“Mamita wants grandchildren,” Xavier said, his grin back.
“And don’t you laugh at your brother, Xavier Escobar. It’s time you started looking too. Enough with you two pretending to be bad boys. You don’t play the parts very well, and you need someone to look after you.”
“Oh, man,” Xavier said, shaking his head. “Now my own mother’s telling me I’m not macho.”
“You’re not,” Mamita said. “Neither of you has ever had a serious relationship. You’re both afraid to commit, and you’re both lonely. I’m your mother. I know.”
She had a point. But Diego refused today to be dragged into the perpetual why-don’t-you-find-a-nice-girl-and-settle-down argument.
He hadn’t found a nice girl and settled down because, first, there hadn’t been time for it, and now, his job had him jaded. Women either wanted something from him—leniency, protection—or they shied away from marriage to a cop. Being a law enforcement officer was dangerous, the hours and pay were crappy, and the divorce rate was high. He’d gotten around the problem by simply not thinking about it. Xavier, the same.
Diego pulled out his cell phone. “I’ll call Cassidy and make sure she’s all right. Happy?”
He’d planned to do that anyway but not while his mother and brother watched him and listened to every word.
Diego turned away to seek some privacy, but before he could, his cell phone rang. He blinked in surprise at the readout before he flipped it open.
“Hello?”
“Diego. It’s Eric. We’ve lost Cassidy.”
Diego went still while something cold and painful clenched inside him. “Lost her? What the hell do you mean, lost her?”
Eric’s tone held rage, ferocity, and fear. “Brody told me she went back into your apartment, and then she vanished.”
“What are you talking about? How could she have vanished?”
“I don’t know, but it stinks of Fae all over your damn apartment. What the hell, Diego?”
“Dios, Eric, I don’t know. Cass ran off before I could stop her. Weren’t your trackers supposed to be protecting her?”
Eric growled—a wildcat growl, nothing human. “We can point fingers all day, but we have to find her.”
“No kidding. I have an idea where to start looking.”
“Yeah, so do I. Meet me out there, all right? Bring as much backup as you can.”
Diego shut off the phone, his heart racing like crazy. He turned around to find his mother and Xavier staring at him, having heard every word.
“Go find her, Diego,” Mamita said.
“I intend to. Xav, can you help?”
Xavier didn’t even cast a longing glance at the chilaquiles. “Sure thing. Let me get my stuff.”
Diego put his hand on his brother’s shoulder, walked him out of the house, and spoke to him in a low voice. “Do you still know how to make pipe bombs, like you did when you were in that gang?”
Xavier looked offended. “I told you, I wasn’t in the gang—” Xavier broke off as Diego shot him a don’t-bullshit-me-now look. “Yeah. I remember.”
“Good. Put something together.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“Diversions and a damn good scare. And firepower if we need to take this guy down.”
Xavier grinned. “You got it, Diego.” And he went to get ready.
Cassidy woke to find herself flat on her back on cold, hard stone. Her hands were bound and stretched above her head; her feet were likewise bound. She was naked and in her human form.
She had no idea where she was. She could tell only that it was a dark place, cold, smelling of stone and mud. And Fae.
There he was. Across the room, backlit by a few candles—why candles?—was Reid. Tall, thin, but with black hair and dark skin. Fae, definitely, but like no Fae she’d ever heard about.
Cassidy clenched her hands. The chains were solid but she was strong, and if she could shift to her wildcat…
She relaxed her body and summoned the shift.
And screamed as her Collar went off. But not just the Collar. Electric pain shot through her from wrists to ankles, wrapping her like white-hot bands of wire. They would slice her in half, and she would die in so much pain she’d welcome the darkness.
Dimly she saw Reid turn to her, eyes glittering black in the candlelight. Cassidy forced herself to calm.
Diego. Think about Diego. His warm smile, the way he spoke in liquid tones, the things he whispered to her as he lay with her, touching her, kissing her.
The strong warmth of the mate bond. The mate bond that shouldn’t exist.
