What he really needed to do was get her alone so he could talk to her. He needed to make her see what would happen to her if she didn’t cooperate. Even if she was guilty of something, maybe a deal could be negotiated – if she gave up the information that they needed. If not, he hated to think about what was going to happen to her.
“All right. Check in is in two hours,” Warden Redthorne said. Dash nodded.
“Let’s take my car,” Officer Leonides said. “We can drive a couple of miles, then we’ll need to shift and go a few miles into the woods.”
Dash climbed in the car and they headed west.
“I understand she used to give you quite the runaround, back on your territory,” Leonides said as they drove towards the area of the Hobo camp.
“Yes, she did,” Dash said. He smiled ruefully. “She did pose quite the challenge.”
Then he found himself wondering why he wanted to help her now, when in the past, all that he’d wanted to do was shove her in a jail cell and leave her there to fume.
Maybe it was because now, he felt, in some odd way, she really needed his help.
Leonides turned down a dirt road and drove about a mile. Then he parked. “We shift and run from here,” he said. He and Dash climbed out of the car and stripped off their clothing. The air had a bite to it, but the sun overhead warmed them.
Dash partially shifted, scenting the air. He caught a faint whiff that told him that she’d been here recently, and left a trail.
Steele’s voice echoed in his head. Trust your instincts.
Steele had never steered him wrong yet.
Dash looked up.
He sniffed the air again. “Lynx!” he announced, pointing southeast.
Leonides tipped his head back and also sniffed the air. “I’m not smelling it,” he said.
Feline shifters had a better sense of smell than humans, but not as good as a canine. The bobcat looked at him for guidance. Dash pointed. “About a quarter mile away,” he said. “Unfortunately, the scent is coming from up on high. She’s in a pine tree, I can scent it.”
“I’ll get her. Stay here and wait for me,” the bobcat said, and he quickly shifted, and turned and ran southeast.
Dash waited until he was gone, then seized his clothes in his mouth, turned and ran northwest.
He had not actually lied. He’d smelled a lynx shifter in the direction that he’d sent Leonides, all right – but it wasn’t Isadora.
He dashed through the woods, following Isadora’s scent.
The scent trail got stronger and stronger. In about twenty minutes, he reached a riverbank where he scented many shifters. This had to be near where the Hobos congregated; he could smell a lot of unwashed body odor, and the scent of cooked meat and a recent campfire. He suspected he was within a quarter mile of their camp. They probably got their drinking water at this river, which smelled sweet and pure.
He shifted and pulled his pants on, and then his shirt and jacket, and then he stepped into his slip-on shoes.
“Isadora!” he yelled. “Damn it, get out here! I need to talk to you! If someone else arrests you, there’s no telling what they’ll do to you! I can scent you, so don’t pretend you’re not here! I’m alone, it’s just me, get the hell out here and talk to me!”
The forest was silent except for the screech of birds and the rustle of the wind through the leaves. She was nearby. Her scent hung in the air, strong and sweet. Why hadn’t she run off yet?
There was a blur of motion, and a female mountain lion shifter cub came running out and swiped at him with her paw.
“Whoa!” he yelled at her. In one swift motion, he reached down and grabbed her by the scruff of her neck.
A jackal shifter, a teenaged boy, ran out of the woods in human form and yelled at him. “Let her go!”
Isadora came running out from behind a thick stand of underbrush and trotted over, looking annoyed. She had a bag slung over her shoulder. Her makeup was scrubbed clean and she’d taken off her nose ring, but she wasn’t wearing a wig at the moment. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail.
He felt an odd thump in his chest at the sight of her. Ever since she’d moved to Timber Valley, he’d gotten used to seeing her around all of the time, and he suddenly realized how much of a hole her absence had left. All that energy and humor and teasing…damn it, he didn’t like where those thoughts were going.
There was no way that he could like Isadora. Not in that way.
The mountain lion shifter cub hissed and swiped at him.
“Put her down,” she snapped.
“Are you going to run off?” Dash said, with a hard edge to his tone.
She flicked a glance at the kids, and he knew she wouldn’t leave them.
