“They’re all tied up. Be right back.”
She went to the bathroom to find a first aid kit she’d seen under the counter. She’d never expected to be using it to bandage attempted murderers’ wounds.
Something clicked in the laundry room, and then the kitchen light came on. She suddenly felt vulnerable like there were a hundred men out there ready to shoot up the place as soon as they saw them in the lighted room.
Travis quickly moved back into the hallway where she was waiting with the first aid kit. “Go ahead and bandage them up the best you can. I’m going to call it in.”
She didn’t ask who he was going to call. When one of the men lying on his belly smiled at her, his wrists tied behind his back, she figured he was with the police. Chills crept up her spine. She was used to having the military to back her up. She really felt out on a limb here.
“Yeah,” Travis said in the bedroom. “Three half dead men. The one might be dead by now. We heard them talking about getting rid of their middlemen, only the one said he’d lost control of the van and it ended up in the pond at Rambo Lancaster’s country estate. Then they came here to take us out because we’d been investigating the two drug runners.”
The man on the floor’s face turned red. “What the hell is he talking about?”
This time Bridget smiled. “You know the old saying, ‘My goose is cooked?’ I’d say you’re going to get to go to jail with some of the criminals you helped put away. Karma’s a bitch, isn’t it?” She shoved him onto his back and knelt down to bandage his wound. Looked like he could have hit the left kidney, but damage to the liver and stomach could have also occurred.
At least she was sure hoping these men were going down and this wouldn’t all backfire on her and Travis. She hoped Chet was okay too, but she was afraid to call him and let these men know that someone else had been working with them on the case.
“Ambulances are coming and DEA agents are on the way,” Travis said, rejoining her.
She finished bandaging the man, then went to check on the one by the window as Travis began bandaging the other man. The sounds of sirens filled the night, though everyone was slow in getting there because of the treacherous weather conditions.
The man she’d bandaged was wishing to hell he could kill the two of them and get out of here. He was thinking about how bad it would be if he landed in prison with a couple of drug dealers he’d put away, then taken the drugs off him, and turned them over to Rambo.
Travis unlocked the front door and opened it for the EMTs, the DEA agents swarming all over the place.
Travis identified himself. “This is my home and these men broke in there and there.” He pointed to the front window and the dining room door. “We were just going to bed when I turned on the bedroom lamp and they cut the electricity. Because of the problem I’d had with the men at the Christmas Tree Shoppe, I figured these men were involved in the drug crimes also.”
“We’re police officers,” the one man said.
“Breaking into my house without identifying yourselves? Shutting off the electricity so you could shoot to kill?” Travis turned to the agent and said, “I filed a report and these must have been the officers who said they’d look into it. Instead, they kept the report of my being taken hostage secret. What did I know? I thought they were taking care of the men. But from what we heard them say tonight, they did take care of the two men who owned the shop. Permanently.”
“Travis and I work for the same organization,” Bridget said, giving her story. “He was lucky I was investigating Heaton and Franklin, and saw them take an unconscious man into the shop. When they left, I rescued him. I called about the case as we fled the scene, though I knew there were rumors a couple of the cops, at the very least, were dirty. Unfortunately, when we reported the case, the bad cops must have covered it up. Then they must have run down Travis’s license plate number and located his home.”
“What about this van?”
“We don’t know anything about it but what one of these men said. We can’t be sure who was talking. They were speaking about it outside the windows. They must have thought we had gone to sleep, and didn’t realize we have combat training for our line of work.”
“Just ran a check on you. Your boss, Chuck Warner, vouched for both of you. He also gave us some information about your work in the army. And yours too,” the agent said to Travis. “The police chief and his department are cooperating fully with our investigation.”
Another agent headed into the room. “We’ve got men who have found the break in the ice at the pond on Lancaster’s property.” He smiled. “We’ve waited a long time to connect him with his illegal dealings. The daughter’s been arrested for complicity and she’s singing like a songbird. Apparently, she knows all the details of the drug sales and her father’s protection scam. He had forced her to work at the Christmas Tree Shoppe, and she’s willing to get amnesty to tell all.”
