Texas Temptation

by Kathryn Brocato

  “The damn world can wait.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Lexie hated the traffic on MoPac expressway with a passion. It should have cleared out by the time Mac headed toward the FBI building, but it still was just as congested as during rush hour. What she wanted to do more than anything was disappear back into Mac’s bedroom and lose herself for just a little longer. The guy had moves she never knew existed, and it was more than just the most fantastic sex she had ever experienced. Mac made her feel―wanted, like she was the only woman on the planet for him. In his arms, she felt cherished.

  And that feeling might soon be a distant memory. She had a decision to make and dreaded it like a plague. If only she could let things lie until Ryan was out of their lives, but her heart wouldn’t let it rest.

  If all she had to think about was herself, she could live with things as they were with Mac and see where this new road took her. But it wasn’t just her. She had to put Gabriel first.

  The vow she had made her son hit her hard once she placed a little distance from Mac’s testosterone sphere. The only men in her life since Gabriel were Cole and Marcus. How could she develop a relationship with Mac and still maintain her vow to Gabriel?

  Mac was nothing like her mother. He was the most honest, moral man she’d ever met. He would never mistreat Gabriel. But what happened if they didn’t work out? How could she bring Mac into Gabriel’s life knowing he could walk away, leaving Gabriel rejected?

  And Lexie really did hate what he did for a living. Being a federal agent wasn’t a nine-to-five job. That she could deal with. It was the danger in the job that scared her shitless. She loved Rico and his death dug her down into a place she never wanted to revisit. What she felt for Mac was so much more intense.

  The FBI wasn’t just a job for Mac. His identity as an agent was as much a part of him as his eye color, height, or even the trust he insisted she place in him. Asking him to quit would rip him in two. She could never do that.

  She had only two choices: let him go or accept all of him. If she chose to accept who and what Luke “Mac” McNeil was with her whole heart, she had to live with what that meant. After last night―and this morning―walking away was almost as impossible. Just thinking about their time together sent heat up her neck into her cheeks.

  Don’t you dare blush.

  She shot a glance at Mac. Thank God his attention was on the road. She consciously relaxed her fingers clutched together in her lap and glanced out the passenger window.

  The traffic grated on her nerves, or maybe it was the dark SUVs that flanked Mac’s truck as soon as they entered the expressway. It was as if they popped out of thin air in front and behind them.

  Mac reached for her hand and placed it in his lap. “Relax. They are just here to escort us in.”

  “I don’t see why that is necessary.”

  “Crazy lunatic on the loose, remember? Díaz is being extra cautious. We have underestimated Ryan one too many times.”

  Lexie lifted the hand Mac held. “Speaking of your boss, maybe you don’t want to do this kind of thing when we are in the building.”

  He shot her one of his famous intense glares. Shit, what did she do this time?

  “Are you ashamed of being seen with me, Lexie?”

  “Of course not. It’s just that your boss doesn’t like me very much. I don’t want to cause you any problems with him.” She lifted her hand again. “He may not like one of his agents in cahoots with me right now.”

  “Joe Díaz is my supervisor, not my mother. And before you go there, she thinks you are wonderful. Any mother who can successfully teach a two-year-old to say thank you and you’re welcome in her book is a saint.”

  Warmth settled around Lexie’s heart, and she relaxed her hand in his. “So this really is just me going in to help you guys out?”

  “Yup.”

  “And Ryan isn’t going to break in and try to blow us up?”

  “He’s not walking into my building again, that’s for damn sure. Ryan is the most-wanted bastard in the country.”

  She couldn’t help letting out a noisy sigh. “Díaz isn’t going to drill me about why I left with Ryan?”

  “We’re all on the same page now. Sarah never doubted you for a second. In case you didn’t know it, you have a good friend in her.”

  “I have a good friend in you, too, Mac.”

  The vehicle in front of Mac changed lanes and exited the highway. He followed.

  “Why are we getting off here?”

  “We’re taking a roundabout way into the building.”

