“Around four. I couldn’t sleep. I was anxious to be out there.”

  “So you hadn’t gone anywhere close to his place?”

  “No. I’d left my cabin, intending to wake you if you weren’t up yet. Out of the dark, the jaguar attacked. Of course, at first, I thought it was Benny, but then I realized it wasn’t his scent. It all happened so fast that I didn’t even have a chance to warn you I was in trouble. I was angry with myself for letting him get the drop on me. Here I hadn’t even wanted you or Jillian’s protection. I was damn glad you had come with me and saved my life. I would have died if you hadn’t.”

  “Hell. I was texting Rowdy to join Jillian to watch her back. I was angry I hadn’t gotten to your place sooner. I would have taken the bastard out before he had a chance to injure you.”

  “You shouldn’t have had to. This could very well mean our whole mission has escalated to something more serious.” Then she changed the subject. “Enough about that. It’s done. Your parents haven’t retired either?”

  “No. They love what they do. Their work as Guardians isn’t usually as dangerous as what Enforcers do on a regular basis. I think their boss gives them more low-key assignments unless he needs them for something more challenging. I understand why your parents want to keep doing their job though. It gives them a sense of purpose. I also understand how you feel about it.”

  “I’m sure they worry about me as much as I do about them. My dad is so controlling that I couldn’t work with him.”

  Howard smiled at her. “I wanted more excitement in my life. I couldn’t imagine being a Guardian agent.” He let his breath out. “I hope Benny doesn’t injure either Jillian or Rowdy.”

  “I hope not.” Val looked out the window.

  “Can’t you get ahold of either of your parents yet?”

  “No. If Eric, the drug pusher, has hurt them… Well, even if he hasn’t, if I get ahold of him, he’s dead. My parents won’t need to finish their mission.”

  “That was your parents’ mission… Take him down, but just him, correct?”

  “Yeah. But what if there are more jaguar shifters involved in this? My parents haven’t had any luck in pinning him down.”

  “If he has any jaguar muscle helping him, we’ll take them all down.”

  “If he’s just got humans protecting him, we’ll have to turn them over to the local police force.”

  “We will, if we don’t have to fight them and take them out to protect ourselves or your folks.” Howard wasn’t about to mention what he feared had happened. Her parents were already dead. He was certain Val had already thought the same thing.

  “Good. I hoped you would feel that way. Do you think you would ever want to work as an Enforcer again?”

  “If I had the right incentive. The right partner.”

  “You would work with a partner again in the Enforcer branch, even after what had happened to you before you began to work solo?” she asked.

  “Yeah. Working with agents of other branches, and now other kinds of shifters, has really helped me to see the advantage of sharing ideas and using one another’s skills to accomplish the job with fewer casualties on our side. What about you? Would you ever be interested in joining another branch?”

  “If I had the right incentive. The right partner.”

  He smiled. Sure, he could return to work as an Enforcer, but he really did like working with the mix of people he was with. They truly were a team.

  They were quiet after that and had driven for a couple of hours when Val finally pointed to the street. “Okay, this is the area. The drug house is down the street to the right. It should be the third house. White siding. There’s a vacant lot first. And another on the other side of it. It’s a mix of homes, vacant lots, trees, shrubs, a few businesses. Looks like this area is zoned commercial.”

  “Do you know what vehicle your parents were driving?”

  “Yeah. A gray Nissan Versa.”

  “I don’t see one in the area.” He drove by Eric’s house, looking for a place to park that wouldn’t make them stand out too much. “Laundromat, café, gas station, and grocery store are nearby.”

  “If we walk around at all, we’re going to be noticed.”

  “Screw it. If your parents are in danger, I don’t want to wait.” Howard drove around the block until he was back on the street where the house was located. He pulled up next to the treed front yard. “Ready?”

  “Knife, throwing stars, gun. Yeah, I’m ready.”

  “Okay, let’s do this.”

  Howard and Val exited the car.

  Three vehicles—a blue pickup and a couple of sedans—were sitting on the dirt road leading up to the side of the house. A couple of cars and trucks were parked along the street a few lots down.

  “Could be more than we bargained for here,” Val warned, motioning to the three vehicles parked at the house.

  “Yeah. You still want to do this, don’t you?”

  “Yeah. If my parents are in trouble, we need to. Besides, we’ve already made our move, and if anyone’s watching, they know it.”

  The two of them walked together, eyeing the windows to see if they noticed any movement. That was the advantage of their jaguar sight. They could detect the slightest movement that humans might be incapable of seeing.

  “Window to our left, a woman peeked out,” Val said.

  “I noticed. They’ll be ready for us.”

  They were close to the door when they heard a man say to someone, “Hell, you shot the agents. Now look at the damn mess you got us into.”

  Howard glanced at Val to see if she’d heard. He felt sick to his stomach, thinking that whoever the man was, he’d killed her parents. She looked pale as Howard knocked on the door, his free hand in his pocket where he had a switchblade. He’d rather take care of a jaguar shifter as a big cat, but for now, he didn’t have any choice.

