He watched amazement dawn on Cam’s face. “She stopped an earthquake from happening?”
Marco chuckled. “Not quite. We all tease her for the small tremors that slipped past.”
Cam blinked. “And there are others?” He nodded. “Then what about you? How did you end up working with DEFEND?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “Like with most things, it’s thanks to Neena. She convinced my grandfather—he was an EM trainer when he was alive—to let me join DEFEND instead of being sent to Southeast Asia to help with tsunami prevention.”
He stayed quiet, allowing it all to sink in. Cam eventually looked back up at him. “Thanks for telling me, Marco. I won’t take this secret lightly.”
“I trust you, Camilla.”
He tried to kiss her, but Cam backed away and said, “A kiss could distract us, and we need to start planning our next job.”
For once, he wished they could forget about their duties, but accepted that would never happen. “What job?”
She looked him dead in the eye and lifted her chin. “To help find the person who killed your cousin, of course.”
He loved the fact that she remembered that. “Okay, we’ll do that after we take a dip in the nearby lake.”
“Lake?”
“There’s no running water in this place. We need to get clean, and I plan to have a little fun doing it.”
“Marco…”
“Shh, Camilla. Just think of it as multi-tasking. Women are supposed to be good at that.”
“Are you really going to lump me together with all women?”
He smiled. “Of course not, but I live to tease you.”
She shook her head. “And I still don’t understand why, but that’s one of the things I love about you.”
“Then I’ll just have to do it more often.”
Cam opened her mouth, but Marco kissed her quiet. After all, it was his duty to warm her up before she had to swim in the cold lake.
And judging by her claws in his back, she seemed to agree with him.
Epilogue
Cartagena, Colombia
Cam couldn’t stop staring at the colorful colonial buildings all around her. Marco had taken her to Old Town Cartagena for their meeting, and while she knew this wasn’t a real representation of Colombia, she didn’t care. The bright colors and style of the buildings reminded her of Merida, Mexico for a reason—they had both been major ports in the Spanish colonies.
In the five days since she’d been healed, Cam had spent nearly every waking moment with Marco. Neena and Aislinn had approved them working as a team—along with Zalika and Jacek—and they had been given two weeks to straighten things out before receiving their next assignment.
And while they hadn’t heard anything yet from Jorge Salazar, she had finally accepted that Harry Watkins was now the shadow-shifter’s responsibility.
Marco stopped in front of a restaurant with an open-air front, and he squeezed her hand. “This is it, are you ready?”
Cam nodded. “I’m supposed to be the nervous one, but somehow, I think you’re worse than me.”
“Yeah, well, it’s been ten years since I last saw my parents.”
“And that’s why we’re here. You think you’ve been protecting them by keeping your distance, but they need to decide for themselves which is greater—the risk or the reward when it comes to including you in their life.”
Marco gave a half-smile. “You’re too smart for your own good.”