Silver Basilisk - Zoe Chant Page 0,54

it be that way now? She forcibly shoved the thought away. She was too old, things had changed too much.

But her body did not agree, from the way her blood hummed through her veins, the pulse of warmth deep in her core. That part of her revved its engine just fine, eighty years be damned.

Crash! Lightning branched outside the windows, followed by the exhilarating roar of thunder as a spectacular thunderstorm moved across the Colorado sky.

Was he thinking about her?

“Depends,” she muttered to the rolling thunder, “what he’s thinking.”

Anyway there was the small matter of fifty years of silence that couldn’t be addressed until they got to that post office box.

She ripped her thoughts away from Rigo and thought about the day, realizing that she’d really enjoyed herself in talking over Alejo’s senior year in high school, and his life immediately after. Though she had zero interest in organized sports, she reveled in the stories of Alejo’s high school basketball career. She rejoiced to hear about how good he was at training horses, and building things.

Hearing about the ranch, and not just the animals who came to stay, but broken shifter humans who ended up there, and pitched in to work for room and board. He had an entire staff living there now. In fact, it kind of reminded her of what she was doing, with her houseguests.

Rigo made it all sound so easy. But then, she realized as rain roared overhead, he had been that way when she’d known him. This was the real Rigo. But in her anger she had managed to convert him into something he wasn’t.

She turned that thought over, as something about it bothered her. Not guilt. At least, not precisely. He took full responsibility for having abandoned her and the unborn baby that terrible night.

The thunder died away in the distance, and, sleepy, she gave a mental shrug. The one thing she was sure of, she looked forward to tomorrow’s journey.

And it was just as good as the day before.

Better, because she didn’t do something stupid like dash down a trail just before an apocalyptic storm. She soaked in all the stories about Alejo, no matter how small. Most of all, she was aware of her growing respect for Rigo, who rarely talked about himself, but she could feel his pride in their son, his concern, his caring.

Chapter 12

RIGO

He would not let himself speculate about tomorrow. He was grateful for what he had right now, just the two of them, and the road unspooling out before them.

Godiva was so gallant. That damn close call in Grand Canyon was entirely his fault. He knew how fast weather patterns could change over those mountains. He should have spoken up but he hadn’t wanted to disturb the fragile peace between them by insisting on a return to the car. Some might have resented that close call, but she clearly regarded it as an adventure.

Time passed faster than he was ready for. He kept strictly to himself the fact that he didn’t care the least about whatever the mystery was about the post office box that he had never seen. They had reunited. That was all that mattered to him. Plus there was still Long Cang back in California, and his promise to help.

But first priority was his mate, and this mystery mattered to her.

He had prepared carefully curated stacks of CDs for those long stretches without WiFi or decent radio stations, but he never brought them out of their box in the trunk. They chattered the entire time.

She wanted to know everything, or nearly everything.

Shifters, animals’ minds and how they think. What life was really like in those small towns early in the 20th Century, where the law tended to be the nearest tough guy. He’d learned early to defend himself, and was good at it. He later discovered that his strength and speed was largely due to his shifter side. But that had been life as usual.

“It was never anything to brag about,” he said. “Much less talk about, unless you were looking for trouble. And some did. There were those who walked into a bar just to challenge the toughest-looking guy there. I had no interest in that. But you had to look out for yourself, because there was no fallback, especially in those early days far from cities and civilization. Even later. Which is why I made sure that Alejo learned some self-defense when he came to Kentucky.”

“I could have used that,” Godiva said