Cassidy took a deep breath. When she exhaled, the arcs of pain slowed, then stopped.
The mate bond warmed her, tried to soothe her hurts. It wouldn’t be able to completely—nothing would. The only thing that would calm her thoroughly was the touch of Diego, her mate.
Reid came to her. He’d changed to more casual clothes than he’d been in when they’d confronted him in his apartment—jeans, a gray hoodie jacket, and no shirt underneath. He looked like an ordinary human, except for that smell of Fae.
Cassidy’s instinct to kill rose again. She suppressed her urge to shift, knowing that would only bring back the pain. But she had to break out of these chains.
Reid didn’t speak to her. He leaned over and ran his gaze along her bare body, as though contemplating where to make the first cut.
Cassidy snarled and lunged. She felt the shackles give. And then her Collar went off, and again the escalating pain swept her body.
She slammed her eyes closed and fought off the pain one breath at a time. When she could speak, she said, “What did you do to me?”
“Wired your Collar to a Taser,” Reid answered in calm voice. “When it goes off, it triggers the Taser and sends a shock along the chains.”
Goddess, help her. “Do you get off torturing Shifters? Does it get you high?”
“No.” Reid sounded, if anything, anguished. “I hate it.”
“Oh, that’s nice. Then why are you doing it?”
“I need you to bleed out without fighting me. It’s nothing personal.”
Cassidy jerked upward instinctively, then gritted her teeth and sank down before her Collar could go off again. “Well, it’s personal to me.”
“I know. I’m sorry. But you’re Shifter.”
“And to you Shifters are animals. Bred to do your fighting and hunting so you don’t get your hands dirty.”
Reid’s eyes flashed in indignation. “I didn’t breed you. My people didn’t. That was the hoch alfar, the full-of-themselves bastards. Playing with nature to prove they could. I am glad the Shifters broke from them and made them pay the price.” His anger and derision rang true.
Cassidy stared at him in confusion. “Your people? What do you mean, your people?”
“The dokk alfar.”
“I have no idea what that means.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Enlighten me,” she said.
“There isn’t time. I have to kill you, Cassidy. I’m sorry, but it’s the only way.”
“Like you killed my mate?”
Cassidy drew another breath as her Collar started to tingle, tried to calm herself into the mode she assumed as second in command to Eric.
“Tell me,” she said, in the most composed voice she could manage. “Tell me why you’re doing this, if you hate it.”
Reid sounded less derisive, more broken. “They threw me out of Faerie, the hoch alfar. Your blood, I told you, Shifter blood, will send me back there. Nothing else will. I’m sorry.”
He lifted a long iron-bladed knife that glittered in the candlelight and touched it to Cassidy’s stomach.
Eric, Jace, and Shane were already parked on the dirt road halfway up the mountain when Diego and Xav arrived in Xav’s F-250. Diego knew without Eric mentioning it that all his trackers had already fanned out, covering the hills around the rock outcropping where the sharpshooter had pinned them down the other night.
“Because he was so fucked-up eager to grab her here when she came the last time.” Diego started taking weapons out of the truck. Besides his Sig, he holstered a Taser, and so did Xav. “Plus this was where Donovan was killed, and Reid was involved. There’s something special about this place for him.”
Eric nodded. “I thought that too.”
While they spoke, Xavier hiked a little away from them and started unloading his backpack.
“What’s he doing?” Shane asked.
“He’s going to create a diversion,” Diego said. “Reid won’t abandon his fortress unless he has to. But we’ll flush him out. When we do, you, Eric, and your guys grab him while I go in and get Cassidy. Even if we only scare him into vanishing, we still get Cassidy.”
Rescuing Cassidy was the main objective, at least in Diego’s mind. Finding Reid and stopping him, secondary.
“I’m going in there with you,” Shane said. He stood in front of Diego, big arms folded. The guy was huge.
Shane also loved Cassidy. Diego saw that. But he loved her enough to take her rejection and still make sure she was safe and happy.
“Yeah, that would be good,” Diego said. “We save Cassidy.”
