by B. J Daniels
Her shoulders went rigid and she stared straight ahead, eyes wide, breathing uneven. “You really think...”
“I could be wrong. I’d rather be safe and wrong than wrong and sorry.” He looked at the mile marker, tried to focus on what was around them, where they could lose the tail. What it would mean if they couldn’t.
Natalie grasped her knees, obviously panicking. As much as he knew he could figure this out, he understood that she was lost. Fire burning all of her possessions and sleepless nights on the road with a near stranger weren’t exactly calming events.
“It’ll be fine,” he said, mustering all of his compassion—what little of that was left. “I’ve dodged better tails than this.”
“Have you?”
“Do you know a Texas Ranger has to have eight years of police work with a major crimes division before they’re even qualified to apply?”
Natalie huffed out an obviously unimpressed breath. “So you had to write speeding tickets for eight years? Didn’t mean you had to dodge people following you.”
Vaughn didn’t bother responding. Speeding tickets? Not for a long, long time. But he wasn’t going to tell her about the undercover operations he’d worked, the homicides he’d solved. He wasn’t going to waste precious brain space proving to her that he was the best man to keep her safe.
Maybe when they got to the cabin he could just give her Jenny’s number and his ex-wife could fill Ms. Torres in on all the ways he’d put himself in danger during his years as a police officer.
Frustrated with that line of thought, he jerked the wheel to get off the highway and onto an out-of-the-way exit at the last second.
Unfortunately, the white sedan did the same.
“We’re going to stop at the first gas station we find. We’re both going to get out, go inside and pretend to look for snacks. I’m going to talk to the attendant. You will stand in the candy aisle and wait for my sign.”
“What’s your sign?” she said after a gulp.
“You’ll know it when you see it.”
“But...”
“No buts. We have to play some things by ear.” Like what the purpose of an hours-long tail was. If it was to take them out, Vaughn had to believe they would have already attempted something. The hanging back and just following pointed more to an information-grabbing tail.
It took a few miles, but a little town with a gas station finally appeared on the horizon. Vaughn kept his speed steady as he drove toward it, worked to keep himself calm as he pulled into a parking spot.
“We get out. We act normal. You watch me, and you follow absolutely any and all orders I give you. Got it?”
Natalie blinked at the gas station in front of them, and he could tell she wanted to argue, but the woman apparently had some sense because she finally nodded.
Vaughn got out of the car first, and Natalie followed. She didn’t exactly look calm, but she didn’t bolt or run. She met him at the front of the car.
Vaughn didn’t like it, but they had to look at least a little casual. Maybe these guys knew exactly who they were, but playing a part gave him a better shot of putting doubts in their heads.
So, he linked fingers with Ms. Torres and walked like any two involved people might into the building. Her hand was clammy, and he gave it a little reassuring squeeze. He leaned close to her ear, hoping the two men outside were paying attention to the intimate move.
“Go along with anything I do or say,” he said, low enough so that the cashier couldn’t hear.
She didn’t say anything or nod, but she didn’t argue with him, either. In fact, she held tightly on to his hand.
When he took a deep breath, all he could smell was the smoke that must still be in her hair from early this morning, but underneath there was some hint of something sweet.
Lack of sleep was making him delirious. “Go find a snack, honey,” he said, doing his best to infect some ease into his exaggerated drawl. With only a little wobble, she let go of his hand and walked toward the candy aisle.
Casually Vaughn sauntered to the counter. He glanced at the scratch-off tickets displayed, then glanced out the doors where the white sedan was parked, one of the men filling it up.
Vaughn flicked his glance to the bored-looking cashier. “Ma’am,” he said with a nod. He slid his badge across the counter to where the cashier could see it. She didn’t flinch or even act impressed or moved. She popped her gum at him.
He wouldn’t be deterred. “I need you to call the local police department. I need you to give them the following license plate number, description and my DSN.”
She didn’t make a move to get a pen or paper. Vaughn glanced out of the corner of his eye to where the white sedan and two men in big coats and big hats stood. One eyeing his truck, the other eyeing the store and Natalie.
Vaughn flicked his jacket out of the way so the cashier could also see his gun. “This is official police business. Call the local police department and give them the following information.” He inclined his head to the pen that was settled on top of the cash register keyboard. “Now.”
The woman swallowed this time, and she grabbed the pen.
Vaughn looked back at Natalie who was shaking in the candy aisle. He rattled off the information to the cashier.
He kept tabs on the men outside who were obviously keeping tabs on him. “Make the call now. Whatever you do, don’t tell those men out there. Got it?”
The now-nervous cashier gave a little nod and picked up the phone on the counter next to the cash register.
As he moved away from the counter, one of the men started walking toward the door. Still, Vaughn didn’t panic. He’d been in a lot stickier situations than this, no matter what Ms. Hypnotist thought of his past experience.
He approached Natalie, watching to make sure the cashier got the information to the local police before the man entered the door.
