Chapter 21
Vaughn was still angry that Brutus had managed to get in any claw and bite marks, though he had to thank his lucky stars they weren’t any worse than they were, as wicked as a jaguar’s claws were and as powerful as their slashing paws and bite were. He’d managed to get in some good bites of his own and had dodged some of the jaguar’s more lethal moves. Still, Vaughn wanted to be questioning Kira and the other jaguars that were now incarcerated along with her in the jail cells…well, separate cells. They had three guards standing watch. All of them would return with the jaguars to Dallas when they needed to transport them to JAG headquarters. Vaughn really thought the doctor’s care was unnecessary, but his mate had insisted, and so had Demetria, so he’d finally gone along with the game plan.
Demetria, her mate, and Howard were sitting in the waiting area to show moral support, which Vaughn appreciated. Though he wasn’t a fallen comrade in arms this time.
“Great shooting,” he said to Jillian as Doc stitched up another cut, this one a little deeper than the rest. With their faster wolf healing, the scar would disappear in a week or so.
“Only I am allowed to take a bite out of you.” She smiled at him as he smiled back. “I wished I could have taken him out before he tore into you so much.”
“You had to see how good a fighter I was first.”
She gave a ladylike snort. “You kept getting your big head in the way.”
He laughed.
Doc took a look at Vaughn’s shoulder and touched the skin where the bullet had entered. “That should be working itself out in another couple of weeks. If a human had been shot like that, cell tissue would just grow around it, and it wouldn’t hurt either. But for us, the tissues won’t have time to surround it before the bullet pushes its way out. Just like birthing a baby. Then the skin and cell tissues will heal up completely. No scarring.”
“Sounds good, Doc. Thanks.”
It was close to two in the morning, when all good little wolves—and jaguars—should be in bed, he thought. Two of the jaguars were tranquilized, so the team couldn’t really talk with them yet. Kira was so torn up about losing Brutus that she wasn’t making any sense. Because of that, when Doc was through with him, Vaughn and Jillian joined the others in the waiting room, glad they had brought some clothes to the clinic so they could shift and dress.
“Where has Miles been?” Jillian suddenly asked.
“He’s been sidelined. But Leidolf let him in to see Kira and try to talk with her, if he can,” Demetria said. “As for the rest of us, we need to call it a night, and tomorrow, we’ll get some answers.”
Before they all had settled down in their own beds at the guest house for what was left of the night, Miles called Jillian. She and Vaughn had just come back from taking hot showers, warming each other up, and were only dressed in towels as they entered the bedroom when she got the call.
She put it on speaker.
“Brutus wasn’t her lover,” Miles said.
“What about the picture we saw of them kissing in the Kitty Cat Club?” Jillian looked like she didn’t believe Kira any more than Vaughn did.
“Yeah, and Douglas said he saw them kissing in a sexual fashion at the dive bar in Belize.” Vaughn unwrapped Jillian from her towel and set it aside, then jerked his own off and threw it next to hers. Then he took her hand and coaxed her into bed.
“She said they were drunk. She barely remembered it. Just that they had kissed, and she had moved away from him.”
“But she was so broken up about him dying,” Jillian said.
“She thought of him like a brother. How would you have felt if that had been me?”
“Okay. I agree.”
“She said she didn’t have anything to do with him breaking out of the jailhouse. She thought he was really sick. She was upset when he injured the guard. Brutus released her from her cell, but she was afraid everyone would think she was involved in the guard’s injuries and the escape so she went with him.”
“Okay.” But Jillian still didn’t sound like she believed Kira.
“She wanted me to call her mother. She’s coming up first thing in the morning.”
“Lydia is?” Now Jillian sounded shocked.
Maybe her mother didn’t disapprove of Kira as much as she let on. Or maybe she was so furious that she was going to lecture her about it instead. Vaughn joined Jillian in bed and pulled her against his chest.
“She didn’t kill her husbands,” Miles insisted.
“All right. We’ll talk tomorrow. Get some sleep.”
“’Night,” Miles said, sounding tired and annoyed, probably because he felt his sister didn’t believe Kira.
“’Night, Miles,” Vaughn said, then they ended the call and he put Jillian’s phone on the bedside stand. “When you were drying me earlier by the stream…” he said to Jillian.
“Ohmigod, Vaughn, you are insatiable. How could I ever get so lucky?” But then she paused. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“You have to ask?” He pulled her onto his lap, and she smiled. Wickedly.
* * *
It was nearly afternoon the next day when they got up and joined Demetria and Everett in the kitchen to make lunch.
