As if it took every ounce of strength he had, Reyes dropped his arms and stepped back, his jaw flexing in frustration. “One minute,” he said as he bent down and pulled on the socks and boots Bianca had supplied.

He stood and inserted a key into the handcuffs, the fingers of one hand lacing into mine as he unlocked the restraint with the other. Then we started down the hall, the current that arced through us becoming stronger with each breath, each heartbeat. Amador checked the backyard before waving us forward while he ran to the side of the house.

“Uncle Reyes, are you leaving?”

Reyes turned. Ashlee was peeking out her bedroom window through the storm screen.

“Just for a little while, smidgen,” he said, walking up to her. “Why aren’t you asleep?”

“I can’t sleep. I want you to stay.” She placed her small hand on the screen. He did the same, and my head fought to wrap itself around how fiercely animalistic Reyes could be one minute, then how amazingly tender the next.

She puckered her lips and pressed them to the screen. He leaned forward and offered her an adoring peck on the nose, and all I could think about was the fact that I never have a camera when I need one. Freaking Kodak moments sucked when you didn’t actually have a Kodak.

“When we’re married,” Ashlee said, resting her forehead against the mesh, “we can kiss without a screen between us, huh?”

He laughed softly. “We sure can. Now go to sleep before your mom sees you.”

“Okay.” She yawned, her tiny mouth forming a perfect O, then disappeared.

“Dude, did you just make out with my daughter?”

Reyes turned to Amador with a grin. “We’re in love.”

“Okay, but you can’t have her until she’s eighteen.” He put a duffel bag on the ground. “No, I know you. Make that twenty-one.”

Bianca rushed out and handed her husband another bag. “For the road,” she said as she rushed over to Reyes and hugged him gingerly, kissing his cheek as they parted. “Be careful, handsome man.”

“For you, anything.”

“Twenty-five,” Amador said when Reyes wriggled his brows at him.

Amador, Reyes, and I raced through the backyard, scaled a fence, and darted through a neighbor’s yard to the next street, where an old Chevy two-door truck sat waiting. All the while, I seemed to be the only one amazed at Reyes’s recovery, and I was the only other person present who could tote a supernatural badge if I wanted to. Amador didn’t seem the slightest bit surprised.

He threw the bags into the bed and tossed Reyes the keys. “Two minutes,” he said, tapping his watch. “Don’t be late this time.” He strode up to Reyes and embraced him hard. “Vaya con Dios.” Go with God. What an ironical thing to say.

“Let’s hope so. I’m probably going to need His help,” Reyes said.

Amador glanced at his watch again. “One minute thirty.”

Reyes grinned. “I would run if I were you.”

And Amador took off the way we had come.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Reyes climbed into the truck, and I saw the grimace he tried to hide. He certainly wasn’t 100 percent, but he was getting there fast. “A diversion,” he said when I got in.

About one minute later, cop sirens began wailing through the quiet neighborhood as two muscle cars raced down a side street.

“That’s our cue,” Reyes said. He started the truck and drove to the freeway with nary a cop in sight.

“Who was driving the other car?”

He smiled. “Amador’s cousin who owes him about a million dollars. Don’t worry, they’ll get away. Amador has a plan.”

“You guys are big on plans. How long has it been since you’ve driven?” I asked him, realizing he’d been in jail a long time.

“Worried?” he asked.

Was it even possible for him to just answer a question? “You’re more evasive than a Navy SEAL.”

We drove to a shoddy hotel in the southern war zone and walked into the office hand in hand. Actually, Reyes wasn’t about to let me go in alone. He didn’t trust me. It was giving me a complex. Or it would’ve if I’d cared.

“This place is a health violation,” I said. “You want to stay here?”

He just grinned and waited for me to pay the clerk, a middle-aged woman who looked like she frequented bingo parlors.

“Wonderful.”

I paid and we gathered our bags and strolled to room 201.

“You know, you could take a shower this time, if you were so inclined.” Reyes wore a mischievous grin as he went around pulling on pipes and fixtures before he seemed to settle on the bed frame.

“I’m pretty clean, thanks.”

He shrugged. “It was a thought.” Without warning, he lifted the mattress and box springs off to the side, exposing the frame, and motioned me toward him.

“What?”

“I can’t have you escaping when I least expect it.”

“Seriously? Look,” I said as he motioned me to sit, led my hands behind my back, and cuffed them to the freaking frame, “let’s say Earl Walker is still alive.”

“Want to, really?”

I sighed to express my annoyance nonverbally and shifted to get more comfortable. “I’m an investigator. I can, you know, look for him. And I can investigate a lot better without an escaped convict handcuffing me to anything metal within arm’s reach.”

He paused and eyed me. “So, what you’re saying is you can do your job better without me around?”

“Yes.” I was already getting uncomfortable in the awkward position.

He leaned into me and whispered into my ear. “I’m counting on it.”

“Wait, you’re going to let me go?”

“Of course. How else are you going to find Walker?”

“Then why did you handcuff me to this bed?”

A grin as smooth as glass spread across his face. “Because I need a head start.” Before I could comment, he raised a paper in front of my face. “These are the names of Earl Walker’s last known associates.”

I tilted my head and read. “He only had three friends?”

“He wasn’t real popular. I promise you, one of these men knows where he is.” He sat beside me, his dark eyes sparkling even in the low light, and it hit me again that Reyes Farrow was in my presence, a man I’d been infatuated with for over a decade, a supernatural being who radiated sensuality like other people radiated insecurity. He pushed the small piece of paper into one of my pockets and let his hand linger on my hip.