Ranger Guardian

by Angi Morgan

  “I didn’t mean to...” Jack let the words trail off. He didn’t have to say exactly what he meant. “You’re really the only woman I could trust with this. My sister wouldn’t be able to keep the secret. And there’s no way I want my mom knowing before the ring’s on Megan’s finger. She’ll have the whole wedding planned out without asking either of us for our opinions on anything.”

  Kendall laughed and dabbed at her eyes. “I know exactly what you mean. Mom had the country club booked in less than two hours. I remember telling Heath that she’d settle down. It never happened.”

  “I’m afraid that’s what my mom’s going to be like.”

  “Of course, I was busy with work, so I didn’t really mind. I think Heath was more disappointed that he didn’t help choose the cake flavors. The man does love cake.”

  “I’ve seen him chow down at office birthday parties.”

  They were at a stop light, and the truck filled with an awkward silence. Jack tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. Kendall flipped her phone over, checking for messages.

  Nothing.

  Heath could take care of himself. But in this crazy world, she’d prefer to have his back. Or to know that someone did, at least.

  “This is the longest red light ever. Don’t you have lights?”

  Without a word, Jack flipped a switch and a siren sounded. Cars slowed at the busy intersection long enough for them to get across.

  “If he was in trouble, you would have heard from him.”

  “I’m sure you’re right. It’s just...”

  “It’s okay, Kendall. I get it. I remember how I freaked not knowing if Megan was okay.” He pressed his lips together and shifted in his seat.

  The subject made him just as uncomfortable as it did her. She wanted to believe that Heath was okay. The belief somehow made her feel more professional. And no matter what she’d said yesterday when she’d first seen him, they weren’t just professionals. They were married.

  No matter their differences, he’d always be the father of her child. She’d never want any harm to come to him. Period.

  They were still a couple of blocks away, and Jack was driving as fast as traffic would allow. The lights and sirens were off. He’d only used them to get through the intersection. So she did what she and Heath needed to do more of. She started talking.

  “You’ll have to tell me what Megan’s like. Oh, and when are you going to ask her? Does anyone else know? I don’t want to spill your secret.”

  “She’ll be up this weekend. We could all have dinner if you want,” he said before wincing a little. “It doesn’t have to be with Heath.”

  “It’s Heath’s weekend with Skylar Dawn.” As if that was a real answer. She took a deep breath, deciding to be honest. “I know this is awkward. The one good thing about working together for a while will mean we actually have time to talk. We’ve both been avoiding it.”

  “That’s a good plan.” He pointed to her car. “See, he’s okay.”

  He was right. Heath leaned against the brick wall of a 7-Eleven convenience store, as casually as a real cowboy leaned against anything. She was relieved and furious all at once. Thank God he was okay, but why hadn’t he returned her calls?

  Jack stopped and she quickly jumped from his truck. “Thanks for the help, and I’ll see you soon. There’s no need for you to stick around and witness me murdering my husband.”

  * * *

  HEATH LOOKED UP from under his hat. He had spotted Jack’s truck midway up the block and slid his phone back inside his pocket. He had four texts and a message that he hadn’t had time to listen to, but he knew what it contained.

  Kendall would be—there wasn’t another word for it—worried.

  “I guess you didn’t catch your guy?” He stood straight, stopping himself from walking to her.

  “Well, it looks like you didn’t catch yours either.” Her voice was controlled and deliberate.

  He recognized the compressed lips, the restraints she held on herself. He’d been on the receiving end of the cool wait-until-we’re-alone look a few times. She pulled the keys from her pocket, spinning the key ring around her finger and heading for the SUV.

  “Um...Kendall. Wait. We’re not—” He reached to stop her, but not before Saundra stepped through the front doors of the building with a cup of coffee.

  “Holy cow. That’s—” She pivoted, doing an about-face toward him and grabbed his arm, taking them to the corner of the building. “What the heck’s going on?”

