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Shock registered in the cowboy’s eyes. He had a rare combination of green eyes and black hair—no, black wasn’t a good enough word—it was more like onyx.
Water dripped from his thick black eyelashes and his tight curls. She could tell that he’d been wearing a hat, and in this part of the country that meant a Stetson. He was tall, six feet four inches would be her best guess. Based on the ripples running down his chest, she’d say the guy spent serious time at the gym. His hands were rough, which meant he worked outside. But not too rough, telling her that he hadn’t been doing it for long.
“Are you telling me you know that guy?” he asked and she could tell he wasn’t buying her story.
“Intimately.” It was easy to sell that last part because it was the truth. Alice did know more details about Marco Perez’s life than she ever wanted to about any criminal on the loose. He was the head of a large-scale kidnapping ring known for selling teenage girls or using them for baby farms. He was also most likely long gone by now. His ability to disappear and make every witness around him do the same had earned him The Ghost moniker.
Alice couldn’t afford to explain herself to law enforcement. They’d run her name and she’d be discovered. She had to protect her identity.
“What’s your name?” she asked. If she could bait this guy into casual conversation she had a chance at making it out of there before the cops arrived. With her arms hauled over her head the cowboy was in the power position.
“Joshua O’Brien,” he said. “Now it’s your turn.”
It was a statement, not a question and she figured that she was grossly underestimating this guy.
“Will you let me go if I tell you, Joshua?” She’d used his name on purpose. Get him talking, get him comfortable and she could break out of his grasp.
“Maybe,” he said.
“I’m Alice,” she responded. The cops would be banging on that door in a matter of minutes in a best-case scenario...a matter of seconds in her worst nightmare. In no way could Alice allow that to happen. She’d be taken to jail and her reputation, as well as her career, would be over. As it was she could still return to the force after she located Isabel and brought her home safely.
Sirens wailed in the distance, which meant cops were getting closer. She needed to move faster with the cowboy in order to get away. Or distract him long enough to...
The chance presented itself, so she took it.
The cowboy had loosened his grip. Alice drew her knee up and tagged him as hard as she could in the groin.
She dropped and spun, breaking free from his grasp. A sweep of her right leg and he stumbled to catch himself.
He recovered quickly using the wall to redirect his weight, but he wasn’t fast enough.
Alice pulled her backup weapon, a Glock G42 .380 pocket pistol, from her ankle holster. “Hands where I can see ’em, cowboy.”
He righted himself and complied.
Now all she had to do was walk out that door and never look back. She made a move toward it and then stopped, a bout of conscience eating at her. It was her fault that the cowboy was in this mess. He’d seen Perez. Worse yet, The Ghost had seen the cowboy.
No one lived who could describe Perez. He was one of the most ruthless criminals in the country and he protected his identity with the ferocity of a starved lion.
But how could Alice protect her own identity and spare the cowboy’s life?
Chapter Two (#u40e05ba5-3850-54c1-a674-b054fff20deb)
Alice’s voice was high-pitched and had that listen-up-or-I’ll-shoot quality. The attitude registered with Joshua as law enforcement. Was she on the job? Alice had that same swagger he’d seen in the officers he knew; granted hers was a heck of a lot sexier than theirs. Based on her reactions so far she was covering something—something big. She wasn’t breaking the law, or at least not currently, so he was even more confused by the fact that she was adamant about not bringing in the police. He figured this wasn’t the time to tell her about his law enforcement background or the fact that he had an application in at the FBI—a fact he hadn’t shared with his brothers yet. He shoved the guilty feeling aside. He’d deal with that later.
“I’m running out of time. Word of advice. Forget what I look like,” she barked. “And forget all the details about tonight.”
Joshua put his hands up, palms flat, in surrender mode. “Sorry. Too late for that. But it’s not for you. You haven’t done anything wrong.”
She shot him another look that told him he didn’t have a clue.
“I’m serious about this next part so listen up. When the law arrives, tell them that you’re being hunted by Marco Perez. Do you hear me?” she asked with seriousness in her voice that left no room for question.
He nodded, keeping watch on her and the door while tamping down his reaction to the name she’d just thrown out. The name Marco Perez was on every watch list and that’s why his face had looked familiar.
“Also, and I can’t stress this next part enough, you need to surrender to protective custody. Tell the sheriff what I said about seeing Perez and he’ll arrange everything.”
“We can talk this through and get help for you.” Joshua wasn’t ready to tip his hand about his own background, especially since she hadn’t figured him out.
She shook her head.
