Butler indicated the cave opening with a jerk of her head. “Throw it all the way up there.”
Luke tossed his weapon.
It clattered, spun, and came to an abrupt stop at the boulder that guarded the entrance.
Her eyes never left his. “How does it feel to be left alone and defenseless with your cock hanging out, Agent Denver?”
She stared between his legs again.
God damn it. How far would she take this?
Trinity gasped as she stared at Joyce, unable to believe what the woman had just said. “Agent Denver?” she repeated as she looked to Luke and almost reflexively started to step away from him.
“Don’t move,” he commanded her, tightening his grip on her arm.
Butler giggled and propped one hand on her hip, her nails bright red against her jeans and her pale gray eyes filled with mirth. “Sorry to spoil those feelings of love, sugar.” She gestured at Luke with her gun. “Your sweet innocent cowboy isn’t what he seems to be at all.”
Trinity had felt cold and vulnerable as she’d stood there in only her socks and looking down the barrel of the gun. But now the slow heat of anger and confusion crept through her, melting away the frost.
She couldn’t for a moment believe that Luke had kept something that major from her.
“You’re lying.” Trinity clenched her fists as she glared at Joyce.
“Go on.” Joyce smiled at Luke and gave an encouraging nod. “Tell her that you’re DEA, undercover. That you hired on to the Flying M to investigate Skylar, among other things.”
Trinity’s gaze shot to meet his. “Luke?” she whispered, feeling like she was caught up in the middle of a kaleidoscope. Her whole world seemed to turn upside down and every which way with only a few words, and nothing was what she thought it was. “Are you—is this... true?”
The grip he had on her upper arm lessened and he rubbed his thumb along the soft flesh of her inner elbow, as though to comfort her. “I am with the DEA, and yes, your sister was part of the initial investigation, but—”
She jerked her arm away.
“Be still,” Joyce shouted, her voice echoing throughout the cave. “Time to get you two down to where the action is. You’re both going to be my saving grace, so to speak. Wayland and Hunter are far too close, just like you, Denver. Hell, even Noah’s got pieces of this puzzle, and he’s trying to put them together. I need a smoke screen fast, so thanks for coming way up here. I figured it would be Skylar and Zack—seen them up here at least once a week. That’s who I was waiting for, but it’s no big deal. I can still solve a bunch of problems at once with you two.”
Luke gave Trinity a measured look, as though that was meant to clear up everything he’d neglected to mention.
Like his real name.
Like his real job.
If there wasn’t a gun trained on them right now, she’d have socked him in the gut, like she’d done in the barn when he scared her during her workout. This time she’d make sure it would hurt like hell.
Luke turned away from Trinity, every possible scenario running through his mind as he fixed his gaze on Joyce. “Let’s see... Trinity and I are going to have a lover’s quarrel. I’ll have supposedly shot her with my weapon and then turned my gun on myself. That’ll keep everybody stirred up and distracted while you shut down this pipeline and move your operation elsewhere.”
Joyce’s lips tightened and her smile seemed forced. “My, what a smart agent you are.”
A muscle twitched along his jaw line. “Not very original, Butler.”
“Whatever.” The woman gave a bored look and braced her shooting arm with her opposite hand. Looked like she might be tiring a bit. “With the extra groundwork I’ve laid storing my stock in this cave’s back chamber and running three sizeable tunnels under the Flying M—well, that gives me some advantages, too. It’ll be a big help when the feds think they’ve found the pipeline and the bitch who’s been helping Guerrero. I can make my ‘escape,’ and nobody will be bothering to investigate me anytime soon.”
“You’re gonna try to make it look like Skylar was letting Guerrero run his drug operation off the Flying M all along,” Luke said like it was cold fact. “Then you’ll quietly wait until everything dies down, and help him open up shop again.”
Smile broadening, Joyce replied, “Something like that.”
“Your family has money and major political connections.” Luke narrowed his gaze. “Why the hell are you helping a psychopath like Guerrero?”
“I’m not helping him, you stupid fuck.” Joyce rolled her eyes, but then focused on Luke in a flash. “I’m carving out his territory.”
