Her Texas Ranger Hero

TEXAN WITH A CAUSE

Teaming up with a civilian to bring down a trafficking ring isn’t Luckey Davis’s usual style. But after Allyson Duncan decodes a cryptic message that gives him his first lead, Luckey realizes Ally is indispensable to his case. The Lone Star lawman also realizes he’s in danger of falling for the beautiful professor.

Ally can’t believe a legendary Texas Ranger needs her expertise. And as her own feelings for Luckey deepen, is she ready to commit to an uncertain and perilous future? Or has this deep-in-the-heart-of-Texas woman found her safe harbor with the honorable man she dreams of calling her own?

He stepped away and walked toward her with purpose in every step.

She could hardly breathe as he opened the door and pulled her into his arms. They closed around her body, not allowing her feet to touch the ground.

“I thought you’d never get here,” he whispered into her hair. “If I don’t kiss you right here and now, I’m not going to make it.”

“I want you to kiss me,” she confessed, inching her lips over his smooth, shaven jaw to the compelling mouth she’d longed to taste. Ally wanted him in such an elemental way, there was no thought of her holding back. His hunger matched hers as their mouths met in a fiery explosion of need she had no way of controlling.

Ally hadn’t known a man’s embrace for several years, but nothing had prepared her for the kiss of her Texas Ranger except in her dreams. But this was no dream, and Luckey was taking her to a place she’d never been before.

Dear Reader,

I’ve always had a love for languages. At my school, a priest from the cathedral came to my junior high to teach us Latin. I LOVED Latin. It helped me understand English in a wonderful way and taught me how to speak correctly. I can still remember the nominative, genitive, accusative, dative and ablative cases that told me whether to say I or me, or he or him. Marvelous!

Then I traveled to Switzerland and learned to speak French. What a joy! My Latin helped me make sense of the diplomatic language of the world. I took Spanish and always wanted to study Italian. My sister lived in Perugia, Italy, and speaks beautiful Italian. My daughter studied in Siena, Italy, and her Italian is wonderful. I’ve been very envious of both of them.

Last year I found out about an old secret language learned by a few elite women in China. I won’t tell you any more than that. You’ll have to read Her Texas Ranger Hero to know why it fascinated me so much. I knew I had to write a novel where that language featured heavily in the plot and brought the hero and heroine together.

Enjoy!

Her Texas

Ranger Hero

Rebecca Winters

www.millsandboon.co.uk

REBECCA WINTERS, whose family of four children has now swelled to include five beautiful grandchildren, lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the land of the Rocky Mountains. With canyons and high alpine meadows full of wildflowers, she never runs out of places to explore. They, plus her favorite vacation spots in Europe, often end up as backgrounds for her romance novels, because writing is her passion, along with her family and church.

Rebecca loves to hear from readers. If you wish to email her, please visit her website, cleanromances.com.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

“Yoo-hoo—I’m back! Does anyone care?”

Ally’s mother beat her to the front door of the ranch house, where her father had just walked in. His black hair with its streaks of silver made him distinguished looking. He put his briefcase on the floor and the three of them hugged.

“I decided to fly all night from Washington, DC, so I could surprise you. You’re both a glorious sight!” After kissing her mom, he turned to kiss Ally’s cheek.

“I’m so glad you’re home.” She kissed him back. “I was just about to leave for work, but I’ll be home later and we’ll celebrate.”

“Wait—I have a present for you.” He reached down and opened the case to pull out a letter. “I believe you’ve been waiting for this. It came in my diplomatic pouch yesterday.”

“Soo-Lin!”

“Who else?”

“I haven’t had a letter from her in two months!” Soo-Lin was one of Ally’s best friends. She couldn’t wait to hear all her news. Since Ally’s family had returned from China last summer, she’d hungered for Soo-Lin’s periodic letters. “I’ll take this with me.” She hugged them both again. “I’ll be back soon to help you, Mom.”

“All right, darling.”

Ally knew her parents would appreciate some quiet time together, and flew out the door to her car. She wanted to open the letter right away, but would have to put off reading it until she reached her office.

Twenty minutes later she pulled into the faculty parking lot of the University of Texas at Austin campus. “Hi, Nedra,” she said to the receptionist as she hurried in. “Have any students been by asking for me?”

“Not yet.”

“That’s good. I’m running late.” She made her way down the hall. After unlocking the door, she rushed inside and settled in before pulling the letter out of her purse.

Dear Friend, Thank you for your last letter. I can’t get used to you being so far away now. I’m not happy about it, but if you are happy, then that is good. You asked what happened when I went to the doctor. She said my fallopian tubes are blocked and suggests we try in vitro fertilization if we want children.

Oh, no...

My husband has been quiet about it, but that is Zheng’s way. Nine years and still no baby. Now we know why. I wouldn’t blame him if he wanted to leave me.