  “I was trying to tell you. Saundra ran into me and, after a couple of minutes, she decided to explain something to us about yesterday’s accident.”

  “Oh, that’s such a relief.”

  Dammit. Her go-to phrase let him know that she was more than a little ticked off at him. But at least the words she said loud enough for Saundra to hear were cloaked in a syrupy, concerned tone.

  One surprised look and Special Agent Kendall Barlow was back in charge and had herself under control. “Miss Rosa. What would you like to explain? Wait. Should we try to find some place that’s a bit more quiet? Is there a coffee shop nearby?”

  “I only have a minute. I’ve explained to Heath that this is all just a big mistake and I need to get to work. I don’t really know Bryan Marrone. I mean, I’ve seen him driving down the street, but that’s it. I don’t know him. You see?”

  “Do you want to take her in for questioning?” he asked, crossing his arms, determined to keep a straight face.

  “You have to believe me,” Saundra pleaded. “I didn’t really do anything except let him crash into my car.”

  There shouldn’t be anything funny in Saundra’s explanation. She didn’t know him, but she’d let him crash into her car? He’d heard a lot of explanations over the years—every Texas highway patrolman did. Hers just made his top-ten list. There was hilarious, and then just plain absurd.

  “Miss Rosa, I think we’d be better off having this discussion somewhere other than the 7-Eleven parking lot.” Kendall gestured toward a couple of men walking inside the store.

  “Oh, no. I couldn’t possibly go to the FBI building. That’s totally out of the question.”

  “Miss Rosa, please.” Kendall opened her arms. One slowly moving behind Saundra and one gesturing more toward him on the corner. “Let’s at least get away from the door.”

  She moved. Kendall moved. He kept his back to the ice machine and glanced around every other minute, making sure no onlooker stared too closely.

  “You don’t really think I tried to kill you. Do you? I mean, no one was really hurt.” Saundra sipped her coffee, stretching her eyes open as large as they could get.

  Kendall coughed or choked like she’d swallowed wrong. Heath tried not to look at the varying shades of pink powder on Saundra’s eyelids. But damn, she was serious. She really didn’t think she’d done anything wrong.

  If he’d had a second set of handcuffs, she wouldn’t be walking around drinking the coffee he’d bought. This was the very reason they needed backup, or that Bureau-issued sedan. If they’d had it, he would have arrested Saundra Rosa at the rosebushes.

  Did Kendall feel the same way, or did she want to tackle the investigation from a different angle? Standing slightly behind her, he couldn’t see her face and couldn’t make a judgment call on what she thought.

  “Thank you for your honesty, Miss Rosa. Did Ranger Murray get your contact information?” Kendall paused while Saundra nodded. “We’ll be in touch.”

  “Hey, Saundra. You’ll be needing these.” He returned her cell and ID he’d held onto during their conversation and walk.

  “Oh, right. Thanks for not arresting me, Heath.” Saundra power walked away from them, retracing the steps they’d taken earlier down the Wycliff Avenue sidewalk. Then she slowed, bending her head over her cell.

  “I’d really like to k
now who she’s texting right now.”

  “What in the world were you thinking?” Kendall turned on him as soon as Saundra was out of sight.

  “What?” He honestly didn’t know which way the conversation would go from here.

  “You couldn’t give me a heads-up that you’d not only caught your suspect, but that she was getting coffee?” Kendall vehemently pointed toward the 7-Eleven door while walking toward the SUV.

  The key ring was still slipped over her finger. She clicked the unlock button and moved toward it, as if she’d suddenly remembered that she had a car. They didn’t need to argue out in the open next to the trash.

  Whatever reprieve he’d received from her being upset was apparently gone as they sat in the front seat. She kept twirling her keys instead of using them. She leaned forward, dropping her head on the steering wheel and taking deep breaths.

  His hand lifted to drop on her back. After a moment’s hesitation, he let it. She didn’t shrug it off.

