Stone Cold Texas Ranger

“Backup,” he said, his eyes focused on the road, his hands tight on the wheel. “Since the guys fought back, they can arrest them. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t more tails on us. We have to be vigilant. I want you to keep your eyes peeled. Anything seems suspicious, you mention it. I don’t care how silly it sounds. We can’t be too careful now.”

Natalie gripped the handle of the door with one hand, pressed the other, in a fist, to her stomach.

She was in so far over her head she almost laughed. She knew Ranger Cooper wouldn’t appreciate that, and she was a little afraid if she started laughing, it’d turn into crying soon enough.

She was too tough for that. Too determined. No more crying. No more shaking. No more panic. If they had bad guys to face down, she was at least going to pull her weight.

Because if she did, if they could get through all this, Gabby might be on the other side. Everything she’d been working for over the past eight years.

Yeah, no more panic. She had a sister to save.

Chapter Four

Vaughn didn’t know if he trusted how relatively easy it had been to fool the tail. Or the fact another hadn’t taken its place. All in all, he didn’t understand what that tail had been trying to accomplish, and without knowing...

Frustrated, he scanned the road again. The Guadalupe Mountains loomed in the distance of an arid landscape. The hardscrabble desert stretched out for miles, the craggy, spindly peaks of the Guadalupes offering the only respite to endless flat.

The cabin was still forty-five minutes away, and they were the only car on this old desert highway. If he had a tail, it was a much better one.

He flicked a glance at Torres. Thinking about her as a last name helped things. He could think of her as a partner, as just a person he had to work with. Not a complicated mystery of a woman.

The only problem was, he didn’t trust her as far as he could throw her, and that was the key to any partnership.

She sat in the passenger seat, her eyes still too big, her hands still clenched too tight. Her olive skin tone had paled considerably, but she’d gotten control of her shaking.

“You did good,” he found himself saying, out of nowhere. She had done good for a civilian, but he had no idea why he was praising her. What the hell was the point of that?

“I just did what you told me to do.”

“Exactly.”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “You really are a piece of work, Ranger Cooper.”

“Not everyone could have gotten through that, Ms. Torres. Some people freeze, some people cry, some people...” Why was he explaining this to her? If she didn’t want to believe she’d done a good thing, what did he care? But his mouth just kept going. “There’s a lot of pressure when you’re under a threat, and the smartest thing you can do is listen to the person who has the coolest head. You did that. You made good choices and had good instincts.”

“Well, thank you.” She blew out a breath, and he noted that the hands she’d had in fists loosened incrementally.

“I wish I didn’t know just how much I can stand up in the face of a threat,” she muttered.

“Unfortunately, that was only the beginning.”

“You’re a constant comfort, Ranger Cooper.”

She fell silent for a few moments, and he thought maybe they could make it all the way to the cabin without having any more of the discussion, certainly not any more of him telling her she’d done well. But she began to fidget. The kind of fidgeting that would lead to questioning.

It appeared that whatever nerves or fear that had kept Ms. Torres from interrogating him about what was going on had been eradicated or managed.

“Who’s after us? And why? What do I have to do with any of this?” she asked, thankfully sounding more exasperated than scared.

Scared tended to pull at that do-gooder center of him. He tried to focus on cases rather than people. But he could get irritated with exasperation. Why couldn’t she just trust him to keep her safe and leave it at that?

But he knew that she wouldn’t, and he had been given permission to share certain details with her.

Considering he still didn’t trust this woman, he wasn’t about to give her really important details.

He focused on the road, the flat, unending desert ahead of him. “You were in the interrogation room when Herman talked.”

“He didn’t even say anything that was any kind of incrimination. Certainly nothing that I would understand to be able to tell anyone. And I ruined your interrogation. They should be sending me flowers, not...fire.”

