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  Minette’s eyebrows lifted. “Lassiter?”

  “Yes. An American. From a small town in Wyoming, I believe he said,” Diego told her. He shook his head as he stared at Minette. “Two weeks ago, I was an aging bachelor. Today, I am a father. It is a magnificent alteration.”

  Minette smiled. She was beginning to get used to the idea. Well, a little.

  There were muffled voices coming from the hall. Lucienda came in first, slightly flushed and laughing.

  Just behind her was a tall, broad-shouldered man with thick, straight black hair. He had olive skin and jet-black eyes, like Diego Sanchez. He had high cheekbones and a chiseled, sensual mouth. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt with an odd red symbol on the front and lettering that read, Alliance, Beware!

  Minette paid more attention to the shirt than the man. “Alliance?” she asked.

  He gave her a long look, and then grinned, showing snow-white teeth. “I’m Horde.”

  Minette glanced at Hayes Carson, who rolled his eyes.

  “Another ‘World of Warcraft’ fanatic,” Hayes sighed. “I ought to know, I work with one.”

  “World of...what?” Minette asked, confused.

  “It’s a PC game, what they call a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG,” Hayes explained. “There are two factions, Alliance—that’s the good guys—and Horde, the bad guys.”

  “Hey, we aren’t bad,” Lassiter said haughtily. “We’re only misunderstood.”

  “My mistake,” Hayes mused, and chuckled.

  “He plays the game in his spare time,” Diego said with a smile. “Which he has precious little of, I might add.”

  “My chief deputy, Zack, is my ongoing authority on the game,” Hayes said. “Since the new Pandaria expansion came out, he comes to work every day like a zombie from lack of sleep.”

  “I know the feeling,” Lassiter told them.

  “This is my daughter,” Diego introduced Lassiter to Minette.

  “Yes, I know, I have a file devoted to her life,” Lassiter said. His black eyes twinkled as he approached Minette. “It’s a great pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

  “Thanks,” she said. She was studying him. “MIT?” she murmured.

  “Ya. MIT. I did a double major, physics and Arabic languages.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Hayes said, “and do you have time to explain the concept of vortex mathematics and the spatial interaction of dark matter and black holes...?”

  Lassiter gave him a speaking look. “Not nice.”

  Hayes grinned. “Sorry. Couldn’t help myself. I don’t often have the opportunity to meet a real live geek.”

  “I have a card somewhere that entitles me to two consecutive episodes of nerd rage,” Lassiter said, laughing.

  “Nerd rage?” Minette was all at sea.

  “It’s a gamer thing,” Lassiter said. “We have all sorts of abbreviations and in-jokes.”

  “She doesn’t game,” Hayes said.

  “I do so,” she retorted. “I play Animal Farm on Facebook.”

  Lassiter rolled his eyes.

  “When Julie and Shane get a few years older, you’re probably going to know more about gaming than you want to say,” Hayes told her.

  “I expect so. Julie’s best friend has a PlayStation and she goes over there to play some of the newer children’s games. She’s getting a PlayStation of her own for Christmas so she can play arcade games. Shane has an Xbox 360, but he only plays wrestling games. They’re too violent for her. And he shares, but very reluctantly,” she laughed.

  “I am always available to give advice on gaming systems, and even to help install them,” Lassiter said with pursed lips. “If he promises not to shoot me, I’ll hook up the whole system for you.” He jerked his head toward Hayes, who was looking suddenly hostile.

  “Why would Hayes mind?” Minette asked.

  Lassiter just laughed. Hayes didn’t.

  “Back to the matter at hand,” Diego said, quickly defusing the tension. “I have Lassiter watching your house for signs of covert activity.” He glanced at Hayes. “You, also, have a man in the field, I believe?”

  “Yes,” Hayes said, calming a bit. He didn’t want Lassiter around his girl. His girl. He felt the words all the way into his heart as he glanced at her with pure possession. Yes. She belonged to him, and he wasn’t sharing. Especially not with some intellectual gaming geek.

