Roman's Gold (Underground Heat, Book 1) (12 page)

She showered, dressed, and set the locks. The only thing left was waiting to hear back from Max. She checked her terminal again. The LED blinked red. She booted up and printed the list. Too dangerous to transfer it to her wrist computer. Maybe she should stop and get a black market one like Devon’s, except she didn’t have the first idea where she could find something like that.

Her gaze scanned the list; her eyes widened. Out of the fifty names, forty-three of them had enough shifter blood for the infusion to kick them over the edge. Forty-two others besides Devon. She wanted to text him. His wrist computer was safe, but hers wasn’t. It would have to wait. She wished they’d made plans to meet for lunch. Kate snapped her fingers. Perfect! She texted him using his regular wrist computer. He’d given her that number, too.

He texted back immediately with an address not far from her. Kate hurried out the door. It was early for lunch, but the raw need to see him heated her blood. She decided to walk to the café. It was only about half a mile. Maybe by the time she got there, she’d have herself under better control. Besides, even if she drove, there wouldn’t be any place to park. She loved her electric car. Roomy ones like hers were nearly impossible to find nowadays. The new ones were so small, they’d barely accommodate two adults. Children and pets were out of the question.

She settled into an easy, loping stride. The city looked different today, less like a prison. For the first time in a long time, she felt hopeful—about a lot of things.

* * * *

Kate sat next to Devon on a small bench. They were just finishing lunch. She could have sat across the rickety, metal table, but she’d wanted to feel him next to her. Plus, this way she’d been able to whisper to him once she’d made certain he’d left all his electronic toys in his car.

“Tell me about yourself,” she murmured. “I want to know everything.”

He shrugged. “It’s pretty simple, really. I grew up in San Bernardino. Two sisters. Dad’s still alive; you already know what happened to Mom. I graduated from UCLA and signed on with the San Bernardino Sheriff. I thought I could save enough money for law school, but I made the mistake of getting married—”

“Married?” Kate drew back. “What happened to her?”

He blew out a breath. “It was more what happened to us. I wasn’t home much. She took up with other men. We went our separate ways.”

“Girlfriends since then?”

He grinned at her. “Why? Are you feeling jealous?”

“Maybe a little.”

“Nah, I’ve pretty much kept to himself. Not that there haven’t been women, but none of them ever meant anything to me.”

She cuddled closer and wrapped a hand around his forearm. “I’m glad.”

“Your turn.” He laid a hand over hers.

“Um, I was born in what’s now New York.”

He furled his brows. “How long ago?” She bent close and whispered. A long, low whistle escaped him.

“Stop that. People will look at us.”

“They already are—” merriment danced behind his dark eyes, “—because we’ve been pawing at one another like a couple of randy kids.”

Kate straightened and moved so a couple of inches separated them. “There. Is that better?”

“No.” He draped an arm around her and pulled her against his body. “Are your parents still alive?” She nodded. “Where?”

“They’re still on the east coast. I have a sister and brother, too, one older, one younger.”

“How long since you’ve seen them?”

“Not since before,” she leaned close, “the, um, problems with our kind. We do talk, though. Maybe a couple times a month.”

“College?”

Kate snorted. “I went to a one-room school. College came a long time later. When I was young, women weren't allowed to go.”

“Husbands?”

“Why?” She mimicked his grin from earlier. “Jealous?”

“You bet!”

A warm place bloomed in her heart. She wanted Devon to care who she’d been with. “No husbands. You’ll be the first.”

He laughed, and then clapped a hand over his mouth. “Not that I’m opposed to the idea, but—”

“You thought I’d sit back demurely and wait for you to do the asking?”

Color stained his bronze skin, giving it a rosy cast. “Something like that.” He cocked his head to one side. “Say, I’d really like to hear what it was like when you were, er, young. Bet you have an interesting slant on history.”

Kate glanced around the restaurant. There were a few too many people for her to feel comfortable saying much more. “I’ll tell you when we’re alone.” She nuzzled his neck. “I love you. I still can’t get over that we found each other.”

“Aw, darling.” He bent and pressed his lips lightly over hers. “I feel the same way.”

Deep within, her cat purred extravagantly.
“I found him for us.”