Shane nodded silently but didn’t move.
Eric squeezed Diego’s shoulder, his big hand strong. “I appreciate your help, Diego. I’ll put my trackers in position. We’ll be ready.”
Diego still blamed Eric’s stupid trackers for Cassidy getting nabbed in the first place, but they could battle that out later. Right now—Cass.
Find her, take her home, hold her, love her. Never let her go.
Diego touched his earpiece. “Xav. You ready?”
“Almost there.”
Eric silently stripped down. Diego averted his eyes, but the sight of grown men suddenly removing their clothes no longer startled him. Shane stripped too, the guy so massive he’d make the most powerful wrestlers burn with envy.
Both men shifted at about the same time. Shane was close to Diego, and suddenly the space next to Diego was filled with grizzly.
Shane’s bear lips rippled as he growled, and he fixed a black-eyed stare on Diego. Dios, the man was scary, even with the Collar gripping his big neck. Shifter bears were larger than their natural counterparts, which meant Shane was gigantic. Any hikers meeting him in the woods would run away, peeing themselves.
Eric, in his wildcat form, let Diego fix an earpiece to his tufted ear. Eric wouldn’t be able to talk back, but at least Diego could keep him informed of what was going on. Eric didn’t look happy about the procedure, but he put up with it and slipped into the woods.
Xav jogged back to them soon after Eric disappeared. “Small charges, but they’ll make a lot of noise.” He stopped and stared at Shane. “Holy shit.”
Shane glowered right back at him. Xav drew a deep breath. “Remind me never to piss you off, Shane.”
Shane gave a grunt that might or might not have been a laugh, and turned away. He padded toward the rocks, with Diego and Xavier following noiselessly. They stopped on Diego’s command and crept toward the rock cave under the shadows of the closest trees.
“Eric,” Diego whispered. “We’re in place.”
A faint growl sounded through Diego’s earpiece, Eric’s answer. Diego and Xav positioned themselves on either side of the rock entrance with Shane in the shadows. Diego prayed to any saint willing to listen that this was going to work, then he drew a deep breath.
“Now,” he said to Xavier.
Xav pressed his detonator. Something flashed, then boomed in the middle of the clearing. The sound jolted Diego, and the wildlife took off. Wings fluttered and brush exploded as rabbits, birds, and deer fled the sound.
Nothing came out of the rock cave.
“We’re going in,” Diego said.
Xav nodded once, ready. Before they could move, Shane came charging out of the shadows—silent death—and ran straight between the rocks that marked the entrance. Xavier and Diego exchanged a swift glance and ran in after him, weapons ready.
Cassidy was there. She lay on her back on a flat stone, bound hand and foot. Red candles ringed her, all lit, throwing weird shadows onto the ceiling.
“Diego,” she shouted. A warning, not a plea.
Reid dropped on them from above, the man in jeans only. He wasn’t big, but he was wiry, his arms strong as they wrapped around Diego and pinned his firing hand.
Shane didn’t care. He charged, knocking both Diego and Reid to the rocky ground. Several tons of bear landed on them, razor sharp claws coming down.
Reid screamed. Diego felt Reid growing hotter even as he brought his weapon around, saw light filling the cave. The man was about to vanish.
This is going to hurt, Diego thought, just as he stuck his Taser against Reid and pulled the trigger.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
There was nothing like waking up with fifteen hundred pounds of bear on top of you. Diego shoved, but Shane was still out.
He heard another crackle of Taser, smelled more burning flesh, then heard Xav’s voice. “No, you’re staying down.”
“Diego?” That was Cassidy.
Diego slithered and slid out from under the unconscious grizzly and climbed to his feet.
Xavier stood over Reid, Reid out on the floor, his bare torso covered with sweat, blood, and dirt. Cassidy lay naked on the stone, very still, as though afraid to move. Diego limped to her, holstering the Taser he still held and kicking candles out of his way.
Chains wrapped Cassidy’s wrists and feet, and wires ran through those up and down her body to her Collar and then to a Taser. No wonder she didn’t want to move. If she set off the Collar, she’d light up the chains as well.
