A Texas Ranger puts it all on the line for a woman who has everything to lose

Texas Ranger Vaughn Cooper doesn’t need or appreciate the “help” of some frivolous civilian on his case. Yet even this seasoned lawman can’t argue that Natalie Torres is on her game. She might even unlock the answers he needs to crack this kidnapping…if the bad guys don’t erase Natalie first.

With her home burned to the ground, Natalie has no choice but to hide out with Vaughn in a remote cabin. Spending time with the stone-cold officer should keep her mind strictly on the case. But there’s an unseen fire burning deep within Vaughn, and it’s making Natalie wonder just where the true danger might lie.

“How do you know I’m conventional?”

“Oh, please. You can’t possibly not be conventional. You showed up at that fire at three thirty in the morning in a neat and completely pressed uniform. You don’t believe in hypnotism. Everything about you is conventional.”

“Ms. Torres, trust me when I say that you do not know everything about me.”

Her eyes met his and he recognized that little weird energy that passed between them. He wished he didn’t, but there was no denying the flirtatious undertone to all of this. He should stop it immediately.

But she held his gaze and she smiled. “Natalie. You should call me Natalie, remember?”

That uncomfortable and unwelcome attraction dug deeper into his gut. The kind of deeper that led a man to make foolish mistakes and stupid decisions. The kind he knew better than to indulge in.

But it was also the kind that tended to override that knowledge.

Stone Cold Texas Ranger

Nicole Helm

www.millsandboon.co.uk

NICOLE HELM grew up with her nose in a book and the dream of one day becoming a writer. Luckily, after a few failed career choices, she gets to follow that dream—writing down-to-earth contemporary romance and romantic suspense. From farmers to cowboys, Midwest to the West, Nicole writes stories about people finding themselves and finding love in the process. She lives in Missouri with her husband and two sons and dreams of someday owning a barn.

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To all the episodes of 20/20 and Dateline I watched with my grandma. They might have given me nightmares, but they also gave me a ton of great book ideas.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

Vaughn Cooper was not an easy man to like. There was a time when he’d been quicker with a smile or a joke, but twelve years in law enforcement and three years in the Unsolved Crimes Investigation Unit of the Texas Rangers had worn off any charm he’d been born with.

He was not a man who believed in the necessity of small talk, politeness or pretending a situation was anything other than what it was.

He was most definitely not a man who believed in hypnotism, even if the woman currently putting their witness under acted both confident and capable.

He didn’t trust it, her or what she did, and he was more than marginally irritated that the witness seemed to immediately react. No more fidgeting, no more yelling that he didn’t know anything. After Natalie Torres’s ministrations, the man was still and pleasant.

Vaughn didn’t believe it for a second.

“I told you,” Bennet Stevens said, giving him a nudge. Bennet had been his partner for the past two years, and Vaughn liked him. Some days. This was not one of those days.

“It’s not real. He’s acting.” Vaughn made no effort to lower his voice. It was purposeful, and he watched carefully for any sign of reaction from the supposedly hypnotized witness.

He didn’t catch any, but he could all but feel Ms. Torres’s angry gaze on him. He didn’t care if she was angry. All he cared about was getting to the bottom of this case before another woman disappeared.

He wasn’t sure his weary conscience could take another thing piled on top of the overflowing heap.

“How are you today, Mr. Herman?” Ms. Torres asked in that light, airy voice she’d hypnotized the man with. Vaughn rolled his eyes. That anyone would fall for this was beyond him. They were police officers. They dealt in evidence and reality, not hypnotism.

“Been better,” the witness grumbled.

“I see,” she continued, that easy, calming tone to her voice never changing. “Can you tell us a little bit about your problems?”

“Nah.”

“You know, you’re safe here, Mr. Herman. You can speak freely. This is a safe place where you can unburden yourself.”

Vaughn tried to tamp down his edgy impatience. He couldn’t get over them wasting their time doing this, but it hadn’t been his call. This had come from above him, and he had no choice but to follow through.

“Yeah?”

The hypnotist inclined her head toward Vaughn and Bennet. It was the agreed upon sign that they would now take over the questioning.

“It’s not a bad gig,” Herman said, his hands linked together on the table in front of him. No questions needed.

Yeah, Vaughn didn’t believe a second of this.

“Don’t have to get my hands too dirty. Paid cash. My old lady’s got cancer. Goes a long way, you know?”

“Rough,” Bennet said, doing a far better job than Vaughn of infusing some sympathy into his tone. “What kind of jobs you running?”

“Mostly just messages, you know. I don’t even gotta be the muscle. Just deliver the information. It’s a sweet deal. But...”

“But what?”

Vaughn could feel the hypnotist’s eyes on him. Something about her. Something about this. It was all off. He wasn’t even being paranoid like Bennet too often accused him of. The witness was too easy, and the woman was too jumpy.

“But... Man, I don’t like this, though. I got a daughter of my own. I never wanted to get involved with this part.”

“What part’s that?”

“The girls. He keeps the girls.”

Vaughn tensed, and he noticed the hypnotist did, as well.

“Who keeps them?”

Vaughn and Bennet whirled to face Ms. Torres. She wasn’t supposed to ask questions. Not after she gave them the signal. Not about the case.

“What the hell do you think—”

“The Stallion,” Herman muttered. “But I can’t cross The Stallion.”

Vaughn immediately looked at Bennet. He gave his partner an imperceptible nod, then Bennet slipped out of the room.

The Stallion. An idiotic name for the head of an organized crime group that had been stealthily wreaking havoc across Texas for ten years. Vaughn had no less than four cases he knew connected to the bastard or his drug-running cronies, but this one...

“What do you know about The Stallion?” Vaughn asked evenly, though frustration pounded in his bloodstream. Still, hypnotism or no hypnotism, he wasn’t the type of ranger who let that show.

“You don’t cross him. You don’t cross him and live.”

Vaughn opened his mouth to ask the next question, but the damn hypnotist beat him to it.

“What about the girls?” she demanded, leaning closer. “What do you know about the girls? Where are they?”

Vaughn was so taken aback by her complete disregard for the rules, by her fervent demand, he couldn’t say anything at first. But it was only a split second of shock, then he edged his way between Ms. Torres and her line of sight to the witness.

“Get him out,” he ordered.

Big brown eyes blinked up at him. “What?”

“If this is hypnotism, unhypnotize him.” Vaughn bent over and leaned his mouth close enough to her ear so he could whisper without the witness overhearing. “You are putting my case at risk, and I will not have it. Take him out now, or I’ll kick you out.”

She didn’t waver, and she certainly didn’t turn to Herman and take him out. “I’m getting answers,” she replied through gritted teeth. Her eyes blazed with righteous fury.

It was no match for his own. Vaughn inclined his head toward Herman, who was shaking his head back and forth. Not offering any answers to her too direct line of questioning.

“Mr. Herman—”

Vaughn nudged her chair back with his knee. “Take him out, or I’ll arrest you for interfering in a criminal investigation.”

Her eyes glittered with that fury, her hands clenched into fists, but when he rested his hand on the handcuffs latched to his utility belt, she closed her eyes.

“Fine, but you need to move.”

