“How was the run? Besides invigorating and stimulating?”

  “Good. We spooked a bunch of baboons. I was worried about you running as a wolf, but we could take a run together. People would probably just think you’re a big dog that befriended a jaguar.”

  She grunted.

  Dogs originally came from wolves, but wolves didn’t like to be thought of as dogs, which had a lot to do with how dogs mated with any old dog instead of for life as wolves did. Still, it would be a way to explain how a wolf would be running through the rain forest in Belize.

  He eyed the spaghetti on the stove. “I told Val I’d barbecue, but I can do that tomorrow.”

  “I hope she doesn’t have her heart set on the ribs. I just figured I’d get this started and it would be ready about the time you returned.”

  “I guess I should tell her in case she doesn’t like spaghetti.” Howard called Val and told her about the change in menu.

  “Sounds good. I love spaghetti.”

  “Great. It’s done, if you’d like to come over now.”

  “Sure thing. Um, got a text. Be over in a moment.” She ended the call.

  “She’ll be over in a few minutes, Jillian.” Howard started to set the table, wondering who was texting Val. Someone who was keeping her informed about where Benny was headed? He hoped so, and that she’d keep them informed about where she was going.

  “I hope this isn’t a bust and Benny doesn’t show up.” Jillian began serving garlic toast.

  Howard placed bottles of water on the table, then set out the silverware and plates. “Hopefully not.”

  A knock on the door sounded, then Val called out, “Just me.”

  “Come in,” Jillian yelled. “I’m just getting ready to serve up the spaghetti. Salad and the toasted garlic bread are on the table.”

  Val entered the cabin and shut the door. “Sure smells great.”

  “Thanks,” Jillian said. “Is everyone up for a glass of wine? You have to have red wine with spaghetti.”

  “Yeah, sure, thanks.”

  “I’ll get the bottle.” Howard returned to the kitchen and brought the bottle out of the pantry.

  Val found wineglasses. After Howard poured the wine, Val took two of the glasses to the table, and Howard brought the other.

  They all sat down to eat, Val at the head of the table and Howard across from Jillian.

  “I let my boss know about the two of you and that having the three of us here could cause complications.”

  “What did he say?” Howard asked, dishing up some of the garlic bread and salad.

  “You know how Sylvan is. He said to do whatever it took to get the job done without causing civilian casualties. And that whatever I did, I shouldn’t turn anyone or get myself killed.”

  “That goes without saying. Trying to get a newly turned shifter back to the States from south of the border can be a big problem when they can’t control their shifting.” Howard took a bite of the garlic toast. “Great toast.”

  “Thanks,” Jillian said.

  “What I want to know is what is going on with Benny? Is he here already, off barhopping maybe? Running as a jaguar?”

  “Let me see what I can learn.” Val pulled out a business card and called the owner of the resort, putting the phone on speaker. “Hi, I just checked in at one of your cabins, and friends of mine are staying at the one next door. We have more friends who talked of joining us, if they could get the cabin on the other side of number three. Is that one occupied?”

  “Yes, a gentleman is staying there. He picked up his key already.”

  “How long does he intend to stay?”

  “Three weeks.”

  “Okay, I’ll let my friends know.”

  “We have other cabins available.”

  “I’ll let them know that too. If they decide they want to come down, they’ll call you and make arrangements directly with you.”

  “Muchas gracias, señorita.”

  When Val finished the call, she breathed a sigh of relief. “I was worried Benny had decided not to show up, but since he picked up the key and has rented the cabin for three weeks, he should be around soon. We can go search around the place, but this time, I’ll put on hunter’s spray.”

  “I take it I’m cabin-sitting.” Jillian took another piece of garlic bread.

  “I think that would be for the best, don’t you?” Howard asked her.

  “Yeah, I do.”

  * * *

  Val liked that Howard had asked Jillian what she wanted to do instead of just ordering her around.

  After they finished eating, Howard and Val washed the dishes. Then he went into his bedroom to strip and shift. Val did the same in the living room, spraying hunter’s spray before shifting. Once they had shifted, they went to the back door.

  “Be careful, you two.” Jillian opened the back door for them, and they bounded out of the cabin and down the steps.

  Val and Howard moved silently through the trees, staying off the lighted pathways and listening for any sound of movement in Benny’s cabin. She noticed a faint light on inside. She smelled Benny’s scent and that of the woman he’d been with at the club. Great. Had she bought her own ticket to Belize?

  Trying to take care of him without the woman learning about it was going to be a bigger chore. They didn’t want her calling the local police to tell them her boyfriend went missing.

  Val and Howard moved around the back side of the cabin and saw light spilling from a bedroom window into the woods. Unless they’d left a light on and departed, Val assumed someone was home. No vehicle was parked near the cabin though. And she didn’t hear anyone talking or any lovemaking.

  Then she saw the shadow of someone walking around in the room. Val and Howard moved farther into the shadows of the trees and watched as the blond-haired woman looked out the window.

