Protector

by Diana Palmer

  “Imagine me, in the middle of a turf war,” she mused aloud.

  “What, talking to yourself again, sweetie?” Sarah asked as she came back inside from emptying the kitchen garbage can. She was busy getting out a new liner for the can.

  “I’m always talking to myself,” she laughed. “I was thinking about my father...my real father, and his enemy.”

  Sarah straightened up. Her face was solemn. “I’m so sorry about that. I would have told you, if I’d known.”

  Minette hugged her. “I know that.” She sighed. “I’m not worried about me. I’m worried about Hayes. They almost killed him once. Sooner or later, El Ladrón is going to figure out that his new hit man actually works for my father. What if he hires someone who never misses? What if...?”

  “What if tomorrow never comes?” Sarah inserted. “You can’t live your life on ‘what-ifs,’ my darling. You have to take one day, one hour, at a time and get through it.”

  “I suppose you’re right.” She shook her head. “It’s so hard!”

  “Life is hard. We just put one foot in front of another and keep walking.”

  “Okay.” She let her great-aunt go and turned back to the pie. “I’ll keep walking down the hall with a slice of pie for Hayes and the kids,” she laughed.

  “Great idea. Cut us one while you’re at it. I’ll get the whipped cream out of the fridge. Where’s Zack?” she added after she peered down the hall into the living room.

  “Bug hunting. Don’t ask.” She held up a hand. “I’ll explain it all to you later.” And she started cutting pie.

  * * *

  “This is delicious,” Hayes said, closing his eyes to savor the pie as Minette sat next to him eating hers. They were watching a new cartoon movie about Rapunzel. It was hilarious.

  “Thanks. This is a great movie,” she added.

  He chuckled. “It’s one of my favorites. I like the horse.”

  “Me, too!” Julie exclaimed. “He’s so sweet!”

  “Sweet.” Hayes rolled his eyes. “Well, I guess he is, at the end. Right now, though, he’s after the hero.”

  “I want my hair to grow long like that so I can pull people up by it. Can I grow it long, Minette, please?” Julie pleaded.

  “We’ll see,” Minette said.

  “Okay!” Julie went right back to her viewing.

  Hayes looked at Minette curiously.

  “Pick your battles,” she said under her breath. “In five minutes she won’t remember asking. Trust me.”

  He chuckled again. “You’ve got this child-raising thing down to an art, haven’t you?”

  “Years of practice.” She grinned.

  “You really love it, don’t you?”

  She nodded. Her eyes went from Shane to Julie and back again, who were intently watching the movie on the floor in front of the TV. “They’re the most precious things in my life. I can’t imagine not having them here.”

  “I noticed. You know, I’ve never been around kids much. They come in the office to get candy on Halloween and I see them when I help hand out presents at the orphanage. But I’ve never gotten to know any. Not like this.” He was studying the children. “They’re...fascinating,” he said, trying to find the right word. “They come out with the most incredible questions. What makes the sky blue? Why do fireflies light up at night? Why doesn’t the moon fall down? Stuff like that. They keep me busy on my iPhone looking up answers,” he confessed, laughing. “I’m learning with them.”

  She smiled warmly. “They like you, too.”

  He shrugged. “It feels natural somehow, being around them.” He frowned. “Never felt like this before.”

  Minette was awed by the feeling that admission gave her. It showed in her softened features, her warm dark eyes.

  He looked at her and his heart seemed to burst with emotion. He could barely breathe for the force of the hunger he felt.

  His hand slid to hers and gripped it firmly, locking her fingers into his. “I wish I could take back the past few years. Start over with you,” he said huskily.

  She searched his eyes. “We can’t go back. We can only go forward.”

  “Yes. Forward.” His fingers contracted into hers, caressing and possessive. “Together.”

  Her heart jumped up into her throat. She colored prettily.

  He leaned toward her, his eyes on her parted lips.

  She lifted her face, entranced. The world around her dissolved, and she didn’t notice the movie had come to an end and the children were changing the channels to find another cartoon show. There was only Hayes and that sensual, chiseled mouth coming closer and closer and closer...

