Desert Bound
Page 1
Contents
Desert Bound
Copyright
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Epilogue
About the Author
Acknowledgements
Contents
Desert Bound
Copyright
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Epilogue
About the Author
Acknowledgements
DESERT BOUND
A Cambio Springs Mystery
Can you turn the clock back on your first love? Would you even want to try?
Alex McCann and Teodora "Ted" Vasquez left Cambio Springs together. Ted came back. Alex didn't.
Now, years later, the future alpha of the McCann wolves has returned with plans to bring new life to the dying desert community. Plans that could change everything for the isolated enclave of shapeshifters in the California desert. Some love the plan. Others hate it.
As the town's doctor and one of the strongest daughters in the cat clan, Ted has her own concerns about exposing her community to outsiders. The two former lovers are at each other's throats. And everyone is watching to see what happens.
But when murder once again strikes Cambio Springs, can they overcome their past to help the community they both call home? And can the love they shared once burn again when so many stand against it?
DESERT BOUND is an adult paranormal romance in the Cambio Springs Mysteries series.
Praise for Elizabeth Hunter…
“Hunter is an author to watch!”
—RT Book Reviews
"Elemental Mysteries turned into one of the best paranormal series I've read this year. It's sharp, elegant, clever, evenly paced without dragging its feet and at the same time emotionally intense."
—Karina, NOCTURNAL BOOK REVIEWS
"Hunter is an absolute pro at giving us steamy, heart melting romance."
—Mandy, I READ INDIE
DESERT BOUND
Copyright © 2014
Elizabeth Hunter
ISBN: 9781941674017
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover art: Damonza
Cover design: Damonza
Edited: Cassie McGowan
Proofread: Sara Smith
Formatted: Elizabeth Hunter
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
For information, please visit:
ElizabethHunterWrites.com
DESERT BOUND
A Cambio Springs Mystery
ELIZABETH HUNTER
Chapter One
Teodora Vasquez threw her head back and let the slow spin of beer and music and crowd wash over her. She was almost there. Almost to the buzz that would let her forget the past week. The past month. Maybe the past year…
“Ted!” Tracey shouted at her from the other end of the bar. “Can you help me with this?”
The waitress was carrying two trays of empties and trying to maneuver behind the bar as patrons at the Cave called out orders. The blues rock band playing that night started another set and the volume just got louder.
She stood and made her way over to Tracey. “You know, I’m not working tonight.”
The waitress managed to put the tray on the back counter and turn to glower at the pushy patrons sitting at Ollie’s long oak bar. Ollie was at the other end, pulling pints and keeping an eye on the crowd. No one shouted orders at him. They didn’t dare. “I know,” Tracey said, “but Jena had to leave and I can’t imagine this is harder than surgery, right?”
Ted glanced at the rowdy crowd. “Not too sure about that.”
“Please?” The woman’s gaze was desperate.
“Fine.” She stepped behind the bar, and Tracey hurried to hand her a spare apron as Ted yelled at Ollie, "You owe me one!"
Ollie grunted, but didn't look away from the taps.
Waiting tables and making drinks wasn’t harder than operating the small medical clinic in Cambio Springs. The buzz she’d almost caught had disappeared with Tracey’s plea, and Ted couldn’t think of anything better than the whirl of activity at the Cave to quiet her mind.
“You’re a lifesaver!” Tracey fixed her mop of wiry curls into a ponytail and washed her hands before she started mixing the list of drinks she’d written on her pad. “Sandra was supposed to work tonight. She was a no-show. I have no idea why Jena had to run out, but it must have been an emergency—Ollie, I need two Blue Moons and a cider—She didn’t even ask. Just told Ollie she was leaving—And a Fat Tire when you get a chance! He didn’t argue.”
He wouldn’t. Jena wasn’t a regular employee. Like Ted, she helped out when Ollie needed her and she wasn’t a flake. She was a chef and owned the only other restaurant in town, the Blackbird Diner. She also had two boys at home and another on the way, thanks to her hot-as-sin new husband, Caleb Gilbert.
“Hope it’s nothing serious.” Ted tried not to worry too much. If it were medical, her phone would already be ringing. She was the only doctor in town.
“I’m sure it’s fine.”
“He call anyone to help behind the bar?”
