Blue Diablo cs-1 Page 21

Jesse cupped my face in his hands, and with careful fingers, he brushed the damp hair from my forehead. “I’ll get you some ice.”

  This morning, Saldana had treated me like his worst enemy, and now he whistled in the kitchen, making me a cold pack for my sore head. Last night, Chance told me he still loved me, and this evening, he was making the beast with two backs with Twila. What with the conflicting signals from men in my life, I was about ready to become a lesbian.

  Fucking men. Chuch was the only good one, and he was married. Eva’s laughter underscored that point. It would’ve been nice if they’d asked me if I was okay before disappearing for the slap and tickle, though. I scowled.

  I still needed to do laundry, damn it.

  I sat there brooding until I heard Butch scratching at the bedroom door. Oh, yeah. As I didn’t want him to pee on the carpet, I hurried to let him out. He went straight out, did his business, and then came back in. The little dog leaped into my lap and curled up, as if he knew I needed a warm body.

  When Saldana emerged from the kitchen, he drew up short, ice pack in hand. “Tell me that’s not Lenny’s dog.”

  Butch growled.

  “It’s not,” I said obediently.

  “Is there no end to the trouble you’ll get into?” He sighed and came toward us.

  “It hasn’t ended yet.”

  As Jesse sat down, the Chihuahua lifted his head and snarled low in his throat. Honest to God, he sounded like a much bigger animal.

  “Is that dog for ‘touch her and I bite your nuts off’?”

  Butch barked once.

  Briefly I considered explaining the exchange and then decided that puzzlement was better than comprehension. It wouldn’t do to share all my secrets. Hell, half my secrets typically sent guys running, and this one had something I wanted. I reached for the ice.

  “He’s a little unsettled,” I said instead. “I’m sure he’ll calm down once he gets past his recent bereavement.”

  Jesse’s look said, It’s a dog, but he didn’t speak the thought aloud. “I came by to apologize. I shouldn’t have said what I did. I was mad at myself and I took it out on you. There’s no excuse. I’m even sorrier I found you hurt and being hassled by my partner. Guy doesn’t know when to cut somebody a break and he’s not much on the people skills.”

  “You don’t like him.” It wasn’t a question.

  He hesitated a moment and then answered, “No. Not really. When he makes up his mind about a case, he doesn’t much care about the facts. And I’m sorry he’s got a hard-on for you. I’m also really feeling like shit about this morning.”

  I put the damp towel on my head and closed my eyes. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “No, I overstepped, and it matters that you forgive me.”

  “Why?”

  His tone gentled. “Because you’re just getting to know other gifted, and I’m supposed to make it easier for you, not blame you when things go wrong, sugar.”

  “It’s okay.” The apology warmed me. I didn’t often hear those words from people who meant them.

  “I also came over to tell you something else. I don’t want you to be alarmed, but Kel Ferguson slipped his leash in Louisiana.”

  Shock washed over me in a shivery wave, knotting my insides like a macramé rug. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, if he was after me, I couldn’t run far enough. In the courtroom that day, his eyes said he’d never give up.

  “So he might be coming for me.” Yes, I stated the obvious.

  After what I’d been through this afternoon, however, Ferguson didn’t scare me quite as much. That made a nice change.

  Butch growled again. Cracking my eyes open, I saw Jesse leaning closer. He lifted the compress to check my forehead, test the edges of the bump with gentle fingertips. “You want to tell me how you got this?”

  I thought about it. “Not really.”

  The shadow thing seemed surreal now. Jesse might even think I was crazy or on drugs. Worse—he might believe I made the story up. I couldn’t face that tonight; too many years locked in my room for “lying” about how I came by the scars on my hands.

  “Will your guard dog tear out my throat if I put my arm around you? You seem like you could use a hug.” I’d almost forgotten he could sense how I felt.

  The Chihuahua barked twice.

  “Nope,” I said, smiling.

  Jesse eased closer and drew me against him in a movement so careful it didn’t even upset Butch. His palm cupped my shoulder and I felt him drawing tiny circles with his fingertips. With a small sigh I leaned my head against his chest, listened to his heart.

  “Better?”

