Trent nodded. Everything that Enrique was saying made sense. Coming down here was a long shot. Now he wondered if he’d been overly optimistic in thinking that finding her might be that easy.
“Anyway, I did a little more digging based on what you told me,” Enrique said. “The fact that she’s an artist got my interest and also got me thinking. Now, this is only a guess. But I wondered, would she go to San Miguel de Allende?”
Trent wasn’t surprised to hear the name. It was a popular haunt for many in the arts community. “She’s been there before. Twice. I saw it on her Facebook feed from a few years ago.” In fact, he’d done a search on the city on the flight here, thinking that it might be a possibility. She’d been a gifted artist as a girl. But it was a clue that might have struck gold.
“The arts community is tight. Someone there may know something. I’d say it’s worth a shot.”
“I planned to search here first,” Trent said. “There’s no guarantee that she’s left Mexico City.”
“Good point, but we can save time if I keep my nose to the ground here and you check out San Miguel. If I find anything, I’ll let you know.”
“Sounds like a plan,” he said. “Thanks, man.”
An hour later, Trent was heading for a car rental agency. Whether Tara was in San Miguel de Allende or whether she was somewhere else in Mexico was anyone’s guess. The only thing he knew for sure was that she hadn’t boarded another plane out of Mexico City.
Chapter Three
Tara leaned back on the ornate white metal chair that was already well warmed by the morning sun. She was in a small courtyard that faced the main cobbled street where vendors congregated. The courtyard fronted the arched alcove of the heritage building. It was there where she’d rented a tiny apartment. The landlords—Carlos and his wife, Francesca—specialized in housing artistic types from all over the world. Their rates were good, or in better terms cheap. She’d stayed there before on her last visits. But this time around it seemed empty and worn and more than a little sad. Things seemed a little more run-down, like business hadn’t been so good.
She watched as a stooped and withered woman wheeled a wagon full of red, yellow and blue baskets down the street. The wheel of the barrow bounced on the cobblestones. A young boy ran behind her, dashing to one side and then the other.
Tara smiled as she leaned forward, watching the scene, taking in the details. She held a sketching pencil in one hand, and a strand of blond hair slipped free of the braid that hung down her back. From the first moment she’d discovered San Miguel de Allende, she’d felt at home. Even now, after all that had happened, she felt safe.
The place she rented was in the heart of the city. Here, one historic building after another butted against each other. The city was founded in the early-sixteenth century and much of the architecture from that time still existed.
She glanced over and caught a glimpse of Siobhan O’Riley coming out a side door. Siobhan worked in the small café that was part of the property and run by her landlords. Tara had met her on her first visit to the city and since then, they’d stayed in touch. On that visit, when Tara had left to go home, Siobhan had stayed, putting down roots and swearing that she’d never return to the rains of Ireland.
“Here’s your coffee,” Siobhan said. “With a touch of milk. Toast. Butter and jam on the side.” She set the breakfast down.
“Thanks.” Tara closed her sketchbook and put her pencil down.
“You here for long this time?”
“I’m not sure,” she said, unable to hide the pensive note she knew was in her voice. She was running on cash and she wasn’t sure what she was going to do when that ran out. There was a lot she didn’t know, like the legalities of working here should she need to. But if staying meant finding a job, whether it was legitimate or under-the-table, she’d do it. She’d do whatever it took.
The memories of what she’d witnessed haunted her sleep and potentially threatened her life. Money seemed such a small thing in comparison. She had bigger things to worry about, like not being found, possibly changing her name. Eventually, she knew she’d go home and testify. When it was safe, when she was needed, just not now.
Tara ate her toast as she watched the activity on the street. Sellers’ stalls lined the street for as far as she could see. The smell of cooking food filled the air. She reached down to scratch the ear of her landlords’ small dog. He was a true mutt, so mixed that she wasn’t sure what breed might dominate.
“Ah, Maxx, if only every man were like you. Adoring and patient,” she said with a laugh and another scratch behind his ears. A door opened. The dog turned.
She waved at Francesca, who gave her a smile and waved back. She felt safe here, the older couple who owned the rental units were kind, and it made her feel safe to know that Carlos was a retired police inspector.
“Maxx,” Francesca called. The dog got to his feet and ran toward her.
Tara had to laugh at the speed the dog moved. She guessed that it might be mealtime. Her smile stayed as her attention went back to the bustle of commerce on the street just below her. For the courtyard was raised above the street level by a flight of stone steps. It was a busy and entertaining sight. The colors alone could keep one’s attention. The awnings over the storefronts and the vendors’ stalls were numerous hues, all of them vibrant. They added to the collage that was only enhanced by the merchandise. Color was the theme reflected everywhere.
She loved the market. Each of the vendors had their stories if you had time to listen. The first time she’d been here, she’d celebrated her thirtieth birthday. That had been four years ago. The event had felt huge as if her entire life had shifted. Birthdays were about that, but getting out of her twenties had her considering what it was she was dedicating her life to. It was a strange and too-serious thought for a birthday celebrated on a vacation in Mexico.
