He nodded. “Hunter took a round saving the rest of us, but he wasn’t badly hurt. One of my co-workers, Kat, went into labor. I did my best to help her through it. She had a baby girl just after the shootingstopped.”
Mia’s heart melted. “You … you helped deliver ababy?”
Come to think of it, Mia had heard something about a baby being bornthere.
Joaquin shook his head. “I held Kat’s hand through her contractions and tried to keep her safe from that bastard Moreno and his goons. I felt so helpless. But it was Gabe Rossiter, her husband, who caught the baby. He’s the realhero.”
Mia opened her mouth to say that Joaquin was a hero, too, but Mateo walked up to the table. “How was your meal, Ms.Starr?”
Mia withdrew her hand. “Joaquin was right. The chile verde isincredible.”
“That’s what I like to hear.” Mateo chuckled, his gaze shifting to Joaquin. “This is on me tonight,primo.”
“What? No.” Joaquin reached for his wallet. “I’ve gotit.”
Mateo rested a hand on Joaquin’s shoulder. “This is my house, and you’re family. You don’t pay. Come see me more often, Quino, and bring Ms. Starr withyou.”
* * *
Snow was fallingwhen Joaquin drove out of the restaurant’s parking lot a half hour later, small, icy flakes melting on hiswindshield.
“Your cousin is something else. It must be wonderful to have a bigfamily.”
“No family is perfect.” Joaquin told her about his cousin Jesús, who’d gotten into gangs and ended up in prison on drug charges. There was also his Uncle Teddy, who’d let alcohol destroy his life, and his niece Rachel, who’d gotten pregnant and dropped out of high school. “We have our good days and bad days, but we always pull together. How about yourfamily?”
“I’m an only child. My parents moved to Florida last year. I don’t really know my cousins. I’ve met them, but we don’t get together. Most of them live in New Jersey. My father was bornthere.”
That sounded lonely to Joaquin, but he didn’t say so. “New Jersey? How did you end up inColorado?”
“My dad got a job at Ball Aerospace. He’s an engineer. He met my mom here. She left her job as a teacher to be a homemaker. I was born in Golden.” She gave a little laugh. “My family hasn’t been here nearly as long as yours.We—”
The buzzing of her cell phone cut heroff.
Joaquin had his eyes on the road, so he only knew something was wrong when he heard her tone ofvoice.
“Whatthe...?”
“Is everythingokay?”
“It’s a bizarre text from someone I knew in the Army—a medic. It says, ‘Mia, you are scaring me. Stop, or I’ll call the cops.’ But I haven’t talked to him or seen him in more than ayear.”
Joaquin didn’t like this. “Who is thisguy?”
“Jason Garcia. He’s a medic. He’s still active duty. I’m callinghim.”
“I’m not sure that’s a goodidea.”
But Mia had already dialed the guy’s number. “He’s not answering. The call is going straight tovoicemail.”
“I don’t like this,Mia.”
“Neither do I. God, I hope he’s okay.” She left a quick message, then tried to reach him four more times between Colfax and the parking lot at the Botanic Gardens, each time with no luck. She pointed to a black Mazda 3. “That’s mycar.”
“You can stay here where it’s warm.” Joaquin’s heater was finally blasting hot air. He reached under the seat, grabbed his snow brush. “I’ll scrape off your windshield. I don’t mind thecold.”
“Oh, you don’t have todo—”
He was outside before she could finish her objection and made quick work of the light dusting of snow and frost on her windshield and rearwindow.