Desert Bound

by Elizabeth Hunter

  “Oh.” His smile fell. “I should have dragged you to Fat Elvis when I had the chance, and just been done with it.”

  Her head swung around and she pulled her hand from his. “What?”

  “Oh, come on.”

  “Come on, what? Did you just joke about getting married a day—a day—after we got back together?”

  “It’s almost two days now, and I wasn’t joking.”

  “Oh, that makes all the difference!”

  Alex said nothing for a few seconds, then he burst into laughter.

  “Why are you laughing?”

  “Why are you pissed off?”

  “Because—”

  “Baby, where do you think this is heading?”

  Ted said nothing, because obviously it was heading where he said it was heading. She just wasn’t going to say it out loud. Yet. Alex’s laughter fell off and he reached over to grab her hand again. She didn’t try to keep it. She knew they were both headed in the same direction. Knew that what they had would be solid, not just because they loved each other, but because they would make it solid.

  Still, two days.

  “You could have dragged me there, but I would not have married you at the Fat Elvis chapel, Alex.”

  They were on a completely deserted stretch of the highway, but he still pulled over. “And I wouldn’t have taken you there.” The humor had fled his voice. “I would never take the woman I love to get married by Fat Elvis.”

  “Alex—”

  “I would have found young Elvis.” The corner of his mouth twitched. “Or maybe Frank Sinatra.”

  Ted couldn’t help it, she smiled.

  “Class, Ted. All the way. Young Elvis or Frank. Maybe Liberace, but never Fat Elvis.”

  “Stop,” she started laughing. “We’re not getting married in Vegas!”

  He leaned over and planted a hard kiss on her mouth. “Good to know you’re not going to fight me on the marriage thing, though.”

  Then he put the car back in drive and turned up the radio before she could say a word.

  Ted had called Jena on the road and told her they’d be there for dinner. They stopped at the market in town and grabbed some drinks and tub of macaroni salad, since Caleb was grilling hamburgers. Everyone knew they’d be there, so it wasn’t surprising that the door opened as soon as they pulled up. What was surprising was the carefully controlled—yet obviously angry—expression on Caleb Gilbert’s face.

  “Great,” Alex muttered.

  “Why’s he pissed?”

  “You really think he buys that we went off for a weekend away on a moon night so we could explore our future together?”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah.” He parked and asked her. “I don’t supposed you’re going to stay in the truck.”

  “I’m glad you realize that.” Ted popped open the door and left the drinks and salad in the car. “Hey, Caleb,” she called out.

  Caleb ignored her, which pissed her off. He walked straight to Alex and his voice was low when he spoke.

  “Jena’s best friend,” he said.

  “Chief, you’re going to need to—”

  “The woman who saved her life.”

  “Caleb—”

  “Saved my life the day she saved Jena.” He tipped his head up a bit to meet Alex’s eyes. “The woman you’re in love with—” His voice was rising. Furious. “—and you take her to meet—”

  “Step back, Caleb.” Alex’s voice was controlled, but she could see his shoulders tense with anger. Caleb, whether he realized it or not, was challenging him in a very dangerous way.

  “—a fucking mob boss, McCann! She walked into the house of a known criminal. And not a minor one. A major one!”

  Ted’s lip curled up, and she lunged toward them, grabbing the front of Caleb’s shirt and shoving him back.

  “You don’t speak about me like I’m not here, Caleb Gilbert. You want to see the lion come out, keep talking.”

  Her eyes flashed to his. She saw fear behind the anger, knew the emotion that was working him, but she didn’t care. The chief of police wanted to treat her like a defenseless female, he’d learned differently that moment.

  She felt Alex’s hand at her back. “Ted, not here.”

  “You don’t get it, Caleb, so I’m going to clue you in. Alex—” She grabbed his hand. “—would never put me in danger, because Alex knows what I’m capable of. It was my idea to go up there and poke into Marcus’s connections. My idea. And I’m going to clue you into something else. You need him involved in this investigation.”

