Antonio passed Daniel coming out of Roberto's house while he was on his way in. The male did not look pleased.
The prime wasn’t overly big on formality and didn’t bother keeping an office, which was why all the leap owned businesses and assets were managed out of the timber mill office. If anybody needed to see Roberto or ask him anything, they approached him wherever they saw him, and when Roberto wanted to speak to someone, they did it at his house.
His house was meticulously clean, no doubt thanks to one of the leap females, and filled with slightly worn but sturdy and well-kept furniture. Antonio had a lot of happy memories in this house – from before his father’s death.
Antonio’s eyes flickered to the pictures over the fireplace – photos of his grandparents, of his dad and Roberto when they were kids, some of him, his mom and brothers, and two of Roberto’s late mate, Lana.
Roberto caught him looking and something passed over his face before he cleared his throat. Antonio could smell Marta somewhere in the house, but there were no scents of sex. Roberto’s bad mood had been increasing as of late, and Antonio wondered whether that was the reason for it.
Speak of the devil… Marta sauntered into the room and smirked at Antonio.
“Hey, Antonio. How’s your little mate?”
His hackles rose at that, and his jaguar growled. He’d never had anything against Marta. He’d never had anything to do with her. His uncle might have slept with her on and off but she’d generally ignored Antonio and his family – particularly his mother who she saw as a rival for Roberto’s attention.
Now, though, perhaps she was as keen for him to mate Valentina as the female herself. In which case he didn’t want her anywhere near Hester.
“Hester’s fine,” he replied curtly.
“Leave us, Marta,” growled Roberto.
“But…”
“Marta.”
Roberto gave her a hard look, and she flinched before huffing.
“Shall I come back…”
“No, Marta,” he said with an air of finality.
She gave Roberto a cool look before leaving. Antonio considered making a comment, but he liked his head where it was.
“I spoke to the chief, gave him the gun,” rumbled Roberto. “He wasn’t aware of any hunters in town – wrong time of year. We checked out the local motel and came up empty. Might have been kids fooling around. He’s going to run the serial number; hopefully, we’ll have this cleared up soon.”
Antonio’s jaguar grunted in disappointment. He was hoping to hear something along the lines of the culprit was already stewing in a cell at the police station.
“Until we have an answer on the gun, I want you to set up regular patrols.”
Antonio nodded. Typically, that would fall under the purview of the leap second, but Antonio wasn’t going to argue.
Roberto grunted, dismissing Antonio, dropping himself into one of his armchairs. The prime was worried about something, Antonio could sense it, but he doubted Roberto would admit it.
He hoped the gun shed some light on who shot at them because he wasn’t sure how long he could keep his tempestuous cheetah grounded.
*
“Are you sure I can’t do anything to help?” offered Hester.
Admittedly, she probably wouldn’t be much help, but she felt like she had to ask. Home cooked meals were not something she was accustomed to. Her mother’s prowess in the kitchen was even more abysmal than her own, and Hester had rarely been introduced to her former boyfriends’ parents.
Maria smiled warmly as she bustled around. “Of course not, dear, you help yourself to some wine and relax.”
After work, Antonio escorted her home to change for dinner, and she was ashamed to admit she spent a nervous hour obsessing over what to wear. She had no idea why she cared, but she didn’t want his family to hate her. It wasn’t like it really mattered if they did hate her, but she kind of felt like she had to justify herself to them. Antonio had traveled to Los Lobos, and of all the women in the city, he had chosen to kidnap her, chosen to risk his liberty by bringing her home. Plus, he wasn’t just risking his own liberty – if she actually made it to the cops she probably could have just about all of the leap arrested for their knowledge of this ongoing kidnapping ring. So maybe a part of her wanted to show them that she was special, that she was worth the risk… maybe the thin mountain air was starting to send her bananas.
Her cheetah chuffed in encouragement and Hester smoothed down her skirt. In the end, she went for a moderately tight but high neck sweater and a denim mini skirt. Showed off her curvy legs, but wasn’t too dressy, and if the way Antonio had gulped when he came to collect her for dinner was anything to go by, it was a good choice.
Ha, he’d seen her naked twice, and yet he still got a little bit tongue tied when he saw her bare legs. That was a quality she liked in a man.
Maria had hugged her when Hester arrived – the previous threat to shred her apparently forgotten. Antonio’s twin brothers – Alejandro and Arturo – were also keen to hug her, but Antonio slapped the back of their heads and told them to behave themselves. They were sitting across the table, sporting matching grins.
They looked a lot like Antonio, though their hair and eyes were lighter, more like their mother’s, and their features softer, prettier even. Given Antonio’s resemblance to his uncle, Roberto, she guessed he took after their dad more than the twins.
The grins and quiet snickers were starting to get irritating.
