Page 41 of A Cougar's Kiss
Chapter 14
Nick wanted to kick down the door. He stood at the end of the hallway with Ary beside him. Jace could see the rage boiling inside him by the way he was staring down the hallway to the door that Decan told them belonged to Keller.
“It’s late, Nick, and from what we’ve heard and seen on the news, it’s been a really long night for them. Let’s just get some rest and deal with it in the morning.”
“He was supposed to be watching Cole. His sole purpose in being at Headquarters was because Rome felt he needed direction, like Decan. And now look what’s happened. My baby girl is in there with him,” Nick spat the words out like they were laced with venom and Jace looked to Ary for help.
“At least we’ve confirmed that Cole is safe and now we know where Shya is and that she’s safe too. And we’re not far away. We can confront them in the morning,” she said wrapping one arm around his waist and rubbing the other hand over his chest.
Jace hoped her touch would soothe him. He’d heard it worked that way with mates—the sound of their voice, their touch, their scent had a sort of healing property for most physical ailments and the bulk of anything mental or emotional. Of course, he didn’t know from experience but if ever there was a time, he was going to believe in the magic of thecompanheiro calor, it was now. Otherwise, Nick was going to kill Keller Cross, tonight.
“I’m gonna kill him,” Nick said as if Jace needed his suspicions verified.
“Not tonight,” Ary told him. “We’ll go into this bedroom and get settled. First thing tomorrow morning we’ll confront them.”
Jace watched in astonishment and relief as Ary led Nick through the door of one of the rooms on this top floor. His room was on the floor below and as he boarded the elevator again, he contacted Eli on his comlink.
“You see what went down out here?”
“I did,” Eli replied. “On the television and by other means.”
Jace sighed and stepped off the elevator. “You got any divine way to deal with this mess? Nick wanted to run in that room and kill that cougar. If Ary wasn’t there I don’t know that I could have stopped him.”
“No, that’s not what I saw. But if this cougar was crazy enough to start messing with Shya in the first place, he should be bold enough to stand in front of her father and explain why.”
“Is that what you taught Cam about dating shifters?”
“I taught Cam to look everybody straight in the eye and to tell the truth. If he does that, he’ll be okay, with women and men.”
Jace chuckled. “But not with shifters, you idiot. You’ve got to get better at giving advice if you and Nivea plan on having any more kids.”
“Oh no, buddy, that ship has sailed. One is fine with us. Now, you on the other hand can get started any time you want. We may not age like the humans, but time stands still for no man…or shifter,” Eli quipped.
“And with that I’ll change the subject,” Jace said as he used the code Gold had given him and slipped into the room. “They got the guy who announced Mackey’s death at the auditorium this afternoon. You’re not gonna like this anymore than the rest of them did when they brought him here and figured out who he was.”
“Who is he?”
“Rebel Banner, Croesteriia.”
“Is that name supposed to mean something to me?”
Jace shrugged even though he knew Eli couldn’t see him. “If you recall that sexy ass cheetah that showed up with Decan and Gold in Houston.”
“Kyss? What does she have to do with this?”
“Rebel’s her mate.”
“What? Kyss has a mate? How is that possible if she’s been at Headquarters with us these past few months? And when she approached Decan and Nisa she was with two other undocumented cheetahs. What the hell is going on?”
Jace rubbed a hand down the back of his neck. “That’s the same thing I’m trying to figure out. And it gets better, or worse, however you want to look at it. According to Decan and Gold, Kyss was assigned to guard the doors with them tonight, but when the chaos broke out, she got lost in the crowd. She didn’t make it back with them.”
Eli cursed. “Don’t tell me this was a set-up.”
“I don’t know. We need to look at the security tapes from the Oasis prison again. Remember we saw a tall guy leaving Mackey’s cell about twenty minutes after Shya walked out. His security clearance said it was Haven but that’s not possible because at that time the two of them were seen by other shifters and on video leaving the dining hall and stopping in the courtyard to chat with some girls before they got the call to head down to the prison for guard duty.”
“We’ve been infiltrated,” Eli whispered. “Just like the dream predicted.”
“What dream?” Jace wasn’t versed on how Eli’s seer powers worked, the guy wasn’t normally Mr. Chatty. The only reason he was getting so many words out of him now was because of Shya’s involvement in all this mess. Which reminded Jace, they still needed to talk to her to find out what she’d been doing in Mackey’s cell, because there was no doubt that she’d been there just before the man was butchered.
