Page 10 of Stray Cat

He looked up into the green eyes of a large lynx, who put her furry paw on his chin. She was a beautiful cat, but the look in her eyes told Xav to stay down if he knew what was good for him.

What could Xav do? He gave in.

Good choice, because it kept him out of the way of the horde of men and animals who swarmed up on top of the building and tore off its roof.

CHAPTERFOUR

Xav was alive and well, Lindsay told herself. His strong body was beneath hers, his melting smile bathing her in gladness. He had a few bruises on his face, but that was all. It could have been so much worse.

Lindsay should be reassured, but her heart continued to race with sickening fear.

When she’d seen his kidnapper train the gun on Xav as he walked out the door, she’d sprung from her hiding place where she’d half-shifted to answer the phone Diego had held out to her, and taken had Xav out of the way. She’d leapt sooner than she was supposed to, but to hell with the plan. Lindsay wouldn’t risk Xav getting hurt so Diego could execute his perfect strategy.

She knew Xav would want to jump up and rush back into the thick of it, maybe getting hurt, so she rested her entire weight on him and willed him to stay down.

Xav obeyed, to her surprise.

Behind her, she heard Bear Shifter Brody’s big voice inside the now roofless building. “Nice Glock. Too bad I hate guns.” Then a crackling sound as Brody broke the pistol into shards.

Three other Shifters hauled the lead bad guy out of the open door and dragged him to face Diego.

His lackeys lay subdued in the darkness—Lindsay’d had fun tripping them up as they came out so Diego and a couple of DX Security men could grab them. Leaping up onto the roof and jumping around on it had been fun too.

Diego had negated Lindsay’s idea to simply run into the building, take the guys out, and haul Xav to safety. No, they had to follow the plan.

She’d known there were three inside with Xav from their distinct scents. Diego had verified this using a camera that registered heat signatures—he always had to see things for himself.

Interestingly, Diego had only been able to register the heat signatures through the door. The rest of the building was too thick or shielded or something.

Once the leader was thoroughly searched and disarmed, his wrists bound, Lindsay quietly stepped off Xav and loped away into the darkness.

She located the backpack Diego had stashed for her under a creosote bush, struggled with the shift to her human self, and then donned the shirt and jeans she’d worn to leave the arena stakeout. So much for the party dress.

Lindsay rejoined the others, backpack slung over her shoulder. Diego and Xav had the four bad guys lined up, the scene illuminated by electric lanterns. The lackeys looked either scared or angry, but their leader was impassive. He was the dangerous one.

“So you decided to kidnap my brother,” Diego was saying in that calm way of his, which meant trouble wasn’t far behind. “You didn’t think I’d come after him?”

“I was pretty sure you would,” the leader said. “Counting on it, in fact. I thought you’d be alone, though. Or maybe with just her.” He nodded at Lindsay in a way she didn’t like. “You and your brother were always tight and didn’t rely on anyone else.”

Xav’s warm voice rumbled. “Things have changed.”

“Yep,” Diego acknowledged quietly. “Now when we work, we bring plenty of backup.”

He didn’t mean just the DX Security men in black fatigues, in plain sight in the circle of light. He meant the Shifters who loomed in the darkness, none of them in the best mood.

Only Brody, in human form, couldn’t stop grinning at the leader, a gleeful twinkle in his dark eyes. But then, Bears.

“Do we have to have a conversation right now?” Graham, the joint Shiftertown leader and head of most of its Lupines, snarled from the shadows. “I’m freezing my balls off out here.”

“If you’re uncomfortable, so is he,” Diego said in his cool tones. “Talk to me, AC. Why in the hell did you think kidnapping Xav was a good idea?”

Lindsay rested her on arm on Xav’s shoulder. She was still mad at him, in theory, but right now she was too relieved he was all right to keep away from him.

“What does AC stand for?” Lindsay asked Xav with nonchalance. “Air Conditioner?”

Xav chuckled as the man called AC shot Lindsay a glower. “Something like that,” Xav answered.

“I took him, because I wanted to get your attention,” AC stated. “Let me borrow the cat Shifter, and I’ll leave all of you alone.”

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