards were the best at climbing, and she and her sister were better than any other leopard.

  “Maybe.” Nadette lifted her chin and glared at Gwenneth.

  Corran raked Nadette with a scornful look. “Don’t be ridiculous. Nobody is better than her,” he said.

  Another flash of hurt sparked in her eyes.

  “We need her for this,” he continued. “We can’t do the job without her.”

  “We’ve done plenty of jobs without her,” Nadette said heatedly.

  Corran shook his head. “Not against these kind of odds. And there’s too much riding on this. Not just us; all of the gang. We’re dead meat if we leave empty-handed.”

  “Thanks to her,” Nadette said indignantly.

  “We can deal with that after we get the crown,” Corran said in a tone that brooked no argument.

  He turned back to Gwenneth, and his gaze bored right through her. Would he realize the deception? She was tempted for a moment to tell them who she really was, but she didn’t dare. He and Nadette would never work with her if they knew.

  Corran fixed her with his freezing-cold gaze. “I need more information before I put my life in your hands, because it’s not just this job. You’ve gone off the rails for months now. What the hell happened in Sweden? What happened with Aerodyne?”

  Gwenneth’s face didn’t betray her emotions, but a chill ran through her. So it wasn’t just this job that her sister had screwed up on? She was surprised that Henri had still allowed her to take any assignments. He wasn’t a particularly forgiving man, and this wasn’t a particularly forgiving profession.

  “I can’t explain.” God, I wish I could. What the hell has my sister done? And why? “All I can tell you is that I won’t take any more jobs after this, and you and Nadette can split all the profits from this one. My only concern here is getting the crown and getting the death order lifted.”

  Her sister had accepted an assignment to steal the Eye of the Jaguar, and she’d also accepted the down payment…and then vanished. With the money. Without a word of explanation.

  And worse, the Shadow Lord, the one shifter who must never be crossed, had been the broker for this particular job. He’d been so furious that he’d put out a death order not just on her, but on all of Les Abandonnes.

  “Twenty million. Minus the two-million-dollar advance. Split two ways. That is a pretty large haul,” Corran noted coolly to Nadette.

  Gwenneth nodded. “Retirement money.”

  At that, he made a scornful sound. “You and retirement. What’s going on with you? Lost your nerve?” His lip curled up in a sneer.

  Again, Gwenneth concealed her surprise. She’d begged her sister to quit years ago, and Rhonwen had turned her down. But now she’d been talking to Corran about quitting? What the hell? Something must have spooked her. Or she’d gotten bored? That didn’t sound like Rhonwen. Unlike Gwenneth, Rhonwen lived for the thrill of the heist.

  She needed to get this stupid job over with so she could get the death order lifted and do some serious investigating.

  Nadette stared at her for a long moment. Finally she broke into a smile, as if she hadn’t just tried to murder Gwenneth. Her smile was sunshine and roses and sisterhood. It was shared secrets and laughter. Gwenneth felt a smile tug at the corner of her lips, and she remembered just how Nadette could suck you in and make you feel like best friends forever. Of course you’d want to check your back for protruding knives, and count the silverware after she left, but while she was there she was so much fun that she somehow made you forget that for a little while.

  “Hey,” Nadette said. “The gang’s all here. It’s just like old times. Isn’t this fun?”

  Gwenneth returned her grin. “Should I buy the first round?” So they were all marked for death by the Shadow Lord and even if he didn’t get to them, they could be in prison tomorrow. So what? Might as well enjoy the time they had.

  Corran apparently wasn’t in the mood, which was unlike him. He was the last person to take life too seriously.

  “This isn’t a goddamn party,” Corran said curtly. “We’ve got until tomorrow night. Let’s sit down and draw up our plans.”

  Gwenneth shrugged. It wouldn’t be much of a party with him in that kind of mood. “Fine. We’ll go out back and find a nice, quiet spot.”

  “Oh, what’s the hurry, you old woman?” Now Nadette was her charming, sparkling self again. “It’s a beautiful night. I want to flirt.” She spun around in a circle and her skirt swirled around her slim, toned legs.

  Gwenneth let out a snort of derision. “There’s a tragic lack of single men here, if you hadn’t noticed. This is the land of married couples wanting to get knocked up.”

  Nadette made a gagging gesture, shoving two fingers into her mouth. “Ugh. Babies. Disgusting little parasites.” Then she glanced over at the bar. “But you’re giving up too easily. That bartender’s hot. So is the bellhop. Fancy going native?” she said to Gwenneth with a wink. A faint trace of her French accent could be discerned. She and her uncle had grown up in Paris before things had gotten too hot for them there and they’d been forced to relocate to Los Angeles, where they’d met Gwenneth and Rhonwen and the other gang members.