  A half a block later, a silver Lexus’s left signal began to blink. The driver pulled out in front of the lead SUV. Mac slowed.

  Lexie shifted in her seat and searched the street. For some reason, she felt like a sitting duck. At least on the highway, they had speed and a lot of pavement to maneuver. Being confined by local street traffic didn’t relax her one bit.

  “Lexie, sweetheart, you need to calm down. We’ve done this a few times before.”

  “I’m a little jumpy. Why aren’t you using your emergency lights? Wouldn’t that keep people like the guy in the silver Lexus from pulling out in front of us?”

  “This isn’t an emergency. We’ll be there in a couple of blocks.”

  She took in a deep breath and shoved down the dread that had seemed to take up residence in her heart for the last forty-eight hours. If Mac was relaxed, why was she so revved up?

  She consciously relaxed her shoulders and leaned her back against the seat.

  The Lexus’s right signal came on, and again Mac slowed. Just as it turned onto one of the side streets, the sound of an engine roaring to life hit Lexie’s ears. She turned toward the noise and her scream caught in her throat. A trash truck squealed its tires, heading right at them as Mac slammed on the brakes in the middle of the intersection.

  “Mac!”

  “Hold on!” He skidded into the SUV in front of him, and at the same time, yanked his Glock from under his sport coat. When the truck didn’t slow, he began to fire out the driver’s side window. The roar of the gun going off numbed everything and the scene in front of her played out in slow motion.

  Her hands shot out and she braced herself just as the trash truck rammed into Mac’s door. A flash of white smoke ignited in the cab. Mac’s shoulder crashed into her left arm as he tried to spin out of the way of the trash truck. Over the stench of burning rubber and whatever chemicals ignited when Mac’s airbag deployed, only one thought cut through Lexie’s foggy brain.

  Ryan! He was coming for her and didn’t care how messy it got.

  The truck latched onto Mac’s vehicle and hauled it across the intersection. He yelled something, but she couldn’t make out what he said.

  Somehow Mac was able to control the spin and the sedan broke free. But instead of being in the clear, the momentum sent them sliding sideways out of control until they bounced off a parked vehicle and spun back into oncoming traffic. The second FBI vehicle hit them head on, trapping them between the SUV and the trash truck.

  Gunfire sounded in the distance as if it were a long way away until the front window shattered. Lexie lunged head first into Mac’s lap. A fear like she had never known sliced through the instant she became aware Mac wasn’t moving. Twisting, she noticed that his head was tilted toward his left shoulder and his eyes were closed as blood streamed down his face from a wound in the middle of his forehead and left eye. Her heart plummeted.

  “Mac?” Lexie screamed his name several times as her hands struggled to unlatch his seat belt. Her only thought was getting him below the dashboard. The sedan rested sideways in the middle of the intersection as a gun battle roared around them.

  After several tries, she got the clip undone and yanked hard onto Mac’s blazer to pull him down onto her seat. “What the hell, Mac. Wake your ass up now. You’re not leaving me,” she screamed as she ran her hands over his arms and chest, looking for bullet wounds.

  The passenger d
oor opened and someone grabbed her arm. “No, I have to stay with Mac.”

  The next yank was so hard, her arm felt like it had been wrenched from its socket.

  “Get out now, Lexie, or I’ll place a slug between his eyes.”

  She kicked her legs out, hoping to catch Ryan’s groin. “You bastard! You could have killed him. What the hell is wrong with you?”

  He cocked his weapon. “Get out.”

  Ryan released her seat belt and dragged her from the cab of the truck, shoving her toward the passenger door of the silver Lexus. A sweltering temper ignited deep within her. She fisted her hand like Rico had taught her and slammed it into Ryan’s nose. “Fight your fucking war without me. I’m not doing this again.”

  “Yeah, you are.”

  “Damn it, no!” Lexie took another swing.

  “I warned you.”

  The words registered the instant his fist connected with her right cheek. A piercing pain shot through her head and her knees came out from under. Before she could scream Mac’s name, everything went black.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Mac shot up from his seat, knocking his brother’s hand off his forehead. “I need that fucking feed now!”

