“No thanks. If I capture and kill a cop, even an ex-cop, even one who’s shacked up with a Shifter, I’ll never live to enjoy the money.”
There was a moment of intense, furious silence. “I hired you because you were good. Or said you were.”
“I am good. I’m just not stupid. You’ll get one of the four. I have him right here.” Shane had been out, slumped against the truck’s door, his hands and feet chained. The second tranq, delivered when Joe had gotten him into the truck, had knocked him cold.
“Keep him for me,” Miguel said. “I want to make the kill myself. And then I’ll go after the other three, and you will help me.”
No way. But Joe didn’t argue with him. People who hired bounty hunters or ordered hits weren’t always stable.
“Now you want me to keep him alive?” Joe asked. “For how long? I only have so much tranquilizer.”
“For as long as it takes. I’ll call you when I make it to town.”
Joe had hung up in irritation. He’d really wanted to get some sleep tonight.
Joe had continued to the cabin he’d already set up for the kill. Easiest to keep Shane there, and it was far enough out of town that if the Shifter gave him too much trouble, Joe could simply shoot to kill without any neighbors hearing. Miguel would have to suck it up. The money Miguel offered wasn’t good enough for Joe to take extra risks.
Shane’s eyelids fluttered again. Joe shoved a sports bottle of water between Shane’s lips and upended it. Shane coughed, but Joe didn’t relent.
“Don’t need you dehydrating. He wants you alive.”
Shane swallowed the water and licked droplets from his lips. “Who the hell are you?” His voice was still scratchy with dryness. “Wait, I saw you at the club, didn’t I?”
“The name’s Josiah. My friends call me Joe. Now I have a little dilemma. I’m starting to think I’m not going to come out of this very well, no matter if I give you to the nut-job who wants you or negotiate with you for your release. So do me a favor and don’t ask me any more questions while I sit here and think about what to do.”
“Huh,” Shane said, letting his eyes close again. “If you think your only problems are me and the nut-job, it just means you don’t know my mother.”
Joe didn’t laugh. “You say that because you haven’t met my mother. Your mom was the Shifter lady sitting at the table with you tonight?”
Shane opened his eyes again. This time they were more focused. “Yeah, that was her.”
“Nice-looking woman. Hope it works out for her and that other bear Shifter. It’s tough for widows to find someone new.”
“Ain’t you sweet?” Shane’s hands moved under the chains that wrapped his body, and one spark leapt from the Collar around his neck. “How about we talk about this on more even terms?”
Joe lifted his tranq rifle, loaded and ready to go. Another rifle lay next to it, that one with .30-06 bullets. “If you sit there calmly, I’ll let you stay awake,” Joe said. “If you move too much, I’ll put you out again, or shoot you with real bullets. Either way I wouldn’t be able to let you in on the decision-making process.” He smiled at Shane, who didn’t smile back. “So shut up, and let me think.”
Diego Escobar, the mate of Eric’s sister, and Diego’s brother, Xavier, ran a security firm called DX Security. They showed up in response to Brody’s call for help, along with Reid, the guy who called himself a dark Fae. Apparently Reid worked at the security firm with the two humans. Weird.
Cormac liked Diego, who looked over the scene without fuss, listening to Brody, Nell, and Cormac tell him what they’d found. Xavier said fingerprints were a long shot—there’d be a lot of them, if they could even get clear ones, plus the waitress would have wiped down the table when she’d cleaned up. Even so, Xavier got started checking out the chair in which the guy had been sitting.
Diego opened a laptop at another table and had Cormac describe the man. Brody and Nell put in what they remembered, but Cormac gave Diego the most detailed description.
“I’m impressed,” Diego said. “How long have you had perfect recall?”
“It’s not perfect recall,” Cormac said. “I just notice things.”
Not that he didn’t recall every touch, every kiss, every breath of himself and Nell up at the cabin. The time with her had eased his heart, allowing a new spark of warmth to grow. Cormac hung on to that spark in hope. Mate bonds were precious and didn’t happen to everybody.
Diego had software that quickly rendered an image, then he and Cormac made adjustments. Another laptop with more software let Xavier scan the fingerprints he’d managed to lift and look for a match. He didn’t find anything, but said he wasn’t surprised. If the man had been careful, he’d have touched as little as possible and wiped everything off before he left.
Diego’s facial recognition program had more luck.
“He doesn’t have a police record,” Diego announced. “Or an FBI file. But I have access to more information than that.” He tapped keys and brought up a photograph of their man. It was a casual snapshot, a man of average human height with brown hair, standing in a hunting vest in the woods. “His name is Josiah Doyle.” Diego tapped the arrow key to move to more information. “He’s a bounty hunter. Goes after bail jumpers, escaped convicts, and un-Collared Shifters.”
Nell’s hand tightened on the back of Cormac’s chair. “Why would a bounty hunter go after Shane? He’s not an un-Collared Shifter.”
“I think we should ask him,” Diego said. “I have the addresses of his house and a couple of cabins. I’d bet he took Shane to one of them.”
“To kill him?” Nell asked, her lips white.
Cormac squeezed her hand between his. “I’ll never let that happen. We’ll find him and bring him home.”
“Don’t worry, Nell,” Diego said. “Xav and I have plenty of firepower and know how to use it. And we have Reid.”
“And me,” Graham rumbled.
“Don’t even think about it,” Nell said. “I don’t want my cub getting caught in the cross fire.”
“And he won’t,” Diego said. He had a kind voice, soothing, even with his overtone of authority. That the human man wasn’t intimidated by Shifters like Graham, Nell, and Jace said a lot about him. “We know what we’re doing, Nell. We’ll go, we’ll get Shane, and we’ll bring him back.”
“I’m going with you,” Nell said. “I’m not sitting at home waiting and wondering if you’ll find him before it’s too late.”
“Graham sent Misty home,” Diego pointed out.
“She’s human,” Nell returned. She fixed Diego with a steely stare. “Don’t argue with me, Diego. I know what you did when it was your mate and cub in trouble.”
“Yeah, and I also took the help I was offered,” Diego said.
“But you didn’t wait at home.”
“No,” Diego admitted. “I didn’t.”
“Well, then.”
“Nell’s right,” Cormac broke in. “We need her. We’ll have to split up and check each location—we don’t have time to check them all in turn.” He pointed at the locator map on Diego’s computer. “I think his house is the least likely place. We should check it in case but put most of our might on the cabins. Graham and Jace can scope out one cabin with Xavier; and Nell, Brody, and I will scope out the other.”
“While I grab backup and go to the house?” Diego asked. He grinned. “You’re good at giving orders, but I’m modifying them. Xav and I will go to the house. Less fuss if only humans drive up to see Mr. Doyle, no Shifters in sight. Two teams of Shifters will check out the cabins, but I’m sending Reid with one.”