Call of the Cougar (Heart of the Cougar Book 2) (25 page)

"Okay. My brother called me. All right? He said he was scared. I never heard him sound that scared. He's three years older than me and always acts like this really tough dude. But he said he was afraid of Benny. He wanted to talk to me at one of the saloons. He said he couldn't talk to you because you'd arrest him. He wants out of this business. He thought since you and me are friends, I could put in a good word."

Tracey shook her head. "Ricky, don't you see? He told me to go to the gold mine, and he had to have been setting me up again if he's really even planning to meet you."

"He just didn't want you getting word that we were meeting and try to stop me from seeing him. So he sent you in the other direction. I guess. You know. Cuz you worry about me. I'm here now. I'm on the path to the town, and I'm going to check things out. I'll be careful."

"Ricky, go back to your car. Now. It's too dangerous with that cougar running around. Ricky?" She headed out of the house with Hal. "I either lost him because of the lack of reception out there, or he ended the call. He's headed for one of the saloons, supposedly to meet with his brother, but he spied a cougar." She had planned to call the cavalry, but they couldn't. Not if the cougar was a shifter, and she suspected it was this Benny guy.

Hal already had his phone out. "Gotcha." He called Dan. "News alert. Got a call from Ricky that he's at Anderson. We're on our way. A warning—a cougar's running around the place. If it's one of the bad guys, Ricky's in for real trouble. I'll let Stryker know, and he can go with us. Ricky's supposed to be seeing his brother there." Hal glanced at Tracey as she told her boss what was going on. "I know. Someone's lying. Meet us there? That will work. We're on our way."

Hal concluded the conversation and called out to Stryker. He was hidden in the woods and came running. "Yeah, what's up now?"

"We're going back to Anderson. Ricky's there. Alone. Follow us. We might have cougar trouble."

"Like with the bastard who fired shots at you, and then ran off here?"

"Yeah. And if Ricky shoots it?"

Stryker cursed as he headed for his car.

Tracey was already in Hal's truck when he climbed in. She was worried sick about Ricky. Not only for his welfare, but if he shot the cougar? And killed it? It would turn into his human form. No telling what Ricky would do. But she also didn't trust his brother one bit.

"Dan is on his way. He was going to notify your boss, but I take it you already have done so. We can't have anyone out there who's not a cougar shifter in case it's one of our kind."

"I was automatically thinking it was one of the bad guys. What if it's one of your people?" She let out her breath. "Maybe Ricky will go back to his car like I told him to."

"Do you think he will?"

"Fat chance or he would have answered me when I continued to talk to him. He thinks he's going to help us." She explained what Ricky had told her about meeting with his brother. "I think Ricky is relying too much on his brother's sincerity. I don't trust him for an instant."

"I agree. That worries me too."

When they finally reached the wagon trail and Mrs. Blasdell's house, she ran outside with a rifle in hand. Hal stopped his truck to see what was wrong, and Tracey assumed she had heard or seen Ricky drive past the house.

"There's been shooting up there, Deputy Sheriff Haverton."

Tracey's stomach fell.

"Thanks. Deputy Sheriff Hill is right behind me. We'll take care of it. Just stay in your home, and we'll check on you when we've dealt with it."

She nodded, gave Tracey a look like she shouldn't be going into the ghost town on sheriff business, and then headed back into the house.

"You should have showed her your badge," Hal said, driving to the end of the wagon trail as fast as he could on the rutted road, then parked and grabbed a rifle and medical pack.

Ricky's car was sitting there but when they checked it out, they found he hadn't returned to it.

"I have. She thinks I'm just one of the hooligans who used to come here as a teen." Tracey stalked off with Hal down the trail.

Hal smiled at her. "She thought I was too, and the rest of us who ended up being in the deputy sheriff business."

As they hurried down the trail, the whole area was quiet, dark, cool, but quiet. No gunfire and that had Tracey more than worried, thinking of all kinds of scenarios. The cougar had killed Ricky, or he had shot it and it had died, then turned into a man, and Ricky was in shock.