Despite the serious thoughts, she’d had fun. It was the youthful fun and her first taste of adventure that had fed her artistic side and made it so easy to bring out a feeling in a painting.
She’d come back again one year later but that trip had been very different. She’d been recovering from the tragic end to a relationship.
She should have broken up with Mark months before but he’d been persistent that they were made for each other. She’d never been too sure. Mark had been steady. He had liked to say he was her rock. But he was also dull and for the last months before the car crash that had killed him, she’d flirted with breaking up with him. When he’d died and the ring had been found, she’d known that he was about to propose and that only made the guilt of her true feelings that much more difficult to bear.
After his death, a trip to San Miguel de Allende had been an escape. In a way it had freed her from the guilt that plagued her. She’d met others like her, some she’d met the year before, all people involved in the arts in some way. It had been the best place to heal and to begin to celebrate life again.
She took a last swallow of coffee and got up, heading down the street to get a closer look at the vendors’ goods. She could almost trick herself into believing that this was a vacation, that she wasn’t here because she was afraid for her life. She wondered when it would be safe to return and how she would ever know if and when that was.
She pushed the thoughts away as she checked out a produce vendor and then a number of vendors with handicrafts. She admired a vividly hand-painted bag from another vendor. The vibrancy of the bag and the fact that it was hand done made it almost impossible to resist. But her money situation put that internal debate to rest. She still had a beautiful bag she’d purchased on that first trip four years ago. She left the vendor with a smile of admiration.
After an hour, she decided to head back to her room, but a block away she sensed something was off. Her intuition had been bang on since she was a child. It was something she’d inherited from her mother, or at
least so her mother claimed. She could sense change.
She could only pray that what she was sensing was a change for the better. She wasn’t sure she could handle worse.
* * *
TRENT HUMMED A popular song he’d heard half a dozen times since he’d landed. Except for getting out of Mexico City’s chaos, it had been an easy drive to San Miguel de Allende. It was a relief to be on the open road without a lot of traffic. After the insanity of a city the size of Mexico’s capital, this was a balm to his soul. He’d bought a Coke midway at a dusty little store on the edges of a village whose name he’d already forgotten. He’d hit the outskirts of San Miguel de Allende shortly after lunch.
The city was gorgeous even from its outer edges, where the beauty of its historical architecture surpassed everything he could imagine. There wasn’t the usual ugly industrial area or bland box stores fringing the outskirts like one might see in other cities. That didn’t surprise him. He’d done his research on the flight from Denver. But even with a heads-up, the history of the city was amazing, not just preserved in a plethora of century’s old architecture, but vibrant, almost alive.
The red spires of a church seemed to push through the cluster of stone that, from what he could see from the outskirts, made up the center of the town. He passed a more modern inn with a waterslide and, just behind that, another heritage stone church. His plan was to get as close to the city center as possible before parking. That was what Enrique had recommended after stating that the streets were narrow and congested.
Twenty minutes later, Trent learned that Enrique knew what he was talking about. The streets were tight and crowded with an assortment of pedestrians and vendors. He’d already hiked past a half dozen vendors, a man with a donkey and a trio of stray dogs.
He needed to find people who fitted the profile in his head. People who might have spoken to Tara. He needed to ask them questions that would help him find her. But the vendors seemed too caught up in their transactions and he’d have to queue up to get near any of them.
He began his queries at the first outdoor café where a couple sat sipping coffee. Trent guessed he’d have better luck here, speaking to people like these, people like Tara. People who had more in common with her, as artists and foreigners. That group stuck together here in this town. There was a whole enclave and a new member to that group would be news. They’d be the ones who might be familiar with a beautiful young artist from Colorado.
With that in mind, he saw a woman with a pencil in her hand and a sketching pad in front of her. Her partner’s Hawaiian-themed T-shirt was only a bonus. They were as good a place to start as any.
It was on the sixth try that he hit the jackpot. The woman he asked had not only heard of Tara but she had spoken to her only an hour ago. Within minutes, he was heading toward the sun-faded red stone building where the woman had directed him.
He couldn’t believe it had been this easy. He always felt that easy meant trouble. He walked along the uneven and narrow cobblestone street. It was crowded with merchants, shoppers and even the occasional donkey. As he did, he worried that there was something he had missed.
Five minutes later, he stopped on the edge of a yellow brick building at the junction of two streets. He saw the long blond hair first. It streamed freely down her back. He headed in that direction, going up a short flight of stairs to a small courtyard with a half dozen white metal tables and chairs to where the blond-haired woman was wiping a table.
“Excuse me,” he said.
She turned but it wasn’t Tara and disappointment bit deep.
“I was looking for Tara Munroe,” he began.
“Tara,” the woman said with a bright lilt to her voice. She held out her hand, her eyes alight with an admiration that was impossible to miss. “Siobhan.”