  Caleb’s eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms over his chest.

  “Open your eyes. Who do you think people look to in this town? This is not Albuquerque, Caleb. It’s not Indio. Hell, it’s not even Parker. We do not do things the way that humans do. You may think it’s weird or old fashioned, but that’s the way it needs to happen or this place would be a zoo.” She stepped closer. “He’s not going to be the alpha of the biggest clan in this town because he’s the biggest and the baddest or he has the most money. He’s the alpha because people respect him. Know him. Trust him. And they’ll follow him. And also, because he’s the biggest, the baddest, and if you saw him in a fight you’d probably piss yourself the way everyone else does. That is who took me to Las Vegas. That is who walked me into Frank Di Stefano’s house. That is who has my back.”

  She felt Alex pulling her back, wrapping his arms around her waist. Her back hit his chest and she took a deep breath.

  Alex said, “You need to stop being stubborn about this, Caleb.”

  “I’m not going through another Missy, Alex. Not having a mob take over and ignore the law.”

  “You won’t.”

  “I was brought here to do a job, not be the lackey of a council that expects me to follow commands while they do whatever the hell they want.”

  “Don’t you get it?” Alex leaned forward over her shoulder. “I want the same thing. I know things need to change, but it’s not going to happen if we’re fighting each other.”

  “Alex—”

  “We want the same thing, dammit.”

  “Then don’t go behind my back, disrespect me, and treat me like an idiot.”

  Ted blinked. “How have we treated you like an idiot?”

  “You think I didn’t know Marcus Quinn was connected to the Di Stefano family? Did you think I wouldn’t be looking that direction? That I wouldn’t be looking into those payoff rumors?”

  “No!” Ted shouted. “Because you didn’t tell us!”

  “You—” He pointed at Ted. “—are a doctor! And you—” He pointed at Alex. “—are a real estate developer! So no, I didn’t tell the town doctor and real estate developer what I was doing on a murder investigation!”

  Alex finally spoke. “We’re not just that, and you know it. Like it or not, Chief, we’re the ones who are going to have to pull this town into the twenty-first century, and we can’t do that without being involved. People here need that. They still don’t trust you, and I know you hate that, but it’s true. They need to see Ted involved, because she’s the fiercest cat in her clan and she’s all about protecting her own. They need to see me, because I’m me. So let’s stop fighting, go inside, eat hamburgers like we’re friends, and talk after dinner.”

  Ted turned to him and said, “They need to see you because you’re you?”

  “Baby—”

  “Could you get any more arrogant?”

  “You know I can.” He gave her a slow grin. “And according to you, I’m the biggest and the baddest—”

  “Okay, let’s go inside.” She spun and walked toward the house, leaving Caleb and Alex to shake off their testosterone. Maybe they’d punch each other and then she wouldn’t have to do it. Until then, she needed a beer.

  When they walked into the house ten minutes later, no one was bleeding, and the only scratches on her man were the ones she’d left there the night before. Belatedly, she noticed that Caleb had more than a few s
imilar scratches, and she had to hide her smile. Not being able to shift was a bitch. And Jena was going on seven months of it. She couldn’t even imagine, though she supposed she’d have to try once she and Alex started—

  Ted sucked in a breath as the whirl of pre-dinner activity spun around her.

  Too fast. Too. Damn. Fast.

  “Hey.” Alex slid down next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. “Grab me a beer?” He must have noticed her frozen expression. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Ted.”

  “Nothing. I’m fine. Just… processing.”

  He put a finger on her chin and tilted her face toward his. “All right?”

  Her voice dropped to a whisper. “You trust me a lot.”

  “Yep.”

  “Trust this a lot. You and me.”

  His eyes were soft on hers. “Yeah.”

  “How?”

  He paused. Thought. “Because we had it. And we lost it. And losing it was bad. I don’t think either of us ever wants to go back there, Ted.”

  “No.”

  “No.” He pressed his lips to her forehead and hugged her shoulders tighter as Ted heard sniffing. She looked up to see Jena watching her with fat tears rolling down her cheeks. Allie had a smile, but Ted could see the sadness behind it, so she decided to poke at Jena.