When she opened her eyes, he saw a weary resignation in her slumped posture, a kind of sorrow in her expression Vaughn didn’t understand—didn’t want to. Any more than he wanted to figure out what scent she was wearing, because when he was this close to her, it was almost distracting.

Almost.

“If you say one word to him that isn’t pulling him out of the hypnotism, you will be arrested. Do you understand?”

“I thought you didn’t believe in it?” she snapped.

“I don’t, but I’m not going to have you claiming I didn’t let you do your job. Take him out. Then you will be talking to my supervisor. Got it?”

She sneered at him, like many a criminal he’d arrested or threatened in his career. He wasn’t sure she was a criminal, but he wasn’t affected at all by her anger.

She’d ruined the lead. The Stallion wasn’t nearly enough to go on, and she’d stepped in with her own reckless, desperate questions, invalidating the whole interrogation.

She was going to pay for this.

* * *

NATALIE SAT IN the waiting area of the Unsolved Crimes office. She wanted to fume and rage and pace, but she didn’t have time to indulge in pointless anger. Not when she had information to find.

Who was The Stallion? Could this all possibly be related to her sister? She’d waited three years for this. Three years of dealing with sneering Texas Rangers hating that their higher-ups involved her in their investigations. Three years of hoping against hope that the next case she’d be brought in on would be Gabby’s.

Just because the witness had talked about missing girls didn’t mean it was her sister’s case. As a hypnotist, she was never given any case details, legally bound to secrecy regarding anything she did hear simply by being in the room.

She’d lost her cool. She knew she wasn’t supposed to jump in like that, but the interrogators had been asking the wrong questions. They’d been taking too much time. She needed to know. She needed...

She needed not to cry. So, she took a deep breath in, and slowly let it out. She focused on the little window with the blinds closed. Inside, three officers were talking. Probably about her. One definitely complaining about her.

She was angry with herself for breaking rules she knew Texas Rangers weren’t going to bend, but she’d rather channel that anger onto Ranger Jerk.

Immature, yes, but the immature nicknames she gave each ranger who gave her a hard time entertained her when she wanted to tell them off.

The problem with Ranger Jerk was she could nearly forget what a jerk he was when he looked like...that. He was so tall and broad shouldered, and when he was always crossing his arms over his chest in a threatening manner, it was obvious he had muscles underneath the crisp white dress shirt he wore.

Like, the kind of muscles that could probably bench-press her. Not that she’d imagined that in those first few minutes of meeting him. Those were flights of fancy she did not allow herself. Not on the job.

Then there was his face, which wasn’t at all fair. She’d nearly been tongue-tied when he’d greeted her. His darkish blond hair was buzzed short, and his blue eyes were downright mesmerizing. Some light shade that was nearly gray, and she’d spent seconds trying to decide what to call that color.

Until he’d insulted her without a qualm. Because his good looks were only one problem with him. Only the tip of the iceberg of problems.

The door opened, and she forced herself to look calm and placid. She was a calm, still lake. No breeze rippled her waters. She reflected nothing but a peaceful and reflective surface.

But maybe a sea monster lurked deep and would leap out of the water and eat all of them in one giant gulp.

Yeah, her imagination had always gotten her into trouble.

“Ms. Torres. Come inside, please.”

She held no ill will against Captain Dean. He was one of the few rangers who respected and believed in what she did. He was, more often than not, the one who called her in to help with a case.

But she had crossed a line she knew she wasn’t supposed to cross, and she was going to have to deal with the consequences—which would gall. For one, because it meant Ranger Jerk got what he wanted. But more important, because she might have finally had some insight into her sister’s case, and been too impetuous to make the most of it.

“Have a seat.”

She slid into the chair opposite Captain Dean’s desk. The two rangers she’d been in the interrogation room with stood on either side.

They were impressive, the three of them. Strong, in control, looking perfectly pressed in what constituted as the Texas Ranger uniform: khakis, a dress shirt and a tie, Ranger badge and belt buckle, topped off with cowboy boots. The only thing the men weren’t wearing inside the office were the white cowboy hats.

She wanted to sneer at Ranger Cooper’s smug blue eyes, but she didn’t. She smiled sweetly instead.

“You breached our contract, Ms. Torres. You know that.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Your job is not to question witnesses. It’s only to put them under hypnosis, should they agree, to calm them and allow us to ask questions.”

“I know, sir. I’m sorry for...stepping out of line.” She offered both the men who’d been in the room with her the best apologetic smile she could muster. “I got a little carried away. I can promise you, it won’t happen again.”

“I’m afraid we can’t risk second chances at this juncture. Not in this department, not in the Texas Rangers. I’m sorry, Natalie. You’ve been an asset. But this was unconscionable, and you will not be asked back.”

She sat frozen, completely ice from the inside out. Not be asked back. But she’d helped solve cases. For years. She’d received a commendation even! And he was...

“Cooper, see her out?”

Ranger Jerk nodded toward the door. “After you.”

She swallowed over the lump in her throat. All her chances. All the times she’d been so close to seeing something of Gabby’s case. All the possibility, and she’d ruined it.

No, he’d ruined it for her. He had. She stood on shaky legs, clutching her phone and her purse.

“I am sorry.”

She didn’t look back at Captain Dean, or Ranger Stevens. She didn’t want to see the pitying, apologetic looks on their faces. Just like all those other policemen who’d come up with nothing—nothing when it came to Gabby’s disappearance.

Apologies didn’t mean a thing when her sister was gone. Eight years. And Natalie was the only one who held out any hope, and now her hope was...

Well, it had just gotten kicked in the teeth.

She managed to walk stiffly to the door and stepped out, the Jerk of the Manor still behind her. Too close behind her and crowding her out and away.

“I’ll see you all the way out of the building, Ms. Torres,” he said, sounding so smug and superior.

She walked down the hall, still a little shaken. But shaken had no hold on her anger. She glared at the man striding next to her. “You got me fired, you lousy son of a—”

“I’d reconsider your line of thought and blame, Ms. Torres.” He continued to look ahead, not an ounce of emotion showing on his face. “You got yourself fired. Now, stay out of this case. If I catch a whiff of you being involved in it anywhere, I will not hesitate to find out every last thing about you and connect you to whatever dirty deeds you’re hiding.”

“I am not hiding any dirty deeds.” Which was the God’s honest truth. She hadn’t stepped out of line in eight years. Or ever, really, but especially since Gabby had disappeared.

His eyes met hers, a cold, cold stormy blue. “We’ll see.”

She shivered involuntarily, because that look made her feel like she had done something wrong, which was so absurd.

Even more absurd was the idea of her staying out of the case. She’d take what little information she’d gathered and follow it to the ends of the earth.

Because she refused to believe her sister was dead. A body had never been found, and that Herman man had said...he’d said he keeps the girls. Not kept. Not got rid of. Keeps.

Maybe Gabby wasn’t one of those girls, but it was possible. More than that, she thought. The Texas Rangers might be a mostly good bunch, but they had rules and regulations to follow. Natalie Torres did not.

God help the man who tried to stop her.

