Diego watched her a moment, then he let out an exasperated sigh. “All right, but only because I’m desperate. And you’ll stay far out of the way if we find these guys.”
Cassidy smiled and gave him a nod. Not that she’d agree to that restriction. But she’d argue that point once they found them.
Cassidy’s pilot awoke every one of Diego’s cop suspicions.
Diego had assumed that the contact to secretly fly Shifters where they wanted to go would come through Eric, but Cassidy blithely made a phone call, then directed Diego to drive them out east of town.
Once the city dropped behind them, Cassidy directed Diego to a little-used highway, which sped them out to the middle of nowhere. Dramatic scenery surrounded them, stark, knifelike hills, wide sky, white desert.
They made another turnoff to a dirt road, which was wide and well graded. Beyond a few deep washes, the road ended in a flat stretch between hills. A trailer house stood incongruously in the middle of this dusty field, with two small planes parked behind it.
The slim man who walked out to meet them—armed with a handgun on a belt holster—broke into a smile of delight when Cassidy got out of Diego’s car.
“Cassidy,” he bellowed in a voice too large for his wiry build. “How are you, girl?”
“Just fine, Marlo.”
Cassidy walked right up to him and embraced him, which Diego didn’t like. He knew by now that this was the normal Shifter way of greeting, but Marlo seemed to enjoy it a little too much.
“This is Diego,” Cassidy said. “He’s the friend I mentioned who needs the ride.”
Marlo looked Diego up and down. “He looks like a cop.”
“He is a cop. How can you tell?”
“Experience. He’s not a drug runner.”
“You’d better not be either,” Diego said.
Marlo’s eyes narrowed. “You want my help or not?”
“Not if you’re a drug runner, no.” Drug runners might think about only the money they were making, but their product ended up in kids who died. Diego would never look the other way for that.
“I gave up that shit a long time ago. Too dangerous, too stupid. Now I’m just a pilot for hire, for people who need to get places in a hurry.”
“Like Shifters?” Diego asked.
Marlo spread his hands. “I believe in freedom and equality for all. Why should Shifters not be allowed to travel like anyone else? So, if they need a ride, they call Marlo. Cassidy vouched for you, so I know you won’t be reporting this to your cop friends.”
Cassidy had been vouching for him a lot, lately. “I need to go down to a place in Mexico, in Durango,” Diego said. “Can you get me there?”
“Sure. How many passengers?”
“Three—me, my brother, Cassidy.”
“And Shane,” Cassidy said.
Diego shot her a look. “What?”
“Eric would kill me if I left without Shifter protection.” Cassidy’s answer was serene. “Besides, we might need him.”
Shane could turn into a fifteen-hundred-pound grizzly bear, true, but if Diego’s prey was armed to the teeth, which they would be, being a grizzly might not help him.
“It might be too dangerous even for Shane,” he said.
Cassidy cocked her head. “Then it’s too dangerous for you.”
They shared a look, Cassidy’s determined. “If we get Shane killed,” Diego said, “his mom will never forgive us.”
“Nell understands danger like this. Besides, if you or Xav get killed, I can imagine what your mom would say.”
“She’d go on a rampage. I know. Fine. Four passengers.”
“Four thousand dollars,” Marlo said.
Diego swung around. “What?”
“Hey, I said I was for hire, not a charity. I have to buy fuel, maintain my plane, take you down to the middle of nowhere in dangerous country. A grand a piece, that’s my price.”
Diego started to argue, but Cassidy broke in. “Call Eric. He’ll get it to you.”
“Don’t,” Diego said. “I’ll spring for it, but, Cass, I really want you and Shane to stay the hell home.”
“No.” Cassidy came close to Diego again. She touched his face, firing his blood. “Take this as my gift to you, Diego. I understand why you need to go. Let me do this for you.”
“Where is Eric going to get four grand?”
Cassidy’s eyes flickered, but she didn’t look away. “Let Eric worry about that.”
