“Thank you,” I muttered, and ran for the kitchen, where I stood gazing out the window above the sink.
“You okay?” Eva asked.
I started and tried to pretend I wasn’t edgy as a cat in a guitar shop. “I don’t know,” I said. “I feel like shit. I’m tired, and I want to go home, but I don’t know if I’ve got one.”
The shop might not feel the same when I got back to it. If I did. That seemed less and less likely as the days wore on.
“You’ll always have a place here with me and Chuch.”
Her offer surprised a sniff out of me. Kel and Chance filed in just as we hugged. Chuch was still out in the garage, taking inventory.
Eva fetched her notes. “What did Booke say?”
A knock at the front door forestalled whatever Chance might have said. Though it was a warm morning, we had the curtains and storm door tightly shut, for obvious reasons. I unhooked the chain, turned the bolt, and peered out the screen door cautiously.
Jesse stood there looking like he’d lost his best friend. Dark smudges cradled his eyes, and he’d gone way past five o’clock shadow. The stubble on his chin had probably taken two days to accumulate. Since he didn’t wear his badge clipped to his belt, I concluded his visit must be unofficial.
I didn’t know where we stood. We’d kissed on the couch. Yesterday morning he had my face in the dirt, shouting at me not to make any sudden moves.
“Come on in.” I stepped back.
What the hell would we do if he recognized Kel? The tattoos and the bald head were new, though. Maybe Jesse wouldn’t recognize him without the mop of dirty blond hair.
Jesse paused just inside the doorway, took in the activity, and managed a smile. “Throwing a party and I’m not invited?”
I hesitated. “Not exactly.”
“Look, is there someplace we can talk in private?” Saldana obviously lacked the mental energy to pretend he wasn’t on his last legs.
Chuch called from the garage, “You can use the computer room.”
As we went down the hall, I ignored the looks Chance and Eva gave me. Kel seemed to miss the undertones, or maybe he just didn’t care. I went into the office, shut the door behind us, and dropped down into Chuch’s plaid recliner.
Instead of sitting, Saldana propped himself against the wall and stared up at the ceiling.
“How bad was it?” I laced my fingers in my lap to combat the urge to touch him.
“Bad,” he said heavily. “I’m on suspension, pending an investigation. I came out here because I did a little digging. Took me all night and a handful of favors, but... Moon was made, Corine. He started out in life as a Montoya, changed his name back in ’eighty-two. They got him on the force, and he’d been working for the cartels from the inside ever since.”
Weird. It apparently bothered Saldana more that his partner had been dirty than the fact that he’d also been a warlock who bound people’s souls to feed his own power. I nodded, listening.
“Anyway,” Jesse went on. “I know you’re planning a strike. I recognize a tactical meeting when I see one. My partner did a hell of a lot of damage, and I may lose my badge over it. If you’re going over the border, I want in.”
I thought long and hard about my reply. “You can’t go as a cop. This is vigilante territory, Jesse. I don’t know if it’s a good idea.”
He shrugged. “I don’t care. I’m on leave, so this is for me and for Maris, who died because I couldn’t see what was right in front of me. What’s that they say? There are none so blind as those who will not see.”
“You can’t blame yourself for this. I’m just sorry it turned out like it did.” My head started to throb.
A slow breath escaped him, like a balloon deflating. “You and me both, sugar.”
“I bet you wish you never set eyes on me,” I said quietly.
Jesse shoved away from the wall then, came toward me. I didn’t know what to make of that until he knelt, took my hands in his where they rested on my knee. He bent his head and rested his brow on our joined fingers, oddly like an obeisance.
“No,” came his muffled reply. “That’s not what I wish.”
I wanted to stroke his hair, but I’d put ointment on my palm not long ago. He probably wouldn’t want that on his head, so I held still, listening to him breathe. This man would never hesitate to give me what I needed emotionally; to do otherwise would go against his very gift. I think he wanted me to ask what he wished. He was waiting for it.
When I didn’t, Jesse pushed to his feet with a faint sigh. I held firm, though. This just wasn’t the time to talk about personal affairs. With a faint flicker of regret, I followed him to join the others.
The day went slowly, but we had no way to motivate Esteban beyond what the information I’d given him should have already done. Since I’d been up all night again, I crashed on the couch with the others all around me, talking strategy. I woke in late afternoon to the sound of Chuch holding forth on why it was best to burn Montoya’s compound to the ground once we found it.
After rubbing my gummy eyes, I pushed to a sitting position and took stock. Kel was the only one in the room, but the TV was off. Apparently he’d been watching me instead. That should have sent a cold chill through me, but he didn’t terrify me anymore.
I must have a transparent face because he said, “They’re in the kitchen. Esteban called five minutes ago. They faxed him the cargo manifest and he passed it along to someone in his organization who could make sense of it.”
“Thanks.”
“How’s your shoulder?”
I wished he, of all people, hadn’t shown concern. That softness humanized him in ways I didn’t care to entertain. Since it was a good question, I slid the shirt from my shoulder, craned my neck, and examined the bite.
“Seems to be healing,” I answered after a moment. “Is there anything I should know about an undead bite? I won’t turn into a zombie by the next full moon?”
He actually gave a half smile. “Not as far as I know, but human bites are more likely to become infected.”
“Noted. I’ll keep an eye on it.”
I felt like I should say something more, but damned if I knew what, so I just nodded at him in thanks and made my way into the kitchen. Chuch, Eva, Chance, and Jesse sat around the table, like when we’d held the séance, except Chance was staring at a list. The top seven things on it had been crossed off, with eight more to go.
As I knew better than to interrupt, I stood quiet and let him work. Energy tingled in the air all around him, like a localized static electricity storm. Touching him at this moment would render a shock on the wrong side of painful.
The Ortizes acknowledged me with eye contact, but they too found themselves rapt in the face of Chance’s gift. Jesse simply gazed at me in silence, unsmiling. I suppose he had wanted to talk about things this morning, but if I wouldn’t with Chance, it didn’t seem fair to change the rules for Saldana.
I leaned in for a better look and found what looked like a roster of properties owned by Montoya. Go, Esteban! Chance went down the list, striking off five more locations with the pen in his left hand. The thirteenth, however—
“This is it,” he said, tapping the page. “He’s taken her there. I’m sure of it.”
We finally had a location. With his pet warlock dead, Montoya would have lost all ability to block Chance’s talent.
“I need to make some calls,” Chuch said. “Lay hands on stuff I don’t have in stock. I should be set within a few hours, though.”
Saldana didn’t say a word. He’d either silenced the cop part of himself, or he no longer cared about the law that had let him down so profoundly with his partner. I couldn’t worry about anyone but Min right now.
As part of my preparation, I wet my hair, braided it tightly, and then pinned the braids up. I couldn’t do anything about the color on such short notice, not that I wanted to. I liked being a redhead. With a sigh, I peered into my jumbled laundry and decided on black: black jeans, black hoodie, sturdy black shoes. It was the best I could do.