Page 36 of Lost Mate

Dylan sighed and stood. “Coffee?”

Ross nodded, as did Niles.

“Look,” Dylan said when he returned to the table. “It’s not that I don’t trust you.” His tone made it clear he didn’t trust them at all.

Ross cheered across the link. Get the barb in first.

“But a human hasn’t got the senses a shifter has.”

“Before we knew shifters existed, we managed perfectly well,” Niles said, just as pointedly. “And our targets are humans, not shifters.”

“But—”

Ross nudged Dylan’s foot. He knew Niles well enough to know he didn’t appreciate being challenged. Dylan had made his point. It was time to move on.

I’m right, you know I am.

I know, Ross soothed. But we need at least one of them on our side.

Dylan huffed across the link.

“I know this is difficult,” Niles said.

“That’s the understatement of the year,” Dylan agreed.

“But you’re both Cavalry operatives. We have faith in you.” He pulled out a piece of paper. “This is your last known location.”

Ross leaned over and looked at it. “Nowhere near San Antonio,” he said dryly. Wasn’t that a surprise.

Niles ignored him. “You took an SUV out of the city. You said your team was heading out, but you didn’t know where. We’re not sure if you returned, but as this is the last day you made contact with us, we assume not.”

“Did the SUV return?” Dylan asked.

“No.”

“Did the rest of his team return?” Ross asked.

Niles pressed his lips together. “No.”

The color drained from Dylan’s face. “My entire team went missing, including me?”

Ross turned on Niles. “Were they all shifters?”

“At least two were shifters. Dylan and a cat shifter. I don’t know about the others.”

“But you can guess.”

“Our other operative said the shifters he knew vanished overnight.”

Ross tentatively probed his link with Dylan but it was slammed shut again. “Niles, fuck the rules. Give me the license plate and tags of the SUV. I’ll see if Milo can trace it. Then Dylan and I are going on a road trip…alone,” he added when it looked as if Niles would protest.

Niles hesitated, then pulled a photo out of his messenger bag. He pushed aside his plate and placed the photo on the table. “This is the SUV. And there’s Dylan.”

Ross and Dylan leaned in to have a look. It was undoubtedly Dylan in the driver’s seat. “This is an old SUV. It hasn’t got tinted windows. If you were trying to take people—shifters—away, wouldn’t you try to hide them?”

“Not if they didn’t expect us to return,” Dylan said. “They didn’t care if we were tracked.”

Niles gave a grim nod as he pushed the photo to them. “They expected you to be dead. They could easily make up bullshit if anyone queried it.”

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