by C. T. Adams
Neither Ziri or Tony seemed in any distress. They were just frozen. Cara stepped closer and whispered to Bobby. “Are they all right?”
He nodded as Tony reached his other hand up and pushed forward, as though opening a swinging door. “They’ll be like that for awhile. He’s started his hindsight. We should probably give them some privacy. Tony tends to get annoyed when people watch. You don’t want him annoyed.”
“No, you don’t.” Tony’s whispered words came out of a motionless mouth, as close to a ventriloquist as Cara had ever seen. “I can hear just fine, and you’re distracting me. This is going to take a few minutes, so go away now.”
“Oops.” Cara shrunk back a little at the admonishment. She certainly didn’t want to do anything to interrupt the process. Ziri’s face had taken on a dreamy quality, her eyes locked on Tony’s, as though she was quietly contemplating happy things.
Bobby stood up and motioned for Rosa to do the same. “We’ll wait in the kitchen. Yell if you need anything.” While it appeared Rosa wanted to stay and watch, she grudgingly followed when it didn’t appear Ziri was in any distress.
They left the room, with Bobby holding open the slatted door to let her and Rosa enter first. They sat down at the table while the slender dark man walked across the room to open the refrigerator. “No beer. Pity. It was a long drive.”
Rosa got a startled look on her face while Cara adjusted her holster so it didn’t dig into her waist so much. “There isn’t? Here, let me get some out of the shop.” She got up and exited the back door, leaving the screen standing partly open.
Leaning her elbows against the table, Cara motioned toward the living room—and the people beyond—with her chin as a light breeze tugged at her hair. “How long’s it going to take? What all does he do?”
Bobby shrugged and grabbed the chair. “Tough to say how long. He told me once it’s like looking through old newspapers on microfiche. Sometimes you find the information right away, and other times it takes all day. But we have other things to discuss, as you know, so let’s not avoid the subject. How much have you told your pack?”
“Told us about what?” Rosa stepped through door, carrying a six-pack of sweating Coronas in one hand, and a small bag of limes in the other.
The blush that heated Cara’s face probably told Bobby everything he needed to know. Rosa looked at them both in turn and then raised her brows. “Let me get some limes cut up for the beer.”
Bobby reached out his hand expectantly. “I’m good without the lime.”
Her sister snorted and pulled the cardboard carton out of reach. “You most certainly are not. Nobody drinks beer in this house without salt and lime. Now, you two just forget I’m here.” She walked to the counter and removed a knife from a spinning rack attached to the bottom of the upper cabinets.
Yeah, right. She was the worst gossip in the pack. Gara shook her head and Bobby smiled before motioning to the back door. “We’ll be back in a minute, Mrs. Ruiz. Keep the beer cold.”
Her sister’s scent turned to the burnt metal of frustration, but she didn’t comment, instead turning on the water to wash the limes before cutting them. Cara followed Bobby out the back door a short distance away, where the python agent leaned against the pecan tree nearest to the carports. The rain had stopped, but there was a fine, cool mist in the air that would make the humidity miserable tomorrow. “I take it you haven’t told them yet.”
“I was planning to wait for the next hunt. That’s just a couple days away. People would be on edge if I called a special meeting. The only times I’ve had to do that is when there’s bad news. They get like dogs going to the vet—it’s not pretty.”
Bobby shook his head. “It’s your pack, of course, and if you’re sure they’re going to handle hunting with complete strangers without any warning… but if it was me, I’d want to talk to them in private first.”
“What?” Her voice came out louder than she’d expected, so she hurriedly lowered it and stepped to the other side of the tree, closer to Bobby. “Since when are there going to be people hunting with us on this moon? ¡Madre de Dios! When did this happen?”
“Hell… day before yesterday, I think. Hasn’t Adam talked to you about the council meeting yet? I mean, I know Lucas is swamped, but since Adam is going to be your Alpha Male down here come next week—”
Emotions simmered inside her, blending and splitting. Anger, happiness, frustration. Finally anger won. “Chingada! Not a word. And I’ve talked to him twice since he got up there.” They’d talked about a lot of things, but her getting no say in the choice and having the new people arrive in just a few days—no, that should have rated a mention. Oh, they were definitely going to have words next time they talked. “Damn it! When were they planning on telling me?”