“You should have gotten us up,” Jillian said, tying her hair back.
“We just got up ourselves.” Demetria made them all grilled ham and cheese sandwiches while Jillian told them what her brother had said.
“Do you believe her?” Everett served glasses of water.
“Now that Brutus is dead, she could be lying through her teeth about what happened at the jailhouse. And what happened at the club. Even her mother said Brutus could have been Kira’s lover.”
Everett got a call and said, “Thanks.” And ended the call. “Okay, ballistics showed that the rifles that the Wells brothers owned both had been used to fire on Jillian. It also shows that neither was used to shoot Miles.”
“Brutus’s was,” Jillian said.
“Correct. It was also used when the one jaguar was shot and no one could locate him, only the shell casings. The findings were given to Kira to see her reaction. She was stunned, Leidolf said. He said he didn’t think anyone could appear more genuinely stunned than she did. She collapsed on the bench in her cell and just stared at the floor. Anyway, I’d say it was possible she truly didn’t know Brutus had shot Miles. That all along, Brutus had led her to believe Wayne did it.”
“Because she would have turned on Brutus if she had known he tried to kill Miles,” Jillian said.
“But was she involved in her husbands’ deaths, or was Brutus the only one who had a hand in them?” Vaughn asked as they quickly ate lunch, cleaned up, and headed over to the jailhouse in his Land Rover.
“I think we need to split into teams to question everyone,” Jillian said. “And then we’ll swap off and compare notes.”
“I agree,” Demetria said.
Miles and Howard, Demetria and Everett, and Jillian and Vaughn. Jillian wondered how many stories they were going to get from all the people.
Everett got a call from Leidolf and informed everyone Lydia had just arrived.
First, Jillian and Vaughn spoke with Simon Wells, who sat manacled to a table in one of the interrogation rooms. He was black-haired like his brother, with a beard and black-brown eyes. He seemed at ease, not worried that he was in trouble for anything.
“We know that Brutus murdered your brother Gaston,” Jillian said, though they didn’t know for sure if he had. She had a recorder documenting the conversation. “How did you feel about that?”
“How do you think I felt about it?”
So he did believe Brutus killed his brother. “Not very upset. Now, see, I would have killed him for it. But what did you do?”
“Tried to shoot him. He killed Gaston, and then he shot Wayne. I was in my rights to attempt to put him down before he killed anyone else. Hell, he murdered Kira’s two other husbands, too. Not that she’s any less to blame.”
“You know that for certain?” Vaughn asked. “That your brother didn’t just accidentally die?”
“You know anything about diving?” Simon asked, his chin lifted in an arrogant way.
As a SEAL, he’d better.
“A little. Enough to know that even the most experienced divers can make a mistake,” Vaughn said.
“Well, he didn’t. And guess who was on the tour boat that day? Not only Gaston and his lovely new wife, but Brutus.”
“We checked out the stories about each of her husbands and how they’d died, read eyewitness accounts. Do you know anything that could prove he was at the scene of your brother’s death?” Jillian was eager to learn if Simon had real proof.
“Gaston’s waterproof camera? Wayne and I actually went diving where Gaston had his fatal accident. He’d dropped his camera before he died. It fell in some coral. Brutus must have been too busy trying to get away from the scene so he didn’t look like he was involved. Gaston had taken pictures of his lovely bride underwater and of sea life. A couple of selfies that revealed Brutus coming up behind him.”
“Underwater, wearing a face mask, how could you be sure?” Vaughn asked.
“Clear water, great camera. It was Brutus. Camera’s in my bag. We took it everywhere with us, just in case we had a chance to confront him.” Simon smiled at Jillian. “Thanks for taking care of the bastard.”
Jillian frowned at him. “You’re not off the hook. Even though the JAG would probably have condemned him to death, you couldn’t just kill him yourself, unless it was in self-defense.”
“Yeah, sure. When Brutus shot Wayne and killed Gaston, he got away with it. So the only way to take care of this was to wait until he tried again and we had a chance to fight back?” Simon shook his head.
Jillian had to agree with him there. “Gaston never told Kira he had a couple of twin brothers.”
“That’s because he came along way after us, and he was our parents’ favorite.” Simon shrugged. “Ever think the world revolves around you, then someone comes along who’s younger, gets better grades, just does everything better, and your parents constantly gripe at you because you should be more like your younger brother? He was seven years younger than us! Hell. So not only had they given up on us—the twins they had adored before that—but they worshipped him. Gaston could do no wrong. We hated him. But we never wished him dead. No one had the right to kill him and claim it was an accident. And they weren’t going to get away with it.”