Chapter Two

The phone ringing and vibrating on his nightstand jerked Vaughn out of a deep sleep. He cursed and answered it blearily. Phone calls in the middle of the night were never good, but they always had to be answered.

Much to his ex-wife’s constant complaints throughout the duration of their marriage.

“Cooper,” he grumbled into the speaker.

“You’re going to need to get out here.”

He recognized his captain’s voice immediately. “Text the address.”

“Yup.”

Vaughn rubbed his hands over his face, then went straight to his closet where a row of work clothes hung, always a few pressed and ready to go. He never liked to be caught without clean and ironed clothes on the ready, even in the middle of the night. He looked at the clock as he dressed. Three fifteen.

He strode through his house, gave the coffeemaker a wistful glance. Even though he always kept it ready to go, he didn’t have time to sit around waiting for it to brew. Not at three fifteen.

With a stretch and a groan, he strapped on his gun and tried not to wonder if he was getting too old for this. Thirty-four was hardly too old. He had a lot of years to go before he could take a pension, but more...

He had a lot of cases to solve before his conscience would let him leave. So, he needed to get at it.

He got in his car, and when his phone chimed, he clicked the address Captain Dean had texted and started the GPS directions. It took about fifteen minutes to arrive at his destination, a small neighborhood a little outside the city that he knew was mainly rental houses. Single-storied brick buildings, a few split-levels. Modest homes at best, flat out run-down at worst.

Fire trucks and police vehicles were parked around a burned-out and drowned shell of a house. Though it still smoked, the house had obviously been ravaged by the fire hours earlier.

Vaughn stopped at the barricade, flashed his badge to the officer guarding the perimeter and then went in search of Captain Dean. When he found him, he was with Bennet. Vaughn’s uneasy dread grew.

“What’ve we got?”

“This is the hypnotist’s house,” Bennet said gravely.

The dread in Vaughn’s gut hardened to a rock. The house was completely destroyed, which meant—

“She’s fine. She wasn’t home, which is lucky for her, because someone was. Herman.”

“Dead?”

Captain Dean nodded. “He didn’t start and botch the fire, either, at least from what information I’ve been able to gather. We’ll have to wait to go over everything with the fire investigator once she’s done, but I think it got back to somebody Herman squealed. Body was dumped.”

“The hypnotist? Where was she?”

“With her mom,” Bennet offered, “who works at a gas station down on Clark. We’ve got guys going over surveillance, but so far she’s on the tape almost the entire night. She came home just after some neighbors called 9-1-1. She’s innocent.”

Innocent? Maybe of this, but Natalie Torres was hardly innocent. The day was full of far too much weirdness for her to be innocent. “You sure about that?”

“Cooper,” the captain intoned, censure in that one word. “Do you know the kinds of background checks we did on her when she got a contract with us? I know you don’t agree with it, but using a hypnotist to aid in witness questioning isn’t some random or careless decision. We have to jump through a lot of hoops to make it legal. She’s clean. Now she’s in danger.”

Vaughn wasn’t certain he believed the first, but he knew the latter was fact.

“Ideas, gentlemen?”

“Well, she’ll need protection.” Bennet rubbed a hand over his jaw. “I’d say that’s on us, and it’ll make certain nothing dirty’s going down.”

“This is escalating.” Captain Dean shook his head gravely. “If it goes much further, it becomes less our business and more current crime’s business. We should be working with Homicide now. Cooper? What are you thinking?”

Vaughn didn’t answer right away. He caught a glimpse of Ms. Torres standing next to a fireman. She had a blanket wrapped around her, and she was looking at her burned-to-ash house with tears streaming down her cheeks.

He looked away. “We’ve got to get her out of here.” He didn’t particularly like the idea that came to him, but he didn’t have to like it. Bottom line, everyone else trusted this woman way too much, so if she was going to come under their protection, it needed to be his protection, so he could keep an eye on her.

It couldn’t be anywhere near here. “My suggestion? Stevens works with Homicide, then maybe you put Griffen on it too. I take the woman up to the cabin in Guadalupe. I go over things there, keep her safe and make sure she’s got nothing to do with it.”

“That’s gonna necessitate a lot of paperwork,” Captain Dean grumbled.

“She can’t stay in Austin. We’ve got to get her out of here. We all know it.”

The captain sighed. “I’ll call the necessary people. I can’t argue with this being the best option. But, you know who is going to argue?” He pointed at Ms. Torres.

Vaughn looked at her again. She wasn’t crying anymore. No, that angry expression that she’d leveled at him earlier today had taken over her face. He didn’t have to be close to remember what it looked like.

Big dark eyes as shiny as the dark curls she’d pulled back from her face. The snarly curve to those sensuous lips and—

No, there was no and. Not when it came to this woman.

“She’ll agree,” Vaughn reassured the captain. He’d make sure of it.

* * *

WHEN RANGER JERK stepped next to her, Natalie didn’t bother to hide her utter disgust. “Well, thanks for getting to my house after it burned down. Add that to me losing my favorite job—also your fault. Would you like to, oh, I don’t know...” She wanted to say something scathing about what else he could do to ruin her life, but...

Everything she had was gone. Her house, every belonging, every memento. Worst of all, years’ worth of research and information she’d gathered on Gabby’s case. All gone. Everything she owned and loved gone except for her car and what she’d had in it.

She tried to breathe through a sob, but she choked on it. The tears and the emotion and the enormity of it all caught in her throat, and she had to cover her mouth with her hand to keep from crying out.

She’d been here for hours, and she couldn’t wrap her head around it. She hadn’t even been able to text her mom the full details because she just...

How had this happened? Why had this happened?

She sensed him move, and she hoped against hope he was walking away. That he wouldn’t say a word and make this whole nightmare worse. All of this was terrible, and she didn’t want Ranger Jerk rubbing it in or—worse—feeling sorry for her.

But he didn’t disappear. She didn’t hear retreating footsteps as tears clouded her vision. No, he moved closer. She hadn’t thought much about this guy having any sort of conscience or empathy in him, but he put a big hand on her back, warm and steady.

She swallowed, wiping at the tears. It wasn’t an overly familiar touch. Just his palm and fingers lightly flush with her upper back, but it was strong. It had a remarkable effect. A strange thread of calm wound through her pain.

“This is shocking and painful,” he said in a low, reassuring voice. “There’s no point in trying to be hard. No one should have to go through this.”

She sniffled, blinking the last of the tears out of her eyes. Oh, there’d be more to come, but for now she could swallow them down, blink them back. She stared at him, trying to work through the fact he’d spoken so nicely to her. He touched her. “Are you comforting me?”

He grimaced. “Is that considered comfort? That’s terrible comfort.”

She laughed through another sob. “Oh, God, and now you’re being funny.” Obviously she was a little delirious, because she was starting to wonder if Ranger Jerk wasn’t so terrible after all.

Then she looked back at her house. Gone. All of it gone. There were rangers and police and firemen and all number of official-looking people striding about, talking in low voices. Around her house. Gone. All of it gone.

Ranger Jerk could be reassuring, he could even be funny, but he couldn’t deny what was in front of them. “This was on purpose,” she said, her voice sounding flat and hopeless even in her own ears.

