Under Threat

by B. J Daniels

  He didn’t have time for that, or to ascertain whether she would listen to his order. He could only keep moving. Because if he stayed there and the vehicle came around one of those bends, they would know exactly where to find Natalie.

  Vaughn took off running as fast as he could, ignoring the screaming pain in his shoulder. His heart was pounding and his breath was scorching his lungs, and he had the sinking suspicion it had more to do with the fact that he’d left Natalie alone than with the fact that he was running.

  He slowed his pace, took a quick look at his surroundings. He could still see the crevice where he’d pushed Natalie, but he couldn’t see her. He was far enough away that it would take a lot of searching for anyone to find her.

  Now he had to figure out which direction he wanted to go to, and—

  The sound of a gunshot made Vaughn skid to a halt. He glanced around, trying to ascertain where the sound had come from. There were little craggy outcrops all over the desert. There were cacti and other plants that a stealthy person might be able to hide behind. Vaughn searched and searched, but he didn’t see anyone, or anything.

  The sound of the engine had stopped, and he did his best to keep his gaze everywhere rather than always on where Natalie was. He didn’t want to give it away, because who knew what these men had. They could be watching him with binoculars, they could have an army of cars. They could have anything, and he didn’t know.

  He couldn’t think about the what-if. He had to think about the right now.

  “Ranger Cooper.”

  Vaughn whirled to see a man walk out from behind the opposite curve of the little mountain. He appeared to be alone, but Vaughn wasn’t stupid enough to think that was true. Any number of people could come pouring from the other side of the mountain. There could be an army of men behind the curve, and that was daunting, but it couldn’t stop what Vaughn had to do.

  “Mr. Callihan, I assume?”

  The man laughed and spread his hands wide, though Vaughn noticed that the gun he carried was pointed directly at Vaughn’s chest regardless of the gesture.

  “It took you only how many years to figure that out?”

  “A lot fewer years than it will take me to kill you.”

  The man kept walking closer and closer, and Vaughn’s hands tensed on his gun. He could shoot the man and be done with it, and there was a very large part of him that wanted to. But he resisted, because his mission wasn’t to kill every bad guy who roamed the earth; it was to bring them to justice.

  He believed in justice, and while he believed in using his weapon with deadly force if necessary, as long as this man wasn’t actively trying to kill him, or take or harm Natalie, Vaughn was having a hard time rationalizing shooting first.

  Maybe some of it had to do with the fact this could potentially be the only man on earth who knew where Natalie’s sister was. If Vaughn killed him without trying to retrieve more information, what might Natalie think of him? What might she lose?

  It was the absolute last thing he should be concerned with, but, still, he didn’t shoot.

  “But you see, Ranger Cooper, I know you, and I know your type. It’s why I’ve managed to do as much damage as I have. Because you’re all so honorable, or easy to buy off.”

  “Try to buy me off and see what happens.”

  The man chuckled, all ease and...something like charm, though Vaughn wasn’t at all charmed by it. Still, these were the most dangerous criminals to deal with, the ones without much at stake, except their own pride, or whatever was going on in their warped heads.

  Of course he’d be charming and smooth, men like him were always charming and smooth. That was why people didn’t suspect them. That was why he’d gotten this far. But also because reason and rational thinking wouldn’t change their course. Nothing would. The man standing before him could do anything with zero remorse.

  “But I’m not here for you,” Callihan said with an elegant flick of the wrist. “I’m here for the woman. I have plans for the woman who thinks she can get her sister away from me.”

  Vaughn’s entire body turned to ice. Even in the quiet desert, he didn’t know if they were close enough for Natalie to hear that, but it was an admission. It was a certainty that Natalie’s sister was with this man, and that he was after Natalie. For very specific reasons.

  His finger itched to pull that trigger, to end this, now. Though they were still yards apart, Vaughn thought he saw Callihan’s gaze drop to his gun.

  “Lucky for me, Ranger Cooper, I don’t need you. Quite frankly, wherever that woman is, I’ll find her, but you’ll be de—”

  Vaughn pulled the trigger. The whistle of the shot, followed by the man’s piercing scream, were barely heard over the beating of his heart.

  He’d purposefully shot for the man’s weapon-wielding arm, and as Vaughn raced toward the dropped gun, Callihan started screaming for someone in Spanish.

  Even though he knew Callihan was yelling for backup, which likely meant people with even larger weapons would be coming around that bend, he raced for the gun. Even though he knew he might have signed his death warrant, there was always a chance Callihan had only a few men with him, a chance Vaughn would be able to pick them off before...

  But there was no chance if he didn’t get to Callihan’s weapon first.

  Vaughn was so intent on reaching the weapon, and reaching Callihan that he didn’t realize there were footsteps behind him.

  “If you so much as touch that gun with a fingertip, I will shoot you, and I’m not a very good shot, so if I aim for your heart, I might just hit your head.”

  Vaughn skidded to a stop and looked back at Natalie, who was walking steadily toward them. She had the gun he’d taken from one of the men in the cabin trained on Callihan’s writhing form.

  The man merely smirked, his hand still reaching for the weapon, before Vaughn could pull his weapon, Natalie shot.

