“Hey, we’ll help you set up the cameras,” Nathan said, taking some of the equipment.

  Emerson was glad he had help with this. They would get it done in half the time or less than him doing it himself.

  “After we help put these up, we want to propose we stay here until you leave for Yuma Town,” Luke told Emerson.

  “Yeah, sure. You can take any cabin you want. We have one through four available,” Emerson said.

  “Okay. We just feel after seeing how Smith deals with Jessie, he always knows just where she’s at. If he knows that,” Nathan said, “he probably knows she’s with you.”

  “Two of us will bunk together in cabin four since it’s closest to both your place and the main house and Barrett will stay with your uncle to protect him. My brother and I will split forces between your cabin and the house if attacks occur at both places. We were prepared and brought some things we might need with us to stay overnight, just in case. Since Smith will be out for your blood, all the force might be on your cabin,” Luke said. “Particularly if he doesn’t know that Barrett is one of the men here too. We’ll park our vehicle at the cabin so it looks like you have some guests.”

  “Maybe Jessie should stay with my uncle,” Emerson said. He wanted her with him so he could protect her, but he and Barrett would be the main targets, though Smith might not know he was in the picture also.

  “No way. I’ll be with you, Emerson,” Jessie said.

  “Jessie seems to be a fighter, not like us in our occupations, but nonetheless, she did chase after us in her cougar coat. That took some balls,” Luke said, smiling at her. “Still, it might be in her best interest to keep her out of the crossfire.”

  “No, I’m sticking with Emerson,” she reiterated.

  He rubbed her back.

  “Are you going to tell your teammates what we’ve learned?” Nathan asked.

  Barrett said, “I would. If it was me who had been hit, I would want to know.”

  “The one guy’s head wound was pretty serious. I would hate to see him come here to fight a battle that soon after the injury. It will take longer for him to heal completely, even though he’s a wolf shifter,” Emerson said. “The others, I haven’t been in touch with. I don’t have any idea where they’re located. Condor’s been keeping up with them. I’ll tell him as soon as Smith is history. He’ll be glad to know he doesn’t have to keep looking over his shoulder and that we got rid of the man who set us up and he can tell the others.”

  Barrett agreed. “Okay, yeah. Depending on where they live, they might not be able to get here soon enough to help us deal with Smith.”

  “Right,” Emerson said. Just like Condor and the others didn’t know where Emerson lived.

  “We may have to escort you down to Yuma Town when you leave here to go there for Christmas,” Luke said. “If he doesn’t show up here, or send goons to take you out, he could be waiting for you to drive out of here, if he knows anything about your plans.”

  “I told him I would be going to Yuma Town, so he knows my plans,” Jessie said, sounding regretful.

  “It sounds to me like he’s just learning from you what’s going on,” Nathan said.

  “Or what about social network sites?” Luke asked. “Because of Emerson and Barrett’s jobs, I’m sure they’re not on social media sites.”

  “Yeah, I’m on all the social media sites, showing the places I’ve been, the photos I’m taking. I could see where he would be following me on that.”

  “Did you mention Emerson at all? Show pictures of him?” Luke asked.

  “Ohmigod, no, but I can see what you mean. Smith is a friend on my Facebook page. He never posts, but he did ask me to friend him when I first met him.” Jessie patted Emerson’s thigh. “Sorry, you’ll have to remain anonymous for the moment. But once he’s no longer a threat? We’re in a relationship. I can use another photo of you though, in case you think anyone else is gunning for you.”

  “Yeah, well, we can work around that,” Emerson said, not wanting her to feel she’d made a mistake in mating him. He was glad that must be the way Smith was keeping track of her and not that he’d put tracking devices on her personal items or had someone keeping an eye on her. That’s what he’d been really worried about.

  “Do you think he would wait until we were on the road to Yuma Town?” Jessie asked.