He didn’t respond, but when she finally glanced at him, he nodded. His gaze was on the house too, that square jaw tensed tight enough to probably crack metal between his teeth. He made an impressive profile in the flashing lights and dark night. All angles and shadows, but there was a determination in his glare at the ruins of her house—something she’d never seen in all those other officers she’d talked to today, or eight years ago.

Confidence. Certainty. A blazing determination to right this wrong—something she recognized because it matched her own.

It bolstered her somehow. “That’s why you’re here. It’s about this morning.” She watched him, and finally those cool gray-blue eyes turned to her.

“Yes, that’s why I’m here,” he replied, his voice still low, still matter-of-fact.

Natalie had spent the past eight years learning how to deal with fear. The constancy of it, the lack of rationale behind it. But this was a new kind, and she didn’t know how to suppress the shudder that went through her body.

“We’re going to protect you, Ms. Torres. This is directly related to the case we brought you in on, and as long as you agree to a few things, we can keep you safe. I promise you that.”

It was an odd thing to feel some ounce of comfort from those words. Because she didn’t know him, and she really didn’t trust him. But somehow, she did trust that. He was a jerk, yes, but he was a by-the-book jerk.

“What things do I need to agree to?” she asked. How much longer would her legs keep her up? She was exhausted. She’d come home after dropping her mom off at her apartment to find the neighbors in the streets and fire trucks blocking her driveway, and her house covered in either arcs of water or licks of flame.

Then, she’d been whisked behind one of the big police SUVs, made not to look at her house burning to ash in front of her, while officer after officer asked her question after question.

Oh, how she wanted to sleep. To curl up right on the ground and wake up and find this was all some kind of nightmare.

But she’d wanted that and never got it too often to even indulge in the fantasy anymore. “Ranger J—” Oh, right, she shouldn’t be calling him that out loud. “Ranger Cooper, what do I need to agree to?”

He raised an eyebrow at her misstep, but he couldn’t possibly guess what she’d meant to call him just from a misplaced j-sound.

He pushed his hands into the pockets of his pants, looking so pressed and polished she wondered if he might be part robot.

It wasn’t a particularly angry movement, sliding his hands easily into the folds of the fabric, and yet she thought the fact he would move or fidget in any way spoke to something. Something unpleasant.

“You’re going to have to come with me,” he finally said, his tone flat and his face expressionless.

“Go with you where?”

He let out a sigh, and she got the sinking suspicion he didn’t like what was coming next any more than she was going to.

“You need to get out of Austin. There isn’t time to mess around. Herman is dead. You’re in imminent danger. You agree to come with me, the fewer questions asked the better, and trust that I will keep you safe.”

“Herman is... How? When? Wh—”

“It isn’t important,” he said tonelessly, all that compassion she thought she’d caught a glimpse of clearly dead. “What’s important is your safety.”

“But I...I didn’t do anything.”

“You were there when Herman talked. That’s enough.”

She tried to process all this. “Doesn’t that put you in danger too? And Ranger Stevens?”

He shrugged. “That’s part and parcel with the job. We’re trained to deal with danger. You, ma’am, are not.”

She wanted to bristle at that. Oh, she knew plenty about danger, but no, she wasn’t a ranger, or even a police officer. She didn’t carry a weapon, and as much as she’d lived with all the possibilities of the horrors of human nature haunting her for eight years, she didn’t know how to fight it.

She only knew how to dissect it. How to want to find the truth in it. She needed...help. She needed to take it if only because losing her would likely kill her grandmother and mother like losing Gabby had likely killed Dad.

Natalie swallowed at the panic in her throat. “My family? Are they safe? It’s only my mother and my grandmother, but...”

“We’ll talk with different agencies to keep them protected, as well. For the time being, it doesn’t look like they’d be in any danger, but we’ll keep our eye on the situation.”

She nodded, trying to breathe. Mom would hate that, just as she hated all police. She’d hate it as much as she hated Natalie working for the Texas Rangers, but Natalie couldn’t quite agree with Mom’s hate.

Oh, she’d hated any and all law enforcement for a while, but she’d tirelessly tried to find her own answers, and she knew how frustrating it could be. She also knew men like Ranger Cooper, as off-putting and as much of a jerk as he was, took their jobs seriously. They tried, and when they failed, it affected them.

She’d seen sorrow and guilt in too many officers’ eyes to count.

“I’ll go with you,” she said, her voice a ragged, abused thing.

His eyes widened, and he turned fully to her. “You will?” He didn’t bother to hide his surprise.

She was a little surprised herself, but it would get her the thing she wanted more than anything else in the world. Information. “I will come with you and follow whatever your office suggests in order to keep me safe. On one condition.”

The surprise easily morphed into his normal scowl of disdain. “You’re being protected, Ms. Torres. You don’t get to have conditions.”

“I want to know about the case. I want to know what I’m running from.”

“That’s confidential.”

“You’re taking me ‘away from Austin’ to protect me. I don’t even know you.”

He gave her a once-over, and she at once knew he didn’t trust her. While she was sure he was the kind of man who would protect her anyway, his distrust grated. So, she held her ground, emotionally wrung out and exhausted. She stood there and accepted his distrustful perusal.

“I’ll see what information I’m allowed to divulge to you, but you’re going to have to come down to the office right now to get everything squared away. We’ll be leaving the minute we have it all figured out with legal.”

“Will we?”

“You don’t have to do it my way, Ms. Torres, but I can guarantee you no one’s way is better than mine.”

She wouldn’t take that guarantee for a million dollars, but she’d take a chance. A chance for information. If she was going to lose everything, she was darn well going to get closer to finding Gabby out of it.

“All right, Ranger Cooper. We’ll do it your way.” For now.

Chapter Three

Vaughn was exhausted, but he swallowed the yawn and focused on the long, winding road ahead of him.

Natalie dozed in the passenger seat, making only the random soft sleeping noise. Vaughn didn’t look—not once—he focused.

The midday sun reflected against the road, creating the illusion of a sparkling ribbon of moving water. They still had another three hours to go to get to the mountains and his little cabin. Which meant he’d spent the past four hours talking himself out of all his second thoughts.

It was the only way to keep her safe and him certain she was innocent. She’d agreed to everything without so much as a peep. He didn’t know if he distrusted that or if she was just too devastated and exhausted to mount any kind of argument.

She stirred, and he checked his rearview mirror again. The white sedan was still following them. There was enough space between their cars; he’d thought he was simply being paranoid for noticing.

That had been two hours ago. Two hours of that car following him at the same exact distance.

He cursed.

“What?” Natalie mumbled, straightening in the seat. “You’re not going to run out of gas, are you?” She rubbed her eyes, back arching as she stretched and moved her neck from side to side.

With more force than he cared to admit, he looked away from her and directly at the road. “No. Listen to me. Do not look back. Do not move. We’re being tailed.”

“What?”

She started to whip her head toward the back—obnoxious woman—but he reached over with one hand and squeezed her thigh.

She screeched and slapped his hand. “Don’t touch me.”

He removed his hand, gripped the wheel with both now. Tried to erase any...reaction from touching her like that. It had only been a diversionary tactic. “Then do as you’re told and don’t look back.”

