“We need to search storage facilities,” Travis said. “They were going to get tools out of it to use to dispose of me.”

“Right. And we need to look for the location where they had their vehicle. A house nearby? And then they walked to the shop?” Bridget served up pancakes and pork sausages. “They weren’t gone for long from the time I saw them leave the shop to when they got their vehicle and returned.”

“They were going to go to the storage facility before they returned.” Travis took a bite of the blueberry pancake smothered in waffle syrup.

Chet was looking up something on his phone. “Three storage facilities are close to where the Christmas Tree Shoppe is located.”

“Good. Then we need to check out the homes in the area close by and see if we can pick up their scents. Same thing with the storage facilities. They haven’t been using hunter’s spray so we might be able to catch them.” Travis finished off his coffee and got a refill and filled up Chet’s cup too.

“Tonight?” Bridget sipped her hot cinnamon tea. “Dusk is at five this evening. Should we run as cougars?”

“I think one of us should be driving and riding shotgun. If we run into other trouble, the cat or cats can get into the car, and we’ll head home,” Chet said.

“Or the cats can run home. Probably be less noticeable than a car driving along the road.” Bridget buttered her pancakes, then poured maple syrup over them. “So what do we do in the meantime?”

“Do you want to take me to the shop and I’ll pick up a couple of those ornaments?” Chet asked.

“You’re kidding.” Bridget looked like she didn’t believe he really wanted some.

“No. We’ll use it as a cover so I can check out the place. And the people.”

“All right.”

Travis finished eating his breakfast and offered to clean up the dishes. “I’ll start packing while you’re out. As soon as it’s dark, I’m out of here.” He wasn’t going to sit at home while they solved the case.

Bridget smiled at him. “Well take a drive around the storage facilities and check them out. Maybe we’ll get lucky and discover theirs and then return tonight to see what’s in it.”

“I just had a thought. If they do have some corrupt cops on the force, what if these guys have them run your license plate?” Chet asked.

“If they were going to do it, they probably would have come in the middle of the night to finish us off. They most likely don’t want to do anything that would involve the police. Just as we don’t want to get the police involved. Another thing—they might have assumed they were going to learn who you were before they got rid of you. They wouldn’t have suspected anyone would come along and rescue you,” Bridget said.

“What if they’re spooked and take off?” Travis had worried about that, wishing he hadn’t been so out of it, then he and Bridget could have waited for the men and taken them out when they returned to the shop.

“I wonder if the men only show their faces there late at night when the store is closed. Just set up more trees and such, do whatever other business they have to, but otherwise stay out of the public eye,” Bridget said. “So that’s their normal MO.”

“Or the incident with me last night has made them go into hiding like I’m doing.”

“Then if that’s the case, they’ll be on the prowl tonight too, searching for you possibly. They didn’t check your wallet, did they? See your driver’s license? Your home address?” Chet asked.

“My wallet and phone were in the car’s console. The alley was semi-dark, though as a cat I could see well. But as a precaution, when I left the vehicle I had my Glock on me and locked the car door before I went to get the boxes. The Durango was still locked when we went out to it.”

“That could be why they hadn’t moved it,” Bridge said. “Did you want us to get more boxes for you while we’re out?”

“Yeah. I’ll probably need quite a few more.”

“Okay, will do. Ready to go, Chet?” Bridget asked.

“Sure am. Don’t work too hard, Travis. I don’t envy you in the least.”

Travis wished he was going with them, but he had to pack too, and he knew that his staying here was the safest bet for all of them. As soon as they left, he began taping up boxes and listening to the radio.

At once, the weather report caught his attention. Sleet was headed their way just about the time they were due to go out on their night hunt. That would mean they’d have to run as cougars if it was too bad. Their paws spread wide to give them more balance and stability on ice and snow.

That meant no one would be riding shotgun tonight. And if the men were running around, they’d probably be in their cougar coats too.