  “I believe he’ll hit us here, not wanting to get your family involved.” Emerson was sure of it. Smith would want this to go in his favor and he might feel there was an unknown amount of firepower where Jessies’ family was concerned. Unless he’d met everyone in Yuma Town, he might not realize about all the cougars there who would be after his head.

  “Not because he’s concerned for their safety, but because he would be afraid of what they could do to him,” Jessie said.

  “Exactly.” Emerson rose from his seat. “Let’s put up the video cameras and start monitoring for Smith’s arrival, should he come here.”

  “I’m staying here to protect Jessie,” Uncle Paul said, which was just what Emerson had planned on.

  “I’m going to write.” Jessie got off the couch and gave Emerson a hug and a kiss. “Stay safe out there.”

  “We will. No telling when Smith might hit us. He knows you and I and Uncle Paul can see at night so he won’t have the advantage. But he still might believe we won’t think he’ll hit us during the day.” Emerson began pulling on his parka.

  “You let Uncle Paul and me know if you need our help.”

  “We will.” Then Emerson kissed her, and he and the other guys finished dressing warmly before they headed outside with the equipment into the snowy cold.

  “You’re one lucky cat,” Luke said to Emerson.

  “Yeah, and I have my uncle to thank for that.” Emerson shut the door and heard the lock click on the inside. “I just hope to keep them both safe through all this.”

  Then the men began to set up the first of the security cameras. They were going to split up into pairs, but they figured they should have two watch for trouble instead. All of them were armed, so if they came under fire, they would be prepared.

  “I’m taking some cocoa out to the guys,” Uncle Paul said to Jessie after the guys had been outside for about an hour and a half as she was busily typing away on a scene and he was busy in the kitchen. He was so sweet and set a hot cup of cocoa on the coffee table for her too.

  “Okay, sure. And thanks for the cocoa!” She figured he felt cooped up and wanted to go out and talk with the guys for a bit. Maybe so he wouldn’t disturb her, and she knew they would appreciate some cocoa to warm them up. “Make sure they’re setting everything up right.”

  Paul was zipping up his jacket. “How did you know I planned to do just that?”

  She chuckled and took a sip of her cocoa and he finished pulling on his hat and scarf. She quickly got up from the couch and got the door for him so he could carry the armful of thermoses of cocoa outside. She noted he had enough for even himself. She shut the door and went back to working on her story, hearing the men thanking Paul for the cocoa and she smiled, so glad he was here with Emerson and her. At least he wouldn’t be alone any longer, but she still had it in mind to do some serious matchmaking.

  She’d been working on the story for some time when she realized Paul had been gone for a while. Then she heard someone approaching the house and she peered outside. Paul was trudging through the snow, returning with the empty thermoses, smiling. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him happier than now. He was totally in his element, his nephew home and mated, and his bear friends all here.

  Jessie heard something in the master bedroom, not sure what. Just something. She got up to check it out before she had to open the door for Paul. To her horror, she hadn’t made it to the hall when she saw Samuel, or Smith, or whatever his name was, coming out of the master bedroom, his gun pointed at her.

  “You tried to set me up by having me meet with you in Yuma Town. And to my amazement, you’re with Thor,” Smith said to her. “Don’t you realize what happens to people who betray me?”

  Thor? “And the men you set up, had they betrayed you?” Jessie knew they hadn’t. That Smith was just a bastard who did it for monetary gain, at least she figured.

  Smith shrugged. “All’s fair in the game of assassinations. They should have known I wasn’t to be trusted.”

  “So it was their fault you had them ambushed first?” She couldn’t believe anyone could be that twisted. “Just for money.” She guessed, but she wanted him to admit it for sure.

  “Money talks.”

  That was exactly what she thought, and she shook her head. “And me?”

  “You can’t imagine how amused I was that you were telling me about all these rogues you had dated, and your family had taken it upon themselves to eliminate them. I can’t believe you were naïve enough to believe I wouldn’t figure out your game when you wanted to get together with me in Yuma Town. And your family would have been ready to eliminate me. What kind of fool do you take me for?”

