Page 70 of Stray Cat

Lindsay laid the taser next to Ron’s walkie and cell phone she’d relieved him of. Once she eliminated the rest of the guards, she’d figure out where this warehouse was located and call her mom again.

Scouting from above, Lindsay pinpointed more of Dean’s men. Dean had them patrolling all four corners of the warehouse, walking through their areas then meeting up in the middle to give one another the all’s well signal, before they returned to wandering the aisles.

None of them hurried to see how Ron was doing or to help their colleague with him, so they must think the second guy had it covered. Or, they didn’t care. A hurt man was someone else’s problem.

Lindsay reasoned that there must be more guards outside, but she’d tackle them later. The men inside had been only slightly spooked by the lights going out, but they’d quickly recovered. Overloaded circuits might be a frequent occurrence.

Flying boxes weren’t, though.

Lindsay grinned ferociously as she hovered above one of the guards, then flung a heavy box down at him. He heard it at the last minute, yelping and jumping aside as the box burst open in a cloud of foam peanuts.

He jerked around, weapon drawn, trying to figure out where the attack had come from, but Lindsay was already gone.

She wanted to laugh out loud, or yowl in glee, but she controlled herself. She landed on the next set of shelves and sent a whole shower of boxes cascading down, then was four aisles over by the time the slower humans reacted.

Their shouts drew the others. Lindsay bombarded all of them, scampering away before they saw her.

Lindsay leapt and caught the nearest beam, easily lifting herself onto it. The rafters that held up the vast roof were interspersed with pipes of a sprinkler system that crisscrossed the entire building. Lindsay clung to her beam and used her between-beast strength to break one of the slenderer pipes.

Nothing happened.

Damn. Lindsay glared at the dangling pipe. She reasoned the building must connected to a water supply, because she’d used the bathroom without a problem, and they’d have to have water for their coffee maker. But maybe Dean’s men hadn’t bothered with the flow that led to the fire suppressant system.

Well, she’d just have to find the water controls and turn it back on.

Lindsay quietly broke a few more pipes, then skimmed across the rafters to a high window. The window was narrow, used only for ventilation, but lynxes were fairly small, even Shifter ones.

Before she could slide through, however, the office door abruptly opened. Dean pushed Xav in front of him as they emerged, wedging a pistol firmly against Xav’s neck.

CHAPTERTWENTY

Xav quickly scanned the warehouse when he stepped out of the doorway, but he saw only shadows playing on the lines of shelving and clusters of crates. Without moving his head, he glanced upward, taking in the few broken pipes that hung precariously from the ceiling.

“Check in,” Dean bellowed into the echoing room, not about to release Xav long enough to use a walkie or phone. “I want to see everyone, front and center.”

“If anything’s happened to Lindsay, you’re answering for it,” Xav informed Dean tightly.

“Shut up.” Dean dug the pistol harder into Xav’s neck. “You’d better hope my boys are all right. Is your brother doing this? How did you tell him where we were?”

“I didn’t,” Xav said truthfully. “I didn’t have time.”

Xav knew damn well Diego had nothing to do with the eerie darkness and silence in the warehouse. Lindsay was out there, her wild self doing whatever the hell she wanted. He’d laugh if he wasn’t so worried about her.

Xav knew that if Dean’s original intention had been to kill Xav and Lindsay, he’d have done it the minute Xav had called and summoned Diego. Dean could guide Diego the rest of the way by himself, no longer needing Xav. Plus, he’d never have let Lindsay wander the warehouse with only one man to guard her.

Dean had considered Xav and Lindsay a sideshow, small potatoes. His goal was to confront his brother, AC, and he didn’t give a shit about Xav and his perky girlfriend. Whether they lived or died hadn’t been important.

Now, Dean was getting rattled. A power cut could be explained by faulty electrics in an old building, but things banging around and his guards yelling was a different story.

Dean pushed Xav forward, making for a small door next to large rolling ones that Xav assumed led either outside or to a loading bay. All the doors were shut tight, he saw as they approached, the small one with a padlocked bolt in place.

“No one came in that way,” Xav observed. “There must be other entrances. This place has fire doors, right?”

“Check in,” Dean yelled again, ignoring Xav. “If it’s you, Diego Escobar, show your face, or your brother gets it in the head.”

There was only silence, broken by a muffled groan from the depths of one aisle.

“Diego’s not here,” Xav said. “He can’t answer you.”

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