Wild Cat

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?”

“Yes. It broke down. I’m so happy I was close to this town. The map I had made no sense at all…”

The biker abandoned his seat with amazing speed and closed beefy fingers around Cassidy’s arm. His grip was hard, but the look in his eyes was the wild one of a man who’d abandoned hope and then suddenly found it dangling in front him.

“Take me to your car. Hurry. I’ll fix it, and then you’ll need to get the hell out of here. But only if you promise to take me with you.”

Cassidy looked him up and down, pretending to be a silly rich woman contemplating giving a ride to her auto mechanic. “I don’t know. I had it detailed before I drove down here.”

“Please.”

The man was big, taller than Cassidy, but she smelled the fear on him. Waves and waves of fear.

She likewise scented fear on the second biker who came into the cantina, another of the gang Diego hunted. The second man frowned at his friend, then at Cassidy. “What are you doing?”

“She has a car,” the first man said to him.

“Yes, and I need help fixing it,” Cassidy said. “Does this road go back to Mazatlan?”

The second man gave the first a warning look. “You sure he didn’t send her?”

Cassidy blinked. “Sure who didn’t send me?”

“I don’t think so, man,” the first biker said. “Look, she needs to get out of here, and so do we.”

The first man started steering Cassidy out of the cantina. Cassidy nearly gagged on the smell of his fear, but she guided him down the street, toward the jeep waiting with Diego in the darkness.

Both men walked fast, propelling her along. She noticed they also made sure to stick to deep shadow, letting no stray light from any of the crumbling buildings touch them.

“Maybe I should stay here for the night,” Cassidy said. “Is there a resort anywhere nearby?”

“No, sweetie,” man number two said. “I’ll drive you to a resort. Any resort you want. Promise. Now, where’s your car?”

“There.” Cassidy pointed to the jeep, waiting alone.

Both men rushed for it, and Cassidy had to run to reach it with them. The first man jumped into the driver’s seat. “Keys?”

“Here somewhere.” Cassidy pretended to fumble in her pockets.

“Never mind.” The man reached under the steering wheel, ready to break his way in.

And found Diego’s shotgun in his face.

“I knew it,” the second man said, his voice a terrified whisper. Shane and Xavier closed behind him. “It was him.”

The first man was just as terrified, but not because of Diego’s gun. Both men were looking straight at Shane, and the fear in their eyes was boundless.

Diego cocked his weapon. “Do you remember me?” His voice was quiet.

The first man stared back at him, first in mindless panic, then in recognition. “Shit!”

His friend swung around, saw Diego, swallowed. “Aw, man. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse.”

The first man put his hands on top of his head, in perfect position for someone being arrested. “No, man, it’s OK. He’s a cop. He’ll arrest us and get us out of here. We surrender, all right?”

Diego exchanged a glance with Cassidy. Cassidy shrugged. “Something’s scared them bad,” she said, “and it’s not you.”

“I’m hoping it’s me,” Shane said.

“Come on, let’s go,” the first man said. “Before he finds out.”

He, again.

“Where are your friends?” Diego asked, not moving the gun. “My intel said there were four of you down here. I want you all.”

“Gone,” the first man said. “They’re gone.”

“Gone where?”

Their fear escalated, the men stinking with it. They hadn’t bathed in a while either, so the smell was overwhelming.

“They’re dead, all right?” the second man nearly shouted. “Dead. He had them killed.”

Diego still didn’t move. “I want them.”

“Come on, man,” the first man said. “I’ll show you where we buried them. What was left of them. But we gotta go. Now.”

“Diego,” Xavier said.

Diego’s face was like stone. Cassidy took the shotgun Shane was holding unsteadily and touched it to the second man’s cheek. She leaned to him, letting her eyes go Shifter. “Who is it that you’re afraid of?” she asked.

The man gasped. “You’re one of them.”

Cassidy moved her scarf so he could see her Collar. “If you tell us the truth, you’ll be fine. Lie to me, and I’ll put up with the pain. I’ve done it before.”

The man eyed her Collar. “No, wait, you’re different.” His gaze flicked to Shane and his Collar. “You’re not with them.”

Cassidy wanted to scream, Them who? when Shane sniffed the wind.

