No, she’ll suffer. Hard. Maybe I’ll even keep you alive so you can watch it happen. And you can explain to her that she wouldn’t have had to go through that agony if you had just done the right thing by her.”
Fear flickered across the cheetah’s face. “Fuck.”
Havana knew that, in reality, Tate would never hurt a woman. Knew he would never make one person pay for another person’s actions. But Taggart clearly believed Tate meant what he said, which was what mattered.
Tate lifted a brow. “So, what’s it gonna be?”
The cheetah briefly closed his eyes. “You swear you won’t touch her or send anyone after her if I tell you what you want to know?”
“I swear it,” Tate promised.
Taggart’s head jerked when the mamba’s tongue flicked his ear. He looked at Havana. “I’ll talk, I will, just get her off me.”
“But she looks so comfortable there,” said Havana. “It would be a shame to disturb her. She gets cranky when disturbed. So cranky she can just … lunge and bite.”
Taggart cursed again.
“Don’t look at Havana,” Tate told him. “You look right at me and start talking. The sooner you’re done, the sooner the mamba will slither away.”
Taggart took in a long breath. “I don’t know much about the jaguars, really. But I saw them one night when I was at a casino—Ace in the Hole, a place near the docks. Three girls were singing on stage. They weren’t very good, but one was hot as hell. Asian. A female jaguar. Long legs, big rack, purple streaks in her black hair. I bought her a drink after the show. We exchanged names. I told her she had a nice voice. She said I should tell her boss that because the old bastard had informed her that tonight’s performance would be her last—he was hiring a new act or something. Then, two guys showed up. They were jaguars, too.”
“Descriptions?” asked Alex.
Taggart reeled off quite detailed descriptions. Havana noted it all down on her cell phone’s notepad app.
“What happened next?” Tate asked the cheetah.
“The one with the ponytail got pissed and territorial, he told me to stay away from her. I apologized and said I didn’t know she was spoken for. He studied me hard, like he thought he might know my face from somewhere. Then he smiled and said, ‘Malcolm Taggart.’ He told me we had the same boss, said he’d heard good things about me from his boss and that I should keep doing a good job because it ain’t wise to disappoint him.”
Havana stilled, asking, “You know this jaguar’s name?”
Taggart frowned thoughtfully. “When he got all possessive, the woman tried calming him down. She called him Enrique. I don’t think they were tight. She looked kind of scared of him.”
Tate tapped his fingers on the chair. “Did you catch the other jaguar’s name?”
“No,” replied Taggart. “He never said a word. Not one.” He gulped, because the mamba chose that moment to curl up on his lap, her head perilously close to his inner thigh.
“What about the woman? We don’t wish her harm,” Tate quickly added when Taggart hesitated to answer. “We just need her name. We may need her help to find this Enrique.”
The cheetah sighed. “Lola,” he said, his voice low and defeated. “She introduced herself as Lola.”
“Lola,” Alex echoed. “Anything else you can tell us?”
Taggart shook his head. “That’s all I got.”
“So you don’t have even the slightest clue who your boss might be?” asked Tate.
Again, Taggart shook his head. “Not one.”
“I do,” said Tate. “You’ve been taking directions from Gideon York.”
Taggart’s face went slack. “That guy is dead.”
“No, the twisted fuck is just underground. And you’ve been serving a man who massacred an entire wolf pack and then killed most of his own loyal followers. Just thought you might be interested to know.” Tate slowly got to his feet and casually pushed the chair aside. “You were very informative, Mal. I appreciate that, I do. I like it when people are cooperative. But not enough for me to go easy on you. And let’s be honest, if someone did to your woman what you did to mine, you’d expect them to pay, wouldn’t you?”
Taking a step toward the cheetah, Tate felt his hands ball up. “You’ll pay for agreeing to kill my mate. You’ll pay for putting those bullets in her body. You’ll pay for almost taking her from me twice.” Tate leaned forward and said quietly, “And then you’ll pay all over again.” He slammed