by Reina Torres
That lilt in his tone belied the warning in his words, and Jake knew he’d stepped over the line.
“I’m sorry. I just don’t have time for a joke, so if this is just your idea of fun, can we save it for later?”
Owen shook his head, and his dark hair caught the light from the overhead fixtures lightening the dark strands to a dark burnished bronze.
“You law types are always so tense, but I guess that’s to be expected with your woman missing.”
“She’s not missing. She was taken. We’re going to get her back.” Jake wouldn’t allow doubt to sneak into his voice. “We’re just waiting to find out where they have her.”
“That’s why we’re here.”
Jake’s brow furrowed at the odd comment. “We? You don’t work with a partner.”
A wry smile was Owen’s first answer.
“You’re right. I don’t.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “But I have had a guest.” Stepping to the side, Owen shrugged his broad shoulders. “And she wanted a ride here and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Stubborn woman.”
Stepping out from his shadow, the woman who met Jake’s eyes looked about as drawn and exhausted as he felt.
“I want to help.”
Dax swore under his breath. “Holy hell.”
Jake felt his insides twist and squeeze the breath from his lungs. “Anne.”
She pulled the baseball cap from her head and nodded. “I want to help get Hildie back.”
Dax said what Jake knew he should have said. “You can’t, Anne.”
Jake needed to know what they were dealing with. “How many people saw you walk in here?”
Owen gave Jake a dark look. “No one recognized her. I made sure of that.”
Jake didn’t like the anger in the other man’s tone. “A hat? You think a baseball cap is enough to disguise her?”
“Jake-”
Dax’s warning didn’t register much, but Owen’s hand fisting in his shirt backed him up a step.
“I shielded her from the cameras. Kept her between me and the wall. I’m not stupid.”
Jake bit back his anger. “You’re right. I’m sorry, Owen.” He shook himself and gestured at the table. “Anne, come on in, and have a seat.”
As they moved, Owen continued. “She’s been safe at our reserve. No one comes to the house but family.”
Anne agreed. “But I saw the news story, and I couldn’t just sit there and let Hildie face this alone. Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it.”
Jake couldn’t agree. “You’re a material witness, Anne. The DA would have my balls for allowing you anywhere near this kind of danger. Without you the book doesn’t get into evidence.” It killed him to say it, but it was true. His duty as a Texas Ranger was to the people, and the people needed to put these criminals behind bars. “And Hildie wouldn’t want you to put yourself in danger. That’s the exact opposite of what she’d want. That’s why she set all of this in motion, to protect you from Joe.”
“I know.” He heard the frustration in her tone and the dogged determination that matched another woman he knew. “I know all of that, but you know that it was my decision to go. My decision to hand over that book. And it’s my decision to help Hildie. So, are you going to accept my help, or what?”
It would have been easier for him to accept gracefully if it hadn’t been for Owen Mercier’s arch look cast in his direction. “Looks like you’ve got your fill of willful women on your hands, Ranger McGowan. Just remember don’t be callin’ me for help with either one of them. There’s a reason I wrestle reptiles. They’re less dangerous.”
Anne didn’t take the man seriously and gave him a playful shove.
Owen might be a hard man to get to know past his smart mouth and devil may care attitude, but he was a good man who treated women with respect.
That put him higher up in Jake’s estimation. The rest he could deal with from time to time.
Jake looked up at the clock on the wall. “We have a few minutes to discuss some ideas before we have to make the call to the station.”
Anne nodded, barely sneaking a glance at Dax before meeting Jake’s eyes again. “Good. I want to help but I’m hoping you can find a way to keep us both alive and away from Joe, because I want to live.”
“I’m going to do everything I can, Anne. Everything I can.”
She sighed and a corner of her mouth tipped up. “I wish Joe was more like you. We wouldn’t have ended up here.”
Hildie was struggling. She was tired, exhausted, but there was no way that she could even nod off to sleep. Knowing that Anne was going to put herself in danger filled Hildie with guilt. She was supposed to be the one helping others.
She could tell that Joe was nervous too, but not for the same reason.
Letting the men believe that she didn’t understand a lick of Spanish was both enlightening and disturbing as well.
What they said amongst themselves about her, made her feel dirty and angry, but it was what the men said about Joe that turned her blood cold.
They all knew that Joe was walking a thin line.
Being arrested for the trouble he caused at the courthouse had put his worth and skill into question, but leaving evidence around for Anne to find? That meant that the line he was walking was a tight rope over a big pit of danger.
And that’s where her mind was stuck, going over the problem again and again.
There was no way that Joe could manage to get the book back. That was out of his hands for good.
So how was he going to make up for his major slip ups?
Ever since the news station had reported Anne’s return to San Antonio, Hildie had been struggling to glean some little bit of the plan from the men. They felt free to speak in front of her, but even Joe had been close-lipped and spent most of his time in the kitchen of the run-down house speaking into his phone.
She wished she knew the right questions to ask to get him to talk. Interrogation wasn’t something she learned in college.