A new coldness swept through Luke as he finally got a grasp of the full measure of Butler’s insanity. “You’ve hooked up with another cartel to compete with Guerrero.”
“Had to do something when the market crashed. My daddy’s campaigns need a lot of money.”
“Does he know about this?” Luke had to fight not to charge toward Joyce Butler, grab hold of her, and shake the shit out of her. “Does your father have one clue what you’re doing to his good name?”
“Leave my father out of this.” Her face darkened, and Luke knew he’d struck a nerve.
He took advantage of her distracted anger and stuffed his cock back in his jeans and zipped them up as he spoke. He knew now she wasn’t planning to shoot them until she got them out of the cave, and probably near the entrance to one of her tunnels. Luke would be too big a body to drag far, and she couldn’t afford an evidence trail that close to the cave. Not until she found other options to stash her stock, and got some new tunnels built. Besides, her plan would lose its impact if his body and Trinity’s didn’t point the way toward the tunnels Butler wanted law enforcement to find.
“You think killing us will keep Guerrero off your ass?” Luke risked prodding the woman, looking for any other opening he could find. “He’s probably got an army out looking for you now. He’s already trashed your house.”
Anger turned Joyce’s face an odd shade of purple. “I’m not some pussy he can scare off by painting puta on a smashed wall and breaking a bunch of glass. I’ve made this operation bigger than he ever dreamed. Hell, my men are smuggling double the drugs his boys are bringing out of Mexico. That’s why he’s buying up property like crazy, looking for any advantage to up his transport and production.”
Luke fastened his belt and dropped his hands to his sides. “He’ll kill you. That’s what Guerrero does.”
“We’ll see. If he moves on me after I implicate Skylar MacKenna, he’ll just be tipping his own hand.” Joyce’s eyes regained some of their focus, and her grip on her pistol tightened. “I think he’ll spend his time planting evidence to implicate rival cartels, distancing himself from the tunnels, and chasing after my UDA mules. Francisco Guerrero is all about appearances. It’s his weakness—and by the time he gets back down to business, I’ll have most of the border property in this area sewn up. He’ll have to pack up shop and move on down the road.”
Trinity folded her arms across her naked breasts and stared at Butler, an incredulous look on her face. “How do you intend to pin your drug smuggling on Skylar?”
“Well, you see...” Joyce’s expression was like a wicked little girl who always got her way. “Skylar MacKenna will be getting an urgent message from her kid sister to meet her right away. Near the tunnels, of course.” Sighing, as though with great pleasure, Joyce continued, “Your sister will find both of your very dead bodies about the same time the sheriff’s department arrives to investigate an anonymous tip.”
Trinity’s thoughts spun and she hugged herself tighter, her body shivering as she grew even more numb from the cold. “So you were the one who sent the postcard,” she said, her voice harsh. “But not to get revenge for your ex-lover Woods getting caught rustling cattle for Guerrero. To make it look like my sister had pissed off her drug-running partners?”
“Good job, Meaty. I’m impressed.” The woman’s giggle was
really getting annoying. But for once the nickname didn’t. Joyce’s voice was almost sing song as she went on. “The fire—now that was just for kicks. I’d hoped to cook a few of those horses and that damned prize bull, but oh well. It was fun enough to watch all of you run around screaming and moaning. I sent Skylar another postcard about that, from her drug buddies, telling her the next time it’ll be her house.”
Trinity had no idea what to say to this psychotic bitch, but she didn’t have to talk, because Joyce was filling up all the air space.
“So, Sheriff Wayland will find not only bodies, but threats from Skylar’s gang, plenty of drug residue in this cave, the tunnels—and in one of those tunnels, meticulous records that show Skylar’s been running this operation for the past two years.”
“They’ll never buy it,” Luke said. “You’re wasting your time.”
“I’ve bought the best forgery in the country. So good, in fact, that Skylar MacKenna will be locked away for a very long time.” Joyce stuck out her lower lip and shook her head. “Sad, really. Grieving in jail for her dead sister, and for her husband who will have lost his life in the line of duty, not long after. And that leaves another border ranch open, and I’ll beat Guerrero to it when it hits the auction block. If I can’t run him out of town outright, I’ll shut off all his access points, one way or another.