  “I was calling you when I saw Jack’s truck halfway up the block.”

  Kendall puffed her cheeks and blew the air out with a slow wuff. As much as he wanted to continue to touch her, he raised his hand and rested it on the seat-back. She turned the key, cranked the AC to high and pointed the vents toward her face.

  A lot of effort was going into her movements to keep herself calm. He knew her, knew what she did when she was too upset to speak politely. Blasting the AC in her face was just a substitute for fanning herself.

  “Why don’t you just go ahead and say whatever it is you’re trying hard not to say? Or maybe we could go collect my handcuffs?”

  “You know that the first man is no longer there?”

  “Sure. I had to walk past the house with Saundra. Is that why you’re sore?”

  “Good grief. No. I was—” She put the SUV in gear. “Do you want to see if the man is still in the house?”

  “You tell me. It’s your case.”

  “Is that really how this is going to play out? You take off alone, darting through houses that seem to all be part of the same organization where—”

  “Yeah? Where what? Did you expect them to ambush me?”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time. Would it?” Kendall visibly clenched her jaw.

  “Are you really going there? I’d prefer to have one argument at a time.”

  “If it’s relevant to this particular argument then I think we—” Her cell rang and she clicked the button, connecting the hands-free. “Barlow.”

  “This is Special Agent in Charge Lou Grayson with the Portland office. Have I caught you at a convenient time?”

  Kendall pulled into an alley separating Rawlins and Hall Streets. She took the phone off speaker quicker than his mare headed for the barn for dinner. She began to get out, but he stopped her. She could stay in the SUV while he collected his cuffs.

  Heath hated to admit as he got out of the SUV that he had another bad feeling. If a Portland agent was calling about the case, Kendall wouldn’t have needed privacy.

  “Dammit,” he muttered to himself. “What the hell is going on?”

  Chapter Eleven

  Kendall locked the SUV and followed thirty feet behind her husband.

  “Special Agent Grayson, what can I do for the Portland agency?”

  “Join us. And it’s Lou. Please.”

  What?

  His words stopped her in her tracks at the corner—a good vantage point to have Heath’s back if something went wrong.

  “I apologize, Lou, but now might be the wrong time. I’m out in the field—”

  “I’ll text you my direct number.”

  Heath walked up the sidewalk to pick up his handcuffs.

  She needed to get off the phone. “Special Agent Grayson, I need three minutes. Sorry.”

  She tapped the red disconnect button and stashed the phone in her pocket. The bright silver still hung around the pole, locked in place. The neighborhood continued to be abnormally quiet and vacant for a block in Uptown. It was just weird to be outside this long and not hear a single bird or dog.

  Heath was on the porch, key in hand, as he collected his restraints. No surprises. He didn’t knock on the door to see if the man was inside. He did everything she’d asked. Then he retraced his steps. No one left their home. No car drove by. Her husband was ten feet away and she ran back to the SUV, dialing while attempting to be as focused on her duty as possible.

  “My apologies, Lou.”

  “Glad you called back,” he said without any irritation in his voice. “I know this might seem like it’s out of the blue, Kendall, but you come highly recommended.”

  “I’m very flattered and honored, sir. But I didn’t apply for a transfer.”

  “Let me give you a better idea of why you were recommended.”

  Lou Grayson recounted some of the high points of her last evaluation. She heard the words, knowing they were true...but...why her? Why now? Those words kept ringing over and over in her mind while Heath turned the corner toward the SUV.

  He stopped, took his own cell out and turned his back to her. All the signs were there that her husband suspected something was wrong.

  How would she explain the phone call from Portland without lying to him? Her only two options were avoid or evade.

  “Kendall? Are you still there?”

  Tempting as it was to claim a bad connection and deal with this another time, she didn’t move through life like that.

  “Yes, sir. I think I’m still a little stunned.”

  “As I said, this might seem sudden to you, but we’ve actually been considering it for quite a while.”