  A woman answered the door but only opened it narrowly. She was a petite blond with blue eyes, her gaze darting from him to Val. And she was a jaguar. “Y-yes?” she asked, her voice stuttering a little with nervousness.

  He hated that Eric and his partners had used a woman to cover for them. Unless she was involved in the drug deals. She looked sweet and innocent, but since she was here, she most likely knew all about the drug business. Unless she was here against her will.

  “We’re looking for Eric. Is he here?”

  Her eyes widened again. “I don’t know anyone by that name.”

  Howard pushed his way into the house. “He’s a jaguar like you. Like us. Where is he?”

  “Y-you’re jaguars?” The woman looked shocked. Since they were still wearing hunter’s spray, she hadn’t detected their scents.

  Val quickly shut the door, then secured the woman’s arms behind her back. Even though she appeared mousy and unable to fight them, she could be just as dangerous as them if she shifted.

  They heard movement in the kitchen. Val took the woman’s arm, and she and Howard moved toward the kitchen.

  “Who else is here?” Howard asked the woman, his voice hushed.

  “Just a cat. He must have gotten into my plants again.”

  “Jaguar?”

  “No, no, little cat.”

  He didn’t believe the woman for a moment. “We heard men talking.”

  “Lie down on the floor,” Val said to the woman. “Don’t move.” She showed her the gun she was carrying. “I’m an Enforcer. I won’t hesitate to take you down if you interfere or try to run.”

  The woman’s eyes rounded.

  Yeah, tell someone you were an Enforcer, and that got the jaguar’s attention. Howard had to admit mentioning being one of the Enforcers, who took a lethal approach in their missions, had a lot more of an effect on a perp than telling him he was a USF agent. Most shifters still hadn’t heard of the newly formed branch, so he often used the Enforcer card when he wanted to impress upon the individual how serious his business was.

  Howard and Val moved into the kitchen where a window was wide open, the breeze whipping the bright-pink curtains about. “Out back,” Val said.

  They peered through the window and saw two men running, both dressed in jeans, sneakers, and T-shirts, the one dark-haired, the other blond.

  “I’ll go after them. You get what you can out of the woman,” Howard said.

  “We’re supposed to stay together.”

  “Right. But she might have the information we need. We don’t want to lose her too if I miss catching up to either one of these guys. She might know what happened to your parents. If not, we can’t afford to lose these men.”

  “All right.” But Val didn’t sound happy about it.

  Howard ran through the house, racing out the front door and around to the back. There were no fences around most of the small houses; all had sizable lots with fruit trees and other vegetation that helped to separate the properties. He hoped he’d catch up to at least one of the men. They weren’t wearing hunter’s spray like he was, so he easily followed their trail through the properties. The problem was that they could have friends in the neighborhood who would offer them safe harbor. Maybe even provide backup for them.

  He hadn’t wanted to leave Val behind. He seriously hoped she could get something out of the woman about where her parents were. Though he did worry the guys he was chasing might call for support to protect the woman in the house or to take her out so she didn’t talk. Which would put Val at more of a risk.

  For now, he was running as fast as he could to catch up to the two men, hoping he’d have only two to handle at the same time.

  Chapter 8

  Val helped the woman to sit up in the living room of the perp’s drug house, worrying about Howard but praying the woman would know where Val’s parents were and that they were still alive. Though the one man saying the other had shot agents didn’t sound good.

  “Okay, look, I know you’re working with Eric or you wouldn’t be here. He’s sold that purple heroin shit to people who have died from it. He’s a murderer, pure and simple. Our kind can’t go to human jails long term. You probably know that means we have to terminate him. What does that mean for you? I’m taking Eric down. And anybody who works with him selling this shit. My parents are both Enforcers, and they were here to do that. They called me, and now they’ve disappeared off the radar. If you know something about it and can tell me where they are, I can just let you disappear, with strong advice to get out of this business before you’re on the target list. You don’t want to be there, believe me.”

  “I don’t know where they are. I swear it.” The woman’s heart was racing, and she smelled of rampant fear.

  “Okay, let’s try this again. I’m going to ask you where they are, and you’re going to tell me, because if you don’t, I’m going to eliminate you right here and now and go help out my partner. There’s no sense in me wasting my time here otherwise. My parents were watching this house. They were close by. So. Where. Are. They?”

  “All right. All right. Eric said he saw them and thought they were bad news. He…he didn’t say who he thought they were. I believed they wanted some of his business. Or…or maybe he was encroaching on their sales territory. I didn’t know. I didn’t ask. I figured they were all in the same business. All drug people. Not once did he say they were with the…the Enforcer branch. I…I would never have guessed it. I don’t have anything to do with any of this.”

  Val felt nauseated. She often was when she found a murdered victim. This was so much more personal. She couldn’t have lost her parents. “What did Eric do about it?”

  The woman looked away. Val feared the worst. Eric and whoever else was working with him had murdered her parents. “Tell me. Who was the man that said the other had shot the agents?” Val’s voice was hard with anger. She considered that she should have been soft and encouraging. But she was an Enforcer. Being sympathetic wasn’t part of her mission. The woman could be just as deeply involved in this business as Eric. She could have watched him kill Val’s parents. She could have helped.

