A Very Jaguar Christmas (4 page)

“Bull.”

“Okay, I agree. It sounds damn suspicious. Especially when there's a trust fund involved. But we don't know for sure whether it was an honest mistake. So until we learn the truth, mum's the word. I just thought you should know because you've worked with Brayden before and Demetria will probably share with you anyway. So what was the deal with Demetria and her cousin that day?” He'd asked his sister before, but she wouldn't say. Maybe she would talk about it now since he was going to be working with Demetria.

“I have no idea, but it will teach you to try to break up a fight between two snarling jaguars when you don't have your own jaguar teeth to protect you.”

“Amen to that.”

“Thanks for telling me about Brayden. If it turns out Lucian did abandon him… Well, damn it. I wish I'd kept him out of the stepdad's home the first time, but Brayden was willing to return, so I agreed to it.”

“It's hard not to do it. Why did he want to return?”

“Lucian either has the best intentions but doesn't stick with them, or he is a master manipulator.”

Everett nodded. “We'll learn which once we locate him.” He drank some of his coffee, pondering what Howard had said to him earlier about Demetria and her last assignment. If anyone would know what really had happened, Tammy would. “I heard Demetria broke someone's nose on her last mission.”

Tammy smiled. “Okay, Petrov's version: he spouted off about wanting to see her moves, and I don't mean her combat arm maneuvers. Her version: she swung a lamp at a perp when she lost her gun in a struggle to take the guy in, and her Enforcer teammate got in the way.”

Everett smiled. He suspected Demetria's version was closer to the truth, and the Enforcer didn't want to let on he'd made the mistake of getting in her way. “What about the Enforcer she had trouble with in the training room?”

“I have no idea what that was about. As soon as we both have some free time, I'm finding out. I know you think she's a wild cat, but really, there's usually a reasonable explanation.” Tammy sipped her coffee. “Speaking of wild cats, I saw one raring-to-go, alpha-male jaguar jump to her aid.”

“Yeah, I'm sure she wasn't really happy I did.”

Tammy shook her head. “As well as I know Demetria, even I'm not sure. I was afraid she would do something about it—sock you, tell you off, or something—but instead she's working with you on this case. I know how much she loves to help kids in need, but…maybe I've been trying to hook her up with the wrong guys.” Tammy finished her coffee.

Everett could have told his sister that all along. Then he got a call, saw it was their mom, and answered it. “Yeah, Mom?”

“Tammy said she couldn't make it to help me set up the stage this afternoon, and I know you're busy, but…”

“Already on it. Just having a coffee break with Tammy, and then I'll head over there.” Everett ended the call and finished his coffee.

“My break is over. Tell me what happens on the case, will you? Even though I love training everyone, I miss being out in the field sometimes. Besides, Brayden is a sweet kid. I want to see this resolved in the best way possible.”

“I sure will.”

Tammy returned to work, and Everett headed out to help his mom set up the stage in one of the larger rooms at the day care. After that, as soon as he got home, he turned on all his Christmas lights, looked over the town house to see what needed to be done, and realized what a mess the place was. Damn good thing Demetria wasn't arriving for another hour. He began a cleaning frenzy, not believing his town house was so dusty, or that he had so much stuff scattered around the place—boots, tennis shoes, socks, a pair of boxer briefs, slippers.

He grabbed all his stuff and hurried to shove it in the closet, then seized a roll of paper towels and the dust remover and began to squirt away. When he finally finished, he realized he hadn't even ordered the food!

Everett's doorbell rang. He had been afraid it would be Demetria, so he was glad to see the Chinese food delivery instead. After paying for the meal, he hurried to set the table.

He told himself it was like getting together with any other teammate working on a mission, discussing the issues over a meal. But spending time with Demetria would be a nice way to wrap up the day's work.

Yet, Everett couldn't help but feel somewhat apprehensive that he still held a torch for her, while she was holding one for his dead best friend. It felt wrong. He reminded himself again that this was nothing more than working and sharing a meal. So why did he comb his hair again? Shave off his five-o'clock shadow? Throw on a green cashmere sweater that his sister had bought for him last Christmas because she said it brought out the green in his eyes and was so soft it made him huggable?