It was a close call, but the cashier had some survival instincts herself and she hung up just as the man walked inside.
Vaughn took Natalie’s arm. “Let’s go to the bathroom.”
She arched a brow, all holier-than-thou, even though terror was clearly lurking in the depths of those big dark eyes. “Together?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He nodded toward the back of the store where the bathroom sign was. “Move. And whatever you do, don’t look behind us.”
She started to walk toward the bathroom, still shaking, still braving it out. He’d give her credit for that.
Later.
“You know, every time you tell me not to do something, I only want to do it more?”
“Okay, don’t look straight ahead. Don’t step into the women’s bathroom, and certainly don’t let me follow you inside.”
Surprisingly, she did exactly what he wanted her to do.
* * *
Natalie couldn’t stop shaking. She knew it showed weakness, and she tried to be stronger than that. For Gabby. For the hope that Gabby was still alive to be found.
But, she was so scared she wanted to cry. Someone was following them. Ranger Cooper seemed more than capable, but that didn’t make it any less scary. It didn’t erase her house being gone, and it most certainly didn’t erase the fact someone was apparently following them.
Ranger Cooper immediately locked the door behind them as they stepped into the women’s restroom. He was a blur, moving about the small room and the even smaller stalls, and she had no idea what he was looking for.
So, she simply stood in the center trying to find her own center. Trying to focus on what she was doing this for. On who she was doing this for. She’d pursued details of Gabby’s case with a dogged tenacity that had alienated every friend, significant other and her own grandmother. Even Mom was close to losing any and all patience with her.
But how could they give up? How could she give up? Maybe she’d never
anticipated this kind of danger, but that didn’t mean she was going to shake apart and hide away. Gabby was somewhere out there.
She had to be. He keeps the girls. Maybe it wasn’t Gabby’s case, but maybe it was. She needed information, which meant she needed Ranger Cooper.
After a full sweep of the bathroom, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and typed something into it. Natalie simply watched him because she didn’t know what else to do. She counted each time his blunt, long finger touched the screen to keep herself from panicking.
When he glanced up from his phone, those steely blue eyes meeting hers with a blank kind of certainty, she thought she might panic anyway.
“We can’t waste much more time,” he said, his voice as low and gravelly as she’d ever heard it. Surely he was exhausted. Even Texas Rangers got tired. Even Texas Rangers were human and mortal.
She’d really prefer to think of him as superhuman, and he made it almost seem possible when he flipped back his coat and pulled the weapon at his hip from its holster.
“If it gets back to whoever sent them they’re being detained, we’ll just get another tail.”
Natalie subdued the shaking, jittering fear in her limbs and focused on what had gotten her here. Questions. Information. “But how can we get past them? Won’t they just report back to... Do you know who it is? Is this about The Stallion? I couldn’t find any information on what exactly that is. A man? A gang?”
Ranger Cooper took a menacing step toward her, reminding her of that moment in the interrogation room when he’d stepped between her and Mr. Herman.
Dead Mr. Herman.
She closed her eyes and tried to focus on how much she’d hated him then. Hated him for getting in her way.
“Do not ask questions, Ms. Torres. The less you know, the better. For your own good. Now...” He curled those long fingers around the grips of his gun. “Listen to me carefully. Do everything I say to the letter. For your own good. Let me repeat that,” he said, as if talking to a small child.
“For your own good, you will do as I say. Stay behind me. Listen to me and only me. Whatever you do, don’t make a sound. If we can get a little bit of a head start, we’re golden. Got it?”
She couldn’t speak. Every muscle in her body was seized too tightly to allow her to speak, or nod.
“Torres.” It was whispered, but it was a harsh bark. “Got it?”
She managed a squeaky yes, and as he unlocked the door, she stayed behind him. As much as she didn’t like him, in this moment, she would have pressed herself to his back if he’d asked her to.
He might be a jerk, but he seemed to know what he was doing. Right now, with two bulky men speaking to two decidedly not bulky local police officers in front of the cash register, she pretty much had to trust Ranger Cooper would get them out of this.
She met gazes with one of the bulky men, and though he had his hat low on his head, she could feel the cold, black gaze.
“Behind me, Torres,” Ranger Cooper whispered with enough authority to have her feet moving faster.
One of the bulky men tried to sidestep one of the local officers, but the local officer didn’t back off.
“Move again, sir, and I will pull my weapon on you.”
“We ain’t done anything wrong, boy.”
Ranger Cooper grabbed her arm. “Move,” he instructed, and she realized belatedly she’d all but stopped. But she was being propelled out the door, a skirmish breaking out behind them. “Get in the car. Now. Fast.”
On shaky legs, she did as she was told, but managed to glance back in time to see Ranger Cooper shoving a broom through the handles of the door. Which caused the men inside to push against the police officers even harder, even getting past one to get to the door.
Natalie got into the truck’s passenger seat, her breath coming in little puffs. That broom handle wouldn’t hold them in for very long. If only because there had to be another exit, and it already looked as though the officers inside were losing the battle.
