Ranger Protector

by Angi Morgan

  The wet plastic and flopping tropical beasties kept either man from getting traction on the floor. But when they used the furniture to pull themselves to their feet, Sue Dude evidently didn’t like fish or he liked them a helluva lot. He hopped from one foot to the other, avoiding them as they flopped.

  If he’d had time to laugh, Jack would have.

  Saved by a fish. No one would believe it.

  * * *

  THERE SEEMED TO be a lot of action for a building that appeared to be basically vacant. Megan heard yelling, running, weapons discharged. Wade had passed out without giving her a lot of details. She couldn’t let anyone know, because her phone had stopped working.

  Maybe a jamming signal or phone service had just gotten more fickle inside the closet. She didn’t know. Then she heard the beeps. The cavalry had finally made it to their door. She stepped away from the door, expecting to argue that she wasn’t leaving until there was a stretcher for Wade.

  Well...that didn’t happen.

  There was no running past the armed men who had come to finish off Wade. As the door opened, instead of facing Texas Rangers, Megan walked into a wall of burly chests. One of the men aimed a gun at her. The other said, “Move,” pointing the gun barrel toward the hall.

  Megan pulled the door shut behind her, engaging the automatic electronic lock.

  “What about the ranger?” the one who had wanted to shoot her asked.

  “He’s dead,” she said quickly and walked down the hall where she and Jack had entered, trying to get them away from Wade.

  “And if he’s not, he will be when this place comes down. Now hurry up.”

  Without entering the room and checking, they followed her until one yanked on her shirt and shoved her into another room. Then they pushed her through another door, which led to a staircase instead of a closet.

  Still recovering from the moment of fear when she believed she’d be buried alive, her panic finally subsided enough for her to think. She didn’t know where they were headed, but at least it seemed to be outside.

  Hearing weapons fire was one thing, but the explosion a few moments ago had taken her breath away. Her hands shook so badly she laced them together, reminding her of each time Jack had held her hand.

  Such a simple thing to do, but the pressure of his hand over hers had reassured her so many times. Just the thought of it now was having the same effect. She could escape, make a run for it through the junk they’d surveyed earlier.

  The gunfire had died down. All Megan had to do was get to the front of the building. There were sure to be police officers that would help her.

  Shoot, she could make it to the river and maybe swim her way out of this mess. The water behind the Wimberley house had been colder than what she’d waded through earlier today.

  The man in charge looked at his phone. “Wait here while I see what’s keeping the new guy.”

  “Wait here? We should be getting out of here fast. Did you see the men they sent after us? You’d think we were the Mafia or something,” said the man who had wanted to shoot her. “I don’t care how much the new guy is offering. We can’t spend it if we’re in jail.”

  The bigger, more in control man ignored the man left with her and disappeared back the way they’d come.

  “I don’t blame you for being worried.” Shoved first around a stack of wood and then to the ground, she sounded unnaturally calm as she reasoned with the young man holding the gun inches from her face. “You’re right. You don’t need me to get away without anyone seeing you were here.”

  She could take this guy. He seemed the weaker of the two, indecisive. Just wanting away from a bad situation. If she couldn’t talk her way out... She shifted to her knees, ready to push herself up and ram her head into his bread basket.

  “Who knows what we need?” said the one who’d taken her hostage as he rounded the stacked wood.

  Megan immediately relaxed, but it was too late. He’d seen her ready to pounce and pulled zip ties from his jacket pocket.

  “We ain’t getting out through the front. The bomb thing the new guy set off stopped ’em from coming inside, but we’re cut off back here.” He pulled the plastic tight around her wrists. “You ain’t going anywhere until we say so. Keep your mouth shut or I’ll break your jaw so it can’t move.”

  She winced as he pulled the plastic even tighter. She hated to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d hurt her, but she couldn’t help it. Her hands might be secure now, but she also knew they didn’t have a real plan. She was insurance. But she could just as easily become a liability if she didn’t cooperate. Her time to escape would come.

  All she needed to do was get close to the water.

  Before her excitement or fright—it was hard to tell which—could cloud her judgment, she locked both away. Whatever she felt, the young woman they’d killed and blown up in her home had received worse. Megan would find that woman’s killers. They would be brought to justice.

  How did Alvie fit into all this? Money, of course. That conclusion wasn’t hard to jump to. She knew approximately how much he made, since everyone in the department didn’t make much.

  One thing was clear—he didn’t have enough money to purchase the properties involved in this scheme on his own. If he had that much money, he wouldn’t be working at the TDI. So maybe he was the brains and Reval was the money.

  And for some reason, she was the scapegoat.

  * * *

  JACK YANKED A monitor cord free, putting both knees in Sue Dude’s ribs. He jerked the big man’s hands together, tying him like he would a calf for branding, with an extra permanent square knot to finish it off.

  He stood by the window and dialed Clements to tell him about Sue Dude. The system was either jammed or down from the explosion. Then he saw the boat. And they were moving Megan toward it.