“I’m sorry, Diego,” she murmured.
“Why are you sorry? Reid did this, not you.”
Diego felt along her Collar for the connections—simple ones, he was happy to find, but Reid would pay for every one of them.
“I shouldn’t have gone back into your apartment without checking it out, first. I knew Reid was still out there somewhere. I should have had Brody come with me.”
Diego gently pulled wires from the Collar. “Don’t beat yourself up, Cass. I’m kind of wondering why you went out the window in the first place. My mom’s chilaquiles aren’t that bad.”
“I’m Shifter.”
Diego finished with the wires and worked on the chains. They were locked in place with small padlocks. A quick search produced no keys, but small locks like these were nothing to a boy who’d been trained to break into cars by age ten.
Diego picked them carefully. “I’m not going to hide you,” he said.
“No, but humans and Shifters don’t mix well. It’s hard on the human.”
“You want to let me worry about that?”
“I’ve seen it happen, Diego. Humans lose their jobs, get shunned by their families. Don’t risk that for me.”
Cassidy was the one bound hand and foot, and she was worried about him.
“Mamita wants to meet you. She’s not going to shun you. As for my career—an asshole from my office kidnapped you and wrapped you in chains. I’m not the one losing my job.”
The last chain fell from her wrists. Cassidy rose with a groan, but her arms went right around Diego.
Diego gathered her to him as he helped her to stand, then they held each other. Cassidy buried her face in Diego’s shoulder, her embrace strong and warm. Diego was happy to hold her and soothe her, which helped soothe him.
He leaned into her, rubbing her skin, absorbing her warmth. Animals tended to cuddle together for reassurance, and Diego thought they were pretty smart.
A rumble filled the little cave. Shane rolled up from the floor, waking up and fighting mad.
“Easy,” Xavier said. He turned the Taser on him.
Shane opened his mouth and roared.
He�
��s like a bear waking out of its hibernation sleep. He doesn’t know who we are.
Diego brought out his own Taser again. “Xav, give him a chance but take him down if you have to.”
Cassidy stepped away from Diego. Though her body was covered with dirt, her hair a tangled mess, she stood straight and strong.
Shane swung around to Diego and Cassidy with a long, low snarl. He charged.
Cassidy pushed Diego behind her. “Shane!” she said. “Stop.”
Diego grabbed Cassidy and tried to move her, because Shane wasn’t stopping. The bear’s Collar was going off, sizzling all over the place, but he kept coming.
Cassidy held up her hand. “Shane. Stop, now.”
Shane’s gaze snapped to Cassidy’s. Awareness slammed through his eyes, followed by an oh-shit look. Shane stopped so fast he skidded on the mud, paws shoving over the last of the candles before he crashed into the stone slab and went still.
Cassidy went to him. “Shane? You all right?”
Shane sat back on his bear haunches, shaking his head. Cassidy leaned down and stroked his fur.
Now there’s something you don’t see every day. A gigantic grizzly sitting on the stone floor, splashed with wax and dirt, growling as a beautiful woman petted him on the head.
Shane shifted back to his human form, growling and groaning all the way. “Ow.” Now he was a very large naked man smeared with wax and dirt, with a beautiful woman petting his head.
“You OK, Shane?” Diego asked.
“Yeah.” Shane rubbed his face, gently pushing Cassidy away. “Good shot, Diego. Did you get the shit?”
“He’s still out,” Diego said.
Reid lay motionless, Xavier returning his Taser to him.
“I’ll kill him,” Shane said.
Diego shook his head. “Get in line.”
Cassidy returned to Diego, arms stealing around his waist as though she couldn’t not touch him. “I want to talk to him. How can we keep him from vanishing?”
Eric came through the entrance, shifting as he rose to his full height. He took in the scene and went at once to Cassidy. Cassidy turned her embrace to her brother, the two holding each other tightly for a moment. There was nothing sexual in the contact—just two people who loved each other, happy to see each other whole.