“Yeah.”
Ted grabbed a pad and headed out to the floor, nodding along to the music. It was a new band—some boys from Las Vegas—and they were good. The Cave was Ollie’s bar, but all of his closest friends helped out
occasionally. It was fun to hang out on quieter nights, and they always drank for free. Jena and Caleb usually got a babysitter for the boys and were there on the weekends when live music filled the bar and things were busier. Jena waited tables and made drinks with Ollie, while Caleb would hang out and keep things from getting too crazy. Having the Cambio Springs Chief of Police in the corner of the room tended to keep out the wilder elements.
Well, the wilder human elements. There wasn’t anything they could do about the shapeshifters. The visiting humans mixed among the locals, never suspecting the large man who served them drinks was a bear on full moon nights. Or the lean guy at the pool table slid into a rattlesnake to sun himself on the hot desert rocks that surrounded the small town. The three brothers nodding along to the band howled at the moon on Friday nights.
And that wasn’t just a figure of speech.
She was picking up empties when she felt warm breath on her neck. She was about to turn and bare claws when she heard his voice.
“Hey, Ted.”
Son of a bitch.
Alex McCann leaned down and gave her neck an obvious sniff. Ted tried not to roll her eyes. Wolves. It was all about the nose.
“What are you doing here, Alex?”
He took another deep breath and smirked. “Pissing you off and, apparently, turning you on a little.”
“Go away.”
“I’m also helping out Ollie. He called and said Jena had to take off. He knew I wasn’t busy tonight.”
“Well, Tracey asked me to help, so you can go home.”
He looked around the chaotic bar and Ted tried to keep a straight face. They were still short-staffed. The Cave wasn’t a large bar, but that night, they were stretching fire code with all the people crammed in to hear the music and let loose on a Friday night.
Apparently, Alex thought so, too.
“I can stay.”
“Don’t you need to get home?”
He cocked his head. “No, I told you—”
“I mean Los Angeles.” She lifted an eyebrow. “Work’s done for the week. Shouldn’t you be scurrying back?”
He looked close, a quiet look of challenge on his face. “I am home, baby. You’ll get used to it eventually.”
She stepped on the toe of his boot and ground her foot down. “Don’t call me that.”
It didn’t do anything but bring up painful memories.
He clenched his jaw and Ted could see the faint golden glow behind his eyes. “Don’t go furry now, McCann.”
“Then keep your claws in, Vasquez.”
She stepped back and smiled. “You only wish my claws were in you.” She was fairly sure there was an old scar or two on his shoulders that proved it.
Alex stepped back, and people cleared a path for him. They always did.
“Patience is a virtue… baby.”
Ted turned back to finish picking up the tables.
Her tables kept her too busy to think about Alex. Too busy to think about their history or how she still—even after years apart—turned toward his side of the bed to reach for him at night.
She’d devoted years to her feelings for him. Years to making a relationship work that probably never should have started anyway. She’d loved him. Almost felt desperate with it sometimes, and Ted hated that feeling. The raw need for him still clawed at her when he was near, as if the wild cat inside her was tearing to get out.
To hurt him? To drag him back? She didn’t know. And she was a person first, not an animal.
Luckily she was too busy to examine it closely when she was balancing a dozen empty glasses on a tray.
Too busy to think about her struggling practice. Too busy to think about her family or the rumbling in the cat clan her mother and great aunt were trying to quell. And definitely too busy to think about the new spa resort Alex was building in the heart of Cambio Springs, the place the Vasquez clan had called home for generations.
Some in town hoped the resort would use the natural mineral springs that gave the town its name to draw wealthy visitors to the luxury resort that McCann Holdings was building. Others worried the secrecy the seven original families of the Springs had carefully maintained for over one hundred years would crumble, and humans would discover that one of the springs, the one hidden in the canyon walls, had turned the original town founders into shapeshifters.
Cats, wolves, snakes, birds, and bears. There had been others marry in, but the seven original families had passed on their strange quirk to their offspring, and now the isolated desert town was unique for more than just the mineral springs. It didn’t matter if your mom or dad married a human. If one of them changed into a bobcat on the full moon, you would too.
“Hey, can I get a beer here?”
“Miss? Miss?”
“Another round when you get a chance?”
