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But Grace had showed instead of the gunmen, apparently.
Must have been his lucky day.
Unless, of course, she was somehow connected to the smugglers. But then why would she save him? He decided to trust her for the time being, but moved his chair, anyway, so he’d be within reach of the knife on the counter.
A rough-looking cat appeared from nowhere and measured him up.
“Her name is Twinky,” Grace said. “She’s a stray.”
The cat sauntered closer, rubbed herself against his legs, then sauntered away.
The Mexican woman kept wringing her hands and talking all through their exchange.
Grace shot him a helpless, reluctant look. “Do you know what she’s saying?”
He asked her to slow down a little and focused on the flood of words. “She’s looking for her husband and her kids. Five-year-old twins, a boy and a girl.”
Grace paled, her gaze flying to the window. “They were out there last night with her?”
He repeated the question in Spanish, then translated for Grace.
“They came to the U.S. with her husband two months ago.”
He asked a couple more questions and got the rest of the story. Didn’t much like it.
“Her husband got a visa to come and work for the wire mill in Hullett. The whole family was supposed to get papers, but something delayed hers at the last minute. The company representative told her she had to stay behind for a few days, and then she could come after her family once everything was straightened out.”
The woman was clearly distraught and desperate, wringing her hands as she waited for him to finish translating. He didn’t think she was lying.
Grace brought him another glass of orange juice, then got a carton of eggs out of the fridge, her attention on him as he continued to translate.
“She was told the children should go ahead with the husband. School was starting. The representative even got them fully loaded backpacks and everything.”
His instincts prickled. He asked a few more questions.
“She says she last saw her family when they crossed the border. Never heard from them again. Never heard from the company representative. She can’t reach him at the phone number he’d given her. She talked to the Mexican police. She even called the Hullett police here. Neither would help her.”
Grace turned on the stove under the eggs then put a hand on the younger woman’s shoulder. The small, sympathetic gesture made tears gather in the woman’s eyes all over again.
“Did you come across the border last night with a guide?” he asked in Spanish, wanting as much detail as possible.
She hung her head, her shoulders tensing as she backed away from him. For a second he thought she might make a run for the door. Grace either understood some of his words or she’d guessed them because she positioned herself so she could block him if he made a move. That she thought he might give chase was flattering, but wholly impossible. He could barely put weight on his injured leg.
Then, peeking from behind Grace, the young woman gave a hesitant nod at last, and rushed to explain.
“She’s afraid that something terrible happened to her family,” he told Grace. “All she wants is to find them and make sure they’re safe.”
“I’ll take her to town after breakfast and help her with the authorities,” Grace said immediately. “If you could, please, tell her.”
He shook his head. “When I call in and they come to pick me up, we’re going to have to detain her. Other people will want to ask her questions, too. She’s here without papers. She’s not going to be let loose, no matter what her purpose is here.”
And then it happened. In the blink of an eye, Grace Cordero morphed from a pretty hostess cooking for her guests into a stunning warrior amazon. The gentle, nurturing aura disappeared in a second. She pulled herself to full height and stalked right up to him, a steely expression coming onto her face.
Yowza. The budding interest his battered body had registered toward her earlier turned into instant, fullblown lust. Whatever blood he had left rushed south.
All right, then. Looked as if he was going to live, after all, he thought with some amusement and not a little surprise at his visceral response to her. It’d been a while since a woman made him sit up and take notice. He’d been too busy lately.
Her eyes flashed as she faced him down, her jaw tight, her shoulders stiffening. “She stays where she is.” She didn’t raise her voice, but the hard tone carried plenty of warning.
While she had a core of kindness, one that would push her out into a storm in the night to save a stranger, one that would have her take in a distraught woman without questions, she also had a whole other side. His instincts said it was a side a smart person wouldn’t mess with. He had a feeling Grace Cordero would make a bad enemy.
“Do you live here?” he asked her in a mild tone to defuse the sudden tension.
“I arrived yesterday morning,” were the words that came out of her mouth, but the flash in her eyes said: none of your business.
“How long are you staying?”
Her chin came up. “As long as it takes to help Esperanza.”
