Call of the Cougar (Heart of the Cougar Book 2) (29 page)

"Why did you tell us it was your brother?"

"I thought I'd killed him because I’d agreed to see him at Anderson. When Teagan and whoever else came instead, I thought they'd murdered him. And that meant I'd done it. I was responsible. He was going to talk to me about where he was going and—"

"He was going to give you money to run away."

"I wouldn't have. I told him he could ask you if he could stay with you, but he said we'd both be a target there."

"You said neither you nor Kolby hunted, yet both of you have guns and know how to use them."

"Yeah, for protection. We don't go out and hunt animals. I told you that already.” Ricky’s eyes rounded. “But then I know you remember that. It's a police tactic, isn't it? To repeat questions and see if you get a different answer.” Then he paused. “Is…is he going to be okay?"

"We'll let you know. He's in surgery. Most likely he’ll need a blood transfusion, and—"

"I can give him some of my blood."

"You just had a blood transfusion so you can't be giving any blood."

"Would…would it change him?"

"No. It's the saliva in the blood stream that makes the change. But not always. How are you feeling?"

"Like hell."

Tracey squeezed his hand. "Did the doctor say anything about how well the bite is healing?"

"She said it's looking good. But I still feel like hell. Are you going to stay with me again tonight?"

"No," Hal said. "We'll wait until your brother is out of surgery before we leave, and then you can see him. But after that, we've got business to take care of."

"What's going to happen to my brother?"

"We need to know what his involvement has been in all this business, and what he knows. We'll take it from there," Hal said. “Get your rest and no more lying to us.”

Ricky nodded, but he still looked so worried.

"I’m certain your brother will be fine. We’ll let your guard know to allow you to see him as soon as he’s out of the recovery room,” Hal said.

Ricky nodded.

They left Ricky’s room and once Doc was out of surgery, she met with Hal and Tracey.

"He's going to make it. We don't usually keep humans here because of the cougar situation. But because his brother is here, and he needs to be watched as far as his shifting business and both brothers need to be in protective custody, which Dan is providing, we'll make an exception this time." She smiled at Tracey and shook her hand. "I'm Kate Parker and glad to meet you. I gave Dan hell when you were knifed and taken to a different hospital. He should have insisted you come here, but he said it was out of his hands."

Tracey smiled at the doctor. "Next time I need doctoring, I'll be sure to call ahead for a room."

"There's not going to be any next time." As far as Hal was concerned.

Chapter 18

After showering and dressing, Hal and Tracey headed over to Kolby's apartment. Some of Tracey's fellow agents were there, checking everything out. The place was a mess. It looked like someone had trashed it, unless he usually lived like this. The agents greeted her, and she introduced Hal to them.

"Did you find anything related to the crimes this time?" she asked one of the men.

He shook his head. "The place was trashed. It was much neater the last time we checked it out. We've dug around in all this mess and couldn't find any evidence of anything he's done wrong. You still have the lead on the case." He winked at her.

Hal remembered too late that she wasn't supposed to even
be
on the case. He appreciated that the agent would give her the lead anyway.

She smiled warmly at the agent, and Hal was glad they treated her with so much respect. "Thanks."

He and Tracey searched through the place, but she didn't find anything.

Hal was about to give up the search when he felt a floorboard, half hidden under the couch, tip underneath the weight of his boot. It sounded like there might be a hollow space beneath it. He crouched down and tried to pry it up with his fingers, but he couldn't. Tracey joined him. "What did you find?"

She was pressed up against him, thigh to thigh, and he paused to look into her green eyes and thought of how much he would love to be doing this with her fulltime.

"Might be a loose floorboard like at the schoolhouse in Anderson with a hollow space for hiding things."

Two other agents joined them, one with a flathead screwdriver. "Will this work?" He handed the screwdriver to Hal.

He pried the board loose and found a chip of a bone fragment. "Tusk?"

One of the agents reached down with gloved hands and extracted it. "Appears to be. We'll have it analyzed and let you know."

Hal really hoped that Kolby hadn't been involved in this. But this didn't look good.

