Cougar Magic: Heart of the Cougar, Book 6 Page 2

  They said she could drop in any time, but of course, she was sure they meant when they were there. She was certain they wouldn't have expected her to stay at their house when they weren't there, but then again, she knew they wouldn't have minded. She was sure they had never told anyone about her. Her twin sister? Not sure.

  Nina's future visions were just so strange this time, but they were centered on Yuma Town again. And clearer since she’d gotten here.

  For two days, she’d been really careful to conceal that she was living here. She had no way to explain why it was okay for her to stay here. Then she had let down her guard for just a moment and look where that got her?

  But no one had come for her in the middle of the night. And no one had showed up this morning in the light of day.

  She started roasting a chicken, potato, and carrots for lunch, figuring she could make sandwiches of the leftovers after that. She’d actually bought a bunch of groceries in another town and brought them back here so she could stay here for a while. And her aunt and uncle had plenty of food too. She’d replace whatever she used after she took care of her business here, including getting her darn tire repaired. If she’d known that Ava had ended up in this area before her aunt and uncle had left, she would have asked if she could just stay here at that time.

  She just couldn’t get lax about letting anyone know she was here, when she didn’t know anyone from Yuma Town. And trying to explain why she was in her family’s home and no way to prove they were family, or what she was actually doing here, was just too complicated.

  At least there were no plants inside to water. No pets to take care of. Unless they had friends come by to check on the place, she should be good.

  She was just about ready to settle down on the couch to check her emails on her laptop when she heard a scratching noise outside. Thinking it was a raccoon, she figured the best way to scare it off was to shift into her cougar coat and chase it away. Having had problems with them at her old house, she knew what a pest they could be. She’d had them in the attic and that nightmare revisited her.

  She pulled off her boots and socks, then slipped off her sweater and set it on the couch. She stood and removed her jeans, panties, and bra, putting them on top of her sweater. Then she shifted into her cougar coat. At the cougar door, she realized it was probably locked while her aunt and uncle were away. Luckily, she didn’t try to barge through it with her nose. She nudged it and found it was locked. She shifted, unlocked it, shifted, then ran outside to look around her family’s house in the snowdrifts to see what was causing the noise.

  What a mistake that was! The raccoon turned out to be a black and white skunk, digging in the composter for treats. He sprayed her with his stinky scent and ran off. She might have chased him off, but he sure got her back. The pungent odor clung to her fur, and she ran through the snow to the river a mile away, sneezing and coughing. As soon as she reached it, she hesitated to get into the water, the nightmare coming to mind. Was it a future vision? That she'd drown in the river if she went in?

  She smelled so bad, she had to chance it and leapt into the icy-cold river to wash some of the odor off.

  Her family had had a boxer when she was growing up and she knew mixing peroxide, baking soda, and dish soap, or tomato juice, or vanilla extract, or apple cider vinegar would work. The problem was she would carry the smell into the house where it could linger when she went to look for anything that might work. Not to mention with a cougar’s enhanced sense of smell, the odor was even worse. Talk about really ruining her day.

  She ran back through the snow and when she reached the house, the skunk smell lingered in the air. Ugh. She rolled in the snow, trying to get rid of the odor off her skin and fur.

  She didn’t think anything could make her smell this bad.

  The phone rang in the house and she figured it was a spam caller. Anyone local who knew her aunt and uncle well would know they had left for a vacation. She climbed onto the back porch and listened to see if she could hear if anyone left a message.

  “Hey,” a man said after the machine asked for him to leave a message, “this is Stryker from the sheriff’s office. I’m just checking to see if you folks returned home early. Just give me or Dan a call if you did, when you get this.”

  Ohmigod, the cougar she thought she’d seen early this morning had contacted the sheriff’s office!

  But then she took a deep breath. The officer wasn’t coming out here. He wouldn’t have called and told the occupants he was waiting on their call, if he planned to come out here. She relaxed a little, but then worried about the chicken. Even after the timer went off, it could stay in for another fifteen minutes or so. But after that, it could cook until it was way overdone.

  Then she heard the oven timer go off. Great. She rolled in the snow some more, trying to rub off the overpowering odor.

  The odor wasn’t as bad as when the critter first had skunked her, but it was still horrible. She needed to use something else to cut the odor. She'd chance dashing through the house and gathering whatever supplies she could find to get rid of the smell and turn off the oven too.

  She pushed her nose through the door and ran into the kitchen where she shifted and turned off the oven.

  She glanced at the kitchen window, the only window in the house that didn’t have blinds. She could see the front drive and no one was about. She still couldn’t completely relax after Stryker from the sheriff’s office had called.

  She listened to Stryker’s sexy, baritone voice again on the message machine as she searched for apple cider vinegar in the kitchen cabinets. “Hey, this is Stryker. I’m just checking to see if you folks returned home early. Just give me or Dan a call if you did, when you get this.”

  He sounded authoritative, friendly, but not her friend, she reminded herself. He would think she was guilty of breaking and entering. But she was on a case and she knew her sister was in danger.