  “You crying at Hallmark commercials, too?”

  “Shut up, Ted.” She threw a wet hand towel at the both of them. “Get up so the kids can set the table, or I’ll make you guys do it.”

  “Yes, Mom.”

  Then Jena narrowed her eyes on Alex. “You and my husband sort things out?”

  “I think so.”

  “Good.”

  “Meeting on Wednesday night,” Alex said. “Here. No kids.”

  Jena said, “My mom and dad will cover.”

  “Allie,” Ted asked, “you think you can find someone to watch yours?”

  “My sister’s in town,” Allie said. “She’s offered to give me a break; I just haven’t taken it. So, probably.”

  “Good,” Alex said, glancing at Caleb as he came through the door with Jena’s boy, Bear, hanging on his back. “We need to get on the same page. For everyone’s sake.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Alex watched the steady flow of activity outside the trailer at the job site. Graders rumbled between the constant sound of trucks backing out and rolling in. Chris Avery stood at the top of the hill, pointing out something on a clipboard to Alex’s new foreman, Levi Campbell. Alex had lured Ollie’s cousin back to town after Marcus died, knowing the man was looking for something closer to home before his wife had their second son. He’d moved from Dallas the week before and was proving to be as much of an asset as Marcus had been, if not more. Everyone liked Marcus, but Levi, with his huge Campbell build and steady disposition, inspired confidence and not a little bit of fear.

  Things were getting back on track for the resort, and already, some of the families that had moved away were back. They had four new families in the McCann pack alone. The resort was months away from being finished, but the town was preparing. The Blackbird Diner had gotten a new paint job. Shirley’s Mercantile had new flowers out in front. Lou Marquez had painted a fresh mural on the garage doors of his body shop on Main Street, and Alex had heard Harry Green, the owner of Desert Fountain drug store, talk about restoring the old lunch counter and soda fountain that used to do business before Alex was born.

  It was happening. His town was coming back to life. And it’d keep happening if he had to hunt and kill Marcus Quinn’s murderer himself.

  Alex could kid himself that it was for his pack, but he knew, deep down, the driving need to keep the Springs safe was a purely selfish need.

  It was home. He loved it here. Plus, Ted needed Cambio Springs to be happy. He needed Ted. And that was that.

  His eyes narrowed on the man he suspected had put that in jeopardy.

  Chris Avery.

  He’d quietly checked around, but it appeared that Avery was being cool. On the job early. Back home with his sister at night, helping her set up the house she’d just rented off of Spring Street. He had not breathed another bigoted comment in Alex’s presence, and according to the men he’d talked to, Avery had been nothing but professional.

  He didn’t joke around. Took his lunch in his own truck. He didn’t go out for a beer with the guys. Didn’t go to the Cave unless it was for lunch with Josie and the kids. Didn’t hang anywhere in town, but had been seen heading toward the river on weekends. Meeting friends at the casino? Possibly. He’d have to have a word with Devin Moon and find out what all was going on over there. He’d been putting it off because Dev still pissed him off just by existing, but he figured, with Ted back in his bed, he could deal.

  He got out of his head and back into the paperwork he’d been shuffling on his desk. He needed to set up a proper office in town. He had one in Palm Desert, but he could move it up here and let Cambio Springs be his base of operations in the desert. Sure, it was out of the way, but he didn’t give a damn. Once the resort was in, he’d have a great place to wine and dine clients, and a showpiece of a property they could walk through. He’d set up his office in LA to be mostly self-sufficient. A few visits a month were all that was needed, unless a deal got complicated.

  “Nicely done, McCann,” he muttered as he compared the estimates on the roofing tile.

  He heard the telltale rattle in the corner of his office just a moment before the diamondback slid from the shadows and the heat-on-asphalt shimmer filled the corner of the room. The snake shifted to a tall man with shaggy black hair and the tell-tale blue eyes of the Quinns. He stretched out in the chair in front of Alex’s desk in a movement so smooth, he might have still been in natural form.

