“It’d be stupid to risk it,” Cooper agreed.
“Unless,” Gretchen said, “he could hide out someplace where they didn’t really get the news.”
Cooper blinked. “Like—Amish country?”
For a second, Gretchen considered it just because it was weirdly charming to think that they could vindicate Cooper by taking a long tour of horse-and-buggy country, eating shoofly pie at little cafes, and questioning men and women in starched, old-fashioned clothes. But unfortunately, that wasn’t what she was thinking, and they couldn’t exactly afford a vacation detour. She boxed up the thoughts of everything they could do after this was over—if it was ever over—and stayed on track.
“Like dragon country,” she said. “I know some mythic shifters form their own little communities, even more separatist than the Amish. Keith grew up in this tiny all-unicorn village, and Theo came from this snooty dragon one. Riell.”
“I’ve heard of it,” Cooper said cautiously. “Phil mentioned it. He wasn’t from there, but he used to say it might be a good place to retire. He made a joke about it having the best tax rates.”
Gretchen snorted. Considering it was a town made up solely of dragons, she was willing to bet that Phil was right: Riell would let a guy hold onto his gold coins.
“It’s not the only place a dragon on the run could go undercover, but it’s one of them. And Riell has housed fugitives before—for a price.” She frowned. “I don’t know that they’d do it again, though. Theo read them the riot act for it last time. And if I were Phil, I wouldn’t stay camped out in one of the only dragon towns that boasts a US Marshal as a hometown boy. But there are probably other counterparts to Riell scattered across the country. Phil could have gone to one of those.”
“Do we know how to find one of those?” Cooper asked reasonably enough.
“No,” Gretchen admitted, “but I know who to ask.”
*
Theo had directed them to his cousin Izzie—“Isabelle, technically,” he’d added as an afterthought, “but I keep forgetting that”—who was attending college within an hour of Gretchen and Cooper’s current position. Isabelle would be their passage into dragon territory, which was usually guarded from the human world with a series of complex wards and spells that even Theo couldn’t explain.
They picked Isabelle up at the stone gate of her college. She was a tall girl with white-blonde hair and unusually timeless fashion sense: in a sea of students in bulky parkas and tattered jeans, Isabelle stood out in her cranberry wool trenchcoat and sophisticated trouser-suit.
Gretchen didn’t remember having herself put together that well in college—or even now, for that matter. Clothes seemed to wrinkle the second they touched her body, but with Isabelle, they looked like they wouldn’t dare.
“Hello,” Isabelle said, climbing into the car. She had an arch draconian accent, more noticeable than Theo’s, and Gretchen wondered where her classmates thought she was from. “I’m pleased to meet any colleagues of Cousin Theo’s, and obviously it’s very exciting to participate in ethical criminal activity for a change.”
“Glad we could help,” Cooper said. “Do you, ah, participate in a lot of unethical criminal activity?”
“Not knowingly,” Isabelle said severely, “but my father is a disreputable man.”
Gretchen remembered that Theo had told her that: Isabelle’s father had been the one to offer sanctuary to corrupt businessmen. He’d been found out partly because of Isabelle’s inability to stand idly by once she knew his schemes were getting people hurt. Once he knew that, he’d turned on his daughter and cowed wife with a snakelike quickness, lashing out bitterly. Gretchen knew how much even well-intentioned families could sometimes wind up hurting their kids; she couldn’t imagine having Isabelle’s background. It was another reason to admire how well the dragon girl carried herself.
“Do you know where we’re going?” Gretchen said.
Isabelle lifted her chin. “I wouldn’t be much use if I didn’t, would I?” She pointed out their next turn and then sat back imperiously in her seat, wrinkling her aristocratic nose. “Where did you get this car?” She said “car” like she was tempted to put it in air-quotes.
Gretchen and Cooper traded amused glances, silently conferring about whether or not to tell Isabelle the truth. Gretchen made the call: there was no point in getting the girl more deeply involved than she was already, and no point in mixing up their stories about Ford.
“We stole it,” she said brightly.
Isabelle perked up. “That was clever,” she said, “because no one would ever think anyone would deliberately steal this kind of... vehicle.”
Cooper seemed to be biting down on his lower lip to keep himself from laughing, but his voice was perfectly controlled as he said, “What are you studying, Isabelle?”
“Law enforcement.”
“Really?” Gretchen said, turning around in her seat. She’d been ready to guess fashion, or maybe something like hotel management, that involved excellent manners.
“Really,” Isabelle said firmly. “I want to follow in Cousin Theo’s footsteps and become a Marshal.”
“You might want to get a little less fond of breaking the law, then.”
“Why? You’re both Marshals, and you’re breaking the law.”
“I’m not technically a Marshal right now,” Cooper pointed out.
Isabelle waved her hand breezily, like the exact circumstances of Cooper’s conviction and imprisonment weren’t her problem, and Gretchen thought that he probably found it weirdly refreshing to have someone just flat-out confirm that he was the same person he’d always been, no matter what the rest of the world said. And since Isabelle wasn’t his mate, he didn’t even have to worry about whether or not she was biased.
“I hope you have a plan if you intend to arrest a dragon,” Isabelle said.
Gretchen jingled the handcuffs
