Wild Cat

Diego nodded, encouraging her. “Why were you chasing him?”

Fear flickered through her eyes again. “He was chasing me. That’s why I ran into the building. The two cops saw us and came up, and he shot them.”

“Why was he after you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he wanted a Shifter pelt to hang on his wall. Hunters are allowed to shoot Collarless Shifters, you know. Sometimes they don’t bother to check whether they have a Collar or not.”

Her tone was bitter, grief and rage tainting it. Diego had read the file on Cassidy Warden, so he thought he knew what she meant.

“Another reason you shouldn’t have been running out there on your own,” Diego said. “What happened to your clothes?”

Cassidy touched the top button of the coverall just below her Collar. Diego couldn’t stop his gaze from going there, down into the shadow between her breasts. “I chucked my clothes. I needed to strip to shift.”

And wouldn’t Diego have loved to have seen that? “Leaving behind your money or any ID…”

“I hadn’t brought it with me,” Cassidy said quickly.

“Which is illegal for a Shifter. Why did you leave everything at home?”

Cassidy’s gaze flicked sideways. She was trying to decide what to tell him. She was a bad liar, but Diego sensed that she lied out of fear, not cunning. He was very familiar with lies born of fear. He’d told them for years.

Cassidy wet her lips and shrugged again. “I wanted a run. I’d been cooped up too long. I needed to get away, out of Shiftertown, be somewhere else…”

Diego snapped off the microphone. “Stop.”

She jumped. “What?”

Diego leaned his fists on the table to look into her face. Her green eyes were so near his own, and he could feel her breath on his face.

“Listen to me, chiquita. Trespassing isn’t a misdemeanor for Shifters. It’s a crime with a prison sentence attached. I know you didn’t hurt Hooper and Jemez, because that guy with the gun shot at me too, and I watched you chase him off. But there’s no evidence, only my word, and yours, and you have to know by now that the word of a Shifter isn’t worth shit. If you admit you were running around in the desert for the hell of it, and some crazy Shifter hunter started chasing you, I can help you. You start talking about running away from your Shiftertown, and I can’t help you anymore. They’ll tranq you and lock you up. I’m your best shot at freedom, mi ja, so shut up.”

No Shifter, besides her brother Eric, would look at Cassidy like this or get in her face and talk to her in that stern, obey-me voice. Not unless he wanted to be knocked across the room or go up against her pissed-off brother. But Diego Escobar wasn’t asking for submission or fealty. He was trying to get Cassidy to understand, to obey because it was necessary. To trust him, because he knew the rules of this place, and Cassidy didn’t.

Diego turned the microphone back on. Cassidy’s heart beat in slow, thick beats as she leaned toward it. “I needed a run for the hell of it,” she said carefully. “To let off steam.”

Diego gave her a look that said she’d finally got it. “Good. Now tell me why.”

“Because I lost my mate. It’s the anniversary of his death, and I was going to the place he died to make my peace with it. All right?” That part was the truth.

Cassidy blinked back angry tears. Diego was human-he’d never understand. Donovan had been her mate. You didn’t just say a eulogy and get over it.

Diego looked at the file on the table but not because he was conceding ground. He was giving her a moment to collect herself.

“Donavan Grady,” he read. “The Feline Shifter who was living with you. Died a year ago.”

“He was my mate, not just living with me. The union was blessed under sun and moon. Not that humans understand what that means.”

One year ago, Donovan’s mother and Cassidy had burned photos and mementos of Donovan under the moonlight, while their clans moved in solemn circles around them, easing Donovan into the Summerland. The Guardian-the Shifter whose sword turned a Shifter’s dead body to dust-had done his job, and Eric had held Cassidy as she’d wept.

Donovan the fun-loving any-excuse-for-a-party-baby Shifter had been killed, before his time and for nothing. Cassidy had avoided the place of his passing for a long, long while, but tonight, something had drawn her there. Tomorrow, on the exact night of his death, they’d have his remembrance ceremony at home, but she’d wanted to burn an offering, alone, in the place of his dying. But someone had been there, waiting for her…

“I’m sorry,” Diego was saying. “I know it’s rough, losing someone.”

Cassidy looked up to find his gaze on her again. He’d turned off the microphone, and understanding lingered behind his no-nonsense stare. He knew.

Because, Cassidy realized in shock, he’d lost someone too.

“Was it someone close to you?” she asked.

Diego gave her a surprised look, then he cleared his throat. “My partner. Jobe Sanderson. My best friend.”

“I’m sorry,” Cassidy said, heartfelt. “I’ll say a blessing for you.” A lit candle, a prayer to the Goddess for the human Jobe now in the Summerland.

Diego said nothing, but hurt and grief screamed for touch. Drawn to his pain, Cassidy slid her hand over his, giving him a touch to soothe and ease, like a cat might curl into another for comfort.

Diego’s gaze flicked to their hands as Cassidy drew her fingers along the curve between his thumb and forefinger. He looked up at her, and they watched each other for a while, Cassidy’s heart pounding like crazy, Diego never moving.

After a long time, Diego lifted her hand, placed it back on the table, and turned on the microphone.

“Cassidy Warden,” he said. “Because you have no police record, and because I saw the third person with a tranquilizer gun fire at me, I’m not going to charge you for the trespassing. I’ll record that I gave you a warning, and that you swear to stay out of restricted areas. Also, I’m confining you to your Shiftertown for a period of two weeks, so you’ll have time to calm down and think about it. Interview ended at twenty-one hundred hours.”

Cassidy opened her mouth in outrage, but Diego held up his hand, stopping her as he turned off the microphone again.

“I can’t stay in Shiftertown for two weeks!”

Diego closed the file and lifted his coat, his movements brusque and no longer warm. “I can’t let you go without some kind of punishment. I’ll be checking up on you to make sure you do it. This is my call, Cassidy. I’m putting my ass on the line for you. Don’t make me regret it.”

She stared at him. Diego looked back at her, that same unfathomable gaze locking her in place.

“Why would you put your ass on the line for me?” Cassidy asked. Your very fine ass.

Diego slid his strong arms into his coat. “I don’t know, mi ja. Maybe because you could have let me fall but you helped me instead; maybe because I like your face. Whatever reason, you got lucky. Now go. I called your brother before I came in here. He should be waiting for you downstairs.”

Eric. The relief that her brother had come made Cassidy want to spring up and run to him, but she forced herself to rise calmly. She liked how tall Diego was when they stood toe-to-toe. He was almost the same height as Eric, and he smelled good, like dust and sunshine.

Diego opened the door of the interrogation room and gestured her to leave in front of him. The human-style courtesy betrayed how different their worlds were-a Shifter male would walk out first, checking the hall for danger before beckoning the female out the door. How humans had survived this long, Cassidy had no idea.

Cassidy passed Diego in the doorway, keeping her gaze on him. “You’re a shithead, Lieutenant Escobar.”

His answering smile erased every hard line on his face and made his eyes sparkle. His eyes were so dark, so deep, an entire world within them.

“I do my best, mi ja,” he said. “Go home.”

Diego walked away from her, leaving her to the uniformed policewoman who waited outside in the hall.

His backside moved nicely under his coat. Cassidy thought about the feel of his body against hers, and a shiver