Chapter 41
Bless Mason. He had to have been the one to send the drone down to distract Abyss.
Paradise took off as fast as she could while the jaguar was occupied with leaping at the drone. She spotted a big branch.
It might be a better weapon than the screwdriver if the jaguar came after her. And she would lay money that he would. She
tucked the screwdriver away and grabbed the branch. It was about the width and length of a baseball bat.
Her lungs burned but adrenaline fueled her limbs. She set her jaw with determination and ran for all she was worth. If she
survived this, she’d take up jogging so she was ready next time. Something nudged her to look behind her, and when she did,
her heart faltered in her chest. The panther was behind her and closing in fast.
Never turn your back on a jaguar.
She whirled with the stick in front of her and jabbed at the panther with it. “Get back! I’ll break your beautiful back with
this if I have to, but I don’t want to hurt you.”
The panther stared at her with uncanny blue eyes, but she avoided eye contact, which the big cat would take as a challenge.
The jaguar bit at the leaves she shook in his face.
His teeth made her shudder. Jaguars were dwarfed only by lions and tigers, but a jaguar’s bite was worse.
It could crack a croc’s head like an egg.
The thought of those teeth in her neck nearly paralyzed her, but her attack seemed to be having an effect. The jaguar seemed
unsure how to deal with all the shaking and noise. The terror that had gripped her eased, and she realized Abyss was a beautiful
and powerful animal. Creed and Bear had trained the panther to hunt, and while the cat’s natural instinct was to track down
his food, he wouldn’t have considered humans as prey without the men’s influence. That didn’t make the danger to her any less
dire, but she felt sorry for the panther instead of terrified.
She shook the stick again. “Get out of here, Abyss. Find a squirrel or something. I’m not your dinner.”
The panther bared his teeth and snapped at the leaves again. Huge muscles coiled in his back legs, and she knew the cat had
gotten over his fear. She nearly froze in place to wait for the clamp of those mighty jaws on her neck.
“I won’t go down without a fight, Abyss.” She jabbed at the panther’s chest with the hard edge of the branch. “Go on, git!”
A dark shape dove toward them again, and Abyss turned and snarled at the drone. A surge of hope lifted Paradise’s chin and
she raised her fist in exultation. “Yes! Thank you, Mason!” The boy hadn’t abandoned her. She wasn’t alone to face this.
She jabbed outward with the branch again and backed away so she didn’t attract the cat’s attention. Her breath was loud in
her ears. Once she couldn’t see the jaguar any longer, she began to run. Her vision narrowed to the dirt road in front of
her. If she could make it out of the woods, the cat might give up the chase.
Dust plumes billowed from behind a truck heading her way, and she recognized Blake’s determined face behind the wheel.
The truck skidded to a stop, and with the engine still running, Blake spilled from one side of the pickup and her brother from the other.
Tears blurred her vision, and she started toward them.
Drew’s gun was in his hand. He motioned to her right. “Get out of the way!” He was aiming over her shoulder and to the left.
Paradise turned to see the jaguar charging at full speed, and she leaped into the ditch. Her belly hit the vegetation, and
leaves and grass were in her mouth and hair. She scrambled to her hands and knees to regain her feet, but she expected to
feel teeth in the back of her neck.
The black shadow of the jaguar was still coming. The big cat changed directions, but Drew’s gun barked, and the animal leaped
in the air as a bullet nicked his foot. The big cat growled and bit at the injury, then lay down and licked the wound.
Blake ran to her and pulled her out of the ditch. He turned her away from the big cat. “Get in the truck. I’ll tranq it.”
He brought up a pistol and fired a dart at the cat. It lodged in the jaguar’s back flank, but Abyss didn’t seem to notice
with the blood still oozing from his foot.
Now that she was safe, the strength vanished from Paradise’s legs, and she wobbled as she headed for the pickup. She opened
the passenger door and nearly collapsed onto the seat. She couldn’t stop shaking, and even her teeth chattered. Shock.
Both men watched the jaguar put his head on his paws. It would be a few minutes before it was safe to approach the animal,
and that was fine with her.
She reached for the bottle of water on Blake’s side of the console and downed what was left in one gulp. She was still thirsty,
but the shaking ebbed. Tears felt dangerously close. Thank you, God. It was a bona fide miracle that the men she loved had found her in time. Five minutes later and parts of her would have been in the panther’s belly, and the rest would have been up a tree waiting for Abyss’s next meal.
Paradise rested and tried to gather her thoughts on their next steps, but the only thing she wanted right this minute was
Blake’s arms around her. Only then would she be sure she had survived this ordeal.
He jogged back to the truck and opened the door to lean in. “The cat’s asleep. We’ll load him in a few minutes. Are you hurt?”
She sank into the love in his blue eyes and cupped his face in her hands. “Just hold me a minute until I stop shaking. I thought
I’d never see you again.”
He leaned into the truck and gathered her close. “Take all the time you need. I wasn’t sure I’d even find you.”
She closed her eyes and inhaled his masculine scent. Home. This was where she belonged. Even the sound of sirens heading their way wasn’t as much comfort as Blake’s arms.
Blake and Drew sat with Paradise in the ER exam room while the doctor cleaned and bandaged her poor feet from the brutal climb
out of the jaguar enclosure. Her cheeks held more color, and her amber eyes glowed with contentment. After all these months
of trauma and fear, it was over. She had answers and he rejoiced with her.
“Did you text your mom?” she asked when the doctor left.