“Bitch,” Trinity said with such venom that she was sure she was going to sprout fangs.
Joyce eyed Trinity’s naked form and smirked. “Amazing. From such a fat cow to a skinny slut. What did you do, have head-to-toe lipo?”
Luke forced himself to remain calm and to keep from reacting to Butler’s barbed tongue. His heart twisted as he saw how blue Trinity’s lips had become, and the red blotches on her skin. “Let Trinity put on some clothes.”
“I am getting sick of looking at that ugly body.” Butler nodded toward Trinity’s clothing. “Go ahead, but just remember the ‘no sudden moves’ rule. Not that you’re capable of doing anything more than screwing the ranch hands.”
Trinity’s body wracked with shivers as she moved to put her clothes on, and Luke’s gut tightened. If he’d been close enough to her, he’d have taken a chance on disarming the bitch. She was getting tired, and she was definitely overconfident.
Butler waited until Trinity had dressed herself, then the bitch waved her gun toward the cave entrance. “Start walking. Hands up where I can see them, yadda yadda yadda.”
“Too bad we won’t get to finish what we started in the barn,” Trinity said with an odd note in her voice. Luke cut his gaze to her and she gave him a look that said, Listen to what I’m not saying. “You know, what I was doing—what we were doing—before Race interrupted us.”
“Shut the hell up,” Butler said. “I’m not interested in hearing or for God’s sake seeing any more of your fuck-a-pades.”
Luke wanted to tell Trinity no, don’t try it, but she had that look in her eyes that said she’d made up her mind. Without smiling, Luke winked at Trinity, so that only she could see, telling her he got her message. At this point, since backup hadn’t arrived, this might be their only chance. He had no idea where the tunnels were, but when Butler got them close enough, she’d shoot them both, and fast—and the bitch was a good marksman.
Luke raised his arms, palms forward, and started toward the cave entrance.
Hope you’re as good as I think you are, sugar. Both of our lives depend on it.
Heart pounding like a herd of wild horses galloping across the desert, Trinity followed behind Luke, keeping enough distance between them that she’d reach Joyce about the same time he got clear of the cave.
Joyce Butler watched them coming, her eyes mostly on Luke, whom she perceived to be her only real threat.
Trinity was counting on that.
She clasped her two hands together, and thought about all the times Joyce had run her down, all the pain she had suffered from the bullying Joyce instigated.
For that, Trinity actually forgave the bitch.
It didn’t matter anymore.
What she couldn’t forgive Joyce for was threatening her sister and the man she loved.
This little murder plan of hers, that just wasn’t going to happen.
“I love you, Luke,” Trinity shouted at the same time she swung her fists up and under Joyce’s gun arm.
Contact.
Trinity felt the jolt of her fists hitting Joyce’s hands and the gun butt all the way through her skull.
Joyce screamed and the weapon fired as Trinity forced the woman’s hand up toward the cave’s ceiling. Rock shards rained down on them, landing on their heads and faces, getting in Trinity’s eyes. Her eyes stung as she followed her first swing with another one, this time slicing her fists against Joyce’s wrists and knocking the gun from the woman’s hand.
Another shot fired. Trinity didn’t know if it was from Joyce’s gun, and she didn’t stop to think about it.
“You fucking bitch!” With a shriek, Joyce raked her nails along Trinity’s cheek, but Trinity didn’t flinch.
Years of kickboxing training and Trinity went on autopilot. She landed a punch to Joyce’s jaw, snapping the woman’s head back. In a flash of movement, Trinity positioned herself for a side kick and slammed one Nike-clad foot down on Joyce’s thigh, just above her knee.
Joyce Butler screamed again and fell back against the cave wall. Her face was a sickening shade of purple, her eyes glittering with fury. Her brown hair stuck up like horns, making her look like the demon she was. “You’re gonna die now, slut,” Joyce spat as her hand shot to her back pocket where she probably had a second gun.
With a powerful right jab, Trinity buried her fist in Joyce’s belly, her hand sinking deep into the soft flesh.