  “No. No screwing around. While we’re here, we’re concentrating on the job,” Corran said irritably.

  “Why, Corran, are you jealous?” Nadette purred, leaning up against him. He stepped back, his expre
ssion annoyed.

  Her face fell. “Fine,” she bit out. “Let’s get this over with.”

  As Gwenneth followed them out back, the face of that wolf flashed through her mind once again, and she knew she was going to have to do something about him. He suspected her of something, she was sure of it. It was too much of a coincidence that he’d showed up outside that alleyway.

  She was itching for an internet connection to look him up. Damn this island. He moved like law enforcement or military. She suspected he was a cop on vacation and she’d somehow given herself away at the museum. That must be why her body had reacted so strongly to him – it was warning her of potential danger.

  It was odd that her body’s reaction to danger apparently included being incredibly turned on; that had never happened before. Maybe it had something to do with this island’s weird mojo. It didn’t matter; what she needed to do was make sure he didn’t interfere with their plans. And she couldn’t tell Nadette and Corran about it, because they were already freaked out enough.

  She had an idea of how to distract him. She’d need to find out where he was staying, but it shouldn’t be hard. The tourist area of the island wasn’t that big and there were only half a dozen hotels catering to tourists. She could recruit the little girl from the Thieves’ Guild to help track the guy down.

  “Ronny.” Corran fell back and let Nadette walk ahead. His forehead was creased in a frown. “I need to talk to you alone. Seriously. I need to know what the hell you’re playing at these days.”

  Nadette slowed down and glanced back at them suspiciously. At the same time, Gwenneth stepped away from him. “I’m not going to be alone with either one of you,” she said firmly. For all she knew, they both were planning on double-crossing her. Or Corran might want to double-cross both of them and take the spoils for himself. The Eye of the Jaguar was an enormous prize.

  She also didn’t want to get into any in-depth conversations with him that might give her away. She hadn’t seen her sister, or any of them, for five years; anything she said might reveal her deception.

  He stared at her for a long moment, and she could see the rage boiling deep inside him. “Fine.” He turned and walked ahead, long legs slashing impatiently.

  Gwenneth reminded herself not to turn her back on him for an instant.

  Chapter Five

  “Slow down. I’m not young and spry like you are.” Gwenneth was breathing hard, jogging to keep up with the fast-moving little girl and struggling to hold on to the cloth-wrapped bundle in her arms.

  They were winding their way through the heart of the slums. Homes there were lashed together out of sheets of plywood and corrugated tin, stacked on top of each other in seemingly haphazard fashion. One strong monsoon would send this whole neighborhood crashing to the ground. The stench of rotting garbage and sewage hung in the air, and goats and chickens and dogs wandered listlessly through the narrow pathways which served as streets.

  “We’re almost there!” The girl dashed around a corner and Gwenneth followed her. A group of children and teenagers sat on cinder blocks in front of a corrugated-tin shanty. She counted eight of them.

  The shanty was streaked with rust. A sheet of plastic served as a door, and several more sheets of plastic were draped over cut-out squares that served as makeshift windows.

  The children were drinking out of plastic cups when she walked up, but they set down their food and ran over to hug her.

  “Rhonny! You’re home!” they cried joyfully.

  Gwenneth reminded herself again to smack her sister upside the head, really hard, when she found her. What the hell had she been playing at with these kids? They were like any kids – they wanted a mother, someone to take care of them. Why make them think they had one, and then run off?

  Gwenneth and Rhonwen had been abandoned by their alcoholic mother as cubs when she’d wandered off after one of her drinking binges and never come back, so Rhonwen knew what abandonment felt like. It was one reason Rhonwen had always avoided children like a contagious disease – her childhood had been so painful that she didn’t like to be around them because it gave her unpleasant flashbacks.

  Gwenneth set down the bundle on the ground and unwrapped it. She’d bought them new sandals, shorts, shirts, and dresses in various sizes, as well as fresh, hot pastries. She’d also bought cans of soup and boxes of granola bars. She knew there would be no electricity or refrigeration here.

  “It’s been so long!” she said to the children as they eagerly seized the wrapped pastries. “How long has it been, again? It feels like forever since I’ve seen you!”

  “One year,” the girl who’d taken her there said promptly. So. Her sister had been here a year ago.