If the cat was really trying to get at Ricky, as it was one of the bad guys, and Hal or Tracey had to shoot it, the same scenario would occur. She could imagine Ricky witnessing it and then what? Humans couldn't see them shift. And shifters had to take matters into their own hands—turn the person or kill him. One or the other. Letting a human know about them and live wasn't an option. That scenario was way too dangerous for their kind.

Stryker hurried to catch up with them as Tracey tried to smell any signs of anyone—cougars, humans, gunpowder. She smelled Benny and immediately glanced in Hal's direction. He nodded, acknowledging he'd smelled him too.

She signaled she was headed around to the first saloon she could reach, smelling for signs of Ricky to learn where he'd gone to. Hal went around the south side of the building. Stryker was following her as if she needed more protection than Hal did.

As if.

Why was it that men always thought women were more vulnerable in a situation like this? She could shoot just as well as any man, keep her emotions under control, and a level head.

Then she heard someone sobbing inside. Her heart nearly quit beating with concern. She motioned to the saloon in front of her, indicating to Stryker she heard someone inside while she searched for an entryway.

Was it Ricky? She feared it was as it sounded like a young man weeping. As long as it wasn't a ruse, but she didn't believe it would be, though she used restraint in any event. She finally found the entryway through the storage room, the same saloon where she and her partner had been ambushed.

"Ricky," she whispered, using her cell phone light. She didn't have a lantern this time. "It's me, Tracey."

"Over here," he whispered back, his voice soaked with tears.

"Are you all right?" She moved toward him, knowing he wasn't all right. Not the way he was leaning up against a wall as if to use it to prop himself up. Not the way his face was ashen, or the way tears were streaking down his dusty cheeks, leaving trails of white skin in their path. Not the way he was holding his shoulder, the gun still gripped loosely in his right hand and his light gray hoody was stained with blood.

"What happened?" She moved toward him using caution, surveying the area around him for signs of anyone else, still concerned she might be ambushed.

"I…I killed it. Him. It."

"The cougar?" she directed her light about and saw a dead man, his naked torso covered in blood, a bullet wound in the head, blood dripping down his cheek. God, it was a shifter.

Stryker was moving inside now, making sure the place was secure before he checked on the dead man.

Hal slipped in the back way too, and stalked across the floor. "I didn't see anyone outside," he said, his voice hushed as Tracey took the medical pack from him.

"There were two of them," Ricky gritted out.

Tracey carefully moved his hand from his shoulder so she could apply antiseptic to the wound. The cougar must have bitten Ricky after he shot it. Otherwise, the cougar would have finished the job before Ricky could have killed him.

"Two cougars?" she asked.

Ricky cried out when the sting of the antiseptic penetrated. "Yeah."

"We've got to get him out of here," Hal said. "We'll take him to our clinic."

Which meant it was cougar run. Not all bites resulted in a turned human. But if it didn't, if they didn't want to kill him, they'd have to bite him again to see if they could change him. What a mess.

Ricky was just staring at the body, his eyes as vacant as the dead man's.

"Anyone you know?" she asked Hal, just to make sure it wasn't someone who lived around there and was one of the good guys. Not that she thought he could be if he had been trying to kill Ricky, but she had to ask.

"No," Hal said, and she thought then it had to be one of the bad guys.

Ricky responded tonelessly, "It's my brother."

And then he began to sob again.

Chapter 15

Hal examined Ricky's brother for vital signs and was disappointed to learn he really was dead, though if he'd still been alive, that would have complicated matters even more. He would have to have been incarcerated for attempted murder, and their kind couldn't go to prison for any length of time when they needed to shift from time to time.

In the meantime, Tracey was binding Ricky's wound to stop the bleeding, and Stryker was checking around the outside of the building, looking for signs of the other cougar Ricky had seen.

"We have to carry him out of here and pronto." Hal joined Ricky and Tracey, and crouched beside Ricky. He squeezed Ricky's good shoulder with reassurance. Ricky was so pale, shaking, his brown eyes dilated and filled with tears. Tears trailed down his cheeks and clung to his eyelashes and scraggly whiskers. He needed medical attention right away. "We need to stick together and head back to the vehicles."

"What about my…" Ricky choked on a sob and didn't say anything further, just stared at his brother.

