Wild Cat

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Diego yanked the dart out of Cassidy the next instant, but too late. Cassidy wilted, unconscious, her weight pinning him to the seat.

Softly running feet sounded outside, getting away.

Diego lifted Cassidy gently onto the passenger seat, checking her pupils and pulse. She was all right, just deeply asleep.

Diego got out of the car, sliding out his pistol at the same time, took cover, and scanned the parking lot. There, a flash of movement between cars, someone sprinting with impossible speed to disappear behind the club.

Diego went after him, yanking out his cell phone as he went. “Xav, I have a situation.”

“Where are you?”

Diego knew Xavier would be moving out of the club even as they spoke. “Parking lot. I’m in pursuit of a guy, tall, black hair. He popped Cass with a tranq rifle. She’s in my car. Make sure she’s all right.”

“You got it.”

Xav’s voice vanished. Diego jammed the phone back into its holder and ran around the back of the club-to find nothing. He heard a scrape and looked up to see a foot leaving the ladder to the club’s roof.

Hell, why can’t anyone stay on the ground?

Diego stowed his gun and climbed the ladder. Halfway up, his heart pounded so hard he thought he’d puke, and his sweat-slick hands slipped on the rungs.

Don’t look down. Don’t look down.

Diego made himself keep climbing. One rung at a time.

I’m going back to the damn counselor. This has got to stop.

He was at the top. Diego had to consciously open his fingers to let go of the railing long enough to make the final step off the ladder.

The man was all the way on the other side of the roof, minus the rifle. Diego took cover behind the large cooling units and drew his pistol. Just because the man had dropped the rifle didn’t mean he didn’t have another weapon on him.

Diego worked his way rapidly across the roof, keeping to cover. When he was five yards from the tall, slender man, Cassidy’s assailant suddenly spread his arms and leapt into empty space.

“Ay!” Diego ran for the edge, stopping three feet from it, his stomach roiling. He inched forward and peered over. Nothing.

“Damn it.” Diego couldn’t jump down to pursue without risking breaking his legs-or neck. Back to the ladder.

He’d run a few feet when he nearly tripped over the tranquilizer gun. He touched it, his mouth going dry. The rifle had come from LVPD. He’d checked out one of this exact make and model two days ago, and besides, it had LVPD stamped on it.

Diego left it where it was, more interested in catching the guy first. He’d send Xav up for the rifle.

Now to get down. As Diego approached the ladder, his breathing came faster. And faster.

Idiota. It was just a ladder.

Diego stashed his Sig and gripped the bars, felt with his foot for the first rung. It wasn’t there. He panicked, his heart hammering off the scale.

Cass. I have to help Cass.

First he had to find the effing step. His foot kept feeling for it, missing. Had someone taken away the ladder?

It’s bolted to the fucking building. Get a grip.

He was gripping-way too hard. Xavier would have to take up the chase. Diego couldn’t even let go to call for help.

Somewhere in the dark parking lot, Cassidy screamed.

The sound spiked through Diego’s dry-mouthed panic. He slammed his feet to either side of the ladder and slid downward, hands moving rapidly to keep up.

He had little memory of how he made it to the ground, but as soon as he touched it, he was off and running. His car door was open, Cassidy gone.

“Xav!”

Xavier ran up to him, breathing hard, looking grim. “Gone before I could get here. Scream came from that way.” He pointed.

A wildcat-a big snow leopard-was already sprinting to the edge of the parking lot. Eric.

Diego grabbed a flashlight from his car and ran after him. Not far down the row of cars he found blood, black on the pavement. A few smears here and a few farther on. Diego’s heartbeat thundered in his ears, and he ran faster. He would kill whoever had done this.

The parking lot ended at a chain-link fence, which had been kicked down in one place. Beyond was a huge vacant lot, where builders dumped whatever they’d dug up on other sites. Diego and Xavier climbed over the flattened fence, Diego’s flashlight finding bloody spots on the ground.

Diego heard Cassidy cry out behind a mound of dirt mixed with stones, followed by Eric’s wildcat snarl. Diego sprinted around the mound, Xavier right behind him.

Cassidy lay on her stomach, her white dress torn and streaked with dirt and blood. Sparks lit the darkness, an arc of blue white electricity crackling around her neck. Eric stood over her, but when he saw Diego and Xavier, he turned away and took off into the darkness.

Diego fell to his knees beside Cassidy and gently turned her over. Cassidy’s eyes were open, the light green of her wildcat, and she breathed in shuddering gasps. As Diego cupped her cheek, the sparks on the Collar slowed and winked out.

Xavier moved past them, following Eric, his pistol out. Diego ran competent hands over Cassidy’s limbs, something tight in him loosening when he found her whole and uncut. “Did he hurt you, mi ja? I can call the paramedics.”

“No.” Cassidy’s hand closed on his, weaker than usual but still strong. “The blood’s his, not mine. I tried to take down the son of a bitch.”

Her eyes flashed to Shifter again, and her claws came out. Her Collar sparked, and she groaned.

“Easy.” Diego stroked her hair. “What happened, sweet-heart?”

“I woke up to find a Fae dragging me out of the parking lot. I clawed him, but the tranquilizer made me groggy. I’m only sorry my Collar went off before I could gut him.” She sounded furious, not afraid.

“I’ll find him, Cass, whoever and whatever he is. When I do, he’ll be sorry he ever touched you.”

Cassidy tried to sit up. “No, he’ll kill you. Fae are dangerous.”

“I’m dangerous, amorcita. And I told you, I don’t believe in fairies.”

“It doesn’t matter. He obviously believes in you.”