Her shoulders went rigid and she stared straight ahead, eyes wide, breathing uneven. “You really think...”

“I could be wrong. I’d rather be safe and wrong than wrong and sorry.” He looked at the mile marker, tried to focus on what was around them, where they could lose the tail. What it would mean if they couldn’t.

Natalie grasped her knees, obviously panicking. As much as he knew he could figure this out, he understood that she was lost. Fire burning all of her possessions and sleepless nights on the road with a near stranger weren’t exactly calming events.

“It’ll be fine,” he said, mustering all of his compassion—what little of that was left. “I’ve dodged better tails than this.”

“Have you?”

“Do you know a Texas Ranger has to have eight years of police work with a major crimes division before they’re even qualified to apply?”

Natalie huffed out an obviously unimpressed breath. “So you had to write speeding tickets for eight years? Didn’t mean you had to dodge people following you.”

Vaughn didn’t bother responding. Speeding tickets? Not for a long, long time. But he wasn’t going to tell her about the undercover operations he’d worked, the homicides he’d solved. He wasn’t going to waste precious brain space proving to her that he was the best man to keep her safe.

Maybe when they got to the cabin he could just give her Jenny’s number and his ex-wife could fill Ms. Torres in on all the ways he’d put himself in danger during his years as a police officer.

Frustrated with that line of thought, he jerked the wheel to get off the highway and onto an out-of-the-way exit at the last second.

Unfortunately, the white sedan did the same.

“We’re going to stop at the first gas station we find. We’re both going to get out, go inside and pretend to look for snacks. I’m going to talk to the attendant. You will stand in the candy aisle and wait for my sign.”

“What’s your sign?” she said after a gulp.

“You’ll know it when you see it.”

“But...”

“No buts. We have to play some things by ear.” Like what the purpose of an hours-long tail was. If it was to take them out, Vaughn had to believe they would have already attempted something. The hanging back and just following pointed more to an information-grabbing tail.

It took a few miles, but a little town with a gas station finally appeared on the horizon. Vaughn kept his speed steady as he drove toward it, worked to keep himself calm as he pulled into a parking spot.

“We get out. We act normal. You watch me, and you follow absolutely any and all orders I give you. Got it?”

Natalie blinked at the gas station in front of them, and he could tell she wanted to argue, but the woman apparently had some sense because she finally nodded.

Vaughn got out of the car first, and Natalie followed. She didn’t exactly look calm, but she didn’t bolt or run. She met him at the front of the car.

Vaughn didn’t like it, but they had to look at least a little casual. Maybe these guys knew exactly who they were, but playing a part gave him a better shot of putting doubts in their heads.

So, he linked fingers with Ms. Torres and walked like any two involved people might into the building. Her hand was clammy, and he gave it a little reassuring squeeze. He leaned close to her ear, hoping the two men outside were paying attention to the intimate move.

“Go along with anything I do or say,” he said, low enough so that the cashier couldn’t hear.

She didn’t say anything or nod, but she didn’t argue with him, either. In fact, she held tightly on to his hand.

When he took a deep breath, all he could smell was the smoke that must still be in her hair from early this morning, but underneath there was some hint of something sweet.

Lack of sleep was making him delirious. “Go find a snack, honey,” he said, doing his best to infect some ease into his exaggerated drawl. With only a little wobble, she let go of his hand and walked toward the candy aisle.

Casually Vaughn sauntered to the counter. He glanced at the scratch-off tickets displayed, then glanced out the doors where the white sedan was parked, one of the men filling it up.

Vaughn flicked his glance to the bored-looking cashier. “Ma’am,” he said with a nod. He slid his badge across the counter to where the cashier could see it. She didn’t flinch or even act impressed or moved. She popped her gum at him.

He wouldn’t be deterred. “I need you to call the local police department. I need you to give them the following license plate number, description and my DSN.”

She didn’t make a move to get a pen or paper. Vaughn glanced out of the corner of his eye to where the white sedan and two men in big coats and big hats stood. One eyeing his truck, the other eyeing the store and Natalie.

Vaughn flicked his jacket out of the way so the cashier could also see his gun. “This is official police business. Call the local police department and give them the following information.” He inclined his head to the pen that was settled on top of the cash register keyboard. “Now.”

The woman swallowed this time, and she grabbed the pen.

Vaughn looked back at Natalie who was shaking in the candy aisle. He rattled off the information to the cashier.

He kept tabs on the men outside who were obviously keeping tabs on him. “Make the call now. Whatever you do, don’t tell those men out there. Got it?”

The now-nervous cashier gave a little nod and picked up the phone on the counter next to the cash register.

As he moved away from the counter, one of the men started walking toward the door. Still, Vaughn didn’t panic. He’d been in a lot stickier situations than this, no matter what Ms. Hypnotist thought of his past experience.

He approached Natalie, watching to make sure the cashier got the information to the local police before the man entered the door.

It was a close call, but the cashier had some survival instincts herself and she hung up just as the man walked inside.

Vaughn took Natalie’s arm. “Let’s go to the bathroom.”

She arched a brow, all holier-than-thou, even though terror was clearly lurking in the depths of those big dark eyes. “Together?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He nodded toward the back of the store where the bathroom sign was. “Move. And whatever you do, don’t look behind us.”

She started to walk toward the bathroom, still shaking, still braving it out. He’d give her credit for that.

Later.

“You know, every time you tell me not to do something, I only want to do it more?”

“Okay, don’t look straight ahead. Don’t step into the women’s bathroom, and certainly don’t let me follow you inside.”

Surprisingly, she did exactly what he wanted her to do.

* * *

NATALIE COULDN’T STOP SHAKING. She knew it showed weakness, and she tried to be stronger than that. For Gabby. For the hope that Gabby was still alive to be found.

But, she was so scared she wanted to cry. Someone was following them. Ranger Cooper seemed more than capable, but that didn’t make it any less scary. It didn’t erase her house being gone, and it most certainly didn’t erase the fact someone was apparently following them.

Ranger Cooper immediately locked the door behind them as they stepped into the women’s restroom. He was a blur, moving about the small room and the even smaller stalls, and she had no idea what he was looking for.

So, she simply stood in the center trying to find her own center. Trying to focus on what she was doing this for. On who she was doing this for. She’d pursued details of Gabby’s case with a dogged tenacity that had alienated every friend, significant other and her own grandmother. Even Mom was close to losing any and all patience with her.

But how could they give up? How could she give up? Maybe she’d never anticipated this kind of danger, but that didn’t mean she was going to shake apart and hide away. Gabby was somewhere out there.

She had to be. He keeps the girls. Maybe it wasn’t Gabby’s case, but maybe it was. She needed information, which meant she needed Ranger Cooper.

After a full sweep of the bathroom, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and typed something into it. Natalie simply watched him because she didn’t know what else to do. She counted each time his blunt, long finger touched the screen to keep herself from panicking.

When he glanced up from his phone, those steely blue eyes meeting hers with a blank kind of certainty, she thought she might panic anyway.

“We can’t waste much more time,” he said, his voice as low and gravelly as she’d ever heard it. Surely he was exhausted. Even Texas Rangers got tired. Even Texas Rangers were human and mortal.