“Well, Adam was supposed to be here already, but the storm cancelled his flight. Maybe he was waiting to talk to you in person. I probably just screwed this all up by bringing it up. And hey, didn’t Lucas give you any of his cologne? He said he did, but I can smell you.”
Cara shook her head in frustration. “It doesn’t seem to work on me. Don’t know why. Could it be because of my… condition?”
Bobby pursed his lips and crossed his arms over his chest again. “Y’know, that’s a possibility. You might be one in ten thousand it doesn’t work on. When I get back to the lab, I’ll try to whip up something for you, and you might really consider letting Adam lead the hunt for a month or two until I can.”
The tone of his voice set her nerves jangling. “Why?”
“Afraid they’re sending down mostly Alphas. I haven’t a clue how your body is going to respond to a rush of testosterone from multiple unattached alpha males. In fact, I think I’ll talk to Lucas about that tonight when I call.”
Multiple unattached alpha males. ¡Madre de Dios!
She couldn’t even think past that thought for a moment, as he continued. “But, for the other, I thought if things were going badly down here, I could be your… I don’t know—”
She said the words through gritted teeth, her anger riding over her fear for a brief moment. “My muscle?” He laughed in response and she shook her head. “Nah. I can handle the pack… at least, the current pack. Can you give me any hint about who’s being sent down?”
Bobby shook his head, now smelling concerned at her annoyance and embarrassed at his faux pas. “Sorry. I’m not that much in the know. I just know Lucas wants the Alphas out of Minnesota.”
She looked down at the shaggy lawn and squished a nearby pecan into the moist sod while muttering an angry curse. “I should be the first one to find out this shit. Oh, he’s gonna pay for this.” Bobby flicked out his tongue several times. It was a vivid reminder of the snake in the canyon but she was too pissed right now for it to bother her like it used to at the academy.
The screen door slammed at that moment and they both turned their head. Tony was walking their way, his face set in serious lines and his leather-tipped fingers tapping a staccato on his jeans.
Bobby raised his chin. “So, did you find out anything interesting?”
He stopped and snorted. “Sure, if you consider finding out that we’re all completely screwed to be interesting. We need to pack up our shit and move this discussion down the road ’cause it’s way too hot for the ladies inside to hear.”
Anger to worry was a pretty short step, so when Cara went back inside to tell Rosa they were going up to her house to continue the discussion, her sister gave her an odd look. The Coronas had already been placed at the table, a salted lime stuck in each bottleneck. Cara tried to ignore the fact that leaving without sharing a drink that had been prepared was the height of rudeness in her family. But Cara’s expression made Rosa’s brow furrow nervously and she sat down, fingering one of the bottles. “What did he see, hun bun? Is Ziri in trouble?”
“I don’t know yet.” Noticing Rosa’s curiosity was winning out over worry, she realized she would have to give a gentle reminder. She reached out an
d touched her sister’s shoulder and brushed back a hair that had strayed from the braid at her neck. “You do know that even when I find out, I won’t be able to tell you, right? This is like the files at the office. Wolven stuff is just like my regular job—confidential.”
Rosa got an incredulous look that matched her scent and she pushed away Cara’s hand. “No, this is about our pack, Carita… those birds and Ziri. This isn’t office stuff. You can’t keep secrets that involve us. That’s against the rules the pack voted on.”
God, if she only knew how much the pack rules were about to change. She pasted on a smile that her sister would see right through. “Look, I’ll call you tomorrow, ’kay? Just make sure you keep Ziri here and out of sight. No town runs for y’all unless I’m with you.” She walked out hurriedly, before Rosa had a chance to respond.
“T-1, DISPATCH.”
“Go ahead, Sheriff.” Maggie’s voice bordered on laughter. She wondered what might be going on in the office.