She cradled his face between her hands, her eyes darkening, then she gave Diego a long kiss.
The fire leapt. This woman was fine, like a diamond he’d stumbled upon in a sea of sand. He opened her mouth with lips and tongue. Cassidy kissed him back, the taste of her wild.
Marlo chuckled beside them. “Looks like you mean business, Cass.”
Cassidy broke the kiss and grinned at him, but she didn’t look all that embarrassed. “Take it, Diego,” she whispered.
It was important to her. Diego saw that in her eyes. He’d discuss it with Eric later—such as how Shifters who weren’t allowed to have decent jobs would be able to cough up four grand—but Diego nodded. Cassidy kissed him one more time.
When she did that, Diego stopped worrying about petty details like money, getting to Mexico on an ex-drug-runner plane, and what he’d do when he got there. Dangerous, he thought. I’m liking forgetting way too much.
At Diego’s house that night, they slept in separate bedrooms. Diego bunked with Xavier in the room that had been Xav’s, and Cassidy stayed in Diego’s old room.
Diego’s mother had placed on the dresser a photo of a very young Diego in his Marines uniform and one of him when he’d graduated from the police academy. Juanita had also framed his military service medals and his commendations both from the Marines and the police. A proud mother honoring her son.
Cassidy touched each medal, reading the certificate that went with it, trying not to think of Diego lying warm and solid in a bed in the next room. Cassidy tried to shut out the mating frenzy that was winding her up, but when she at last climbed into bed and slept, she dreamed of only Diego.
“Sure this thing’s safe?”
Shane looked nervously out the window as they glided south, following the Colorado River as it snaked between California and Arizona. The view was beautiful, the plane far smoother than Diego had feared it would be.
“Yep,” Marlo called back from the pilot’s seat. “Just tuned it up.”
“I don’t like to fly,” Shane said. “If Shifters were meant to fly, they’d be able to turn into birds.”
“So, why can’t they?” Xav said, looking up from his magazine.
“Huh?”
“You have big cat Shifters, wolf Shifters, and bear Shifters. Why not raptors, like eagles or hawks?”
Shane stared at him. “Hell if I know.”
“The Fae created us,” Cassidy said. “They chose the animals. Who knows why? Or why not?”
“I guess an elephant would be tough,” Xav said. “You’d need a lot of space. Or whales. What if you shifted in the middle of the ocean? You’d need to stash scuba gear somewhere.”
“Very funny,” Shane said.
Xav chuckled and returned to his magazine.
Diego found Cassidy’s gaze on him from where she sat beside him. He didn’t mind looking down into her gorgeous eyes, but he wondered why she kept looking at him. Different looks every time. Coy, frank, thoughtful.
The trip was long enough for napping. Diego rested his head against the window, not minding the miles down to the ground. Airplanes didn’t bother him either, he’d discovered. But then, they didn’t have balconies.
Cassidy curled up nicely into his side. He draped his arm around her and dozed off, happy with her against him.
They landed after dark, on an airstrip Diego couldn’t believe Marlo could see. But the man brought the plane down with only a few bumps, and then they stopped.
Hot, dry air wafted over them as they climbed from
the plane. “Where are we?” Diego said as he stretched.
“About forty miles from your little town of La Nébeda.”
“Forty miles?”
“Yep,” Marlo said. “I figured you didn’t want to get too close to whoever it is you don’t want to see you coming. Planes landing near a town that small are going to be noticed. My friend here has a jeep that can take you in.”
Marlo wouldn’t leave his plane, so Marlo’s friend at the airstrip gave Xavier keys to a rusty but sturdy jeep, and Xavier drove the four of them to the town. Shane sat in front with Xav, and Diego and Cassidy rode together in the back.
This part of Mexico was definitely off the tourist path. It was the territory of drug runners, human traffickers, and people looking for a place to hide. There were no resort hotels for rich Americans here, just long stretches of empty roads and bad men with guns.