  I exhaled slowly. “Some. Maybe.”

  “You smell so good,” he whispered, like he couldn’t help it.

  His nose brushed my cheek. Do I? It was just oatmeal soap and my natural scent. No perfume.

  We sat there a while before I confessed, “I had another run-in with the forces of darkness. That takes a lot out of you.”

  Naturally he couldn’t leave it at that, and with a cop’s skill, he pried the rest of the story out of me. “He sent you away so he could hook up with Twila?” Jesse shook his head. “The man has brass balls—I’ll give him that. She’ll chew him up and spit him out.”

  I didn’t trust myself to reply because I might come off jealous, and I didn’t want to give that impression when I sat in the circle of Jesse’s arm. I liked it too. So I murmured something noncommittal.

  As I shifted closer, I caught his deep dark gaze roving my face. It had been such a long time since I kissed someone who knew my real name or anything about me. I hadn’t been with anyone who knew more than the sheen of my skin moving under him in the dark in over a year. I wanted a taste.

  “Corine,” he whispered, soft and husky. “You’re giving me that feeling again.”

  I lifted my chin. “Which one is that?”

  “It’s warm, honey sweet, and it tells me you want your mouth under mine.”

  “Maybe I do.”

  My eyes drifted shut again. Jesse didn’t waste any more words, just angled his head down so our lips touched. To my surprise, the dog in my lap didn’t even stir. I guessed that meant he approved.

  Bliss. His mouth played just so, teased my lower lip until I needed to taste him. My tongue grazed his. Shifting, I sank my hands into his sun-streaked hair, and we kissed for ages in a soft, sensuous give-and-take punctuated by tiny gasps and delicious shivers.

  He intuited what I liked from the delicate plucking at my upper lip to the sexy swirls of his tongue against mine. I sucked gently, commanding a moan from him.

  When I pulled back to get my breath, he licked his lips. “You’re good at that.”

  Ridiculously I felt my cheeks heat. “You sure?”

  Longing licked through me. Without a doubt we’d enjoy ourselves in bed.

  Jesse’s smile sparked me all the way down to my toes. “Not entirely. Maybe I need to conduct a little more research.”

  As he kissed me again, I heard Chance snarl, “Well, isn’t this fucking great?”

  The Little Things

  I refused to play further into the scene.

  We didn’t leap apart guiltily; in fact I rested my head on Jesse’s shoulder and smiled. Chance had no claim on me. I just asked, “Finished up in San Antonio, did you?”

  Chance looked exhausted. Guess she rode him hard and put him away wet. “Yes, no thanks to you. I’ve been worried sick. Why didn’t you answer your phone?”

  That almost provoked me. “I wasn’t in the mood to talk.”

  As he came farther into the room, he took in the way Jesse was holding me, and his mouth tightened. “Why’d you leave me stranded?”

  “Why did you dismiss me like a bad employee?” I countered.

  Jesse frowned at Chance. “Yeah, she could’ve been seriously hurt today. You should’ve known better than to leave her unprotected.”

  That might be pushing it, I thought. I doubted Chance could’ve done any better than I had,
faced with that shade. Still, I didn’t mind the support.

  “Shit, what happened?” He forgot his grievance as he knelt, peering into my face.

  Before I could answer, Jesse did. “She was attacked, you ass.”

  “It wasn’t supposed to work like that.” Chance dropped down in Chuch’s recliner opposite us.

  I raised a brow. “What wasn’t?”

  “In exchange for my”—Chance hesitated over the word—“help, Twila agreed to call the warlock out. He was supposed to come at us, we waited all evening.”

  “I’ll just bet,” I said sourly. “Well, he answered the call and sent something after me. Thanks for that.”

  “I’m sorry, Corine. I thought I was sending you to safety.”

  “Yeah, well, we know how your ideas on that tend to work out.” The moment the words emerged, I regretted them.

  Chance flinched but he didn’t argue because he couldn’t. “Now will you go back to Mexico City?”

  “No!” Leaning forward, I pounded a fist on my knee. “At this point they’d just kill me there. We have to root out whoever snatched Min and take the fight to them. I’m sick and tired of running around like a rat in a maze. I want to blow their shit up.” I sat back, astonished at my own vehemence.

