“I’ll be careful.” She kind of blew through the phrase, which wasn’t reassuring, but for now he didn’t care what Cassidy said. He only liked listening to her voice. “We’re going to Coolers tonight to celebrate me getting sprung. Want to join us?”

Hell, yes.

Coolers was a Shifter club—that is, a human-owned club Shifters frequented. Thinking about Cassidy there, dancing in that tight blue dress, made his heart beat double-time. This is why I’m glad I’m a man.

“Diego?”

“What?” Diego shoved the fantasies aside. “Sure, I can meet you.”

“Excellent. Ask Xavier to come too—Lindsay will be there.” Cassidy laughed. “She only reminded me about ten times today to ask you that.”

“Xavier. Right.” Not as good as Cassidy begging him to meet her somewhere alone, somewhere dark, somewhere romantic, but he’d take what he could.

“I can’t wait. We’ll be there around ten. See you, Diego.”

She hung up.

Diego stood staring at the phone, his heart beating off the scale, the plastic bottle of milk he held warming in his hand. When condensation rolled down his fingers, he jumped, shoved the milk into the fridge, closed the door, and hit his speed dial.

“Xav. We’re going to Coolers tonight. Don’t argue, just be there at ten.” Diego clicked off in the middle of Xav’s startled, “Sure thing.”

CHAPTER NINE

By ten that night, Cassidy was so wound up she thought she’d have to shift and run around the parking lot to work it off. She settled for dancing, shimmying around the middle of the floor with Lindsay while male groupies drooled on themselves.

Coolers was one of the few clubs in town that let in Shifters. Most club owners didn’t like the “element” Shifters drew, preferring to cater to rich tourists, but the Shifter-admitting clubs did a bang-up business.

Shifter groupies were humans who wore fake Collars, dressed in skimpy clothes or biker leather, painted on whiskers, and lived for contact with Shifters. Most groupies were happy to simply stand near a Shifter; others wanted full-on sex. Shifters, both male and female, were libidinous as a rule, so the sex seekers didn’t always go home disappointed.

Cassidy did her best to ignore the groupies who wanted her in bed—or in a car or against a wall in the alley. She’d learned long ago that most of them didn’t truly care about Shifters. They wanted the thrill of being with one, nothing more. A lot of the Shifters didn’t mind—hey, if these humans wanted sex, fine—but Cassidy cared.

She understood the difference between sex for the thrill of it and sex with love wrapped around it. The absolute joy of the second type made sex for the thrill of it empty and unfulfilling.

So, why was she was all charged up and excited about seeing Diego tonight? She was acting as giddy as a cub. Maybe because when Diego came tonight, he wouldn’t be the cop checking up on her; he’d be a man coming to a club to unwind after work. A hot man who’d shared beer with her brother and with whom she’d talked about things close to her heart.

The air in the club changed. Cassidy knew, even before she turned in the dance, that Diego Escobar had just walked in the door.

He wore jeans and a leather jacket, definitely off duty, and he’d brought Xavier with him. Cassidy didn’t miss how both of them slowed to check every part of the room before walking farther inside, at the same time taking care they weren’t silhouetted against the open door.

“Oh, yes,” Lindsay shouted to Cassidy. “Diego for you. Xavier for me. We compare notes in the morning, girl.”

Cassidy wanted to yell back, I didn’t ask him here for sex! But the thought of having Diego’s tall body in her bed, if only for one night, sent the mating heat crawling up and down her body.

Diego and Xavier moved through the dark crowds on the dance floor to where Eric lounged against the bar. Diego walked with his usual ease, aware of every single thing around him while appearing to be relaxed. Xavier again was more restless but just as aware.

Lindsay grabbed Cassidy’s hand. “Come on.” She dragged Cassidy across the room at high speed, not that Cassidy wasn’t willing to go.

Eric looked up at Diego, started to greet him, but just then Shane materialized out of nowhere to stand behind Diego, his growl rumbling even over the music. Shane’s stance was predatory, angry.

Eric stepped to Diego’s side, still acting casual, but Cassidy knew he could strike in an instant. Whether he’d strike down Shane or Diego remained to be seen.

When Cassidy reached them, she understood Shane’s concern. She smelled it again, clinging to Diego like a mist, the sulfur and mint scent of Faerie.

* * *

Diego found himself reaching for the pistol in his hip holster as Eric, Shane, and Jace became a growling wall surrounding Diego and Xav. Stuart Reid’s words flashed through his head.

You can’t tame them, you can’t trust them, and most of all, you can’t be their friend.

Cassidy came up next to Eric, hot as hell in a white body-hugging dress that bared most of her long, curving legs. The woman was a walking wet dream.

Cassidy’s eyes were changing from deep jade to a lighter green, her nostrils widening.

“Want to tell me what the hell is the matter?” Diego asked her. He felt his brother at his shoulder, saying nothing but ready if there was trouble.

Eric glanced at the humans around them, men and women with chokers around their necks, some of whom had painted whiskers on their faces or made up their eyes to look catlike.

“Let’s talk about this somewhere private,” Eric said.

“Sure,” Diego said.

Eric gestured to a door at the back of the club, as nonchalant as ever. Shane, on the other hand, looked ready to kill. Diego hadn’t seen Shane since they’d talked in the hall outside Cassidy’s bedroom. He thought he’d gotten the bear-man to trust him a little, but there was no trust on Shane’s face now.

Cassidy gave Diego a nod, as though trying to tell him everything would be all right, before she started toward the pitch-dark back of the club. Diego and Xavier made to follow her, but Shane stepped in front of Xavier.

“Not you,” he said. “Just Diego.”

Xavier faced Shane without flinching. “If my brother is going into a back room with a bunch of pissed-off Shifters, I go too.”

Eric signaled to Lindsay. “Lindsay, keep Xavier company while we talk to Diego.”