Page 32 of Red Boar's Baby

“It’s all right,” Costa said inanely against her hair, although it very much wasn’t true. “You’re all right.”Thatwas true, at least.

Diana drew a shuddering breath and slowly peeled herself off him, gazing up at him with eyes that were softer than he’d seen in a long, long time. “What are you doing here?”

“I came as soon as I heard.”

Her brows drew together in a frown. “No, I mean in Bisbee. Did something else happen?”

Costa’s preparations to pull together an explanation disintegrated in an instant, because he had, for the moment, completely forgotten that they weren’t in Tucson, they were a two-hour drive away.

Behind him, he heard Caine snort-laugh. Costa turned to give him a glare. Caine looked completely unrepentant despite his visible weariness.

“I’ll explain in a minute.” As soon as he figured out what the explanation was going to be. “Do you need to do anything else here? Where’s your car? Did you drive or walk to the store?”

“Drove. It’s down the street.” Diana swiped at her eyes, and then she visibly steeled herself. Costa, who still had a hand on her arm, was impressed all over again as the hurt and fear bled out of her, and steel visibly straightened her spine. “This isn’t an accident. I think it might be connected to—to the situation.”

Costa steered her further away from the emergency vehicles with his hand on her arm, although no one was paying much attention to them; he and Costa were indistinguishable from any of the other spectators. “The baby?”

“Yes.” She wiped her face with her hand again. “Luis told me someone was looking for me today at work. It’s a stretch, but this is just such insane timing otherwise. I won’t be surprised if they find out it’s arson.”

“Okay,” Costa said. He gazed into the middle distance for a few seconds, mulling over the problem. “I’ll put the SCB in touch with the local authorities. You might have to answer questions later, but there’s no need to deal with that tonight.” Turning his gaze back to Diana, he saw that she was watching his face with her usual sharp clarity. “Do you have anywhere to go?”

“I—I hadn’t thought about that.” The steel spine dissolved; now there was the scared woman again. “I guess I can get a hotel?—”

“Absolutely not. You can stay at my place. Where’s your car?”

“O—over here.”

As she led him toward it, Caine closed up on his heels almost near enough to trip on him, and murmured, “In case you’ve forgotten, you left the baby alone in Tucson.”

“Crap.” Leaving Emmeline for a few minutes was one thing; leaving her for hours was something else.

Diana turned an accusing glare on him. “You left her alone to drive here? Quinn, what on earth were you thinking?”

“I told you, I—” He shut his mouth, suddenly foreseeing the long drive in front of him. “I can call someone at the SCB to come sit with her.”

Diana still looked furious. “No matter what you were doing here, I can’t believe you ran off and left her for hours. I thought you knew something about babies! I don’t know anything about babies, and even I know enough not to do that.”

Caine cleared his throat. “As entertaining as it would be to watch you talk your way out of this, I’ll take you both back.”

Costa turned to look at him. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” Caine said. He quirked a sideways smile. “If she can keep a secret.”

“She can. Diana, get whatever you need out of your car. We’ll go with Caine.”

Diana scowled mutinously as she opened her car door to rescue a bag of groceries. “I don’t care how fast he drives, it’ll still take ages. You’d better call someone to come. I can’t believe you.” She slammed the car door and locked it. “All right, let’s go. Where’s he parked?”

Costa looked around. The emergency lights and people’s yard lights were washing out the nearby shadows. Caine was already headed down the street. “This way.”

“Seriously cannot believe this,” Diana was still muttering. “Aren’t you going to call the SCB? Do I have to call them? I don’t know how self-sufficient you think babies are—and you still haven’t told me what you’re doing in Bisbee in the middle of the night.”

Caine turned abruptly and ducked between two houses. It looked as if neither household was home; the lights were off, and shadows lay desert-night black between them.

“What’s he doing?” Diana asked. “Is this a shortcut?” As Costa touched her arm and steered her into the shadow behind the fence that separated the houses, she added, “You know we’re trespassing, right?”

Costa drew her in closer, sandwiching her between them. She went readily with a small sound of surprise. It was too dim to see anything clearly, but Costa felt Caine reach around Diana to grip his arm again, holding the three of them in an involuntary clinch.

“Hold your breath,” he said to Diana.

---