  The gaming geek was giving him amused looks. “And Cy Parks also has a man watching your ranch at night,” Lassiter told Minette. “It might not be a bad idea for all of us to coordinate these efforts, in the interest of safety.” The smile vanished. “I tend to shoot first. I imagine your deputy and Parks’s man have the same mindset.”

  Hayes nodded. “The potential for confrontations is a bit upsetting.”

  “I agree,” Lassiter replied. He glanced at his boss. “I’ve got electronic surveillance pretty much everywhere, but there’s nothing that can replace human eyes and ears in the field. I’m a hunter,” he told Hayes, and his expression became hard and dangerous. “I can hear a mouse walk across cardboard at a hundred yards in the dark. And I can track.”

  “So can Zack,” Hayes replied. “He likes venison.”

  Lassiter was amused. “So do I.”

  “Zack says his father taught him. They still go hunting together.”

  Lassiter’s smile faded. “My father and I aren’t speaking at the moment. He didn’t approve of my choice of employment.”

  “Employment?” Minette asked.

  Lassiter averted his eyes. “It’s a long story.”

  “Considering who you worked for,” Hayes remarked, “I can understand his position.”

  “I don’t invite public comment,” Lassiter said with cold steel in his tone.

  Hayes quirked an eyebrow. “Hit a nerve, did I?” he asked, and he didn’t apologize.

  “A few years ago,” Lassiter told him very quietly, “you’d have been hanging from one thumb off a tall building for a remark like that. However, I’ve mellowed a great deal since the loss of my previous employer. Now, I’d just hang you from both hands.” He smiled blithely.

  Hayes glared at him. “You’re welcome to try that. At your convenience.”

  “I never attack a man when he’s down. It’s an honor thing.”

  “We can have this conversation again when I’m back on my feet,” Hayes replied. And his smile was ice-cold.

  “Do you think we could attempt to get along?” Minette asked the men, exasperated. “I mean, the object of this collaboration, El Ladrón, is a man who once threw his own uncle into a vat of acid in a rage, if I recall properly?”

  Lassiter and Hayes tried to stare each other down, but it didn’t really work. With mental shrugs, they turned their attention back to Minette and her father.

  “Yes, he did,” Diego spoke for them. “He has a bad temper and he doesn’t mind killing people, even relatives.” He seemed worried. “I wish to prevent something similar happening to you. Which brings us to the subject I want to address.”

  “What would that be?” Hayes asked.

  Diego leaned back against the sofa. “I have a small journal. It was obtained, at great cost, from one of El Ladrón’s most trusted lieutenants. It is written in code, which I have no means to break.”

  “Totally untrue,” Lassiter said with a grin, dropping his elegant length into an easy chair beside the sofa. “I could break the code if I had enough free time.”

  “Yes, but time is the thing.” He turned to Hayes. “I am willing to turn this information over to the DEA. I understand that you know at least two agents personally.”

  “I do,” Hayes said. “And they’d be grateful for the intel. Which doesn’t mean that they won’t be looking for a way to arrest you, I might add.”

  Diego shrugged and smiled. “If they can find any evidence of wrongdoing in this country, I will go willingly and without handcuffs.” He leaned forward. “They must find means to stop Mendez
before he goes after my daughter,” he added urgently. “Toward that end, I will do anything within reason to assist them.”

  Hayes looked impressed. “That’s quite an offer.”

  “Will you carry the request to the appropriate people?”

  “I will,” Hayes said. “Today.”

  “I am in your debt.”

  “So am I. For that, at least,” Lassiter added. He was looking at Minette again, with an expression that made Hayes’s face clench.

  “We should go,” Hayes told Minette.

  She grimaced. She didn’t really want to leave.

  Diego saw that, and he smiled. “It pleases me that you want to stay,” he told her as he rose. “But your companion is right. You will be safer away from here. Wait.” He took a pencil and jotted down a number on a slip of paper. He handed it to her. “This is a private cell phone. No one has the number. It is a, how do you say, throwaway phone.”

  “I imagine you have a box of those,” Hayes chuckled. “They’re pretty much untraceable,” he added to Minette.