He'd ordered a full spread of Chinese dishes too—beef and broccoli, pork with pea pods, cashew chicken, sesame shrimp, wonton soup, egg rolls, white rice, fortune cookies—to make sure he got everything she might like.

The lights on the Christmas tree and patio sparkled, offering a cheerful, festive welcome to his dinner guest. Even though he lived alone, Everett had always decorated for Christmas because family invariably stopped by and the decorations put everyone in a good mood.

The doorbell rang and he took a deep, steadying breath, then stalked to the door and opened it.

“Hey,” Demetria said in greeting. She entered the town house looking like a million bucks in a soft, red sweater, black pants, and killer high-heeled boots, with her hair in silky curls around her shoulders. She smiled at the decorations and all the food set out in bowls. “We could have had Brayden and his foster family and Howard over to eat all this.”

Everett laughed. “I just wanted to make sure I got what you'd like.”

“Really, when it comes to Chinese food, I like everything. I talked to Fabian and Corinne Stone about Brayden's story privately, so if they have a chance to talk to him about his home life over the next several weeks, maybe he'll open up or remember things he couldn't before.” Demetria set out glasses of ice water.

“Okay, good. He was stressed out, and I can imagine telling us what he did was hard to do. He probably was afraid we wouldn't believe him or would make things worse with his stepdad.” Everett set out the silverware, and they took their seats and began passing the dishes around.

Demetria poured some soy sauce on her food. “True. About…something else.” She poked her spoon into her wonton soup and stirred it.

“Yeah?”

“I want…I want to apologize for biting you when you got in my way when I was fighting Taramae.”

“My mistake. I shouldn't have interfered. It wasn't any of my business.” Everett was glad she wanted to apologize. He'd felt bad about that situation ever since it occurred and had blamed himself for getting in her space.

“Your sister said you were proud of that bite. She wouldn't let me apologize to you, but I just couldn't let it go.”

He raised a brow. Never in a million years had he thought Tammy would tell Demetria that. Sure, he had shown it off because all the guys wanted to see the bite wound so they could rib him about it. He'd acted like it was no big deal, not wanting to let on that Demetria had upset him, if she had even cared. But he had upset her, and that's what had bothered him the most. “What were you fighting about?”

“My cousin was being a jerk. Not the first time. She said my dad left us for good reason. She was jealous that I got hired as a Guardian when she couldn't pass the physical or aptitude test. It's not that she couldn't have passed; she just didn't want to make the effort. So she got mad and started mouthing off about my dad. She'd done it lots of times to rile me, but my mom overheard that time. She was having a particularly bad week, and Taramae upset her. So I did what any protective jaguar would do—I stripped, shifted, and took my cousin to task. It was way overdue.”

He hadn't known that Demetria's father had left her mother, just that she was close to her mother and he'd never seen her dad around. He'd never discussed it with Tammy or Matt. And he hadn't been on really close terms with Demetria, so he would never have asked her. “I'm sorry.”

Even sorrier that he had dated Demetria's cousin. He remembered the day of the fight like it was yesterday. Demetria had invited his sister over to have burgers at her mom's house. Matt had offered to grill them, and Everett had joined in. No one had expected Taramae to show up and start making a scene.

“I'm the one who should be sorry. I was so angry with her that it wouldn't have mattered who stepped into the middle of it. I felt bad when I heard how many stitches you had. I was going to apologize, but Tammy forbade me to. She said you were getting a kick out of all the ribbing your fellow JAG agents were giving you and were handling it on your own.”

“It was all in the line of duty.”

“But it wasn't.”

“Sure it was. Jaguars having a knock-down, drag-out fight, with teeth and claws on full display, made it my business as a Golden Claws agent—especially when one of the she-cats had always interested me.”

