He was kissing her back, savoring her lips, her tongue, greedy for more. Her sweet body pressed against his, and he felt his other head stirring to full arousal. Hell. He had a job to do, and this wasn’t part of the mission. It was past time for him to head back to the cabin and let Jillian know he and Val were fine. He pulled his mouth away from Val’s, their hearts beating wildly, and looked down at her glazed green eyes. “I’m just glad everything worked out. I’d best be getting back to my cabin before Jillian texts Vaughn and tells him I’ve disappeared for good.”

  Val chuckled. “Good night.”

  “Sweet dreams. I know what I’ll be dreaming about.” He handed her the towel, and she gave him a hot-blooded once-over.

  He shifted, and she opened the door for him. He paused on the steps, gave her a toothy grin, and raced off into the dark to reach his cabin.

  First on the agenda was a cold shower. Again. But tonight, he was certain he’d have a hot dream featuring one beautiful jaguar siren.

  * * *

  Looking a little anxious, Jillian opened the door for Howard when he growled on the porch. Phone in hand, she asked, “How’d the run go?”

  Howard headed to his bedroom and threw on a pair of boxer briefs and Bermuda shorts. Then he returned to the living room to tell her all the news. “Val is definitely a bit of a rogue.”

  “Which intrigues you.”

  He smiled, then frowned and took a seat on the couch across from the bamboo chair Jillian was now sitting on.

  “So what did Val do now?”

  “She had a run-in with Rowdy.”

  “Oh no.”

  “Yeah. He knows we’re jaguar shifters and that you’re my partner and a wolf shifter. And that we’re all here to help take care of Benny, without Rowdy’s interference.”

  Jillian was wide-eyed. “How’d he take all that news?”

  “Surprised, of course. He agreed to go along with the plan. I don’t know what he’d planned to do with Benny on his own anyway. Benny isn’t in his jurisdiction, and Rowdy couldn’t just arrest him. When I went over to Val’s cabin, she had Rowdy tied up on the floor of her spare bedroom.”

  Jillian laughed. “I knew I liked her from the minute she gave us the slip at the hotel. Rowdy wasn’t upset with her for doing that to him?”

  “We both showed him our jaguar halves, and I think, if anything, that helped convince him we were serious about this. I believe he wants to be one of us. A wolf, more than likely. He seemed somewhat spooked to think the woman he’d dated had been a jaguar shifter. We set him straight about that.”

  “I hope that doesn’t become one of our missions.” Jillian yawned and rose from the chair.

  “Turning people?”

  “Deciding if someone should be turned and into what. See you in the morning.”

  “Night, Jillian. We’ll have breakfast, and then Val and I will go running early tomorrow morning to see if we can catch Benny in his jaguar form. You can keep watch for him in the meantime. Oh, and I invited Rowdy over for meals.”

  “You’re determined to make him one of us.”

  Howard followed Jillian to the bedrooms. “I think it’s inevitable.”

  “Sleep tight.”

  “You too.” He entered his bedroom, thinking they’d made some headway with Val but had taken a step back in having to deal with Rowdy.

  Howard sure could get into having sweet dreams about Val tonight—kissing, hugging, dancing, swimming, and more. But he could imagine having nightmares about Rowdy getting himself in trouble, and the woman Benny had brought with him getting into the middle of it.

  * * *

  Early the next morning, Val joined Howard and Jillian for breakfast, hoping they’d get somewhere with the case this morning. Rowdy came soon after. Val was still annoyed he was here and hoped he wouldn’t cause problems for them.

  “I checked out Benny’s parking space and his car isn’t there, but I heard his girlfriend banging around in the kitchen. Saw her too, so I know for sure it was her,” Howard said, serving plates of waffles.

  “What happened to us checking this out together?” Val was supposed to be doing this on her own, but the big, bad male jaguar seemed to be taking over completely.

  “I texted you several times, but you didn’t respond. I was afraid you’d gone over there on your own.” Howard set syrup on the table.