The corner of his lip twitched as if...as if he wanted to smile. Which was very...strange. But the fact she owned up to ruining the interrogation, while also making a little bit of a joke in what had to be a very scary situation for her, he appreciated that. He almost admired it. God knew he didn’t make light of much of anything.

“In all likelihood, they don’t know what exactly was said,” Vaughn told her. Nothing about his tone was self-deprecating or light, which he never would have noticed if not for her. “All it took was the knowledge that he was interrogated, and that we started looking into the name he mentioned. When you’re mixed up in organized crime, that’s enough to get you killed.”

She pressed her lips together as if a wave of emotion had swept over her. Her eyes even looked a little shiny. When she spoke, there was a slight tremor to her voice. “I just keep thinking about how he said he had a daughter, and his wife had cancer, and he’s just...dead.”

“He worked for a man who has likely killed more people than we’ll ever know about. Herman knew what he was getting himself into and the risks he was taking. Even if he wasn’t the muscle, and even if he had a family, he made bad choices that he knew very well had chances of getting him killed.”

“So you’re saying he deserved to die?” Natalie asked in that same tremulous voice.

It had been a long time since someone had made him feel bad about the callousness he had to employ, had to build to endure a career in law enforcement, and especially unsolved crimes. He didn’t care for the way she did it so easily. Just a question and a tremor.

But this was reality, and clearly Torres didn’t have a clue about that. “It’s not my place to determine whether he deserved anything. I’m putting forth the reality of the situation.”

“I don’t understand why they burned down my house, why they killed a man, just because he mentioned a name and you started asking questions. How is that worth following us across Texas? I mean, if they were going to kill us, wouldn’t they have already done it?”

“Yes.”

She waited, and he could feel her gaze on him, but he didn’t have anything else to say to that.

“Yes? That’s it? You’re just going to agree with me, and that’s it?”

“Well, honestly, they probably did try to kill you with that fire. You were lucky you weren’t home. What more of an explanation would you like?”

“One that makes sense!”

He could tell by the way she quieted after her little outburst that she hadn’t meant to let that emotion show. Especially when the next words she spoke were lower, calmer.

“I want to know why this is happening. I want to understand why I’m in more danger than you or Ranger Stevens. Why my house was burned down, not yours.”

“I can’t speculate on why they burned your house down. The reason that Stevens and I aren’t in as much danger is because we’re police officers. We’re trained to look for danger, and quite frankly going after us is a lot worse for them than going after you. Anyone hurts a member of law enforcement, the police aren’t going to rest until they find him.”

“But if you go after a civilian, it’s fine?” she demanded incredulously.

She gave him such a headache. He took a deep breath, because he wasn’t going to snap at her for deliberately misinterpreting his words. He wasn’t going to yell at her for not getting it. She wasn’t an officer; she couldn’t understand.

“We’re family, Ms. Torres,” he said evenly and calmly, never taking his eyes off the road. “It’s like if a stranger is gunned down in the street or your sister is gunned down in the street, which one are you going to avenge a little bit harder?”

Something in what he’d said seemed to impact her a little more than it should have. She paled further and looked down at her lap. He wasn’t sure if she was more scared now, or if she was upset by something.

“I’m going to keep you safe, Ms. Torres,” he assured her, because as much as he avoided those soft, comforting feelings almost all of the time, that was his duty. He would do it, no matter what.

“Why?” she asked in a small voice. “I’m not law enforcement. I’m not your family. Why should I feel like you’re going to keep me safe?”

“Because you came under my protection, and I don’t take that lightly.”

“I can’t understand what they think I can do,” she said, her voice going quieter with each sentence, her face turning toward the window as if she wanted to hide from him.

He was fine with that. He’d be even finer if he could stop answering her questions. “The thing about crime and criminals is that they don’t often follow rational trains of thought like we do. Their motivations and morals are skewed.”

“That almost sounds philosophical, Ranger Cooper.”

“It’s just the truth. It’s easier to accept the truth and figure out what you can do about it than to wish it was different or understandable.”

