Free Human Nature by Eileen Wilks

thinking…”
    “What?”
    “If Adele hadn’t let Mariah talk her into making that fertility charm, maybe Mariah wouldn’t be so damned certain that Steve fathered her baby.”

7
    BY the time they left Bobbie’s, the sun had dropped behind the western mountains. It wasn’t full dark, but the air was thick with dusk and very still. Already the temperature was dropping.
    Del Cielo was a town of slants. Tucked into a niche in the crumpled rock of the mountains, the only level spots were man-made. The sidewalk she and Rule walked to get to her car was buckled as the earth beneath it slowly resumed its accustomed warp.
    Jason had left with Hal Newman, who would take him to Clanhome. Until this was sorted out, Jason would live under the watchful eye of his Rho—who’d pledged Rule’s apartment building as bond.
    That had startled Lily. “But that building’s got to be worth several million. That’s not a reasonable bond for an LVN.”
    Hal had answered. “Lupi are seen as flight risks. Some judges won’t grant bond at all, but fortunately we got Judge Soreli. She knows enough about us to understand that if Jason’s Rho says to stay put, he will. She wanted to make sure Isen was motivated to keep Jason around.”
    Lily wasn’t sure money was the same incentive for lupi it would be for others. Isen would hate to lose that much of Nokolai’s capital, but would he surrender one of his clan to unjust imprisonment in order to hang on to a building, however valuable?
    She’d glanced at Rule and decided not to ask.
    When she and Rule reached her dusty white sedan, she stopped, cocked her head, and asked, “You know how to find Friar’s place?” Robert Friar might be Del Cielo’s most prosperous citizen, but he didn’t actually live in the little town, though he’d been born here. He had a small ranch just north of it.
    “Yes.”
    “Okay.” She tossed him the keys. “You drive. I want to think.”
    When they were both inside, Rule started the car. “Am I a chauffeur, or will I be going inside when we reach Friar’s home?”
    “Inside, I think. He’d be within his rights to refuse to be interviewed with you present. If he does, I’ll have to take it private. But I’d like to see how he reacts to you.” She buckled up and got started on the thinking.
    But her mind stuck on one point. Rule knew where Robert Friar lived. He knew a lot more about Del Cielo and its inhabitants than she’d realized. She decided she’d better clear this up so she didn’t keep sticking on it. “Apparently you’ve been hanging out here off and on for years and know several of the players in our little skit.”
    He was silent as he pulled away from the curb and into what passed for traffic here. “I should have told you more on the plane. I didn’t intend to withhold information. I…This sounds foolish.”
    “You get to be foolish sometimes.” Right after hearing of a close friend’s death, for example.
    “On the plane, I wasn’t considering what I should tell you because I wasn’t really thinking, but also because…You’re so present to me now, so much a part of my life, that sometimes I almost forget that you haven’t always been with me.” He grimaced. “Foolish, as I said.”
    Yeah. Also unbearably sweet. She didn’t realize she’d reached for his hand until she felt it close around hers.
    For about a block, neither of them spoke. Then he continued in a more normal voice, “I don’t hang out here. I do, as Jason said, periodically check on the places the younger lupi like to hang out, and Del Cielo was popular with them for a few years.”
    “Why? I mean, the chief of police wants to hurt them, the founder of Humans First lives here, and…oh. You mean that’s why. The thrill of danger. Defying authority.”
    “Young lupi don’t precisely rebel, but they do need to test themselves. They’re allowed, even encouraged, to do so. You don’t learn much by avoiding all risk. Unfortunately, young lupi