  Megan hadn’t been taken in by her coworker. She’d assumed he was responsible as soon as she saw him, but she hadn’t let that instinct condemn him. He ran after Balsawood, leaving Sue Dude on the wet floor, flopping like the fish he’d tried to avoid.

  Jack had been taken by surprise by Balsawood and his bully. But even more by the explosion.

  Why hadn’t either of the men been surprised by the explosion like him? Dammit, they knew about the explosion. They’d planned it. How many of the SWAT team and Company B men had been taken down by it?

  The stairwell was clear, but the doors to the second and first floors were blocked. He couldn’t push the emergency-exit door open on either floor. So he kept going...after Balsawood, who would lead him to Megan.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Jack followed the stairs and the short dark tunnel, where he shoved the door open to brilliant sunshine. No one fired at him, but he ducked his head before venturing through. The door shut with an electronic lock, making it impossible to reenter.

  A cleverly hidden escape route. The door was disguised on the lot next to the new building by a stack of secondhand doors.

  He tried the phone again while he ran between old salvaged parts from homes. He knocked into a row, sending doors tumbling backward like dominoes into a shed wall.

  There was barely a path in front of him, but he recognized where he’d seen Megan from the river-view window of Reval’s office.

  “Megan!” he shouted.

  “They have a boat,” she yelled.

  Her shout was followed by a sound that he recognized...the thud of a fist on bone. The bastard had hit her.

  Whoever had hit her would... He tightened his knuckles into a fist. They’d feel at least one hard punch from him. At least one.

  The anger building inside him fired up his legs. He ran through the strips of old flooring, kicking an occasional piece of porcelain. His boots crunched the broken glass from windowpanes as he swatted six-foot-tall grass and reeds.

  Dam
mit. How had they taken her hostage?

  The odds that Wade was still alive got worse. Those men had probably gone to that closet to kill him—Tying up loose ends. Now they had a hostage... Megan.

  He had to finish this and reach her before they made it to the boat.

  Jack rounded a corner into an arm extended with a .45. Training took control as he stopped thinking until the threatening weapon was on the ground and he was kicking it under a pile of sinks.

  Using all his might, he rammed a sore shoulder into the man’s gut—kid, really—and they tumbled onto a pile of bathroom hardware. The young man landed a hard fist in Jack’s side. Already bruised from Sue Dude’s punches, Jack gritted his teeth against the pain.

  “You the one who hit my girl?”

  “No. No. No. That wasn’t me. Let me go, man. I don’t know nothin’.” The kid threw a useless punch, connecting with air.

  “Where is he taking her?”

  Jack threw his own fist to crack the kid’s jaw, then clamped his mouth shut to stop the groan of pain he wanted to release. His knuckles and lots of other body parts were already raw from his earlier fight.

  They rolled in a deadlock, equally matched because Jack was tired.

  The kid groaned after a flip to his back when Jack landed a knee close to his groin. Then they reversed and broke apart as Jack narrowly avoided a furious foot slamming onto his chest.

  Back on his feet, he locked his arm behind the kid’s head but couldn’t finish the defensive move without snapping his neck. He needed a minute to catch his breath and decide what to do.

  There should have been an entire SWAT team through the building by now. “Where the hell is everybody?” Since they weren’t around, he’d have to release this guy in order to follow Megan.

  An explosion ten times larger than the first shook the ground like an earthquake. Debris filled the air, turning it to a chalky white cloud. The unfinished building on the next lot collapsed, upper floors to lower.

  Stunned, Jack let the kid he’d been fighting run, escaping the wreckage that was still settling on the ground.

  “Megan? Megan!”

  * * *

  “OH MY GOD!” Megan jerked free of the man holding her shoulder. The explosion wasn’t a surprise to her captor. He’d covered his head, and that was about it.

  Jack is not inside. Jack is not inside. Please be okay.

  “What have you done? All those men are... Please let me go. I can help them.”

  “Pipe down. You should worry about helping your own self.”

  Near the riverbank she’d navigated with Jack only an hour ago, Alvie Balsawood and Therese stepped out from behind old building materials. Therese averted her eyes, not making contact.

  “We’re getting in that boat, getting across this river to the park, stealing a car, then driving away from here.” Balsawood tugged her close to him. “You know what’s going to happen. We’ve only got a few minutes.”

  “You’re not in charge,” Therese said. “But we have the same objective, so I’ll work with you. For now.”

  Alvie pointed a gun at her abductor. “Send her through the fence or I’ll shoot you both. I don’t want to, but I will.” He ended with a weird, crazy laugh that shook his round body.

  Gooseflesh popped out across Megan’s arms. She didn’t believe him. He sounded like he did want her dead.

  The man who had abducted her shrugged. “All I want is to get away from a bad situation, man.”

  He didn’t act like he cared. In fact, he put away his gun and held the wire open so Megan could get through it.

  A little farther along the bank was the boat that Alvie had shouted about.

  “Pick this thing up so we can get onto the river,” Alvie instructed them all. He stood apart from them, waving the gun like a fan.

