Hidden Prey (Lawmen)

by Cheyenne McCray

  “I have already sent Pablo as well as John.” Alejandro continued, “It should not take them long to reach and search her home, or to interrogate anyone they might need to.”

  “Take care of it.” Diego disconnected the call and nearly slammed the cell phone on the desktop. He loved his son and would do anything for him. But Diego had a low tolerance for failure from anyone.

  Diego breathed in slowly through his nose then parted his lips and blew out his breath. Deep inhale. Deep exhale. Alejandro, referred to as El Puño, The Fist, was next in line for Diego’s empire. If anything were to happen to Alejandro, Diego’s four brothers would be in line from the oldest to the youngest. Diego had no wish for his brothers to take over the business. It belonged to Alejandro if Diego was no longer in command for whatever reason.

  His brothers were fools as far as Diego was concerned.

  Once Diego was in full control of his emotions, he left the office and returned to the balcony where Angelina waited. She was looking out at the pool and gardens that were lit with strategically placed spotlights.

  When he reached her, he rested his hand on her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. “What are you thinking, my angel?” he asked as he straightened.

  She smiled up at him. “That I have the best grandfather in all the world.”

  He returned her smile. “As I have the prettiest, most intelligent granddaughter.”

  She rested her head on his biceps for a moment and he put his arm around her shoulders. Her squeezed her to him before they linked arms and walked down the staircase to the grounds below.

  CHAPTER 5

  In their agency SUV, the other agents followed Landon’s vehicle. The whole time, Tori felt like she was going to crawl out of her skin.

  At the same time she felt a numbness in her mind, like nothing made sense anymore. She had to struggle to keep thoughts of the murder out of her mind, but they were always there, knocking at the back of her brain.

  When Tori asked why Landon was driving in circles all around the Bisbee area, he told her that he wanted to make damned sure no one followed them. “Even though it would be obvious if someone was tailing us in a small town like Bisbee, it’s necessary to take appropriate action. We can’t, and I won’t, take chances.”

  Tori felt so jittery that it was as if insects crawled all over her skin. That she could be numb and jittery at the same time was a strange feeling. They spent a good half hour driving to different parts of Bisbee, including the San Jose, Warren, and Galena areas.

  She looked out into the darkness as Landon drove, only his headlights illuminating the paved road in some areas while streetlights lit up the streets in other parts of the sprawling town. As far as stoplights in the whole of Bisbee, they could be counted on one hand.

  When she felt almost dizzy from driving around and around the town, she turned her gaze from the darkness outside. She looked at Landon who steered the SUV with one hand on the top of the wheel and his other hand lower. The amber glow of the dashboard lights caused his features to look harsher, the scar a brutal slash across the right side of his face. She wondered where he had gotten it.

  Since he no longer had an overshirt on, she got a better idea of just how defined his body was beneath his T-shirt. The shirt was snug around his biceps and taut across his chest. She wondered if he had washboard abs—she couldn’t tell because of the T-shirt, but if the rest of him was any indication, then he probably did.

  Despite everything that had happened, she found herself attracted to this almost gruff, virile alpha male. Under other circumstances, she would ask him more questions to figure out what made him tick. She had the feeling that Landon had a lot of layers and that it wouldn’t be easy getting past the surface.

  He glanced at her, catching her staring at him, and her face warmed.

  She sighed. “I wish I could have stayed with my parents.”

  He shook his head. “Too dangerous to take chances.”

  “I know.” She bit her lower lip.

  He seemed to be watching her for something, but she wasn’t sure what. “Did you have any kind of laptop or tablet in the bag that was stolen?”

  “I was so upset about…” She trailed off before continuing. “I left my laptop bag with my clarinet at the front door of my home in Tucson.” She rubbed her arms with her palms. “It ended up being a good thing that I forgot them since I never could have run away from the men if I’d been carrying them.”

  She wiped her sweating palms on her jeans again. Landon had saved her life, she was sure of that, and now he was helping her when she had nowhere else to turn without putting her family into danger.

  She looked outside the window and her skin went cold.

  “My—my boyfriend.” Her eyes widened as she looked away from the dark scenery, her gaze cutting to Landon. “He lives with me in Tucson. What if these guys from the cartel go to my home because they have the address from my driver’s license? What if they’ve already gone there?”

  Landon snapped his attention to her and he handed her his phone. “Call him. Tell him to leave and stay with a friend.”

  Tori’s hands shook as she pressed the numbers for Gregory’s phone. She was surprised she remembered since she always used speed dial to call him on her own phone. She brought the phone to her ear and heard his ring and ring before it went to voicemail.

  “Gregory.” Her voice was urgent. “Something’s happened. As soon as you get this message, I need you to go stay with a friend. Get out of the townhouse immediately. I can’t explain over the phone, just do it.” She disconnected the call and redialed his number. Once again it rang several times before she got his voicemail.

  “Maybe he’s not home.” She looked at Landon. “Why didn’t I think of him before? If something happens to him—”

  “You are not to blame,” Landon cut in. “You’ve had a big scare and a lot to process. And we didn’t know the cartel was involved, so you had no way of knowing he could be in danger.”