  “That’s the problem with women,” Callihan all but spat. “They can never shoot on tar—” She shot again, and this time Callihan howled.

  Red bloomed at his stomach, and Natalie kept calmly walking forward, though now that she was close enough, Vaughn could see the way her arms were shaking. Callihan was screaming for someone named Rodriguez while he thrashed and moaned on the ground.

  Right before Natalie and Vaughn reached Callihan’s weapon, a large man stepped out from behind the curve of mountain. He was dressed all in black, had black sunglasses and black hair, with multiple guns strapped to him—all black. Everything about him was large and muscular and ominous.

  “Shoot them!” Callihan screamed. “Kill them both. What are you doing?”

  Vaughn didn’t pull his trigger, and not just because the man didn’t pull out a gun. The man was shockingly familiar. Not because he’d arrested him before, not because of anything criminal. He’d trained him a few years ago on undercover practices, though Vaughn couldn’t come up with his name.

  Callihan kept screaming at him to shoot, but the man didn’t make a move to reach for a weapon. He walked calmly toward the three of them.

  “Tell your woman to put down the gun,” he said in Spanish, nodding toward Natalie, who was holding the gun trained on the man.

  Vaughn glanced at her then, noting that everything about her was shaking and pale and scared. But she was ready to take the shot.

  “Put it down, Nat,” he murmured.

  “I won’t let anyone kill us. Not now. Not when that man has my sister.”

  Callihan made a grab for his supposed henchman’s leg piece, but the man easily kicked him away.

  “Ma’am, I need you to put your weapon down,” he said, steady and sure, making eye contact with Natalie. “I’m with the FBI. I’ve been working undercover for Callihan. I know where your sister is. She’s...safe.”

  Natalie didn’t just lower the gun, she dropped it. Then she sank to
her knees, so Vaughn sank with her.

  “Does this mean it’s over?” she asked in a shaking, ragged voice.

  “I think so,” he said, stroking her hair. “I think so.”

  * * *

  Natalie sat in a truck squished between Vaughn and this... FBI agent. Vaughn and the man discussed the case, the particulars of the FBI’s involvement and what the agent was allowed to disclose.

  Natalie knew she should be listening, but everything was just a faded buzz. She couldn’t seem to stop shaking, and all she could concentrate on was the fact the man in the back had become completely silent.

  She’d shot him. Right in the stomach. He hadn’t shut up though, he’d gone on and on as Vaughn and the agent, Jaime Alessandro, or so he said, had done the best to bandage Callihan, while also keeping him tied up.

  Callihan had shouted terrible things about what he’d done to Gabby, but before he’d really gotten going, Agent Alessandro had knocked him out. Just a quick blow to the head. Then, they’d taped his mouth shut and thrown him into the truck he’d brought out to the desert.

  All Natalie could concentrate on was how she’d tried to kill a man, and failed. She should be glad that she had failed, she should be glad that she hadn’t apparently hit any internal organs, and that he would probably survive. She should be glad that he would stand trial.

  All she felt was regret. She wished she would’ve killed him. For Gabby, for Vaughn, for herself. She wished he was dead, and she didn’t know how to reconcile that with who she’d thought she was.

  Despite being sandwiched between these two, strong, powerful men who were fighting for what was right and good, Natalie felt alone and vulnerable and scared. Which was something she didn’t understand, either. Because it was over. This hell was over and they had survived, and with very little hurt.

  But Gabby had been hurt. Gabby had survived eight years of that horrible man, and Natalie didn’t know how... Now that it was over, over, she didn’t know what on earth would possibly come next.

  Jaime pulled into what appeared to be the national park’s ranger station. “If you stay put, I’ll have them call for an ambulance, as well as call your precinct. We’ll see if there’s any word on the raid on Callihan’s house, where your sister was.”

  Vaughn nodded stoically and Natalie just...stared. Word on the raid where her sister was. How was she supposed to respond to that? What was left? What was she supposed to do?

  “Do you have questions about Gabby?”

  She didn’t glance at Vaughn, because she didn’t know how to look at him. She didn’t know how to look at the future. It was like dealing with all the fear and the threat had completely eradicated her ability to look beyond...anything. And now...it was all gone.

  What did she do? “I don’t know what to ask,” she managed to say. Because she was numb and somehow still scared, and she didn’t know why.

  Vaughn didn’t move or say anything for a long time, but eventually his hand rested on her clutched ones. He rubbed his warm strong palm over her tight, shaking hands.

  It was warm, it was comfort. But when she looked up at him, his gaze was blank and straight ahead. Though he was offering her comfort, it was much more like the comfort he’d offered her that first night after the fire. There was something separate about it. Something stoic.

  This wasn’t the hug he’d offered her at the cabin, and that lack of...personal warmth made the frozen confusion inside her even worse. So she mimicked him. She didn’t look at him anymore, she didn’t move, she stared straight ahead.

  When Agent Alessandro came back out, he explained that an ambulance would be waiting for them at the exit of the park, and he would have agents there who would confiscate Callihan’s car. He would accompany Callihan to the hospital and keep him in FBI custody. Someone from the local police department would be there to escort Natalie and Vaughn to the airport, where the FBI would fly them back to Austin, after a medic checked Vaughn’s wound.

