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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 (#u526b0c52-07e7-563d-8fe9-2724b1ed2c7a)
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.