“You know how this works,” the agent said to Travis. “I know you’re moving, but for the time being, this is a crime scene and we’ll have to process the rooms. We’ll need your guns also. You’re free to go. I just need to know where you’ll be staying for the next couple of days and when you leave here. We’ll need your testimony also when the time comes.”
They gave the agent their information and then headed to the bedroom.
“Because of the weather conditions, let’s leave your car here and we’ll take mine,” Travis said to Bridget as he packed a bag, and Bridget grabbed hers. They bundled up before they walked into the garage, then climbed into the Durango.
They didn’t say anything until they headed out on the road, driving slowly through the screen of white.
At the hotel, a Christmas tree stood out front all decorated in lights welcoming them. Bridget still felt tense and uneasy as if they were being followed or listening devices were all over their clothes and cell phones, just waiting for them to incriminate themselves.
“One room? Two rooms?” Travis asked as they parked.
“One room? Safety in numbers?”
“I love the way you think,” Travis said.
But he didn’t just get a regular room. He got the wedding suite which featured a whirlpool tub, fireplace, king size bed, separate bathroom, wide screen TV on the wall, Christmas garland on the fireplace mantle, yellow rubber duckies wearing Santa hats and candy canes on top of the folded towels.
He dropped their bags inside and started the fire in the fireplace. He was about to take Bridget’s hand, but she quickly began digging something out of her purse. Two naughty elves and two angels. She set them on top of the garland, then she took his hand and kissed him lightly on the lips. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve got to have a shower after what we just went through.”
“Together or…”
She smiled. “Safety in numbers, remember? We don’t have our guns now.”
“But we have our teeth and claws.”
“And together we are a powerful force to reckon with.” All her instincts told her that he was the right one for her. Her match.
“I want you in my life for good, Bridget Sinclair. For better or for worse. I just wanted you to know that,” he said, helping her out of her parka.
Her heart raced and she had to force herself to breathe, staring up into his molten dark eyes. She had to tell him the truth about herself. If he couldn’t live with it, she told herself that this strong connection she felt between them didn’t matter. And she’d continue to work for Chuck Warner.
“I have to tell you something important,” Bridget said, holding his hands, having to see his reaction. Not everyone would accept her abilities for what they were. And she couldn’t help feeling apprehensive about this. “You might not want me in your life after I tell you about my…special talent.”
He waited quietly, his expression tightening a bit, but he finally said, “Nothing will change my mind about you. About us.”
“This might. I can read thoughts. Read
people’s minds.” She expected him to frown at her. But instead he grinned.
She frowned at him then. “I’m serious.”
He pulled her into a hard embrace. “Thank God for small miracles.”
“I’m serious,” she repeated, not understanding his reaction.
“I’ve been thinking how perfect we are together,” he said, looking down at her like she was the most beautiful woman in the world to him.
“I can’t read your thoughts.”
He frowned.
“I don’t need to. Your actions tell me everything you’re thinking where I’m concerned.”
“Then whose?”
“The men outside the house? That’s how I located them. It was too stormy out to hear them otherwise.”
“I wondered if you’d just heard a sound I’d missed. Does Chuck know about it?”
“Yes. But he leaves it up to me as to who I share with. Not everyone reacts in the way you did. Are you sure you’re all right with it?”
“Hell, yeah. You’re perfect for me in every way. I want to marry you, Bridget.”
“I can’t believe how you’re taking this. Did Chet tell you?”
“No.” Travis let out his breath. “When you rescued me and I learned you worked for the same agency, I knew we were a team.”
She smiled. “You don’t know how relieved I am that you feel that way.” She was going to ask if he had any questions about it for her, but his cell rang, and she waited for him to answer it.