When they couldn't locate anything else, they headed back to the clinic. First, they went to see Kolby, but when they reached his room where he was sleeping, they discovered Ricky in there, sitting in a chair.

"You've got to go back to bed," Tracey said. "I'll take you."

"Why can't they move me in here with my brother? You'd only have to safeguard one room then."

"And when you have this other issue?" She help him out of the room, though Hal didn't believe he looked like he needed to use her strength to return to his room. Only that he enjoyed getting close to her.

Hal tamped down his alpha, and very much primal, nature, and sat down next to Kolby's bed. Kolby stirred and opened his eyes. Then they widened. He glanced around the room. "Where's Ricky?" He almost sounded panicked.

Hal realized then how much the brothers sounded alike. He wished they could stay in the same room together. But if Ricky shifted again, that would be a disaster.

"Tracey, Special Agent Whittington, took him back to his room. You've been read your rights, but I have a question, if you choose to answer it. When did you store ivory beneath your floorboard in the apartment?"

"You're kidding, right?"

Hal continued to keep his expression stern, and in no way did he sound or look like he was kidding.

"Where?"

"Beneath the couch."

"No. I don't know anything about it. I didn't know there was a hiding spot beneath the floorboards. Ivory? No way. They only paid me to pretend to be Ricky that one time. I never knew what they were doing."

"Would it have mattered?"

"Hell yeah! That they were trying to murder my brother? And the agent?"

"Agents."

Kolby held Hal's gaze, not flinching, not turning away as if he had nothing to hide. Or he was a habitual liar.

"Did you know that Ricky was an informant?"

"Yeah. I knew he was. He didn't tell me, but he always hangs around me, and I knew he was making money somehow. I work at a grocery store, but Ricky wasn't doing anything. So I listened in on a conversation he was having once. I questioned him, thinking he was dealing in drugs. Our mom died of a drug overdose. I didn't want to see him get into that business. Then these guys offered me good money just to make a call to the agent. When I saw what had happened—heard the news about Tracey Whittington being in a shootout and another agent was wounded—in Anderson, the same place I had sent her, I knew I'd get arrested and charged as an accessory for attempted murder."

"Had you asked them why you were to make the call?"

Kolby lowered his head and looked at his hands clasped together on his lap. "I asked, but they told me they'd already said too much. Either I agreed to do it, or they'd kill Ricky, and then I'd agree to do it. Or I was next. So I made the call."

"And never told anyone about it."

"No. They would have killed me and Ricky. Or the police would have crucified me."

"So why would you have had ivory at your place?"

"A damn plant? If I had gotten out of line, they could have said I was conducting the business they were doing. I didn't know what they were up to, until I saw the news report about Tracey Whittington having lost her partner on New Year's Day. They showed both stories side by side. I'd just been working at the grocery store, and trying to talk Ricky out of helping the agent. I was afraid he was going to get himself killed. When I heard about him at the shootout at the gold mine, I got all the cash together that I could, ransacked my place, and headed out to meet with Ricky. I had called Tracey to ensure she didn't end up in Anderson investigating it again when I went to see Ricky. But Benny must have been watching me."

"Okay, what's the deal with Benny?"

"I knew him in high school. He's older than me, but held back a couple of years. We used to hang out. Then I lost track of him. He popped into the grocery store one day and saw me stocking shelves. He asked me if I wanted to go hunting with him. That he was hunting with some guy who was a hunting guide and it paid better than working at a crap job like I had. I said no. After my dad was killed in a hunting accident, the whole notion makes me nauseous. Literally." Kolby frowned. "He's not illegally hunting too, is he?"

"That's what we're trying to learn. Do you know anything about a man named Mooney?"

"That's the hunting guide's name." Kolby leaned heavily against his pillow. "How much ivory did they leave at my place? Enough to put me away for life?"

"A fragment."

"Hell, because they didn't want to leave enough evidence that would mean money to them."

"Could be." Or it could be Kolby was lying.

"Is Ricky going to be all right? He…he said a cougar bit him, and he killed it and Teagan before Teagan shot him. He…he said I could stay at your ranch."

