Both men looked to see Wade’s take on it. He didn’t want Maya used as bait. Period. Too many things could go wrong.
Connor continued, “If this doesn’t work and we miss him here, then maybe we can check out the dance club that you all went to. Your brother said those involved in the smuggling were meeting there. What if we all went there? David said a woman he danced with knew the shifter Maya killed. Maybe if David could dance with the woman again, he’d learn more about the other shifter.”
“Yeah, we could try that,” Wade said. “Our mission is to stop Lion Mane from leaving here with the jaguar, though. If he’s hightailed it out of here, we’ll go. If he’s still trying to grab the jaguar, we’re staying, and we’ll leave when the situation is resolved.”
“In the meantime, where will you be staying?” Connor asked Wade.
“Here. At your resort. It would make sense not to split our forces.”
“Here,” Connor parroted.
“Someone needs to protect Maya. She killed his partner, Bettinger.”
Connor frowned. “All right. And David?”
“David is getting a separate cottage,” David said and sighed dramatically.
“We need to return to our resort and grab our bags. Before we come back here, we’ll make a last-ditch effort to find him before you go on the excursion,” Wade said. “Will you take care of things here?” He meant Maya, but he knew he didn’t need to get that specific.
Connor nodded. “Will you go as jaguars, or do you need to borrow some boots and a shirt?”
Wade hesitated to answer. He and his brother should stick together on the return to their resort in the event Lion Mane thought to ambush them. Just as he knew that Wade and David had visited Mylar’s place, he would be able to find Wade and his brother’s scent trail back to their own cabana.
They didn’t have any idea what Lion Mane was up to. If he was smart, he’d leave the area. But being part jaguar, he also would be territorial.
“We’ll run together as jaguars,” Wade said. “We’ll return here as soon as we can. If we catch wind of the men, we’ll hunt them down. That would be the best possible scenario.”
“All right.” Connor rose from his chair, as did Wade and David.
“One last thing.” Connor’s amber eyes narrowed on Wade. “What are your intentions toward Maya?”
The shower shut off and all the men looked in the direction of the bathroom, listening for Maya. She wouldn’t come out right away. She’d have to towel dry, then dress, and Wade suspected she wouldn’t leave the bathroom until her brother was gone.
Wade turned to Connor. “Honorable. She doesn’t want to see me exclusively, though.”
Connor’s brows rose in disbelief.
Wade shrugged. “She has father issues. You should know about them.”
Connor grunted, sounding like he had some of the same issues. “What about you? Do you want to see other women?”
Wade smiled what he was certain was his most feral look. “After being around Maya for any length of time? No way.”
Connor allowed a small smile. “Good. I don’t want to see her hurt.”
“She’s safe with me,” Wade assured him. “I’m not sure about the other way around, though.”
“You mean if she finds another shifter she likes better?”
“Yeah.” Wade didn’t like where this conversation was going. He scrubbed his hand over his whiskery chin. “We need to head out.”
“Are you going to say good-bye to Maya?” Connor sounded protective of her again. “She kept hoping she’d see you for the last several days. She didn’t say so in so many words, but she was worried about you.”
“I was keeping an eye on the three of you.”
Connor openly smiled this time and slapped Wade on the shoulder as if he’d suddenly been welcomed into the family. “I knew it. I never saw you. Never smelled you. You’re good at it. But I knew it just the same.”
David shook his head. “No wonder he kept saying he had to run farther south than where the men had been.”
When no one made a move to depart from the cottage and Maya apparently wasn’t planning to leave the bathroom while everyone was there, Wade said, “I’ll be just a moment.”
He headed for the bathroom and knocked once. Last time, he’d left without saying good-bye properly to her, and he had regretted the decision even though he’d told himself she was sound asleep and he didn’t wanted to wake her.
This time he wanted to do it right, but not with his brother and hers standing in the next room listening to everything.
Chapter 17
Wade opened the bathroom door and smiled as Maya yanked the towel she’d been using to dry her hair around her sweet, naked body. He stepped inside and closed the door.
Taking her face in his hands, he kissed her soundly. “Stay with your brother and Kat until I return. No exceptions.” He didn’t want her searching for him again, should she think he was in trouble.
“Be careful,” she whispered, wrapping her hands around his neck and kissing him again.
He jerked her towel off her body, dropped it, and ran his hands over her breasts. She smelled like oranges, strawberries, and pineapple. “Hmm, Maya, about this exclusivity when it comes to seeing others…”
She smiled against his mouth, rubbing against his body and purring. “Return to me quickly.”
He groaned and tongued her mouth, then kissed her cheek, hating to leave her. “Stay safe.”
“And you.”
When he left her and shut the bathroom door, he found his brother had already piled his clothes on the coffee table and shifted. Connor was looking out the patio door at the jungle.
Wade said, “We’ll return.” He dropped the towel around his waist and shifted, then headed for the patio door.
Connor opened it for them. “See you in a while and we can firm up plans.”
Wade bowed his head in acknowledgment. Then he and his brother leaped from the deck into the brush below, blending into the dappled rainforest like two spotted shadows.
The two brothers continued back toward their cabana, searching the area as they went, looking for any sign that either man had been anywhere nearby recently. Wade and David swung around to the scene where Wade and the female jaguar had been drugged. They found the scent of the shifter from the previous night and the trail leading to the river where Lion Mane had stood on the bank, most likely searching for his dead companions.
There was no sign of any bodies in the daylight. The sun was beating down on the dark river, the trees stretching over the water, while a couple of dark grayish-brown crocodiles basked on the opposite shore. An egret spied the jaguar brothers and took flight.
Wade and his brother headed back toward their resort. It was daylight and not safe for them to run around in their jaguar forms. Anyone could be taking a day trip into the rainforest and catch sight of not one, but two big jaguar males.
Nudging at his brother to stay hidden in the relative safety of the rainforest, Wade loped out to the bathroom window of their cabana and leaped in through the frame. Fortunately, they’d left the bathroom door shut, because insects now filled the small room.
He shifted and opened the bathroom door, then closed it so he could check out the cabana. He heard a thump in the bathroom as David slammed against the toilet, making a splashing noise, and Wade chuckled.
He didn’t smell Lion Mane or Smith in the place. He suspected they were afraid to come near the cabana.
David soon joined him, one foot dripping wet. Wade said, “Didn’t miss the toilet, eh?”
“Damn thing moved since the last time I jumped through that window.”
Wade chuckled. “Yeah, it has a way of doing that. They haven’t been here. Let’s get dressed and check out Mylar and Smith’s place.”