  He began to drive, explaining all sorts of things Natalie knew where important. What would be expected of her, what she would need to do and what questions she would need to answer before she was released.

  But she couldn’t concentrate. All she could think about was... “What about...”

  “Your sister?” Agent Alessandro supplied for her.

  “Yes.”

  “As I mentioned, the FBI is conducting raids on all of Callihan’s properties while I had him...distracted, so to speak. The property your sister has been at is on that list. As I’ve been working my way up in his organization, I’ve released some of the women, but—”

  She whipped her head to face him, this stranger who’d helped them. “But not my sister?”

  Something in his face hardened. “She wouldn’t go.”

  “Wouldn’t go? What does that mean?”

  “I’m afraid that’s all I’m at liberty to say.” His hands tensed and then released on the steering wheel. “But now that we have Callihan in custody, and with all of the information that I’ve gathered over my two years, there should be no doubt that the trafficking ring, and his entire business, will be gutted. You have my word on that Ms. Torres.”

  She didn’t care about trafficking rings or business or anything like that, though she supposed she should. All she cared about was her sister, and why her sister could have been saved and wasn’t.

  Natalie pushed out a breath, doing her level best not to cry. Not yet. Not in front of Alessandro and Vaughn.

  Only then did Natalie realize that Vaughn had released her hands. No comfort. No connection. Just an officer and a victim.

  If she had any energy left, she might’ve felt bereft. She might’ve cried. And now... Now, all she wanted to do was go home. To be alone. To deal with the last week in the privacy of her own house...

  Except she didn’t have one, just a burned-out shell. She had so very little. She’d come out of this ordeal with her life, and she knew that was important.

  Maybe in a few days, when the shock wore off and she saw Gabby again and held her and understood what had happened, she’d know how to feel.

  Maybe it would take a few days for all the dust to settle, to hurt and grieve and feel. But for the time being, all she could do was feel numb.

  Chapter 16

  Vaughn wasn’t sure he’d ever felt so numb. Not even after his undercover mission years ago. He had never in his entire career left a case feeling so completely screwed up inside.

  He’d stayed with Natalie through the debriefing. They’d been with each other through their medical evaluations. And yet, they’d said almost nothing to each other. They’d offered no reassuring glances, no comforting touches. The last time he’d touched her in any sort of personal capacity had been to put his hand on hers in the car.

  He’d made sure to stop in that moment, because he’d realized he couldn’t do this anymore. He couldn’t possibly pretend that what they’d had in the cabin was real, and he couldn’t give her false hope that he could be anything other than the man that he was. His job would always come first, someone else’s safety would always come before his own.

  How could he possibly tie another woman to him knowing where that ended?

  It took days to get everything situated, questioned, figured out. When Natalie finally got to go home, or at least to her mother’s home, he hadn’t gone with her. She hadn’t asked him to, and he hadn’t offered. They had turned into strangers, and he felt like a part of him had simply...died.

  It was so melodramatic he was concerned about his mental state, but he couldn’t eradicate that feeling. He felt a darkness worse than after the failure of his marriage, more than his most difficult undercover missions. He’d lost some piece of himself, and he didn’t know where to go to find it.

  That’s a lie, you know exactly what’s missing.

  He ruthlessly pushed that thought away as
he talked to Agent Alessandro about the release of Natalie’s sister. They would be reunited today. There was no reason Vaughn should be there. At this point, the case been taken over by the FBI, he’d released all files potentially related to The Stallion over to Alessandro and he’d...been expected to move on.

  So, he had no reason, no right to be there when Natalie saw her sister again. In fact, even if they hadn’t left things so oddly, it wouldn’t be his place to be there. She deserved a private homecoming with her sister.

  “You know, if you’d like to be there, I can see if I can make arrangements.”

  Vaughn ignored the tightness in his throat as he responded to Jaime. “I’m not sure that would be...what they wanted.”

  “I can check, though, is what I’m offering.”

  “You’d been under for a long time, hadn’t you?” Vaughn asked, changing the subject, turning it away from the numbness in his own chest.

  The man on the other end of the line was silent for a while. “Yes, I had.”

  Jaime had been in the academy right after Vaughn had left undercover work, before he’d gotten on with the Rangers, and before Jaime would have gotten on with the FBI. Vaughn had taught a class on undercover work.

  He didn’t remember all the recruits, but he remembered the best ones. The ones with promise. Jaime had been one.

  “Well, in all the tying up of loose ends, I don’t think I thanked you. You sure made getting out of that situation a lot easier.”

  “I was just doing my job. You know how it goes.”

  “Yeah, I do.” Too well. How often had he been doing his job and giving nothing else?

  “I can ask if they want you to be there. Clearly...” Jaime trailed off, and Vaughn was glad for it. He wasn’t looking for a heart-to-heart.

  “I’m glad the case has been resolved. If there’s anything else you need from me or the Rangers, you know where to—”

  “You know, that class you taught back at the police academy...it stuck with me. In fact, there was something you said that I’d always repeat to myself, when I needed to remember what I was doing this all for.”