Page 34 of Stray Cat

“AC Parkes, you know about,” Emma began. “Busted by you and Diego for importing weapons to sell to gangs here and in L.A. He plea-bargained down, but still served about fifteen years.” She peered at Xav. “You and Diego must have been babies when you arrested him.”

“One of our first busts as detectives,” Xav said without gloating. “Helped us move up the ranks.”

“I’m sure. AC served out his time, kept his nose clean, took advantage of classes and work programs and emerged reformed, so his paperwork says. Ready to integrate back into society.DeanParkes, his little brother—different story.”

Xav settled in next to Lindsay, close enough that their arms touched. It was intimate, acknowledging that they belonged together.

Lindsay, so focused on the way the tendrils around her heart came to life, almost missed Emma’s ongoing report.

“AC practically raised Dean, because their parents were in and out of rehab,” Emma continued. “AC is nine years older than Dean. AC had a strict no-drug policy, because he saw what drugs did to their mom and dad. Dean pretty much stayed out of trouble until his brother went off to prison. He was fine at first while he finished up high school, but once Dean was out on his own, he started doing small jobs for gangs, then bigger jobs, and finally became tight with the leaders. He’s been arrested a couple of times, but Dean seems smart. Evidence doesn’t stick to him.”

“Tallies with what AC told us about Dean falling in with some truly bad guys,” Xav said. “So what happened? Did he piss off one of the higher-ups? Did they mean to kill him or not? Lindsay says Dean’s most likely alive.”

“He was when he got into the helicopter,” Lindsay amended.

“Yeah, that’s weird,” Emma said. “What were they doing flying around in the middle of nowhere in a helicopter? Way to draw attention. If they took Dean to that area to kill him, why didn’t they?”

“Maybe he talked his way out of it.” Lindsay suggested. “That’s what I’d do.”

Xav chuckled. “Yeah, you’d be good at it. Better than I was with AC. He only kept me alive because he needed something.”

Lindsay suppressed a shiver of disquiet. “The fact that we found you meant you did a pretty good job.”

She recalled how she’dknownthat Xav had been taken the direction she’d decided to go, even without an obvious scent trail. She’d thought it had been Shifter instinct that led her across the desert to the old bank vault, but she wondered now if it had been the mate bond pulling at her.

The idea raised both hope and concern—Xav wouldn’t necessarily form the bond with her in return. There was never any guarantee it would go both ways.

“How you can joke about being grabbed by a guy like Parkes is beyond me,” Emma said. “I’d have shit myself.”

“No, you’d have taken him out with your bare hands and walked away,” Xav said with continued good humor. “You wouldn’t have let him get the drop on you at all. Even if you’d been seriously distracted, like I was at the time.”

Emma shrugged. “Maybe.”

Xav had been distracted by arguing with Lindsay for interfering with the mission to arrest the arms dealer. Xav might have been able to avoid AC’s goons if she hadn’t pissed him off, a thought that did not help her current agitation.

“Back to Dean,” Xav said. “I’m guessing that he disagreed with his gang leaders for some reason. They decided to take him out to that campground, maybe planning to kill him, then changed their minds and left with him in a helicopter. A couple of the men with them probably drove away, which is why Lindsay and Neal smelled a vehicle of some kind at the campground. Helicopters only hold so many. We’ll be working on where the helicopter went, flight paths, and so forth.”

“That’s up to you and your computer wizardry.” Emma set down her empty cup. “I’m better with people.”

“Which is why we send you out to ask questions,” Xav said. “I have different help with the computers. In fact—here come some more early risers.”

Xav gestured toward the kitchen window, which gave a view of a slice of front driveway. Two men had climbed out of a pickup that had pulled up to the house, one with a long, muffled object on his back. The other man was larger and wore a scowl.

“Wow, how’d you pry Brody out of bed at this hour?” Lindsay asked in surprise. “Looks like you’d better make more coffee.”

“On it.” Xav had another packet of coffee out of the nearest cupboard and more water in the coffee maker before Neal and Brody reached the back door. “Emma, can you let them in?”

Emma, who appeared suddenly uncertain, stepped to the door she’d so recently banged on and opened it as Neal raised his hand to knock.

Neal and Brody had both met Emma on previous DX Security missions, but they stopped and stared at her as though they’d never seen her before.

“We have the right house?” Brody growled behind Neal.

“This is the address he gave us,” Neal said, his tone wary.

“Then what’s she doing here?” Brody demanded.

Lindsay hurried to intervene, as Xav was working on the coffee and Emma had frozen, her hand on the doorknob.

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