  Not believing she’d missed the texts, Val pulled out her phone and checked. Ten texts from Howard, asking her if she was ready to go with him. “Well, damn it. I left my phone in the living room. I thought I’d gotten up early enough to catch you.”

  “No problem. I checked your cabin to make sure you were all right and heard you taking a shower, so I went on ahead.”

  “Okay, so then Val and I need to try to make contact with Benny’s girlfriend,” Jillian said.

  Rowdy had to be brought up to speed on what they were talking about.

  “And if Benny returns and finds them there?” Rowdy didn’t seem to like the idea.

  “We’ll kill him, but hopefully not in front of his girlfriend,” Val said.

  Rowdy shook his head.

  Val knew he was having a time coming to grips with what they were and how they dealt with their own. She got a call from her information tech at headquarters. “Yeah, whatcha got, Manuel? Putting this on speaker.” She made the decision to let everyone hear what he’d found, even though Rowdy was a civilian and not part of their organization. He was already involved, and he might be able to help—on the sidelines.

  “Benny hasn’t been using his credit card. He might not need to, or he’s gotten a new one. I’m trying to track that down. He transferred the money from his and his wife’s joint bank account the day before he murdered her, but I can’t locate where he moved the money.”

  Val buttered her waffle. “We froze the account as soon as we discovered she had been murdered. Too late, I guess. So it was premeditated murder.”

  “Yep. Even more of a reason to terminate him. I’ll let you know if I learn whether he has a new card and bank account or anything else interesting that pops up.”

  “Thanks, Manuel. Talk later.”

  “Premeditated murder,” Jillian said. “How did anyone know she’d died without alerting the regular police?”

  “A jaguar informant told us some guy named Benny Canton had his wife chained up in the house,” Val said. “Guardian agents were sent to check on her, smelled a dead body, broke in, and found her. Benny’s scent was all over the place, no one else’s. They were certain he had been the one to murder her. His saliva in the bite marks proved he’d bitten her, causing her death,” Val said.

  Jillian shook her head.

  Rowdy was scowling. Val kept forgetting he had dated her.

  As soon as everyone finished breakfast, Val and Jillian left the dirty dishes to the men and hurried to see the woman next door. They’d worked it all out in text messages, and Val figured they’d just wing whatever they hadn’t been able to plan for. She was nervous about working with another female partner. She didn’t know Jillian well at all, what her strengths and weaknesses were, how she dealt with issues, and how well she could play along.

  They reached Benny’s cabin and saw his girlfriend watching out the kitchen window. Val took a deep breath, and she and Jillian both waved at her and went to the front door and knocked.

  When the woman answered, Val thought she looked pale, with dark circles around her eyes. “We saw you the other day, and we swore you were Camelia Whitson who went to school with us in San Antonio. You look just like her.”

  “No. I’m Izzie Summerfield. Which school did you go to?”

  “Johnson High School,” Val said.

  “I went to Reagan High School.”

  “Well, our mistake,” Jillian said.

  “You sure look like her. Doesn’t she, Jillian?”

  “She sure does. I’m Jillian Greystoke, and this is my good friend for years and years, Valerie Chambers. We’re staying at the two cabins in that direction that are nearest to yours.” Jillian motioned in the direction of their cabins. “If you ever want to drop by and say hi, feel free to do so.”

  “Hey, we’re going to walk to the pond right now. That’s where we were headed, but we wanted to drop by and see if you were Camelia. Do you want to go with us?” Val asked. “My boyfriend didn’t come with me. Work commitment.” She rolled her eyes. “We’ve been planning this for a whole year. So I just came by myself.”

  “She came with us. If my boyfriend had done that to me, I would have dumped his butt,” Jillian said and laughed.

  “One more time and I will,” Val promised.

  “She’s been saying that for two years. Don’t believe her. So, did you want to come with us to the pond?” Jillian asked.

  Izzie hesitated, looking as though she couldn’t decide.

  “If you don’t have anything better to do,” Val said.