“No,” she said stonily. He set the girl down.
The girl shifted back in to human form. Isadora fished around in her bag, and pulled out a dress and a jacket, which she tossed to the girl.
“Get dressed,” she said to the girl, who angrily yanked the clothing on, and then turned around and shifted one paw, swiping at him and hissing. “Stop that,” Isadora said severely. “And I told you to stay hidden.”
“He made me mad. He wants to arrest you!”
“All the more reason to stay hidden.”
The girl started to cry. “He’s going to arrest you now, isn’t he? It’s my fault. I’m sorry.” The boy glared at Dash, and put his arm around the girl. Dash felt like a monster. Great. He was making little kids cry.
“I just need to talk to her,” he said.
“Guys, it’s fine. He’s a good person. I promise you that he won’t hurt me,” Isadora said. “Just stand there a minute while I go talk to him. He’s not taking me away.”
“I’ve got my eye on you. And I’ve killed before!” Sally yelled after them as they walked away.
“She’s not actually kidding. I wouldn’t want to piss her off. She’s the kind of kid who’d gut you in your sleep,” Isadora said. Dash detected a decidedly admiring tone to Isadora’s voice.
“We’re watching you, buddy! Nowhere you can run out here!” Thomas shouted.
Dash suppressed a smile. “I like them. They’ve got moxie.”
Then he shook his head at her reprovingly. “What were you doing with these kids?”
“We were going hunting for lunch. Caught us some rabbits.” Isadora patted her stomach with satisfaction. “A wild meal’s actually kind of nice, now and then.”
“No, I mean what are you doing hanging out with kids at all, under these circumstances?”
She actually looked guilty at that. “It’s a long story. I didn’t mean to end up hanging out with them. The hyena kid’s uncle just got in town, and he’s going to take them north to some construction job that he’s got with a pack near Canada. I’ve just been hanging out here, keeping an eye on him and making sure that he’s an okay person.”
“And is he?”
“So far, he seems good. I mean, he’s their best option.” Isadora didn’t look completely convinced. “Finding them an adoptive family wouldn’t work. I don’t see them fitting in too well with a traditional family. They’re basically decent, but kind of semi-feral.”
“What else are you doing out here?” Dash looked her in the eye. “I’m well aware that we’re not too far from the lab that we raided. That can’t be a coincidence. Why did you end up here of all places?”
“Dash, I really can’t tell you right now,” she said wearily. “I wish that I could. I tell you what, I need to get these kids back to camp and then we can talk, all right?”
“Fine.” He suspected that she thought that she was going to run off as soon as she’d gotten the kids safely back to the camp, but he had a little surprise for her. He’d come prepared.
They walked back to where Sally and Thomas were standing.
“Let’s go,” Isadora said, and they headed back towards the Hobo camp.
“Why do you want to arrest her?” Thomas demanded, glaring at Dash through narrowed eyes.
“I don’t want to arrest her at all. She and I just need to go have a chat. I don’t mean her any harm. We’re pals,” he said, and put his arm around her slender waist. He felt a surprising jolt when he touched her, and a strange warmth spreading through his body.
Down, boy, he told himself.
The camp was in a cleared area, with some makeshift tents slung on ropes, and clothing hanging off a clothing line. Thomas and Sally trotted towards a campfire where a dozen shifters were sitting.
While they weren’t looking, and before Isadora could say a word, Dash quickly slapped a pair of handcuffs on Isadora’s wrist and then cuffed her to his wrist. He managed to do it so quickly that nobody at the campfire saw, and then he moved Isadora’s bag to cover the cuffs.
“We’ve got to get going!” he called out to everyone. “Bye, guys, I’ll bring her back later!”
“What do you think you’re doing, idiot?” Isadora said, while maintaining a smile for the campers. She waved at the shifters with her free hand, smiling brightly, as she let Dash lead her away. Dash could see the looks of disappointment on Thomas and Sally’s faces.
“They needed more of a goodbye than that,” Isadora said through gritted teeth. “They’re already too used to being abandoned.”