To Travis’s surprise, both Chet and Bridget helped him pack. He’d envisioned days of packing, but at this rate, the time would be cut in more than half. And it was fun. They had a couple of pizzas delivered and drank sodas, foregoing wine or beer because of the mission tonight.

“We couldn’t locate their residence,” Bridget said, writing on a box, then taping it shut.

“But the storage unit had a foul smell like sweaty socks. With our keen senses, we knew it was flakka, that new experimental street drug associated with bath salts,” Chet said. “As long as it hadn’t been stored there and then has been removed, Bridget had the notion of moving the goods and then destroying it or turning it over to the police.”

“As long as we don’t end up turning it over to the bad cops,” Travis said. “You couldn’t move the stash in a vehicle rented under your own name. If you got caught with it or police dogs smelled what you had transported…big trouble.”

“What if we destroyed it right there in the storage unit?” Bridget asked.

“If we burned it, it could get out of control,” Travis warned.

“So what? We just leave the alpha-PVP there?” Bridget sounded annoyed.

Travis shook his head. “But we have to do it right.” He finished packing another box.

“What if after we take down the two men, we rent a vehicle with Rambo’s name on it and move the stuff and then take it to a field to destroy it? Or, what if we steal one of Rambo’s vehicles and haul the stash in it? Dump the contents, burn it, and return the vehicle before he’s ever aware it went missing? We could hide evidence on the vehicle and then call the police. If we get hold of the bad cops, no big deal because the majority of the drugs would be gone. If we get hold of a good cop, then Rambo’s in trouble.”

“You’re determined to take down humans in this venture,” Travis said.

“He and the rest deserve to be.”

“In your last job, you dealt with army servicemen that you were investigating. That meant humans. But in this job we go after cougars,” Travis reminded her.

“The director wouldn’t sanction us going after Rambo,” Chet said.

Bridget grabbed another box and began wrapping glassware in linens. “I can’t imagine doing this job right if we don’t at least try to take down all the bad guys.”

Travis finished packing another box and sealing it. “Okay, tonight we’ll see if the men have left a scent trail from their home to the shop. As cats, we’ll be able to tell better than when you were trying to drive by and still look inconspicuous. We’ll concentrate on the two men who are cougars involved in criminal activities and who meant to kill me. We can decide what to do with the drugs after that.” Travis looked out the window. “It’s dusk. Time to get moving. We can’t stick together, though I’d prefer it. But it isn’t safe. We’ll have to move separately so that no one will look out their windows and see three cougars looking suspiciously like they’re amassing as if in a hunting party.”

Chet looked at Bridget.

Yeah, that was what Travis was worried about too. If she came upon two male cougars, she was going to be in trouble.

“But we’re checking out the houses on the other side of the fence that’s behind the alley to the Christmas Tree Shoppe first, right?” Bridget asked.

“Yeah. It’s closest. Then we can check on the storage unit after that,” Travis said. He got the directions for the unit in case he reached it first.

“I’ve got clothes at our locker.” Chet gave Travis the combination for their lock. “And bolt cutters are in the unit if you get there before I do.”

“Good thinking. Ready?”

Chet and Bridget nodded.

Travis wanted to tell Bridget not to take any unnecessary risks, afraid that she might feel she had to in order to prove she was just as competent as they were. She didn’t need to prove anything to him. Not after she single-handedly rescued him. He was afraid if he told her not to take any unnecessary risks, she would be offended. So he did the next best thing.

“No heroics. We all need to return in one piece.”

They both agreed with him and then Bridget returned to her room to strip, while Chet and Travis stripped among the boxes, and shifted.

Bridget hadn’t wanted the men to treat her any differently than any other agent, so why did she slip off to the guestroom to strip and shift? Because she didn’t want to hear Chet’s thoughts on the matter. If it had been just her and Travis, she would have just stripped where he did.