  Tori bit her lower lip. She’d left Gregory, but she’d never want anything horrible to happen to him. She tried dialing him again, but no answer. She left another message, this time with Landon’s cell phone number when he instructed her to do so.

  “What should we do?” she asked Landon when she disconnected the call.

  “I’ll take care of it.” He took his cell phone from her, dialed a number, and brought the phone to his ear.

  Tori listened as he identified himself and soon he was talking with a lieutenant at the Tucson Police Department and explaining the situation. Landon asked Tori for Gregory’s last name, and she told him that it was Smith. She gave Landon their home address and he relayed it to the lieutenant on the other end of the line.

  “They’re sending officers to your house to check on your boyfriend now,” Landon told Tori as he holstered his phone. He didn’t offer her any false hope by saying something like, “I’m sure he’ll be fine.” It didn’t seem to be his style to offer hope when there were too many unknowns.

  “Thank you.” She dug her nails into her palms to try and get a grip on herself.

  “In case the cartel does have a problem finding your parents on the Internet, does your boyfriend know where your parents live?” Landon asked.

  Cold washed over her and her skin prickled. “Gregory has been there once, but I don’t think he knows the address. He’s horrible with directions. He didn’t get on very well with my mom and dad, and they weren’t too crazy about him.”

  Considering her parents were good people and she trusted her mother’s judgment, Tori knew she should have questioned her relationship with Gregory. Even her friends had made comments that, in retrospect, were probably meant to tell her in a roundabout way that they didn’t approve of him.

  Why hadn’t she seen that?

  She’d been so taken in by what he’d appeared to be. She’d thought he was intelligent, caring, and she’d liked being around him. Gradually that changed, but she hadn’t seen th
e verbal and emotional abuse for what it was. How could she have been so blind?

  That wasn’t what mattered right now. Gregory could be in trouble… Or he could be dead.

  She turned to Landon again. “Do you think any of my friends could be in danger? If they somehow got my address off my laptop…although it is password protected.”

  “How easy is your password to break?” he asked.

  She thought about how carefully she’d selected her password. “It’s a complicated one using lower and uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols.”

  “Good.” Landon nodded. “They’re probably fine.”

  “Unless Gregory gives them up.” Her voice sounded anxious, even to herself.

  Landon didn’t respond. What could he say? For now what he needed to do was concentrate on keeping Tori safe.

  It was his job to assure a witness that she or he would be protected. This time he had to force himself to tell Tori all would be fine. He didn’t like it—he wanted to tell her she needed to get out of town and go far, far away.

  People who witnessed crimes by the Jimenez Cartel never lived to testify against them.

  Landon’s gut twisted. He didn’t need to go there mentally. It would only make things harder when it came to reassuring Tori.

  He frowned to himself as he thought about Tori’s parents and her boyfriend, then focused his gaze on the two-lane highway that ran through part of the town.

  As he drove he couldn’t help but think about how beautiful Tori was. It wasn’t the appropriate time to find himself attracted to any woman, much less a witness. Not to mention she had a boyfriend.

  He attempted to pull his thoughts away from his attraction to Tori as he guided his vehicle onto School Terrace Road.

  They passed Bisbee High School and Tori stared at the school and the fields that were illuminated. “It hasn’t changed a lot since I went to school there.” She glanced at Landon. “Go, Pumas.”

  They headed up a rise to a shaded street with good entry and exit points and nondescript homes. Landon turned into the driveway of a home mostly hidden behind a line of mature Cyprus trees, and pulled up to the detached garage.

  Tori looked over the white house with fading forest-green trim and glanced at the low maintenance landscaping that was illuminated by his headlights. “Is this the safe house?”

  “Yep.” He left the engine running. “We’ll wait for your guard detail before we go in.”

  He checked in with the agents via his cell phone, and was told they were turning onto the street as they spoke.

  Moments later, the black SUV pulled up next to Landon’s vehicle in front of the garage. He kept the engine running and buzzed down his window as Johnson and O’Donnell got out and approached Landon’s SUV.

  O’Donnell was a fair redhead with brown eyes and a muscular build. Johnson’s eyes were dark, his head shaved. He had skin the color of polished mahogany and his size was equal to O’Donnell’s.

  “We’ll clear the place.” O’Donnell nodded in the direction of the house. “Hang tight.”

  Johnson and O’Donnell kept their weapons concealed as they went inside the single story ranch-style home and turned on the lights inside. It wasn’t too long before the two agents returned to Landon and Tori.

  O’Donnell walked up to Landon’s window. “Clear.”

  Johnson’s gaze constantly monitored their surroundings.

  Landon buzzed up the window, killed the engine, and looked at Tori. “Wait until I come around to your side and I’ll open the door. When you’re out, we’ll escort you into the house.”

  Tori gripped her hands in her lap but nodded.

  Once Landon had Tori out of the SUV, the three men surrounded her as they walked up to the front door of the safe house.

  O’Donnell and Johnson had left the door open and the lights on. Landon walked inside, his gaze sweeping the room even though it had been cleared. Tori came in behind him, followed by the agents. Landon locked the door behind them.