And Ryder drew a slow breath. Grace wasn’t staying. Not if he had anything to do with it. Her land wasn’t safe now, and it would be even less so in the upcoming weeks. She needed to leave.
SOMETHING ABOUT THE UTTER devastation in Esperanza’s eyes reached the grief in her own heart. She knew what it was like to lose family. She had nobody left.
Grace pulled her cell phone from her pocket and tossed it to Ryder. She’d done the best she could last night, but he still needed medical attention. “Call whoever you need, but leave me and Esperanza out of this.”
The sooner he left, the better.
She’d meant to call first thing in the morning, but hadn’t had the chance. She’d ended up sleeping in the recliner to keep an eye on him overnight. She’d woken to Esperanza coming downstairs, and drew the woman into the kitchen so they wouldn’t wake Ryder. Of course, he woke up, anyway, a few minutes later.
Unconscious, he’d been manageable. Sitting at her kitchen table, he looked fairly intimidating. He was pale and weak, but obviously well-built, a fighting machine on his better days. He had a sharp gaze, a pronounced, masculine chin, straight nose and a mouth that awakened some secret feminine longing inside her.
Not to be acted upon, obviously.
“If you work for border patrol, why aren’t you wearing their uniform?”
Esperanza watched, her face scrunched with worry, probably aware that her fate was being decided.
“I’m on a special team.”
If he thought that would impress Grace, he had another think coming. “Can’t say I trust government men as far as I can throw them.”
He kept his face emotionless as he asked, “Any particular reason?”
She didn’t mind telling him. All the anger was still there, simmering just under her skin.
“My brother was in the first Gulf War. Got sick. The government never acknowledged that he’d been exposed to biological weapons. We went through hell to get him proper health care.” She was convinced that if Tommy had gotten better help earlier, he would be still alive today.
The thought tore open a barely scabbed over wound deep inside her.
“And here you are, a doctor, unable to help him. That must have been doubly frustrating.”
She shot him a blank look.
He gestured toward his injured leg. “You put in some fine stiches.”
“I was an army medic.” And now almost a veterinarian. She could still save lives, and animals were so much less complicated than humans.
He looked at her through narrowed eyes, as if he was trying to puzzle her out. Good luck with that. These days her thoughts were such a tangled mess, she could barely make sense of them herself.
Nor could she make much sense of him, so far. Beyond his name, she still barely knew anything about him. Well, other than he was annoyingly hot.
Since he was strangely getting under her skin, she decided to go on the offensive. “What were you doing on my land?”
“That’s classified information.”
Of course it was. If she had a dollar for every time she’d heard that answer while trying to investigate just what chemicals Tommy had been exposed to…. She returned to the stove to remove the eggs from the fire.
He was dialing the phone behind her, but said very little beyond his location when the other end picked up. He was long done before she turned around with his breakfast. Maybe he’d be in a better mood to help once he was fed.
She split the eggs between him and Esperanza, who ate quickly, standing by the counter. She didn’t seem to want to go anywhere near the table and Ryder. Grace couldn’t blame her. Even in a weakened state, the man was pretty intimidating.
“Much appreciated,” he said and dug in. Whether he was hungry or simply ate because he knew he needed the energy, he did a fair amount of damage in a short time.
Grace watched him for a minute or so, wanting to give him time to eat in peace, but she ran out of patience too quickly. “Esperanza needs to find her family. I want to help her.”
“The authorities will help her,” he said between two bites, then spoke to Esperanza briefly in Spanish.
Tears rolled down the woman’s face as she set her empty plate in the sink. She looked as if she’d just been told that she’d be taken out back and shot.
“The authorities have done nothing to help her until now,” Grace argued, frustration humming through her. She hadn’t been able to help her brother, but she could help Esperanza. If Ryder didn’t stand in her way.
He finished his eggs, leaned back in his chair and watched her for a few seconds. Then his face hardened suddenly. “How long have you been aware that you have drug smuggling and human trafficking on your land?”
The air got stuck in her lungs. “We never had any of that out here.” Of course, she hadn’t lived here for years. Still, Tommy hadn’t mentioned anything. Neither had Dylan.
But Ryder had gotten shot. Had he been confronting drug runners? And Esperanza was here. What if all this was just the tip of the iceberg?