“So instead of sharing the evidence that they had murdered your brother, you got involved in the scheme to get rich on a treasure hunt. Until Brutus nearly killed your brother Wayne.”
“I’m going to ask about the camera.” Vaughn left the room.
Jillian leaned back in her chair. “Okay, so why did Wayne tear into Douglas?”
Simon watched her, but didn’t say anything.
“He nearly killed him. If I hadn’t arrived when I did, he would have. In another vein, why did Brutus try to kill Wayne? I suspect with Gaston, it was a way to obtain some of the insurance money. Brutus was Kira’s lover. But why was Wayne pretending friendship with Kira and Brutus? If you knew Brutus killed Gaston, why not just turn him in or kill him?”
Simon didn’t respond.
Jillian smiled at Vaughn as he returned with the camera and began going through the pictures.
“Last couple on the disk,” Simon said.
“Looks like him.” Vaughn handed the camera to Jillian.
“Yeah, that’s him. Looks like Gaston got a shot of himself and Brutus coming up behind him in the water. And then another where the camera only took a partial picture of Brutus grabbing at him. That’s it. Okay, so answer my questions.”
Simon rested his arms on the table and leaned forward. “Okay, we were afraid we didn’t have enough proof that Brutus had killed Kira’s husbands, or that she was even responsible for their murders, except that she had the best motive in the world. Life insurance policies. We assumed she was after this Miles guy.”
“My brother.”
“Right.”
“But Miles wasn’t married to her, and she wouldn’t gain anything from killing him. Why would Brutus try to kill him?”
“Did Brutus say Wayne shot him?”
Jillian frowned. “Yes.”
“We weren’t sure, but with three dead husbands, two that ended giving her a lot of money due to life insurance proceeds, wouldn’t any more dead husbands raise eyebrows? Wayne was to befriend them and learn what they were up to next. We still thought she was after another husband, but this time Kira and Brutus overheard Douglas talking about treasure hunts, and since they were divers too, they got real interested.
“But then they got greedy. They didn’t want Wayne in on it, and Brutus tried to kill him. Brutus didn’t want Miles taking a cut of the pie either and tried to eliminate him. They had it in mind that only he and Kira would dive for Douglas, since he seemed to have a pretty good success rate at finding treasure.”
“All right.” Jillian thought all of what Simon said was plausible. Except for the part about Wayne nearly killing Douglas.
“And Douglas?” Vaughn sounded all growly.
“Wayne went to confront Kira. He’d heard she had gone to see Douglas. But when he got there, Douglas told him he knew he and Kira and Brutus were only after the treasure, and he didn’t want to see them again. He said he knew Kira and Brutus were lovers, and not brother and sister. He shoved Wayne out of the cabin. You don’t push my brother around. If I had to guess, I’d say he returned to scare him a bit, but he went a little too far.”
“He didn’t try to scare him,” Jillian said, her voice shaking with anger. “He got scared because he heard me coming, and he jumped out a bedroom window to escape. That’s the only reason Douglas is alive.”
Simon’s mouth gaped a little.
“Wait, didn’t you know Douglas is alive and well? He is, and your story doesn’t match his at all.”
After that, Simon wouldn’t speak any further with them. They left the interrogation room to speak with Wayne, but Lydia intercepted them first in the hallway.
“I have to talk to you. I know I told Miles I was coming to speak with Kira, and I am, but I wanted to say how sorry I am for her involvement in all this. She had a rotten father. Not that it gave her a reason to kill her husbands. But she never really had a good father figure. When Miles called and sounded like he believed her sob story, I wanted to come up right away. I really like him, and I don’t want to see her get out and then go after him next, because she’s truly a black widow. She feels no remorse for what she’s done. Yet she can turn on the tears when it suits her. She just wraps guys around her little finger without any effort. And every time, they fall for it. No mother ever wants to give up their child this way, but her killing is an obsession.
“When you and Vaughn left my house, I was going through everything, trying to find anything that would tie her further to Brutus in a more intimate way. I told you I thought he might be her lover. But I didn’t know for sure.” She handed Jillian a picture at Kira’s first wedding. “You see, he’s there in the background with Kira. They’ve got their heads together, and she’s got her hands on his shoulders, kind of intimate for someone who just married her first husband.