  “One that would come here and be right where we wanted you.”

  “What, here? With Barrett and a couple of other bear shifters to fight for Thor? Losers. The whole lot of them. My men will take care of them.” Smith forced her to go to the master bedroom. She realized he hadn’t planned to just shoot her there. What was he planning to do? Take her with him? It would never happen.

  Uncle Paul opened the front door, his hands holding the tray of empty cocoa mugs and Smith raised his gun to shoot him. No!

  “Watch out!” she shouted to Paul in warning, shoving Smith’s arm up. He still got a shot off and Paul crumpled. “No!” she screamed.

  Gunfire erupted in the woods around the resort and she figured that was Smith’s plan. To wait for Uncle Paul to return to the house, kill him, and then the gunshot would signal to Smith’s men to open fire on Emerson and the bears before they could come to Uncle Paul’s and her aid.

  Smith dragged her to the master bedroom where she saw the window was already open, and she realized that’s how Smith had gotten in. And that must have been the noise she had heard when she was in the living room and went to investigate. Uncle Paul must have had it open sometime during good weather and never locked it. Smith let go of her and told her to climb out through the window, but she wasn’t about to. She ducked behind the bed for cover, hoping he would flee. He fired a shot at the bed, but missed her. She waited a moment, heard Emerson ask if Paul was going to be okay, and was on his phone with 911, calling for an ambulance.

  “Jessie, bedroom, Smith…” Paul managed to get out.

  Smith was climbing out the window while she was hurrying to strip off her clothes and shift. She couldn’t let him get away no matter what or they would continue to have to watch their backs until he was dead. She knew Emerson would take care of his uncle. Shots were being fired outside still as she leaped out of the window as a cougar, landed in the snow, and raced after Smith. Shots sounded farther away, down below at the water’s edge, not in her direction and she assumed the guys had been putting a wildlife camera up down below.

  Smith couldn’t outrun her as a human. He wouldn’t have heard her silent pursuit, but he glanced back just the same to make sure no one was following him, saw her, and stopped to fire a shot. She dodged out of his line of sight, hoping she wouldn’t be hit, but she wasn’t letting him go.

  Before long, she didn’t hear any more shots fired near the resort. The sound of a siren way off in the distance was headed in the direction of the resort. And more sirens wailing indicated police cars were on their way. She prayed Uncle Paul would be all right. And that none of the others had been injured. She was still in hot pursuit of Smith. She was relentless when she had to finish something and, in this case, it was to make sure Smith wouldn’t hurt anyone ever again.

  She assumed Smith was running to where he had a vehicle parked, but before he could turn and get another shot off at her, she saw a big cat, her mate, running deeper in the woods parallel to her. Man, was she glad to see Emerson. She could have gone back to be with Paul at this point, but she knew the ambulance would be coming for him, and probably the bears would be there with him and telling the police what had gone down. Which meant she and Emerson couldn’t be found as cougars.

  Suddenly, a bear stood up in Smith’s path. She thought it was probably Barrett, since she’d seen Nathan and Luke as bears, but this bear had more light brown fur on his chest. Holy, cow, the bear was huge, ferocious, imposing. Smith had turned back to shoot at her, not realizing Emerson was on his trail and the bear was ahead of him. She’d dropped back a bit so Smith couldn’t shoot her as easily, knowing Emerson was going to get the bastard and Smith hadn’t seen her mate. He certainly hadn’t seen the bear drop to all fours and charge him. He was concentrating on her instead. Concentrate on me, Smith, she wanted to tell him, while the men you betrayed catch up to you.

  Then Barrett roared. His growly voice was quite impressive, just as her mate turned and knocked into Smith. The two of them tumbled toward the cliffs and Jessie’s heart nearly gave out. Smith could fall to his death and make it easier on everybody, but she couldn’t lose Emerson.

  Smith had a hold of Emerson’s forelegs as they tumbled toward the cliff, not letting go, telling him if he were to die, so would Emerson.