“Were you shot by smugglers?” Not that she was ready to believe that, but she couldn’t pretend that it had been a hunting accident, either. She’d known from the beginning that it had been something a lot more sinister; she just hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it. She sank into the chair across the table from him.
She’d come to spread her brother’s ashes in the most peaceful, nicest place on earth, in accordance with his wishes. But suddenly, the ranch seemed a much more dangerous place than she’d remembered.
“I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation.”
God forbid someone told her what was going on on her land. But instead of pushing for an answer about that, she decided to pick her battles. “Esperanza had nothing to do with whatever happened to you. We both know she didn’t shoot you. How about you give her a break?” “I can’t.”
“You could pretend you never saw her. I could have just hidden her upstairs until you were gone.” In hindsight, not doing just that had been incredibly stupid. They could have avoided all of this.
“I don’t play those kinds of games.”
No, he probably didn’t. He looked as serious as a longhorn stampede.
“Don’t you have a heart?” The words burst from her in a fit of frustration.
“I’m going to take her into custody,” Ryder said in a tone that bore no argument. “We’ll consider it a voluntary surrender. I might be able to arrange for her record not to be marked, so she’ll be able to get an actual visa and come back legally as soon as that’s processed.”
“And who’s going to look for her husband and children?” she challenged.
He measured Esperanza up, then turned his attention to Grace. “I will. I’m interested in criminal activity in the area. Her family’s disappearance could be connected to the case I’m investigating.”
“Which is?”
“A matter of national security.”
She could have cheerfully strangled the man. “Whatever happens on my land concerns me.”
“The concerns of private citizens are secondary in this case.”
Words easily said. And easily abused.
And what if he didn’t follow through? If he found that there was no connection, after all, he’d probably drop the search in a second. She could all too easily see the kids and the husband becoming yet other victims the system failed.
She leaned forward in her seat. “I can help you. I’ve been living in Bryan for the past few years, but I know this area. I know the people around here.”
He pinned her with a hard look, suddenly appearing stronger than he had a minute ago. “Not only won’t you involve yourself in this, you won’t talk about it, either. To anyone. You never saw me. I was never here. Is that clear?”
The strength of his voice surprised her, gave her a glimpse of what he might be like when he wasn’t waylaid by massive blood loss. Tough and stubborn. She gritted her teeth, fighting the urge to upend the egg plate over his head.
But he distracted her with, “I don’t suppose you have a spare pair of men’s pants.”
She was tempted to leave him in the pink-purple afghan her grandmother had crocheted, just to spite him. But she didn’t want to risk the afghan slipping as he got up. So she shot him a glare and stomped up to Tommy’s bedroom, grabbed the rattiest, most ridiculous-looking farmer’s overalls out of the closet and brought them down. The man needed something loose. Tommy’s jeans would have never fit over his bandages.
He lifted an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything, just took the denim and shuffled into the laundry room that opened off the kitchen. She tried not to stare when he came out. The overalls ended above his ankles, since Tommy had been shorter. His dirty-blond hair stuck up in every direction, his face pale.
And the bastard still managed to look sexy. It was the lips, she decided, and turned from him as the sound of arriving vehicles filtered in from the outside. She strode to the door and yanked it open to glare at the men, presumably Ryder’s buddies who’d come to take him and Esperanza away.
She lost her breath for a second.
Oh, sweet heaven. For real?
The men who strategically exited the dark SUVs—all combat ready—wore the same black commando gear Ryder had had on when she’d found him. They were all built, moving with grace, radiating strength. They were so hot, all five of them, that they could have had their own pinup calendar.
If it weren’t for the all too real we-mean-business look in their eyes and their authentic arsenal of weapons, she would have thought that they were hot stuff actors hired to play a commando team in some top budget movie.
They looked her over, some with suspicion, some with appreciation, and honest to goodness made her feel flustered. No small feat, considering that during her military career she’d been surrounded by thousands of horny men.
“Ma’am,” said the tall, Viking-looking one with the reddish-blond hair. “We’re here for a friend of ours.”
He didn’t introduce himself, nor did he refer to Ryder by name. She itched to know just what kind of an op they were running.