She’d really prefer to think of him as superhuman, and he made it almost seem possible when he flipped back his coat and pulled the weapon at his hip from its holster.

“If it gets back to whoever sent them they’re being detained, we’ll just get another tail.”

Natalie subdued the shaking, jittering fear in her limbs and focused on what had gotten her here. Questions. Information. “But how can we get past them? Won’t they just report back to... Do you know who it is? Is this about The Stallion? I couldn’t find any information on what exactly that is. A man? A gang?”

Ranger Cooper took a menacing step toward her, reminding her of that moment in the interrogation room when he’d stepped between her and Mr. Herman.

Dead Mr. Herman.

She closed her eyes and tried to focus on how much she’d hated him then. Hated him for getting in her way.

“Do not ask questions, Ms. Torres. The less you know, the better. For your own good. Now...” He curled those long fingers around the grips of his gun. “Listen to me carefully. Do everything I say to the letter. For your own good. Let me repeat that,” he said, as if talking to a small child.

“For your own good, you will do as I say. Stay behind me. Listen to me and only me. Whatever you do, don’t make a sound. If we can get a little bit of a head start, we’re golden. Got it?”

She couldn’t speak. Every muscle in her body was seized too tightly to allow her to speak, or nod.

“Torres.” It was whispered, but it was a harsh bark. “Got it?”

She managed a squeaky yes, and as he unlocked the door, she stayed behind him. As much as she didn’t like him, in this moment, she would have pressed herself to his back if he’d asked her to.

He might be a jerk, but he seemed to know what he was doing. Right now, with two bulky men speaking to two decidedly not bulky local police officers in front of the cash register, she pretty much had to trust Ranger Cooper would get them out of this.

She met gazes with one of the bulky men, and though he had his hat low on his head, she could feel the cold, black gaze.

“Behind me, Torres,” Ranger Cooper whispered with enough authority to have her feet moving faster.

One of the bulky men tried to sidestep one of the local officers, but the local officer didn’t back off.

“Move again, sir, and I will pull my weapon on you.”

“We ain’t done anything wrong, boy.”

Ranger Cooper grabbed her arm. “Move,” he instructed, and she realized belatedly she’d all but stopped. But she was being propelled out the door, a skirmish breaking out behind them. “Get in the car. Now. Fast.”

On shaky legs, she did as she was told, but managed to glance back in time to see Ranger Cooper shoving a broom through the handles of the door. Which caused the men inside to push against the police officers even harder, even getting past one to get to the door.

Natalie got into the truck’s passenger seat, her breath coming in little puffs. That broom handle wouldn’t hold them in for very long. If only because there had to be another exit, and it already looked as though the officers inside were losing the battle.

But Ranger Cooper wasn’t getting in the truck. She tried to breathe deeply, but a little whimpering sound came out instead.

“Get it together. Get it together,” she whispered to herself, craning her neck to see where Ranger Cooper had gone.

She watched as he casually walked over to a white sedan, weapon held to his side where only someone really paying attention could see. Then he held the muzzle of the gun to the front tire and pulled the trigger.

Even knowing it was coming, Natalie jumped when the shot rang out. Ranger Cooper was back in the truck in the blink of an eye, and Natalie glanced at the store where the two men had disappeared from the windowed doors. No doubt looking for another exit.

“That’ll buy us some time,” Ranger Cooper muttered, zooming out of the parking lot without so much as buckling his seat belt.

“What about those police officers? The cashier?”

He merely nodded into the distance. “Hear that?”

She didn’t at first, but after a few seconds she could make out sirens.

“Backup,” he said, his eyes focused on the road, his hands tight on the wheel. “Since the guys fought back, they can arrest them. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t more tails on us. We have to be vigilant. I want you to keep your eyes peeled. Anything seems suspicious, you mention it. I don’t care how silly it sounds. We can’t be too careful now.”

Natalie gripped the handle of the door with one hand, pressed the other, in a fist, to her stomach.

She was in so far over her head she almost laughed. She knew Ranger Cooper wouldn’t appreciate that, and she was a little afraid if she started laughing, it’d turn into crying soon enough.

She was too tough for that. Too determined. No more crying. No more shaking. No more panic. If they had bad guys to face down, she was at least going to pull her weight.

Because if she did, if they could get through all this, Gabby might be on the other side. Everything she’d been working for over the past eight years.

Yeah, no more panic. She had a sister to save.

Chapter Four

Vaughn didn’t know if he trusted how relatively easy it had been to fool the tail. Or the fact another hadn’t taken its place. All in all, he didn’t understand what that tail had been trying to accomplish, and without knowing...

Frustrated, he scanned the road again. The Guadalupe Mountains loomed in the distance of an arid landscape. The hardscrabble desert stretched out for miles, the craggy, spindly peaks of the Guadalupes offering the only respite to endless flat.

The cabin was still forty-five minutes away, and they were the only car on this old desert highway. If he had a tail, it was a much better one.

He flicked a glance at Torres. Thinking about her as a last name helped things. He could think of her as a partner, as just a person he had to work with. Not a complicated mystery of a woman.

The only problem was, he didn’t trust her as far as he could throw her, and that was the key to any partnership.

She sat in the passenger seat, her eyes still too big, her hands still clenched too tight. Her olive skin tone had paled considerably, but she’d gotten control of her shaking.

“You did good,” he found himself saying, out of nowhere. She had done good for a civilian, but he had no idea why he was praising her. What the hell was the point of that?

“I just did what you told me to do.”

“Exactly.”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “You really are a piece of work, Ranger Cooper.”

“Not everyone could have gotten through that, Ms. Torres. Some people freeze, some people cry, some people...” Why was he explaining this to her? If she didn’t want to believe she’d done a good thing, what did he care? But his mouth just kept going. “There’s a lot of pressure when you’re under a threat, and the smartest thing you can do is listen to the person who has the coolest head. You did that. You made good choices and had good instincts.”

“Well, thank you.” She blew out a breath, and he noted that the hands she’d had in fists loosened incrementally.

“I wish I didn’t know just how much I can stand up in the face of a threat,” she muttered.

“Unfortunately, that was only the beginning.”

“You’re a constant comfort, Ranger Cooper.”

She fell silent for a few moments, and he thought maybe they could make it all the way to the cabin without having any more of the discussion, certainly not any more of him telling her she’d done well. But she began to fidget. The kind of fidgeting that would lead to questioning.

It appeared that whatever nerves or fear that had kept Ms. Torres from interrogating him about what was going on had been eradicated or managed.

“Who’s after us? And why? What do I have to do with any of this?” she asked, thankfully sounding more exasperated than scared.

Scared tended to pull at that do-gooder center of him. He tried to focus on cases rather than people. But he could get irritated with exasperation. Why couldn’t she just trust him to keep her safe and leave it at that?

But he knew that she wouldn’t, and he had been given permission to share certain details with her.

Considering he still didn’t trust this woman, he wasn’t about to give her really important details.

He focused on the road, the flat, unending desert ahead of him. “You were in the interrogation room when Herman talked.”