“I’d never seen him before and really hadn’t noticed it. The photographer, a family friend, had been taking a photo of a group of people dancing. Who would really look at people in the background? Anyway, I thought it could help show they knew each other more intimately from the beginning. While you were talking to Gaston’s brother, I had a talk with your brother. I think Miles is having a hard time believing Kira was at the root of all the ‘accidental deaths,’ but he needs to.”
“Thanks, Lydia. I think after he sees all the evidence, he’ll realize the truth of the matter.” Jillian wondered if Kira would still try to convince each of them how innocent she was.
But first, they went in to see Wayne. He was lying in bed, still recovering from the gunshot wounds. He had an IV but was handcuffed to the bed, looking pale but angry.
All Jillian wanted to know at this point was why he nearly killed Douglas.
“Hell,” Wayne said. “I came to see Kira and tell Douglas what she and Brutus were up to. That they tried to eliminate Miles, and they tried to murder me to get rid of their competition. Douglas was sure I was involved in the shooting and was turning on my friends. He threatened to kill me. He tried even.”
“With his bare fists?” Vaughn asked. “And then you were so scared, you took off your clothes, shifted into a jaguar, and tore into him? If you didn’t know, Douglas is recovering and told us his version of the story. We were just curious what you would come up with.” Turning to Jillian, Vaughn said, “Unless you have anything further to ask him, I’d rather just let the JAG take care of them. They can determine what his punishment will be for attempted murder.”
Jillian nodded and slipped her arm around Vaughn’s waist. She wanted to finish questioning Kira and then see Douglas. Demetria and Everett headed their way to speak with Wayne.
“Kira will only speak with Miles,” Demetria warned.
“That’s fine. She can talk to the JAG at headquarters and deal with the consequences.” Jillian and Vaughn walked into the last interrogation room and were surprised to see Lydia sitting in there holding on to Kira’s hand. Lydia was sobbing.
Kira was stony-faced, rubbing her mother’s back. “I guess it’s kind of humbling to know my own mom has turned against me.”
Jillian could see Kira had no remorse, even when her mother did. Kira was just coldhearted. Jillian hoped Miles knew what a phony the woman was.
“Did you even really care about Brutus dying?” Jillian thought Kira might have faked caring that he had died too. Wouldn’t she have been angry at Jillian for killing him? Now, Kira didn’t show anything but a sort of numbness, like she didn’t know what to do when her partner in crime had died and left her alone to face the jury.
They tried talking for a few more minutes with Kira, but she clammed up. They left and saw Miles waiting with one of the officers. He just shook his head. “You must think I’m foolish for believing Kira.”
Jillian hadn’t thought anything of the sort. “Not at all. She had everyone fooled. Only her mother seemed to know the real Kira.”
“I was talking to Douglas after I heard some of the things these jokers said.” He managed a dark, humorless laugh. “He’s doing much better. Martin, my new boss, wants me to go with the prisoners and the USF agents to take them to Dallas.”
“We’re staying here with Douglas until he’s back on his feet,” Jillian said, thinking afterward she should have asked Vaughn, but he squeezed her shoulders in agreement.
“And a wedding,” Demetria said, joining them.
“Always the groomsman,” Howard said.
Everyone smiled.
“And our wedding after that sometime. We’ll talk about it after you get back from your honeymoon,” Jillian said, thinking how they were all members of the USF now, mostly married. “We’ll have to work to get Howard married off next.”
He raised his hands in a sign that said, “Whoa, not me.”
Demetria and Jillian laughed.
That afternoon, after a farewell-for-now steak dinner, they said their good-byes.
Vaughn and Jillian intended to stay at the guest house at Leidolf’s ranch until Douglas was well enough to return to Colorado and Vaughn’s and his pack. Jillian’s too now. They’d spent time talking to Douglas, who was enjoying the nurse’s care so much that Vaughn wasn’t sure he’d ever want to go home.
Vaughn and Jillian finally arrived at the guest house for the night. They were ready to fix dinner, sit down, and color some more of their pictures before they retired to bed for some more loving. To their surprise, they found a bottle of chilled champagne, fresh filet mignons, and a note that was like Santa’s Christmas list congratulating them, listing signatures from Douglas, Everett, Demetria, Howard, and Miles—even Martin, their new boss—as well as everyone in Leidolf’s pack. Below that, all of Vaughn’s pack members had signed off.
A bouquet of a dozen red roses, and airfare and a cabana rental for Hawaii, courtesy of Jillian’s parents, were sitting on the table. And more: a luau and scuba diving excursions from Douglas and Miles. Vaughn’s pack leaders gave them cabin rental and airfare to one of the smaller islands during their stay there for saving Douglas’s life.
