Wild Cat (23 page)

“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.

T
here 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.

Eric broke the embrace, rubbing Cassidy’s shoulders. “Have Diego and Shane take you home. The Fae is mine.”

Diego had heard that phrase often enough to know what it meant. Eric wanted them all to leave so he could kill Reid in private. Whether Reid died swiftly or lingered, Eric would finish him, Collar or no.

“No,” Cassidy said. “I want to face him.”

“Too dangerous,” her brother answered. “He’s obviously after you, Cass, and needs to be dealt with.”

“He killed Donovan.” Her voice filled with emotion. “He killed my
mate
, Eric. It’s my right.”

Shane broke in. “He’s a fucking Fae and a Shifter hunter. I say let Eric… um… talk to him.”

“No.” At Diego’s sharp word, everyone turned to look at him—all but Xavier, who kept his gaze on the captive.

“This isn’t the wilds of Scotland in the Middle Ages,” Diego said. “Reid is a cop—a human cop as far as other humans are concerned. If it’s even rumored that a Shifter gutted him, all Shifters will pay.”

Eric growled. “So what do you propose, human? He’s
Fae
. Our enemy. You want us to let him get away with what he’s done?”

“No, I want you to let me deal with it.”

“You can’t,” Eric said.

“You’d be surprised what I can do.”

They faced each other, Shifter to human. Eric was going to make this a dominance thing, but Diego didn’t give a rat’s ass about dominance. Reid would pay for touching Cassidy—but if Eric ripped into him, all the Shifters, including Cassidy, would be punished for it.

“Eric,” Cassidy said softly. “Diego’s right.”

Eric dragged his gaze from Diego and pinned it on Cassidy. “I don’t want you facing this guy either, Cass. Don’t even think about it.”

From the look on her face, Cassidy was definitely thinking about it. “At least let me talk to him,” she said. “I need to talk to him.”

“She needs closure,” Diego said. “Trust me, I know this.”

Eric’s gaze was right back on Diego. “You think I don’t understand? I’ve been alive for three times as long as you have. I lost my mate and was left with a cub to raise on my own. I’ve been hunted and rounded up, chained down so humans could perform experiments on me. Don’t tell me I don’t understand about revenge.”

“Um, ladies and gentleman,” Xavier said in the corner. “Reid’s waking up, and this man can vanish himself. Our question is—how do we keep him contained while you argue about who gets to do the honors?”

“You said iron hurt Fae,” Diego said, “but Reid obviously works just fine around iron. What about silver?”

“Fae love silver,” Cassidy said. “The purer the better.”

“That’s good,” Xavier said. “Because I don’t have any pure silver sitting around waiting to be used on a Fae.”

“Tranq him,” Diego said. “And we’ll take him to my place. We keep him drugged until we decide what to do with him.”

“Fine,” Eric said. “But we take him to Shiftertown. No, don’t argue with me. We have a better chance of hiding him there. No human neighbors to wonder why there’s Shifters all over your place. And if he tries to escape, there will be nowhere for him to run.”

Diego conceded the argument. He went back to Xav’s truck for the same tranq rifle Reid had checked out of Shifter Division days ago, brought it back inside, and took a lot of satisfaction from shooting the dart into the side of Reid’s ass.

C
assidy found herself once more watching Diego drive, this time in Xavier’s truck. Eric was in his own car with Xavier, and in their trunk was Reid, bound and tranquilized.