Travis led the way because it was his territory and he knew it better than they did. She realized that once she left the woods and had to separate from the men, she felt more vulnerable. Not because she was a woman, but because she had envisioned doing more cougar work in the wild and not in a more of a city environment. If anyone saw any of the cougars, they would call animal control and someone would be dispatched to shoot to kill. A cougar in a city could be bad news when it came to pets and small children. The cougars’ presence in the city would signify the cougars were most likely hungry and looking for prey.

It was still sleeting and no one was travelling on the streets near where they were tonight, so the weather conditions couldn’t have been more perfect for them. She saw Travis ahead of her when he went down the alley to the Christmas Tree Shoppe. She continued past the alley to the first street behind the fence.

Chet took the next street.

She hoped one of them would find the house where the men were staying. She just hoped Travis would let her and Chet know if he found the men at the shop and didn’t try to take them out by himself.

Then she smelled the scent of the rogue cougars in this direction. Adrenaline shot through her blood, both with excitement mixed with apprehension and wariness. She headed for the one-story brick and siding house, watching for any sign of movement. The place had a light on somewhere in the back of the house. She mentally made a note of the address and drew close to the house. It was small, probably a rental, and the smell of the two men was all over the place. So she was fairly certain this was theirs. The Christmas Tree Shoppe was within walking distance.

She heard a voice speaking inside.

Were both men here then? Or just the one and he was speaking on a phone?

“Okay. Travis MacKay.”

Her heart stuttered when she heard Heaton mention Travis’s name.

Heaton stated Travis’s address. “All right. This is the time to take care of him.”

They must have had the crooked cop check out Travis’s license plate number, and now they knew where he lived.

She was torn between taking this man out or getting hold of Travis. She weighed her options. Gun versus cat. Male cat versus she-cat.

She decided the only safe thing to do was go for Travis. She leapt over the neighbor’s fence, hoping no one would be looking out at the pretty sleet. Then she raced across the yard and leapt over the eight-foot fence bordering the alley. When she landed on the asphalt, she saw no sign of Travis. Great. Had she missed him then? Had he taken off down another street?

She had to find him and Chet. She had to warn them that someone was likely coming for Travis at his house, and they had to prepare for it. Their guns and clothes were all at his house. And all three vehicles too. Damn it. Then all the men had to do was discover who their license plates belonged to.

She raced down the alley and out on the street, then headed past the street where the men lived, glancing in that direction, looking for a cougar. No sign of either Travis or Chet. She ran to the next street over, same thing. Then she did what she hadn’t planned to do, warning the cougars in the house if they could hear her that she was out there. On the other hand, she needed to get hold of Chet and Travis before it was too late.

She let loose her most angry cougar gargling growl, snarling, and hissing at the end. Her sounds could carry nearly a thousand feet. Hopefully one of the guys, the good guys, was within hearing distance.

But if the bad guys heard her? Then they could either be out to get her now in either their cougar form or armed with guns. They had to know there were at least two cougars, Travis and the one who had rescued him. Probably they’d figure another male had come to his rescue though.

She hid in tall junipers, waiting for someone to show up. Then she saw Travis!

She called out softly to him this time, more of a dark, low, rumbling purr.

He turned in her direction and bounded for the junipers she was hiding in. As soon as he was with her, he nuzzled her muzzle with his in greeting and as a well-being check. She did the same with him, so thankful that he had at least come, still worried about Chet. But they had to return to the house and be prepared. She shifted and shivered in the freezing cold, though the shrubs helped to protect her from the biting wind and sleet somewhat. “I just heard one of them talking,” she quickly said. “One of the men at 1520. That’s their house. He knows your name and your residence. He was telling someone that they’d have to do something, but not what. Move the drugs? Take care of you at your home? All our cars are there. And our clothes. Guns. IDs. Everything.”

Travis shifted, pulled her into his arms, holding her tight to help warm her. “Okay. Where’s Chet?”

“I don’t know.” Her teeth were beginning to chatter and she was shivering hard.

This was a difficult call. But if the men burned down Travis’s home, they could destroy everything the three agents needed to take these men down as humans.