“I want the two of you to keep out of sight the best you can,” Diego said to Shane and Cassidy over the whine of the engine. “Who knows how people here will react to Shifters?”
“I’m here to back up Cassidy,” Shane said. “So where she goes, I go.”
“Then you’ll both stay out of it,” Diego said.
Cassidy didn’t answer, but the stubborn way she wouldn’t look at him told him much.
The town, when they reached it, was nothing but old buildings, open bars, dogs, and insects. This was siesta country, where everyone slept during the heat of the day. The sun had gone down an hour ago, and people were emerging now into cool darkness, the town coming to life.
Lights were brightest in the cantinas, three of them in this tiny town. Xavier parked the jeep in the dark at the end of one street, beyond one of the cantinas. Diego climbed down and checked the stash of guns in the back. Shotguns, three of them, in addition to Xav and Diego’s handguns.
“Shane, can you shoot a gun?”
“I’ve done it,” Shane said. “I don’t like to. Claws are better.” He scratched the air, his dark eyes gleaming, sending Diego a sly grin.
“You might have to use a gun if things go bad,” Diego said. He handed Shane one of the shotguns. “Shoot to defend Cassidy, and then get her the hell out of here.”
Cassidy hopped out of the jeep and finally spoke up. “Screw that. I’d not leave you to die. That’s not why I helped you come here.”
Diego checked his gun’s magazine and stashed spare ones in his pockets. “I want to bring these guys in, Cass,” he said, “but to be honest, I don’t know if I’ll be able to.”
Cassidy put her hands on her hips. “We’ll be able to. The four of us together. These men killed your partner, and they deserve to be brought to justice. Shane and I are fighters. Use us to fight.”
“Hate to say this, Diego,” Xavier broke in, “but she might be right.”
Diego worked with women all the time. One of the toughest detectives he knew was a female lieutenant in homicide. No one questioned her competency or made jokes at her expense—not twice, anyway. Cassidy was just as competent as that lieutenant, probably more so. But the difference was, Diego wasn’t falling in love with the homicide detective, didn’t feel as though he’d protect her with everything he had in him and then some. If something happened to Cassidy, Diego knew it would kick him like nothing else ever had. Not even losing Jobe would compare.
“She’d make good bait to draw them out,” Xavier said.
Both Shane and Diego stared at him. “You mean a honey trap,” Diego said.
“It’s a good idea,” Cassidy said, moving to stand next to Xavier. “If you go muscling into the cantina or wherever, Diego, they’ll know what’s up right away. They’ll run or fight. If I go in…” She opened her hands. “I can draw them out, right into your waiting arms. You tie them up and take them to jail.”
“No,” Shane said, at the same time Diego said, “It’s too risky.”
“It will work,” Xavier said. “Think about how we wrapped up this last case, Diego. Jemez went into the dealer’s house with her big brown eyes and her short skirt, and those guys fell all over themselves trying to impress her. She got more evidence in one afternoon than the rest of us did in months.”
“I know, and I didn’t like sending her in there either,” Diego said. “Honey traps can be dangerous.”
Cassidy slanted a smile at him. “I’ll be sure to be sweet.”
Damn it. Diego shook his head. “We can’t trust them to react the way you expect them to.”
Cassidy’s good-humored look vanished. “I haven’t always lived in Shiftertown, Diego. In the wild, Eric and I fought other Shifters to protect our family. Sixty years ago, a world war came close to our shores, and we fought then too. We might not have worn uniforms or used guns, but we crossed the North Sea, joined the underground movements, and sure caused a lot of trouble.” She grinned. “They never had any idea how Eric and I did what we did, but we did a lot of damage. Those were fun times.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Cassidy saw the anger in Diego’s eyes and knew she wasn’t convincing him. Diego had the instinct to protect, and right now he wanted to protect Cassidy.
“At least let me scout,” she said. “I can entice them out without even going near them.”
Diego’s brows drew even closer together, and Shane didn’t look much happier. Males.