The shouts, laughs, and mild chaos around her had the odd effect of quieting Ted’s mind as she focused on the immediate task. It was what had made her so good in trauma. She’d been in her element during her time in the ER. Part of her hated that she’d had to go into general practice, but that was what the town needed.
And what Cambio Springs needed, Ted gave. That’s the way it had always been. And if giving that meant sacrificing part of her heart, she made the sacrifice.
“Why’s it so slow tonight?” a whiny voice at her next table asked.
“It usually isn’t. Oh my… He is so hot.”
Ted smiled at the table of clueless human women who ordered four margaritas and couldn’t take their eyes off the singer in the corner. He was cute, but Ted had to admit he didn’t hold a candle to the eye candy standing behind the bar, laughing and mixing drinks with a smile and a wink to the girls. Ted knew she wasn’t the only one who noticed.
Ollie and Alex had been friends for years, and while the men didn’t look a thing alike, the easy camaraderie was obvious. At almost six and a half feet tall, Ollie Campbell was a giant. Big arms. Big shoulders. His sun-darkened olive skin was covered with tattoos from wrist to collar. He’d trimmed his beard back to a thick stubble for the summer, and it was still growing out.
Alex, on the other hand, was getting scruffier. Not as tall as Ollie, he still stood an impressive six feet. His frame was leaner, but strong in a way that didn’t come from a gym. Sandy hair and piercing blue eyes. The Southern California business gloss was slowly wearing off of him the longer he stayed in town, and Ted tried not to notice how good it looked on him. It reminded her of when they’d been living together when she was in medical school. He’d had been working construction then, not closing real estate deals. Rough and callused, when he came home dusty at night, he reminded her of home.
That animal attraction hadn’t lessened between them, Ted had just gotten better at ignoring it.
She also ignored all the women flirting with Alex.
The Cave was the unofficial boundary line of Cambio Springs, so humans came in to drink the beer and listen to the quality bands that The Cave managed to pull in, but they didn’t linger in town. Most were just passing through. The few who showed more interest were quietly discouraged, mostly by Ollie or any of the other bears in her friend’s clan who acted as the unofficial guardians of Cambio Springs.
She saw Ollie smile at her and knew he’d caught her watching Alex. She rolled her eyes and rushed to another table. Ollie may have been Ted’s second or third or fifth cousin, but he was one of Alex’s best friends, too. And he had opinions. Quiet opinions, but he hadn’t held them back.
“He’s back now, Ted. Work your shit out. You guys belong together.”
Simple problem. Simple solution. Typical bear.
Sure, Alex was back. Until the resort was finished, and then Ted had little confidence he’d stick around. He’d misled her too many times.
When are you coming home?
“As soon as I can.”
“Don’t say we need to move on.”
“Give me a little more time, Tea.”
“Soon.”
“Soon” had turned into seven years. Seven years since Alex McCann had broken her heart. Then he came back and got her hopes up before he’d disappeared again. Ted had learned her lesson.
No more Alex. No third chances. Time to move on.
But Ollie wanted the people around him content and happy, and she knew he missed when Alex and Ted had been together. She was his family and Alex was his best friend. In Ollie’s opinion, the solution was obvious. Get over it and move on with their life together. The problem was, Ollie believed Alex was staying in the Springs—which Ted didn’t, even a little—and the bear’s heart hadn’t been broken one time too many by the wolf behind the bar.
She sidled up to the bar with a pad full of orders just as the band started in on an edgy rock cover of “With a Little Help From My Friends.” Ted risked a glance at Alex. It was one of their songs. She remembered dancing in their tiny kitchen in Venice Beach, Alex singing the lyrics in her ear after a particularly bad day.
They’d grown up together, been friends before they were lovers. And sometimes, she missed that most of all.
“Take a break.”
He stood behind her; she didn’t even need to look to know. The band had taken off at midnight and someone put a Lucinda Williams tune on the jukebox. Fast enough to dance to, but slow enough to hold your partner close. Exactly the kind of music that Alex had always liked.
He knew what he was doing.
“Can’t.” The crowd had died down. She and Tracey were cleaning up the floor. It was after midnight, and her mind was clear. If she went home now, she’d sleep well. If she danced with Alex, she wouldn’t sleep well for a week. As much as she hated it, he still had that affect on her.