“He didn’t even say anything that was any kind of incrimination. Certainly nothing that I would understand to be able to tell anyone. And I ruined your interrogation. They should be sending me flowers, not...fire.”

The corner of his lip twitched as if...as if he wanted to smile. Which was very...strange. But the fact she owned up to ruining the interrogation, while also making a little bit of a joke in what had to be a very scary situation for her, he appreciated that. He almost admired it. God knew he didn’t make light of much of anything.

“In all likelihood, they don’t know what exactly was said,” Vaughn told her. Nothing about his tone was self-deprecating or light, which he never would have noticed if not for her. “All it took was the knowledge that he was interrogated, and that we started looking into the name he mentioned. When you’re mixed up in organized crime, that’s enough to get you killed.”

She pressed her lips together as if a wave of emotion had swept over her. Her eyes even looked a little shiny. When she spoke, there was a slight tremor to her voice. “I just keep thinking about how he said he had a daughter, and his wife had cancer, and he’s just...dead.”

“He worked for a man who has likely killed more people than we’ll ever know about. Herman knew what he was getting himself into and the risks he was taking. Even if he wasn’t the muscle, and even if he had a family, he made bad choices that he knew very well had chances of getting him killed.”

“So you’re saying he deserved to die?” Natalie asked in that same tremulous voice.

It had been a long time since someone had made him feel bad about the callousness he had to employ, had to build to endure a career in law enforcement, and especially unsolved crimes. He didn’t care for the way she did it so easily. Just a question and a tremor.

But this was reality, and clearly Torres didn’t have a clue about that. “It’s not my place to determine whether he deserved anything. I’m putting forth the reality of the situation.”

“I don’t understand why they burned down my house, why they killed a man, just because he mentioned a name and you started asking questions. How is that worth following us across Texas? I mean, if they were going to kill us, wouldn’t they have already done it?”

“Yes.”

She waited, and he could feel her gaze on him, but he didn’t have anything else to say to that.

“Yes? That’s it? You’re just going to agree with me, and that’s it?”

“Well, honestly, they probably did try to kill you with that fire. You were lucky you weren’t home. What more of an explanation would you like?”

“One that makes sense!”

He could tell by the way she quieted after her little outburst that she hadn’t meant to let that emotion show. Especially when the next words she spoke were lower, calmer.

“I want to know why this is happening. I want to understand why I’m in more danger than you or Ranger Stevens. Why my house was burned down, not yours.”

“I can’t speculate on why they burned your house down. The reason that Stevens and I aren’t in as much danger is because we’re police officers. We’re trained to look for danger, and quite frankly going after us is a lot worse for them than going after you. Anyone hurts a member of law enforcement, the police aren’t going to rest until they find him.”

“But if you go after a civilian, it’s fine?” she demanded incredulously.

She gave him such a headache. He took a deep breath, because he wasn’t going to snap at her for deliberately misinterpreting his words. He wasn’t going to yell at her for not getting it. She wasn’t an officer; she couldn’t understand.

“We’re family, Ms. Torres,” he said evenly and calmly, never taking his eyes off the road. “It’s like if a stranger is gunned down in the street or your sister is gunned down in the street, which one are you going to avenge a little bit harder?”

Something in what he’d said seemed to impact her a little more than it should have. She paled further and looked down at her lap. He wasn’t sure if she was more scared now, or if she was upset by something.

“I’m going to keep you safe, Ms. Torres,” he assured her, because as much as he avoided those soft, comforting feelings almost all of the time, that was his duty. He would do it, no matter what.

“Why?” she asked in a small voice. “I’m not law enforcement. I’m not your family. Why should I feel like you’re going to keep me safe?”

“Because you came under my protection, and I don’t take that lightly.”

“I can’t understand what they think I can do,” she said, her voice going quieter with each sentence, her face turning toward the window as if she wanted to hide from him.

He was fine with that. He’d be even finer if he could stop answering her questions. “The thing about crime and criminals is that they don’t often follow rational trains of thought like we do. Their motivations and morals are skewed.”

“That almost sounds philosophical, Ranger Cooper.”

“It’s just the truth. It’s easier to accept the truth and figure out what you can do about it than to wish it was different or understandable.”

“But...what am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to... I have other jobs, and a family, and... It’s all hitting me how much I’m los—”

“You’re saving your life. Period. You won’t have a job or a family to go back to if you’re dead.”

“Again, such a comfort.”

“At this point, it’s more important that we are honest than it is that I comfort you. Right now you’re safe because you’re with me. That’s the only reason. I need you to not forget that.”

“I don’t expect you to allow me to forget it,” she returned, reminding him of that hallway when she’d blamed him for getting her removed from the Rangers. Though it was frustrating that it was geared at him, her anger would serve them well. It would keep her moving, it would keep her brave.

“It’s best if you don’t. For the both of us. You’re not the only one in danger here, you’re just the only one who doesn’t know what to do about it.”

“What about Ranger Stevens?”

“Ranger Stevens can keep himself out of danger. All I need you to do is worry about listening to me. If you do that, everything will be fine.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I give everything to my job. There is nothing about what I do that I take lightly.”

So everyone had always told him. Too serious. Too dedicated. Too wrapped up in a career that didn’t give him time for much of anything else.

But people didn’t understand that it gave him everything. A sense of usefulness, a sense of order in a chaotic world. It gave him the ability to face any challenge that was laid before him.

Maybe it gives you a way to keep everyone at a safe distance. It irritated him that those words came into his head, even more irritating that they were in his ex-wife’s voice. He hadn’t thought about Jenny in over a year. Why had the past two days brought back some of that old bitterness?

But he didn’t have time to figure it out. He had to get to the cabin, and he had to solve this case.

Personal problems always came after the job, and if the job never ended... Well, so be it.

* * *

NO MATTER HOW exhausted she was, all Natalie could do was watch as the desert gave way to mountain. They began to drive up...and up. There were signs for Guadalupe Mountains National Park, but they didn’t drive into it. Instead, Ranger Cooper took winding roads that seemed to weave around the mountains and the park markers.

There weren’t houses or other cars on the road. There was nothing. Nothing except rock and the low-lying green brush that was only broken up by the random cactus.

He turned onto a very bumpy dirt road that curved and twisted up a rolling swell of land covered in green brush. After she didn’t know how long, a building finally came into view.

Nestled into that sloping green swell of land, with the impressive almost square jut of the mountains behind it, was a little postage stamp of a cabin made almost entirely of stone. It looked ancient, almost part of the landscape.

And it was very, very small. She was going to stay here in this isolated, tiny cabin with this man who rubbed her all kinds of the wrong way.

“What is this place?” she asked, the nerves making her almost as shaky as she’d been earlier.

“It’s my private family cabin.”

“You have a family?” She couldn’t picture him with loved ones, a wife and kids. It bothered her on some odd level.

He slid her a glance as he pulled the truck around to the back of the cabin and parked. “I did come from a mother and a father, not just sprung from the ground fully made.”

“The second scenario seems much more plausible,” she retorted, realizing too late that she needed to rein in all her snark.

She thought for one tiny glimmer of a second his mouth might have curved into some approximation of a smile.