  She was so close to them, running her heart out, leaping as far as she could go, Barrett pounding the ground in their direction when Smith and Emerson went off the cliff.

  She screamed as a big cat, horrified, her heart beating out of bounds, her blood running cold. She and Barrett peered over the cliff and down at the rocks.

  Smith was holding onto Emerson’s front legs and dangling off a narrow ledge. Emerson was holding onto the ledge, not about to be pulled off the cliff. Before she could leap down to join her mate and bite Smith, Emerson snarled and bit Smith’s hand. Smith cried out in anguish. He released Emerson’s legs and fell to the rocks and water below.

  Emerson glanced up to see Jessie and Barrett watching him and he leaped up the rocks to the top. A human couldn’t have done it that easily.

  Jessie and Emerson licked each other’s faces, nuzzled, and then raced each other back to the resort to see to Paul. She realized Barrett had disappeared and she assumed he had gone to wherever he had ditched his clothes to shift and dress. She wondered if Emerson had shifted at the house like she had done, and if the police were still there, how they could explain all this.

  Emerson suddenly veered off, calling to her to come with him. She obliged and he shifted near where he had left his clothes, then quickly dressed. He gave her a hug. “Hell, I thought I’d lost you.”

  She felt the same way about him, but she couldn’t say so as a cougar.

  “I’m going to the house. I’ll climb in through the window and grab your clothes, if I can. If the police aren’t all over the place, I’ll bring your clothes to you here.”

  She realized she should have done the same thing as he had done. She wasn’t as good at this covert stuff as he was. She licked him and then leapt into a tree to wait and hope he was successful, and they didn’t have a real mess to deal with once they had to speak with the police.

  Thinking of that, what was she supposed to say?

  Emerson smiled at Jessie sitting in the tree to reassure her since she looked so worried, then he raced through the snowy woods to the main house, hoping to God his uncle was going to pull through all right. He was just damn glad Smith was dead and Jessie was okay. Now they just had to work out the details of what had happened to share with the police.

  He finally reached the back of the house and peered into the open window of the master bedroom. He didn’t hear anyone inside, and he hurried to climb in through the window, then grabbed Jessie’s clothes and climbed out the window again. He ran back to where she was sitting in the tree still. Once he reached her, she leaped down and wound herself around him in greeting. Then she shifted and he helped her to dress. He suspected that she’d never had someone help her to dress as a cougar in the woods like this after shifting since she was grown.

  It was bitterly cold out and she was shivering. “What’s our story?” she whispered.

  “The men will say we all live here, since we do, and no one knows who most of the shooters are, since we don’t know all of them. We can’t tell them about the Black Ops missions. There’s no way to verify what we do.”

  “You knew some of the shooters?” Jessie asked, sounding shocked.

  “Reginald, the bastard. I’d served time with him as an army ranger.”

  “And Smith?”

  “We’ll tell them he took you hostage, which he did in the beginning, and then I caught up with him and we fought. He fell to his death off the cliff. The others were undoubtedly hitmen, mercenaries. The police might not be able to learn who they are, but we’re all local and they’re not. Not to mention Uncle Paul hasn’t ever harmed anyone.”

  “But what do I say about Smith?”

  “He was a man who had dated you and shot at you and you escaped through the same window he came in. I take it that’s how Smith got in?”

  “Yeah, the window wasn’t locked. I suspect that Paul had opened it sometime earlier in the year and when he shut the window, he never had locked. It.”

  “Okay, so we go with that story. Smith was chasing you and as soon as I had help coming for my uncle, and Nathan was looking after him, I hurried off to rescue you. I knocked Smith off the ledge, only he grabbed hold of me and pulled me off with him.”

  Jessie looked worried. He didn’t blame her. He was used to making up cover stories.

  “He fired shots at me.”

  “We’ll add that to the story.”

  Once she had finished dressing, they headed to resort, but walked around the back, his hand on hers, squeezing tight, trying to give her comfort.