  She’d looked in every cabinet and the pantry for apple cider vinegar. No luck finding any. Unless they kept it somewhere else, she didn’t know where it would be. She found baking soda, dish liquid soap, and vanilla extract. No tomato juice. Hydrogen peroxide might be in the bathroom. She turned to head in that direction when two Australian shepherds barged in through the cougar door, scaring the crap out of her and she let out a startled scream.

  2

  Stryker parked at the Robinson’s house and opened his door.

  Before he could stop them, the dogs leaped out of the Jeep, and raced off through the snow to the house. They were soon at the cougar door, eager to see the Robinsons and get some treats. The cougar door should have been locked and so he hadn’t been worried that they’d get in. But it wasn’t locked and one dog right after the other barged in. If that wasn’t bad enough, a woman’s blood-curdling scream from inside the house chilled his blood.

  He looked in the kitchen door window to learn what the situation was before he barged in and saw the beautiful woman of his dreams—a very naked, buxom blonde with long, shapely legs and narrowed blue-green eyes—trying to fend off the licks and kisses from his dogs. He also smelled the strong odor of skunk in the cold air and the aroma of chicken roasting in the oven. What the hell? It appeared as though she’d made herself right at home. She must have just been running as a cougar, a possible reason for her being naked in the kitchen.

  The owner, Geoffrey Robinson, had left keys with Stryker so he could check on frozen pipes or anything else that needed checking out. Stryker rushed for the door, unlocked it, assuming he could handle one naked woman, forgetting in the instant that he threw open the door, she could be a feral cougar. Sure enough, as soon as he threw the door aside, he was facing a beautiful, snarling she-cat, her fur the same pretty shade of cinnamon that his was when he was wearing his cougar coat. He should have called Dan at the very least for backup, just in case.

  The odor of skunk permeated the air in here, but not as badly as outside. He realized it was coming from the she-cat. He kept
an eye on the dangerous feline and noticed things sitting on the island counter that looked suspiciously like the ingredients used to remove skunk odor from a body. She’d been skunked. He almost smiled.

  “Zander! Sydney! Don’t get close to her!” That’s all he needed was to have to give them a bath too. “Do you want me to help you get rid of the odor? I’ve had to do this with both my pooches.” Then he’d talk to her before he arrested her. He supposed now dating her was out, unless she had a damn good reason for being here. He couldn’t think of a one.

  He realized he hadn’t identified himself, but then she must have known who he was, though he was wearing a shirt, jeans, and a coat and not baring his chest while he wore the red Santa suit like last time.

  “Come on. You can get in the tub and I’ll mix the stuff up for you and scrub you down.” Now that had real appeal. Even though she was in her feline form.

  She hesitated.

  Hoping to prove to her that he meant what he said, he gathered up the supplies she’d found, while his dogs had settled on the floor in the kitchen and he headed for the guest bathroom. Turning his back on her had been a mistake. As soon as she hit him in the back with her paws, he fell and hit his head hard on the floor, and the smell of skunk and the delightful aroma of chicken—all vanished in an instant.

  * * *

  Nina knew the deputy sheriff intended to arrest her as soon as he got her cleaned up so she wouldn’t stink up their jailhouse. She paced while his dogs came over and licked his face, as if he was on the floor to play with them.

  She shifted, checked him over and could hear his steady heartbeat and regular breathing. He might have a knot on his head after he fell. She used his handcuffs to secure his wrists behind his back, then pulled his keys out of his pocket and tucked them in a kitchen drawer so he couldn’t manage to unlock them.

  She would take a bath without his help, thank you very much. She grabbed the stuff he’d dropped—luckily the vanilla extract was in a plastic bottle—and carried them into the bathroom. She started the bathtub water, while she was trying to think of what she could do now. If she kept him hostage, the sheriff would surely know Stryker was in trouble. But if she could, she hoped to locate her sister before it was too late, and before anyone knew Deputy Stryker Hill had been detained.

  She sure hadn’t foreseen this happening. Her future sight could be spot-on at times, and frustratingly annoying at other times. Which was why it was so difficult for scientists to study such phenomena.

  She looked under the bathroom counter and found peroxide. Yes! When the bathtub was full, she poured the get-rid-of-skunk-odor ingredients into the bathwater, swished it around with her arm, and climbed in. She sank underneath the water, needing to clean every bit of her. Then she’d take a shower, washing her skin with her lavender-scented bodywash and then thoroughly wash her hair with the coconut cream shampoo. Hopefully, she’d smell normal again and she could eat lunch. She’d just pack up and try to find another location to work out of, but the problem was that this really was her family’s home, so perfect for her to stay here. And her sister would most likely seek refuge here. Plus, Nina's damnable tire was flat, so she really couldn’t just leave. Not unless she took Stryker’s vehicle.

  She could add stolen property to her list of crimes, though she was sure knocking a deputy out and taking him hostage was probably worse than anything else she’d done so far.