Hal said, "As soon as we reach the vehicles, we can make a call to have a team out here to investigate—"

"I…I shot him." Ricky cut off Hal's words, as if telling them no one needed to investigate anything further because it was clear that he had killed his brother, and he was ready to plead guilty to the crime.

"Yeah, in self-defense, Ricky. We know. You couldn't have done anything differently," Hal assured him. "It was kill or be killed."

Ricky looked up at Hal with watery eyes. "I…I shot a cougar when he lunged for me. He…he bit me."

He was searching for answers, trying to explain what he'd seen and what he'd done.

"Yeah. We'll take care of everything. We just need to take care of you now and get you some medical attention for the bite wound. Let's go." Hal didn't want to say anything more to Ricky about the cougar not being a cougar. They had to discuss the business with others in their community. They didn't have one leader, but anything of this magnitude had to be discussed with the general shifter population. Not in a public venue, but secretly through a group email, the subject coded for cougar shifters only, in case anyone's email was hacked.

If Ricky had been turned, everyone had to know about it. If he hadn't been—that would be an entirely different matter altogether. Either they would have to convince him he hadn't seen what he thought he had, which usually wasn't an option, they had to turn him, or they had to eliminate him. Which was why the majority had to agree to it. As for who would turn Ricky if that was necessary? Dan would probably have the task, as sheriff.

"I'm going to carry you out of here," Hal said as he and Tracey helped Ricky to stand.

"I…I can walk." But Ricky really couldn't get far under his own steam.

He was shaking so hard from the adrenaline, fear, the bite wound, and killing his brother, Hal knew Ricky was in shock. As much as Ricky was leaning on them for support, they couldn't allow him to be all tough and macho and try to walk out of here on his own.

"Let Hal carry you," Tracey said, holding Ricky's arm. "You're shaking so hard, we'll never get you to his vehicle. We need to do this quickly. Believe me, if Hal had experienced the trauma you have, we'd have to be carrying
him
out of here."

Hal raised a brow in response to Tracey's comment, and she smiled. But her comment also coaxed a small smile out of Ricky, and Hal was glad she could lift his spirits a bit, despite the circumstances. He could see that she could be a real asset in any crisis.

They heard movement in the storage room and both he and Tracey set Ricky back down on the floor, gently, but quickly, and readied their guns.

"Just me," Stryker called out and stalked into the saloon. "Dan and a few of our men are here. They're at the south edge of town, but I wanted to let you know they're on their way."

"Good. Let them know what the situation is in here." Which meant Hal wanted Stryker to tell them they had a possible newly turned shifter on their hands. And all about the shifter that Ricky had killed and that it was Ricky's brother.

"Yeah. Gotcha." Stryker hurried outside to warn them.

With Tracey's assistance, Hal helped Ricky to his feet again, and then lifted him to carry him out of the saloon.

"Oh," Ricky groaned.

"Hang in there, buddy. We'll get this taken care of, you'll be back at the ranch, and riding horses before you know it."

Ricky groaned again, and Hal wasn't sure if it was because Ricky was still afraid of them, or if he was just in so much pain. Maybe a little of both.

Hal carried him out of the saloon, Tracey sticking close to him. Dan and Stryker stalked through the town to greet them, Dan's gaze on Hal and Ricky while Stryker spoke to Dan in private.

When Dan reached them, he said, "We'll have you in a hospital bed before you know it. We've got an ambulance on the way, but it can't drive over that rutted wagon trail."

"I'll carry him in that direction until the EMTs reach us."

"Okay. He'll be taken good care of. Doc's waiting for him at the clinic."

"Good." Hal wanted Ricky to live. He wanted him to have a normal life.

Changing any person could be problematic, whether he had a family or not. Sometimes, if they hadn't learned to behave as a cougar when they were young, adjusting as a new cougar when they were fully grown could be more than difficult. It could be impossible. If the shifter couldn’t be controlled? It wasn't a good ending, but their kind had no other choice. They had to keep their uniqueness secret at all costs.

"Hey, Dan, can you ask Mrs. Blasdell if she has a regular schedule for when she runs into town?"

"Already checked with her late last night. She goes into town on Fridays because they give free samples of food at the grocery store, and on Monday, she runs other errands—post office, drugstore, and the bank. So she regularly makes two trips into town at the very least."