Hell, he’d worked with Bridget on four jobs now and she was so hot, he wanted more. Her underneath him having the best sex of his life, or her on top, Chet was thinking.

Bridget and Chet were at the grocery store getting some more boxes, the weather worsening by the minute. Already the sleet was sliding down Chet’s windshield and it was starting to stick to the cold pavement. They were rushing the boxes into Chet’s vehicle before they got wetter.

She’d had enough. She’d begun to trust Chet, which was a mistake. He thought she did a great job while she’d worked with him on previous missions, and she appreciated that, but she had to tell him that his thoughts were getting in the way of keeping things between them professional. The more they worked together, the more he was thinking of how much he wanted her in bed. She just couldn’t see him in that way. She really wanted to keep this on a strictly special agent solving crimes business.

“Quit it,” she said harshly to Chet. She had to let him know the truth.

He glanced at her, looking puzzled.

“I can read your thoughts.”

He smiled, like he didn’t believe her. The few times she’d revealed the truth to someone, she found that was usually the initial reaction. People really couldn’t read thoughts. At least most people she knew didn’t believe in the ability.

Chet moved toward her, reaching out as if to pull her into a hug.

“Don’t you dare,” she growled. “I’m serious. I like working with you, but I’m not going to bed with you.”

That took him aback. Now she read where he was wondering if his subtle hints hadn’t been subtle enough.

“Okay, look, we have this chemistry between us and it’s only natural for us to want something more.” Chet obviously didn’t believe her about her psychic abilities.

“No, there isn’t. There’s no chemistry at all.” She climbed into the vehicle. “We need to hurry to the storage facilities now before it gets too icy.” She knew there was no chemistry, not only because her thoughts kept returning to Travis and wishing he was here with her, but also when she was around Chet, her pheromones didn’t spike. With Travis? They rocketed to the moon. And his pheromones reacted in the same way. Now that was animal chemistry. Their cougar halves dictated to them when they were interested, so it wasn’t just a visual interest. And smells too. Travis had a hot, woodsy smell that made her think of fresh jaunts through the pines or spruce trees in a mysterious forest.

Chet wore a moldy leaf smell, a hunter’s spray that would hide his cougar scent. It made her want to sneeze. Hers was scent-free.

“Don’t tell me you feel something for Travis. You just met him. What? The fact you had to rescue him made you bond with him in some way? Hell, he should have been the one rescuing you.”

She did feel a connection with Travis in that way, she had to admit. She’d saved his life. Somehow that tied them together in a way that went beyond anything else. Maybe it was because she couldn’t read his thoughts, and yet, with him, she wanted to know just how much he’d love to have her in his bed! Even though she knew he did.

She sighed. They just had a raw, primal chemistry that sizzled between them. It was the only way she could explain it to herself.

“I like working with you, but that’s as far as I want this to go between us.”

“Have I said anything to make you feel threatened?”

He was analyzing his behavior, recalling the times he’d touched her, drawing into her space when he didn’t need to.

“I can read your thoughts, Chet. For real. I know what you’re thinking.” Besides the way he was getting more and more into her own space, trying to push for something that wasn’t there between them.

“Psychic? No way. I don’t believe in that stuff.”

She let out her breath. “Okay, think of something, anything.”

His mind went blank.

“You’re not thinking of anything. Just watching your driving.”

“It’s icy.”

She folded her arms and was quiet, listening for his thoughts when he didn’t feel pressured to think of something.

Then she read his thoughts about him seeing a psychic at a fair and the woman had told him he would marry a Chinese woman in Sacramento. Which was where the fair had been held.

“So the psychic was a fraud.”

“What?” Now he sounded a little alarmed.

“The one who read your fortune in Sacramento? She predicted you’d marry a Chinese woman, but it didn’t come to pass.”

Chet’s jaw dropped a little.

“Wait, there’s one of the storage facilities.”