“But...what am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to... I have other jobs, and a family, and... It’s all hitting me how much I’m los—”

“You’re saving your life. Period. You won’t have a job or a family to go back to if you’re dead.”

“Again, such a comfort.”

“At this point, it’s more important that we are honest than it is that I comfort you. Right now you’re safe because you’re with me. That’s the only reason. I need you to not forget that.”

“I don’t expect you to allow me to forget it,” she returned, reminding him of that hallway when she’d blamed him for getting her removed from the Rangers. Though it was frustrating that it was geared at him, her anger would serve them well. It would keep her moving, it would keep her brave.

“It’s best if you don’t. For the both of us. You’re not the only one in danger here, you’re just the only one who doesn’t know what to do about it.”

“What about Ranger Stevens?”

“Ranger Stevens can keep himself out of danger. All I need you to do is worry about listening to me. If you do that, everything will be fine.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I give everything to my job. There is nothing about what I do that I take lightly.”

So everyone had always told him. Too serious. Too dedicated. Too wrapped up in a career that didn’t give him time for much of anything else.

But people didn’t understand that it gave him everything. A sense of usefulness, a sense of order in a chaotic world. It gave him the ability to face any challenge that was laid before him.

Maybe it gives you a way to keep everyone at a safe distance. It irritated him that those words came into his head, even more irritating that they were in his ex-wife’s voice. He hadn’t thought about Jenny in over a year. Why had the past two days brought back some of that old bitterness?

But he didn’t have time to figure it out. He had to get to the cabin, and he had to solve this case.

Personal problems always came after the job, and if the job never ended... Well, so be it.

* * *

NO MATTER HOW exhausted she was, all Natalie could do was watch as the desert gave way to mountain. They began to drive up...and up. There were signs for Guadalupe Mountains National Park, but they didn’t drive into it. Instead, Ranger Cooper took winding roads that seemed to weave around the mountains and the park markers.

There weren’t houses or other cars on the road. There was nothing. Nothing except rock and the low-lying green brush that was only broken up by the random cactus.

He turned onto a very bumpy dirt road that curved and twisted up a rolling swell of land covered in green brush. After she didn’t know how long, a building finally came into view.

Nestled into that sloping green swell of land, with the impressive almost square jut of the mountains behind it, was a little postage stamp of a cabin made almost entirely of stone. It looked ancient, almost part of the landscape.

And it was very, very small. She was going to stay here in this isolated, tiny cabin with this man who rubbed her all kinds of the wrong way.

“What is this place?” she asked, the nerves making her almost as shaky as she’d been earlier.

“It’s my private family cabin.”

“You have a family?” She couldn’t picture him with loved ones, a wife and kids. It bothered her on some odd level.

He slid her a glance as he pulled the truck around to the back of the cabin and parked. “I did come from a mother and a father, not just sprung from the ground fully made.”

“The second scenario seems much more plausible,” she retorted, realizing too late that she needed to rein in all her snark.

She thought for one tiny glimmer of a second his mouth might have curved into some approximation of a smile.

Apparently she was becoming delusional. But he doesn’t have a wife or kids. Really, really delusional.

“My sister stays here quite frequently as well, so hopefully you should be able to find some things of hers you can use.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t feel right about—”

“You don’t have a choice, Ms. Torres. You don’t have anything. And before you repeat it for a third time, yes, I realize I am of literally no comfort to you.”

“Well, at least I don’t have to say it for a third time.”

He let out a hefty sigh and then got out of his truck. She followed suit, stepping into the warm afternoon sun. The air had a certain...she couldn’t put her finger on a word for it. It didn’t feel as heavy as the air in Austin. There was a clarity to it. A purity. She couldn’t see another living soul, possibly another living thing. All that existed around her was this vast, arid landscape.

And a very unfortunately sexy Texas Ranger who appeared to be exploring the perimeter of his family cabin.