Cassidy hooked an earpiece over her ear, brushed her hair around it to hide it, and tied a silk scarf she’d brought with her over her Collar. “If I even think something is going wrong, I’ll yell, and you come running. With your big guns.” She winked at Diego.
Xavier chuckled. “I like her.”
Shane wasn’t laughing. “I’ll come running too. And I don’t need a gun.”
Diego at last conceded—on condition that he kept an eye on her and she kept the damn earpiece on all the time.
He’d told her about the guys he was looking for, and on the plane, Diego had pored over the photos he kept in a file he hadn’t told his captain about. He’d carefully hoarded information, showing the same obsession with which Cassidy had tracked data about the hunters who’d killed Donovan. Only, Diego, with his resources, had been able to find out much more about Jobe’s killers than Cassidy had about Donovan’s.
Cassidy was determined to help Diego take his vengeance now, to ease his pain and his guilt. That hurt in his eyes hurt her too.
She approached the first cantina, cautious but not worried. This was a much easier mission than sneaking into Nazi supply tents to sabotage them. Back then, she’d slunk through the night with explosives strapped to her wildcat body. Tonight she simply walked into the cantina.
The cantinas in this town were open-air, the weather so mild that people preferred to sit outside or in the bar where one stone wall and a roof divided the place from shops beyond. Not many people were there tonight, which was odd. The town was small, but the cantina was nice enough, brightly painted and fairly clean. Besides, other than the cantinas, there was nowhere else to go.
Cassidy didn’t note what was missing until it struck her that there were only men in this bar, no women in sight. The drug runners all were white Americans, and Cassidy saw no white Americans here. Everyone was native, and no one looked up when she swept her gaze around the cantina.
Very odd. Cassidy should stand out like a sudden wash of water in a desert.
She left the first cantina without pausing and walked on down the street toward the second, and larger, one. Her Shifter senses were very aware of Diego, Xav, and Shane in the shadows, watching. The three men were too wound up for this. Eric would have been a ghost.
Cassidy’s personal plan was a bit different from the one the males had discussed. She’d find the dealers all right, but she’d make them pay for what they’d done to Diego in a more basic way. This town was far from human law courts and rule books, which was why criminals tried to hide out here, and so, Cassidy would apply Shifter law.
The men they stalked had killed Diego’s best friend plus shot Diego and left
him for dead. Cassidy’s mate bond was building for Diego, and these men would learn what happened to people who hurt a female Shifter’s mate.
She walked casually into the next cantina. Men in this one lifted their heads and watched her, but they looked more worried than curious.
Strange. Cassidy was a young woman alone, obviously way out of her territory, and they looked worried.
One of the drug runners Diego sought was sitting at the bar. His skin was sunburned, and he’d grown a scratchy beard, but she recognized him from his photo. He was a big man, almost as big as Shane, and much of the skin his biker vest showed was inked.
The man saw Cassidy and gave her a hard stare as she approached the bar.
“You shouldn’t be in here,” he said to her in English.
Cassidy ignored him, rested her arms on the bar, and spoke to the bartender behind it. “Do you understand English, señor? Do you have a phone I can use?”
She smiled at him, trying to look like a clueless tourist who’d taken a very wrong turn while heading for her beach resort. The bartender looked blank. The man in the biker vest spoke to him in rapid Spanish.
The bartender shook his head. “No, señorita. No teléfono.”
Cassidy turned her smile on the biker. “Do you have a cell phone? Can I borrow it?”
He was supposed to smile back at her. Leer, actually. Suggest he let her use the phone outside or somewhere more private. Instead, the man clutched his bottle of beer.
“You should get out. Out of here, out of town. Fast.”
“Why?” Cassidy asked, sitting down. “I like this place. So festive.”
“Cassidy…” came Diego’s whisper in her earpiece.
“Maybe you could take a look at my car,” she said to the biker. “See what’s wrong with it?”
The man perked up. “You have a car?”