Apparently she was becoming delusional. But he doesn’t have a wife or kids. Really, really delusional.

“My sister stays here quite frequently as well, so hopefully you should be able to find some things of hers you can use.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t feel right about—”

“You don’t have a choice, Ms. Torres. You don’t have anything. And before you repeat it for a third time, yes, I realize I am of literally no comfort to you.”

“Well, at least I don’t have to say it for a third time.”

He let out a hefty sigh and then got out of his truck. She followed suit, stepping into the warm afternoon sun. The air had a certain...she couldn’t put her finger on a word for it. It didn’t feel as heavy as the air in Austin. There was a clarity to it. A purity. She couldn’t see another living soul, possibly another living thing. All that existed around her was this vast, arid landscape.

And a very unfortunately sexy Texas Ranger who appeared to be exploring the perimeter of his family cabin.

Even after being up since whatever time he had got up to go to her burned-out house, after all the time getting everything squared away to secret her out of Austin, after the incident at the gas station and driving across Texas, he was unwrinkled and fresh. All she felt was dirty and grimy and disgusting. She smelled, and she was afraid to even glance at what the desert air had done to her hair.

She stood next to the truck, waiting for her orders. Because God knew Ranger Cooper would have orders for her.

He disappeared around the corner of the cabin, and Natalie leaned against the truck and looked up at the hazy blue sky. She let the sun soak into her skin.

For the first time since before the fire, she had a moment to breathe and really think. All of this open space made her think about Gabby. How long she’d been gone, where she was... Did she still get to see things like this?

Natalie tried to fight the thoughts and tears, but she was exhausted. They trickled over her eyelashes and down her cheeks. She tried to wipe them away, but they kept falling.

She’d worked relentlessly and tirelessly for eight years to try to find Gabby, and she thought she’d been close. A hint. He keeps the girls. But now she was far away from Austin, and she was with this man who couldn’t pull a punch to save his life.

The hope she had doggedly held on to for eight years was seriously and utterly shaken.

What could she do here? What could she do when her whole life right now was just staying alive? People were after her, and she didn’t even know why.

Why was she crying now, though? She was finally safe. She knew Ranger Cooper would do his duty. He didn’t seem like the type of man who could do anything but.

Why was it now that she felt like she was falling apart?

“Everything looks good out here. I’m going to check the inside, but I need you to follow me.”

No please, no warmth, just an order. She kept her face turned to the sky, trying to wipe away all traces of the tears before she faced him. She took a deep breath and let it out.

She’d had a little breakdown, and now it was over. She’d let some air out of the pressure in her chest, and now she could move forward. She just needed a goal.

She glanced at Ranger Cooper, who was standing at the door, all stiff, gruff policeman.

She needed more information. That was the goal. Information was the goal. She couldn’t lose sight of that even though he was so bad at giving it.

She began to walk toward him, wondering what made anyone in his family think this was a good place for a little getaway cabin. It was rocky and sharp and dry. If you looked closely at all, everything seemed so ugly.

But when you looked away from the ground, and took in the home and the full extent of the landscape, there was something truly awe inspiring about it. It was big and vast, this world they lived in. She never had that feeling in the middle of Austin.

She walked over to the porch. It was hard to follow orders and listen to what someone else told her to do. She wasn’t used to that. She had been such a strong force in her life for the past few years. She had made all the choices, asked all the questions, sought all the answers. She’d even alienated her grandmother in her quest to find Gabby, so sitting back and doing what someone else told her to do was...hard. It went against everything she had put her whole life into.

But she knew that knee-jerk reaction didn’t have a place here. Not when she was with a Texas Ranger who obviously knew way more than she did about safety and criminals.

She was going to have to bury the instinct to argue with him, and it was going to be as big of a challenge as trusting him would be.

“The chances of anyone having breached the cabin are extremely low,” he said, opening the door and analyzing the frame as though it might grow weapons and attack them. “But when you’re dealing with criminals of this magnitude, you can’t be too careful. Which means I can’t leave you outside. I can’t let you out of my sight. So, I’m going to go inside and make sure there’s nothing off. I need you to follow right behind me, carefully mirroring my every step. Can you do that?”

“Can I walk behind you and do what you do?”

“Yes, that is the question.”

She gritted her teeth. He didn’t think she could walk? He didn’t think she could do anything, did he? He thought she was some flighty, foolish hypnotist who couldn’t follow easy orders.

Arrogant jerk of a man. “Yes, I can do that,” she said through those gritted teeth.

“Excellent. Let’s go.”

He stepped over the threshold, immediately turning toward the left. She followed him, and since her job was to follow exactly in his footsteps, she watched him. That ease of movement he had about him, the surety in the way he strode into the cabin looking for whatever he was looking for.

He was all packed muscle, but there was something like grace in his movements. It was mesmerizing, and she had no problem following him around the inside of the stone cabin.

They did an entire tour of the kitchen and living area, which were both open, and then down a very narrow hallway that led to two bedrooms and a bathroom. All the rooms were small, and the stone that composed the outside of the cabin were used for the inside walls and floor as well.

It wasn’t cozy exactly. It was beautiful, but it wasn’t the sort of log mountain cabin she had in her head. There weren’t warm colorful blankets or cute artwork on the walls. It was all very gray and minimalist.

“You have something against color?” she asked, forgetting to keep her thoughts to herself.

He glanced over his shoulder at her, and the question was kind of funny in light of the way his blue eyes looked even grayer here. It was like even the color of his body didn’t dare shine in this space.

“If you’re looking for color...” He opened the door to the last bedroom and stepped inside, doing his little police thing where he looked at every corner and around every lamp and out every window.

But Natalie didn’t follow him this time. Where the rest of the cabin was stone and stark and sort of reflective of the outside landscape, this room was a riot and explosion of color. It was glitter and fringe.

“What on earth is all this?”

“This is my sister’s room. Which means that, right now, it is your room, and you can feel free to use anything that’s in here.” He opened the closet and rifled through it. She still had no idea what exactly he was looking for, but she knew if she asked he would only give her some irritating half answer.

“I feel really strange about using your sister’s things.”

“Trust me, my sister has nothing but things, and when I explain to her why someone used them, she will be more than fine with it. As I reminded you earlier, you don’t have a choice.”

“Because I have nothing. Yes, let’s keep talking about that.”

He gave her a cursory once-over, just like he’d given the cabin. She wouldn’t be surprised if he checked her pulse and teeth or frisked her for a wire.

She tried not to think too hard about the little shiver that ran through her at the thought of his hands on her. Those big hands that had covered so much space on her back when he’d placed them there in comfort after her house had been decimated.

She swallowed and looked away.

“Sleep.” He barked the order, then walked right past her without a second glance or word. The door closed with a soft click, and she could only gape at the rough-hewn wood.

He was ordering her to sleep? The absolute gall of the man. How dare he tell her what she needed? She had half a mind to march right out of the room and tell him she was fine.

But, God, she was tired. So, for today, he’d get his way. And probably for tomorrow and the next day and the next, because he is in charge here, remember?

She sighed at that depressing thought and crawled into bed, hopeful to sleep all the tears away.

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