  “Talking to yourself already, Alex?” the man said, naked as a jaybird and clearly not bothered by it. “I would have given you a few more years before senility crept in, but then you’ve always been kind of an old man.”

  A grin split Alex’s face. “Sean Quinn.”

  “As you live and breathe, cuz.”

  They weren’t cousins. It had been a private joke between them, because Sean always figured Alex had a Quinn somewhere back in his family to be as devious as he was. Over time, ‘cuz’ had stuck. Sean Quinn, of course, had not.

  It had been five years since Alex had seen him, but he looked the same. Tall and lean, Sean had the typical Quinn build, but had added more muscle. He traveled the world and purposefully put himself in situations where knowing how to take care of yourself was important. Not all situations could be diffused with a Quinn’s easy charm and quick wit. And growing up in the family he had made him a scrapper. Ollie may have had the bulk, but it had always been Sean Alex would pick to back him up in a fight.

  “Why the hell are you here and where are your clothes?”

  Sean shrugged. “In my car. I didn’t feel like announcing my presence quite yet.”

  “The old man know you’re here?”

  “If he checks his e-mail, he’ll be expecting me.”

  “So that’s about fifty-fifty, then.”

  “Yep.”

  Alex reached down and grabbed the pair of sweatpants he kept in a gym bag behind his desk. “Put some pants on so I don’t go blind, asshole.”

  He grinned, but caught the pants Alex threw. “You’re not going to ask me why I’m here?”

  Sean stood and put on the pants as Alex walked over and drew the blind on his office window. If Sean wanted to slip under the Cambio Springs radar for a bit, he wasn’t going to argue.

  “If I ask you why you’re here, will you take off?”

  “Nope. But I might not give you an honest answer.”

  Typical Sean. He’d lie to you if it suited his mood, but he’d be upfront about it. Which had always made him oddly trustworthy. Alex knew, when it came to the important stuff—the really important stuff—there was no one he could trust more.

  He sat bac
k behind his desk as Sean walked to the fridge, shivering as he passed in front of the window mounted air-conditioner.

  “Too cold for you?”

  “Just shifting chills. Give me a minute and some water.”

  He drank deep from the bottle he’d grabbed from the fridge, then sat back down again.

  “So?” Alex said.

  “So, I’m back because my sister’s a bitch and I missed you guys. Not necessarily in that order.”

  Somehow, Old Quinn’s word had gotten back to his oldest grandson. Whether Sean was back to stay, Alex wouldn’t even ask.

  “Good to see you.”

  “I was in Thailand. Came back to the U.S. when Jena e-mailed me about Marcus.”

  “I’m sorry, man. I know you guys were close when you were young.”

  “I headed back to the Springs when Joe Russell showed up at my place in Laguna.”

  Alex leaned forward. “What the hell? Joe Smith was at your house?”

  Sean blinked. “Keep forgetting he took Allie’s name when they got married.”

  “He said it was for their kids.”

  “It was for himself, because he knew he was a shit-head and wanted to pretend to fit in with a decent family. See that worked out well.”

  “What was he doing at your place, Sean?”

  He shrugged. “You all know I’m out of the country most of the time. That place is, at best, a crash pad. Joe was crashing. Why didn’t anyone tell me he and Allie split?”

  Sean looked pissed, but then he’d always been protective of Allie. They all had. Jena and Ted radiated tough. Allie was the kind of woman you wanted to take care of, even though Alex suspected that the well of quiet strength she drew from was far deeper than she ever let on.

  “He took off over dinner, Sean. Walked in and told her he didn’t want to be married anymore. Left her and the kids and we haven’t heard or seen of him since you slithered in just now.”

  His friend sat back, eyes blinking in confusion. “What the hell?”

  “I know.”

  “I knew he was an idiot, but I had no idea how much. Is Allie okay?”

  “She will be. I think she’s relieved, more than anything. Kids are having a harder time.”