Garcia exploded with fury and ran toward Brent. Brent stood his ground but didn’t raise his gun. Garcia wasn’t armed and Brent wouldn’t shoot an unarmed man. Garcia rammed into him, knocking him to the ground. But both Brent’s hands were free and he pounded the man in the face and head, knocking him out cold.
The next thing he knew Colt stood over him. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I got this.”
Colt extended his hand and pulled Brent to his feet. “Sorry we got delayed. We had a small army to fight. Some of them are dead. Some ran away and some we caught. Glad to see that includes Garcia, thanks to you. Where’s Adriana?”
“I left her in—”
“I’m here.” Adriana stepped forward and pressed herself into Brent’s arms. He had no choice but to wrap them around her—and there was nothing he wanted more.
No point in denying what he’d felt for her since the first moment he’d met her. But he had questions—could he trust anyone enough to truly love them? Was he good enough for her?
Garcia roused from his beating and was pulled to his feet. His eyes never strayed from Adriana.
“You’re going away, Rio. You’re going to spend the rest of your life inside a prison for your crimes and your murders. I truly hope you find yourself again while there. That you find Jesucristo,” she said.
He spat at her. “I am making a vow here before you and your Ranger boyfriend. I vow to kill you. It doesn’t matter if I’m in prison, my reach will remain outside the walls.”
Brent wanted to respond, but there could be truth to Rio’s words. “Come on.” He pulled Adriana away from her enraged brother and headed back to the vehicle they had driven to the ranch.
He kept his arm firmly around her shoulders in case she wanted to turn back and try to reach out to her brother again. He wouldn’t have it. “It’s over.”
Adriana shrugged away from him. “It will never be over.”
* * *
Brent led her back to an overwhelmed EMT positioned by the ambulances. She was likely bruised from the gunshot to her chest. But she was alive. If only Garcia’s threats didn’t still hang in the air between them. The EMTs were busy attending to serious injuries, and unfortunately, Adriana would have to wait. Brent took the opportunity to turn her to face him.
“Don’t worry about his threats, honey.”
She angled her head up at him, relief and hope visible in her gaze...mingled with fear. She still wasn’t free—they both knew it. Had they ever really thought she would be?
And as for things being over, really over—that would mean that Brent would no longer have a reason to be in her life. He wasn’t sure he liked that. In fact, he was positive he didn’t.
“I...I thought I would feel free when this ended. But it will never end. What happens next?”
“You and Rosa are both witnesses to his crimes and will need to go into WITSEC until the trial.”
“And what about after the trial? Like he said, he can control his people from inside the prison walls. You know this is true.”
Unfortunately, he did.
He placed his hands on her arms and rubbed them to chase the chill away. And to connect with her. He had words to say, and frankly, they terrified him.
“What is it?” she asked.
If he didn’t do this now, he knew he would never get another chance. Brent cleared his throat. “I don’t want to lose you. Not when I only just found you again. Adriana, I think I have loved you from the first moment I saw you two years ago. Because I haven’t stopped thinking about you. Spending these last few days with you only confirmed that for me, and I know I want you in my life.”
Her expression grew somber. Uh-oh. Maybe he’d taken things too far, and she didn’t feel the same way.
“What exactly are you saying, Ranger McCord?”
And she’d referred to him by his formal title. Brent pursed his lips and tried to gulp air. He hung his head. How did he continue? He was making a fool of himself. Had he really thought she loved him, too?
She urged his face back up and then he saw her beautiful smile. “I feel the same way in case you were wondering.”
That encouraged him to continue. He grabbed her up in his arms and gently kissed her. Man, it felt good to finally let himself love her. When he ended the kiss, he put her back on her feet.
His heart pounded. “Will you be my wife?”
Her eyes widened. “You’d do that? You’d marry the sister of a drug lord?”
“I want to marry the woman I love, and that’s you.”
“Then my answer is that I want to marry the man I love, and that’s you, Ranger McCord.”
EPILOGUE
New Year’s Day, one year later
“I do,” Adriana said as she gazed into the eyes of her cowboy protector, Texas Ranger Brent McCord.
Then the pastor pronounced them man and wife.
Only, she wouldn’t remain Mrs. Brent McCord for long. No. Brent was leaving the Texas Rangers to enter the WITSEC—witness protection program—with Adriana, and they would have new names and a whole new life far away from the Mexican border. And Rosa would come along as her sister.
Brent leaned forward and kissed her gently, making her heart leap for joy—this moment had been so long in coming. He took her hand and together they turned to face their friends who had come to this small private wedding at yet another safe house. Adriana had been in protective custody through the trial until this moment when she would go with her new husband into WITSEC. If she’d gone into WITSEC earlier, she would never have been allowed to see him, so she’d opted to remain at a safe house throughout the trial.