  “Ren said that to Eric. You promise you’ll let me go? I’ll…I’ll leave. For good. I’ll never see Eric again.”

  “As long as you had nothing to do with harming my parents.” Val wasn’t going to lie. If the woman had helped to kill them, she was a dead woman.

  “I…I didn’t. I didn’t know what Eric did, but he said he was going to take care of them. And then I heard Ren say Eric had shot them right before you knocked on the door. But Eric and four other men had all been in on it.”

  “When did this happen?” Val ground her teeth to try to keep her emotions in check. She desperately wanted to kill the men.

  “An hour ago.”

  That gave Val hope her parents were still alive, but she figured Eric and his cohorts wouldn’t have made that mistake. “Where are my parents?”

  “Unless they moved the bodies, and I don’t think they were going to until it got dark, they’re at the house across the street.”

  A cold sweat covered Val’s skin. “You lied about not knowing anything.”

  “Eric threatened to kill me. And he has a lot of men who would do the job for him. I didn’t know he was into all this. Your parents rented the house across the street. An older man and woman? We didn’t think anything of it until Eric grew suspicious for some reason. Not sure why. But he can be really paranoid sometimes. I didn’t think they were anything but some Americans tourists. There’s a beach near here and a rain-forest park nearby.”

  “You’re coming with me.”

  The woman looked alarmed, the scent of her fear escalating, her eyes huge. “Wait, no. You said you were going to release me.”

  Her reaction concerned Val, making her believe the woman did have something to do with her parents’ deaths. Maybe she was afraid Val would smell her involvement in the rental house. “After I find my parents.”

  “I told you. They’re in the house over there. At least, I think so, if they killed them over there and didn’t take them somewhere else.”

  “Come on then. Let’s go see.” Val’s heart was beating out of control, and her palms were sweaty. She knew she’d find her parents dead, and she wanted to kill every last person who was involved in their murder and the sale of the heroin. She cut off the ties around the woman’s wrists. “I can kill you easily with my bare hands. No need to use a gun or a knife, and I’m armed with both, so don’t scream or call any attention to yourself in any way or you’ll be dead. Understand?”

  “Yeah…yeah.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Emmie Bancroft.”

  “Your real name.” Val escorted her out through the front door, watching for any sign of anyone observing them or coming to the house. She saw no one, just a black-and-white cat perched on a fence eyeing them.

  “That is my real name. I haven’t ever done nothing wrong. You won’t find me in your databases or on your termination list. I just…I just started dating Eric because he was rich and fun. And when he said he had a house in Belize… Well, being a jaguar, it was all I could have ever hoped for. I…I didn’t know the kind of trouble he was in.”

  Val gave her a look that said she didn’t believe her as they walked down the long driveway.

  “Well, I didn’t. Not until we got here, and then I overheard some of his friends talking. I’m not involved in any of it. He never tells me nothing. I didn’t have any money or a car to get out of here. I’ve been stuck, trying to pretend I’m clueless.”

  Val still didn’t believe her. She wouldn’t until she gave Emmie’s information to headquarters and they ran it to see if Emmie Bancroft was who she said she was.

  Val eyed the rental house but didn’t see any movement. “Who are the other men working with Eric?”

  “Ren, but I don’t know his last name. Eric just calls him Ren. And Bixby. Eric keeps calling him Bro. I think he really is his brother, but he never came out and said so. Harington is the other man. I’m sure Eric is in contact with others, but I’ve never seen them, and I don’t know their names. Eric sent Bixby on a job, but he hasn’t returned. Eric was worried he might have met with foul play. Oh, and then there’s Benny. He got into trouble in the States and ran down here, but Eric isn’t happy with him. I don’t know any of their last names though. Everyone is on a first-name basis only.”

  “Benny?”

  They crossed the street and began to walk up the rental house’s driveway.

  “Yeah. I only met him last night. He looked nervous, his hands shoved in his pockets. Eric’s really pissed at him. So he sent Bixby with him to take care of some problem.”

  “This Benny?” Val asked, showing Emmie her phone and the picture of Benny that the construction manager had on him.

  “Uh, yeah, that’s him.”

  Then she showed her the photo of the dead man. “Is this Bixby?”

  Emmie’s lips parted, her eyes wide. She looked up at Val. “He’s…he’s dead?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s Bixby. Eric is going to have a meltdown.”

  “Too bad. Bixby attempted to murder me.”

  “I’m…I’m so sorry.”

  They went to the front door of the gray house. It had a one-car garage, and Val wondered if she’d find her parents’ rental car inside. She motioned to the front door. “Open it. In case someone’s inside other than my parents, I want you to call out that you’re Emmie, Eric’s girlfriend, and you thought Eric was over here.”

  “He doesn’t call me that.”

  “Whatever. Just don’t tip anyone off that I’m with you.” Though anyone could have been watching out the windows and seen what was going on. Val thought if someone had, he would have either come for her when Howard took off after the other men or called for more backup.