Her shoulders shook with silent self-depreciating laughter at just the wrong moment. “What’s up with you?”
Joe’s gaze was fixed on her face and the others turned to look, ending their conversation abruptly.
“What’s so funny?”
He looked at the other men, and they all shrugged.
Hildie decided to go with the truth again. What was the harm? “I was just thinking that of all the classes I took in college to prepare me for the world, surviving as a hostage was not one of them.”
Yep, open her big mouth…
“Surviving?” Joe’s eyes nailed her with a cold look. “That hasn’t been decided yet.”
“Anne’s coming,” she bit back at him. “You’re getting what you want. Wasn’t that your deal? Her for me?”
“In what crazy world do you think that’s what’s going to happen? You think we’re just going to let you go home and be a witness against us?”
Up until that moment, she’d been able to convince herself that there was a chance that she’d walk out of this and tell Jake everything in her head and her heart.
Hanging her head, she gave into the urge she’d managed to fight off for hours. Tear drops gathered on her lashes and made the lower half of her vision swim. She shook her head and tried not to let her lower lip tremble, but there were more than enough signs that told Joe that he’d reduced her to tears. Who was going to blame her for being human?
And the release gave her a little time safe from their snide comments. They might not feel any compassion for her, but they didn’t like a weepy female and she was going to try to use that to her advantage.
When the call came in from yet another burner phone, the Technical Assistance Response Unit, or TARU as they called them on a daily basis, started the trace immediately.
Hope that they were calling from the location they were holding Hildie was thin, but in these situations, thin was more than nothing and so they grasped onto it.
They ha
d all of a half an hour to get to the exchange. The Rangers didn’t bother to get out a map or pull one up on a computer screen to plan the meeting, they got in their vehicles and headed out, planning over the phone as they moved. Deputy Hayden Hatcher was in the vehicle with Anne, Jake, and Wes. Dax and a few others from their station were in a second vehicle providing additional support.
A conspicuous beep over the phone line had Jake adding in another person to their group. “TJ. I see you got my message.”
“Of course. My CO says you can borrow me, but if you break me, you bought me.”
Wes shook his head and smiled from his place behind the wheel. “If you let TJ get hurt you won’t have to worry about his Commanding Officer, you’d have to worry about Milena coming after you.”
Jake gave Anne a reassuring smile and spoke to his friend who had joined their conference call. “Did you get a chance to bring up the location on a map?”
“Yeah. Can’t say that I like the scenario of the neighborhood. There’s too many windows and dark shadows to be sure you won’t have people coming at you from several different directions.”
Reaching over, Jake set a gentle hand on Anne’s arm.
“Yeah, you let me take care of that. We’ve got a good group going into the beginning of the street. I just want to know if you can give us coverage with your rifle.”
Jake could see Anne’s eyes widen. He’d mentioned a sniper to her before, while they were planning different scenarios, and she understood another facet of their plan.
“Yeah, I think I can get myself up on the roof of a nearby duplex. Based on satellite photos I should be able to cover the cul-de-sac and not have to worry about someone seeing me before we’re in the thick of things. After that, we’ll just have to see what happens.” There was a little pause, and then TJ asked a question that Jake had already seen in everyone else’s eyes. “You all right?”
“I’m good.” He gave the answer with conviction. “We’re going to get her back. We’re going to keep Anne safe. These men don’t know it, but Hildie always says she gets to work with a bunch of Big Damn Heroes, so that’s who we’re going to be today. Big Damn Heroes.”
Jake wasn’t sure what he expected Anne to say or whether or not she’d say a word at all, but she managed to surprise him.
“You are, you know.” She leaned toward the phone held in Jake’s hand. “You are all heroes. I grew up in a neighborhood where hope was always in short supply. The men with guns, and the men with drugs, kept us scared and isolated. When the police asked for our help with crimes, we kept away. We were more scared of the criminals than anything else, but people like Hildie and the rest of you reached out to help me when I didn’t think things would ever get better.
“And I know that I walked away from all of this only to come back, but if it wasn’t for Hildie I wouldn’t have a hope of a future with good people in my life, and I was not about to let her go through this alone. So, I came back and I get to be a part of this and learn that there are so many good people out there helping others. I want to thank you all for everything you do and everything you are about to do.” She settled back in her seat and gave Jake a small smile. “We’re going to get her back safely, I know it.”
Jake felt the strength of her conviction bolstering his own and adding to the warm feeling of hope that burned inside of him. Yes, they were going to get Hildie back safely, because that was the only outcome that he was going to accept.
A call came in over Joe’s phone and moments later he was on his feet and issuing orders to the men. This time, he made them in English and that frightened her more than anything else.
He wasn’t even trying to hide their plans.
That meant that he didn’t think she’d be around to talk about it later.
Okay then. One pissed off charity coordinator it is. Hildie fought off the momentary onslaught of fear and managed to pull herself together and think.
Two men left through other rooms. One leaving through the kitchen door and the other through a door at the back of the house. They were going to watch from the sides. Joe didn’t give any details, but at least knowing their locations was enough information for her to chew on.