Ally cringed to hear those words. IVF was a very viable option for Soo-Lin, but Ally needed to give her a pep talk in person.

Mother is well enough. Father is doing poorly. His heart is not good, but the jewelry business has never been better and Zheng has been overseeing the other showrooms to ease the load. He has a fine business mind, like my father, and they see many things the same.

Soo-Lin’s parents were wonderful. So was Zheng. Ally loved them all.

What I have to tell you next is very upsetting to me and has devastated our family.

Ally couldn’t imagine. Her heart rate sped up.

Maybe you don’t remember my third cousin Yi. He came to my wedding with his wife and two children. But something awful has happened. Three weeks ago their sixteen-year-old daughter, Yu Tan, didn’t come home from school. One of her friends said she ran off with a man from a disco club in the city where she often went dancing without permission. I don’t believe it. Yu Tan is a sweet, well-brought-up young woman with plans to make the Olympic team and go to college. She’s won all kinds of awards in gymnastics.

Ally did remember her, but hadn’t seen her since the wedding. Yu-Tan would have been around seven at the time.

I know she wouldn’t go off with a man like that. I don’t trust that her friend is telling the truth. Now a tragedy has happened, because my cousin has disowned her, his own daughter! He listens to his father, who is the head of their family and a very forbidding man. You know what I mean. He believes in the old traditions and closes his mind to reason.

Both my cousin and his father believe she has disgraced the entire Tan family. My mother does not agree and says the grandfather’s pride is too great to help find his own granddaughter. I’ve begged my father to talk to him, but he says it will do no good. He will not listen. This isn’t right, Ally.

No. Nothing about it sounded right. Soo-Lin belonged to an upper-class family that didn’t tolerate embarrassment. Ally could feel her friend’s pain.

I’ve given you enough bad news for now. Write me back as soon as you can. You’ll always be my best friend. Soo-Lin.

When Ally got home, she’d write a letter and ask her father to send it with his classified correspondence. As she was putting the letter back in her purse, one of her students walked into the office. It was time to get to work.

* * *

RANGER JAMES DAVIS had just arrived at Texas Rangers’ headquarters in downtown Austin when his cell phone rang. He clicked on. “Davis here.”

“Luckey?”

Only family and close friends called him by his nickname. “Hey, Randy.”

“Do you have time to talk?”

“I always have time for my little bro.” Though he had a Monday morning meeting scheduled with his boss, TJ, he could spare a few minutes. TJ was the captain of the Austin-based Company H, where Luckey had been assigned since becoming a Ranger. “What’s going on? How are Lisa and the two cutest little girls in Texas?”

“We’re all great and wish you’d drop by more often.”

Luckey swung by the makeshift lunchroom located on the second floor of the building for a cup of coffee and a doughnut. Taking a bite, he entered his own office and sank down in his chair. “Sorry it’s been so long. My last undercover case was no picnic and took forever to solve.”

“So I heard. Dad said three escaped felons are in the federal slammer because of you. Guys are singing your praises all over the department.” Luckey smiled. Their dad had recently retired as sheriff for Travis County and was now doing full-time ranching, but he’d never be out of the loop. “You’re becoming a bigger legend than our original Texas Ranger ancestor,” his brother added.

“Knock it off, Randy. Still enjoying your work as a mounted police officer?”

“It’s getting old. At least I was put on the day shift three days ago.”

Luckey frowned. “I thought you liked it.”

“The horse part I love, but more and more I know I want to be a Ranger.”

He’d heard that from his brother several times before and took another sip of his coffee. “That means a lot more hours away from the fam. I don’t have a wife and children, so that isn’t a problem for me.” Never again. “How does Robin feel about it?”

“She said that if it’s what I want, I should do it.”

“You married a terrific woman.”

Luckey’s ex-wife had felt the exact opposite. She couldn’t handle his work as a Ranger and acted on it by divorcing him and moving to Houston. But that was old news.

Randy’s voice lowered. “I didn’t mean to remind you of the past.”

“I know you didn’t.” Luckey had the greatest brother in the world. He was thirty to Luckey’s thirty-two. “If that’s your goal, I’m behind you.”

“It’s all I’ve been able to think about for the last year. Remember that body my partner and I found dumped on the street on our beat last week? It’s the fourth one in the last ten months. Though each was discovered in a different area, I believe they’re all related. But the detective who arrived on the scene disagrees.”

Luckey was listening intently to his brother, who was no fool. He remembered clips on the news, but hadn’t paid much attention. “What do your instincts tell you?” This was Randy’s case, but Luckey was always interested.

“All four bodies have been young Chinese and Indonesian women, which smells like human trafficking to me. When I pointed this out to him, he said he wasn’t ready to make an assumption like that quite yet. He said coincidence could play a role, or some copycat criminals who heard the news on the media could’ve decided to pull the same stunts for the sheer pleasure of creating chaos.”

