Maya shook her head.
“He was lucky he lived. His sister nursed him back to health. You met her at the club. Candy?”
Maya growled low.
Bettinger chuckled. “Gunther was really angry that the zoo didn’t kill the cat that had attacked him. But they wouldn’t. Said he was in the wrong. Made him pay for his own hospital bills, which were considerable. Fired him from his job. And he couldn’t get another. So now Gunther gets back at the jaguars. And Candy’s happy to help him. He makes a great profit and shares a percentage with her. Believe me, he is truly terrified of big cats. As he should be. But he loves the thrill of the hunt.”
The truck stopped and Maya’s heart nearly stopped with it.
“We’re here. Didn’t take long, did it? Remember what I said. Fend for yourself. The other cat won’t care anything about your fate.”
She wondered how he was going to release her from the cage without worrying that she would attack him.
An ATV pulled up with Gunther driving. “You said you’d have a male cat. Where is it?”
“It’s coming.”
“Damn you,” Gunther said. “He’s supposed to be here as soon as you release the other female. You said you’d have the other one.”
Bettinger spoke softly to Maya. “You have a sporting chance to run wild for a while. If you try to kill us, I’ll shoot you. Drug you, then you won’t have a prayer. Have we got a deal?”
She didn’t make deals with the devil.
He cast her an elusive smile. “Okay, boss, I’m releasing her,” he said to Gunther.
“You’re a fool if you think she won’t kill you,” Gunther said, but he had his camera out and was ready to tape the kill.
Bettinger tried to act cocky, but Maya saw he was sweating. He jerked the cage door open while standing well out of her way. She could attack him and then attempt to attack Gunther. But the man in the pickup truck was still a threat. If she attacked Bettinger, she worried that Gunther would grab the rifle on the seat and forget taping the kill, shooting her instead.
She leaped off the bed of the truck and ran for the forest. Once she was there, she watched to see what was going to happen next. She still planned to kill both of the men if they gave her the opportunity.
The truck headed back to the ranch house. Good. One less gun to worry about.
Bettinger stalked toward the ATV. “Okay, the male cat’s coming.”
Gunther stepped out of the ATV and struck Bettinger in the head with the cane, his face red with rage. “You said he’d be here now. Damn you. The two hunters paid extra cash to hunt the three cats! You’ve lied to me for the last time!”
Maya closed her gaping mouth. She didn’t think Bettinger would take that kind of abuse from a human.
She was right. He started yanking off his clothes.
“What the hell are you doing?” Gunther said, sounding shocked.
Shifting. Bettinger wouldn’t be shifting unless he meant to kill Gunther. But if Bettinger eliminated him as a cat would, it wouldn’t be good for the jaguars.
“What…?” Gunther said.
“Never strike a jaguar,” Bettinger said. He was naked now, shaking with rage, right before he shifted. “Here’s the male cat.”
Bettinger turned in a flash into a golden jaguar.
“Holy…” Gunther dropped his cane and the camera, and stumbled backward toward the ATV.
Maya watched the jaguar knock the man unconscious. Instead of killing him with a bite, Bettinger dragged Gunther into the nearby lake and drowned him.
Heart pounding, Maya ran away from the lake through the woods. Bettinger would find her soon enough, tracking her scent, but if she could delay him long enough, maybe someone would have time to come to her rescue.
She glanced up to see the female jaguar in a tree. Maya growled at the cat, but she didn’t move and just twisted her ears back and forth, watching Maya. Jaguars called to each other when they wanted to mate or growled over territory or called as males fighting over a female. Maya had no way of telling this jaguar she wasn’t safe where she was. Then again, if the hunters chased Maya, maybe the jaguar would be secure up there.
Glad to see that the other jaguar was still alive, Maya loped away from the jaguar’s hiding place. The problem was Bettinger. He could track the other cat by smelling where her scent led.
The sound of two ATVs, a pop of gunfire, and a resounding crack as the bullet slammed into a tree only inches from Maya’s nose made her dash deeper into the shelter of the woods as her heart skipped beats.
The sky was beginning to lighten some with the approach of daylight while dark thunderclouds still stretched across the area as Wade, David, George, and a tranquilized Candy arrived at the sprawling ranch. The grasslands were dotted with mesquite and oak, with the forest of mostly pine rising nearly a hundred feet above them. Wade noted the high fences, twelve feet tall. They’d have to cut through them.
“Wire cutters?” Wade asked George, his heart thundering.
George shook his head.
“We can’t go in the front entrance. Not until we have backup.” Wade contacted Martin. “We’re here. No wire cutters.”
“I’ve finally reached more of our people, and the men are on the way. They’ll be there in a half hour. Get in any way you can.”
“All right.”
Wade told David, “You wait here for the other guys and coordinate their actions. And have someone take charge of Sleeping Beauty.”
“Will do.”
Wade turned to George. “You and I are going to shift and look for another possible way in. With the remoteness of the ranch, we should be good to go. But it’ll be full daylight soon.”
“Okay.” George started stripping and so did Wade. Within seconds, the two had shifted into their jaguar form.
David turned off the car’s overhead light, then opened the door for Wade and George. “Good luck,” David said to Wade and nodded to George, wishing him the same.
Wade and George took off running along the fence, searching for a way in.
A mile beyond where they parked the car, they found that the fence was stretched across a lake. Cats wouldn’t normally dive below the wire mesh. But as long as the fence didn’t reach the bottom of the lake, Wade and George should be able to swim underneath it.
Wade took a breath, then dove. The mesh was only sunk two feet deep, and Wade quickly swam underneath it and up to the other side. If he could locate Maya, he’d bring her here where she could swim to safety.
When he surfaced, lightning flashed and a boom of thunder struck overhead. The rain came down in a torrent. Good. It wouldn’t hamper the jaguars’ movements, but the hunters would have a tougher time of it.
George came up beside Wade, and they paddled toward shore. Wade spied a body floating facedown in the water. One of the hunters? Maya must have had some luck. He was glad there was one less hunter to worry about, though he had hoped the hunters would be arrested for their crimes.
Once on the grassy bank, Wade and George shook off the excess water. That was useless with the rain pouring down, but it was a natural instinct they couldn’t curb. They ran straight into the woods surrounding the lake, and Wade roared for Maya. If his calls brought the hunters down on him, so much the better. He’d distract them from her.
Maya’s responding call sounded like the sweetest music to his ears. But the report of a rifle firing near her location forced his adrenaline to run hot through his veins. He and George leaped into action and headed for the distant sound of a rifle firing again and a man yelling, “Woo-hoo! Almost got you!”
The sound of an ATV’s engine was headed away from Wade and George as the hunter tried to run down the jaguar he’d spotted.