“Show me on a courtesy stop out on CR sixty-one. Some folks following an uncovered load hit a mesquite branch and got a flat. The shoulder’s a little narrow, so I’m gonna run my lights ’til they’re done.” It was a lie, but a plausible one… so long as nobody happened to notice she wasn’t actually on County Road 61, which was unlikely since it wasn’t on a regular patrol route. She was going to have to hurry with the discussion at her house and get back. There was so damned much to do at the office, even if Yolanda was covering for her. She was starting to wonder when she’d have time to fit in Wolven investigations if this is how much time it took. She’d have to ask Will how he managed it.
“Copy that, T-l. Let me know if you need backup or a tow truck.”
“10-4. T-1 out.” She released the radio button and eased back out of the cab, then checked the radio on her hip to make sure it was on, but the volume was low. Bobby and Tony were waiting on her front porch. Their cars would be hidden from the main road, and she’d made certain to lock the gate to the ranch so nobody could follow.
In a few minutes they were seated at the kitchen table and Bobby was taking his second draw from an ice-cold beer, while Cara waited for water to boil. If Adam was coming back this soon, along with a bunch of other alphas… well, she’d better keep drinking tea. She might be mad at him, but she wasn’t stupid. With the way her emotions were swimming today, it was a good thing both Tony and Bobby were mated.
Tony leaned back in his chair and took off the gloves with a frustrated sound. At a glance from Cara, he shrugged. “I hate gloves. They’re damned hot. Just stay on that side of the table and we’ll be fine.” He pointed at Bobby with an exasperated look. “You, too. I’ve had my fill of visions from you this trip.”
Bobby snorted. “Oh, and you becoming a seer is somehow my fault?”
“No, you grabbing the salt this morning at the diner is your fault. Just fucking wait until I’m done with it and pass it to you next time. I’m not going to spend every goddamned meal fumbling with my fork through gloves because you can’t remember not to touch me. I’m getting tired of living out the kinky shit you do with your wife.” Cara felt her brows raise and she hid a smile with a cough. Tony shifted his glare to her. “That’s how hindsight works… at least for me. I’m living the memories with the subject. Whatever powerful events they see and feel, as they remember it.” He motioned to Bobby with his chin and continued with sarcasm thick in his voice and his scent full of annoyance. “And when my partner spends an hour on the phone with his wife before breakfast, then what’s on top of the pile is the last time he had sex with her. You don’t want to know what a snake and a dragon consider fun.”
He reached out and grabbed his beer and took a long swallow while Bobby offered Cara a sheepish smile and a small chuckle. It made Tony shake his head angrily. His voice lowered a few notes and took on a decidedly Italian accent while he stared at the slender black man with deadly calm. “Laugh it up, slither boy. But I swear to God—one more time and I’m gonna shoot something off that’ll take a damned long while to grow back. Capisce?”
Bobby sighed and the dry, sandy scent of embarrassment rose from him enough for Tony to nod. “Okay, okay. I’ll be more careful. Now, how about you tell us about Ziri.”
The tea kettle whistled in the background and Cara stood up. A brief stutter of static made her listen for a second. The Garcias were at it again—he really needed to start eating lunch at a restaurant. She shook her head and then looked back over her shoulder as she turned off the stove and reached into the cabinet for a mug. “Go ahead. I’m listening.”
“Okay. Well, first, she’s really good at lying through her teeth.” That stopped Cara cold. She turned, the kettle poised over the mug.
“What’s she lied about? I don’t know that anyone’s been able to question her with the language barrier.”
Now Tony smiled. “See, that’s what she’s lying about. She speaks fluent Spanish, but she doesn’t want to let on. Don’t ever play poker with her, because she takes everything in and never shows any sign. Not even a scent. But I wish all of my sessions were as vivid as her memories. I didn’t have to use rewind but once or twice. She takes it all in.”
