Thanksgiving Protector. Sharon Dunn
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met his gaze. For only a moment, he had seemed almost vulnerable, willing to show who he was behind the badge. “It’s what we do, right?” No one who worked with Austin on the sixteen-member ranger reconnaissance team had a bad thing to say about him. He did his job and did it well. Yet, to Kylie there seemed to be something almost guarded about him, a part of him that was walled off to the world. The other rangers in company “E” had a nickname for him, Lone Wolf.
Austin squared his broad shoulders and the curtain seemed to fall down around his eyes again. “Right.”
The moment of vulnerability had passed quickly.
She’d been drawn to Austin from the first time they’d worked together on another joint task mission. But it was hard to care about a man who buried himself in his work and rarely showed much emotion.
“I guess we get to call it a night.” He leaned toward her. “Want to go get a bite to eat? There’s an all-night diner just up the road. They have great biscuits and gravy.”
On any other night, she would take him up on the invitation. But tonight... “I can’t.”
His brow furled into a look of confusion and maybe disappointment.
“I have to go into Segundo Barrio tonight.”
“Alone, at night? That is a dangerous part of El Paso.”
“Valentina—” her heart ached to even say the name “—the woman who died out there tonight has a little girl, six months old. I promised to take care of her if anything happened to her mother.”
“Can’t it wait?”
“That T on Valentina’s forehead means they know she was an informant. Mercedes might be in danger too. No, it can’t wait.” Kylie knew it would be a fool’s mission to go by herself. That part of El Paso could be deadly even in broad daylight. Even with all her training, Kylie would be risking her life. But that wouldn’t stop her. Already, she felt a strong pull toward Mercedes. The need to protect the little girl seemed to override everything else.
Kylie turned to go.
Austin grabbed her arm. “I smell a trap, Kylie. Did it ever occur to you why Valentina’s information was always so golden? She had to have a pretty sweet connection high up.”
Feeling a surge of anger, Kylie pulled away. Of course she’d thought of that. But she trusted her instincts. However Valentina got her information, she knew the woman’s character. “Valentina was a good person.” Whatever she’d been in the past when she lived in Mexico, Valentina had only wanted a better life for herself and her baby.
Austin stepped closer to her. “You go to that part of town tonight alone and there’s no guarantee you’ll come back.”
The familiar twisting and tightening in her gut ate at her resolve. Austin wasn’t wrong. That close to Rio Grande even on the American side was ground zero for smuggling humans, guns and drugs from across the border, and all the violence and murder that came along with that.
“Valentina told me she had all the paperwork in place for me to be Mercedes’s legal guardian and eventually adopt her,” Kylie said. “I have to keep my word.”
Austin took a step back and lifted his chin. “Legal guardian? I thought you were just getting the kid to take care of her for a few days until permanent arrangements could be made. Doesn’t Valentina have relatives?”
Kylie clenched her jaw. Austin’s resistance to her plan was getting under her skin. What business was it of his anyway? “She had no one she could trust. She cut all emotional ties to her past. She played a part and took risks to gather information for me. She wanted the violence to end as badly as I do.” She was still reeling from Valentina’s death. Her eyes warmed with tears and she turned away. The last thing she needed to do on the job was cry. As one of the few female border patrol agents, she couldn’t afford to get a reputation for being soft.
“I was just thinking that maybe it would be easier on the baby for her to go back to Mexico, be with relatives.”
“Mercedes was born here in El Paso. Valentina was working on her citizenship. She wanted nothing to do with her lawless family or the baby’s father.”
Kylie cleared her throat to choke back the tears. “She was a good person who came from a bad place. She was my friend.”
Austin’s hand cupped her shoulder, warming her through the thin layer of her uniform. His features softened. “I’m sorry. It’s none of my business.”
She turned to face him, seeing a softness in his expression. “I have to get Mercedes, and it has to be tonight.” She hurried toward the door. To her annoyance, Austin was on her heels. This was scary enough, she didn’t need him dogging her about her choices. “I’m worried about her safety.”
She stepped outside where several agents were still conversing with each other or talking on radios. The ambulance had arrived to haul away the body of the goon who’d been shot.
Misty huddled with her mother on the porch with a blanket over them while an EMT checked them out.
Colt Blackthorn lifted his head from a conversation with another border patrol agent, Greg Gunn. Kylie had worked several missions with Greg. Colt ran toward them.
“Hey, you two. Good teamwork in there.” Colt slapped Austin on the back and nodded in Kylie’s direction.
Still fuming from her exchange with Austin, Kylie was grateful for the positive interaction. “So was he one of Garcia’s men?” She crossed her arms and shot Austin a look. How could they work so well together and then not get along when the danger was over?
Colt turned slightly toward where the ambulance was loading the body covered in a sheet. He ran a hand over his smooth, dark hair. “More than likely. But we’ll have to wait for the ID.”
And still no sign of Garcia. Although Kylie was pretty sure he had come across. In all their work together, the information from Valentina had never been bad. Valentina had probably been killed for disclosing where Garcia had planned on coming across.
If Garcia had gotten wind that law enforcement was on to him, he must have changed the location of his crossing at the last minute. Using Valentina’s murder as a distraction also served as a message to the brass that Garcia was on to them. Garcia had vowed to kill any lawman that got in his way.
No doubt the rangers with border patrol’s help would be focused on figuring out where the drug lord was hiding.
Kylie waited until Colt was out of earshot before turning to face Austin. “I’m going to get that baby. It can’t wait.”
She whirled away toward one of the border patrol vehicles. Since this wasn’t an official mission, she’d have to phone her supervisor at her duty station and get permission to use it. There was no time to go back and retrieve her own car, which would be less conspicuous. She made the call and explained the situation.
When she clicked off her phone, fear and the desire to do the right thing waged war inside of her as she twisted the key in the ignition and shifted into Reverse.
The passenger side door swung open and Austin jumped in. “It’s suicide to go there alone.”
Inwardly, she breathed a sigh of relief. Having him along eased her fears. “Fine, go with me, then.” Her words tinged with a note of defiance. Not that she would let Austin know she was glad he was along.
He leaned toward her, his tone a little teasing and sarcastic. “I think I will.”
Kylie pulled out onto the road and drove through the darkness toward the El Paso neighborhood where she hoped Mercedes was tucked away safely.
After passing several abandoned buildings, Kylie pulled into a gas station. The last thing she wanted to do was run out of gas out there. As she filled the gas tank, the glow of lights in the station and the soft breeze on her skin calmed her. She knew it was a false