“So you did. Just don’t say I told you so.”

Devon drained his coffee and picked at some scraps of sandwich left on his plate. “On a more serious note…”

He was just beginning to question her more closely about Max when his wrist computer vibrated. She glanced at the screen;
incoming call
flashed in red. She quirked a brow.

“Means it’s one of the task force. I need to take it.” He tapped a couple of keys. “Heartshorn.”

Kate leaned close to listen.

“Detective?” a female voice with a strong Asian accent asked.

“Actually, I’m a lieutenant. Who is this?”

“I am Ray Tanaka’s wife. Please, I do not know who to call. He seemed to like you—”

“Seemed? Did, ah, something happen to him?” Devon’s brows drew together.

“Yes. Please. If you could come to our house.”

Kate tapped Devon’s arm, nodding furiously.

“Sure,” Devon said. “Run the address by me.” He tapped the
end call
icon. “Done eating?”

“Yeah.” She folded her napkin and laid it on the table. “Let’s go.”

“Do you have your car?”

“No. Can’t we take yours?”

The skin around his eyes pinched in worry. “No. We’re not supposed to transport civilians unless it’s an emergency, plus the department has a tracking device in every police car. Even though I hate to add half an hour, we need to go back and get yours. Last thing we need is another officer nosing around.”

She set off at a jog. He paced her. “If this is what I think it is—” he began.

“Pretty much has to be,” she broke in. “He’s in his,” she glanced around to see if anyone was close enough to overhear, “um, other form and can’t get back. His wife’s probably terrified.”

“Can you help?”

“Of course, unless he’s so far gone he won’t listen to me.”

Devon gripped her hand as they ran. “What then?”

Kate thought about what Max had said about the Tracker elite being trained death machines. She frowned. “Not sure. I’d need to call Max.”

They ran around her building and up the alley. She activated the electronics from her wrist computer; the garage door slid open. “I’ll drive,” she said. “Could you program the address into the online database?”

His fingers flew over the display while she backed out. “Ready?” he asked. She nodded and he tapped the
find it
icon. The car edged out of the alley and took a left turn. It would get them to the address in its automotive brain without any assistance. “Is there somewhere I can read more about the things I need to know about being a shifter? What if you hadn’t been sitting right next to me? I’d have gone to Tanaka’s house and been clueless.”

“We’ve never written things like that down.”

“But how can I learn if there’re no materials to study?” he persisted.

“According to Max, once we get all forty-three of you rounded up and flying the same direction, he’s going to chuck the lot of you into a crash course in magic.”

“Car’s slowing down.”

She glanced through the windshield at a well-kept, but older neighborhood with bungalow-style homes. Kate disconnected the autopilot and looked for a parking spot. “That’s the address, isn’t it?” He nodded. “Do you suppose they’d mind if I parked in their driveway?”

“Don’t see why not.”

The car doors opened. Once she and Devon cleared the electronic beam, they swooshed shut and locked. Devon moved ahead of Kate. “Let me go first, in case there’s something we hadn’t anticipated.”

She dropped behind him. It felt good to be side-by-side with Devon. They fit together—mentally and physically. A pleasant vibration hummed between them. If she’d been in her cat form, she would have purred. It had been hard to keep her hands off him during lunch. Still was.

He raised his hand to knock, but the door opened before he could. A diminutive Asian woman with waist-length dark hair and huge dark eyes peered out the door. “Who’s she?” The woman pointed at Kate.

“It’s okay, Mrs. Tanaka. She’s a friend of mine. I had a feeling I knew what might be wrong. I brought her along to help.”

The woman’s face crumpled. “I am Makiko. Please to come in.”

Kate heard the click of several deadbolts as the woman locked the door behind them.

An ominous growl came from the back of the house.
Coyote.
She sniffed the air.
No, wolf.
Kate sucked in a breath and took a chance. She walked to the woman. “Makiko. Your husband has taken another form. Am I correct?”

The woman’s eyes widened. She drew back. “H-how could you possibly know that? W-what are you?”

“It’s the injections,” Devon said. “The ones for the task force. Ray had shifter blood and the drug made it strong enough for him to shift.”