Cara opened her mouth to ask what he meant, but Tony must have realized he said something unusual because he added, “Memories are like a video. You have to rewind the tape to get to the right spot. Sometimes you overshoot and have to fast forward. That’s why I started to ask Ziri questions about the men and her family before I touched her. It helps get the memories back close to the right spot. I was just guessing when I asked if the men lied to her mother about where she was going, but apparently nailed it. I figured scattering in a few Yucatan words Lucas taught me would help, too. Her memories rewound straight back to her village and telling her mother good-bye. Handy, because I’ll recognize the place when we go down there.”
Bobby nodded. “John-Boy would be proud of you. You’re really starting to pick up on this interviewing stuff.”
This time Tony laughed and the sunny, penetrating scent of oranges rose into the air. “You say that like I had to step up to his level or something. I was always better at couch sessions.” He noticed Cara’s curious expression while she scooped tea into the small metal infuser and lowered the chain into the hot water in the mug to steep. “John Corbin is a psychiatrist buddy. He decided to do it for a living, but I got better grades in all our psych classes together. I might add that he’s pretty damned envious of me for the hindsight. Think about how many shrinks would kill for the chance to get the real scoop on their patients’ problems.” He snapped his fingers. “Just like that—diagnosis and start to fix it. Ten minutes, tops.”
Cara walked back to the table with her cup, the small silver chain clinking lightly against the glazed ceramic. “Wow. I’ve never heard much about hindsight. So does that mean you get everything that happened to the person… emotions, sensations, sights, sounds… the works?”
“Depends on the person. Most people don’t consciously focus on sounds and scents, so I have to dig around to get the whole picture. But in Ziri’s case, you betcha. That girl’s a goldmine of information. I’d lay odds she’s a musician and artist, because she thinks of voices in keys and even categorizes different shades of yellow. Want to make her day? Give her a print of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. She’ll be entertained for a week, but you might have to remind her to blink.”
Tony leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table and met each of their eyes in turn. “Okay, just so you know—I probably shouldn’t be telling you guys this before I talk to Lucas, but I figure we’re leaving here and he’s busy up there.” He pointed at Cara with purpose. “You need to get a forecast of the storm that’s coming, Salinas, because the horizon’s an ugly color right now.”
The tale he related made Cara forget to even take the tea ball from the mug. She just continued to dip it into the water, over and over, while Tony told a vivid account of Ziri’s terrifying journey to Texas.
“So f
ive girls started out in the van with her?” Bobby was taking notes in that same strange shorthand he’d used at the academy. It never mattered whether he left his exam notes sitting out in plain sight. Nobody could read them anyway. “Were they all from her village?”
Tony shook his head. “No. Only two others—names Oomay and Torgi. That’s phonetic, by the way. You’ll have to ask Lucas for spellings in that language. She doesn’t know what happened to them after they were taken from the shack on the border where they were kept prisoner for about a week, but she has opinions. Ziri figured out pretty quickly that some of the girls were bound for a brothel somewhere, instead of the restaurant jobs they were promised. One of the goons beat one of the girls, a young Mexican girl named Inez, pretty badly for refusing to strip for them after dinner one night. Then they raped her while the others listened.”
“¡Madre de Dios! The poor thing… no wonder she’s been trying to forget.” Cara hissed in a breath and finally realized the tea was almost black when Bobby touched her hand and pointed down. She pulled the infuser out of the now lukewarm water and placed it on the folded paper towel next to the cup. The first sip made her grimace enough that she was forced to add some sugar. She couldn’t afford to pour it out. There wasn’t enough left to waste. Bobby flicked his tongue multiple times and furrowed his brow. Then he picked up the infuser and let some of the remaining liquid drop into his palm. But he motioned with his chin for Tony to continue, just before he licked up the small amount of tea. Cara couldn’t decide who was more interesting to watch.
It was Tony tapping his fingers on the table that caught her attention. “Don’t count her out so fast. Mentally, she’s fine. She’s a tough one. No, Ziri’s keeping quiet because she discovered they wanted her and the other two girls from her village for something different and she doesn’t want them to know she knows. Even though we’re being nice to her, she’s not entirely convinced that all of us aren’t involved. After all, she’s already seen several of the locals—you included—change forms just like her captors did. No, she’s just biding her time.”
