Page 8 of Stray Cat

“Emma? She doesn’t really workforus. More like with us, when she feels like it. Are you sure you want to mess with her? She can kick serious ass.”

“Not Shields. The other woman. The Shifter.”

Holy fucking shit, he was talking about Lindsay.

Xav’s heart banged while he tried to keep up his inane grin and pretended befuddlement. Lindsay could also kick serious ass and take out a human man as big as this one without much effort. Xav was always amazed at her strength and quickness, as he had been in the arena earlier.

But there were three of them—no, four. There was another guy in here, one who stayed in the shadows, which Xav didn’t like. The man beyond the lantern light seemed familiar, and Xav busily wracked his brains to remember why.

Four men tracking down Lindsay and subduing her with a tranq dart was not a scenario Xav desired. Why they wanted her, Xav didn’t know.

Not that it mattered. It wasn’t going to happen.

“Shifter?” he asked as though bewildered. “If you mean my sister-in-law, she doesn’t work for us.” Not officially, but these guys didn’t need to know details. “And you don’t want to mess with her either.”

If Lindsay was tough, Cassidy was a force of nature. Cass and Diego had once taken on a rogue Shifter and his band, demolishing his headquarters and rescuing a bunch of his captives and their cubs. Cass had also rescued Xav in that adventure, and he’d come out of it with a broken arm and admiration for Diego’s new mate.

“Not your brother’s bitch,” the large man stated. “The one you’re screwing. Bring her to us.” He held out a cell phone, not Xav’s and probably not his own. A burner, most likely.

Xav didn’t bother to protest that he and Lindsay weren’t screwing. Xav wished they were, but relationships with Shifters were complicated.

Diego’s sister-in-law, Iona, had explained to Xav that if Lindsay didn’t form what was known as the mate bond with him, then no matter how great a time they had together, nothing would be permanent. Regardless of her feelings for Xav, the moment Lindsay mate bonded with another Shifter, she’d be gone. Forever. Not a damn thing Xav could do about it.

That fact had made Xav hesitate. Sure, he could settled for a casual relationship, as he had in the past with other women, but he knew he didn’t want casual with Lindsay.

And so, they kept each other at arm’s length and then argued about it, as they had tonight.

Xav stared at the phone as though he’d never seen one before. “She’s not going to answer if she doesn’t know it’s me. What do you want her for, anyway? Are you thinking to hire a Shifter woman to break heads for you? That can backfire big time, you know.”

The shadowy man in the back finally stepped forward. “Watch him,” he advised the other two. “He’s tricky.”

Xav’s memory abruptly dredged up the guy’s identity, and it did not make him happy.

His name was AC Parkes. Xav and Diego had arrested him for gun running years ago, when they’d been police detectives. After a lengthy trial, in which both Xav and Diego had taken the witness stand multiple times, AC had been carted off to prison.

He’d aged in the last fifteen years, now balding with graying brown hair and a grizzled close-cut beard, but he still bulked with muscle, and his light brown eyes held the same hardness.

ACstood for Andrew Colin, but he’d shot people who called him that. AC had been put away for a long stretch, and Xav had figured that had been that.

Obviously he was out again, and he wanted Lindsay. Nothing was adding up to anything good.

The larger thug balled a hefty fist. “Tell us where she is.”

“Like I’d know.” Xav managed to scowl at him. “If she’s not home, she’s out somewhere. Lindsay goes her own way.”

The statement was the truth. Tonight, after Xav had pissed her off for scaring the shit out of him, Lindsay had stomped away, heading who knew where.

Xav had texted her because she was at the top of his favorites list and the easiest to reach before they’d grabbed his phone from him. He assumed she’d call Diego and pass off the task of rescuing him, if Lindsay paid attention to his plea at all. Whenever she got angry at Xav, she could stay mad for weeks.

The wind must have strengthened outside, because the door rattled in its frame. The door was an add-on, something from a building supply store, with nowhere near the resilience of the rest of the structure.Thathad been constructed to withstand a nuclear blast.

Xav and Diego had played here when they were kids, having imaginary adventures both on earth and in outer space. This little building had made a decent spaceship. Xav knew it had no back door or any windows. Having no other way in but the front entrance made for good protection but also turned the little building into a trap.

AC gestured to the rangy guy. “Help Rick check the perimeter.”

The wiry guy nodded reluctantly and slipped outside. He was obviously not pleased to be ordered around, but he didn’t disobey.

Wise. AC wasn’t someone who took insubordination lightly.

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