But Ranger Cooper wasn’t getting in the truck. She tried to breathe deeply, but a little whimpering sound came out instead.
“Get it together. Get it together,” she whispered to herself, craning her neck to see where Ranger Cooper had gone.
She watched as he casually walked over to a white sedan, weapon held to his side where only someone really paying attention could see. Then he held the muzzle of the gun to the front tire and pulled the trigger.
Even knowing it was coming, Natalie jumped when the shot rang out. Ranger Cooper was back in the truck in the blink of an eye, and Natalie glanced at the store where the two men had disappeared from the windowed doors. No doubt looking for another exit.
“That’ll buy us some time,” Ranger Cooper muttered, zooming out of the parking lot without so much as buckling his seat belt.
“What about those police officers? The cashier?”
He merely nodded into the distance. “Hear that?”
She didn’t at first, but after a few seconds she could make out sirens.
“Backup,” he said, his eyes focused on the road, his hands tight on the wheel. “Since the guys fought back, they can arrest them. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t more tails on us. We have to be vigilant. I want you to keep your eyes peeled. Anything seems suspicious, you mention it. I don’t care how silly it sounds. We can’t be too careful now.”
Natalie gripped the handle of the door with one hand, pressed the other, in a fist, to her stomach.
She was in so far over her head she almost laughed. She knew Ranger Cooper wouldn’t appreciate that, and she was a little afraid if she started laughing, it’d turn into crying soon enough.
She was too tough for that. Too determined. No more crying. No more shaking. No more panic. If they had bad guys to face down, she was at least going to pull her weight.
Because if she did, if they could get through all this, Gabby might be on the other side. Everything she’d been working for over the past eight years.
Yeah, no more panic. She had a sister to save.
Chapter 4
Vaughn didn’t know if he trusted how relatively easy it had been to fool the tail. Or the fact another hadn’t taken its place. All in all, he didn’t understand what that tail had been trying to accomplish, and without knowing...
Frustrated, he scanned the road again. The Guadalupe Mountains loomed in the distance of an arid landscape. The hardscrabble desert stretched out for miles, the craggy, spindly peaks of the Guadalupes offering the only respite to endless flat.
The cabin was still forty-five minutes away, and they were the only car on this old desert highway. If he had a tail, it was a much better one.
He flicked a glance at Torres. Thinking about her as a last name helped things. He could think of her as a partner, as just a person he had to work with. Not a complicated mystery of a woman.
The only problem was, he didn’t trust her as far as he could throw her, and that was the key to any partnership.
She sat in the passenger seat, her eyes still too big, her hands still clenched too tight. Her olive skin tone had paled considerably, but she’d gotten control of her shaking.
“You did good,” he found himself saying, out of nowhere. She had done good for a civilian, but he had no idea why he was praising her. What the hell was the point of that?
“I just did what you told me to do.”
“Exactly.”
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “You really are a piece of work, Ranger Cooper.”
“Not everyone could have gotten through that, Ms. Torres. Some people freeze, some people cry, some people...” Why was he explaining this to her? If she didn’t want to believe she’d done a good thing, what did he care? But his mouth just kept going. “There’s a lot of pressure when you’re under a threat, and the smartest thing you can do is lis
ten to the person who has the coolest head. You did that. You made good choices and had good instincts.”
“Well, thank you.” She blew out a breath, and he noted that the hands she’d had in fists loosened incrementally.
“I wish I didn’t know just how much I can stand up in the face of a threat,” she muttered.
“Unfortunately, that was only the beginning.”
“You’re a constant comfort, Ranger Cooper.”
She fell silent for a few moments, and he thought maybe they could make it all the way to the cabin without having any more of the discussion, certainly not any more of him telling her she’d done well. But she began to fidget. The kind of fidgeting that would lead to questioning.
It appeared that whatever nerves or fear that had kept Ms. Torres from interrogating him about what was going on had been eradicated or managed.
“Who’s after us? And why? What do I have to do with any of this?” she asked, thankfully sounding more exasperated than scared.
Scared tended to pull at that do-gooder center of him. He tried to focus on cases rather than people. But he could get irritated with exasperation. Why couldn’t she just trust him to keep her safe and leave it at that?
But he knew that she wouldn’t, and he had been given permission to share certain details with her.
Considering he still didn’t trust this woman, he wasn’t about to give her really important details.
He focused on the road, the flat, unending desert ahead of him. “You were in the interrogation room when Herman talked.”
“He didn’t even say anything that was any kind of incrimination. Certainly nothing that I would understand to be able to tell anyone. And I ruined your interrogation. They should be sending me flowers, not...fire.”
The corner of his lip twitched as if...as if he wanted to smile. Which was very...strange. But the fact she owned up to ruining the interrogation, while also making a little bit of a joke in what had to be a very scary situation for her, he appreciated that. He almost admired it. God knew he didn’t make light of much of anything.
