Page 6 of Stray Cat

Where is he?” Lindsay demanded.

Diego Escobar met Lindsay’s question with grim hardness in his eyes.

They stood on a dark and cold highway north of Las Vegas, stars sharp in the early February sky. While daytime temps could rise into the sixties and sometimes seventies, nights remained in the low forties, especially in this area, where the land started to rise toward high mountains.

When she’d seen Xav’s text, Lindsay had immediately abandoned the club and called Diego, to find that Diego had already realized Xav was missing.

“I have a tracker on him,” Diego had informed Lindsay on the phone. “We keep them on each other during a mission. He never came back to the office tonight, so I reactivated it.”

“Great, then you know where he is.”

Diego’s silence had Lindsay in her car, screeching out onto the road to head toward DX Security’s offices.

“Not exactly,” Diego had finally answered. “I’m texting you a map of his last known location. Meet me there.”

Lindsay’s phone wasn’t state-of-the-art, as Shifters were only allowed older technology, but it was enough for Lindsay to find the place Diego meant.

Though Las Vegas was a teeming city that continued to grow each year, beyond its edges the desert got empty and dark very fast. On a stretch of road past the turnoff to Mount Charleston, Diego waited for Lindsay to pull onto the shoulder behind his SUV.

She’d passed exactly one car on her journey, and it had been heading the other way. Now she and Diego stood alone in the endless darkness, Diego’s flashlight the only illumination. Not that Lindsay needed much light. The night was clear, and stars and the quarter moon were plenty for her cat’s vision.

“I found this here.” Diego held up a round device, no bigger than a button. “We don’t bother using phone apps, because phones are the first things gotten rid of. This was sewn inside his shirt.”

A cold lump formed in Lindsay’s chest. The fact that Diego held the tracker meant someone had ripped it from Xav’s clothes. They’d have thrown away his bulletproof vest as well, if he’d still been wearing it when he was nabbed.

“Who did this?” Lindsay asked, though she knew Diego would have already told her if he’d known.

Diego shook his head and held the device out to Lindsay. “Can you help?”

He meant, could Lindsay pick up a scent and find Xav? She didn’t know—if they’d taken him away in a vehicle at great speed, then no. Scent only revealed so much.

But she’d have a damn good try.

“Let me stash my clothes,” Lindsay said. “Look after my phone for me?”

Diego took it without a word. Lindsay returned to her car and skimmed off her jacket, dress, and heels while Diego politely kept the flashlight trained elsewhere.

She put the car between herself and any chance passing vehicle, dragged in a breath, and sought her inner wildcat.

Lindsay didn’t like shifting too many times in one day, because each attempt grew progressively difficult and more painful. This was for Xav, she reminded herself as she grimaced with her struggle.

After a few agonizing minutes, she was fully cat. Lindsay shook herself out and trotted toward Diego on her padded lynx paws, the cold fading into insignificance.

Diego held out the tracking device, and Lindsay took a long sniff. Not that she needed to learn Xav’s scent—it was already ingrained in her. The Shifter in her knew that walking away from him forever was not an option.

Lindsay tested the air, letting her wildcat senses take over.

There were so many scents on the wind—dust, coyotes on the prowl, the tang of exhaust that lingered on the highway, and strongest of all, Diego and his concern. Lindsay inhaled, analyzed what she smelled, and sorted the odors into neat categories. She was good at it, one of the best scenters in Shiftertown, which was one reason Cassidy counted on her so much.

She couldn’t find Xav’s scent, to her dismay, other than what was on the tracker or clung to Diego from daily contact with his brother.

But she knew Xav was out there.

Which made no sense. Lindsay couldn’t simply follow someone’s presence, as a psychic human might, or the very magical being called Ben, or special and gifted Shifters like Tiger.

Something came to her, though, like a tendril through the darkness, telling her that Xav wasthat way.

Lindsay gave the tense Diego afollow-melook and set off north across the desert.

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