"Is that why you were there?"

"Benny dumped me on the side of the road. I saw smoke off in the distance and made my way to the old bunkhouse. And then I heard a vehicle coming. I was afraid it was Benny. That he came back to finish me off and realized I'd gotten away. That I hadn't just died on him. Though I had passed out. I guess he thought I had died. Then I recognized the agent from the news reports. From what Ricky had said, she was staying with you at a horse ranch."

"For now, you have to be in protective custody. If Benny learns you survived and could testify that he attempted to kill you, he's going to want to finish the job. Is there anyone else working with him?"

"Just Teagan that I knew of. But then, I wasn't working for them or with them. I just did that one call. God, I'm so sorry. I want the agents to know that."

"All right. We'll talk later."

"Can…can Ricky stay with me here? I thought what he said made sense. That you would only have to post one guard on the door."

"Maybe later."

"How long am I going to be in here?"

"Until the doc says you're ready to go."

Hal stood and was ready to check on Ricky when he saw blood on the sleeve of Kolby's hospital gown.

Kolby immediately glanced at his sleeve. "It's nothing. Picked at a pimple. Bad habit of mine."

Kolby was too worried for it to be something so insignificant. Hal strode around the bed and took hold of Kolby's arm and yanked up the sleeve. A sharp clean bite mark—like a cougar would make.

"Damn it to hell." His gaze shot up to Kolby's. "What happened?" He didn't want to assume Ricky had come in here, told him that he had become a cougar, and bitten his brother so that he could become one of them.

"I was sleeping."

"Don't bullshit me. Did Ricky bite you?" Hal still wasn't saying as what.

Kolby stiffened and Hal released his arm.

"I'm asking him next, but if you want anyone backing you on this, I need for you to tell me the truth."

Kolby snorted. "It sounds crazy."

"Talk. Now."

"Ricky was worried about me. Okay? He came in here to check on me. He was nervous, hiding something from me. I know him. I know when my kid brother has a secret he wants to tell me but is too scared to do so. I figured he'd done something wrong. Something that would get him into trouble with you. I wanted to help him like I've always done. To get him out of the fix he was in. So he finally tells me. And, of course, I don't believe him. I mean, how crazy is it? That you're all a bunch of cougar shifters? And he's one now? That Teagan had been one? Then Ricky starts yanking off his clothes, and I told him probably whatever drugs he was on for the pain was making him crazy. Even having been bitten by the cougar was making him have weird visions or something. No frigging way did I believe him. One minute he was standing there naked, and I was telling him to put his damn clothes back on before they locked his ass away for being a mental case and the next thing I knew, he was a cougar. Scared the shit out of me.

"He didn't even give me a chance to react. He stood against my bed, big clawed paws resting next to my body, and licked my cheek with his hot tongue. Then he shifted, quickly told me he had to turn me so I could heal quicker and work with you or you would send me away, and I never could see him again." Kolby's eyes filled with tears and he looked down at the bed. "He said you couldn't lock me away if I was a cougar shifter. That we had to do it." He looked at Hal again. "We've been fending for ourselves since I was sixteen. I've done the best I could in keeping Ricky out of trouble. This was his way of payback."

Hal shook his head. "Hell."

When Hal left Kolby's room to speak with Ricky, he got a call and he shook his head, then took it. "Mom?"

"You're getting married? And we haven't even met the girl? Come tonight. For dinner. No excuses. We'll see you at six." His mom hung up on him.

"Great." Not that he didn't want them to meet her or vice versa. He did. But things were getting way too complicated with this situation with Ricky and his brother and the rest of the case Tracey was working on. He met up with Tracey in Ricky's room. He gave Ricky a stern look, arms crossed against his chest. "Want to tell me why you bit your brother?"

***

Tracey gaped at Ricky as he explained why he had bitten Kolby. She was glad Hal wasn't furious with the boys. But she could see he wasn't happy with them or the situation. Now they had to see if Kolby turned.

Then Hal said to Tracey, "We'll have them stay together, but I've got to discuss something else with you."