At a trafficking conference Luckey had recently attended, he’d learned that although Asians represented only 6 percent of Austin’s 800,000 residents, their population had surged by 60 percent since 2000. It was the fastest-growing group in the city by percentage and tripled the rate of Austin’s overall growth.

“It doesn’t sound like a coincidence to me,” Luckey concurred. “Have you discussed this with anyone else?”

“Nope. You know I can’t.”

“Listen—I want to talk to you some more about this, but I’ve got to go in to a meeting right now. This one will probably last an hour. Expect a call from me after I get out.”

“Thanks.”

Luckey clicked off and headed for TJ’s office at the end of the hall. The gray-haired captain nodded as he walked in. “I’m surprised to see you remembered. I thought you might be home enjoying some well-deserved sleep after your last case.”

“Not me. I like work.”

His boss nodded again. “I know you do. But one of these days you need to take some time off.”

“I do better being busy.”

TJ’s eyes filled with concern. “I don’t want you to burn out.”

Luckey blinked. “You think I am?”

“Of course not. But my famous Four Sons of the Original Forty Texas Rangers have done a hell of a job for the department this last year. I want you to know you can have the time off if you feel you need it.”

“Can I take a rain check on that?”

He nodded.

Good. “So what smorgasbord of corruption and evil are you going to lay out for me this morning?”

TJ chuckled. “Take your pick of the latest Most Wanted cases that have come across my desk.” He riffled through the pile of files in front of him. “Armed robbery and murder of an armored-car guard. Kidnapping and brutal murder of two women, one of whom was set on fire in her wheelchair. The murder of a prominent CEO...or this latest one—a dead body dumped on the streets, a case that has the police detective stumped.”

“I’ll take that one,” Luckey said without hesitation.

TJ handed him the file. “Of course, it’s not a coincidence that your brother is mentioned in the abstract.”

“Nothing gets past you, Captain.”

His boss made an odd sound. “Go ahead and read it. Afterward I’ll tell you what the police commissioner told me.”

Luckey read the short paragraph to himself. “March 2. 2:20 a.m. Officers Mendez and Davis came across one Asian female of undetermined age found dead a block from the Underground Nightclub in the warehouse district of Austin, Texas. No witnesses. Died of gunshot wound to the back.”

“It’s sparse, all right,” he finally muttered.

TJ leaned forward. “The commissioner informed me that this is the fourth unsolved dumped body in less than a year. One was Indonesian, the other three of Chinese ethnicity. None had ties to friends or family found so far. No matches of their pictures to passport photos from China or Indonesia. No evidence that these girls were in school here, or had jobs and were here on working visas.

“The police have circulated pictures of the women everywhere, hoping someone will identify them, but investigations haven’t turned up anything.”

Luckey frowned. “Did they cover the strip clubs and spas, not to mention the massage parlors?” To be thorough they needed to check out modeling studios, cantinas and residential brothels as well, but it was a grueling process.

“If they did, they’ve had no success.”

Luckey had his work cut out for him. “Sex trafficking is also common in the agricultural, restaurant and nail salon industries.”

TJ shot him a glance. “The commissioner is convinced they were victims of trafficking and has turned the case over to us. What does your brother think? Between him and your father, you’re not all Davises for nothing.”

The compliment didn’t escape Luckey. “Randy disagrees that the deaths were random acts of violence. He sees a pattern and believes they’re related.”

“I’m sure he’s right. If anyone can figure it out, you can. Where are you going to start?”

“I want to see the latest body.”

“If you need backup later, just holler. Good luck.”

“Thanks, Captain.”

Intrigued by this new case, Luckey got up from the chair and headed out of the building to the car park. Once inside his XC90 Volvo, he drove to the county coroner’s office. En route he phoned his brother.

“Guess what? The case of the dead body you discovered has been turned over to the Rangers by the police commissioner.”

“What?”

“I was surprised, too. The captain agrees with your assessment that the four deaths are related. I’ve taken the case. Kind of gives you chills.” When Randy’s application to join the Rangers came up, Luckey would remind his boss of their conversation.

“Well, what do you know? I’d give anything to be working this case with you.”

“As long as we keep it to ourselves, who says you can’t help when you’re off duty? We’ve done it before. I’m going to the morgue to find out as much as I can. I’ll get back to you.”

“Thanks.”

* * *

TEN MINUTES LATER, Luckey knocked on the door of the coroner’s private office.

“Luckey? What can I do for you?”

“How are you, Dr. Wolff?” He’d had a working relationship with the forensics expert for years. Luckey handed him the file.

The older man studied it before nodding. “I examined the body last week. She was probably a sixteen-or seventeen-year-old Chinese woman, shot in the back with a .357 cal SIG Sauer.”