  Izzie finally relented. “Sure. Let me grab my key.”

  Yes! Val and Jillian smiled while Izzie moved into the cabin to get her key. They didn’t say anything to each other, not wanting to be overheard. Then Izzie returned and locked the door on the way out.

  “Have you ever been to Belize before?” Jillian asked.

  Izzie shook her head. Val wondered if she was always this quiet or just around strangers. She hoped once they shared Izzie’s name with the office, they could learn more about her. “It’s a beautiful place. You can swim in the aqua waters and enjoy lying out on the white sand beaches.”

  “Snorkeling is my favorite,” Jillian said. “And horseback riding.”

  That surprised Val—about the horseback riding. Maybe Jillian just said that as a conversation starter. Though Val supposed if wolves wore hunter’s spray, they wouldn’t spook the horses.

  Val sighed. “Canoeing, checking out the caves, zip-lining, nature hikes. Just all kinds of stuff. How long are you going to be here?”

  They reached the pond and watched the fish swimming about.

  Izzie let out her breath. “I wish I could do all those things. We’re here for three weeks, but Benny…” She shrugged.

  “Don’t tell me he’s not interested in doing all those fun things. I’d be in heaven if I was going to be here that long,” Jillian said.

  “Like with Val’s boyfriend, Benny’s work has taken priority. I didn’t even know he had work commitments down here. He just made it sound like we were coming here on a fun vacation. He’s always working different construction jobs, sometimes out of state, and he’s too busy to take me with him. I mistakenly thought we were just here to have fun.”

  So she’d known him for a while. “That means you’re stuck at the cabin? No way. We can take you around.” Val suspected Izzie didn’t want to mess up the situation with Benny, but she hoped they could get her to leave him and then they would be free to protect her and take him down. Maybe Rowdy could get friendly with her and take her away. If he thought he was rescuing a would-be victim, he might go along with it.

  “We’re only here for a week, but yeah, like Val said, if you want to do anything with us girls, just let us know. We’re game.”

  “What about your boyfriend?” Izzie asked Jillian.

  “Oh, he’s a runner. As usual, he had to go for a run first thing. I go with him sometimes, but Val and I just wanted to take a walk around the pond and get settled in.”

  “I…really didn’t believe Benny would be gone so much. I’d…Googled the location, and it looked like a real paradise.” Izzie snorted. “Unless he finishes up whatever he’s doing here soon, I can just imagine it being like this the whole time.”

  “Okay, well, if he’s gone on business, just come over and we’ll do something. Since you’ve never been here before, you choose. Or we can take you on some of our fun adventures.” Val would love to get her out of there and as far away from Benny as they could.

  “Howard loves to do his own thing too, a lot. That’s why Val and I wanted to take this trip together. So we wouldn’t feel stuck in the cabin for hours with nothing but four walls to stare at.”

  “I feel like that when Benny leaves in the car. I’m stuck here, and I don’t know what to do with myself. I don’t know the area, and I’m afraid to wander off by myself.”

  “Well, leave it to us, and we can be your tour guides. So, do you still live in San Antonio?” Val asked, leading the way around the pond.

  “Yeah. I leave sometimes, but I keep returning home.”

  “To family?”

  “Nah, just to the familiar surroundings.”

  Val said, “I hear ya. We both are elementary-school teachers in the Houston area now. We couldn’t wait to get away from school, and now we’re back in the school system. Go figure.” Val had thought elementary-school teachers sounded tame and nonthreatening enough.

  “Oh, I can’t imagine teaching kids all day. I’m a secretary at a real estate office.”

  “Ever meet any rich billionaires looking for a mansion?” Jillian asked.

  Izzie laughed, the first time she had lightened up since they’d met her.

  “I met Benny when he came looking to buy some rental property.”

  “Not a billionaire, I take it,” Jillian said, sounding disappointed.

  Izzie smiled. “He makes really good money. But no, not a billionaire. I’ve met some really rich buyers, and lots who were mortgaged to the hilt, trying to purchase a place, who had the income but not enough collateral. You meet all kinds.”

