Page 13 of Coyote

Nimue slid her head out from under my jaw and tasted the air in his direction.

Cruz backed toward the bunkhouse.

The screen door banged, and Sierra came down off the porch wiping his hands on a dish towel. "Percy." He crossed straight to me and caught my face in both hands, turning it from side to side. "¿Estás herido? Is any of this yours?"

"None of it."

"Then whose is it?"

"Bad men."

Sierra ran his hands down my arms anyway, checking. I endured it until he reached my ribs, then pulled loose. "I'm fine."

His attention moved to John. Then it moved up. "Oh," Sierra said. "Hello."

"Name's John." He held out one enormous hand. "Most people land on Big John."

"Can't imagine why." Sierra shook it, his own hand disappearing. "You're torn up, hijo."

"It's not as bad as it looks."

"That's what everybody says right up until it turns." Sierra ran the same inspection over him, with fewer hands. "Once you're finished with Rafe, you come sit in my kitchen. How do you take your eggs?"

"Any way you make them is fine."

"Coffee?"

"Hot."

"Good. I can work with that." Sierra reached for John's arm.

I had John's elbow out of his hand and tucked into mine before I decided to do it. My fingers didn't reach halfway around.

Sierra looked at my hand. Then at me. "Mm," he said. "I see."

"He's mine."

John's hand settled on the back of my neck. "I did tell him I wasn't running," he said.

Something under my ribs eased.

"Rafe's waiting," Sierra said. "Try not to make this more complicated than it already is."

"No promises."

"I know."

Rafe's office sat at the back of the main house. The only thing in it worth looking at twice was the table, a wide round slab of turquoise set in dark resin. Nobody knew where it came from or how it got here. Rafe kept it because everybody who sat at it had the same amount of edge and the same size chair.

He was already in his seat when I brought John in. Ransom sat across from him, tipped back with his boots crossed at the ankle.

Ransom's grin disappeared when he saw John. "Jesus," he said. "That's the biggest man who's ever been in this house."

"This is Big John. The Javelinas had him in a pit past the river, making him fight hogs for money. I cut him loose."

Rafe looked at the dried blood on both of us. "How many Javelinas are still upright after this rescue?"

"Four of them aren't."