Wild Cat (27 page)

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.”

C
assidy 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?”