  “...said today that he was delighted to be assuming the office of mayor after the terrible and unfortunate shooting of his colleague, the former mayor. Mendez has been linked with one of the family drug cartels locally, but he said in an interview that this is a standard tactic of the other parties to denigrate the candidate. In Mexico, special elections are rare because two candidates are elected at once, insuring that the office will be occupied in case the elected official is unable to serve, or dies in office. A member of a drug enforcement agency in the United States said that Mendez’s ties to the drug cartels were an open secret, and that evidence points to him as the source of the elected mayor’s shooting. Mendez denies all allegations.”

  The blaring of the news shook Minette and Hayes apart.

  “Aw, there’s no cartoons on,” Shane muttered, holding the controller.

  “Try another channel, Shane,” Julie encouraged.

  “No!” Hayes said quickly. “Wait!”

  He got off the sofa in a burst of energy and gently took the controller away from Shane. “Wait. I know that guy!”

  “What?” Minette exclaimed.

  “That guy!” Hayes was pointing to the photograph of the new mayor of Cotillo, a small town across the border, a hub of area drug trafficking to the United States. “He’s the so and so that I arrested for narcotics trafficking! And he’s just become mayor of Cotillo? Good Lord, he’ll turn the whole state into a narcotics empire!”

  Minette’s jaw fell. “Hayes, the man who hired someone to kill you...do you think it could be Mendez, because he’s afraid you might see him on the news or in a paper and remember who he is and what he did?”

  Hayes looked at her, stunned. “Bingo,” he said shortly. “Mendez...Mendez.” He stared at the television with his mouth open. “Pedro Mendez—El Ladrón!” he exploded.

  Chapter 11

  “Imagine that,” Hayes exclaimed when the kids found a show they liked and went back to watching television. “A drug lord, becoming mayor of a town by killing the current mayor.”

  He was sitting in a chair in the kitchen while Minette put dishes in the dishwasher.

  “You said he was El Ladrón....”

  “No! I said his name was Mendez. Charro Mendez. Pedro Mendez is El Ladrón’s real name. A cousin or a brother, he has to be a relative,” he pointed out.

  “Sorry, I misunderstood. But what a coincidence, to have them air his photograph on the news.” She hesitated and glanced worriedly toward Hayes. “He’ll know there’s a chance that you’ve seen him.”

  He nodded grimly.

  “Oh, dear. Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse.” She had a thought. “What if he’s mixed up with my father?” she worried. “I mean, I don’t have many feelings for him, I hardly know him, and I don’t approve of how he makes his living.” She sighed. “But he is my father.”

  “I’ve been doing some covert intelligence gathering on your father’s ‘associates,’” he said. “He won’t hire murderers, and he has nothing to do with drug addicts or gamblers. The people he has working for him are ethical, in their criminal way. They never hurt women or children, and they don’t deal drugs around grammar or middle schools.” He shrugged. “It doesn’t mean he’s not a drug lord. But he’s not as nasty as some of them are. His rival, for instance, burned down a house where a widow and her
five children were living. Her husband had wronged him. He’d already killed the husband, but his vengeance extended to even the youngest member of his family.”

  She shook her head. “What a monster.”

  “He’s done worse things. I won’t tell you what they are.”

  She lifted an eyebrow. “I’ve covered murders, fires, floods, you name it. I’ve seen bodies in all manner of unspeakable conditions. You can’t shock me.”

  He studied her with new respect. “I’d forgotten that. You understand things that most people don’t even know about.”

  “Or want to know about,” she agreed. “We don’t talk to ‘civilians,’ ordinary people I mean, about a lot of the things we see.” She sighed. “But we carry the memories around like extra baggage, all our lives.” She had that same look she’d seen on Zack’s face. The hundred-yard stare.

  “For someone who’s never been in combat,” Hayes said gently, “you have the demeanor of a war vet.”

  She smiled. “Thanks.”

  “It bodes well for the future,” he murmured, “that I can talk to you about things I’d never be able to discuss with most other women.”