  Therese ignored her. Even as they struggled to carry the small rowboat across mushy sand and silt. What she thought was the Trinity River was actually just stagnant water caught in an overflow area. Once they made it across the forty yards to the main water, then what? Did he plan to take her with him? Would Therese keep him from killing her?

  What was her plan? Get across the river and run? No. She couldn’t trust him.

  Alvie was crazy. She would capsize that rowboat. She didn’t envy another dunk in the cold November water, but she would not be this man’s hostage. This bastard had blown up her house and had taken down that ten-story building. He wouldn’t do anything else to her.

  “I could carry this boat better if you untied my hands,” Megan said, standing from trying to free her shoe in mud.

  “Not a chance,” Alvie said. “It’s too much fun.”

  “Why are you doing this? You...you killed all those police officers.”

  “Maybe, but no one will ever prove it. All the evidence points to you. I’m too smart for them to catch. It’s just not going to happen.”

  They finally made it to the Trinity. The man who was following Alvie’s orders held the boat at the water’s edge while Therese and the crazy man got inside.

  “You, too, Megan.”

  She hesitated.

  “Run and I’ll have him shoot you. Whatever. It no longer matters to me. Let’s go.”

  The man took out his gun. Megan was getting really tired of having one pointed at her. She climbed inside the smallish rowboat and prepared herself for the necessary. The oars were bungeed to the inside. Therese and Alvie removed them and stuck them in the water while the man climbed in. The current took them swiftly away from shore.

  The farther they got, the harder it would be for her to get back with her hands still secured by the zip ties. So she acted fast. It was too simple.

  One second they were inside the rowboat... The next, they were all in the murky Trinity.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Jack watched the rocking of the small boat. Then it capsized. He pushed through the cut fence, hearing his shirt rip, feeling the flesh scratch beneath. Not caring about either. He calculated the driest route to the Trinity, stopped on the bank and tugged off his boots and dropped his gun and cell.

  Four heads bobbed near the flipped rowboat. Two people immediately started swimming for the far side—away from the police and building rubble. Two were trying to grab hold of the hull. One’s hands were clasped together.

  Megan.

  Jack ran as far along the riverbank as he could before diving into the water. He caught up to find Balsawood climbing on top of Megan. She was completely underwater. Jack caught a fistful of Balsawood’s shirt and punched him in the nose as best he could while floating in water.

  Megan sputtered and sucked in air, flailing her wrists through the air until her eyes connected with Jack.

  “Relax and let me tow you to shore.”

  “He’ll...he’ll get away.”

  “Forget it, Megan! I’m getting us to shore.”

  She nodded. He put his arm under hers, resting across her chest, and swam. It wasn’t far, but during the same amount of time, the rowboat completely went under.

  Megan was on her knees in the dirt, spitting up river water. Jack kept banging on her back, forcing more coughing to get up water.

  “Oh, God, where did he go? Did he go under? He can’t get away.”

  Jack didn’t care. Balsawood was someone else’s problem now. “Did you think that stunt through at all?”

  She turned in circles, searching the riverbank. “He’s crazy. If you had looked into his eyes and seen what I did... You would have tipped the boat to get away, too.” Her eyes stopped searching the riverbank and landed on Jack’s face.

  He grabbed the plastic tying her wrists together, emphasizing the tied portion that wouldn’t let her move her arms. “I might have thought twice before capsizing a boat when I couldn’t swim.”

  “Are you...? You are! You�
�re actually mad at me.” She looked astonished but smiled and laughed.

  “Why would you think—Okay, I admit it.” He hugged her body to his chest, glad she was alive. “I almost lost you.”

  Megan placed her hands on either side of his chin, used her thumb to draw circles over the dimple she teased him about, then pulled his face to hers. “I missed you, too.”

  They had to get back to the building, find out if anyone had gotten Wade out. He held her close as they walked back to his boots. So why couldn’t he bring himself to let Megan go?

  “Why me, Jack?” she whispered. “I barely know Alvie Balsawood. I live a simple life. No family. I keep my head down and do my job. I’m boring.”

  She kept turning in circles, obviously looking for her coworker, who had come to shore farther downstream.

  “Maybe that’s exactly what made you the perfect fall guy—girl. I mean, there’s no one around to dispute or question your involvement.”

  “Did you see where Alvie went?”

  How she switched from sexy-as-hell woman to vulnerable victim to practical law officer, he hadn’t a clue. But it worked on her. And he liked it.

  “Downstream. If I were him, I’d be trying to get to the street through that junkyard.” He dumped the sand from his boots and yanked them back onto his feet.

  “I think the sign said it was more like reusable home supply parts. All these lots are.”

  “Whatever it is, there are plenty of places to hide. And no one but us is looking for him.” He swiped his wet hair back away from his eyes.

  The sirens were deafening. The flashing lights were fragmented through the white cloud, thick with smoke and small particles that hovered where the building had been. He wondered...

  “It feels like a war zone out there.” Megan grabbed his hand first for once. “Do you think Wade was still—”

  “Can’t go there. None of the first responders will be allowed in the building until the bomb squad verifies there aren’t any other explosives. They won’t be on the river side of things for a while.”