Her lips parted, and she looked shocked to the core. Her eyes teared up a little, and he wanted to kick himself. He had never intended to reveal his past feelings for her. Ever.

She looked down at her food. “You mean, you were interested in my cousin.”

“No, I don't mean I was interested in your cousin. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have mentioned it. So…what do you usually do around the holidays? Anything special?”

She took a deep breath and picked up her egg roll. “I watch Christmas plays, go caroling, and see the lights at night, though I haven't done that in a few years. Watch Christmas stories on TV. The usual. What about you?”

“Same. Except for the Christmas plays and caroling.”

Demetria nodded and took a bite of her egg roll. They ate in silence for some time. Everett felt he'd really put his foot in his mouth, sure he had made her uncomfortable with the revelation about his feelings.

She let out her breath on a heavy sigh, looking saddened again, and he figured bringing up the memory of Matt was upsetting her. He missed him too.

They finished dinner and talked about what they were going to do next on the case, and then Demetria said good night. Before she left, she made one more comment. “By the way, just for your information, the issue between me and Bruce at the meeting at your headquarters? That was a staged fight.”

Everett couldn't believe it, which must have shown as she turned and headed for the door. “He said it was some kind of test to see if anyone would respond. I was hoping no one would get involved.” She eyed Everett as if she meant
him
specifically.

“Hey, I learned my lesson last time.” Well, kind of, because he couldn't keep from getting involved this time
either
. He took her hand and squeezed it. “Thanks for having dinner with me. It was a nice way to end the day. I'm glad to know the ‘disagreement' between you and Bruce was just staged.” Though he couldn't believe Martin would set something like that up between an Enforcer and a Guardian. He wondered if Bruce had made the whole thing up. Everett didn't know the guy, so he wasn't certain one way or another. “Howard thought Bruce had a crush on you and the staged fight was a way to get your attention.”

Demetria turned fifty shades of red. “Better not have been.”

Everett laughed.

“I enjoyed dinner. I'll see you tomorrow to work on the case some more. Thanks.” Then she quickly squeezed his hand back, released him, and said good night.

But he knew he'd regret it forever if he let her go without kissing her good night. Knowing he could get slugged for it, he pulled her close and pressed his lips to her kissable mouth. She was as sweet as he knew she'd be, and he wanted more.

She kissed him back just as sweetly, and that small gesture kindled the slow-burning flame even more. He felt the heat between them, the desire sparking in her dark eyes, the sweet smell of the she-cat and woman teasing him. Before he could do anything more about it, she said good night again, although he hoped this was only the beginning.

He watched as Demetria's car lights disappeared into the night, then cleaned up the kitchen and went to bed. He tried to get to sleep, but couldn't. Thinking of possibilities with her. Coming up with plans to take her out. Hoping he could get to know her like he'd always wanted to. Had he been mistaken all along about her interest in him? He was determined to set things right and hoped he wasn't reading the cues all wrong.

Still unable to sleep, he grabbed his phone off the bedside table, then made the call he needed to make that he should have made earlier.

“Hey, Howard, are you on another case already?”

“Not yet. What's up?”

Everett explained what was going on with Brayden.

“I'll kill the SOB myself if he tried to get rid of the boy like that. Did you tell Demetria?”

“Uh, yeah, a little while ago.”

Dead silence ensued.

“So, were you afraid I'd kill Lucian first and ask questions later, and that's why you didn't tell me at the same time?”

Everett laughed. “Nothing that drastic.”

“Ah, hell, you had dinner with her, didn't you?”

Everett laughed again.

“You did, didn't you?”

“Yeah. I should have called you and had you come over too.” Everett didn't really mean it.

Howard laughed this time. “Right. If I had been in your shoes, hell, I would have done the same thing. Next time I see Bruce, I'll warn him there was more to you taking him down than you were letting on, so don't go there. Though I suspect everyone who saw the action between the two of you already knew it. Okay, so we're meeting tomorrow at the JAG headquarters?”

“Yeah. And don't go killing Lucian before the meeting.”

“I can wait…a little while longer. After that, no promises.”