  “Don’t expect that I won’t ply you with questions you might want to avoid answering when you’re investigating crimes. I may own the paper, but I’m still a reporter at heart. I love scooping the big dailies.”

  “You take chances, too,” he recalled. “Like the way you went after one of our local drug suppliers and got your paper firebombed.”

  “Oh, that was our late great employee who had his eyes on a Pulitzer,” she said. She could laugh about it now, but it hadn’t been in the least funny at the time it happened. “He found some shady underworld contacts he thought he could trust and tracked the supplier down to a little border town, where he arranged a meeting. And, come to think of it, the town was Cotillo, where Mendez is now mayor!” She whistled. “Anyway, the informant could apparently be bribed, because he had a heavy drug habit. So he told our guy a lot of things he didn’t remember later. You can’t really get confirmation on secondhand information like that, but I let the reporter publish his notes because I thought it might flush out some local talent.” She rolled her eyes. “Boy, was I right! We had thousands of dollars worth of repairs, I slept with a pistol under my pillow and the ace reporter took a powder and went back East looking for work. It seems that he didn’t expect death threats because of what he uncovered.”

  “Naive,” Hayes replied.

  “Naive, and deadly. Someone actually shot at him and broke the windshield of his car. He was in it at the time. He ran like a scalded dog.” She made a face. “I never run. I just published more of his notes and the DEA started investigating the allegations. They made about five arrests and we never had any more threats. I guess the publicity made them back off.”

  He shook his head. “Sorry. It wasn’t the publicity.”

  She widened her eyes. “What?”

  “Eb Scott, Cy Parks, Harley Fowler and Cash Grier paid a friendly visit to the source of the firebombing.”

  Her lips fell apart. “What?”

  “It seems that Cash has some, shall we say, very dangerous contacts in a certain major eastern city. Contacts who could, for a price, take down even the head of a large drug distribution center. I do believe the supplier who had your business firebombed went on a permanent vacation to South America, where he still sleeps with a loaded gun and a bodyguard.” He chuckled. “Cash Grier is unique.”

  “Terroristic threats and acts...” she began.

  He waved a hand. “Good luck proving that in a court of law. I did make some sort of veiled threat, but decided that it was in my best interests not to rock the boat. I was very angry with you at the time,” he confessed sadly. “For stupid reasons. You aren’t your father. I blamed you for Bobby’s death and you had absolutely no part in it. I’m sorry for that, as I’ve said a lot lately. But I was ticked off that Cash removed a threat that could have gotten you out of the newspaper business.”

  “I see. You wanted me shut down.”

  He moved a shoulder restlessly and averted his eyes. “I thought you might sell up, if things got hot enough. Not that I would have allowed anyone to harm you, even so,” he added curtly. His eyes searched her wan face. “I felt protective about you, even when I thought I hated you.” He smiled sadly. “Odd reaction, don’t you think?”

  She smiled back. “It’s been a rocky road, all around.”

  He nodded. He looked deep into her eyes and she felt herself tingling all over. She hesitated with a dirty cup in her hand and stood just staring at him.

  “You are incredibly handsome,” she blurted out, and then flushed at her own boldness.

  He stood up, took the cup away, pulled her gently against him and bent to kiss her with barely curbed hunger.

  She reached under his arms and pressed close, aching for a closer contact, for his arms to crush her, his mouth to devour hers. He must have felt the same way, because he obliged her. They rocked together, burning for each other, clinging in something like anguish as they kissed harder and harder.

  The sound of a knock at the front door didn’t penetrate the fog of delight they were sharing. But a loudly cleared throat at the doorway finally did.

  Hayes and Minette stared at Zack blankly, still locked in each other’s arms and breathing erratically.

  “The bugs?” Zack remarked, holding up a detector.

  “Bugs.” Hayes looked blank.

  “Bugs, right,” Minette echoed.

  Zack just shook his head. “Carry on. I’ll find the phones all by myself. If I get lost, I’ll come back and ask for directions, even though I’m a guy, and guys hate to ask for directions....” He sounded plaintive.