The man who had his hands on her earlier had gone upstairs into the crawlspace. She’d had some warning to it earlier when one of the men had brought in a ladder from the backyard, setting it up against the wall in the kitchen.
She could hear something above her head, moving across the ceiling toward the front of the house. A few cuss words reached her ears, and she hoped he’d managed to crack the back of his head on the roof. He was a tall man and the tight space was probably a pain for him.
Good.
She had to take her victories where she could get them.
“You’re pretty calm.”
Joe’s voice was cold, clipped.
“I’m not calm,” she told him, holding on to the truth. “I’m mad as hell that you’re doing this.”
“You made this happen,” he argued back. “You got between me and my wife. You’re the one who interfered.”
“I got involved for her safety. You’re supposed to love, honor, and cherish your wife. You beat her! You put her in danger!”
“She never complained until she met you.”
“And that’s the worst part of it, Joe. You’re mad that I stepped in. Well, fine. You knew that you were wrong. You knew that you treated her badly. The only time you acknowledged it was after I stepped in. If I hadn’t. If she hadn’t accepted help from someone, you would have kept doing it to her all because she didn’t complain. You’re not a man, Joe. You’re a coward!”
She felt the hit in her shoulder and then a moment later in her jaw. The pain didn’t reach her eye until she rocked back into place on the chair. The room twisted and turned beyond the curtain of tears in her eyes.
Yeah, she’d stepped way over the line with Joe, but she knew his plan was to kill her anyway, so she’d allowed herself a little sarcasm. The hurt felt good in a way. It gave her something to focus on. Something to push back the fear, and as her mother liked to say ‘gird her loins.’ It had never really made sense up until this moment and gave Hildie one more reason to get out of this.
She really wanted to give her mother a hug.
“Coward?” Joe leaned down in her face. “Smart-mouthed bitch.”
Hildie wanted to own it, but she kept her mouth shut. She’d pushed him far enough.
An electronic ping in his pocket was her only warning. He grabbed her arm and held it in a crushing grip as he cut through the plastic tie holding her wrist to the chair. “It’s about time. I’m tired of dealing with you.”
He walked her up to the front door and kept her just to the left of it where no one could see her from the outside.
Peering through the glass partition near the top of the door, Joe nodded and smiled. “At least your boyfriend can follow instructions. One car. The two of them. I bet he’s got people waiting to ride into the rescue, but they’re going to be too late.”
Too late?
Her heart beat in her chest like a hummingbird, a frantic rhythm that left her breathless.
Joe’s voice shook as he spoke to her. “You know you’re wrong about me.”
She ground her teeth together, but with his grip on her upper arm he pulled her away from the wall and all but threw her back against the hard surface. “Why?” She gasped out the word hoping that the pain rocketing through her skull would lessen.
“If I was a coward,” he hissed the words and spittle dotted her cheek, “I would have eaten my gun instead of going after her. And now I’ve got you, and the both of you are going to pay before I’m done. It’s because of you that I’m in the middle of all of this shit.”
She wanted to spit back at him. Tell him that he’s in the middle of it because of his own actions, but somehow Joe didn’t seem big on self-realizations or any soul-searching.
“Okay, well, I think Jake is going to have a few things to say a
bout it when this is over.”
A knock sounded on the ceiling and Joe smiled at her, a hollow look in his eyes. “We’ll see, because it’s about to be over. Come on.” He yanked at her arm and pulled her closer. “Open the door. It’s time to see if your boyfriend can follow instructions.”
Jake put the SUV in park, turned it off and looked over at Anne. “Are you ready?”
“I’ll never be ready, but we’re here, and we’re going to get her back. Right?”
He nodded. “I want to thank you, Anne. I don’t think I ever really saw you until you walked into the station with Owen. I was focused on the case, but what I really focused on was Hildie.”
She smiled at him. “I think everyone knows that, but I don’t think it was a bad thing.”
“Really?” His laugh was a hard cough of sound. “I’m not so sure.”
“I am,” she looked him straight in the eye. “You keep focusing on her, Jake. She spends so much time and effort taking care of other people, I like knowing that she has someone who will put her at the center of his world. Take care of her and make sure she knows how precious she is to you. I haven’t had that for a long time… maybe not ever in my life.”
A crackle of sound came over the radio and everyone called in from their positions.
Anne’s smile faded to a thin line. “Time to go?”
Jake nodded and his eyes swept over her. The clothes that Hayden had brought for her hid much of the bulk of the bullet proof vest, but not all of it. “Keep your hands loosely at your sides so the vest doesn’t make hard lines under your shirt.”
“Aye aye, captain!”
Grimacing, Jake laughed, a real one this time. “This isn’t a ship. You don’t have to-”
“Let’s go.” She reached for the handle and gave it a tug, releasing the latch on the door.
They both stepped outside and into the sunlight.
Jake met her at the front of the vehicle and walked forward with her at his side until he held out a hand for her to stop.
The front door of the house at the end of the cul-de-sac opened, and Jake held his breath.