  “May I ask how long, sir?”

  “Since your partner was promoted. You’d be taking over our cybercrime unit, when the group leader retires in three months. Of course, we’d like you here well before then to learn the ropes.”

  “I’ll need time to think about the move.”

  “How long do you think you need?”

  “As long as you’ll give me. This is a big change.”

  “I don’t doubt it. How about a week?”

  “Sure. Thank you, sir.”

  Heath stuck his cell in his pocket and placed both hands on his hips, clearly frustrated. She waved at him to return while she exchanged pleasantries with Grayson and disconnected.

  “I called for a neighborhood patrol. They’ll pick up Marrone when he comes home.”

  “If he comes home. He might be on his way to Mexico.”

  “More like Del Rio,” he said.

  “Where?” She couldn’t have heard him right. “Del Rio, Texas?”

  “Yeah. I overheard Saundra talking to a woman on Vandelia Street. I thought she was just making up the trip. You know, as an excuse. Then again, the woman said she’d love it there. As if she’d been before. Does it mean something?”

  “Brantley Lourdes has land there. It’s almost compound-like.” Practically giddy, she grabbed Heath’s arm, shaking it with excitement. “That’s where Public Exposure’s headquarters are.”

  “Did you issue a BOLO for Marrone?”

  She shook her head, and Heath dialed the Rangers. She flipped open her notebook with the license plate of the sedan they’d been following. He gave them the information needed for the all-points bulletin.

  Continuing to smile, she steered the SUV toward FBI headquarters.

  She was excited. No. Ecstatic.

  The couple that had tried to smash their car the previous day definitely worked for Public Exposure. She had a connection. Together they would break this case open. She was sure of it now.

  “DPS will get him if he’s on a highway out of town to Del Rio.” Heath stashed his cell back in his pocket. “Do you want Dallas PD to pick up Saundra Rosa? It might be a good idea to see if she’s willing to come
to your office on her own. You might be able to flip her there before Public Exposure sends a lawyer.”

  “You mean you might be able to flip her. She seemed very eager to cooperate and kept looking to you when she answered. Sort of like you promised her something. Did you?”

  “I’ve been told that women feel safer with a Texas cowboy around. I simply explained that we needed to file some reports.”

  “You said ‘Yes ma’am, no ma’am.’ And you told her we had to file reports. That made her stop what she was doing and let you buy her a cup of coffee while you waited to speak with me?”

  Her husband cocked her head to the side and lifted a finger—a sure sign she wasn’t going to like his next words.

  “I might have asked her why she tried to kill my wife.”

  “And her response...?”

  “Crying. Full-blown, mascara-running, fall-to-her-knees weeping. As a highway patrolman, I’ve seen a lot of women cry. I’ve told you some of the stories. But I’ve never seen anything like this, Kendall. She even asked me for forgiveness.”

  “And then she denied everything?”

  “Absolutely everything. Even down to knowing Marrone, at least knowing him well. As she said, they wave at each other when they pass each other on the street.”

  “Do you believe her?”

  “Hell, no.”

  “Thank goodness. For a minute there, I thought you’d totally lost it in the past six months.” She pulled into the FBI parking lot. “That woman was lying through her teeth.”

  “Sadly true.”

  * * *

  HEATH HATED THE idea of obtaining a visitor’s badge and tagging behind Kendall as she went through her office. He’d been there, done that, and he’d felt like a puppy on a leash.

  “I’ll wait out here. Make some phone calls.”

  “You’re sure? No coffee or anything else?” Kendall didn’t wait long for an answer. She was already out of the SUV and walking fast. “I’ll text when I’m coming down. It may be a little while.”

  “No problem.”

  Heath didn’t want to draw the attention of FBI security. He had other things to think about instead of justifying why he was waiting. He kept the door open and his feet on the parking lot asphalt when all he wanted was to move and get rid of some nervous energy.