Protector(61)

“Oh, I’ll find out something,” Miguel said. “Just a question of when. I’ll be in touch.” He looked over at Caitlin and added, “Very nice to meet you, Caitlin.”

Then he went out. His footsteps seemed to echo on the travertine floors, and then a moment later, she heard the front door shut. She looked over at Alex, who hadn’t moved.

“Are you okay?” she asked at last. “I’m really sorry — ”

“It’s all right,” he cut in. His tone was more brusque than she’d ever heard it before, but she thought she understood why. “Miguel was right — Maya is tough. And in the meantime, we’ve got stuff we need to do.”

All right, so he didn’t want to talk about it. She knew it was probably best not to push things, so she nodded. “Okay. Let’s go to the MVD and get me street-legal.”

She wished he would smile.

But he didn’t.





12





Things went fairly quickly at the motor vehicle department, all things considered. The whole time they were waiting, Alex tried as hard as he could not to think about his grandmother, about what she must be going through right now. She’d always been so strong, so vital. These last months had been brutal enough, but with this stroke? What if it turned out she couldn’t ever speak again? What if she were paralyzed? What would the clan do then? When a prima passed away, it was one thing. Time-honored mechanisms were in place to ensure a more or less uneventful transfer of power. But when the head of a clan was incapacitated…that made things far more complicated.

Funny how the more you told yourself not to think about something, the more your brain just kept grinding away at it.

Caitlin seemed to sense his inner turmoil, but, unlike a lot of girls he knew, she didn’t try to make him talk. That was one thing about Lana that had finally driven him nuts; she’d never been able to leave things alone, always wanted to keep picking at him to find out what he was thinking. His own fault for dating a psych major, he supposed, but it was still annoying as hell. Caitlin, however, couldn’t have been more different. She sat next to him as she waited for her number to be called, but she was quiet, watching the people around them, letting out a soft sigh every once in a while when the toddler with the woman in the next row of chairs let out a particularly ear-piercing scream.

No, even the most efficient motor-vehicle office wasn’t exactly a day at the playground.

Eventually, Caitlin’s number was called, and she went off with her magically altered birth certificate and story about how her purse was stolen at a club, and that was why she needed a replacement license. At least she’d be issued a new one right away without having to wait weeks.

Alex watched her, saw the way she smiled and chatted with the tired-looking woman at the processing window, and despite everything, he found himself falling for her even harder. Caitlin was going through her own hell, and yet there she was, somehow managing to act as if nothing more horrible than a stolen purse had happened to her over the past few days.

And then she was coming toward him, flashing her new driver’s license and smiling. It was a subdued smile, as if out of respect for the blow he’d just suffered, but he could practically feel the relief pulsing from her.

“Great photo,” he said, and found a smile of his own tugging at his lips. Might as well find the enjoyment he could in the little things. And she did look great in her photo.

“You think?” she asked, and angled the license toward herself so she could scrutinize it more closely. “I guess it’s not too bad. I was squinting like hell in my old one, so maybe Matías did me a favor by making me leave my purse behind in that house.”

That might be going a little too far, but Alex didn’t bother to contradict her. He could tell she was, like him, trying to make the best of the situation. Getting up from the uncomfortable plastic chair where he’d been sitting, he asked, “Well, now that you’re legal again and have some cash, is there anything else you need? We might as well take care of it while we’re out.”

She seemed to consider for a few seconds, head tilted to one side. “Probably a new purse and wallet, at least. I tend to overpack, so I brought enough clothes for five days. I suppose I could get a few things, just in case.”

“You can always do laundry at my house,” he offered, and she sent him a grateful smile.

“I might have to take you up on that. But in the meantime, if you know someplace to take me shopping that won’t break the bank, that would be great.”

Actually, he’d already been thinking of taking her to Nordstrom Rack, partly because it was on the way home, and partly because she could get decent stuff there while making her money stretch a little further. He suggested the store, and she nodded.