  The blinds were all closed and the house was furnished with only the basics. Couch, overstuffed chair, end table, coffee table, a lamp, and a TV. The kitchen would be minimally stocked with canned fruits and vegetables, dried pasta and canned sauce, and other easy-to-make food items in the pantry.

  Tori took in her surroundings and Landon couldn’t read her expression. She glanced at him. “So this is what a safe house looks like.”

  “It’s not much,” Landon said. “But you’ll be safe here.”

  She walked around and ran her finger along the dusty TV. “Doesn’t look like it’s been used for a while.”

  “We have several safe houses around the county.” Landon walked with Tori toward the kitchen. “I’m not sure when this one was last used.”

  “I’ve got TV duty.” O’Donnell grinned as he turned on the TV and changed the channel to watch a baseball game. He sat on the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table.

  Landon turned to Johnson. “I’ll be in the kitchen with Tori, looking for something we can fix to eat.”

  Johnson nodded. “I’ll take a look around the house again and make sure everything is locked tight.”

  When Tori and Landon were in the kitchen, Landon caught her by the shoulders and brought her around to face him. The cop in him wanted to tell her to testify but the man in him wanted to tell her she had the right to refuse.

  He paused before telling her, “If you don’t want to testify against the cartel, just say the word.”

  She looked at him with surprise in her eyes. “Just like that?”

  He held her gaze. “Just like that.”

  She looked away for a long moment before bringing her gaze back to his. “Someone has to pay for killing Miguel and all the other bad things a cartel does. Someone needs to help bring the cartel to justice.” She took a deep breath and let it out. “Looks like that someone is me.”

  “You’re positive?” Landon studied her, drinking in the beautiful woman who was in more danger than she could possibly imagine.

  “Yes.” She straightened. “It’s the right thing to do.”

  “I’ll make dinner.” He inclined his head to the kitchen. “You’ll probably want to cancel your credit cards and report your driver’s license stolen.”

  “My bank accounts could be cleared out by now.” She shook her head, clearly in dismay. “But you won’t let me use my phone and I don’t have my laptop.”

  “You can use my tablet to handle anything you need online and use my phone.” He rested one hand on the counter. “I’ll send one of the other agents get the tablet out of my vehicle. Will that do?”

  “Yes, the tablet should do.” She rubbed her palm on her thigh. “Thank you.”

  Moments later, Johnson had retrieved a case from Landon’s SUV and handed it to him. Landon thanked the agent and gave his tablet and phone to Tori to use.

  Landon gestured to the table. “Have a seat and take care of whatever you need to.”

  She took it from him as she slid into a chair at the kitchen table. “Thank you.”

  He grabbed bottles of water from the fridge, cracked one open, and handed it to her. “You could probably use one of these.”

  “I think what I really need is a glass of wine.” She gave him a small smile before she took a long drink. She hadn’t realized she was so thirsty. “I should be helping with dinner.”

  He peeked into the pantry and pulled out a couple of packages of pasta. “You can fix breakfast.”

  She set the water bottle on the kitchen table. “Deal.”

  “Spaghetti all right with you? I think there’s enough for all four of us.” He looked through cabinets as he spoke. He retrieved a stockpot that had seen better days from a cabinet, before he set it beside the stovetop.

  She slipped out of his shirt and hung it on the back of her chair, then took off the ball cap and set it beside her. “Spaghetti is more than all right.”

  As Landon started to make dinner, the first thing Tori did was
contact her bank and credit card companies. She was pleased to find out that none of her cards had unauthorized charges and none of her bank accounts had been emptied. By the time she was done, she’d finished her bottle of water. She felt drained, the jitteriness gone. It had been a long, horrific day.

  She shut off the tablet’s screen, set the electronic device aside, and gave Landon his cell phone, which he holstered.

  The scene of the man being murdered, and then the chase, kept playing over and over in her mind, no matter how hard she tried to think about other things. Seeing a man shot and killed wasn’t easy to get over, and she didn’t know if she ever would.

  While Landon was finishing up dinner, his phone buzzed and he pulled it out of its holster. “Agent Walker,” he answered.

  Tori couldn’t read his expression as he listened to whoever was speaking to him. “No sign of breaking and entering?” Landon asked and she straightened in her seat. He listened a little longer. “Thank you.” He ended the call then holstered his phone.

  “You probably guessed that was the Tucson Police Department.” He leaned back against the counter. “No one was at your townhouse when the officers stopped by. They knocked and rang the doorbell, but no answer. They searched around the outside of the premises and found no sign of forced entry.”

  “That could mean anything.” Tori swallowed. “But it’s so strange that Gregory didn’t return my call when I left your number. I was sure he would jump at the chance to talk to me.” And berate me for getting myself into trouble, even though it wasn’t my fault, she thought. For some reason she felt like she should explain. “I just left him and he wants me back,” she told Landon. “I avoided his calls earlier today, but he did get a hold of me once when he called from a number I didn’t recognize.”

  Landon had heated the canned spaghetti sauce while she’d been taking care of her credit cards and bank accounts. A thought slipped through her mind that she’d love to have made homemade pasta and a special sauce for him.