Quinn eyed them, glancing between Ted and Alex with amused awareness, but Ted’s expression said it all.
Back off, old man. This is none of your business.
Nevertheless, the old man smirked. “You here because of Marcus?”
Alex nodded, but it was Ted who spoke.
“Yes, but first, do we have a problem about Maggie?”
“Did you draw blood?”
“Yes.”
Quinn cocked his head, never one to let an advantage slip by.
“My clan will have a blood marker on yours, but I’ll be cautious about collecting it. I know it was provoked.”
Ted didn’t look pleased. Alex narrowed his eyes and saw Old Quinn smiling at him as if he’d done him a favor.
Blood markers were inevitable when you had as many predators living together as you did in Cambio Springs. On moon nights, when all the clans shifted, things could get wild. It was one of the reasons that snakes usually stayed out of the way when nights got rowdy. Bears, big cats, and wolves could all hold their own, even in a fight where blood was spilled. Birds could fly and there weren’t many of them. But snakes were stealth hunters, better served by isolation and silence than outright attack.
For the cats to owe the snakes a blood marker was significant. The fact that Quinn acknowledged the marker as provoked was… problematic.
While wolves could claim attack on any member of the pack as a provocation, cats were solitary. Provocation would only be acknowledged for immediate family. A child… or a mate. By calling the attack on Maggie provoked, Old Quinn was effectively calling Alex McCann Ted’s mate.
And that wasn’t lost on Ted.
Alex narrowed his eyes and wondered if Old Quinn had just made his life easier or harder.
Luckily, Ted brushed it off. She nodded and said, “I’ll let my mother know.”
“Appreciated.”
“Maggie’s a problem,” Alex said.
Old Quinn tugged on the end of his mustache. “You don’t have to tell me that, McCann. Course you know it’d be better if her brother was around.”
Sean hadn’t been back in the Springs since high school. The few times Alex had seen him had been in Los Angeles or one of the other cities where the journalist had been on assignment. They emailed regularly, and Alex knew that Sean kept in touch with his uncle, too.
“You know he’s not likely to be back.”
“And I know the reasons he stays gone are bullshit.”
“They’re his reasons, Quinn. I can’t—”
“You tell him, Alex. He stays gone after Marcus is dead, and his family and clan are fucked for leadership. Hell, he might actually listen to you.” Quinn’s voice was soft when he glanced at the porch. “After Sean, Marcus was it. Now, I’ve got my eye on Rory, but he’s young. And he’s messed up about his brother right now. All the older generation are too much of a mess.”
The Quinn’s last clan leader had been trouble, encouraging the more criminal elements in his family to thrive, and it had left a mark on his parents’ generation. Old Quinn started to change directions for his family as soon as his grandfather had died, but that change took time.
“You’ve got a lot of years left, Quinn.”
The old man’s voice grew hoarse. “If losing Alma taught me anything, it’s that you have to be prepared. We don’t have no guarantees here. Tell my nephew to get his ass home. He has responsibilities.”
“I’ll tell him, Quinn, but you know there’s no telling what he’ll do.”
“Fair enough.” He nodded between Alex and Ted. “Speaking of responsibilities, you two thought about what you’re going to do to the balance of power here once everyone knows?”
Ted said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You’re not a very good liar, Teodora Vasquez, so don’t try to bullshit me.”
Alex placed his hand on Ted’s knee and felt the tension. She was angry, but he didn’t want the old man to sidetrack them. “That’s not why we’re here, Quinn.”
“Just something to keep in mind.”
“Fine,” Ted said between clenched teeth. “We want to talk about Marcus.”
“I bet you do.”
Alex scooted forward in his seat, setting his beer on the coffee table. “Ted and I are looking into some things that Chief Gilbert might not think about. Some… alternate areas of investigation.”
Now Quinn just looked amused. “You know Gilbert is smart as hell. What do you think you’re gonna find that he won’t?”
“He may be smart, but he doesn’t think like a criminal the way I do.”
“You?” Old Quinn hooted. “A criminal?”
“Nothing shadier than real estate deals in Southern California, old man.”
Quinn tipped his head toward Alex. “You may have me there, boy.”
“Has Gilbert come up here to ask you where Marcus got the money to start his business yet?”
All amusement dropped from Old Quinn’s face. “Leave that one alone, Alex.”
“Has he?”
“No. But if he does, he has friends in the police department in Vegas who can look into that shit. It’s not something you two need to poke around in.”
He could feel Ted sit up straighter. “There was something sketchy,” she said.
Quinn frowned before he took another pull on his beer. “Of course there was something sketchy. You don’t start a business with that much capital on account of your smile. I didn’t like it, but Marcus did it anyway. And it’s something he got out from under as soon as he could. I don’t think it has anything to do with who killed him.”
Alex asked, “Why not?”
Old Quinn narrowed his eyes. “Because if I did, there’d be seven dead Eye-talians Vegas PD would be investigating right now.” He leaned back and flicked his mustache. “Not that they’d get anywhere. Snake bites happen in the desert.”