“This whole situation can be sorted out. You don’t have to keep running. Nothing is as bad as it seems,” he added, trying to stall. She was the one who needed protection and most likely a skilled attorney.
“I know he saw you,” she said, backing toward the door, keeping her intense gaze on him. “And he’ll come back for you. Mark my words. No one who has ever seen Perez in action has lived to tell about it.”
“Whatever it is you think you need to do...don’t,” Joshua said. He didn’t need to be reminded of that rumor about Perez. His gaze bounced from the gun that had been tossed onto the floor to her again. He’d protect himself from Perez. Who did she have?
She made a move to open the door, keeping a close eye on him.
Joshua had no plans to be shot in the men’s room of a gas station. That wasn’t even a good cliché.
“Hold on,” he said, trying out that same authoritative voice she’d used on him a few minutes ago. It was his cop voice.
Her gaze kept bouncing from him to the door, and instincts honed from years of police work told him she was about to flee. Given that she was obviously in some kind of trouble, even though she seemed more concerned about him at the moment, he needed to act fast or she’d disappear and he couldn’t help her. Joshua held out his wrists. “Fine. You win. Take me into protective custody.”
She balked.
“You need someone in law enforcement to do that,” she said in that crisp, do-as-I-say-and-don’t-ask-why voice and he’d be darned if it didn’t sound sexy coming from her. With everything going on around them he shouldn’t even notice. Being turned on by a woman who’d pulled a gun on him twice now wasn’t his brightest move.
Then again, she was beautiful and his body reacted with a mind of its own. Logic had nothing to do with it.
“You’re right about that. I do need someone in law enforcement to put me in protective custody.” He didn’t budge. “And since your cover is blown, it might as well be you.”
The only thing he couldn’t figure out was why she wasn’t coming clean about being on the job. Best he could figure she’d been on some kind of detail, which made more sense as to why she fought when she did earlier. Was she in the middle of an undercover operation? Then again, if she was wouldn’t she want police protection now?
Not necessarily. If she was in deep, she’d want to stay that way. Before he could raise another argument, she slipped out the door. He immediately bolted toward it but she’d managed to secure it with something on the other side.
Joshua muttered a curse as he pulled out his cell. Explaining this whole scenario to his friend Tommy ensured that he’d be ribbed about this forever. He’d allowed himself to be locked inside a bathroom while the “teen” he’d been trying to save got away.
Best case scenario? Tommy was already pulling up in front of the gas station. The door opened at the same time Tommy’s line rang.
“Turn that thing off.” The mystery woman had returned. The business end of her gun pointed squarely at his chest. “And my name’s Alice Green.”
“If you’re running from the law, it wasn’t your best move to come back,” Joshua said flatly.
“I know that. So, don’t make me regret it.” There was something else in her eyes this time. Fear?
Curious, Joshua ended the call. He didn’t know what she’d gotten herself into but preferring a murderous criminal’s company to the sheriff’s didn’t signal good things about her head being on straight.
“You have to decide right now,” she said, her gaze bouncing from him to the hallway leading to the store as the sound of sirens moved closer.
He didn’t budge.
“Please.” There was a desperate quality in her eyes that tugged at his heart. She could’ve shot him twice now and hadn’t so he figured she wasn’t planning to hurt him. And he was more than mildly curious what she was really up to.
“Okay. But you’re going to tell me what this is about,” he said, bending over to retrieve the weapon they’d discarded earlier.
“Don’t even think about it,” she said as he made a motion to pick it up.
“I leave it here and they finger you immediately.” If it was her service weapon then they could trace the serial number. Joshua at least wanted to hear what she had to say before he hauled her in to Tommy. He might even be able to convince her to turn herself in and that would make things a lot easier on her legally. But then, she would already know that.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“Do you live nearby or have a ride anywhere around here?” She kept a brisk pace as round two of pouring rain flooded them.
“Yeah, my Jeep’s a couple blocks away. But it won’t do any good.”
“Why not?” she asked, navigating them out of the dark parking lot as the sound of sirens neared.
Either she or Perez had shot the light out in back of the convenience store and his money was on her. “Out of gas.”
She muttered a curse as she led him into the field.
“Stay low,” she directed.
“You know that clerk can give the police our descriptions,” Joshua hedged.
“He was too surprised to pay attention. He won’t be able to give them anything more than a general idea. You’re tall and that might mean something outside of Texas but all the men seem over six feet here. Plus, we rushed in and straight to the back without showing our faces. No way will that young kid be able to give them anything they can work with and any recording will be too grainy to make out,” she responded matter-of-factly.
