CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“I remember me telling you not to go after those drug runners.” Captain Max was on his feet in his office, his face dark with rage. “Do you remember, Escobar? Do you know why I told you that?”

Diego had all kinds of answers, but he decided to keep quiet.

“Because the courts will have a field day, that’s why!” Captain Max finished for him. “Everyone knows you have a vendetta against this gang, that they killed your partner. And then I hear stories that you turned vigilante in Mexico, shot up a factory or something going after those guys. How is that going to look when you take the stand?”

“I won’t be taking the stand, sir,” Diego said, fixing his captain with an unblinking gaze. “I never made the bust.”

Captain Max stopped in mid-breath. “What the hell are you talking about? I have two men in my lockup looking scared to death, and their public defender’s not looking much better. Don’t bullshit me, Escobar.”

“No bullshit, sir. I didn’t arrest them. Lieutenant Reid did. He saw the two remaining gang members in a cantina while he was vacationing in Mexico, and he arrested them. I had nothing to do with it. It’s all in Reid’s report.”

The report lay on Captain Max’s desk, the file unopened. “I don’t know what the hell game you’re playing, Diego. I’ll bust you back down to uniform, I swear to God.”

“Reid made the arrest, sir. I promise you.”

Reid had arrested the men at the airfield while Diego and Xavier kept out of the way. They’d all agreed not to alert the Mexican police and to quietly fly the guys back to the States. Less paperwork, fewer questions, and they would have had to search awhile to find police out there anyway. The drug runners had capitulated easily enough, wanting to get out of there as fast as they could.

Once they’d landed back in Nevada, Reid had gotten stuck with the paperwork, and Diego had taken his brother to the hospital then gone to Shiftertown, found Cassidy, and… had a night he’d never forget.

“You know I’ll be questioning Reid pretty closely,” Captain Max said. “Your brother too.”

Diego nodded. “Reid is willing. Xavier wants to come back to work tomorrow, by the way. He’s feeling better and has energy to spare.”

“I’ll see.” Captain Max gave Diego a stern look. “If we get away with this, I might not kick your ass. But then again, I might. Remember that.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Don’t f**k with me, Diego.”

“No, sir.”

The captain scowled over the desk. “Aren’t you still on leave?”

“Yes, sir. I wanted to come in and write up the last of my notes on Jobe’s case. Finish it.”

Captain Max sighed, becoming human for a moment. “It’s been a long time coming, hasn’t it?”

“Yes, it has.”

“You talk to Jobe’s family yet?”

“Plan to do that tonight.” Diego would take Cassidy with him. That seemed right.

“All right,” Captain Max said. “Get out of here, Escobar.”

“Yes, sir.” Diego grinned at his captain and left him.

* * *

Stuart Reid hated Shifters, and now he was surrounded by them.

Hate was the wrong word, maybe. Uncomfortable, definitely. He’d grown up trained to believe certain things, most notably that dokk alfar were superior creatures, and that he was damn lucky to have been born one. Hoch alfar were evil and should be slain on sight.

The hoch alfar had hated Reid, not only because they’d wanted his lands deep in the mountains, but because Reid could manipulate iron. He could make iron behave how he wanted it to, and weren’t the hoch alfar afraid of that? That was another reason the hoch alfar had exiled Stuart to this overbright and overheated place, full of humans who constantly fought among themselves. The hoch alfar had fully believed they’d handed Reid a fate worse than death. And they weren’t far from wrong.

Another of Reid’s deep-seated beliefs was that Shifters, the fighting slaves of the hoch alfar, were not to be trusted. They were Fae bred, and though they’d had the cunning to break free of the Fae, Shifters had shunned Faerie and chosen to live solely in the human world. Anyone not wanting to live in Faerie had to be insane. The Shifters’ own fault they’d been dying out and had to accept human restrictions.

In his years in Shifter Division, Reid had learned much about Shifters—how they pretended to be pathetic captives but seemed to survive just fine on subsistence-level jobs. They had resources somewhere, he was certain of it, and they were gathering strength. Reid didn’t miss how Eric Warden manipulated the humans to remain top cat while seeming to give in to human demands.

The humans were fools if they thought they had Shifters under control. The only thing that stopped Shifters now were their Collars, and one day, Stuart was sure, they’d figure out a way to break that power.

Because of his ingrained mistrust of Shifters, Stuart had convinced himself that killing one un-Collared Shifter and taking its blood to get him back home would be justifiable. But when he’d seen Cassidy grieve, he’d realized what he’d done. I, who thought myself so superior to the hoch alfar, have become just like them. I thought nothing of taking Donovan Grady’s life—husband, brother, son, potential father. I did that. And I can never pay enough.

So, when Eric had gotten the call from Marlo that Cassidy was in trouble, Stuart had been the first one out the door. With his talent for teleporting—something he hadn’t been able to do in Faerie—he could get in and save her. He’d been happy to save Xavier too, while he was at it.

Helping Shifters and their friends maybe could atone for what Reid had done. His guilt had made him come over to Nell’s this morning to see if he could do anything further for the women and cubs they’d rescued.

Nell put him outside on the patio to watch the kids play and make sure they didn’t hurt themselves. The cubs, tiny things, not sure about their change in scene but more willing to accept it than the adults, ran about in wonder.

Nell, on the other hand, scared the hell out of Reid. She was crazy, that one, violence with a smile.

The younger woman who now wandered out the back door worried Stuart far less. She was the mate of the dead Miguel, and the look in her eyes was dead too.