Colin: McCullough's Jamboree - Erotic Jaguar Shapeshifter Romance (McCullough's Jamboree Book 1) by Kathi S. Barton

phone laughing, and she cut him off. “There is a man in my dining room with Colin at his throat that claimed that you sent him.”
    “I’m assuming that you don’t believe him. And by at his throat, I can also surmise that Colin isn’t giving him a hug.” She told him he was right on both accounts. “Tell me what he looks like. And no, I didn’t send anyone to you. When I get there, and I’m on my way, we’ll work out a system that you won’t have to guess the next time.”
    “Big, stupid looking brut. Not very quick on his feet by the way, and he knew my name.” Roger spoke then. “And apparently he’s a bear shifter. Colin can…I guess taste him.”
    “Christ. Colin will be able to tell if he’s lying then. Ask him if his name is Penick. Then check him for a tat on his upper arm. It says mother, but spelled with an a instead of an o .”
    She moved, her body hurting more from the two falls she’d had today than anything she’d felt in a few days. Groaning as she reached for the knife in her shoe, she cut away the sleeve of Penick’s shirt and sat back down. The pain wasn’t just hurting her now, but she was afraid she was going to be sick with it. She asked the man if his name was Penick and Roger confirmed it.
    “The tat is there. Who the hell…? Never mind. Colin said that he’s him too, that he’s not lying to me.” Leaning against the wall behind her, she nearly closed her eyes when Philips started cursing. She smiled again…twice in one day she’d made a man curse like she did. “Tony, I’m fading fast here. It’s been a very long morning and I’m hurting like a motherfucker. Who is he, and should I just let Colin kill him? It would make me feel better if I could and put his head on a pike out front for other would be assassins to see when they think about coming here.”
    “I have a transport four minutes out. If you have to kill him then so be it, but I’d prefer that you waited.” Lauren told Colin and Roger laughed.
    “He said to tell you that he’s getting a cramp in his mouth, so if the man dies because of a muscle spasm, it’s good to know he’s not going to go to prison for it.” Lauren nodded, too sick now with whatever was going on in her body to care at the moment. “Ma’am, Colin wants to know if you’re going to be all right.”
    “No. I’m sick.” She leaned over then, her belly finally catching up to whatever was wrong. And as she started to throw up again, she heard doors opening and closing and almost hoped they were there to kill her. When she was lifted up, Lauren looked into the face of Colin and wondered briefly where Penick was.
    “Hawkins has him. Let it go, Lauren. Just let the pain take you away.” Sounded like a good idea, and she let it swallow her up.
    ~~~
    Tony watched the team as they cleaned up the mess. One of them was bagging up her vomit, and another one was watching the entire procedure with his gun pointed at the man. It was tense there for a little while. Colin’s family had gathered their wagons around Lauren, and it had taken him showing up before anyone could get into the house without bloodshed. Tony was kind of glad for it really. If anyone needed watching over it would be Lauren.
    Colin came into the room with ill-fitting clothing on and asked to speak to him. Right now it was the last thing he wanted to do, explain to this man what he thought, but he nodded and followed him to the study that was still under construction.
    “She’s resting now. I gave all the meds I could find in her bathroom to that guy. Was it necessary to have someone with him with a firearm?” Tony told him it was for now. “Why? What do you think is going on?”
    “She told me yesterday morning that she was getting sicker. Lauren never complains. I mean, even with a knife wound in her side, she only said that it pulled…never mind. She never complains. So when she told me that she was sick, I set her up an appointment with the company docs. She was