He gave her the briefest of handshakes and didn’t offer his name.
“Is she here?”
The smile she gave him was slightly flirtatious, but her eyes went somewhere over his shoulder.
“Tara,” Siobhan called. “Someone to see you.”
He felt someone else, someone watching from behind. He turned as a door leading away from the common area swung open and another blonde stood there. But this one was familiar.
He knew those high cheekbones. He knew that slightly rounded face. And he knew the dark brown eyes that now held a combination of curiosity and fear. He’d know that face anywhere. He’d looked at it enough times during the flight here, and he’d remembered the girl she’d been, of course. Still, he was stunned by the woman she’d become.
She gave an air of both confidence and fragility. She had matured into a soulful combination of beauty and innocence. If he’d been able to paint at all, he’d paint her, he’d...
She’d been the one who painted, not him.
Siobhan moved around him, standing slightly to his left as she looked from one to the other.
“You know each other?”
He couldn’t take his eyes off Tara.
“Trent,” Tara murmured.
His name on her lips was like a seductive whisper. He felt frozen in time. He stared at her, noticing how her hair moved in the light breeze. She was staring back. She looked shocked, as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. He couldn’t blame her. After all, he’d arrived on her doorstep, a memory of her past, without warning.
She looked at him as if seeing him for the first time. “Is it really you?”
“It is,” he said and only wanted to hug her, to touch her. To tell her how sorry he was to have left her the way he had all those years ago. He’d apologized for none of that. Even when her father had died, he hadn’t contacted her. Now he stood and waited for her to decide on what the next move would be. He wondered if the past could be redone whether he would have done any better.
She took a step forward. Her beautiful brown eyes were dark, almost stormy, like she sensed trouble. “What are you doing here? Why—”
He glanced at Siobhan. He didn’t want to admit why he was there. Not in front of the woman who seemed determined to protect her.
“It’s all right, Siobhan,” Tara said. “You can leave us alone to talk. I know him.”
As Siobhan left, he pulled out a chair for Tara.
“I can’t believe you’re here and I can’t imagine why,” she said as she accepted the seat he offered.
“I’m a US marshal,” he said.
Her face became pale beneath her light tan. “Like you always wanted to be,” she whispered.
“I did, didn’t I,” he said with some relief at the temporary diversion.
She laced her fingers and her lips pinched together. She refused to meet his eyes as she asked, “Why are you here, Trent?”
“You witnessed a bank robbery in Pueblo, Colorado.” This time it was his official voice speaking.
She looked at him with eyes that seemed weary and doubtful at the same time. Their sheen only reminded him of all she’d been through. He was grateful that he’d put himself forward for this. Grateful that it was him here and not someone else who didn’t know her as he did. Seeing her like this only told him that she needed him.
“Tara.” He reached over and took one of her hands in both of his. Her palm was clammy. It was as if the very mention of what had happened, what she had run from, threw her into an immediate panic. He hoped that he was wrong, that his assessment was off but...
“I can’t believe they sent you all the way here,” she said in a voice that was tired, drained even.
The act of keeping it together seemed to have slipped, like she was too tired to care. He was glad of that. Playing games would only lengthen the process. He wanted to fast-track this and get her home, where he had more resources.
“There wasn’t a choice,” he said, pushing his thoughts aside.
“What do you mean?”
“You�
�re the only witness. Which means that you could put a notorious bank robber behind bars.”
“I know but I’m scared. After what happened to my dad.” She took a breath. “He had police security assigned.”
“A marshal,” he corrected.
“And it didn’t matter. He was the witness that could put a drug dealer away and he was shot in public.” Her voice choked off and it was a moment to regain her control.
He waited, knowing that there was nothing he could do or say that would change any of it.
“I just know that I’m safe here.”
“No, Tara, you’re not.”
“I don’t like where this is going,” she said.
“It was a mistake to run, Tara. You’re safer at home, under my protection. Your testimony will be needed should this ever go to trial. And...”
She was shaking her head. He tried not to be mesmerized by those dark soulful eyes that saw everything, or so it seemed. He’d forgotten that about her. As he’d grown up and forged an adult life, there were things he didn’t want to remember. But now with her here, no longer a memory and with her eyes fixed on him, he couldn’t look away. He remembered everything about her, eclipsing what he’d forgotten. He pulled his thoughts back to reality, to the situation and not the girl he’d once thought he’d loved. That girl was now a woman he had to protect.
“I’m flattered that you took on this assignment, Trent, but it wasn’t necessary.”
Her look said that because she knew him, she also knew what he was about. Some of that was true. But if that was what she thought, she had a whole lot wrong—dangerously wrong.
“Flattered?” He bit back a knot of anger. What the hell was she saying? She thought he did this out of kindness or some misguided gesture of goodwill? “There’s men who will kill you for what you saw.”
Marshal on a Mission Page 3