“How long had she been dead when she was found?”

“Six or seven hours.”

“According to my source, three other bodies of Asian women have been found on the streets in the last ten months and there’ve been no arrests made. I’d like to know their approximate ages, manner of death, everything you’ve got.”

“You’re welcome to the information in the files. But first, come over here. There’s something unique about this particular body. I would like to show you a piece of evidence that has me puzzled.”

Dr. Wolff walked to a shelf holding some labeled boxes and took one down. After lifting the lid, he showed Luckey the soiled, bloodstained, pale pink silk dress inside, folded so that the hole made by a bullet was visible.

“The young woman was wearing this when her body was brought in. Here. Put on some gloves.”

Luckey pulled out a pair from the carton and slipped them on.

“Go ahead and look on the underside of the skirt,” the doctor urged.

Curious, he turned it inside out. To his surprise he saw writing on the material, all the way around from the waist down, unusual characters that meant nothing to him. His brows knit together. “Is this Chinese?”

“It looks like a form of it, but none of our experts here recognize it. Don’t let your eyes deceive you. What is written here was not done in red ink, but blood. Her blood.”

Luckey moaned inwardly. “I need copies of the pictures you took of the writing.”

“Certainly. Anything you want.”

“Did the detective investigating this case know about this?”

“He examined the inscriptions, but as I said, we couldn’t tell him anything about them. I have no idea if he’s following up on any of it.”

“Can I see the body now?”

“Right this way.”

Luckey was taken to the morgue and shown the deceased. She’d been a lovely young woman with refined features and long black hair. He returned to the coroner’s office and gathered information from the files of the four bodies, photocopying everything for his own records. The reports revealed three of the deceased were of Chinese origin and one was Indonesian, as he’d been told. They were all short—between five-one and five-two—and most likely sixteen or seventeen years old.

“The clothing is different on each one,” he muttered thoughtfully.

The doctor nodded. “I performed the autopsies. The Indonesian victim was strangled. Hers was the first body found. The second victim was stabbed in the chest. The third girl was wearing only a slip, had bloodshot eyes and died from suffocation. As you know, this latest one was shot in the back.

“These women appear to have been innocent victims. They were attacked and murdered before being transported to another spot to be dumped. But this latest victim was different from the others. She had broad shoulders and powerfully muscular legs. This suggests that she was into sports—or perhaps she was a ballet dancer or gymnast.

“And there’s something else you’ll see in the forensics report. I found a substance on the sleeves of her dress. Whoever dragged her body had DMSO cream on his or her hands.”

“What’s that, exactly?” Luckey asked.

“Some kind of topical painkiller.”

“You didn’t find traces of it on the other three bodies?”

“No.”

“Details like that are going to help me build this case,” he murmured as he examined the writing on the fabric again. “I’ve never seen anything so strange before. Did you find out if there was something special about this dress?”

“It’s silk, well made. There’s no label to tell us where it might have been bought or what manufacturer made it.”

After thanking Dr. Wolff, Luckey tossed his gloves, picked up the files and photocopies and drove back to headquarters. He was happy to find his boss still in his office. Luckey knocked on the door and was told to come in. He put the information from Dr. Wolff on TJ’s desk.

“Take a look at all this. What we’ve got here is evidence that these four young Asians were violently murdered. When you asked me to attend that trafficking conference a month ago, I was impressed by the panel. It included everyone from Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the US Postal Inspection and the US Attorney General for the eastern US.

“The deaths of these four women fall in line with the latest statistics from the National Human Trafficking Hotline. To date, it has received more calls from Texas than any other state in the union.”

“That makes sense, considering our extremely diverse population,” TJ mused.

Luckey nodded. “Our close proximity to Mexico makes this the most crossed international border. But I never realized that Texas contains a quarter of all American trafficking victims, and that almost a third of the calls to the hotline come from our state.”

“That many?”

“I know. I was surprised, too. Twenty percent of the 50,000 people annually trafficked from foreign countries into the United States come through Texas.”

TJ shook his head.

“Unfortunately, we haven’t yet pinpointed the source of the female trafficking activity coming out of China. But today the coroner showed me two things that might have given us our first lead.” Luckey explained about the cream and then he got to the writing. “Check this out.”

He opened the file and showed his boss pictures of the mysterious characters written in blood on the underside of the latest victim’s dress. “I’m not sure what this means, but it could open up this case once I get some answers. No one in forensics can read it or translate it. I’m thinking I need to find an expert in Chinese as a place to start. I’ll call the language department at the UT Austin and go from there.”

“Excellent start, Luckey. Keep me posted.”

* * *

ALLY DUNCAN CHECKED her watch. Ten after three in the afternoon. Her graduate students had turned in their theses. Now that it was spring break, she could spend her time studying them before setting up appointments for her students to come in and defend them, once classes started again.