  After soaking in the tub for as long as she could stand, she let the water drain out of the tub and slid the glass doors closed. She covered her body in the silky, pearl-pink bodywash, in anticipation of starting the shower. She figured leaving it on her skin for a few minutes wouldn’t hurt. Then she poured a handful of the coconut shampoo on her hair and lathered it up, letting it soak into the roots too until she could start the shower and rinse off.

  Both dogs took turns coming into the bathroom and checking her out. She’d left the bathroom door open in case Stryker had come to and was cursing her, trying to free himself, or something and she could hear him better.

  The dogs both left and she started the shower, rinsing off all the soap, which, considering how much she used, took forever. Even the water was starting to lose its heat and turning lukewarm. She quickly turned off the shower, wrung out her hair, and opened the shower doors to grab her towel and gave a startled squeak to see Stryker sitting up, leaning against the wall, watching every move she made. She grabbed a blue bath towel off the rack and wrapped it around herself.

  At least for some of the time she’d been showering, the glass doors had been steamed up. Maybe he hadn’t been sitting there for long. Still, he’d gotten an eyeful of her when she’d opened the glass doors.

  “You should be lying down resting, not watching me shower.”

  He only gave her a crooked smile.

  She’d been giving this a lot of thought and still wasn’t sure what to do. Even though he wasn’t looking all growly at her, maybe because he had been watching her shower, she thought maybe he’d listen to reason. Not about the psychic business, because she knew he wouldn’t believe her about that.

  “Would you like some chicken? I made a whole one so there’s plenty to share.”

  He didn’t answer her and she wondered if he was a little dazed still.

  “I’m going to get dressed and we can discuss it. Oh, and by the way, you shouldn’t be breaking into people’s homes when they're not here.”

  “Me? They gave me their keys to check on the place periodically,” Stryker said.

  She smiled and carefully stepped over his long legs, then headed down the hall and entered the guest bedroom, forgetting the clothes she’d been wearing were on the couch. She returned, still wearing the blue towel, and he raised his brows. He was still leaning against the wall, looking like he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Good.

  Then she carefully stepped over his long legs again and headed for the living room. Once there, the dogs following her into the living room, and she hurried to get dressed.

  “Sorry for knocking you out, by the way,” she called out as she moved into the kitchen and began making chicken gravy.

  “You could have said you didn’t want me to wash you. That would have sufficed.”

  She opened the back door and the front and let the cold-stiff, cross breeze carry any of the residual smell of skunk from the house. “Are you hungry?”

  To her surprise, he walked into the kitchen, except his handcuffed hands were in front of him now.

  She stared at them for a moment, knowing how much trouble she could be in if he decided to try and take her in. She probably could block his deputy sheriff moves with her own FBI training, but he didn’t appear to be in any hurry to take her to jail. It helped that he didn’t know she’d been FBI.

  “So, what part of the chicken do you like?” she asked, serving up the meal on the platter, then carried it to the table.

  “I’m a leg man, myself.” He glanced down at her legs as if she wasn’t wearing jeans. “And…breast.”

  She smiled a little. “You were supposed to be…uhm, sleeping.”

  “Unconscious? Momentarily. Okay, so tell me why you think it’s not right for me to be here, but you are perfectly fine with being here.”

  “The Robinsons are my aunt and uncle.”

  “Uh-huh.” He took a seat at the dining room table, waiting to be fed. “And you are?”

  “Nina Lamar.” She was surprised at this turn of events. She really hadn’t expected him to be so cooperative.

  “The home owners are named Robinson, so how does Lamar fit into the scheme?”

  “Grace is my dad’s sister.”

  Stryker’s cell rang.

  Her skin chilled and she glanced at his coat pocket. He smiled at her.

  “Do you want to get that for me?” he asked.

  She loved his deep, sexy voice. “Don’t try anything.”

  He scoffed. “If I don’t answer the phone, we could have the whole sheriff’s department out he
re. I’d rather have a nice dinner with you and get your explanation for all of this.”

  The word “first” was left off, but she knew that’s what he was thinking. He’d listen to her explanation first, and then arrest her.

  She hurried to pull his phone out of his pocket and handed it to him.

  He brushed his hands over hers, not trying to avoid the contact, reminding her of when he was so hot as Santa on display, and then he answered the call. “Hey, Dan? No, no problem at all. The dogs and I went in to check on the plumbing to make sure the Robinsons didn’t have any frozen pipes. They’re all good. The shower ran just fine.” Stryker gave Nina a wink, the cad. “It smelled like a skunk was in the area, but that’s about it.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “Yeah, thanks. I’ll be off then. Let me know if you need me though. Thanks. Out here.” Stryker smiled at her.

  She took his phone and made sure he had ended the call. She didn’t want him slipping his phone in his pocket while he told on her, if the sheriff was still on the line.

  “I’m a little warm in my coat. Do you think you could let me take it off?” Stryker asked her.

  She smiled. “I think you’ll live.” Then she sliced off some breast meat and gave him both legs, carrots, and potatoes. She served up gravy for him after that.

  “You don’t think we can ditch these?” he asked, raising his hands.

  “I think you’re safer wearing them.”

  “Safer?”

  She nodded and cut up her chicken breast. “I won’t have to knock you out again.”