  “Business,” Diego replied easily. “Just business.” He took his daughter by the shoulders and kissed both her cheeks. “It is an honor, and a great pleasure, to have you in my life. But I wish to spare yours. So we should keep meetings like this to a minimum. You can call me whenever you like, though,” he added, smiling. “Very often would be my preference. I want to get to know you.”

  “I’d like that.” She went to the door, followed by the three men. Outside, a man was leading a beautiful thoroughbred down the path to the enormous barn. The horse’s coat was black, brilliantly shinning, with white socks on all four legs.

  “He’s beautiful!” Minette exclaimed.

  “These are my children.” Diego gestured toward the paddock nearby and the barn. Three other horses grazed in the paddock. “One of the mares will drop a colt in the spring. I have high hopes to continue the bloodline. We won the Preakness in Kentucky this past season.”

  “I read about that,” Hayes said. “Your horses are magnificent.”

  “They are. I raise palominos,” Minette said. “But mine don’t have any super bloodlines. They’re just pets. I love every one of them.”

  “Now, that is genetics at work,” Diego exclaimed. “You see? Horses are really in the blood!”

  Everyone laughed.

  Chapter 9

  “I don’t like that guy,” Hayes said as they drove off the property.

  “My dad?” Minette asked, turning her head briefly to meet Hayes’s irritated eyes.

  “No. His enforcer. Lassiter.”

  “Oh. I thought he was rather charming,” she remarked.

  “Charming. Like a snake with a haircut.”

  She burst out laughing. “Hayes!”

  He sighed. “Well, maybe that’s not the best description I could have come up with. But you get my meaning. He’s very slick.”

  “Very smart, too.” She glanced at him. “And he’s not the only one,” she added when he looked even more irritated. “Black holes? Dark matter? Vortex mathematics?”

  “I subscribe to two science magazines,” Hayes confessed. “I don’t have a degree in physics, but I do love the subject. Well, that and quantum mechanics.”

  “Over my head,” she remarked. “I’m more of a car mechanics sort of person. Not that I can do much more than check the oil and kick the tires.”

  He laughed. “That’s about the size of it, with me, too. But I can keep things running around the ranch. I just don’t have time to do a lot of tinkering. I suppose your father’s enforcer does have a little free time when he’s not killing people to indulge his mechanical skills,” he added with stinging anger.

  “You really don’t like that guy. Why?”

  Hayes’s black eyes narrowed. “I don’t like the way he looks at you.”

  Minette accidentally jerked the wheel and the truck headed for the ditch, but she corrected it at once. “Sorry, hand slipped,” she lied.

  He wasn’t buying that. His eyes twinkled. “Uh-huh.”

  She concentrated on getting the truck to the stoplight. She didn’t look at Hayes. Her high color might have revealed more to him than she wanted him to know. She was flattered that he minded how an attractive man looked at her. It was, well, sort of possessive. She liked it a lot, but she didn’t want to make her pleasure obvious.

  “Do you have physical therapy today?” she asked suddenly.

  “Tomorrow,” he said.

  “Oh. Okay. I was going to offer to drive you.”

  “I think I should be driving myself,” he began.

  “Dr. Coltrain said not until he tells you it’s okay.” She looked at him. “You don’t want to do something to set back your progress.”

  He grimaced. “I guess not.” He sighed and looked out the window. “I’m getting cabin fever, is all.”

  “You don’t like having to stay in one room,” she translated.

  “It’s a very nice cage, with great food and company,” he replied. “But I miss Andy.”

  “Want to swing by and see him?” she asked. “It’s on the way.”

  He brightened. “I’d love to, if you don’t mind.”

  “Not one bit.” She frowned. “Do we need to go by your office and get your house key from Zack?”

  “No. I keep a spare hidden, just in case.”

  “Good thinking.”

  He smiled. “I try to plan for emergencies.”

  “I noticed.”

  * * *

  She pulled up at his front porch and they both got out of the vehicle. Hayes went around the corner and came back with a key.

  He turned it in the lock, and invited her to go in first.

  “Hey, Andy!” he called. And he whistled.

  “He comes when you whistle?” Minette exclaimed.