Diego helped her to stand. Cassidy swayed on her bare feet, and he put his arm around her waist. “How about if I drive you to a hospital?”

“No, don’t. I don’t want human doctors poking at me. I just need to rest.”

Xavier materialized out of the darkness. “Saw no one,” he said. “Footprints out the ass, but people use this field as a shortcut to everywhere.”

Cassidy’s laugh was weak. “You can’t track a Fae. Not without being able to scent him. But that was him, Diego. The one that shot at us out where Donovan got killed. Damn.”

She muttered the last word as her legs buckled. Diego swept her into his arms, having no intention of letting her walk across the glass- and rebar-strewn lot in her bare feet.

“Where’s Eric?” Diego asked Xav as he strode back to the parking lot.

“Still searching.”

Diego hoped Eric took care, but right now he was more worried about Cassidy.

He strode through the parking lot, Xavier right behind him. At the car, he settled Cassidy inside while Xavier stayed alert.

“Xav,” Diego said. “He dropped his tranq rifle on the roof. Get it, will you? And then make sure all the Shifters in the club are all right and accounted for. This guy seems to be after Cassidy in particular, but he might go for any Shifter, who knows? I’ll get Cassidy home.”

“Sure thing,” Xavier said. However much Diego and Xavier had fought as kids-especially when Xavier started messing around in gangs-they’d grown into a team, each instinctively knowing what the other needed. Xavier would save questions and explanations for later.

Xavier patted Cassidy on her shoulder, told her to take care of herself, and strode back to the club. Diego wasted no more time getting in and starting the car. He wanted Cassidy out of there.

Cassidy didn’t speak much as they drove up Boulder Highway toward the freeway.

“You sure you’re all right?” Diego asked her.

“I didn’t give him the chance to hurt me.” Cassidy moved over in the seat until her head rested on Diego’s shoulder. “My Collar going off always makes me woozy.”

She snaked her hand across his abdomen, sinking into him. Diego put his arm around her, cuddling her close as he drove.

Her snuggling against him made him more determined than ever to find the hunter trying to kill her. Fae or no, the guy would be damn sorry he ever messed with Cassidy Warden.

“You’re sure it’s him?” Cassidy sat in the front seat of Diego’s car again the next day, looking fully recovered from her ordeal but still mad as hell. Diego had asked her to come with him tonight-she’d be able to recognize her attacker, if not by sight, then by scent.

“The tranq gun was checked out to one Lieutenant Reid,” Diego said. “I didn’t connect him with you saying I smelled like I’d been near a Fae, because I haven’t talked to Reid in a couple of days. But I’ve been carrying his files around with me, and when I took them back down to Shifter Division yesterday, Reid was there. He doesn’t look anything like how you describe the Fae, though. Not to mention the fact that he uses steel handcuffs and a Glock.”

“If he isn’t Fae himself, maybe he’s working for one,” Cassidy said. “Or he’s half Fae, no matter what Eric says. They can use iron.”

“Well, we’ll ask him when he comes home,” Diego said.

He looked across the busy street at an apartment complex that looked no different than the two- and three-story complexes that dotted Las Vegas. He’d driven here after he’d picked up Cassidy, wanting the confrontation with Reid to occur far from the LVPD building.

Cassidy waited beside him, restless. Her cropped white top showed off the stud in her navel, and her jeans rode low on her hips. She’d pulled her pale hair into a ponytail, which made the Collar around her neck more visible.

Diego had taken her home last night and left her in the capable hands of Nell, who’d come over in worry when she’d seen them arrive. Diego had wanted to stay, but Nell shooed him away, and Diego conceded that Cassidy needed to rest.

He’d gone back to the club to talk to Eric, who’d returned without finding anything. Diego fetched the tranq rifle Xavier had recovered, went home, and spent a restless night. This morning, Diego had investigated who’d checked out the tranq rifle and easily found the answer.

Stuart Reid, Lt., Shifter Division. He’d signed it out without hiding the fact.

Reid came to work as usual, but Diego deliberately hadn’t confronted him, wanting to corner the man alone. What he wanted to do to Reid wasn’t exactly regulation. Reid had neither sought Diego today nor avoided him-he’d simply gone about his business. Diego knew there was a chance he was wrong about Reid. If so, he’d apologize and leave the guy alone. If not…

Reid pulled up in an unassuming Chevy and got out, his hands full of grocery bags. It was dark now, and streetlights blared. Reid didn’t close his blinds when he went inside, so Diego and Cassidy could watch him putting away his groceries like an ordinary man with nothing else to do on a Friday night.

Diego and Cassidy got out of the car and crossed the busy street. Diego led the way up to Reid’s second-floor apartment. Second floors didn’t bother Diego, as long as there were solid stairs under him. Ladders, roofs, thirty-story balconies-different story.

Cassidy came behind him, moving so silently Diego could barely tell that she was there. But she was. He sensed her anger but also her watchfulness. She had his back.

Reid answered Diego’s knock without hesitation. “Escobar?” he asked, surprised. “What do you want?” He looked past Diego at Cassidy standing behind him. “I see you’ve brought your pet Shifter.”

Diego pushed his way inside. Cassidy came in after him and closed the door. Diego followed Reid into the kitchen, walked up to the man, and smacked him lightly on the stomach. Reid flinched and grunted in unmistakable pain.

Diego had him pinned against the counter before he could recover and yanked up the man’s shirt. Four deep, red gashes slashed across Reid’s abdomen, the skin around them dark with bruises.

“Thought so,” Diego said. He pulled his gun from its holster and pressed it to Reid’s chin.