More proof that she knew a little too much about the process to hold up her claim of not being in law enforcement. Plus, he picked up on the fact that she was from out of state because of her height reference. No one in Texas really thought about whether or not six feet was tall.
“Why are you running?” Joshua asked.
“I’m not,” she dismissed him.
“Maybe the appropriate question is, Who are you running from?” It couldn’t be Perez since she was trying to be captured by him. She’d said they had boys together, another reason he should ignore any sexual current flowing between them. Once they were safe he’d ask her about her family situation.
“Stay down and be quiet if you want to get out of here alive,” she said, irritation lining her tone.
Since Alice, if that was her name, was already belly down he figured he’d better do the same. She’d holstered her weapon and that reminded him of the fact she wore an ankle holster in the first place. No one did that outside law enforcement.
“Where are you from?” he asked.
“Tucson,” she said.
“Why are you really here?” he asked, retrieving his hat.
“I already told you,” she said. “My ex.”
“You can drop the act,” Joshua said, not bothering to hide the fact he was done with lies. Besides, the thought of her returning for an ex stirred a different reaction inside him—jealousy? “Nobody and especially not me believes you came all the way out here to be abducted by the father of your children.”
He intended to find out what she was really up to and how much of what she’d said was the truth.
* * *
WAITING FOR OFFICERS to clear out of the gas station while lying belly down in two inches of water wasn’t Alice’s idea of a great Friday night. Then again, being dumped by the father of her twins two weeks before the babies had arrived hadn’t been, either. Fridays were right up there with poking her eyes with hot sticks.
Soaked to the bone, she shivered as she waited for the cruiser to leave the gas station. The cold front that had been promised was moving in. Experience told her that the clerk hadn’t actually witnessed a crime so there wouldn’t be much to investigate. A deputy would take a statement, file a report and move on. Then, he or she would keep an eye out for anything suspicious in the area for the rest of the night.
The deputy left ten minutes after he’d arrived.
“Take my jacket,” Joshua said, sitting up, water sloshing as it rolled off him and hit the puddle on the ground.
“It’s okay. I can handle it,” she said quickly. Being on the force, Alice had learned not to admit weakness. Officers depended on one another in life-threatening situations and being a woman she felt that she had to prove herself even more so than male officers. Men had a height and weight advantage, and they tended to be stronger. Alice wasn’t the tallest person at five feet four inches and she’d been mistaken for a teenager by people approaching from behind more than once while wearing street clothes. She’d had to work hard to compensate for her size differential.
“Your teeth are chattering,” the cowboy said. And his tone almost made her laugh out loud. He sounded almost offended that she hadn’t accepted his chivalry.
A female cop coming off as needy or not being able to pull her weight killed her career before it got started. It was a certain way to make the officer next to her wonder if she could come through in a clutch and since lives were at stake everyone took that seriously. So, even if it made her look stupid or she caught the death of a cold later she couldn’t accept his jacket.
“Believe it or not, I can take care of myself and I have been for a long time. I don’t need your charity,” she quipped defensively. Spending time with this cowboy was going to be fun. If by fun she meant stabbing her fingers with a serrated knife.
“Suit yourself,” came out about as flat as her pancakes.
Hey, it was the twenty-first century. Women weren’t slaves to the kitchen anymore. And that was pretty much how she defended her lack of cooking skills. She could, however, make one mean pot of coffee. And wasn’t that more important anyway? “The gas container you used to create a diversion earlier should be around here somewhere.”
“Yep.”
Great, now they were at one-word answers. She’d spent enough time around the opposite sex to know that she’d offended him, didn’t have time to care. He was alive. He could thank her later. “Think you can find it?”
“Of course.”
At least he was up to two words now.
Maybe she should’ve left him back at the station. Except that she was responsible for getting him into this mess in the first place and she couldn’t let him get himself killed given that he was genuinely trying to help her. And stupidity could be deadly.
Joshua was a liability.
She needed to convince him just how much danger he was in and that he needed to turn himself in. There was a reason she’d saved Perez’s organization for last. People didn’t walk away after they saw him. He had no qualms about erasing a threat, real or perceived. Precisely the reason he was considered one of, if not the most ruthless criminal in the United States.
It was getting late. The trail was a dead end now. Alice was starving and she needed to get back to her motel room to bunk down for the night while she came up with plan B. She also needed to touch base with her informant and let him know everything had gone south.
Pushing up to her feet proved more of a challenge than she expected. She landed down on her bottom pretty darn quick with a splash.
The cowboy was by her side in a half second, helping her to her feet.
“I haven’t slept in a few days,” she said quickly and a little too sharply.
“Yeah? Even Superwoman needs rest.”