“Okay, let’s go. If Chet heard you, he’ll be headed this way, and he can follow our recent scents back to the house.”

“Okay.”

They both shifted into their cougar forms, the shift so quick that if a human saw them, he would think he’d been seeing things. Her body, muscles, and tissue warmed with the transition. They nuzzled each other one last time before they took off for the house.

They dodged through shrubs to give them some cover in the areas that weren’t very treed. And finally after what seemed like forever, they arrived at his house. No vehicles were parked nearby, and she was reminded that traveling on ice might preclude them from coming here that way. Which meant they’d arrive as cougars.

It also meant they could get in through the cat door because Travis had left it unlocked while they needed to use it.

They took in deep breaths of the area. They didn’t smell any sign of anyone else, but if the guys were wearing hunter’s spray, they wouldn’t leave a scent unless they had been careless.

They listened, then Travis dove through the cat door. She waited a few seconds so if the men were inside, both she and Travis wouldn’t be ambushed at the same time. She snarled and dove through the cat door and didn’t see any sign of him. He had gone toward the bedroom, and then the door to the garage opened and a fully naked Heaton stood staring at her, jaw dropped, gas can in hand.

She leapt at him with one powerful jump and seized his throat before he could shift and tear into her with his mightier male cougar weight.

He fell back dropping the container of gas container and grabbing her by the neck to try and pull her off. She bit down hard, tasted blood, and wouldn’t let go. Fighting for his life, he shifted. One moment his human’s neck was between her teeth, the next, he was a blur and she had hold of a thicker, furry-necked cougar.

He was already too weak and she finished him off before he could tear at her with his wicked claws. One last clamp down, and she heard his heartbeat slowing, then stop.

But what had happened to Travis?

She heard snarling in his bedroom, and she raced down the hallway to help him out.

Travis knew Bridget was fighting with a man, not another cat or he would have snarled right back at her. No shots were fired, so he assumed the man wasn’t armed with a weapon. Probably hadn’t been looking for anyone’s guns. But the cat in here had been taking a dump in his bathroom, door locked, and Travis shifted to get his Swiss Army knife and unlock the door to get at the bastard, when he heard Bridget snarl. So did the man in his bathroom.

The bathroom had no window, and the man most likely wouldn’t be armed. Instead he’d have to shift and take Travis on, but Travis wasn’t waiting for the cat to get up the nerve. The rogue would have to open the door first and then shift, and he knew Travis could pounce on him and kill him before he managed to take Travis out.

This way, Travis was taking the risk, shifting into his human form, and then preparing for the man’s pounce as a cougar. He could use his Glock. The guy had broken into his house with malicious intent. Travis was perfectly in his rights to kill him using his gun.

He sure as hell didn’t want to give this guy the advantage again.

Travis went for his gun, then unlocked the door, hesitated, then pushed the door open, and instantly took the stance to fire his weapon.

The growling cat lunged at him. Travis got off two rounds before the cougar took him down. Unable to use the gun on him now, though Travis smelled blood and knew at least one of the rounds had hit the bastard, Travis shifted and came up snarling, viciously tearing at the other cat, his teeth sinking into his neck and he held on, fishhook-claws digging into the cougar’s shoulders, while the man tried in vain to wrench free.

Bridget snarled, coming to his aid, and Travis bit the man with one last final bite that took him out. He released him, listened for any sign of a heartbeat, faint, then nothing. He quickly shifted so he could ask Bridget about the other man.

She shifted, and Travis pulled her into his arms. She held on tight to Travis. “He’s dead too. Heaton. This was Franklin, the man you killed.”

The man had turned into his human form upon death.

“Hell, now we have to clean up the mess.”

“What about Chet?”

They heard a van pull around to the carport, driving at the slowest rate of speed the driver could manage.

“That’s the engine rumble I heard when I was getting you into your Durango.”

“Did these guys have a third partner? And he was coming to pick up whatever he could at the house?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. I only smelled the two men’s scents, and Chuck only knew about them. They were going to burn your house. Heaton had a can of gas from your garage.”