He pulled in and they went inside a small office to talk to the owner of the facility. “Can we look around? I’m not sure what size I’ll need,” Bridget said.

“Sure. Here’s a map showing the sizes, locations, and prices.”

“Thanks.” She and Chet headed through the gate and started smelling for any cougar scents.

“Does Travis know that you can read minds? Have you given him this speech too?” Chet asked her, his tone annoyed.

“No, and don’t you tell him either. It’s my business and when the time is right, I’ll tell him. Besides, I can’t read his thoughts.” Though she suspected Travis was thinking the same things as Chet was concerning her. But at least she was feeling the same way about Travis.

Chet glanced at her.

She shrugged. “Sometimes I can’t read people’s minds. I couldn’t read my parents’.”

“What about the man in the office?”

“He was wondering if we were married and what we had to store.”

“You could have guessed that.”

“Yep, I could have.” She really didn’t care if Chet didn’t believe her. She just wanted him to stop thinking such thoughts concerning her when he was with her.

“I don’t smell any cougar scents around here, do you?” Chet asked and she was glad he was thinking about the mission.

“No. Let’s check out the next one.”

She returned to the office and said, “We’re going to check out a couple of other facilities that are a little closer to where we live. But if we don’t like what we see there, we’ll be back.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

She left the map with the rental unit owner and then they returned to the car.

“So what was he thinking?” Chet asked as he drove off to the next facility, slipped on ice again, and cursed under his breath.

“I have no idea. I don’t always try to read minds. I try to concentrate on the business at hand. I can block out the thoughts when I need to.”

“But not my thoughts.”

“I do, most of the time. But you’re pushing it. Not just in your thoughts, Chet.”

“All right, all right. Hell. I can’t believe you read minds.”

She smiled and settled back into her seat, then began to worry again about the worsening weather conditions. By the time they reached the third storage facility, she hoped this was it because it was the only other one that was close enough for the men to have visited. Maybe they had only gotten their vehicle and hadn’t gone to the storage facility first before they returned for Travis like they said they would.

As soon as they walked around the place, she said, “This is it.” She was ecstatic and hurried in the direction she smelled that the two cougars had gone. They’d driven to a ten by twenty unit at the end of the facility. She smelled flakka. “Looks like we not only found the men’s storage unit, but their drug stash.”

“Sure wish we could call this into the police.”

“After we take the men down, we can. Just hope that when we call the police, they aren’t the ones on the take,” she said.

They returned to the storage office, and they rented a unit as close to the rogue cougars’ so they could return and break into the storage locker and make sure that the stash was in there. They bought a padlock from the owner, left a bolt cutter and backpack of clothing in their unit, and locked it. Chet would shift and dress and use the bolt cutter on the rogue cougars’ lock, if he couldn’t just drive there in his human form later tonight.

“What if we eliminated the men who put this here, then come back with a storage truck to move it?” Bridget asked as they headed back to Travis’s place.

“Travis’s rental truck? Then he’d be in trouble for hauling the contraband.”

“What if we rented it in Rambo Lancaster’s name?”

Chet smiled at her. “You know what Travis said about not going after humans.”

“Right.”

He laughed.

Cars were beginning to slide on the snow mixed with ice. One ran into a parked car, another tried to take a corner but ran into a stop sign instead. Everyone had slowed down to a crawl.

Travis called Bridget and she answered. “Yeah, we’re almost home.”

“How’s the weather? I’ve seen two near accidents out front of the house already.”

“Bad. We’re going to have to run as cougars tonight. Hey, we’re pulling in now. Good news. Share in a minute,” she said.

When they arrived at Travis’s home as icy as it was, it would be difficult to drive any vehicle tonight. They parked and Travis headed out to help them. Thankfully, he had a covered walkway out to the carport.

She was all smiles when she exited the vehicle, thrilled to tell Travis the good news. Chet looked a little growly, probably because of her putting him in his place concerning their work relationship earlier, but with Travis, she was super friendly.