  Hmm, okay, so Val was thinking Izzie had met him at the club. “I bet. It would be a lot different than teaching all those little kids every day.” Val pointed to the island in the center of the pond. “Look at the turtles on the island.”

  Izzie sighed. “And they’re not even afraid of us. It’s so different from San Antonio.”

  They saw a couple of howler monkeys in a tree on the other side of the pond.

  “See the howler monkeys? Don’t leave your doors or windows open unless they have screens, or one of them could get in and start eating your fruit. Two of them got into my cabin and not only ate some of my oranges but threw them at me!” Val said.

  Izzie chuckled.

  Jillian laughed. “You should have heard her and the monkeys screaming. Howard ran right over to save her.”

  Izzie glanced at Val. “Did he?”

  “Yeah. He scared them right out the door. I would have done it once I got over my initial shock.”

  Izzie smiled, and they resumed their walk.

  Val was glad they could make her feel a little better, considering what she’d gotten herself into by making friends with Benny.

  “Okay,” Izzie said, “I’ll talk to Benny and see if he can give me his work schedule, and then I can ask if you’re free to do something when he’s gone.”

  Val was afraid that would mean a no if he was really controlling. But she still had high hopes they could remove Izzie easily from the situation. Since he did construction work in the States, she wondered what kind of business Benny had to do all the time while he was here. She would have asked, but she wanted to keep the interrogation to a minimum, afraid she’d clue Izzie in that they were either annoyingly nosy—and then she wouldn’t want to have anything to do with them—or they weren’t who they said they were.

  They walked her back to her cabin and exchanged phone numbers.

  “Let us know if you want to get together,” Val said, and they left her off at her cabin.

  “Thanks, I really had a nice walk with you both. I’m sure we can get together.”

  Val wasn’t sure they could, if Izzie had to get Benny’s permission.

  They all said bye, and Jillian and Val continued on their way to Jillian and Howard’s cabin. Inside, Howard and Rowdy were waiting for them.

  “Okay, what do we have?” Howard asked, fixing coffee for everyone.

  Val was already calling Izzie’s name in to Manuel. “Hey, need you to find out everything you can on Izzie Summerfield of San Antonio. Okay, thanks.” She ended the call.

  Jillian was telling Howard and Rowdy all they had learned when Manuel called back with the info. Val said, “Manuel verified where Izzie was living—an apartment in Universal City—and her place of employment: a real estate office near there. No husband or children, parents live on the south side of San Antonio, no siblings. She graduated from Reagan High School, no higher education. She’s never been married, never had kids, and she does volunteer work at a pet shelter after hours. So she can’t be all bad.”

  “Do you think she’ll call you to get together?” Howard sounded hopeful.

  “I think she was afraid to upset Benny if she took off to have fun with us, even if he’s off working all the time. I think she’s unhappy being stuck at the cabin with nothing to do. So hopefully she’ll get together with us. Maybe Rowdy could get friendly with her and ‘steal’ her away and that will make our job easier.”

  “You ladies did a great job. I’d say you might have gotten somewhere with her,” Rowdy said.

  “Did you doubt it?” Val asked.

  Rowdy smiled. “Not even for a second. As to me ‘stealing’ her away, I could try, but I’m not sure I’d do a good job of it.”

  “Well, we could say you were another friend who dropped by and take you with us if she says she wants to go somewhere. I was thinking Jillian might offer to go somewhere with her because I couldn’t, for some reason. PMS or something. And then Rowdy could run into you and Izzie and make friends,” Val said.

  “Okay, we could sure try that,” Jillian agreed.

  Rowdy nodded, and Val was glad he seemed willing to help them however he could.

  “One other thing I thought was odd. She said he’d never taken her anywhere fun, and it sounded like she’d known him a while.”

  “While he was mated to Lucy?” Howard asked.

  “Yes, it did sound like that,” Jillian agreed.