  He swiped the moisture streaming down the left side of his eye. The coppery stench of blood filled his nostrils as the room began to spin. Overwhelming nausea swept over him. He grabbed the edge of the conference table until he regained his equilibrium.

  Jason pressed down on Mac’s shoulders hard, shoving him into the chair.

  “Mac, if you don’t allow me to finish dressing your eye, I’m going to get the med team in here. They’ll order you to the hospital, which is exactly where you should be.”

  A groan escaped from the back of Mac’s throat. “Careful with my damn shoulder.”

  Mac glanced down at the nail scratches and bruises on the top of his wrist and forearms. Ryan must have grabbed her as she tried to pull Mac out of the line of fire.

  And there was no doubt in Mac’s mind that this was a kidnapping. Her screams that yanked him back to reality would live with him a long time. Fear ate at his gut but he couldn’t allow himself to give into it. Lexie’s life was a ticking bomb, and he had to stop Ryan before he lit the fuse.

  Mac scanned the area outside the conference room. The third floor of the FBI building was swarming with activity. But as far as he was concerned, no one was moving fast enough. “Slap a bandage on it.” He glared at his brother. “No hospital. And where the hell is Sarah?”

  Jason placed the last piece of tape over the bandage and stood. “She’s on her way up now.” He planted both hands on either side of the arms of Mac’s chair. “I know you’re pissed and scared to death for Lexie, but if you take this shit out on Sarah, you going to have a busted lip to go along with two black eyes. Got it?”

  Mac shoved his brother back and stood. A hint of reason slipped through his consciousness. The last thing in the world he would do was hurt Sarah.

  “Got it.”

  “Mac, we have the street footage of the attack,” said one of the agents across the table.

  “Play it.”

  The next several minutes were hell on earth. His brother stood close behind him, his body shaking with tension. It had been less than a year ago that Sarah was taken by a madman. Mac stood by Jason, and for the first time, he understood completely the horror of what those two went through.

  The instant Ryan’s fist hit Lexie on screen, something lethal exploded inside Mac. He could feel Jason’s hand on his shoulder, but everything else in the room narrowed to a tunnel vision. His guilt mutated into cold, hard rage. “I’m going to kill the fucking bastard.”

  “Easy, Mac. Find your control because this isn’t what Lexie needs right now.”

  Mac glued his fist to his side to keep from lashing out at his brother. He ached to hit something, hard.

  Jason didn’t back down but held his stance. “I know where your head is at. Shut it off and act like an agent-in-charge before I have you removed from the room.” His stance eased. “She’s a fighter, but she’s counting on us to find her.”

  Closing his eyes, Mac focused on Lexie as he sucked in several deep breaths. Jason’s words slid past the rage, and Mac’s lungs began to fill with healthy air. When he opened his eyes, the pinpoint vision changed and the entire screen came into focus.

  Ryan had set up the roadblocks, practically mirroring Mac’s route. “Rewind the tape back one minute.”

  It was like watching a well-choreographed dance. Each player had a job and they executed it to perfection. From the moment Mac’s convoy exited the MoPac, Ryan’s men manipulated their route.

  Mac glared at each member of his team. The men and women sitting around the table were like family to him. Could one of them have betrayed him?

  “What do you see?” Jason asked quietly at his side.

  “We have a mole feeding information to Mick Ryan.”

  “I agree,” Sarah said from the doorway. “But maybe not the kind of mole you are referring to.”

  “What are you talking about?” Jason said, taking the car carriers she held.

  Mac glanced at the sleeping babies, and the rage in him subsided a little. Nothing like a reminder of the best this world could offer to give a man a new perspective.

  “Ryan somehow found a back door into our system, and he had our plan the instant it was texted to you. I don’t know how he did it, but until I do, I suggest we go black.”

  Díaz stormed into the room. “Sarah, I promise you’ll get some time alone with your children soon.” Without missing a beat, he asked Mac, “Should you be in the hospital?”