Air rushed from Joyce’s lungs in a loud cough, doubling the woman over until she dropped to her knees. Trinity snatched Joyce’s extra gun from her back pocket. She backed up a few steps, and just like she’d learned at the firing range, she cocked the weapon and aimed it at the bitch’s head.
The way Joyce was rolling around the floor and screaming in obvious pain, though, it wasn’t likely she was going to be making any moves toward Trinity.
Sparing a glance toward the front of the cave, Trinity saw Luke casually standing with his own gun back in his hand.
Trinity’s gaze met Luke’s.
He smiled, and the look he gave her pumped the volume on every word he spoke. “I love you, too, sugar.”
Chapter 30
The next few days passed by in a virtual blur for Trinity. It was worse than after Fenning’s arrest and Joyce’s supposed “disappearance.” She’d hardly had a chance to see Luke with all that he’d had to do to wrap up those pieces of his investigation, and they hadn’t had a second alone. Her body ached to feel him again, to be wrapped up tight in his arms and stare into his eyes for hours.
The moment she got him to herself, she was gonna jump him. After she beat him to death for not telling her he was a DEA agent.
He’d explained that.
Zack had explained it.
And Noah, and Clay Wayland, and even Skylar had taken a turn—but Trinity still thought a kick to the gut was in order.
His name wasn’t even Rider. It was Denver.
With a sigh, she perched on the small stool at the vanity table in her bedroom and ran a brush through her strawberry blond waves. But she didn’t even see her own reflection. Instead she couldn’t help but relive the incredible sex she’d had with Luke in the cave. And then the terrifying moments that had begun immediately after.
Thank God they had made it out alive.
When Luke had reached behind him for his gun, he had managed to press a button on his cell phone. It had opened a line to some kind of special setup that notified his partner, Rios, and gave him Luke’s coordinates, along with letting him in on the conversation in the cave.
Rios had called for backup, but had gotten sidetracked when he’d run into a group of Joyce Butler’s men on his
way up the mountain, illegal immigrants they’d been using as mules to smuggle cocaine into the United States from Mexico.
After Luke had secured Joyce’s hands behind her back and bound her ankles with strips of material he’d torn from his denim shirt, he had whipped out his cell phone and reached Rios.
Thirty minutes later it was all over. The sheriff’s department, the DEA, ICE, CBP—heck, it had seemed like everyone had arrived. Trinity had been vaguely embarrassed by the thoughts of the whole world snuffling around the cave where she’d just had wild sex—and gotten interrupted, of course, by that psychopathic bitch.
What was it, anyway, with people catching her having sex? Payback for all those times she’d watched Skylar and Zack?
Trinity sighed at the thought, feeling a twinge between her legs. Here it was, Christmas Eve, and she had no idea when she would get to see Luke, or where he even was right now.
Or even what she was going to do about the future.
Yesterday she’d contacted Human Resources at DropCaps and notified them that she’d be working from the Flying M until at least March. They had no problem with that, as long as she scheduled some time at the London, San Francisco, and New York hub offices, so she’d set up those visits. If things did work out for her and her cowboy...
She shook her head and smiled. A cowboy for cripes sake, and a lawman to boot. Anyway, if she and Luke were going to make a go at their relationship, she would try to get an estimate of how often she’d need to travel, and take it from there.
After all that had happened over the past couple of weeks, Trinity felt as though she had come full circle. She could finally leave behind the old, insecure version of herself and see where the future led her—even if that was back into some aspects of her past, like Douglas. She just needed to be herself, and being herself was all right.
Trinity sighed again as she set the brush down, grabbed her makeup compact, and popped open the lid. She patted a little more foundation along the four long scratches marring her cheek, souvenirs of her encounter with Joyce Butler.
A smile of satisfaction crept across Trinity’s face. She’d kicked some serious butt in that cave, and it had sure felt good to let that bitch have it. No doubt, with all the evidence the various branches of law enforcement had gathered, Joyce was going to spend a very long time in prison—and the cartel she’d been working with had vanished like coyotes in the night. Guerrero might still be in business, but the bloody turf war Luke had described to her, that was history for now.
Luke (Armed and Dangerous Book 2) Page 21