  Ordinarily I wasn’t militant but I’d seen too much casual collateral damage to walk away now. I hadn’t known Maris, but Lenny Marlowe had been a kind, gentle soul. They’d exterminated him like a roach, and I wanted payback.

  Beside me, Jesse hummed the Rocky theme song. I elbowed him and Butch raised his head with a warning look as if to offer, You want me to bite him?

  “Well, we may be in a position to do that,” Chance said. “I found something for Twila and in exchange she gave me a name. Montoya.”

  Montoya. That rang a bell. Then I had it.

  “The angel that knocked me out,” I began excitedly.

  Jesse leaned over for a closer look at the lump on my head. “You didn’t mention anything about an angel—”

  “Never mind that now. I fell down on a Montoya grave, and on the statue, there was a poem, something about a crescent moon. Damn.” Trying to remember hurt my head.

  After thinking for a moment, Chance quoted, “‘The Crescent-moon, the Star of Love,/Glories of evening, as ye there are seen/With but a span of sky between—/Speak one of you, my doubts remove,/Which is the attendant Page and which the Queen?’ It’s Wordsworth.”

  “That might be it. Anyway, I’m not sure if the poem matters. The symbol etched below it, though...” I pushed off the couch and found some scrap paper. “Looked like this, only inverted.” I drew the stylized U that Booke had seen on Chuch’s house, the Mixtec symbol for the moon.

  “So our warlock is a Montoya,” Jesse surmised.

  Chance nodded. “It looks that way.”

  “Or he’s related to them? It may not be his last name anymore.” I turned to Saldana. “If we give you an address, could you get a warrant? I’m sure they’re doing something shady. Why else would they need a private landing strip?”

  “Too thin for a warrant.” Jesse shook his head. “I need more than your gut instinct to do it by the book.”

  Well, that rankled. No wonder I hated legal garbage. Most of it seemed designed to protect the guilty and persecute the innocent.

  Chance asked, “You think Bucky could help?”

  I glanced at my ex with grudging approval. “You know, that’s not a bad idea. He might be able to tell us what’s going on in there.”

  “Bucky’s in bed with Jeannie by now,” Jesse said, glancing at his watch. “Since I have to work tomorrow, that’s where I need to be too.” He flashed me a slow grin as he stood. “Coming, Corine?”

  Don’t ask me why I hesitated. There was no reason I shouldn’t go back to Jesse’s place with him. The idea tempted me.

  “No.” I tempered the refusal with a return smile. “I need to be firing on all cylinders tomorrow and if I go with you, I won’t get any sleep.”

  “That’s true.” Modesty did not factor as one of his virtues. He dropped a casual kiss on the end of my nose and saw himself out.

  That left Chance and me looking at each other. Awkward.

  “So it’s like that now?” he asked. “There’s really no chance for us.”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  He honestly didn’t seem to know what I meant. “What?”

  “You spent all day with another woman and you have the nerve—”

  “Whoa, hold up. Just what do you think happened between us?”

  I decided to back off. Nothing inspired more pity than a jealous ex. I might even manage to be happy for him someday, but there was no way I’d spell it out. Besides I didn’t want to know if he had the nerve to lie to me.

  So I shrugged. “Whatever it was, I wasn’t allowed to be part of it.”

  “It was private, Corine.” Chance sighed and looked at his hands.

  Honestly, he looked tired and worn, not glowing with satisfaction. Although that may have been from riding the bus for a few hours after all the boinking. Served him right, though. At least he hadn’t been accosted in a graveyard.

  “I just bet,” I muttered. Cool it, I told myself. Any more of this and he’s going to think you’re jealous. “What did you help her find anyway?” Her G-spot?

  “Her heart,” he said somberly enough that I took a second look at his face.

  Whatever that entailed, I suddenly felt sure it’d been bad. “You’re okay, though?”

  “Mostly. It didn’t help that you ditched me. I had to scrounge my own ride back, and then I found you making out with Supercop. I understand why you were mad, though. Regardless of my intentions, I wasn’t there when you needed me.” He sighed. “I guess I was right to be worried about you.”