  “Usually. I don’t know.... Andy!” he exclaimed as his huge scaly roommate came scampering out of the kitchen. “Hi, buddy!” he said enthusiastically. “Haven’t forgotten me yet?”

  The big lizard blazed its eyes and shook its head enthusiastically.

  “That’s what they do when they like something, or when they’re courting,” Hayes explained helpfully.

  “Oh, I see. He really likes you,” she teased.

  He made a face. “Now, don’t get too close, just in case,” he said. “Andy has some problems with women.”

  “I’ve heard all about that,” she agreed.

  The big reptile cocked its head as it looked at Minette. But, strangely, he didn’t attack her. He just watched.

  “Gosh, he’s beautiful,” she said, her voice soft with feeling. “I didn’t realize they were quite so colorful. He’s almost turquoise in places.”

  He smiled. “They change color—well, just a bit—depending on a lot of factors—heat, light, things like that.”

  “What does he eat?”

  “Fruits and veggies,” Hayes said. “But he likes shredded carrots and spring salad mix best.” He reached down and picked up the huge reptile. Andy put his front feet on Hayes’s chest. “No, no, old fella,” Hayes laughed, turning him slightly. “No climbing today, I’m afraid. Let’s see if you’ve got carrots.”

  He put the lizard’s belly on his hand and carried him gently under his arm into the kitchen.

  “I can’t believe he lets you pick him up,” Minette exclaimed.

  “Tell you a secret,” he said with a grin. “They’re cold-blooded. I’m warm. See the connection there?”

  “Yes, I do, but he’s also blazing his eyes and shaking his head,” she laughed. “So I’m betting he likes you, too.”

  He put Andy down on the floor and looked in the refrigerator. “Bless Zack’s heart. A whole tub of shredded carrots.”

  He pulled out the fixings and made Andy a nice iguana salad, placing it on the floor in a paper bowl. “Less cleanup,” he told her with a grin.

  “Look at him eat!” she laughed. The big animal’s nose was completely buried in the bowl of salad. Next
to it was a long, deep ceramic bowl of water.

  “He’s a big guy, so he takes a lot of feeding. Look here.” He took her into the next room, which looked like a study, complete with desk. Except in one corner there was a dead tree on a stand, a shelf next to it and a heat lamp suspended over the shelf. On the shelf was a long, flat thing that looked like a rock except that it plugged into the wall.

  “This is where Andy lives. He’s got a view—” he indicated the window that the shelf gave access to “—and a heat lamp, and even a hot rock. See, they’re cold-blooded so they have to have an outside source to heat them up so they can digest food. Otherwise they get something called ‘belly-rot.’ It’s usually fatal.”

  “Gosh, there’s so much to learn,” she said.

  He nodded. “It’s sort of like the setup Cag Hart used to have for his snake, except he kept the snake in an aquarium. Tried that. Andy just moped. So I potty-trained him and he has the run of the house.”

  “He’s just amazing.”

  He smiled warmly. “You know how to make friends.”

  She laughed. “No, I’m not trying to flatter you. I really like him.” She studied him quietly. He was so handsome. “Hayes, why don’t you have a female iguana?” she asked, curious.

  “The females tend to be more aggressive,” he explained. “Not all the time, but the ones I’ve encountered have been. This guy who owned a pet shop a few years ago in Jacobsville had a female, a big one, about five feet long in a custom cage. Every time a man came near it, she’d whip the glass with her tail, drop her dewlap and start hissing. Eventually, I think he gave her to a breeder. He couldn’t sell her.”

  “Goodness!”

  “It’s the same with anoles, a smaller green lizard,” he laughed. “The males are very docile and don’t mind being handled.”

  She pursed her lips. “Are you very docile and don’t mind being handled?” she teased, and then she gasped and went red with embarrassment for saying such a forward thing. “Gosh, sorry, I don’t know where that came from!”

  He moved toward her, took her gently by the waist and brought her close to him. “I’m not always docile,” he whispered. “But I don’t mind being handled. Not at all.” He bent his head and brushed her mouth with his.