“Something like that,” Cassidy said.
“Diego won’t let anything happen to him because of you. Or to you because of him.” Juanita held out plump arms. “Diego tells me that Shifters don’t worry about showing affection. Very sensible. Come here, mi ja.”
Cassidy surrendered to her hug. The small woman held her tightly, and Cassidy returned the embrace.
“Now,” Juanita said when they parted. “That’s done with. I made another batch of chilaquiles, since these two boys ran off without eating any. We’ll have them now.”
Cassidy admired herself for her patience all the way through the flavorful dinner. She listened to Diego and Xav banter, answered their mother’s questions about Shifters, and praised Juanita’s food. Not until after she’d helped Juanita do the dishes, while the brothers went outside for an impromptu game of basketball, did Cassidy have the chance to confront Diego.
She walked out to the front driveway where they played in the growing twilight. Diego had his shirt off, Xav keeping his on—so they could tell which team they were on, she supposed. Not that she minded watching Diego’s well-honed muscles play under his dark skin.
Diego dribbled the ball, keeping his back to Xav, while Xavier tried to get around him. Diego shot, but the ball hit the rim of the hoop and bounced off. Cassidy dashed in, jumped, and tipped the ball into the ring.
Diego whooped, laughing, lifted Cassidy off her feet, and whirled her around.
“Hey, no fair getting help from your girlfriend,” Xav said, catching the ball. “Your tall girlfriend.”
“We make a good team,” Diego said. He set Cassidy on her feet and kissed her lips, turning the swift kiss into a lingering one.
Cassidy liked him like this, smiling, relaxed with his family. Happy.
“Diego, we need to talk,” she said.
“Uh-oh,” Xav said. “Never a good way to start a conversation.”
“You’re in on this too,” Cassidy said.
Xavier raised his hands, the basketball still under one arm. “What did I do? Whatever Lindsay told you, I only danced with her, I swear. That’s all. So far.”
“Nothing to do with Lindsay.” Cassidy took the ball from him, set up a shot, put it through the hoop, and caught the ball on its first bounce. “It’s about Mexico.”
Diego shot Xav a look, and Xav shook his head. “I didn’t say a word. When would I have had time?”
“Shifters have good hearing,” Cassidy said. “You’re going to Mexico to find the guys who killed your partner, aren’t you, Diego? That Enrique guy told you something about them, and you’re leaving to check it out.”
“Not so loud,” Diego said. He retrieved his T-shirt and pulled it on. “I don’t need Mamita worrying.”
“Or chewing out your ass,” Xav said.
“I understand why you want to go,” Cassidy said. “For the same reason I went after Reid; for the same reason I still want to find the human hunters. But I’m not letting you go without me.”
Any humor in Diego’s eyes vanished. “Like hell I’m taking you to Mexico. It can be f**king dangerous down there, and you’re a Shifter. You can’t exactly go back and forth across the border. Hell, getting permission to go from state to state is tough for a Shifter. You want to end up in some Shifter Division cell, in Mexico?”
Cassidy waited for him to finish. “How were you planning to get there?”
“Xav’s truck. We’ll probably need four-wheel drive for where we need to go.”
“Conspicuous. Why not fly in as close as you can and find transportation from there?”
Diego shook his head. “Because I’m not a rich boy with a private plane.”
“If you let me come with you, I can provide the plane,” Cassidy said. “And the pilot.”
Diego blinked. “How?”
“First, promise you’ll take me with you.”
“Cass…”
Cassidy folded her arms and waited. At the beginning of the week, she’d have never admitted to Diego, a human, that Eric knew people who could help with clandestine trips, but things had changed. Diego had saved her life—more than once—and he hadn’t had to. He’d kept her from being locked up by Shifter Division, helped her with Reid, and understood what she was going through.
Diego watched her a moment, then he let out an exasperated sigh. “All right, but only because I’m desperate. And you’ll stay far out of the way if we find these guys.”
Cassidy smiled and gave him a nod. Not that she’d agree to that restriction. But she’d argue that point once they found them.
Cassidy’s pilot awoke every one of Diego’s cop suspicions.
Diego had assumed that the contact to secretly fly Shifters where they wanted to go would come through Eric, but Cassidy blithely made a phone call, then directed Diego to drive them out east of town.
Once the city dropped behind them, Cassidy directed Diego to a little-used highway, which sped them out to the middle of nowhere. Dramatic scenery surrounded them, stark, knifelike hills, wide sky, white desert.
They made another turnoff to a dirt road, which was wide and well graded. Beyond a few deep washes, the road ended in a flat stretch between hills. A trailer house stood incongruously in the middle of this dusty field, with two small planes parked behind it.
The slim man who walked out to meet them—armed with a handgun on a belt holster—broke into a smile of delight when Cassidy got out of Diego’s car.
“Cassidy,” he bellowed in a voice too large for his wiry build. “How are you, girl?”
“Just fine, Marlo.”
Cassidy walked right up to him and embraced him, which Diego didn’t like. He knew by now that this was the normal Shifter way of greeting, but Marlo seemed to enjoy it a little too much.
“This is Diego,” Cassidy said. “He’s the friend I mentioned who needs the ride.”
Marlo looked Diego up and down. “He looks like a cop.”
“He is a cop. How can you tell?”
“Experience. He’s not a drug runner.”
“You’d better not be either,” Diego said.
Marlo’s eyes narrowed. “You want my help or not?”
“Not if you’re a drug runner, no.” Drug runners might think about only the money they were making, but their product ended up in kids who died. Diego would never look the other way for that.