Corona was already there when Jack arrived at the coffee house. She waved from a table in the back corner when Jack walked through the door, and he hurried over to them.

"Taura, are you okay?" he said as he pulled up a chair and sat between the girls. His and Corrie's hands reached out for each other.

Taura stared at him for a moment, her expression not quite readable, and then she leaned over and put her arms around him. He froze, eyebrows raised. Not knowing what else to do, he hugged her back.

"The guys who followed me are sitting near the door," she whispered into his ear. "They've been watching me the whole time I've been sitting here."

Jack nodded and leaned forward, resting his arms on the table.

"Okay, what happened?" Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted two men sitting at a table near the door, sipping coffee and staring straight at him and the girls.

"I …" Taura sighed and ran a hand through her hair, took a deep breath and started over. "I'm not sure. I woke up in the motel room just moments before two men kicked the door in and …"

"Wait a second. Motel room? Why were you sleeping in a motel room?"

The door opened. The three of them snapped their heads around to face the door, and found Otto and Shakira standing there. Otto waved. He and Shakira headed for their table, then Shakira leaned over and muttered something to him before veering off toward the counter. Otto pulled up a chair and sat.

"Hey, guys. We cut the podcast short after you left. Shakira's picking up some drinks for us." He took his duffel bag off and placed it on the floor beside his chair.

"You followed me here?" Jack raised an eyebrow at Otto while taking the opportunity to get a look at the guys by the door. Both of them were fairly young and wore black jeans, boots and black topcoats. He used his eyes to take a photo of them both, then zoomed in for close-up of each.

"Well, yeah. You bolted out of there so fast, something was obviously wrong." Otto shrugged. "If there's anything you need, we're here for you."

"Thanks, we appreciate that."

Shakira returned to the table with a cup of coffee for each of them, sat down and passed the cups out. "So, what's up? If we may ask, that is."

"Okay," Corona said, leaning forward and keeping her voice low. "Somebody busted in on Taura in a motel and attacked her. She wanted to meet us here because there's less chance of them trying anything in front of a bunch of witnesses."

"Good idea," Otto said as he picked up his coffee.

"That could be the only thing holding those two guys back," Corona muttered.

"What guys?" Shakira said.

"The two sitting by the door. They followed Taura here. Don't look at them."

Shakira and Otto exchanged a glance and nodded.

"Taura," Jack said, "wanna tell us what happened?"

"I know you don't want to talk about it," Corona added, "but we won't be able to help unless we know what's going on."

After a long silence, Taura finally spoke in a low voice. "I went to a bar last night. Early this morning, rather, not long after we all went to bed. I had a drink. Got a little tipsy, I suppose. I met a man. A human." She winced and rubbed her forehead. "We had a few drinks and then went to that motel and … had sex. I only remember bits of what happened, and those are sort of blurry. When I woke up, he wasn't there, and then two other men kicked the door in."

"Did they say anything?" Jack said. "Do you know what they wanted?"

"One of them demanded to know where someone named Slade was. I assume that was the man who took me to the motel. He didn't tell me his name."

Jack shook his head. "I don't want to sound like an asshole, but going to a skeevy motel and banging a complete stranger without even finding out what his name is, is just really fuckin' stupid."

"I know," she whispered, staring at the table. "I've never done anything like that before."

"Exactly. So why did you do it? This isn't like you at all."

Taura leaned forward, picked up her coffee and cupped her hands around it. She didn't answer for a long moment, and when she finally spoke, her voice was so soft that Jack could barely hear it.

"He was gorgeous. He could've had any female in the room. And out of all of them, he wanted me." She turned the cup slowly, around and around, and stared at it, unable to meet any of her friends' gazes. "Look at me. I look like a cow. But he …"

"Wait a second," Corona said. "Look at me. I'm a lizard with wings. By human standards, I'm scary at best. Yet Jack can't keep his hands off me."

Jack smiled and kissed her. "I think you're beautiful."

"See, Taura? I'd say the odds are in your favor."

Taura stared at her, glanced at Jack, and sighed. "That's what I thought had happened last night. That guy … at first I thought he honestly found me attractive. But when I woke and found him gone …" She looked down again. "Maybe he was just a pervert who only wanted something new to have sex with."

"No," Otto said, and reached out to pat her hand. "He probably was attracted to you."

"Sure." Taura shook her head.

"You're not the first person who's pulled a one-night stand. These things happen." Otto shrugged. "It may not mean what you think it means."

Taura's shoulder twitched in a sort of half shrug.

"Taura, we need to do something about that self-esteem problem of yours." Jack sighed. "You're not ugly. Don't let it get to you. Besides, right now, you've got a bigger problem to deal with. Now, first we need to find out who that Slade guy is."

Shakira nodded. "If he's got some thugs looking for him, he's either a criminal or a target. Either way, it's bad news for Taura."

"Which means," Otto said, "he's probably on file in a few law-enforcement databases."

"Exactly, kid. So all we have to do is get into those databases …"

"And run a search on guys named Slade, then have Taura go over their pictures until she finds one that matches the guy she humped." Otto grinned and picked up his backpack.

Jack grinned at Corona. "Isn't it cute how they finish each other's sentences?"

"What?" Shakira stared at him, then grimaced.

"He's got a point," Otto said. She arched an eyebrow at him, and he raised his hands. "I know, I know. 'Shut up, kid.'" He took his laptop out and grinned. "Okay. Let's rock."

The others waited quietly while he accessed the police's database and dug up all the records on men named Slade. Jack didn't know how he'd wormed his way into it and who knew what else, and figured he was probably better off not knowing. Otto finished in less than a minute and passed the computer to Taura.

She sipped her coffee and stared morosely at the screen. After scrolling through some of the photos, she sat up straight and pointed at one of them.

"That's the guy." Her voice was half whisper, half snarl. "Andrew Slade. That's him."

Jack leaned over to get a good look at the picture, then he sneered at it. Slade was one of those baby-faced supermodel types. I fuckin' hate him already.

"Let's see." Otto pulled up Slade's file and raised an eyebrow. "He's an information courier for Fly-by-Night Enterprises. The cops have a file on him because he's been involved in a few fights and high-speed chases."

"Information courier?" Taura sighed and slouched farther down in her seat. "The guys who attacked me must have thought I was his contact. He must've slipped away while they had their attention on me." She snarled again. "He used me."

"Well, we don't know that for certain," Jack said. "Maybe he had some time to kill before the delivery and decided to spend it with you. Or maybe he wasn't on a job at all."

Taura shook her head. Jack and Corona exchanged a glance. Corrie leaned forward and patted Taura's hand.

"Just in case, we should look through your clothing to see if he planted anything in them."

"I've already checked them."

"Well, it couldn't hurt to search 'em again, just to be sure."

Taura shrugged, took one more sip of her coffee, and pushed her chair back. She headed for the restroom and Corona stood and leaned over to give Jack a kiss.

"I'll help her search. Keep an eye on those goons while we're away."

"Okay." Jack gave her another quick kiss before she followed Taura to the restrooms.

"You think it'd do any good to report this to the police?" Shakira said.

"I dunno. I don't trust cops." Jack shrugged. "We can try, but I figure we're probably on our own."