  “How’d you get back?” I wanted to apologize for thinking the worst of him, but the words stuck in my throat.

  “Caught a ride with some frat boys making a run to Boys Town. They dropped me off at Chuch’s door for beer money.” Chance stood, crossed the living room, and sat down beside me, his eyes on my bruised forehead. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

  Butch answered for me with two barks.

  “Hey,” I managed. “I’m sorry I overreacted.”

  Thank God he didn’t know why. Chance seemed to think I’d left because he sent me off alone, where the warlock targeted me. That was fine with me, better than the truth. I eyed the dog, hoping he wouldn’t rat me out.

  “I’m just glad you’re okay,” he said quietly. “No thanks to me. Riding with the guys wasn’t a big deal.”

  I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “Does Chuch have a washer and dryer somewhere? I’m out of clean clothes.”

  It was stupid late to be washing, but if I knew Chance at all, we’d be planning an assault tomorrow using all our resources. He wouldn’t slow down for my delicates.

  “Out here. Let me show you.”

  Butch didn’t take kindly to it when I put him down. He trailed after me with a whimper. Poor dog, it had been quite a day for him. We needed to break the news to Chuch and Eva regarding their temporary houseguest and bring his supplies inside.

  After hefting my bag, I followed Chance into the shadowy garage. Chuch didn’t use it for cars. Instead he stored tools and boxes, carelessly stacked along the walls. I spied what I thought might be a motorcycle, covered by a tarp. Hard to tell in the dark.

  We didn’t turn on a light. I used the illumination that trickled from the open door. I offered no care to my clothes, didn’t separate, just stuffed them all into the washer and washed in cold. He watched me with some amusement.

  “It’s amazing you’ve never dyed anything pink.”

  The cement chilled my bare feet. “Isn’t it? Let’s go back in,” I remembered the untouched plate of sweets. “Maybe have some cookies and then go to bed.”

  Butch appeared disinclined to cooperate. He sniffed around the edges of the garage and then whined, scratching at the sid
e door that led outside.

  “Does he need to go out?”

  I shrugged. “Up until today, I never had a dog. How do I know? Let’s see.”

  After we let him out, Butch did indeed pee on a bush, but then he lowered his nose, tail in the air, and snuffled his way around the house. When he got to the foundation in the backyard, he yapped ferociously. If he’d been a person, he would’ve been yelling, Hey! Hey! Hey, you! Over here! He backed away, growling, and implored me with big damp eyes to come see what he’d found.

  “Okay, okay.”

  “Good thing Chuch doesn’t have close neighbors,” Chance said, following me.

  I went over to see what he had—maybe a chipmunk or a rabbit? But as I got closer, I recognized the stench from the graveyard this afternoon. As I knelt, I broke a twig off the nearby hedge and parted the grass.

  My stomach rebelled.

  While I crawled away to lose my burger in the bushes, Chance took a closer look. “Christ, who the hell would do something like that?”

  Bending, I picked Butch up and clutched him to my chest. I know, I know. Why does a mangled animal upset me so much? Well, people can be sons of bitches. Animals possess an innocence that humans never do, even in childhood.

  Somebody had tortured this poor creature to death, and then bound it to a task that would cause it unspeakable pain. Breaking well-placed wards had shattered this animal until I couldn’t tell what it had been in life, just a twitching mound of bloody bone and fur that still tried to creep forward, doing its master’s bidding. We needed to put it down, but I shuddered at the thought.

  I wiped my mouth and stood. “Better question is why.”

  “To weaken the wards,” Chance realized. His eyes met mine, wide with worry.

  “Eva just redid them this afternoon.” But as I looked closer, I saw that the poor thing had crawled around and around the house, insidiously violating the sanctity of the lines drawn in sea salt and wormwood.

  “He’s planning to strike again tonight,” he said grimly. “Did she reinforce the wards inside as well? Have you seen Chuch and Eva?”

  So much he didn’t know, like Moon’s ill-timed visit, and no opportunity to tell him. I thought I might be sick again. “Not since they went into the office. We need to see if they’re all right.”