Chapter Nine
“Provoked.”
Her mother was going to have a fit. Not only was Old Quinn getting a blood marker on their clan, but the elder was insinuating that Ted had mate privileges with the future McCann alpha. She was never going to hear the end of it.
I’ll show you provoked, old man.
She was silent on the drive back, letting Alex navigate his truck over the rocky roads leaving Old Quinn’s house. She didn’t think about the fact that he was driving. Hadn’t even asked if he wanted her to. She drove in the city because he hated traffic and tended to get enraged. He drove in the country because he was better off-road. It was another slip into old patterns that she tried not to think about.
“Your mother going to pitch a fit about the blood marker?”
The fact that he guessed her thoughts only ticked her off more.
“Probably not. Blood markers are inevitable, and she knows I’m not a hothead.”
“And it was provoked…” She could hear the mischief in his voice.
“Stop. Just… stop.”
“You know I won’t.”
She sighed. “Try.”
Alex didn’t just stop talking, he pulled the car over.
“Is she?” he asked.
Ted was lost. “Is she what?”
“Your mother. Is she going to throw a fit?”
He wasn’t just asking about the marker. It was all of it. She and Alex.
“You two thought about what you’re going to do to the balance of power here once everyone knows?”
She hated that Old Quinn was right. There was more than one reason that most shifters looked away from the Springs for mates. It wasn’t that inter-clan pairings didn’t happen. They did. Jena’s late husband had been a wolf, even though he’d never shifted. Ted had cousins who were in different clans because their parents weren’t cats. Children from such unions had a fifty-fifty chance of being either animal.
But among the leadership…
Ted was one of the most dominant cats. Alex was the future alpha. None of their elders had liked their relati
onship in college, and all of them had been quietly relieved when it ended. Despite the fact that she had no interest in leading her clan—and had told her mother so repeatedly—she couldn’t ignore the implications of being in a relationship with Alex.
“I don’t know,” she admitted.
“Ted—”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “I’m an adult. And at the end of the day, she wants me to be happy. She’s not a horrible person, Alex.”
“No, but she’d sure like it if I was submissive to you.”
“Yes.” There was no use denying something he knew already.
He silently stared at her hand where it rested on the console between them. He reached over and twined their fingers together.
“Not going to happen, Tea.” His voice wasn’t arrogant. If anything, it was a little sad. “I’m the head of my clan. Dominance is in my blood. You know that, right?”
His firm touch eased the knot of worry in her chest. If he’d wavered, she might have doubted. But Alex was a man who knew who he was. And what his animal was capable of.
“I know, Alex.”
“Being submissive… There’s not a damn thing wrong with it. It’s a necessary balance for some. But it’s not me. And it never will be.”
She wasn’t interested in challenging him on it. Ever. But he didn’t need to know that.
Plus, her cat wanted to play.
Ted twisted her hand around and clasped her fingers around his wrist. “You sure about that? Ever?” She squeezed her fingers tight around his skin. “Because that’s just… unimaginative, Alex.”
The heavy atmosphere in the car couldn’t last through his rueful grin. “I’m not sure we’re talking about the same thing anymore.”
“Are you complaining?”
“No.” He pulled his wrist away and put the car in gear. “But she’s going to cause problems if we get back together—”
“Which I’m still deciding.”
He turned his head and cocked an arrogant eyebrow at her. “Sure you are.”
“Arrogant.”
“Stubborn,” he said. “And my dad won’t be thrilled either. The benefit is, they’ve got all the same arguments they always had, and we have the same answers, plus a few new ones.”
Ted started to play devil’s advocate on their own hypothetical relationship.
“We can’t belong to both clans.”
“Of course not,” Alex said. “You’ll stay in your clan; I’ll stay in mine. We’re people first, not animals.”
“Our loyalties will be divided.”
“Only if there are problems. Plus, our relationship will give us a greater incentive to work together.”
“Oh.” She smiled. “Good one.”
“I just thought of it.”
“Our children might be wolves.” Her eyes widened in mock horror. “Poor things.”
“Even worse, they could be cats.”
She smiled. It was an old argument, and one that had never been an issue for either of them. As long as their children shifted, that was all that was important. Cambio Springs children who didn’t shift always died young. Cat or wolf, she didn’t care what form her children took, as long as they were healthy.
Her children?
There she went, jumping to the same conclusions she had in her twenties. She went from considering a relationship with Alex to imagining their children in the space of a car ride. She needed to think about it. Consider whether letting him back into her life was—
“Hey,” he asked. “Want to go to the Cave for dinner? I don’t feel like cooking.”
“Are you asking me on a date? A real, honest-to-goodness date?”
“Yep.”
She didn’t allow herself to second-guess it.
“You’re on.”
They picked a booth in the corner of the Cave, out of the way of the local crowd, most of whom gave them either speculative looks or outright smiles. Ted saw Josie on the other side of the room, eating with her two kids and a brown haired man who she guessed was her brother. He was nothing like Ted would have imagined.