Hester sipped at her wine and gave them a bored look. “You didn’t slap them hard enough,” she commented to Antonio.
He chuckled while the twins affected expressions of hurt.
“Come on, what has the two of you so amused?”
“We can’t say,” sniggered one of them – she had no idea which. Probably only their mother knew that.
She wasn’t sure how old they were, though they were large and fully-grown, she wouldn’t be surprised to learn they were still nineteen. Fully mature by shifter standards, but still retaining the more irritating qualities of a teenager.
Hester caught the murderous look Antonio lashed at them, and her interest was piqued – or more like her suspicions were raised.
“What does he mean?” she asked in a deceptively soft voice.
Antonio shook his head. “Nothing.”
Hester gazed at him. He was wearing a clean, blue shirt and was freshly showered and shaved. Her cheetah meowed when he arrived at the guesthouse earlier, the lingering scent of shampoo and water clinging to his body. He must have been in a hurry. There was the tiniest knick on the edge of his jaw, a speckle of blood marring the shadow that had already begun to reappear on his face. She longed to stroke her finger over it, to press her lips to it, and swipe her tongue across it, allowing the taste of his blood to trickle over her taste buds. Rawr.
“Tell me,” she demanded almost feverishly. She was about an inch away from leaping on him in front of his family – she needed a distraction.
Antonio just shook his head. If she didn’t know any better, she’d say he was just as stubborn as her.
“It can’t be that bad.”
He winced, and a low sound rattled in the back of her throat. The twins watched in interest; this was highly entertaining for them.
“It’s not bad; I’m just not sure you’d understand.”
“You don’t tell me I’ll make you talk,” she warned. She always managed to find out her Christmas presents in advance growing up. Her mother had such a low threshold when it came to things that annoy her, which meant that Hester had a lot in her arsenal.
“Really?” Antonio smiled disarmingly. He didn’t believe her for a second.
“Yep.”
“Go ahead.”
Well, he asked for it. She threw everything she had into it. “Meihllllll!”
The sound that escaped her mouth was loud, strange, horrifying to the eardrums and above all, irritating.
Antonio threw himself back in his seat, shocked at the sudden, loud outburst. His mother dropped the serving spoon she was holding, and even the twins yelped.
“What the hell was that?” cried Antonio staring at her as if she’d just confessed to being abducted by aliens.
Hester folded her arms and smiled serenely. “You don’t tell me what I want to know and I’m going to keep doing it.”
Antonio stared at her for a few moments before snickering. “Really? You’re a lawyer and a female, and that’s the best idea you have?”
“Hey, you never saw me in court. I got answers by badgering and annoying people into telling me what I wanted to know.” True she never resorted to the annoying noise tactic – one solely reserved for her mother – but she could badger people by asking them the same question over and over until they thought their heads were going to explode.
“Didn’t you consider maybe seducing the answer out of me?” He waggled his eyebrows, and his mother hit him with a dishcloth.
“Antonio Roberto Chavez, that’s no way to talk to a lady,” Maria scolded.
Hester ascertained that Maria wasn’t holding anything heavy or hot and took the opportunity to make the noise again. The family members were just as surprised, and if their expressions were anything to go by, seriously considering if she was a lunatic.
“Yeah, Antonio Roberto – wait your middle name’s Roberto?” asked Hester, as if she hadn’t just made a crazy noise.
“Ah, yeah,” said Antonio watching her warily, “it was my grandfather’s name. Technically my uncle is Roberto the fourth.”
“Not exactly inventive when it comes to names, huh?”
Maria laughed, though she too watched Hester, probably making sure she wasn’t about to do it again. “The males here are just set in their ways. Perhaps they need a little shake up.”
She gave Hester a wink.
The noise happened again.
“Ready to tell me?” Hester purred.
Antonio was fighting back guffaws of laughter as he shook his head. Yeah, he was laughing now – but the longest her mother ever managed was ten days of this. She doubted he would last three.
“What’s the story behind your middle name?” asked Antonio quickly, clearly hoping to distract her.
It kind of worked. Hester paused about to take a sip of wine. “You know my middle name?” she growled.
“Sure do. I’ve seen your driver’s license, Hester Abstinence…”
The twins howled in laughter.
Damnit! “You…” Her eyes flicked to Maria and then mouthed the word ‘dick’ at him.
The evil bastard just grinned.
“Abstinence, really? I thought I’d misread it.”
“It’s just a stupid tradition in my mom’s family, okay? Her middle name is Prudence and when I was born my parents joked about me being Abstinence because they were a little tipsy when I was conceived. My grandfather thought they were being serious and… well, he somehow managed to get it on my birth certificate. If you tell anyone else…” She looked around at all three males and made a slicing motion across her throat.
They were far too amused by her middle name, so she figured it was time to make the noise again. That soon startled them into shutting up.
Her cheetah cackled with laughter.