“I did. She’s been praying constantly during the search, the boys too. They’re all waiting to welcome you home.”
Her smile widened. “It’s over, Blake. I can’t believe it.”
He turned at a tap on the door, and Jane poked her head in. “I was told our patient is doing well and ready for discharge. I thought you’d like to know Bear and Angela were picked up at the Pensacola airport.”
He exhaled. “That’s great news. What about Creed?”
“Rod chased him into Louisiana, and in the capture, Creed’s truck went airborne and ended up on its roof. He’s dead.”
“I feel bad about the Collins family,” Paradise said softly. “They’ve had so much loss already.”
“Do you feel up to telling me the story? I’m still murky on all of the details.”
Blake wondered the same. All he knew was that Bear and Angela had taken her from the garage, but he didn’t know who had committed
the murders and why.
Paradise sat up on the exam table and dangled her feet over the side. There were twigs in her hair and dirt on all her exposed
skin. She brushed at the mud on her knees. “I sure need a shower. Do I need to come down to the station so you can record
it all?”
Jane held up her phone. “This is fine for now. You’ve been through a terrible ordeal.”
“I’ll take the reprieve.” Paradise took a deep breath, then dove in. “There was something about a photo on the wall of the
garage that nagged at me, and I decided to examine it again. I went out to the garage by myself and realized there was fencing
in the picture that could have been to contain a big cat. I thought it might lead me to whoever had released that leopard
onto our property, the one we found with a collar. While I was there, Bear and Angela came in.”
Blake could see the scene in his head. They’d walked in to her trespassing, and it had escalated into so much more. “How’d
they take you?”
“I’ll get to that. Angela snapped when she found out Ben was leaving Pamela for my mom.
The pregnancy was the final straw. She said the baby should have been hers.
After all these years, he owed her. She drugged him and bludgeoned him with the golf club.
Pamela figured it out and confronted Bear, who confessed. Angela heard and killed her too.”
“And your parents?” Jane asked.
“I think that was simple hatred and revenge. She called my mother a whore. Bear killed them for her. He wanted Ben’s Senate
seat, but that didn’t happen. I’m not sure why.”
“I can answer that,” Drew said. “While we were waiting for the nurse to let us come back to see you, I did some research on
Bear. The Mississippi governor called for a special election to replace Ben, and Bear ran. He lost. I’m sure he thought sympathy
for the loss of his brother would carry the day, but he still didn’t connect with the voters.”
“So he never got what he wanted,” Blake said. “That’s a bit of justice right there.”
“Wow, it’s a testament to what obsession will do,” Jane said. “How did the muscle car play into it all?”
“I don’t know. We didn’t talk about that.”
Blake held up his hand. “I can answer that. I called the governor. She said the car had originally belonged to Angela’s father.
He’d sold it to the governor’s father for a song, and then when Ben wanted it so badly, her dad gave it to Ben. We think with
him dead, Angela wanted it back. I think she wanted her whole life back—all the time she’d wasted waiting on Ben to ‘do the
right thing’ and marry her.”
Paradise nodded. “And Bear convinced her to leave with him, assuming I could climb out. But she smiled triumphantly at me as they left, and I knew it wasn’t over.
They’d been gone about half an hour when Creed showed up to finish the job.
I’d been trying and failing to climb the fence.
Creed opened the gate between the perimeters enough for the jaguar to begin to claw his way through and left me there.
That’s when I took another stab at climbing the fence.
I got out and started to run. The jaguar was climbing the fence when I looked back last, and I’d hoped once I was out of view, it would give up.
But Creed and Bear had trained Abyss to track and kill prey. ”
“God had to have protected you,” Blake said.
She took his hand. “Absolutely, and I’m so thankful.”
“This will be a trial that will grip the entire nation,” Jane said. “Jealousy, obsession, and even a black jaguar. What about
Bea?”
Paradise glanced at Blake and Drew. “She had been trying to catch Sheriff Davis with my mom. She saw Angela the night of the
murders and covered it up. For a price. Angela got tired of paying the blackmail money.”
Jane’s hazel eyes narrowed. “So much pain and death over money and obsession. I don’t see them wiggling out of this.” She
turned toward the door. “Get a shower, hold some happy boys, and we’ll get your statement tomorrow. I’m glad you survived,
Paradise.”
“Not as glad as me,” Blake murmured as he kissed Paradise.
Drew unwound from the chair and followed Jane. “I’m going to get coffee. Any takers?”
“I’ll have some,” Blake said.
Paradise chimed in with a request as well. “And chocolate-covered peanuts.”
Drew smiled. “You got it.”
When the door shut behind her brother, Paradise patted the exam table beside her. “I’d like you a little closer.”
Blake would like nothing better himself. He perched on the edge of the table. “I don’t think they’re going to keep you overnight. I’ll take you home to the boys as soon as they let you loose. Do your feet hurt?”
She took his hand. “I’m too happy to feel any pain. Justice feels good, Blake. It was something I wasn’t sure would happen.
It won’t bring my parents back, but their killer isn’t still out there somewhere living their life without punishment. I won’t
be spending the rest of my life staring into people’s faces and wondering if they killed my parents. I’m free of that compulsion.
I feel like I could float away on a breeze.”
“We can stop and get some chocolate-peanut-butter ice cream to help weigh you down.”
She poked him in the ribs with her index finger. “I’d settle for chocolate-covered peanuts and some of your mom’s brownies.”
Her joy radiated to him, and he pulled her closer. “It’s over, babe. Our next chapter is right in front of us.”