Page 7 of Stray Cat

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Xav kept his eyes shut,feigning unconsciousness.

His captors had sprung upon him in the darkness of the arena parking lot after Diego and the others had departed, as Xav had walked confidently to his car, the only one left in the lot.

He’d fought, but there’d been three men, strong and competent, who’d quickly divested Xav of weapons. They hadn’t been members of the gang Xav and Diego had just arrested—Xav had never seen them before.

The punch behind his ear had stunned him but not completely knocked him out. Xav had readily folded up, pretending it had. This forced his captors to heave his limp body around and also allowed Xav to listen to them.

They’d ripped his phone from his hand, after he’d been able to send the one-word text to Lindsay, and tossed it into the nearest dumpster. He’d already removed his bulletproof vest as he’d made for his car, and they’d found and ripped the tracker from the hem of his shirt. Next, they’d zip-tied Xav’s ankles and then his wrists behind him and stuffed him into the covered bed of a pickup.

They headed far into the desert, leaving paved highways behind. The air lost the taint of the city and took on the crisp dryness of sparsely vegetated open ground coupled with the dust the pickup raised in its wake.

No one drove a person out this far for any good reason. In the dense, trackless desert, it might be months before a dead body was found—or the remains of one, anyway. Buzzards and coyotes would be glad of the easy meal.

These morbid thoughts didn’t cheer him, but Xav wasn’t about to go down without a fight. Diego would track Xav as far as he possibly could, and he’d recruit help. Xav simply had to stay alive until Diego found him.

The zip ties were tight, but he worked to loosen them as much as he could while he lay alone in the rocking darkness.

The truck was an older model but not too decrepit to navigate the winding dirt road and ungraded washes. After a long time of bumping and jolting, the pickup halted.

From Xav’s calculations—the time he’d counted in his head, plus the relatively slow speed a road like this would need—they’d gone about twenty miles off the highway.

His captors yanked open the truck’s tailgate and hauled Xav out. They dragged him through dense darkness into some kind of building and dropped him on the floor. Two of the guys remained with him, leaving the third outside as a guard.

Light illuminated a cramped space, Xav saw through barely-open eyes. Someone slammed a door, cutting the freezing draft that had blown in with them. Now it was just cold.

Xav slumped against the wall where he’d landed, keeping his hands behind his back. The zip ties on his wrists no longer impeded him, but he’d not move until the time was right.

The large man who crouched over him had thick brown hair and a hard face. He was human, not Shifter, which was to Xav’s advantage. Humans were much easier to lie to.

The man smacked Xav’s cheeks, stinging blows meant to wake him. Xav mumbled and groaned, then gasped when a second man, much thinner than his companion, emptied half a bottle of water into his face.

Xav blinked and shook his head as though he returned to awareness slowly, as someone who’d been out an hour or so would do.

He cracked open his eyes. “Waste of water, dude,” he said to the wiry man.

“Might be all you get,” the big man informed Xav. “You answer me, and maybe we’ll let you walk back to town.”

An electric camp lantern lit the room they occupied, which was very small and made of metal and chipped concrete, its ceiling low. The door, newer than the rest of the building, closed off any sound from outside. Not that there would be much, but they should have heard wind through the dry plants and the yip of distant coyotes.

Xav had a feeling he knew where he was, which was good. Diego would also know this place. They’d explored it more than once as irresponsible adolescents.

At least, Xav had been irresponsible. Diego had been a workaholic since he’d been about three and had only softened with his mating to Cassidy and the birth of his adorable daughter. Xav knew Cassidy was expecting again, though it was early days.

Xav continued to feign grogginess. “Answer what?”

“Where is she?” the big man demanded.

Great. An asshole who wouldn’t speak in clear sentences. He’d expect Xav to know what he was talking about and beat on him if Xav protested that he didn’t.

Xav was very familiar with such bullies, having grown up around them. He’d survived when young by being cute and when older by being charming. Bullies were confused by charm.

“Which she?” Xavier managed a grin. “There are so many out there. Most of them sweet. Can you narrow it down?”

“She works for you.”

DX Security employed a number of women who did all sorts of jobs, from extraction team members to accountants. Xav had the feeling he knew who the guy was talking about, though.

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