  “No, sir.”

  “I know Ms. Trevena means something to you, but we are quite capable of—”

  “Lexie means everything to me. She needs me here, not stuck in a fucking ER waiting for an X-ray I don’t need.”

  Díaz studied him for several moments, then said, “So show me how we need you.”

  Mac reached for one of the laptops on the table, but Sarah slammed the lid shut just as he was about to type.

  “Black, remember. Use mine.”

  Mac grimaced and held his chair out for his sister-in-law. “Are you tracking the silver Lexus?”

  “Of course. If it passes by a traffic camera, we’ll see it. It would be difficult, but my only concern is Ryan could crash the traffic camera network. If that happens, we’ll lose him.”

  “Can you continue to track Ryan and pull up a map of the Texas-Mexico border?”

  “Sure.”

  The scene of the attack disappeared and the map replaced it.

  “No one is seeing this but us, right?” he asked Sarah.

  “Completely secure.”

  Mac took the next five minutes to fill Díaz in on what Lexie witnessed on the walls of the ranch house. “Our assumption that Ryan is trying to force a full-scale border closing is looking more valid. Lexie noticed a red flag pushpin somewhere in this region.” He used a pointer to highlight a small area in northern Mexico around Nuevo Laredo. “From what she told me, I think the next drone attack will come from the land controlled by the Tortello cartel.”

  “Is Tortello working with Ryan?” Díaz asked.

  “No, sir. I think he’s setting them up just like he set up Lexie. If he released the drone from that territory into the United States as well as from this area around El Paso, it would appear like the cartels have joined together to retaliate against the drone attack in Matamoros a couple of days ago.”

  Díaz hissed out a breath. “That would force us to send in the military to guard the borders from Brownsville to San Diego.”

  Mac nodded. “And the Mexico military, instead of fighting the cartel war, will be reassigned to the borders.”

  “But Ryan has possession of only one drone.”

  Sarah cleared her throat. “That we know of. He could have one of every shape and size. Ryan could attack several areas at once with a drone small enough to be a center
piece on this table. He couldn’t launch rockets from a small drone, but he could load it with C-4. Flying it into the right location could take out a building.”

  “Sir, Lexie noticed lines from the spot on the map connected to the three major border crossings. There just isn’t enough information to predict what he’s going to do, but my gut tells me the next attack will come from Mexico into United States.”

  “Taking Lexie from us in plain daylight was messy.”

  “I agree,” Mac said. “Ryan’s making his move today. Whatever is going on is happening now.” His own assessment sent a chill down his spine. So many people had let Lexie down in her life. He wasn’t going to add his name to that list. There was only one person who could shed some light on this nightmare. He turned toward one of the agents across the table. “Has Senator Ramirez been released from the hospital?”

  “Yes, this morning. He’s giving a press conference at one.”

  “Are you sure?” Mac demanded.

  “He wanted to assure everyone he’s fine and working to find out who did this.”

  “The idiot. What’s he thinking?” Mac shoved his fists in his pockets. “Where is the conference being held?”

  “The Capitol building.”

  “Shit! That’s it!” He shot a stare at Sarah. “Pull up the Capitol building.”

  “What is it?” Jason stood.

  Mac glanced at his watch. “Ryan will use Lexie to make Senator Ramirez confess his involvement with the cartels on live television.”

  “Ryan couldn’t predict the news conference,” Díaz said.

  “Yeah, he could, sir. That was the plan all along—to steal a drone and send it into the home of the man he hates. Ryan knows everything there is about Ramirez, especially the senator’s love of the limelight. It would be easy to predict that Ramirez would plant his face in front of a camera.” He paused, then said almost to himself, “He planned the fucking thing down to the last note, and we’re all playing our parts so well. The only thorn in his side was that I took Lexie and he had to get her back.” Mac yanked his torn sport coat off the back of his chair and charged for the door. “Ryan and Ramirez can fight it out, but I’m getting Lexie out of the middle of their fucking war.”