His Purrfect Mate(12)

“How much did Jax pay you for this little charade?”

“Five hundred bucks.”

Pixie and Bobbi raced into the living room. Jax and Heath, of course, were gone. Sitting on the sofa was a large manila envelope.

Bobbi grabbed it and ripped it open. Inside was a briefing on Bobbi’s real assignment. When she saw it, Bobbi let out a stream of curses, as the “princess” sauntered past them, purse slung over her shoulder, and left the apartment.

“Let’s go,” Bobbi said, gritting her teeth. .

“What’s our assignment?” Pixie said, following her out the door.

“Okay, you know how a lot of our bodyguard assignments are basically babysitting jobs?”

“Yeah…”

“This is literally a babysitting job. Prince Reginald the Third, an eight year old cheetah shifter, is in town because he wanted to go to Disney Land. We are supposed to accompany him to Disney Land. His parents, who are the monarchs of some tiny Asian country I’m not going to bother to try to pronounce, are away attending important matters of state for the next two weeks.. He’s at a hotel with his nanny, and the two shifter bodyguards that Jax left at the hotel have been ordered to leave at 8 p.m. whether we show up or not. We’ve got about 20 minutes to get there.”

“Wait. Whoa. We are really going to do this?” Pixie protested, as they rushed to Bobbi’s car.

“We can’t leave an eight-year-old unprotected. We’ll go there and wait until we can get a team from Shifters, Inc. to show up and relieve us. Then we’re going wolf and bear hunting.”

“And then?”

“When I find Jax, I am seriously going to throw down. There will be blood on the streets.”

“Goodie!” Pixie rubbed her hands together gleefully. “Just promise me we won’t be stuck with the kid for too long. Brats and me…we don’t mix.”

“Don’t worry. We won’t be there a minute longer than we need to. Now, call Tyler and find out what the hell’s really going on. And needless to say, we’ll never take our assignments from Jax again.”

Pixie grabbed her cell phone and dialed.

Jax and Heath, she found out, were taking a private courier plane to a small, war-torn country called Turak, in the Middle East, to talk to a family of antique dealers who might have knowledge about a series of art thefts at Kenneth’s homes.

They were to offer the family safe passage out of Turak, in exchange for any information that they might be able to provide.

If Kenneth had been there, Bobbi knew, he would have discussed the assignment face to face with all of them, and they would have worked out who would be best suited for the job.

Tyler, however, was completely frazzled by being handed control of Shifters, Inc., even temporarily. He’d done his best, but he hadn’t followed through and verified with Bobbi and Pixie that they’d accepted their assignment.

If he had, Jax would never have gotten away with his shenanigans.

“Now how are we going to find them? Are we going to have to wait until they get back?” Pixie wondered.

“Hells to the no,” Bobbi said. “Leave it to me. I know people, in places. I will get us there, and steal the assignment out from under their sorry snouts.”

Kenneth was probably going to bite her head off when he got back from New York, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t going to be sidelined with a babysitting job while her boyfriend and her brother ran head first into danger.

She picked up her phone and started making calls. She had worked for the National Shifter’s Council for years as an Enforcer; she’d developed many connections worldwide, ranging from legal to highly shady. Tonight, she was tapping in to the shady side.

They pulled up in front of the hotel minutes later, parked, and entered the lobby. They spotted the prince immediately; he was standing in the middle of the spacious lobby, next to a middle aged woman and two human bodyguards. The bodyguards weren’t employees of Shifters, Inc. Bobbi realized that the prince probably travelled with his own security staff.

“There go Thom and Rafael,” Pixie said, pointing.

Bobbi spotted two big, bulky shifters in suits rushing out a side door. She suspected that Jax wouldn’t really have told the bodyguards to leave no matter what; he’d have told them to watch out for her, and leave as soon as she was pulling up to the front door. That way, she’d be stuck with the safe babysitting job, while he and Heath rushed headlong into a war zone. Or so he thought.

Forcing a smile on her face, she walked up to the woman, who was pleading with Prince Reginald to stop jumping on the leather sofa. Businessmen and women at the check-in counter were glaring at him.