Even after being up since whatever time he had got up to go to her burned-out house, after all the time getting everything squared away to secret her out of Austin, after the incident at the gas station and driving across Texas, he was unwrinkled and fresh. All she felt was dirty and grimy and disgusting. She smelled, and she was afraid to even glance at what the desert air had done to her hair.

She stood next to the truck, waiting for her orders. Because God knew Ranger Cooper would have orders for her.

He disappeared around the corner of the cabin, and Natalie leaned against the truck and looked up at the hazy blue sky. She let the sun soak into her skin.

For the first time since before the fire, she had a moment to breathe and really think. All of this open space made her think about Gabby. How long she’d been gone, where she was... Did she still get to see things like this?

Natalie tried to fight the thoughts and tears, but she was exhausted. They trickled over her eyelashes and down her cheeks. She tried to wipe them away, but they kept falling.

She’d worked relentlessly and tirelessly for eight years to try to find Gabby, and she thought she’d been close. A hint. He keeps the girls. But now she was far away from Austin, and she was with this man who couldn’t pull a punch to save his life.

The hope she had doggedly held on to for eight years was seriously and utterly shaken.

What could she do here? What could she do when her whole life right now was just staying alive? People were after her, and she didn’t even know why.

Why was she crying now, though? She was finally safe. She knew Ranger Cooper would do his duty. He didn’t seem like the type of man who could do anything but.

Why was it now that she felt like she was falling apart?

“Everything looks good out here. I’m going to check the inside, but I need you to follow me.”

No please, no warmth, just an order. She kept her face turned to the sky, trying to wipe away all traces of the tears before she faced him. She took a deep breath and let it out.

She’d had a little breakdown, and now it was over. She’d let some air out of the pressure in her chest, and now she could move forward. She just needed a goal.

She glanced at Ranger Cooper, who was standing at the door, all stiff, gruff policeman.

She needed more information. That was the goal. Information was the goal. She couldn’t lose sight of that even though he was so bad at giving it.

She began to walk toward him, wondering what made anyone in his family think this was a good place for a little getaway cabin. It was rocky and sharp and dry. If you looked closely at all, everything seemed so ugly.

But when you looked away from the ground, and took in the home and the full extent of the landscape, there was something truly awe inspiring about it. It was big and vast, this world they lived in. She never had that feeling in the middle of Austin.

She walked over to the porch. It was hard to follow orders and listen to what someone else told her to do. She wasn’t used to that. She had been such a strong force in her life for the past few years. She had made all the choices, asked all the questions, sought all the answers. She’d even alienated her grandmother in her quest to find Gabby, so sitting back and doing what someone else told her to do was...hard. It went against everything she had put her whole life into.

But she knew that knee-jerk reaction didn’t have a place here. Not when she was with a Texas Ranger who obviously knew way more than she did about safety and criminals.

She was going to have to bury the instinct to argue with him, and it was going to be as big of a challenge as trusting him would be.

“The chances of anyone having breached the cabin are extremely low,” he said, opening the door and analyzing the frame as though it might grow weapons and attack them. “But when you’re dealing with criminals of this magnitude, you can’t be too careful. Which means I can’t leave you outside. I can’t let you out of my sight. So, I’m going to go inside and make sure there’s nothing off. I need you to follow right behind me, carefully mirroring my every step. Can you do that?”

“Can I walk behind you and do what you do?”

“Yes, that is the question.”

She gritted her teeth. He didn’t think she could walk? He didn’t think she could do anything, did he? He thought she was some flighty, foolish hypnotist who couldn’t follow easy orders.

Arrogant jerk of a man. “Yes, I can do that,” she said through those gritted teeth.

“Excellent. Let’s go.”

He stepped over the threshold, immediately turning toward the left. She followed him, and since her job was to follow exactly in his footsteps, she watched him. That ease of movement he had about him, the surety in the way he strode into the cabin looking for whatever he was looking for.