He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and said, “Yeah, Leyton, hey, I’ve been busy, but I wanted to tell you I just hired a new agent for our field office. She’s here with me now.”
“In Cheyenne? She?”
“We finished packing so we’ll be done right after Christmas.”
“Well, I had a job for you, but—”
“Hold on. Let me put it on speaker.”
“Ah, yeah,” Leyton said, sounding tongue-tied all of a sudden. He never sounded that way.
“Bridget Sinclair, meet Leyton Hill, the director of the field office. And Leyton, Bridget, former CID agent in the army.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Leyton said.
“Likewise,” Bridget said.
“So what do you have for us?” Travis asked.
“Since you’ve taken a break up there, if you have time between Christmas and New Year’s, we’ve got a cougar shifter who opened up a murder-for-hire business in Las Vegas. He needs to go down before he can begin fulfilling contracts.”
Bridget pulled off Travis’s jacket and tossed it on a chair, then she began running water in the whirlpool tub.
Travis asked her, “You want to do it?”
“Las Vegas?” Bridget smiled.
Travis smiled back at her. “It’s a deal. We’ve got some other business to take care of before we’re off on the job.”
“Yeah, sure, buddy. Hell, great job with recruiting a new agent for the office.”
Travis watched Bridget do a striptease as she headed into the bathroom. He turned on the radio and smiled as the song was playing “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.”
“She’s just perfect. Talk later.” Travis hung up on him and began to tear off his clothes.
“You didn’t tell him you’ve been working all this time, taking down all kinds of bad guys,” Bridget said, already naked, her dusky nipples rigid, her tongue sweeping over her lips making them wet for him. “Quick shower first, and then lazy time in the whirlpool?”
“There’s not going to be anything lazy about the whirlpool time,” he said, covering her breasts with his hands and massaging them. “But no, we can tell him later.”
“Even about my rescuing you?”
“Especially about that. That’s part of your application process, remember?”
Smiling, she kissed his lips, pressuring him to part them for her and then she plunged her tongue inside his mouth as his hands went down to her buttocks and pulled her tight against his aroused body.
“Anything else you want to do in Las Vegas while we’re there?” she asked.
“How do you feel about dropping by one of those wedding chapels when we get there?”
“Then I can make an honest man of you.”
He laughed and moved her into the shower, not believing he could be this lucky to find a woman and an agent who set his world on fire even in the dead of winter. He began to run soap all over her wet body, getting his Christmas wish, that the next time, he was doing the sudsing. But Christmas Eve, they were going shopping for presents and Christmas Day, well, they’d wing that. Which was about par for the course when his sold house was a crime scene.
“I love you,” he said, rubbing his body against hers like a big cat would, claiming her, covering her in his scent as her hands swept down his back, covering him in soapy water too.
Then he lifted her and she wrapped her legs around him. He dove into her wet sheath, no time for slow and easy with the bath water filling up the whirlpool, where they’d make love all over again.
“I love you,” she breathed out as he came deep inside her.
And then they rinsed and quickly dried off, but he grabbed her up and carried her to the whirlpool bath just in time as “You’re My Christmas Present” began to play.
“Next phase in seduction will be a lot slower, and much more thorough,” he said, and set her in the tub and joined her.
Epilogue
Travis and Bridget finally arrived in Yuma Town ready for some rest after taking down the murder-for-hire cougar assassin and getting married in Las Vegas. They hadn’t told anyone yet, but as soon as they opened the door to Leyton’s field office combination safe house, they were greeted by about forty cougar well-wishers.
They had presents for both of them—for Christmas in an outpouring of love.
Bridget had never seen anything like it, and the way Travis’s mouth hung agape, she knew he hadn’t either. She read several of the cougars’ thoughts—they already knew that they were married, but no one gave them a wedding present. She suspected it was because they were trying to let on they didn’t know, so Christmas presents would have to do.
Leyton gave her a hug. “I want to welcome you to the field office,” he said, all smiles.