She’d gotten to know Brent’s Texas Rangers team members, too, over the course of the year, and now it would be so hard to say goodbye to her new friends, starting with Texas Ranger Austin Rivers and his bride, Kylie, and their precious baby girl, Mercedes. Oh, did that make her want a baby of her own. She just knew Brent would make the most amazing father.
And then there was Ranger Colt Blackthorn and Adriana’s look-alike, Danielle. They decided they could have been twins!
Adriana had grown especially close to Ranger Carmen Alvarez, who, after her recovery, had insisted on being one of the Rangers who protected Adriana until the trial was over and Adriana and Brent would go with the US Marshals to their new life—today, actually.
Brent’s boss on the team, Major Vance, shook Brent’s hand and wished him well and kissed Adriana on both cheeks like she was a beloved daughter. And, of course, Christopher, Trevor, Ethan and Ford were there, Ethan the only one of the four who had finally married.
Adriana had gotten to know their administrative assistant, Lizzie, and Jenny Fielding, the tech support person—all of the Rangers on the reconnaissance team.
They appreciated Adriana, because she had helped them complete one of their biggest tasks—the Garcia Mission. And in turn, they had helped to free her from her brother and build a new life for herself.
Inez stood just beyond the group of Rangers. Adriana pressed through them in the small room and went to the woman. Drew her into a hug. Inez would not be going into WITSEC with them but had sold the ranch and had moved in with her sister in Eureka, California. Adriana was grateful she’d been able to attend the small, secret wedding.
“I will miss you, Inez. I owe you so much. You saved me. You changed my life.”
“Oh, sweet child, it does my heart good to know the Lord used me in such a way. All I ever wanted was to make a difference in even one person’s life. I’m grateful to Him. God is good! And look—He has given you a whole new life with your Ranger man. I cannot even believe how well this has all turned out.”
Adriana nodded. “I couldn’t imagine that in a little over a year, after running for my life and ending up at your ranch, I would be
in this room getting married—to a lawman, no less!”
They laughed together.
The only thing her wedding was missing was her biological family. Though her brother was behind bars where he should be, and her testimony had helped to put him there, Adriana couldn’t help the grief that tried to flood her at the chasm between her and the brother she used to love so dearly. But she pushed it back down. This scenario was as it should be. Things had been made right. Rio had made his choices long ago, and Adriana had been given a chance to be free to live her life. This was a joyous day, the most joyous she’d ever experienced, so she set any depressing thoughts about Rio aside and smiled again.
An arm slipped around her waist. She turned to see Brent smiling down at her, nothing but the purest joy mingled with love for her in his gaze. It made her knees weak.
“There you are,” he said.
She laughed. “Like you would lose me in this room. It’s so small.”
“But it’s filled with people.”
“I know. It’s filled with your closest friends.” Adriana reached up and pressed her hands against his handsome cheeks. “And you’re giving them up for me, Brent. Are you... Are you sure?” Her heart ached to have to ask the question, but she needed to know for certain.
He grabbed her hands and grinned—that grin she loved and could spend the rest of her life enjoying. “We’ve been over this already, honey. Don’t worry. What would be the point staying with them if all I do is think about you all the time?” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “Besides, we’re married now.”
Brent scooped her up and close for a thorough kiss, then, “I love you.”
Those around them started clapping and shouting, Texas style.
* * * * *
If you enjoyed TEXAS CHRISTMAS DEFENDER,
be sure to get the first two books in the
TEXAS RANGER HOLIDAY series.
THANKSGIVING PROTECTOR by Sharon Dunn
CHRISTMAS DOUBLE CROSS by Jodie Bailey
Find more great reads at www.LoveInspired.com.
Keep reading for an excerpt from HOLIDAY SECRETS by Susan Sleeman.
Dear Reader,
What a wild ride this story was to write! I hope you enjoyed Texas Christmas Defender. I’m a seventh-generation Texan on both sides of my family and was once a member of the DRT—Daughters of the Republic of Texas. (I haven’t paid my dues, so I can’t say I’m still a member, even though my family has been in Texas long enough. Ha!) All this Texas family history and this will be my first book set in Texas. Can you believe it? I’m so happy I was given the opportunity to join this continuity series. The men and woman of the Texas Rangers have a rich heritage that begins early in Texas history and are world-renowned, often compared to Scotland Yard or the FBI. This is a state law enforcement agency, folks.
In Texas Christmas Defender, Adriana is looking for a refuge from some seriously bad people. Though escape nearly costs her everything—her safety, her life and the lives of those she loves—freedom from the evil that surrounds her is worth the cost. Inez is there to encourage her and pray for her. Isn’t that just like how God works in our lives? He sends someone to us who can pray for us and nurture us in His ways. Even if we don’t realize that person is there—trust me, they are. It’s my prayer for you today that you turn to the only One who can give you a true safe haven. Who can be your true refuge.