“Aw, hell, Cass, you smell that?”

Cassidy did, and every hair on her body stood up.

“Can’t smell anything over the current BO,” Xavier said.

“Diego, get into the jeep and drive.” Cassidy pushed Xavier and his captive toward the backseat. “Just go.”

Diego gave her a hard look but, Goddess bless him, he didn’t argue. Diego shoved the first captive over and started up the jeep while Xavier pushed the second man into the backseat. Shane boosted Cassidy over the tailgate to the small space behind the seats.

Before Shane could climb in, they came. Out of the darkness, eyes shining in the jeep’s headlights, they came, bodies low to the ground, the smell overwhelming.

“Shifters,” Shane said as he dove over the tailgate. “Diego, gun it.”

“Shifters?” Xavier asked as the jeep leapt forward. “What the fuck?”

“Ferals,” Cassidy shouted. She hung on as Diego U-turned the jeep in a scattering of dirt. Every single one of the Shifters in the darkness had gone feral.

And every single one of them charged.

Eric had put Reid under his protection to reassure Cassidy, but he did not trust that Reid, once he felt better about himself, wouldn’t try to find another Shifter to bleed out for his spell. Reid might think twice about going after Collared Shifters, especially those protected by Eric, but there was an un-Collared Shifter running around Las Vegas, just waiting to be caught…

Iona Duncan.

Eric had put together the information on her himself the last couple of days, not wanting even his trackers to know that she was Shifter.

Iona owned, with her mother and sister, Duncan Construction, a company that built both residential and commercial buildings, nothing flashy, just serviceable. They’d been one of the few companies that kept going after the real estate crash, though they had to be hurting like everyone else. Humans put too much faith in building booms.

Iona’s mother was human, her father, an unknown Feline Shifter. Eric kept pretty close tabs on the Felines in his Shiftertown, and he knew that Iona’s father didn’t live there. Iona was just beyond thirty, which meant a few years past her Transition. She’d been born before the Collars, before Shiftertowns-her mother might not even have known until after Iona’s birth that the man who’d given her a daughter had been Shifter.

Iona stayed pretty low-key. She worked in the company’s office and didn’t often go to the building sites. She had a few select friends and confined her entertainments to simple outings with them or with her mother and sister.

And she was feeling the mating heat.

Eric had scented it on her at the club and knew it was only a matter of time before it started to drive her insane. She wouldn’t understand, and Eric needed to get to her before her instincts did her too much damage.

All Shifters learned careful control of their animal instincts from the time they were cubs, but Iona, who hadn’t been raised Shifter, wouldn’t have had that training. There was a good chance that her mating heat would drive her into becoming feral-Shifters who’d given in to their animal side, who’d become more animal than human, who could control no instincts at all. They mated, and killed, without restraint.

Tonight Iona had gone to the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace with her friends. Shifters weren’t allowed in the gigantic mall, but Eric was perfectly welcome to linger outside on the Strip in front of Caesars. He knew that Iona and her friends would come out that way, because his research told him they liked to walk down the street afterward and watch the dancing waters at the Bellagio.

Eric lingered, leaning on the railing, his leather jacket hiding his Collar. Next to him, men called out to passersby, thrusting leaflets for exotic dance clubs at anyone who looked interested. One of the flyers lay at Eric’s booted feet, showing a photo of a Shifter woman, bare, her hands hiding her breasts.

Shifter women did dance in clubs, seeing nothing shaming about nudity and liking the tips. Some of the male Shifters didn’t like it, though, and Eric had to intervene with brothers angry that sisters were dancing for money. Granted, some males still thought Shifter females should be sequestered and used as cub-making machines, as they had hundreds of years ago.

Times change. We need to change with them, or we die.

Iona’s friends came out of the shops and strolled up the long walkway to the street. Iona wasn’t with them.

Damn it.

Eric strode down the length of the walk, passing Iona’s friends without looking at them. In the pressing crowd this fine night, no one noticed him.

He could tell that Iona hadn’t come out this door at all, because her scent was nowhere near it. Keeping his head down, Eric ducked inside with the rest of the tourists, hunkering a little so his height wouldn’t give him away.