Makiko sank onto a footstool and dropped her head into her hands. “I thought maybe it was something like that.” She raised her gaze to Devon, pleading in her eyes. “Can you make him human again?”

“Yes—” Devon began.

“Maybe,” Kate said firmly. “Where is he?”

“Right behind you.”
A low growl made Kate spin around. She made a split second decision, shucked her clothes, and reached for her cat form.

She circled him, tail swishing.
“You are still thinking in words. That’s a good sign. A very good sign. Did you see me shift?”

“Yes. What does that have to do with…? Holy shit, is that what happened? I’ve turned into one of them?”
The large gray timber wolf fell onto his haunches, threw back his muzzle, and howled.

“Stop, stop.” Makiko held out her hands. “We have neighbors. They’ll turn us in.”

“Get hold of yourself.”
Kate made her mind voice stern.
“Right now.”
She gathered her rear legs under her, ready to spring and bite him if she had to.

Tanaka quieted. His amber eyes held a haunted cast. He got all four feet under him and paced up and down the smallish living room.
“You went from woman to cat. How can I reverse the process?”

“Quiet your mind. Visualize your human form. It will come.”

He barked once. It sounded like the human equivalent of “ha” to her.

“Look.”
Kate shimmered back to her human form. “It’s easy. The reason you feel trapped is because you’re upset. When we’re upset, we can’t shift. Come on, Ray. Take a few breaths, calm yourself and reach for your human form.” She picked up her clothes and dressed, never taking her gaze from him.

Devon came up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Do you think—?”

“Sssh. Let’s give him a chance.” The air around Tanaka took on a luminous glow.
“You’re on the right track,”
Kate murmured in mind speech.
“Just keep doing what you’re doing.”

The air quieted, and then glowed again. On Tanaka’s fourth try, the wolf disappeared. Tanaka’s human eyes were wide with horror; his mouth opened and closed like a landed fish. He glanced down. His hands dove to his crotch to cover himself. He skittered out of the room with Makiko hard behind him. A door slammed shut.

Devon dropped his mouth next to Kate’s ear. “Well played. I didn’t think he’d be able to find his way back.”

“Neither did I,” she whispered back.

A few moments passed. Kate heard the low murmur of voices from the room Ray and his wife had disappeared into. “They need to come back out here. We have to talk with them.”

“I agree.” Devon strode to the closed door and knocked. When no one said anything, he knocked louder, following it with, “Look, man, I know how you feel, but I have to talk with you.”

Footsteps sounded. The door cracked open a few inches. “Thank your, ah, friend for me, Heartshorn. I don’t feel much like talking. Makiko, she was only trying to help, but she shouldn’t have called you.”

The door started to shut. Devon jammed his boot between it and the frame. “Put on some clothes, goddamn it, and come out here.”

“Give me a minute.”

Devon backtracked to Kate. They stood near the front door, waiting. The sound of a knob turning made Kate look up. Danger so thick she could barely breathe flooded her cat senses. She pounded her shoulder into Devon. “Get down,” she shrieked. They both hit the floor.

He rolled on top of her and drew his laser pistol. The
phut-phut
of a laser slammed into the front door just behind where they’d been standing seconds before. Kate peered from under Devon and eyed Tanaka. The man held an identical weapon trained right on them.

“Drop it or I’ll shoot,” Devon said.

“Your girlfriend, abomination that she is, would be dead before you got me.”

“What the fuck?” Devon snarled. “She wasn’t an abomination when she helped you find your way back.”

Makiko burst out of the back room and threw her body between her husband and Devon and Kate. “Go,” she screeched. “Just go. He won’t shoot me.”

“Kate. Get up. Back toward the door. Open it nice and easy.” Unfolding his body, Devon stood, gun still trained on Tanaka.

“But we need to talk with him,” she protested, scrambling to her feet. She locked her gaze onto Tanaka’s. “What if you shift again? You need to learn how to—”

The gun wavered in his hand. He dropped it to his side. “I don’t want to learn anything about being a shifter. Nothing. Not now. Not ever. Please leave. I-I can’t believe this happened to me.” A sob tore out of him, followed by another. His shoulders heaved. Makiko turned and put her arms around her husband, crooning in Japanese.