Thank you for reading my books! To find out about my other books, visit my website at ElizabethGoddard.com!
Many blessings,
Elizabeth Goddard
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Holiday Secrets
by Susan Sleeman
ONE
Lexie Grant’s father had to pick today, of all days, to come back from the dead.
“Not a word from you in over a month.” She glanced at his prop plane rumbling in the distance on the abandoned airstrip, the winds from a blue norther howling across the field. “I thought you had to be dead.”
“Why in the world would you think that?” Her father raised his chin in his usual haughty manner.
“Your house and office. They were ransacked. Then you go missing. The sheriff couldn’t find you, and he suspected foul play. What else was I supposed to think?” She sighed and wished her father cared enough about her and her fourteen-year-old brother, Adam, to have told them he was leaving town. “Where have you been?”
He stepped closer to the crumbling maintenance building shielding them from the harsh wind racing through the Texas Hill Country. “There’s no time to explain. I have another appointment and have to leave.”
Right. Leave. He’d left her and Adam to be raised by their mother’s sister, Ruth, when their mother died giving birth to Adam. Why should Lexie expect him to stay and give her an explanation?
“So why are you here, then?”
“To give you this.” He held out a large manila envelope, his hand trembling.
She watched him for a moment, trying to determine if he was shaking from the twenty-five-degree temperature drop in the last hour or if it was more. He stood strong as usual, but something was off. Maybe something to do with his disappearance.
Thankfully, her fears for his safety had been unfounded, and he was alive. Tears of gratitude sprang to her eyes, surprising her, what with their troubled relationship.
He shook the envelope. “Take it.”
She might be glad he was alive, but she wanted nothing from him. Nothing at all. She shoved her hands into her pockets.
“The envelope.” He glanced over his shoulder to make a furtive sweep of the area.
“If you’re worried that someone is watching us, I should tell you Gavin is coming out here to meet me. He needed to talk to me tonight, too.”
“You’re meeting your old boyfriend? Here? Tonight?” His voice rose as he cut his gaze over the towering copse of bald cypress trees shadowing the abandoned property.
“Yes,” she replied, trying not to think about seeing the man she’d once thought she’d spend the rest of her life with, before he’d bailed on her three years ago.
“He’s FBI now... I can’t... I have to go.” He waved the envelope. “C’mon, take it. Everything you need to know is inside. It’s insurance to make sure you’re safe.”
“Safe? Why wouldn’t I be safe?”
He opened his mouth to respond but a rumbling noise sounded from the far side of the field, taking his attention.
A dirt bike burst from the shadows and raced straight for them.
“Gavin?” her father asked.
“No. He’s riding over on his horse.”
“Take this. Now!” Panic wove through his tone. He shoved th
e envelope toward her.
She’d never seen the all-knowing doctor this rattled. Should she be afraid, too?
“Now!”
She reached for the envelope. He let go, but she didn’t have it in hand. The wind whipped it into the air.
“No!” He charged after the envelope dancing toward his plane.
As a pilot, he could jump in the cockpit and take off anytime he wanted, but he seemed more concerned about getting the envelope.
“Are you coming back or leaving?” she called after him.
He didn’t respond. She stepped away from the building to get a better look. He charged ahead, then froze in place, staring at the bike rumbling closer. He suddenly bent to grab the envelope. A gunshot rang out, cutting through the night.
Was it the biker? Was he the one shooting at them?
Her father took off, running toward the plane. The bike veered right, bearing down on him. He’d barely made it a few feet when another shot split the air. Then another. Her father went down.
Dad! No! She opened her mouth to scream.
No. Stop. The shooter will hear you. Maybe come after you.
She clamped a hand over her mouth as panic raced along her nerves. What should she do?
Hide. Yes, hide. Now!
She slipped behind the building. Held her breath. Fought the panic. Her horse Misty, tethered a few feet behind her, nervously shifted. Lexie raced to the mare.
“Shh, girl. Don’t give me away.” She scrubbed her hand down the mare’s velvety nose until she calmed. “What do I do, girl? I can’t just leave Dad out there.”
But could she do otherwise and not be shot?
She had to try. She couldn’t lose him when she’d just gotten him back. She was an ER nurse, after all, and she was sure she could help.
Hoping the shooter hadn’t seen her, Lexie left the horse behind and peeked around the corner. The biker roared close and came to a stop ten feet from her father. The biker sat there, his gun outstretched, his bike idling. Her father didn’t move.
Texas Christmas Defender Page 18