  “What a good memory you have.” The girl’s face beamed at the praise. Oh, let me take you home with me, Gwenneth thought. You don’t need to grow up like this. She felt anger and contempt for the local head of the Thieves’ Guild. She knew how this worked; the children paid him a tribute out of the money they hustled, and in exchange he bribed law enforcement to stay out of the shanty town and probably had the garbage picked up occasionally. That was it. No school. No hope of a better life. Later in life, they’d end up as prostitutes or drug addicts, and then in jail. This was the side of the island the tourists never saw.

  But she couldn’t take this child with her, or all these other children, she knew. For one thing, this was the child’s family, her home, all she’d ever known, and for another, Gwenneth could hardly offer her a safe and stable life.

  She could hear Rhonwen’s voice echoing through her head again. You can’t save the world.

  “I can’t stay for long, so I want you to tell me everything that’s been happening with each one of you,” she said as she sat down and began handing out pastries to the children.

  She pulled out a packet of hand wipes from her purse. “Wipe your hands and faces first,” she said to them.

  The little girl made a face. “You and your hand-washing,” she complained, but she pulled a hand wipe out of the packet and handed the packet to the next child. She scrubbed at her hands and face, grimacing as she did so.

  Rhonwen had made these children wash their hands?

  She sighed, sitting down on a concrete block. A little boy wearing ragged shorts crawled into her lap, chewing on one of the pastries she’d bought. He held out his arm, showing off a scar. “See, all better now!” he said to her happily. This must be Hiro.

  “Tell me all about what you’ve been up to,” she prompted them again. They all started talking at once, and by listening carefully, she managed to get all their names. The girl who’d brought her there was Tana.

  The one who seemed to be in charge of them was a boy named Pern who appeared to be about 13 or 14. He was barefoot, and a rope served as a belt holding up the shorts which hung off his thin frame.

  “So you’ve been getting the money that I send every month?” she asked. Where is Rhonwen sending that money from? And why?

  “Yes, the guild leader delivers it to us. It’s still Farruki. He’s never late,” Tana said, nodding.

  Of course. The local guild leader have his filthy fingers in all shantytown business.

  “There he is.” Hiro pointed. A skinny jaguar shifter in his thirties was strolling towards them. His glossy black hair was slicked back, and a pencil thin mustache curved along his top lip. He wore a nicely tailored blue linen suit, paired ridiculously with flashy orange sneakers. A couple of big, hulking thugs trailed behind him, draped in gold chain necklaces.

  “Excuse me a second,” Gwenneth said. She set the little boy down and walked over to where Farruki and his men were standing.

  “Hello, gorgeous. Miss me?” He smirked at her.

  “Like a bad rash.” She smiled back without warmth, and his smirk twisted into a scowl. “Hello, Farruki. I see you’ve been helping yourself to quite a large portion of my monthly gifts.” Here he was, decked head to toe in nice new clothes, and half the kids didn’t even have shoes. H
e probably left them barely enough money to eat. That was why they still had to steal.

  He shrugged. “As per our agreement.”

  “No, you’re taking more than we agreed.” It was a guess, but from the angry, defensive look on his face, she knew it was an accurate guess.

  “You challenging me?” He puffed himself up and black hair rippled on his face. His claws extended, and he pretended to examine them closely. His thugs let out growls that she supposed were meant to be menacing.

  She smiled. There were aspects of her old life that she’d hated – but this wasn’t one of them. She loved facing down bullies.

  “I assume you’re still a member in good standing of the guild?” Not that she was still a guild member, but she hadn’t lost her ability to bluff.

  “Of course I am.” His eyes shuttled around, fearful and defensive, as if there were Guild Enforcers crouched in the doorways. “Who says I’m not?”

  “We don’t steal from each other.” She didn’t need to remind him of the code. It was also bullshit. They were thieves! They stole from each other all the time, but if one member of the Thieves’ Guild actually got caught stealing from a fellow guild member, an Enforcer would snuff them out in a very painful and public fashion, to make sure all the other guild members got the point. It generally happened at least once a year, and news of it always travelled to guild members throughout the world.

  He went pale and swallowed hard. “I’m not stealing from anyone in the guild.”

  “When I send money to these kids and you take more of it than we agreed, you’re stealing from me.” She met his gaze unwaveringly, and after a few seconds he looked away. “Of course, we can take it off the island if needs be. I don’t mind taking it up to the next level.”

  “Fine, fine. Can’t blame a guy for trying,” he whined.

  “I can’t blame a guy for taking money out of the pockets of hungry kids? Fuck you. You’re going to pay them back all the extra you stole, and you’re going to give them everything I send from now on. I’ll be back to check up on you.” She didn’t know if she would really be able to come back here, but he didn’t know that.