  Thankfully, she appeared to be fine. Val indicated to Howard with a nudge of her head that she wanted to look for Benny. She thought he must have taken off in a rental car, unless he and the woman had used some other transportation to get here, but if he was running as a jaguar, she hoped to take him down tonight.

  Usually, Val took care of a perp, headed home for a break, and then took on her next assignment. This time, she’d have to ensure the woman got home all right. But the issue of the woman calling the Belizean police could be a real problem. Unless they could convince her Benny had abandoned her because he was on the run from the American police for having murdered his wife.

  Val and Howard spread out from each other and began to canvass the area. She smelled where Benny had run before as a jaguar and wondered just how long ago he’d moved through there. Luckily, rain didn’t wash away scents. He had circled the huge pond a couple of times and run along the river in the opposite direction they had taken earlier.

  They were all creatures of habit, unless something forced them to see a particular path as dangerous, and then they might change their route. She and Howard just had to learn when Benny would take another jaguar run and nail him.

  She realized, as she was making up a plan of action in her head, that she was already including Howard in her plans. She swore he’d gotten under her jaguar coat the first time she’d trained with him. He was pure male and hot testosterone, domineering and decisive, but also willing to let her decide what she was going to do about Benny while protecting her back.

  They headed back to Howard and Jillian’s cabin in a roundabout way. When they finally reached the cabin, Val slapped the door with her paw. It wasn’t a loud sound, her claws retracted, but with their sensitive hearing, she knew Jillian would realize it was them.

  Jillian opened the door, phone in hand, and smiled. “What did you learn?”

  Howard loped down the hall.

  Val shifted and began to dress, yanking on her panties and then her bra. “The woman he was dancing with at the jaguar-owned club is here. She was at the cabin. We didn’t see a vehicle parked nearby, and we found the paths he’s taken as a jaguar through the rain forest.” She pulled on her shirt.

  “Oh, the woman being here isn’t good,” Jillian said.

  “I agree. Any news from Vaughn?” Val pulled on her pants, socks, and then her boots.

  “They’re still after the guy. I sent Vaughn pictures of the resort. He wants to come here with me when we are both free sometime.”

  “It’s beautiful. There’s lots to see and do. You’ll have fun.” Val wasn’t sure about the wolves running as wolves, but snorkeling, diving, canoeing, and all kinds of fun activities for them to do as humans would make up for it.

  Howard came out of the bedroom and joined them. “If we hear a car drive into their area, we’ll let you know. If you do, if you can give us a heads-up, that would be great. We’ll try to intercept him.”

  “Will do. Do you want to meet up with me and go out really early in the morning if we don’t hear him tonight? Maybe he’ll run before there’s much activity around the place,” Val said.

  “Yeah, let’s do that. Even earlier if we hear his car come in later tonight. I had an idea though—about the woman. What if you and Jillian try to befriend Benny’s girlfriend while he’s gone? Not tonight. It’s too late, and she might be afraid if you showed up over there. If you’re together, you can protect each other if Benny suddenly shows up. You’d be wearing hunter’s spray, so he wouldn’t know you’re shifters. Maybe if you visited with her for a bit, we could learn where he’s gone and who she is. Then we can look into her background. I’d go, but she might feel more at ease talking to a couple of women. That way, you can both tell her to call you if she wants some company or needs anything else,” Howard said.

  “Like he gets weird with her and she needs a place to retreat to. Sounds like a winning idea to me,” Val said. “If she tells him we’ve been there, he won’t think anything of it. Just more Americans staying in the resort and being super friendly.”

  “I like it. So what’s the story you and I would share?” Jillian asked. “My boyfriend is in the States and couldn’t get free from his job, so I came with the two of you?”

  “She might wonder why I’m staying with you and not with Val if she learns about it,” Howard said.

  “Right. The two of you are dating, and that’s why you’re staying together. I’m here because my boyfriend couldn’t get away to vacation with us. Maybe we’d had this planned for a year, and suddenly he couldn’t come with us,” Val said.

  “That sounds like it would work,” Jillian said.

  “Do you have a specific reason you’re over there bothering her?” Howard asked. “If she’s not out and about and you just happen to run into her, it might seem odd that you knock on her door and say hi.”

  Everyone was thinking, trying to come up with a good reason for starting up a conversation with her.

  “I’ve got it,” Val said. “We thought she was a girl we knew from high school.” And that would be the way in, if Benny was gone and Val and Jillian could see the woman on her own. “We could talk more about it over breakfast.”

  “Sounds good,” Jillian said, and Howard agreed.

  “All right. Night all,” Val said.

  Jillian and Howard said good night to her.

  Val thought things couldn’t get any more complicated until she’d left their place and was heading through the forest when she saw a man skulking around in the dark, heading toward Benny’s place.

  This was not good.

  Chapter 5

  Heart pounding, Val entered her cabin quietly and quickly, intent on going after the prowler heading for Benny’s cabin and leaving her door slightly ajar. She didn’t turn on any lights and hurried to remove her clothes, then shifted. She wasn’t about to waste time and lose the opportunity to discover who was prowling around in the dark and stop him, if it meant he’d chase off her prey. As soon as she’d slipped out the door and leaped off the steps, she raced after the man. Wearing camo pants and a shirt, he was partly crouched like a hunter would be, still moving through the woods in the direction of Benny’s cabin. But he didn’t smell like Benny. And he was human.