She just stared at him, so startled that he looked so much like Stryker, she couldn’t believe it. Then Stryker came forward and gave her a hug. She had to give Travis a warning look as she heard him growl a little under his breath. When she had dated Stryker, they’d only been young teens, for heaven’s sake.
“We’re married,” Bridget said, “if you didn’t know.” She didn’t want anyone to have to pretend they didn’t know.
“Congratulations,” were repeated all over the house.
“Hell,” Leyton said, “I had to learn from Chuck that you cracked a mega case right before Christmas in Cheyenne. You should have told me. I would never have asked you go on the man hunt in Las Vegas and spend all the holidays fighting rogue cougars.”
“We’re a team,” Travis said, pulling Bridget into his arms and kissing her. “And that’s what we do.”
“When you’re not having fun with us,” Dr. Kate said, squeezing Leyton’s hand. “We are having a spectacular New Year’s Eve party and celebration the next day. And it appears we’re going to have to have a wedding celebration also.”
Tracey and Hal Haverton said, “At the ranch.”
And that was the beginning for the new special agent couple. Parties with the good guys, private time with each other, and missions to take down the bad guys.
“Love you,” Bridget said to Travis, not having to hide how she felt with him in front of all the cougars present.
“Love you back,” Travis said, openly kissing her and promising her their alone time was coming soon.
About the Author
Bestselling and award-winning author Terry Spear has written over fifty paranormal romance novels and four medieval Highland historical romances. Her fir
st werewolf romance, Heart of the Wolf, was named a 2008 Publishers Weekly’s Best Book of the Year, and her subsequent titles have garnered high praise and hit the USA Today bestseller list. A retired officer of the U.S. Army Reserves, Terry lives in Crawford, Texas, where she is working on her next werewolf romance, continuing her new series about shapeshifting jaguars, and cougars, having fun with her young adult novels, and playing with her two Havanese puppies, Max and Tanner. For more information, please visit www.terryspear.com, or follow her on Twitter, @TerrySpear. She is also on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/terry.spear. And on Wordpress at:
Terry Spear’s Shifters
http://terryspear.wordpress.com/
Also by Terry Spear:
Romantic Suspense: Deadly Fortunes, In the Dead of the Night, Relative Danger, Bound by Danger
The Highlanders Series: Winning the Highlander’s Heart, The Accidental Highland Hero, Highland Rake, Taming the Wild Highlander, The Viking’s Highland Lass
Other historical romances: Lady Caroline & the Egotistical Earl, A Ghost of a Chance at Love
Heart of the Wolf Series: Heart of the Wolf, Destiny of the Wolf, To Tempt the Wolf, Legend of the White Wolf, Seduced by the Wolf, Wolf Fever, Heart of the Highland Wolf, Dreaming of the Wolf, A SEAL in Wolf’s Clothing, A Howl for a Highlander, A Highland Werewolf Wedding, A SEAL Wolf Christmas, Silence of the Wolf, 2014, Hero of a Highland Wolf, 2014, A Highland Wolf Christmas, 2014; A SEAL Wolf for Sale; A Silver Wolf Christmas, 2015
SEAL Wolves: To Tempt the Wolf, A SEAL in Wolf’s Clothing, A SEAL Wolf Christmas; SEAL Wolf Hunting, SEAL Wolf in Too Deep (Feb 2016
Silver Bros Wolves: Destiny of the Wolf, Wolf Fever, Dreaming of the Wolf, Silence of the Wolf; A Silver Wolf Christmas (Oct 2015)
Highland Wolves: Heart of the Highland Wolf, A Howl for a Highlander, A Highland Werewolf Wedding, Hero of a Highland Wolf, A Highland Wolf Christmas
Alphas Unwrapped: 21 New Steamy Paranormal Tales of Shifters, Vampires, Werewolves, Dragons, Witches, Angels, Demons, Fey, and More Page 124