He was all packed muscle, but there was something like grace in his movements. It was mesmerizing, and she had no problem following him around the inside of the stone cabin.

They did an entire tour of the kitchen and living area, which were both open, and then down a very narrow hallway that led to two bedrooms and a bathroom. All the rooms were small, and the stone that composed the outside of the cabin were used for the inside walls and floor as well.

It wasn’t cozy exactly. It was beautiful, but it wasn’t the sort of log mountain cabin she had in her head. There weren’t warm colorful blankets or cute artwork on the walls. It was all very gray and minimalist.

“You have something against color?” she asked, forgetting to keep her thoughts to herself.

He glanced over his shoulder at her, and the question was kind of funny in light of the way his blue eyes looked even grayer here. It was like even the color of his body didn’t dare shine in this space.

“If you’re looking for color...” He opened the door to the last bedroom and stepped inside, doing his little police thing where he looked at every corner and around every lamp and out every window.

But Natalie didn’t follow him this time. Where the rest of the cabin was stone and stark and sort of reflective of the outside landscape, this room was a riot and explosion of color. It was glitter and fringe.

“What on earth is all this?”

“This is my sister’s room. Which means that, right now, it is your room, and you can feel free to use anything that’s in here.” He opened the closet and rifled through it. She still had no idea what exactly he was looking for, but she knew if she asked he would only give her some irritating half answer.

“I feel really strange about using your sister’s things.”

“Trust me, my sister has nothing but things, and when I explain to her why someone used them, she will be more than fine with it. As I reminded you earlier, you don’t have a choice.”

“Because I have nothing. Yes, let’s keep talking about that.”

He gave her a cursory once-over, just like he’d given the cabin. She wouldn’t be surprised if he checked her pulse and teeth or frisked her for a wire.

She tried not to think too hard about the little shiver that ran through her at the thought of his hands on her. Those big hands that had covered so much space on her back when he’d placed them there in comfort after her house had been decimated.

She swallowed and looked away.

“Sleep.” He barked the order, then walked right past her without a second glance or word. The door closed with a soft click, and she could only gape at the rough-hewn wood.

He was ordering her to sleep? The absolute gall of the man. How dare he tell her what she needed? She had half a mind to march right out of the room and tell him she was fine.

But, God, she was tired. So, for today, he’d get his way. And probably for tomorrow and the next day and the next, because he is in charge here, remember?

She sighed at that depressing thought and crawled into bed, hopeful to sleep all the tears away.

Chapter Five

Vaughn stared at his laptop screen and tried not to doze off. He would need to wake up Torres soon, if only so he could sleep. The tail had left him jumpy, and he didn’t want both of them asleep at the same time at any point.

Unfortunately he was tired enough that the words of his files were simply jumbled letters. It was beyond frustrating he couldn’t concentrate. Had he gone soft? He hadn’t had a stakeout or any sort of challenging hard-on-the-body thing in a while. Had he lost his touch?

He scrubbed his hands over his face. This was ridiculous. He was fine. There was only so much the human body could handle and still be expected to concentrate on complex facts. Complex facts that had been hard enough to work out when he was well rested and well fed.

At the thought of food, his stomach grumbled. If he couldn’t sleep, then he could at least eat. If he made something, then Natalie could eat when she woke up.

There wouldn’t be anything fresh in the pantry, but they always kept a few extras on hand just in case. The nearest store was over an hour away, and while that was pretty damn inconvenient a lot of the time, between Vaughn’s desire for complete off-the-grid privacy when he wasn’t working and his sister’s need for a secret spot, it worked.

He and Lucy had handled their father’s fame in completely opposite ways. Lucy had embraced it. She’d followed it, becoming almost as famous a country singer as their father had been. She used the cabin only when she needed a quick, quiet, away-from-publicity break, which was rare.

Vaughn had hated the spotlight. Always. Like his mother, he hadn’t been able to stand the fishbowl existence.