With tears in her eyes, Jillian kissed Vaughn. “I love your pack already.”
“I love your family already.”
“Even my dad?”
“I think he approves of me, and hell, any father that approves of me marrying his daughter is a first-rate father-in-law.”
She laughed. “Come on, let’s unwind a bit before we eat dinner.”
He thought she intended to color on her pages, since that was meant to help reduce stress. Instead, she drew him toward the hallway and the bedroom. Unwinding this way? He was ready!
Vaughn swept Jillian up in his arms and carried her into her bedroom. “Who would have ever thought we could end a mission like this?”
Jillian smiled.
Then he set her down on the bed, as gently as before, because no matter how hard-charging she might be in her duty, she was his sweet mate and he had every intention of treating her like a wolf goddess.
“Wait.” She stripped off his shirt and left a trail of kisses down his chest, making him groan in anticipation.
She smiled and licked his navel, then unfastened his belt.
“Okay, first things first.” He wanted to take it slow and easy with her, to prolong the pleasure, but it was like taking one bite of a toffee-chocolate ice-cream bar and trying to resist another.
He quickly removed his boots and then hers. Socks next, and she said, “Agreed, better.” Then she was unbuttoning his jeans and jerking down his zipper.
He was glad he wasn’t the only one eager to make love. She pulled down his pants and kissed his fully aroused cock on the way down.
He growled and kicked his jeans aside, then began stripping her—shirt, jeans, leaving just a pair of black lace panties and bra. She was so sexy and all his. He hoped she never changed her habit of wearing beautiful lingerie, as much as it turned him on.
“Beautiful,” he whispered against her mouth.
She smiled against his lips. “Just as you are.” She pulled off his boxer briefs and led him to the bed. “Lie down.”
He raised his brows. She smiled. “I’m going to give you a massage like you did my feet and my shoulders. It was wonderful.”
He’d never had a massage before. He imagined that with her touching him, he would soon be in trouble.
“Be right back.” She returned minutes later with a bottle of lotion and began using some on his feet. He closed his eyes as she worked the muscles, and he didn’t believe he’d ever felt anything so divine.
“You next.”
“Think you can last?”
He chuckled. “Maybe afterward.”
“Deal.”
She worked on his legs, massaging until she got to his groin and pelvis. He was already so hard, he couldn’t stand it. He flipped her over and began kissing her. “I can’t take it.” He didn’t mind admitting she had him just where she wanted him. He kissed her mouth again, long and deep and passionately. She wrapped her arms and legs around him, and he was thanking God she hadn’t been hurt today, that tonight he and his mate could celebrate the end of the case and their union all over again.
He licked her mouth and kissed her again before he parted her legs and began to stroke her. His touch was gentle but insistent, all his senses on high alert as he studied the way she reacted to his touch. The way she dug her fingers into his hips and drew in shallow breaths, the way her heart beat wildly. He smelled their mutually heated arousals, a total turn-on for wolves, and knew that every bit of his fondling was sending her that much closer to the moon.
Just as she was on the verge of coming, he penetrated her and thrust as deeply as he could manage. She settled her legs around his as he pumped into her.
Vaughn loved her, couldn’t get enough of her, and needed this after she took down two of the jaguars. She was a crack shot, and he couldn’t have been any prouder of her. She was good at her job, but that didn’t mean he’d worry less about the outcome in a volatile situation.
He slid in and out of her white-hot heat, loving how responsive she was right before she tightened her hold on him and cried out. He soon followed her into oblivion.
For a long time, she kept her body wrapped around his as if she didn’t want to let go of him, and he didn’t move off her because he loved being the center of her world for just a bit longer.
But then he rolled over on his back, taking her with him so he was still inside her, stroking her back in loving caresses.
“Did you want me to massage you more?” Jillian rested her chin on his chest, her hands stroking his face, loving that she still was holding on to him.
“Later. Don’t move a muscle.”
Vaughn began to stir inside her, and she smiled. “You are a wolf with an appetite.” She knew massaging a few muscles would be the perfect scenario for a hungry wolf.
“Hell yeah, for you.”
“Then let me help it along.” She began licking his nipple, knowing just what her wolf mate loved the most. What a way to end a case and begin the rest of her life with that growly SEAL wolf who had intrigued her, irritated her, and made her fall in love.
Vaughn knew being with the she-wolf would alter his life forever, but in one hell of a good way as he made love to her, slept with her, grilled steaks, shared an ice-cream bar, and made love all over again.
Next up, Hawaii. Training with the JAG would have to wait.