“I’ll talk to her,” Drew said abruptly.
Everyone looked at him. He shrugged. “I don’t want to get further in with Ryan. I don’t want you guys to start a war with his guys.”
“We’re halfway there already, it seems,” the Colonel said.
“Any more of a war, then! I don’t want anyone to get hurt at all.”
Carlos stepped forward and put a hand on Drew’s shoulder. “You’re going to be all right, kid.”
Drew stayed still, but Pauline thought she could see the hint of a lean in him, the desire to take advantage of that solid presence.
She hoped so.
***
Carlos
Carlos stepped outside as Cal and the Colonel said their goodbyes, because the Colonel had that look in his eye that said, How about we have a talk, without any need for verbalizing it.
Mavis lingered to say something to Pauline, while the men came out to the cars. In the drive, Colonel Hanes looked at him. “I heard you were coming here on vacation. This doesn’t look like much of a vacation.”
“No,” Carlos admitted.
He hadn’t been looking forward to talking about his feelings with the two stoic men standing beside him, but somehow it all came spilling out of his mouth anyway.
“We’re mates,” he confessed. “Pauline and I. I thought—I saw her when I was here to help out Nate and Stella, thought she was beautiful, interesting. But I didn’t realize what was behind it. And now...” He shook his head.
“Realizing you want to settle down?” Cal said wryly. “When you never thought you would?”
“Guess you know the feeling.”
“Sure do,” he said. “I thought I was fine. Didn’t want anything more than what I had. And then Lillian came into my office, needing my help, and...” He opened a hand. “That was it.”
“That was it,” Carlos repeated. “Yep. I was gone the second I laid eyes on her. I just didn’t realize it until now. I don’t know if I even would’ve come back here if I hadn’t been wanting to see her again, in the back of my mind.”
“Well, good,” the Colonel said briskly. “We could use some new blood, here. There’s so much transition with the tourists in and out, the locals don’t have as much sense of community as they could use. And I have to say, Sheriff Dale’s right—there’s too much of people sticking with their own packs, staying away from anyone they wouldn’t call one of their own. My stepdaughter struggled for years and years, looking for a place to belong, until she found other snow leopards like her. I have to say, it’s hidebound and it’s not helping anyone much.” He looked disapproving.
“Not how the Marines do things,” Carlos observed quietly.
“Certainly not.” The Colonel was frowning. “You men were as much of a pack as any group of littermates, and not one of you was the same type of shifter as another.”
“Well, maybe that’ll convince the sheriff we’re on her side,” Carlos said thoughtfully.
“She’s passionate, but she knows what’s right.” Cal’s voice was quiet but confident. “She’s not going to put a seventeen-year-old first offender in jail, and if he’s right about how solidly he can point the finger at Ryan...”
“He’s a smart kid,” Carlos said. “It’ll be all right.”
He was half-trying to convince himself, he knew. Because he’d caught some of Pauline’s concern, and also some of his own was starting to well up. The way the kid was too thin, the way his shoulders set when he talked about taking responsibility for what he
’d done...it made Carlos’ chest hurt. He was going to make damn sure that kid was okay, and no sheriff had better try to stand in his way.
***
Pauline
“Now,” Mavis said once the men were out the door, “what can I help you with?”
“I’m sorry?” Pauline asked.