While Marcus’s widow had bright blue hair and colorful swirling tattoos, her brother looked like he’d walked out of the L. L. Bean catalogue. They were about as opposite as two siblings could be in appearance. Luckily, Ted saw his arm around his niece’s shoulder as he tried to pry a smile out of one of Josie’s younger boys. Maybe he wasn’t as stuffy as he looked.
“You met him before?” she asked Alex, right after Tracey took their drink orders.
He shook his head.
“Should we?”
“Yeah. You mind?”
“Nope.” She hadn’t seen Josie since she’d done the preliminary exam on her husband’s body. She tried to rid her mind of that image and focus on the man Marcus had been. Laughing. Generous. Whatever shadows had been in Marcus Quinn’s background, he’d been nuts about his family.
Josie looked up as they approached. “Hey, Alex. Ted.” Her eyes widened a little. “You guys just came in?” Together?
It was the unspoken question in Josie’s voice and the quirk at the corner of the mouth that had Ted smiling. “Yeah. How are you doing?”
“I’ll be better after I get my burger.” She nodded at the man across from her. “Alex, this is my brother, Chris Avery.”
“We’ve spoken on the phone, but it’s nice to meet you in person, Chris.” Alex held out his hand, which the other man grasped firmly. “I’m sorry it wasn’t for better reasons.”
Chris nodded, but didn’t smile. Then again, he’d just lost his brother-in-law.
“I’ll be out on the job first thing tomorrow. Just got into town tonight.”
“No problem. Priorities.” He tugged the ponytail of Marcus and Josie’s oldest. “Kasey, did you find the library?”
The little girl nodded. “Your mom’s real nice.”
“Really nice, sweetie,” Josie quickly said. “Not real.”
Alex smiled. “I think she’s nice, too.”
Chris cleared his throat. “Good to know a town this small has a library.”
“We try. It’s a fine place to grow up.”
The other man’s smile was tight. “I’m sure you think so.”
She could hear Alex grinding his teeth to keep silent at the insult. She took his right hand in hers and felt his tension ratchet down.
Josie’s smile was brittle as she looked at her brother. “Chris, we talked about this.”
“Marcus just…” He glanced at his niece and nephews. “We’ll talk about this later.”
Ted put a hand out. “I’m Dr. Teodora Vasquez, Mr. Avery.”
“Nice to meet you.” He took it, obviously still stewing. “You the vet?”
She cocked her head. “M.D. Family practice.” She smiled at Kasey. “I see a monkey every now and then, but they’re usually little brothers.”
Kasey giggled, breaking the tension at the table. Ted tugged on Alex’s hand to lead him away. “We won’t take up your dinner time,” she said. “Just wanted to say hi, Josie. You’ve got my number if you need anything?”
She nodded and Ted and Alex were just turning when Tracey walked up with a huge tray of burgers. She let Alex’s hand drop to squeeze by.
“Hey you two.” Tracey set down the tray and mumbled to Ted as she passed, “He’s a peach, huh?”
“No kidding.”
Before they could say anymore, she felt Alex’s hand on the small of her back, and he ushered her to the booth where their drinks were waiting for them. They sat down across from each other and both took a drink before they said anything else. The day had been hot, and though the sun had gone down, Ted still felt the dust of the afternoon on her neck. She swiped at it and grimaced.
“I could use a shower, too,” Alex said, watching her.
“Do you think he knows?”
“Who?”
“Josie’s brother.”
“About us? I don’t know.” He drank again. “Maybe. Was it o
dd that he asked if you were a vet?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “It’s not as uncommon as you’d think for people to assume I’m a vet. Don’t know why.”
“Your animal magnetism,” he said with a wink. “Gets me every time.”
“He doesn’t like them living here.”
“Would you? If your brother-in-law had just been murdered, would you want your sister moving to the town out in the middle of the desert where it happened? And where she’d have no family around?”
“No,” she said. “I’d want them close. No matter what town they were moving to. After a loss like that, I’d want my sister close.”
Alex shrugged. “It’s probably that.”
“Yep. Could be.” They both fell silent and Ted picked up a menu, even though she knew what she wanted. She set it down after a minute. “I just feel like there’s something…”
“What?”
“More.” She glanced across the restaurant where Josie and her brother were ushering the kids out of the booth and gathering their things. “I feel like there’s something else.”
“Maybe he knows,” Alex said. “Knows about us and doesn’t like it. He doesn’t strike me as the most open-minded individual.”
“But is that enough for murder?”
Alex’s eyes narrowed. “Possibly. But Josie said Marcus and Chris were full partners in the business, too. If he was involved, it might be prejudice against shifters, or…”
“Or it could be something way more old-fashioned.”
“Money?”
Ted lifted one shoulder. “It’s a classic motive for a reason.”
“It is.” Alex nodded at someone over her shoulder, and Ted turned to look. It was Ollie, hulking behind the bar and polishing glasses during a lull. Ted hadn’t seen him in over a week, and she wanted to pick his brain about more than one thing.
“Be right back.” She hopped to her feet.
“Ted…” Alex’s voice was a warning. “Don’t meddle.”