  Minette gently drew back from Hayes and cleared her throat. “The phones. Right. Come on, Zack, I’ll show you where they are.”

  “Wait for me. I’ll come along in case you get lost.” Hayes caught her fingers in his, grinned at her and they led Zack down the hall, past the living room, to her office.

  On the way, they told Zack about the recent unfortunate accident that the mayor of Cotillo met with, and his shady successor.

  “Charro Mendez.” Zack’s lips made a thin line. “Boy, do I know that name! We arrested him for narcotics possession, and had to cut him loose for lack of evidence. But before then, I worked a case in tandem with a DEA agent. There was a kidnapping. Remember the Fuentes brothers?”

  “Yes,” Hayes said, frowning.

  “Well, Charro Mendez is their first cousin.” He shrugged. “The drug trade is pretty incestuous, it runs in certain families and they try to keep it that way. Meanwhile, poor helpless victims are tortured, murdered, threatened, hunted...and they wonder why so many people come sneaking across our border. Guess what, nobody shoots them here because they had a bad day, or because they might speak to a police officer. Nobody threatens to burn down their houses.” He shook his head. “They should be political refugees.”

  “The Yaquis are, did you know? The only Native American tribe in the history of this nation to be given refugee status when they came over the border of Mexico to escape intolerance.” She laughed self-consciously when they stared at her. “Sorry. History major. I’m full of irrelevant facts.”

  “That’s a good one,” Zack replied.

  “Thanks.”

  “So we have a drug dealer running a city. He’ll give his friends all the help he can. Probably El Ladrón is his best buddy.” Hayes glowered.

  “Actually he’s Mendez’s second cousin,” Zack laughed hollowly. “It’s all in the family, I told you so. But why would he put out a hit on you for what’s public information?”

  Hayes stared at Zack. He hadn’t considered that.

  “Unless,” Zack continued, “he’s trying to protect someone over here that he needs, badly, for his distribution network. Do you remember the DEA agent telling us that they still had a mole inside the agency, one who’s never been found, but who’s on the
payroll of the Zetas, the biggest drug distributors in Mexico?”

  “Yes. But they don’t know who it is. Neither do I,” Hayes said. “Couldn’t it just be that I hassled Mendez and he wants revenge for being arrested? You know how these guys think, they live in the cult of machismo. An insult is punishable by death.”

  “That’s possible, of course,” Zack agreed. “But I think there’s something more going on here. Perhaps,” he added, “you should go see her dad.” He jerked his head toward Minette.

  She gave them both a long look. “Isn’t there a bug in here?” she asked.

  They exchanged glances.

  “Well, so much for my great reputation in law enforcement.” Zack picked up the phone, opened the back with a small screwdriver and took out a bug. “Can you hear me now?” he yelled into it.

  Seconds later, the phone rang.

  Minette picked it up, frowning.

  “Could you please tell your guest not to yell in my ear?” Lassiter asked with incredible courtesy. “That hurt.”

  “It was you?” Minette exclaimed. “You bugged my phone?”

  “Yes, I bugged your phone. Put me on speakerphone, please.”

  She didn’t bother asking how he knew she had one. She sighed and pushed the button. “Sheriff Carson?” Lassiter continued.

  “Yes,” Hayes returned curtly, glancing curiously at Minette.

  “Lassiter,” the man replied. “I thought you might like to know that the bugs you’re busily dismantling are mine. I replaced the ones El Ladrón’s ‘telephone repairman’ installed.”

  “Eavesdropping?” Hayes Carson asked. “I hope you have a federal warrant to go with it,” he added in a cold tone.

  There was laughter. “In fact, I do. But that’s the only information you’ll get out of me.”

  “Who are you?” Minette asked abruptly.

  “I work for your father, Miss Raynor,” Lassiter said, sounding amused. “You know that.”

  “Who do you work for, when you’re not working for my father,” she asked slowly.

  “Oh, now, that would be telling too much. Let’s just say that I’m involved with an agency that has a vested interest in El Ladrón’s local activities and leave it at that.”