He took an escalator down, patiently waiting on the moving stairs instead of shoving his way through the crowd. At the bottom, he searched the crowd, letting his nose lead him in the right direction once he’d picked up her scent.

He found Iona outside a chocolate shop, staring at the exotic confections within.

Eric stopped to watch her. Iona’s black hair was caught in a simple tail, her lean body fine-looking in jeans and blouse, her high-heeled boots making her legs long and sexy.

Beauty. Un-Collared. Free.

Her scent screamed at him. Unmated female, rushing headlong into mating need with no idea how to contain it.

Eric knew from living with Cassidy that females tried to damp down mating need with food-chocolate, ice cream, cake. Shifter women worked off the calories fast, their metabolisms quickly burning the sugar. Probably why Iona was drawn to the chocolate shop.

Iona was so fixed on the chocolates that she never heard Eric, never smelled him. He was simply there between one moment and the next, filling her vision and her space.

She saw him, and her mouth went dry. Not again. She hadn’t been able to concentrate on anything since meeting him at the club, as though he’d invaded and taken over every thought. Stalking her in her head. She didn’t want to see him again.

And yet, every one of Iona’s female instincts came alert at Eric’s tall body, hard face, dark hair, and most of all, his eyes. They were jade green and held fathoms of thought. Those eyes could see all the way down inside her, uncovering things Iona hadn’t been aware of herself.

Not that she was going to let Eric and the confusion he stirred cow her. Iona turned to face him, no avoidance.

“Shifters aren’t allowed in here,” she said. “Tell me what you want, before I call security.”

His smile licked wicked delight up and down her body. “Go ahead and call. You know I can out you a hell of a lot worse than you can out me.”

“Why shouldn’t I call them?” Iona said, her lips stiff. “You’re obviously following me around.”

“Why didn’t you stay with your friends?”

“None of your business.”

Eric nodded at the tiers of confections. “They look good, don’t they?”

Iona glanced at the enticing chocolates, and her mouth started to water. She’d been walking by, and then she hadn’t been able to keep walking by. She’d told her friends she’d catch up to them, saying she needed to buy a gift for her sister or mother-some excuse.

“The scent,” Iona said. “I don’t know why it fascinates me. I like looking at the shape of the chocolates, imagining how they’ll taste in my mouth.” Smooth, dark, delicate, music on the tongue.

Eric gestured to the shop door. “Come on. I’ll buy you some.”

No. Iona couldn’t let him do anything for her; she couldn’t even stand next to him.

Eric shrugged and walked straight into the shop, not bothering to see if Iona would follow him. Iona didn’t want to. She resisted with all her might, but she sighed as her feet took her inside after him.

Eric did a good job, she saw, of hiding his Shifter-ness. The fact that he was Shifter screamed itself at Iona, but Eric rounded his shoulders so he didn’t look so tall, hid his Collar behind his high-necked shirt and jacket, and didn’t even look up at the perky young clerk.

He let Iona pick out what she wanted, playing the part of the patient boyfriend waiting for his girlfriend to make up her mind. Iona chose chocolate after chocolate, indulging in exotic flavors and fillings, all of which the clerk put into a pretty box, then a pretty bag. Eric handed over some cash, took the bag, and steered Iona out of the shop.

His hand on her arm sent electric heat through her body. Iona tried to jerk away once they were back inside the mall. “Don’t touch me,” she said.

Eric let go, but not because Iona commanded it. He did only what he wanted to.

“Come on,” he said. He started off in the direction opposite the one her friends had taken.

Iona followed him. He had the chocolate. She needed that chocolate.

How a Shifter knew the back doors out of the Forum Shops, Iona didn’t know, but Eric led her through an obscure hall and outside into a shipping bay. It was dark here, the only light coming from the stars overhead and the distant glow of the parking lot.

Eric held up the bag. “Want one?”

Iona could barely breathe. “Yes.”

Eric made short work of the clerk’s lovely bow and opened the box. Two trays of eight beautiful chocolates nestled inside.

Eric lifted out the first one. Iona smelled it, liquid chocolate with candied violet inside.

She started to reach for it, but somehow she found her back against the wall, Eric in front of her. He touched the chocolate to her lips.

Iona closed her eyes, trying to resist, but her lips parted, and Eric slid the piece into her mouth.