Stone Cold Texas Ranger. Nicole Helm
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.
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