  She growled a little, afraid whoever it was would tip Benny off that someone was looking for him. As soon as the man moved closer to the light that was on in one of the bedrooms, she could make out his features better. It was Rowdy, the homicide detective from Montana. He wasn’t going to arrest her perp. She couldn’t let him.

  Without giving her actions another thought, she pounced on him, knocking him out with a swipe of her paw, silencing him before he could cry out. She dragged him back to her cabin. A jaguar was capable of carrying a deer into a tree, so one human was no trouble at all. But man, was she pissed. Now she had to deal with him!

  She dragged him up the steps—had to shift to open the door, then shift back to move him again—and pulled him into the living room. Then she ran to shut her door, shifted, and locked it. She turned around and thought she saw Rowdy’s eyes slam shut. Ohmigod, had he seen her shift? She studied him. She had to know: Did he now realize jaguar shifters existed along with wolves? She knew he did!

  Her boss would be furious with her.

  At least she had plastic ties so she could bind Rowdy and tape for his mouth to keep him quiet. What if he managed to get up and take off while she was getting the ties? She raced into her bedroom and grabbed a bag that had the essentials she needed. Then she ran back into the living room, watching him before she approached. He smelled of fear, and his heart was pounding. He wasn’t unconscious then, and he had to have seen her shift.

  What the hell was she going to do with him for however long it took to deal with Benny? Then she realized she had another problem. If Howard or Jillian came to her place, they’d know she’d had a visitor. She needed to move him to the spare bedroom. She’d have to keep them away from here until she could figure out what to do with him.

  Still lying on the floor, Rowdy suddenly opened his eyes and looked straight at her, though he appeared to be dazed. As soon as he saw the ties and tape, he tried to sit up. She quickly knocked him out with a well-placed kick with her bare foot to his head. Then she tied his hands behind his back and taped his mouth.

  She shifted into her jaguar again and dragged Rowdy into the spare bedroom. His heart rate was racing, so he was okay, thank God, but he had to know he was in trouble, more so than if she was just human. A little harder swipe with her paw and she could have killed him. But if he had alerted Benny that people were after him and Benny had run off… She growled.

  Val raced into the living room, shifted, and hurried to dress. Once she had her pants and shirt on, she returned to the spare room.

  She hoped she didn’t get kicked off the force for this. What else could she have done though? She hadn’t killed him. She’d just tell him that Benny was a shifter, and they had to eliminate him. Would the detective go along with that? Maybe not. He was a homicide detective, working to put murderers behind bars. And if she eliminated Benny, Rowdy would probably feel justified in taking her in.

  She could bite Rowdy. And then, as Howard had said, the real nightmare would begin. Returning Rowdy to the States so someone could watch over him until he got the shifting under control would be a real chore. Which would mean she would have to take care of him. No way did she want that.

  She was dead tired, needing to sleep. She took a pillow off the guest bed and put it under his head. Then she sat on the bed and waited for him to stir.

  She must have dozed off on the bed, because the next thing she heard was the faint sound of a car driving down the road and parking at Benny’s place. At the same time, she heard Rowdy struggling to get free of his wrist ties. Then her cell phone buzzed.

  Her heartbeat quickened, and she yanked her phone out. Howard. Texting her that he’d heard Benny’s car arrive. At least he thought it was. Did she want to go with him to check it out? He’d meet her on her porch steps.

  No! He’d smell that Rowdy had come up her steps.

  She quickly texted Howard back.

  Heading to your place. Wait for me there.

  She flipped on the light in the guest bedroom, and Rowdy stared up at her from the floor, his blue eyes wide.

  “Okay, listen, are you after Benny Canton for what he did to Lucy?”

  Rowdy just gawked at her.

  “Nod your head.”

  He didn’t.

  “All right, he’s a shifter. Got that? A shifter. And he can’t go to jail. We know you know about some of us. And we know you also understand we have to take care of our own. You need to leave this to us and return home. Okay?”

  Rowdy nodded, but she didn’t trust him to go along with the plan. “Just…go to sleep, and when I return, we’ll talk some more.”

  She hurried out of the bedroom and opened the door to her cabin just enough for her to squeeze through, then moved away from the door, stripped, and shifted. She was hoping Howard wouldn’t come to see what was taking her so long to join him.

  She tore off to meet up with Howard, figuring she was in so much trouble, but she had no idea how to fix this.

  * * *

  Howard was afraid Val had taken off to check on Benny herself, but he thought she’d been sincere when she’d said she’d go with him to see if Benny was now home. Howard was watching Benny’s cabin in case he went for a jaguar run when he heard movement behind him. Val hurried to join him in her golden jaguar form. She wasn’t as stealthy as she usually was, so he figured she was in a rush to meet up with him. When she got close, he was surprised to smell the scent of a male on her. Someone he hadn’t smelled before. A human.

  He frowned.