“Not any longer.” Travis peeked out the blinds and watched for the driver to exit the van. On the side, a sign advertised the Christmas Tree Shoppe.

The driver’s door opened and shut, but Travis couldn’t see the driver yet.

Bridget shifted and put her paws on the windowsill to peek out.

Then Chet came around the back of the van and headed for the back door.

Travis took a relieved breath. “I can’t believe he managed to drive that van anywhere on this ice.”

Bridget purred in a cougar’s rumbly way and raced off down the hallway. Travis hurried to throw on a pair of boxers, then ran for the backdoor to unlock it for Chet.

He glimpsed Bridget getting dressed in the guestroom, fastening her bra in front, and he was so glad she was okay, and hoped mentally she was fine after having to kill the other man.

He saw the naked blond-haired man lying next to the gas can Travis used for filling up his lawn mower. Then Travis headed for the back door and pulled it open, startling Chet who took a step back.

“Hell, I was going to shift and go through the door. Is Bridget with you?” Chet asked.

“Yeah, and Heaton and Franklin are dead.”

“Is Bridget all right?” Chet asked.

“Yeah.” At least physically.

Bridget joined the men. “I’m fine, thanks, Chet. You brought the men’s van here?”

“Hell, yeah. I found you had discovered the men’s home and had left with Travis. The men were gone. So I slipped in the back way, and confiscated their van to haul the drugs.”

“And bodies. I think we need to take two vehicles. My Durango and the van. That way we can stay in our human forms and dump the van and then return here. Otherwise, one of us has to leave his clothes behind, which could incriminate us. I need to remove the rounds I hit Franklin with and dispose of the spent rounds.” Travis returned to his bedroom, cleaned up the evidence in there, wrapped Franklin in his shower curtain, and hauled him into the living room.

“Do you want me to help you guys, or stay here and clean up the mess?” Bridget asked, already cleaning up some of the blood on the floor while Chet returned the gas can to the garage.

In truth, Travis didn’t want her out of his sight. On the other hand, he’d rather she be here than with them if they got caught. “If you don’t mind, why don’t you clean up and if we have any trouble, we’ll let you know. That could mean you taking your car and leaving the area.”

She snorted. “In this weather?” But she nodded. “Okay. Keep in touch so I know when you’re done.”

Travis wasn’t going to do it in front of Chet, but what the hell. He wanted Bridget to know that he wanted more between them. Something beyond this mission. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her on the mouth, his body pressing hotly against hers, his thoughts going back to when they’d hugged in the junipers near the rogue cougar’s home in the freezing cold to warm her, and when they had killed their prey, shifted, and were both naked in the house. She seemed to want more too, which was the reason he took the chance, expecting her to push him away and scold him, if only for Chet’s sake.

Instead, she held him tighter, her soft-sweater covered breasts pressed against his naked chest, her soft, sweet mouth kissing him back.

He should have been more circumspect. Instead, he was totally aroused.

She finally pulled free and said, “Be careful, the two of you.”

Chet folded his arms. “No kiss goodbye for me?” He said it in a way that made Travis think Chet was teasing her.

“You might think more into it than I would want you to.” But then she looked like she didn’t want him to feel bad and gave him a quick peck on the cheek and smiled broadly.

“Jeez, one of these days, I’m going to be the one to get the hot she-cat.”

Travis slapped him on the back. “Let me get dressed and I’ll join you.”

“How long have you known Travis?” Chet asked her.

“Long enough,” she said, as Travis headed for the bedroom.

If he hadn’t been getting ready to dump bodies and drugs, he would have been on top of the moon.

After he dressed, they got to the dark task at hand and moved the bodies into the van while Bridget gathered more supplies to clean everything. Then both Travis and Chet tore open the plastic bags of drugs, the gravel-like granules spilling onto the van floor.

Because of the investigation Travis had done on Rambo already, he knew the man had two homes. The one was just perfect—out in the country, located near a pond, and no one lived there in the winter.